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| 25 new of 256 responses total. |
happyboy
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response 182 of 256:
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May 13 15:21 UTC 2000 |
tell 'em it's a period piece.
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remmers
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response 183 of 256:
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May 13 16:00 UTC 2000 |
Actually, I heard a surprising story the other day about "Porgy
and Bess". Apparently it was originally contemplated to have
Jerome Kern write the score, rather than Gershwin, and cast Al
Jolson -- in blackface -- as Porgy. Sheesh!
Dress rehearsal went well, and in particular, my period costume
was a hit. Mercy High School's auditorium is a huge, cavernous
place, with an enormous stage. The piano is an excellent Yamaha
grand with a crisp, light touch that I like a lot. On account
of the auditorium's size and accoustics, however, they're
amplifying the piano. Performance is tonight.
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remmers
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response 184 of 256:
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May 15 14:56 UTC 2000 |
The performance Saturday night went well. My number opened the
second half. House lights went down, I walked onto the stage in
period costume, sat down at the piano - which was set up stage
left - and commenced to play George Botsford's "Black and White
Rag". The six ballerinas - appropriately in black and white
costumes - emerged from the wings and proceeded to do the dance
that Karen had choreographed, ending up with them running around
the piano during the final section of the piece. When it was
over I stood up and we formed a line, holding hands, and took
a bow. Then the lights were blacked out and we all exited the
stage.
I watched the rest of the recital from the wings. It was really
quite impressive. A number of dance pieces, strung together via
the Cinderella story. Various music styles, ranging from classical
to Disney showtunes to jazz. Dancers ranged in age from low
single digits to adult. Impressive costumes. Mary saw it all
from an audience perspective; so I'll let her comment on that.
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mary
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response 185 of 256:
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May 15 22:01 UTC 2000 |
This was a wonderful evening. Just charming. The sets, costumes,
choreography, and range of expertise went far beyond what I expected for a
dance recital. I can understand why she does this only every other year.
The dancers ranged in age from 4 years old to EMU alumni.
John's piece was especially well received. It was the only dance done to
live music and that added a whole lot. Plus, he had more advanced dancers
doing some pretty sophisticated moves.
Anyhow, I'll look forward to attending the next one two years from now.
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remmers
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response 186 of 256:
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May 29 22:03 UTC 2000 |
On Wednesday I'm off to the annual Scott Joplin Festival in
Sedalia, Missouri. It's the biggest of the ragtime festivals
and arguably the best. Headliners this year include Scott
Kirby, Morten Larsen, Butch Thompson (of Prairie Home
Companion), Terry Waldo, Bob Milne, Trebor and Virginia
Tichenor, Richard Zimmerman (back after a three-year absence),
Jeff Barnhart, Reginald Robinson, and others. Most of whom
you've probably never, or barely, heard of. But trust me,
they're great.
This year they're re-instating the "tent" -- an open-air
facility where anybody can sign up and play, to an almost
guaranteed large audience. They didn't have it last year,
and lots of people missed it, including me.
Unlike last year's double-length festival -- celebration of
the 100th anniversary of the publication of Joplin's "Maple
Leaf Rag" -- this year's festival runs the normal four days.
Still, they'll be packing in around eight formal concerts,
plus other events in various open-air venues, plus the usual
afterglow sessions in the Best Western ballroom, which tend
to run to 3 or 4 am (a real test of my stamina, since I tend
to be a morning person).
I'll let you know if anything exciting happens. I'm sure it
will.
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remmers
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response 187 of 256:
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Jun 9 03:52 UTC 2000 |
Don't know when (if ever) I'll get around to writing a
halfway complete summary of this year's Scott Joplin Festival.
I got in a reasonable amount of playing -- sets on three
consecutive days in "the tent", plus open piano at after
hours. I personally felt that my playing was a lot more
solid this year than last, and I got a number of favorable
comments. Got in some two-piano playing -- with Nan
Bostick from CA, and Gale Foehner from St. Louis. The
latter is an old-timer who's a great improvisor; we did an
impromptu rendition of Botsford's "Black and White Rag",
with me playing mostly by the notes and Foehner providing
embellishments.
