RealGM

Posted: **Tue May 14, 2013 8:16 pm**

My son is doing the basic version of multiphonics. On a solo, he might do it once and on just one note -- usually as part of the cadenza. So, at the end of a phrase, he'll hit a note that he's going to hold, and then he'll add in the "sung" note. Sounds pretty cool, in my opinion. I've heard a guy do it here and there as part of a faster run, but I was pretty dubious about how effective it was.

I'd guess my son is at ~5,000 hours of practice at this point. He'd have more, but there's this pesky thing that occupies a big chunk of his time: high school.

Posted: **Tue May 14, 2013 8:25 pm**

my downfall was girls, motorcycles and other teenage distractions/vices
well known in the 70s.

I missed about 3-4 years of guitar playing at a fairly critical time.
Then I got inspired by the kid next door, now a professional musician
see [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2_12Ler9B8[/youtube]

this led me to save up and buy a Gibson SG which I still own but rarely play.
Glen went with me when I bought that guitar.
Willingness or desire to practice can be tempered or diminished
by sub par, inferior equipment.

Posted: **Thu Sep 4, 2014 9:26 pm**

Hey everyone, I've got lots of great suggestions from this thread. Thanks a lot.

I'm looking for good autobiographies and biographies. What you guys got?

Posted: **Fri Sep 5, 2014 3:22 am**

go'stags wrote:Hey everyone, I've got lots of great suggestions from this thread. Thanks a lot.

I'm looking for good autobiographies and biographies. What you guys got?

Of (or by) people in what walk of life, stags? What era?

Posted: **Fri Sep 5, 2014 4:10 am**

go'stags wrote:Hey everyone, I've got lots of great suggestions from this thread. Thanks a lot.

I'm looking for good autobiographies and biographies. What you guys got?

Autobiography of a Flea. No, wait, that's a novel.

Many of my favorite autobiographies fall into a pretty broad category of individuals living through pretty horrific circumstances, slave/former slave narratives, holocaust narratives, living under totalitarianism, apartheid, etc.

If you're into that and haven't read these yet, the following are easy to find: The Night Trilogy, of just Night (Elie Wiesel), Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank), Maus (Art Spiegelman), The Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb: An American Slave, Black Boy (Richard Wright), I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou), Autobiography of Malcolm X, most of Dick Gregory's books (especially the earlier ones) are at least partially autobiographical and often pretty hilarious, and Red Square at Noon (Natalia Gorbanevskaya, more a political memoir covering a short period of Soviet history).

Also Two Years Before the Mast (Henry Richard Dana) and Sailing Alone Around the World (Joshua Slocum). I like sailing narratives. Well, enough of my dated recommendations.

Posted: **Fri Sep 5, 2014 5:20 am**

A librarian once gave me the advice to read the autobiography of folks who have written their memoir before the age of 40, her theory was that if you had enough to talk about by then you must have really lived an interesting life.

So far so good:
Chris Offutt: The Same River Twice
Malcolm X
Pimp: the story of my life, by Iceberg Slim

Over 40 but compelling in their own way:
Ham on Rye, by Charles Bukowski is outside of the age boundary but worth it if you don't mind the sodden and debauched.
Spider Boys, by Ming Cher written in pidgin vernacular but still compelling.
Winterdance, the fine madness of running the iditarod, by Gary Paulsen. Any of his memoirs really. Harris and Me is a YA semi-fictionalized memoir, laugh out loud funny.

More will come to me later...

Posted: **Fri Sep 5, 2014 3:06 pm**

doclinkin wrote:A librarian once gave me the advice to read the autobiography of folks who have written their memoir before the age of 40, her theory was that if you had enough to talk about by then you must have really lived an interesting life.

Or maybe they're dilettantes with a lot of free time. I know it's really a ghost written oral history, but Black Elk Speaks was written when Black Elk was near 70. Benvenuto Cellini wrote his autobiography between the ages of 58-63.

Another nod to Pimp, by Iceberg Slim, and also The Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim, and even his novels (especially Trick Baby) have an "I was there, I saw this" feel to them.

Posted: **Fri Sep 5, 2014 3:20 pm**

payitforward wrote:
go'stags wrote:Hey everyone, I've got lots of great suggestions from this thread. Thanks a lot.

I'm looking for good autobiographies and biographies. What you guys got?

Of (or by) people in what walk of life, stags? What era?

Any walk of life really. People who had done a large variety of things, overcome great obstacles (obviously), and really books that show a systematic approach as to how that person thrived and became great, but I don't want to sacrifice any narrative or storytelling, if that makes sense.

Malcolm X is easily my favorite one that I have read so far.

Posted: **Fri Sep 5, 2014 3:22 pm**

montestewart wrote:
go'stags wrote:Hey everyone, I've got lots of great suggestions from this thread. Thanks a lot.

I'm looking for good autobiographies and biographies. What you guys got?

Autobiography of a Flea. No, wait, that's a novel.

Many of my favorite autobiographies fall into a pretty broad category of individuals living through pretty horrific circumstances, slave/former slave narratives, holocaust narratives, living under totalitarianism, apartheid, etc.

