CHO will not be presenting any shows over the summer of 2012, but we will be back sometime after that to present our own work and those of others.
 
New Projects in 2012

I've always been  interested in anomata and home-made instruments. In 2012, I have a huge project looming: I will be attempting to build a John Smith Topsy 3 portable organ. These are updated versions of the organs traditionally seen in old pictures of organ grinders with their monkey assistant.

Several months ago I talked to Rodney Frost, author of Creative Kinetics: Making Mechanical Marvels in Wood. He eschews email and I'm a terrible slow-mail user, so communcation is tough. However his constructions, which include musical instruments, are works of art. My meager offersings (mostly wooden boxes) are trash in comparison.

John Smith has written a comprehensive manual, complete with DVD, to guide builders of his Topsy 3 organ.

John Smith with his Topsy 3 organ.
Photo: from the John Smith website.

Throughout, the building process, I'll be leaning on those who have built or are also building this organ. There are several forums for builders in both the U.K. and the U.S. that dscuss the ins and outs of organ construction.

There are a couple of other musical-instrument-making programs I hope I can chronicle here as well while I'm at it. Meanwhile, I'll be rereading Rodney's book, looking at the fine pictures  and if I can remember how it's done, I may finally write him an actual letter.

Bring on 2012!

Joe Callahan releases a new CD.
Watching the Light

Guitarist/vocalist Joe Callahan released a new CD on December 17 2011, called Watching the Light. He put together some fine origiinal tunes, with a bevy of local musicians. (Okay, I'm the flute and sax player.)

Joe has a strong voice, some straight-ahead love tunes, some blues and a good dose of his trade-mark political statements. For details, check out his Watching the Light website.







Beer: an essential service

Carlsberg: probably the blandest beer in the world. But when you've got the legal system in your pocket, who cares?




The Carlsberg logo is ""Probably beer." Photo: from a Carlsberg ad, doctored by P. Snell.  

I can't resist a little soapboxing here.

What follows is a quote from a pro-union site upset at a ruling made in Lithuania. The ILO mentioned in the text refers to the International Labour Union, a UN organization.

"A planned strike by union workers at the Carlsberg brewery in Lithuania has been declared illegal by an outrageous court decision which is now the subject of an ILO complaint. The court denied the right to strike by declaring beer production an essential service. !Carlsberg is retaliating against the union's struggle for justice with reprisals and dismissals and using the Lithuanian legal system to destroy union rights.” – The quote is from an outraged union organization.

I've got to admit, I'm divided on this one. Isn't beer, indeed, an essential service? I think the Lithuanian judges, drunken sots that they are, got this one right. Any economic system, capitalist or socialist, grinds to a halt without beer.

In 2010, Carlsberg workers in Copenhagen walked off the job when management restricted beer drinking to lunchtime.

Go Lithuania! As soon as we can trash this democracy nonsense, we can get down to what is really important: drinking beer!

But really, In the end, it comes down to...  Woah! Lunchtime. Time for a beer and a sardine. I'll finish this later.