There were dozens of fine musicians at the festival; I'll
just mention a few things that I thought were extra special:
o Tony Caramia's master class. Caramia, besides being a
ragtime player, is a professor of piano pedagogy at
the Eastman School of Music. He conducted a master
class (basically, a lesson that's open to the public)
featuring half a dozen or so younger performers, ranging
in age from 11 to 19. These kids' talent and interest
in ragtime make me hopeful for the future of the genre.
Highlight of the class was a *kickass* rendition of
Joplin's "Magnetic Rag" by 11-year-old Emily Sprague,
rendered with an assurance and a collection of embellish-
ments that you'd expect only from much older and more
experienced performers.
o The "Ragtime Revelations" concert. This event features
both new performing talent and new and newly-discovered
music. Most of the kids from the master class played, as
did John Petley, an excellent player from the Washington
D.C. area whom I'd heard before; this was his first year
in Sedalia as a "featured performer". The winning pieces
in the original composition contest were also performed.
Of the several concerts present each year at this festival,
"Ragtime Revelations" is always one of my favorites -- it's
guaranteed that I'll hear something new and different, and
experience fresh talent.
o Reginald Robinson. He is one of the most amazing new talents
to appear on the ragtime scene in years. He's a young
African-American from inner city Chicago, and as such does
not fit the demographic profile of the typical contemporary
ragtime player, almost all of whom are white and middle-
class. In the past, Robinson has played music of Joplin,
Lamb, and other composers of the ragtime era, but nowadays
he is mostly into composing and performing his own music --
rags, marches, and other forms current in the ragtime era.
He is a wonderful composer and an astounding performer. If
ragtime music ever re-attains the popularity it deserves,
you will hear of him. His piece "The 19th Galaxy" is not
to be missed.
o Elite Syncopation. A ragtime ensemble consisting of piano,
clarinet, violin, cello, and string bass. Beautiful sound.
Their rendition of Charles Johnson's folksy "Hen Cackle Rag"
was a delight. I purchased their CD, and so can hear them
again anytime I want.
o The "Ragtime Music Hall" concert. This is the last formal
concert of the festival and is always special. This year the
emcee was Butch Thompson (of Garrison Keillor's "Prairie
Home Companion" radio show) and feature the Butch Thompson
Trio and a number of other performers. As the grand finale,
all two dozen or so musicians in the concert came on-stage
to do the Joplin/Marshall "Swipesy Cakewalk", which being
exactly 100 years old was the "theme song" of this year's
festival.
Enough for now. More later, maybe.
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remmers
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response 188 of 256:
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Dec 9 13:18 UTC 2000 |
The 28th annual Ragtime Bash is this Sunday, December 10, at the
Unitarian Church in Ann Arbor, 4001 Ann Arbor-Saline Road. Start
time is 7:30pm, but arrive early -- seating is first-come-first-
served, and the event always sells out. (I try to get there an
hour in advance.)
This year's lineup: boogie pianists Mark "Mr. B" Braun and Bob
Seely; ragtimers Bob Milne and Mike Montgomery; pianist/vocalist
Kerry Price; jazz pianist James Dapogny with vocalist Susan
Chastain. They're all great.
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remmers
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response 189 of 256:
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Dec 9 13:18 UTC 2000 |
Addendum to the above: Tickets are $15 at the door, $10 for
students and seniors.
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remmers
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response 190 of 256:
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Dec 9 14:13 UTC 2000 |
While I'm here, I'll give a brief report on the 2000 West Coast
Ragtime Festival, held in Sacramento CA the weekend before
Thanksgiving. The festival takes over the meeting rooms at
the Red Lion Inn for three days, with four concerts in progress
at almost all times -- sort of like Missouri's Scott Joplin
Festival, on a smaller scale. You buy a festival pass and can
come and go as you please to any of the venues.
