SAXOPHONES
The Saxophone was made by a Belgian born instrument maker ‘Adolphe Sax’ in 1846. He wanted a powerful instrument that would fill the void in between the clarinet section, and the brass section of horns. After combining several different adaptations of horns, and clarinets, and other woodwind instruments, he fashioned the “Saxophone”. It was originally made for military marching bands, but soon found its way into jazz, and later rock and roll. One of the more interesting models of saxophones is the bass saxophone, it is a huge, ungainly looking piece of equipment that looks like a cross between an octopus, and a missile launcher, and has a very deep growling sound.
DIDGERIDOO
The Didgeridoo is a woodwind instrument that was reportedly developed by the indigenous Australians of northern Australia around 1,500 years ago, and is still in widespread use around the world today. Just about everyone has heard this droning instrument, in movies, on television, the radio, and in live demonstrations. One of the more interesting usages of this instrument is for healing the body, usually a shaman, medicine man / woman, or a doctor who is skilled in the area of curing illnesses with sound, use the didgeridoo in medical, healing applications. The Aborigines of Australia use varied harmonics produced by the Didgeridoo to heal anything from broken bones, to the common cold.
ELECTRIC GUITAR
The Electric guitar can give credit to the phone companies for being part of its coming into being. Invented in 1931, its roots go back to the early 20th century around 1910 when Jazz musicians were trying to develop something to amplify their sound. Telephone transmitters were adapted and placed inside banjos, guitars, and violins, to pick up the sound from the strings, and then the telephone transmitter would send the vibrations from the strings by wire to an amplifier, which in turn amplified the sounds of the strings. From there on, until 1931, experimentation on different applications of sound pickups, style of guitar and amplification were tried until an accepted model that met all of the required needs was constructed. You can read about the electric guitars development here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_guitar
DRUMS
Of course, I couldn’t leave out my favorite instrument, the drums, skins, pads, heads, tubs. Plates, chops, licks, grooves, round squares, and the many other names they are known by.
Drums are a percussion instrument which is in a group called “Membranophones” The drum head is a membrane which resonates when it is struck with a stick or a hand. Drum heads have been made from all sort of materials; Animal skin, plastic, cloth, wood, vegetable bulk, even hair. Drums have been with us ever since the first caveman or lower primate picked up a chunk of wood and started beating it on something; and are thought to be the oldest of all instruments. Playing the drums has become a fine art in modern times. One professional drummer in the past kind of reverted back to the caveman days by playing rhythms on anything with a flat surface, and some things that didn’t have any kind of surface suitable for drumming on.
Macaque monkeys drum objects in a rhythmic manner to show social dominance, and this has been shown to be processed in a similar way in their brains to vocalizations suggesting an evolutionary origin to drumming as part of social communication.
Drums have been used for all kinds of tribal and military communications over the centuries.
Drumming has a deep effect on the human beings psyche; it inspires marchers, musicians, dancers, actors, and any combination thereof, to flow to a rhythm while doing their performances.
Drums are also a great tension reliever; Beating on something when you are frustrated usually gets the anger out and you can think more clearly. Except the neighbors might pick up a bit of your anger and frustration when you do this.
ROLL OUT THE BARRELS
Ever wonder how they carbonated drinks like champagne, and soda pop, and beer before modern times came along with the science and mechanisms to do so? Certain woods, like beech wood, oak, and several others, have properties that when exposed to acids that exist in wine, and beer, react by producing carbon gas, which is a natural process in many vegetable growths. The person who first discovered this is lost to history, but, over several thousand years of beer and wine making, it has become a fine art. Beech wood casks (barrels) are favored by many beer making enthusiasts for carbonating, and aging beer. Modern day brewery’s use more sophisticated methods to turn out mass quantities of your favorite thirst quencher at a reasonable cost.
Barrels come in all styles, shapes and sizes and have been around for many centuries too, but, there is a sinister side to these seemingly innocent containers; After gunpowder was invented, reportedly by the Chinese in the 9th century, the big problem was finding a way to keep it dry, and in a container that would not allow static electricity to ignite it. Wood if dry, has a very low conductivity rate, so It was chosen as the accepted container, wooden barrels / casks were used to keep it in, and invariably, the first bomb was discovered by accident when someone got a flame too near one of the barrels of gunpowder. From then on, all kinds of bombs were fashioned from different sized barrels.
Then, there are the daredevils who were sealed inside a barrel and went over Niagara Falls, some lived, others got a Darwin award.
We use barrels today for so many things, food, wine, flowers, hot tubs, shelters; The largest barrel in the world is in Heidelberg castle, Germany, and stands over 20 feet tall and holds 58,000 gallons of wine.
