Text 308, 259 rader
Skriven 2006-04-06 00:25:04 av James Bradley (1:134/77.0)
     Kommentar till en text av Ardith Hinton
Ärende: What's in a name
========================
Ardith Hinton wrote James Bradley on 04-04-06 17:16

 AH> You asked for it!  This is the last installment
 AH> of a previous series...  ;-)

Where you going?

 JB>  See, just when I think I know what you are talking
 JB>  about... <ROTF>


 AH>           Okay, try this.  You arrived at the
 AH> scene of an accident or whatever & sensed there
 AH> could be more to the situation than what had
 AH> first met your eye, in much the same way that
 AH> 90% of an iceberg is below the surface of the

Meta-phosphorus be in front of you.

 AH> water.  The intuition component of your
 AH> reasoning style is what enables you to see below
 AH> the surface... and the perception component is
 AH> what enables you to reserve judgement until
 AH> you've collected a fair amount of data.  You can

I'm with ya.

 AH> & do make snap judgements if the situation calls
 AH> for quick thinking but don't necessarily stop
 AH> there.  You may also enjoy open- ended questions
 AH> where others seem to want immediate answers.

My Aunt lost her bo to prostate cancer. When she asked me, as a 'recovering'
survivor, "Why?" Maybe she knew I'd know not to befuddle it. <?> 

No, perplexing questions aren't likely to make me blush, but I suppose we all
have our limits. I'm sure you've had your share of pondering adolescents, some
with all the answers, and others with all the questions? I guess I like to wrap
up the universe by a good scratch behind the ear of a pet, or sharing a
belly-laugh with a kid. Everything else is gravy to me. 

 AH>           In many ways, you sound to me like a
 AH> person who prefers using his body to using his
 AH> brain... i.e. the "sensation" component is
 AH> stronger than mine.  But you do a lot of good
 AH> thinking too, even when you sound more like the
 AH> drummer who flies by the seat of his pants than
 AH> the clarinet player with a dictionary in her

LOL! Ya, I have a bent for the bombastic.

 AH> purse.  I got the latter imagery from a Hoffnung
 AH> cartoon.  I must admit, though, that I really
 AH> did carry a dictionary in my purse for awhile!

How many drummers do you know that carried a `pocket' dictionary in their
portfolio for a time? Welcome to the dichotomy that is me. In grade ten, I was
still a long-haired, and I'm sure still searching for my ever elusive
`personality'. When the militant band teacher saw me roll up to the airplane
with a briefcase, I thought he was going to urinate himself. Right then, I knew
I was onto something. If I could disarm this fella with contradicting images...
Now, I do so more with variations of humor, and seriousness and the like, but
my apparel can still run the range.

 AH> I was in a concert band where I sat next to a
 AH> guy who drove me crazy because he ignored all
 AH> foreign terminology such as "staccato" and
 AH> refused to accept my interpretation....  :-))

"Why are you playing so punctual?"
"Look between `stab' and `symphony'." Says the clarinet player, `wetting her
reed.'

 AH>           I think Hoffnung was onto something.

Would I know his series?

 AH> In my experience people often do select a
 AH> particular instrument because there's something
 AH> about it, and about the type of music generally
 AH> associated with it, which resonates with their
 AH> preferred reasoning style.  Here are two
 AH> caricatures of my own, using this theory:

[Putting on my thinking cap. |-]

 AH>  Sensation/Perception
 AH>  --------------------
 AH>   -- these are the people about whom it is said
 AH> "S/he lived life to the
 AH>      fullest" or "S/he likes anything which goes
 AH> fast, smells bad and/or
 AH>      makes a lot of noise".  (I put the first
 AH> example in the past tense
 AH>      because I hear it most often after one of
 AH> them has been buried in an
 AH>      avalanche while skiing in an out-of-bounds

<BWA!!!>

 AH> area.)  They themselves
 AH>      say they enjoy the "adrenaline rush" when
 AH> they take physical risks.

 AH>      -- learns by doing, doesn't plan ahead or
 AH> rehearse

 AH>      -- chooses the trumpet in grade eight
 AH> because s/he thinks it has only
 AH>      three notes, or the drums because s/he is
 AH> hoping to avoid learning to
 AH>      read music, or the saxophone because it's
 AH> easier than the clarinet...
 AH>      or so s/he says.  But these instruments can
 AH> also make a lot of noise!

I'll buy the noise part! (Ow... It hurts to laugh.)


 AH>      -- usually prefers rock music, with the
 AH> bass amplified, but may also
 AH>      enjoy American-style marches (fast & loud)
 AH> and/or jazz (improvisation)

Wind in the hair, seat of the pants... I'm sure you noticed my confusion with
the A-type personality.

Likewise, it's a sliding scale, isn't it? I saw a special, about people whose
life work is to assault Everest. One fellow, was portrayed as a cowboy,
shoot'em up, no holds bared... The next, his former partner, refused to climb
with spark-plug after one of cowboy's errors put his life in serious peril, and
the cowboy left him for dead.