This year's lineup included established performers I've seen at
numerous other festivals -- Dick Zimmerman, Sue Keller, Mimi Blais,
Trebor and Virginia Tichenor, Terry Waldo, Frank French, Ian
Whitcomb, etc. -- plus various west coast folks I don't see
elsewhere, such as Eric Marchese and Tom Brier -- plus talented
newcomers like Marit Johnson, Elise Crane (both still in high
school) and Neil Blaze (college freshman). My friend Nan
Bostick appeared in a couple of scheduled sets and asked me
to perform with her -- we had fun doing more-or-less improvised
duo-piano versions of Harry Kelly's "Peaceful Henry", Charles
Daniels' "Louisiana", and Harry P. Guy's "Pearl of the Harem".
I did some solo performing at after-hours, which gave me a
chance to try out for an audience a few of the pieces I've
learned recently -- several Charles Johnson rags, Botsford's
"Royal Flush", Irene Giblin's "Sleepy Lou", Joseph Lamb's
unpublished "Bee Hive Rag", James Scott's "Don't Jazz Me".
Alan Rea and Sylvia O'Neill gave an interesting seminar on the
life of American composer Louis Gottschalk, who pre-dated the
ragtime era by several decades, but whose incorporation of
American folk music and syncopated Latin rhythms into his
compositions makes him in some sense the "father of ragtime".
At the festival I became aware of Texas composer David Guion.
Anybody familiar with him? There's one piece of his that
ragtime performers like to play, the misleading-titled
"Texas Fox Trot", published in 1915 when Guion was about
20 years old. "Fox trot" suggest something upbeat and
bouncy, but the piece is fairly slow and beautifully harmonic,
alternating dark minor-mode strains with beautiful lush
major-mode passages. I heard it performed twice at the
festival, thought it was wonderful, and am currently working
on learning to play it. It's fairly difficult. After the
festival I did some web research on Guion. He's apparently
best known for piano arrangments of various American folk
tunes. I picked up sheet music of his "Turkey in the Straw"
at the festival -- it's theme & variations, beautifully
arranged, but very difficult. I'd like to learn to play it
too, but it's going to take a while.
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davel
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response 191 of 256:
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Dec 9 15:21 UTC 2000 |
What I've heard of Gottschalk's music is **wonderful** stuff.
John, I think the point is that it's a *Texas* Fox Trot. 8-{)]
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remmers
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response 192 of 256:
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Apr 24 03:50 UTC 2001 |
Haven't put anything in this item for a while, so a few updates:
I performed David Guion's "Texas Fox Trot" for an audience for the first
time a few weeks ago, at an informal "family night" concert organized by
my wife's cello teacher. I have to say it was a hit. People asked me
afterwards who the composer was, and if I knew anything more by him and
about him. It really is an amazing piece, one of the best compositions
to come out of the ragtime era.
I'll be performing at the Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival this coming
August, in Sutter Creek, California. It's a lovely tourist town south of
Sacramento, in wine country, and the site of Mr. Sutter's gold discovery
in 1849. Haven't attended the festival before, but I'm told it more
or less takes over the town for three days. More info. is available on
the festival web site, http://www.ragtimemusic.com/scrf/ , which sports
photos of the performers, including yours truly.
Closer temporally and geographically is Zehnder's Ragtime Festival,
which takes place most of this week in Frankenmuth, Michigan, about
80 miles north of Ann Arbor. I'll be attending as much of it as my
schedule permits. This year's headliners are Bob Milne (as always),
Sue Keller, Reggie Robinson, Brian Holland, Tony Caramia, and the Et
Cetera String Band, and probably one or two other folks I'm forgetting.
I'll be in pig heaven as I listen to ragtime whilst pigging out on
Zehnder's fine cuisine.
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remmers
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response 193 of 256:
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May 26 01:24 UTC 2001 |
I've posted a "parlor ragtime recital" in this year's Grex auction.
See item 51 in the Auction conference <item:auction,51> .
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remmers
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response 194 of 256:
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Jun 4 14:41 UTC 2001 |
As of yesterday, my "parlor ragtime recital" auction item was
"going once" for a bid of $30. If you want the recital and
are willing to pay more than that, you should make a bid on
it soon. See item 51 in the Auction conference
<item:auction,51> .