I PITY DA FOOS
When someone pulls a clumsy, unrehearsed antic, a lot of times because of not thinking out what their actions might accomplish, it is hard not to chuckle, and hopefully those that survive will do further research into whatever endeavor they try next.
One instance that happened to myself, or actually to a cat of acquaintance. We had put up an electric fence to keep livestock in a penned area, because they had the habit of breaking down the board fence. Just after we put the fence up and turned it on, a few cows tried the fence, and didn’t care for the bee’s that inhabited the wire. We were watching them test their limits on getting shocked, when this cat somehow got out in the middle of the cows, probably wanting some milk from one of the nursing cows. I called out ‘Here kitty kitty kitty,’, to get it out away from the cows so it wouldn’t get stepped on, and the cat came at a slow trot towards us with its tail in the air. Before I could get the cat to stop, it went under the electric fence and its tail connected with the lowest wire. It seemed to me that the cat elongated to at least 20 feet, it’s eyes were as big as saucers, and it said in a loud screech “Rowww Fitttss”, and it was “Warp Factor Five Mr. Sulu,” the cat just disappeared. Three days later, the cat came back, and the Veterinarian that I took it to said it was okay, just a little dehydrated, but the cat never went near the fence again.
Sometimes to get a child to behave, parents will tell them about the Boogeyman, Closet Monster, Goblins, and the odd assortment of denizens from the nether world that will get them should they step beyond accepted behavior. Only, some children, being inventive will find a way to thwart these creepy characters. Like the child who was told to pick up her room, or the closet monster would get her. This particular little girl got ahold of some matches and set the closet on fire, thus getting rid of that demon.
Or the basement monster who met its end by a handful of small ball bearings placed on the stairs by a young boy who had had enough. The monster turned out to be an uncle who was trying to help out the parents into teaching the boy not to be afraid of the dark. The uncle survived the fall with a few broken bones.
Then there was the custodian, who, wanted to try to get two cleaning jobs done at once, and inadvertently mixed a base, and an acid to accomplish this task, and suffered chemical burns on 34% of his body. Many woodstoves have been installed without a chimney, and smoke damage to the interior of a house is common.
Quite a few television sets have been shot through walls by homeowners who either forgot they left the TV on, or someone else had turned it on, and threatening words were heard by the homeowner who thought someone had broken into the house and was going to kill them.
THAT’S ONE OF THEM THINGS
Many new, mind fogging, boggling inventions come out all the time, some are accepted, and others are .. well .. off in left field a ways.
During world war 2, many inventions were tried by all of the clandestine organizations of the time such as the OSS, Gestapo, and the like, to ply their trade much more efficiently.
A gun that could shoot around corners was developed by a German scientist.
Remote controlled vehicles that deliver explosives to the enemy without risking soldier’s lives.
An anti-gravity machine that German scientists developed, that the Allies called Foo Fighters.
Rudimentary computers to calculate just about anything from a torpedo firing, to a rocket launch.
One thing that these and other devices of the time had in common is that they were all basically mechanical.
Now, we have computers that, if we need to invent something for a special need, “One of them things”, we can in the comfort of our own homes, program what type of thing we want to make, feed the computer enough information, and it will basically show us how to make the ‘Thing”. Imagination is the only limit.
LAST, BUT NOT FECES
Innumerable strange occurrences happen on a daily basis on this planet;
Great booms from a clear blue sky, when no jets are seemingly anywhere near to produce a sonic boom.
The Taos hum.
Rocks, frogs, fish, slabs of meat, unidentified glop, and sundry other items come down out of the heavens every so often. One explanation for these happenings are due to strong winds lifting the items up in a funnel wind, taking them high into the air, and then, when the wind plays out, down comes the detritus.
Places that don’t exist, (anymore). People have told tales of going to a town or a home and seeing and interacting with other people who lived there, and then, a few days, or years later, go back to the same place, only to find no trace of the town, village, or house they had visited a short time ago. When asking in neighboring cities about such places, no one seems to know about them, or they were told that those places have been gone many years ago.
HCC, A Caption site that has a blog for people to contribute things to, and it is used infrequently.
And, that wraps, or warps up FFUI #10; As always, I make this disclaimer that I am not the purveyor, liar, plagiarizer, diabolical or insane originator of these (save for the cat and electric fence tale), vignettes, stories and / or flat out bullpoop cowpies. No monies, profits, gold latinum, drachma’s, ro’s, or wooden nickels are made from posting them. I do this for pure entertainment, and to pass on something to bring a little offset to the lives of people and get them to maybe chuckle, or shake their heads in wonderment. Several Tribbles were harmed during the making of this FFUI #10 and their families have been notified.
Have Fun.
KIP
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