Now, there's two VERY much `wind in your hair' personalities, and the cowboy of
the two is likely to describe his friend as, "Dying doing the thing he
loved..." If, it wasn't for his impending survival. The soft spoken fella, said
very quietly, "No, I can not climb with him any more. I don't want to talk
about it."

Jack Karawak, William S., Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, Coltrane... They both
probably prefer Andean folk songs, but that's beside the point.

 AH>  Sensation/Judgement
 AH>  -------------------
 AH>   -- these are the people who, as teenagers,
 AH> feel uncomfortable when the
 AH>      English teacher wants them to think & ask
 AH> for some boxes to fill in.
 AH>      They like team sports with rules and/or
 AH> "working out" on a schedule.

 AH>      -- learns by rote memory, likes
 AH> predictability & structure

 AH>      -- favours instruments which haven't
 AH> changed much during the past few
 AH>      centuries and/or which conform to somebody
 AH> else's opinion as to what
 AH>      is suitable (e.g. violin, bagpipes,
 AH> Conservatory piano, or some other
 AH>      option deemed by the current whim of
 AH> fashion to be gender-appropriate)

And then there's the `fusion' bagpipe player, or one that incorporates it into
a comedy act, and makes it sound like a British emergency vehicle. As you might
have noticed, (It's not for a lack of me badgering you with it. ;-) I was the
rebel without a clue (PBS is running a James Dean special, coincidentally.)
that got irritated by all that time guitar players were tuning their
instruments, while `sticks' was making funny faces. So, after the practice pad
lost its allure, my drum teacher came over to set up my first drum-set. 

"Boy, that's a *LOT* of tuning he's doing!" No wonder the drummer was out of
his mind by the time the 12-string comes out of the case. He just finished
tuning twelve lugs on his snare drum, another twelve on the snare-side of the
same drum, and depending on the model, might have adjusted up to thirty
settings to do with the strainer. Then there's the practice of effective
muffling. Oh, and now the second tom-tom rattles the snares, and the base-drum
rings the floor tom. ... ... ...

I first thought I could show up for work, and get payed to beat things up. The
more I learned, the more I realized just how tedium, and vigilance played into
(That's a double entandre, isn't it? |-) the preparation. I was rather stoked
at reading, and technique, and everything musical to do with the discipline,
but the dynamics was the hardest learned lesson. Imagine, a thirteen yo, in his
hometown playing his first gig of polkas and waltzes, with a rock-n-roll
teacher being his only instruction to that point. "How come you keep telling me
to tone it down? I thought I really nailed those fills." 

Ah, the trouble with youth, is it's wasted on the young.

 AH>      -- usually prefers music which has been
 AH> around for quite some time so
 AH>      s/he can copy the way others have done it
 AH> before.  Glares at Dallas &
 AH>      me for laughing during a PDQ Bach concert,
 AH> then leaves in disgust at
 AH>      the intermission after finally realizing
 AH> the whole thing is a put-on.

L!!! You two sound like a hoot!

The one who stomps off, is equally irked when I tell them `classical' music was
written with a *very* disposable intent. `Pop' music is written to last in
perpetuity. Quite the opposite has proven true to a large extent, but the `too
tightly wound' are likely to storm off before the real conversation even
starts.

 AH> Since the "intuitive" reasoning styles involve
 AH> another level of complexity, I'll leave them for
 AH> later.  Suffice it to say that, notwithstanding
 AH> certain remarks I made about drummers, I think
 AH> those who are really good at it have an
 AH> "intuitive" component to their thinking.  You

Ya... Clear as MUD! <LOL>

 AH> alluded to this when you remarked that some of
 AH> the drummers you've known lack sensitivity in
 AH> regard to their instruments and/or to the volume
 AH> which suits the music they're playing.  In order
 AH> to be really good at it one also needs mental
 AH> flexibility, and that's where the "perception"
 AH> comes in.  You need it when the score calls for
 AH> some piece of equipment you don't have available
 AH> & you must find a plausible substitute
 AH> immediately if not sooner.  The right answer in
 AH> such situations is whatever achieves the desired
 AH> effect....  :-)

Bangin' on the pots and pans. After my first episode of Ed Sullivan, mom had to
wash my `equipment.' 

Last I looked, something seems broken on Kevin's board. I went to set my
message pointers back on this echo, and I've lost the wherewithal to change to
this echo to do so. <scratching head>

 JB>  Have I called you a challenging corespondent? ...Lately?


 AH>           Thanks... I love you too.  :-)))

Hugs and kisses! ;-) I just got off the phone with my sister in Van. She called
to inform me her MIL just passed. BIL is going through the usual, and they had
a long walk last night. Now, she was reportedly a handful, but the two of them
did invest a good deal of time in her care. As she was located in Montreal,
that was no small feat.

To avoid the glib if I may, she was loved too, and yes if caring for a person
is loving, I do have love for you guys there too. Now, because chances are good
we may never meet in person, give the family a hug for me, will you?

God speed!


... James
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