Tomorrow I leave for the biggest and best ragtime festival
of them all, the annual Scott Joplin Festival in Sedalia,
Missouri. Headliners include many of the big names in
ragtime, including Bob Darch, Sue Keller, Mimi Blais, Scott
Kirby, Morton Larsen, David Thomas Roberts, Jan Douglas,
Bob Ault, Reginald Robinson, Tony Caramia, John Arpin,
Trebor and Virginia Tichenor, the Bo Grumpus group, the
Ophelia Ragtime Orchestra, Terry Parish, and many others.
The festival takes over the town's historic district and
fairgrounds for five days of wonderful music. What a
blast!
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cmcgee
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response 195 of 256:
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Jun 5 18:29 UTC 2001 |
That parlor ragtime recital is a TREAT! If you haven't bid, check it out.
I was wondering about something you said during the recital you gave for me
and my friends.
What is "slide" and how is it different from "ragtime"?
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remmers
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response 196 of 256:
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Jun 13 19:13 UTC 2001 |
It's "stride", not "slide". "Stride ragtime" is a playing style
that originated in New York around the mid-1910's. Two of its
foremost practioners were Luckey Roberts and James P. Johnson.
I'll quote from Jasen & Tichenor, _Rags and Ragtime_ (Dover,
1978):
The word Stride means the syncopation alternating
between the right and left hands and the counter
melodies created by a moving bass line. This was
putting a new twist on the regular way to play
ragtime -- alternating the syncopation between
both hands made it twice as difficult to perform,
thereby enabling the performers to win contests.
It not only sounded harder to do, it was in fact
harder to do.
On another topic: I just got back from Sedalia. Great
festival! I'll post a report in a day or two.
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scott
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response 197 of 256:
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Jun 13 20:53 UTC 2001 |
I image "slide piano" would rather difficult to play. You'd have to reach
into the piano with the slide while pressing the keys with the other, and the
pedals would probably be out of reach.
Still... if famed Delta bluesman Robert Johnson had grown up with a piano
instead of a guitar...
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cmcgee
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response 198 of 256:
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Jun 14 14:07 UTC 2001 |
ROTFL. What an image.
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remmers
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response 199 of 256:
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Jun 15 18:12 UTC 2001 |
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davel
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response 200 of 256:
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Jun 17 18:24 UTC 2001 |
Eh?
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remmers
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response 201 of 256:
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Jun 17 19:13 UTC 2001 |
Oops, sorry about the blank response. Next response will be my
report on the Scott Joplin Festival.
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remmers
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response 202 of 256:
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Jun 17 19:19 UTC 2001 |
The 2001 Scott Joplin Festival took place from Wednesday, June
6 to Sunday, June 10, in Sedalia, MO. I was there. Of the
four Scott Joplin Festivals I've attended, I think this one was
the most fun for me and the most rewarding musically. Too much
going on to attempt to report on everything -- multiple free
outdoor venues, plus formal reserved-seat concerts, plus open
piano at after hours. So I'll just mention some highlights:
The "Women in Ragtime" concert. It wasn't officially part of
the festival but shared many of the same performers. All
women. My friend Nan Bostick from California co-emceed, along
with Mimi Blais of Montreal, who organized it. Highlight for
me was Nan's and Nora Hulce's rendition, on two pianos, of
Grace Bolen's exquisite 1901 rag "The Smokey Topaz" (composed
when she was 16!). It's a fact that many of the ragtime
composers during the ragtime era (1897-1917, roughly) were
indeed women, so there's lots of material to be mined for
concerts like this.
(During the intermission, I spotted Marty Eggers, bass player
with the Bo Grumpus trio. He was there selling copies of the
excellent "Tichenor Family Album" CD. As husband of Virginia
Tichenor and son-in-law of Trebor Tichenor, he's 1/3 of that
group as well. We chatted about various things, including
krj.)
Private lesson with Tony Caramia, piano professor at the
Eastman School of Music and frequent headliner at ragtime
festivals. I played a few things for him that I've been
working on lately and got a lot of useful feedback.
Caramia also gave a "master class" featuring some half dozen
players ranging in age from 12 to 19. After hearing folks play
like college freshman Neil Blaze, high schoolers Marit Johnson
and Elise Crane, and twelve-year-old Emily Sprague, I'm
optimistic for the future of ragtime. It's in good hands.
