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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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Leather strap repair on straw bag repair

Brown leather strap repair on straw bag

Replaced the broken leather straps on my mom’s old straw bag with my new (new to me anyway!) favourite tool.

Speedy Stitcher Sewing Awl

Edit 2018.08.29 at 15:08
This bag has seen a lot of action this summer and the handles are holding up well. The straw (it’s more like thin rope…) is starting to fray at the top though. I’ve lashed it together with invisible fishing line for the time being. I’m expecting sections of it to give way eventually, at which point I’m considering doing some sort of makeshift crochet/embroidery thing to keep it patched up. That’s where that black line came from, it was a little band made of the same straw material that wrapped round the whole bag. It was totally eaten away in parts, so I unwound what was left and replaced it with black embroidery floss.