The Ten Doctors party

Here's your invitation...

...to don your Doctor Who themed party mask...

...put a slice of dalek cake...

...on your Doctor Who themed plate...

...and raise your cup...

...in a toast:

To Rich! Congratulations on your 100th installment of The Ten Doctors!!!

Banjo versus TV: Week 23

A weekly check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s resolution to spend more time in 2008 on his banjo than on TV.

Summing up this past week in three words: Midwest Banjo Camp.

Too tired (in a good way!) to say more. Except maybe: So much fun!

Midwest Banjo Camp: Saturday and Sunday

Things I saw at Midwest Banjo Camp.

Sharing recordings from Midwest Banjo Camp

At Midwest Banjo Camp they let us make recordings of most sessions for our personal use.

Did you get a good recording of a session? Or maybe you got a bad recording and you'd like to upgrade to a good one? If so, please email me at...

...and we'll work out a way to share our recordings.

Out of fairness to the camp staff and instructors, I'm going to limit this to the attendees and staff of Midwest Banjo Camp 2008. So if you didn't go to the camp, don't bother emailing me about this.

And let's all remember that these are for our personal use and should not be put on the Internet.

Midwest Banjo Camp: Friday Evening

Things I saw at Midwest Banjo Camp.

Midwest Banjo Camp: Friday Morning

Things I saw at Midwest Banjo Camp.

Midwest Banjo Camp: Day 0

Things I learned at Midwest Banjo Camp during the Thursday "pre-camp".

Bluegrass Slow Jam with Greg Cahill:

• Foot up: The old-timey players will raise a foot in the air to indicate that this is that last verse.
• Playing with fiddles: When you're playing with a fiddle, you'll often capo the banjo to A since that's what the fiddle's probably tuned to.
• Abbreviate D chord: When you're rolling and you don't have time to switch to a fully-fingered D chord, you can use this abbreviated version:
  
• Humming: It helps your accompaniment to hum the melody as you practice.
• Playing tags with vocals: Often, when someone is singing you won't start your tag at the usual time (which would be after they finish singing). Instead, you'll probably want to start your tag as they're singing the final words.
• Following the guitar player: Learning some basic guitar chords will help you follow the guitar player during a jam.

Late night chatting with some of the staff:

• Stink bombs: For homemade stinkbombs, try ethyl mercaptan. Stores in Canada sell the Fart Bag – an excellent stink bomb packet that's about the size of a pack of trading cards. When you activate the pack the chemicals get mixed, it will start to grow in size and after about 30 second it will explode into stink.
• Banjo puppets: Cathy Fink and her banjo puppets demonstrate that the banjo can be played with only one finger on your left hand.
  
• Flip video: The Flip Video camera is totally cool.

Update: Some pictures:

Banjo versus TV: Week 22

A weekly check-in on the Banjo versus TV project — J.R.'s resolution to spend more time in 2008 on his banjo than on TV.

The numbers will tell you that my last three weeks have been light on the banjo, averaging only 4 hours per week of banjo time. That's half my usual pace. But I think this has been an important period in my banjo study, because I've been thinking.

Here are some of the things I've realized – most of which Mike has been trying to get me to learn for a while:

• I really enjoyed my sister's jam party a few weeks ago. It was nice, being able to keep up with the other players.
• Most of a banjo player's time will be spent accompanying, but that's not what I've been concentrating on.
• I've been training myself to be like a player piano. I'll pick a song out of my books and practice the tab from beginning to end. That makes for a pleasant tune, but it doesn't make me very flexible.

OK, so I've had a realization or two. What am I going to do about it?

• Watch Dan' Huckabee's DVD, How to Figure Out Music from Recordings
• Practice the licks from Jan Davis' book, Splitting the Licks
• Mike showed me how you can really mess things up by playing the melody over a singer, so I'm going to try singing as I play. This should help me develop a more singer-friendly style.
• Find some more jams to go to.
• Go to Midwest Banjo Camp! (Stay tuned.)

Also in the last week:

• Hurray once again for buying cheap CDs at pawn shops. This week's haul:
  • My Dixie Home by Jim Mills
  • Here Today by David Grisman, Vince Gill, Herb Pedersen, Jim Buchanan, Emory Gordy Jr.
  • Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute to 1946 & 1947 by Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder
• Had a playdate with Bill Ihnow; something that really deserves its own post.
• Got all packed up for Midwest Banjo Camp! Boy, I'm looking forward to this!

Thumb ambush

"One, two, three, four. I declare a thumb war," I said at last night's company trip to a White Sox game, not realizing that my teenaged opponent was a double-jointed mutant. Perhaps if I'd known she could do this...

...I would have tried diplomacy. But, no. I had to rush to war.

And so it began, with her thumb hidden from view...

...until, ZAP!

A crushing defeat for my poor thumb.

"There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled, and so abandon war forever."
  - Thomas Edison