There were over thirty contracted performers at the festival,
most of whom I heard play at least once. Plus a number of
other folks, like me, who weren't on the official program but
who played at various events. Heard a ton of great music, most
of which I won't talk about in the interest of keeping this
short. But I'll say that the concert to honor David Thomas
Roberts -- one of the finest contemporary composers and
performers of ragtime -- was wonderful. I was impressed enough
by Brian Keenan's playing of folk ragtime to purchase his new
"Traditions" CD. Bo Grumpus was in fine form at the various
venues where they played. My favorite ragtime ensemble, the
Ophelia Ragtime Orchestra from Scandanavia, was at the festival
as part of its bi-annual U.S. tour, playing music for dancing
in the "tea tent" as well as a terrific set at after-hours in
the wee hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning. Their singer
really rocks. Actually, they all do.
Several opportunities to perform this year. I was asked to
play at the informal opening and closing concerts of the
festival, and I also did a twenty-minute set at the Stark
Pavilion. Plus an impromptu session in the headquarters hotel
lobby with guitarist Craig Ventresco & percussionist Pete
Devine (2/3 of the Bo Grumpus group), and banjo player Bob Ault
(1/3 of the Etcetera String Band). We jammed for about an hour
and attracted a fair-sized audience, with Devine using a pair
of drumsticks on the table, chairs, drinking glasses, and other
surfaces in lieu of his usual equipment. And one evening when
most people were at a concert that I'd decided not to attend, I
ran into pianist Terry Parish from Indianapolis in the hotel
ballroom and we did some duo-piano stuff.
Fun festival. This year, I took my digital camera along and
will be posting some photos on the web.
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remmers
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response 203 of 256:
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Jun 20 20:52 UTC 2001 |
I've just acquired software to convert between Yamaha Disklavier
format and MIDI. This enables me to post my own piano performances
on the web. See http://jremmers.org/midi for a list. I've
posted two pieces recorded earlier today: Charles L. Johnson's
"The Alabama Slide" (1915) and James Scott's "Sunburst Rag" (1909).
They're both first takes with no editing whatsoever, so don't be
surprised at hearing a flub here and there.
The tone quality of a MIDI depends strongly on the playback
software. I've listened to my performances on both QuickTime
and Yahoo Player. The latter is closer to actual piano sound,
but I rather likely the faintly bell-like quality QuickTime
produces, especially in the melodious trio of the Johnson
piece.
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gelinas
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response 204 of 256:
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Jun 23 04:06 UTC 2001 |
I've not found a way to rewind, but I like what I've heard of "The Alabama
Slide." I look forward to listening the other one.
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remmers
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response 205 of 256:
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Jun 23 19:55 UTC 2001 |
Thanks Joe.
I took a few pictures at the Sedalia Festival, mostly on the
first and last day. The rest of the time I was busy with other
things. You can find a sampling at http://jremmers.org/Sedalia2001 .
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gelinas
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response 206 of 256:
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Jun 24 19:06 UTC 2001 |
I like the last picture. :)
Thumbnails would be a nice touch. I'd offer code, but I can't get to
my own home page just now. (The file server is up, but it's not yet
serving files.) I *think* it would be something like:
<A HREF="http://jremmers.org/Sedalia2001/john_remmers.jpg">
John Remmers
</A IMG SRC="http://jremmers.org/Sedalia2001/john_remmers.jpg">
There are some size markers in there, too. Look at the source of
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gelinas/House.html
for an example of how I did it.
OK, the server is letting me look at my files now, if only slowly. Here
is one of the the pictures:
<A HREF="House-3dDraft/102Burton-FrontView.JPG">
<IMG SRC="House-3dDraft/102Burton-FrontView.JPG" border=0 height=72 width=96>
</A>
I included text by using a table, and putting the text on one row with
the pictures on the next row. It *should* be possible to put the text
before or after the IMG tag.
{Yes, I could re-write this response to eliminate the evidence of my
thinking, but I'll leave it. ;)
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