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“manual until it hurts”

Over the weekend I had some good conversations with new friends about social media, how they use it, how they’re considering changing/continuing certain habits moving forward, etc. Off the back of that I’m (hopefully) going to progress a little further with syndicating these notes to selected channels. Probably just Twitter, really.

While looking in to that, I came across the phrase “manual until it hurts”. Hits the nail on the head.

Somewhat related: we just tore down our SB-PH site and replaced it with a holding page. I feel lighter already.

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Pub takeaways

Takeaways from a particularly good evening in the pub last night:

And a salad recipe from a great cab driver:

In a large bowl, combine some diced cucumber, diced celery, and halved cherry tomatoes. Add finely chopped wet garlic or green onions (scallions). Toss with olive oil and lemon juice and season to taste. Optional additions include olives, mint, boiled Jersey potatoes, rocket (arugula), or feta. Use apple cider vinegar if you don’t have lemon juice.

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Carillonkonzerte im Tiergarten

Carillonneur in Berlin Tiergarten

There’s a sweet little spot in my heart for bells. I’m in Berlin this weekend manning a table for OP at Miss Read, and on my way over through the Tiergarten yesterday morning I heard incredible music coming from the tower next to HKW. Turns out Berlin carillonneur Jeffrey Bossin gives free concerts throughout late spring / early summer, and one of them is today at 3pm. He must have been rehearsing yesterday.

carillon-berlin.de

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Iris, Iridis

Iris, Iridis (noun)
– declension: 3rd declension
– gender: feminine
Definitions:
1. Iris (messenger of the gods, goddess of the rainbow)
2. rainbow

You can identify third declension nouns by their genitive singular ending ‘-is’. See nationalarchives.gov.uk and Wikipedia.

In contrast with the first- and second-declension endings, those of the third declension lack a theme vowel (a or o/u in the first and second declensions) and so are called athematic.

Note via Toby O.

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TIL about reef-safe sunscreen

TIL certain sunscreens are likely harmful to coral reefs. Wish I’d known this a month ago… Go for a physical sunscreen instead of a chemical one. Physical sunscreens can be less cosmetically preferable, need to be reapplied often, and can leave a white-ish cast, but they are usually gentler on skin and – here’s the kicker – are much less likely to kill oceanic critters.

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Rehearsing Rainbows

Early last year, Sarah Kate Wilson approached Musarc with a concept for a performance involving coloured mirrors. Around the same time, Toby O’Connor and I were mulling over ways of working with Beata Viscera, a conductus by medieval composer Pérotin. These experiments blended well and in April 2017, Musarc opened and closed the 3rd Do Disturb festival at Palais De Tokyo with Rainbows + Beata viscera iridis. Watch a video documenting Musarc’s various PDT performances on musarc.org. These pieces were performed again as part of MK Gallery’s 2017 CityFest and at Rochester Square’s Open Day on 24 June 2017.

Musarc rehearsing Rainbows

Musarc rehearsing Rainbows + Beata viscera iridis at Central House just before the building was sold by London Met Uni.

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Tall, elegant time signatures

I recently came across a tall, one-per-system time signature style I hadn’t really seen before in Drei Volksliedsätze by Schönberg, published by Edition Peters (c) 1930.

Tall time signature in Drei Volksliedsätze by Arnold Schönberg

I searched around for some info about their purpose but didn’t find a ton of information. Some say that they are useful for conductor’s scores, others say that they’re useful when a time signature changes frequently throughout a piece. Most examples I’ve found are a lot more ungainly (but definitely more legible) than the tall, elegant time signatures in the Schönberg.

The usage isn’t consistent in the three songs. The first of the three (Schein uns, du liebe Sonne) has a standard one-per-stave time signature and is in 4/4 throughout. The second (Es gingen zwei Gespielen gut) is in 6/4 throughout and has a tall signature. The third (Herzlieblich Lieb, durch Scheiden) is a little nuts. It’s got tall time signatures and starts in 3/4, then packs 5 meter changes in to the remaining 21 measures.

The texture of the final two pieces, both rhythmically and harmonically, is much tighter than the first. Because of that, my feeling is that in this song cycle they’re maybe meant to encourage singers to read across the staves, to become more attuned to where they fit in as part of the whole. Would like to ask someone more knowledgeable in this sort of thing to see what they think.

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Shopify theme dev notes, early 2018

We’re picking up a Shopify site that was put on hold for a little bit, and I’m pleasantly surprised by a few things I’ve come across. The pause might have been blessing in disguise for the site on the whole. The dev tools have progressed a bit during the hiatus, and I’ve come across a Sections workaround that might 🤞 give a little more content flexibility beyond the homepage.

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