If you're into that and haven't read these yet, the following are easy to find: The Night Trilogy, of just Night (Elie Wiesel), Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank), Maus (Art Spiegelman), The Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb: An American Slave, Black Boy (Richard Wright), I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou), Autobiography of Malcolm X, most of Dick Gregory's books (especially the earlier ones) are at least partially autobiographical and often pretty hilarious, and Red Square at Noon (Natalia Gorbanevskaya, more a political memoir covering a short period of Soviet history).

Also Two Years Before the Mast (Henry Richard Dana) and Sailing Alone Around the World (Joshua Slocum). I like sailing narratives. Well, enough of my dated recommendations.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have to say that I can only take so much of slave/oppression narratives. Just so sad, even when they are uplifting personal successes. But I will definitely look into some of these.

Posted: **Fri Sep 5, 2014 3:24 pm**

doclinkin wrote:A librarian once gave me the advice to read the autobiography of folks who have written their memoir before the age of 40, her theory was that if you had enough to talk about by then you must have really lived an interesting life.

So far so good:
Chris Offutt: The Same River Twice
Malcolm X
Pimp: the story of my life, by Iceberg Slim

Over 40 but compelling in their own way:
Ham on Rye, by Charles Bukowski is outside of the age boundary but worth it if you don't mind the sodden and debauched.
Spider Boys, by Ming Cher written in pidgin vernacular but still compelling.
Winterdance, the fine madness of running the iditarod, by Gary Paulsen. Any of his memoirs really. Harris and Me is a YA semi-fictionalized memoir, laugh out loud funny.

More will come to me later...

For sure will be checking out Iceberg Slim and Ham on Rye. Thanks a lot.

Posted: **Fri Sep 5, 2014 3:27 pm**

I should also add the I LOVE historical fiction. "The Known World" by Edward Jones and Oscar Wao are two books that I (and many other people, I would imagine) loved.I was having dreams (nightmares?) about Trujillo ...

Posted: **Fri Sep 5, 2014 6:21 pm**

Rustler magazine has really good articles on flexibility, fitness and grooming ideas. There are times when I get lost in the content!

Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums -

Posted: **Fri Sep 5, 2014 6:32 pm**

FreeBalling wrote:Rustler magazine has really good articles on flexibility, fitness and grooming ideas. There are times when I get lost in the content!

Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums -

Yeah, I read Rustler for the articles too.

Posted: **Tue Sep 9, 2014 12:52 am**

montestewart wrote:
go'stags wrote:Hey everyone, I've got lots of great suggestions from this thread. Thanks a lot.

I'm looking for good autobiographies and biographies. What you guys got?

Autobiography of a Flea. No, wait, that's a novel.

Many of my favorite autobiographies fall into a pretty broad category of individuals living through pretty horrific circumstances, slave/former slave narratives, holocaust narratives, living under totalitarianism, apartheid, etc.

If you're into that and haven't read these yet, the following are easy to find: The Night Trilogy, of just Night (Elie Wiesel), Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank), Maus (Art Spiegelman), The Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb: An American Slave, Black Boy (Richard Wright), I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou), Autobiography of Malcolm X, most of Dick Gregory's books (especially the earlier ones) are at least partially autobiographical and often pretty hilarious, and Red Square at Noon (Natalia Gorbanevskaya, more a political memoir covering a short period of Soviet history).

Also Two Years Before the Mast (Henry Richard Dana) and Sailing Alone Around the World (Joshua Slocum). I like sailing narratives. Well, enough of my dated recommendations.

"Dated?" No way. That's a great reading list!!

Posted: **Mon Sep 15, 2014 9:58 pm**

currently reading Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior which was assigned over the summer to
my daughter's incoming freshman class in college.

The semi-autobiographical collections of anecdotes by Richard Feynman are always good
reads and entertaining. Chewable bite sized nuggets.

After I finish Flight Behavior I intend to begin Soul Repair, Recovering from Moral Injury After War
by Rita Nakashima Brock and Gabriella Lettini.

Posted: **Tue Sep 16, 2014 6:51 pm**

Reading :They Came Before Columbus

Posted: **Wed Sep 17, 2014 12:09 am**

Knighthonor wrote:Reading :They Came Before Columbus

I saw Ivan Van Sertima years ago. He put on a great multimedia presentation drawing from his and other works. I don't I buy all his assertions, but I don't buy all of Barry Fell's assertions either. They both wrote fascinating works. If you like They Came Before Columbus, you might also like Fell's America B.C.: Ancient Settlers in the New World, which surveys the extensive if inconclusive evidence of Pre-Columbian explorers (from just about everywhere) in the Americas. Yo, Colombo, the party's over.

Posted: **Sun Sep 21, 2014 12:46 am**

Over the late Spring and Summer, I have been reading Haruki Murakami. He is great. If you're new to his work, you might start w/ Sputnik Sweetheart. If you know some of the novels but haven't read either Wind-up Bird Chronicle or 1Q84, they are fantastic, two of the best novels I've ever read. Finally, I just finished his newly-released Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage, which once again is a magical book.

If you like detective novels, Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder series is A+. There are more than a dozen of them -- a movie of one, A Walk Among the Tombstones, is just out. LB has written @60 novels or more. Haven't read a bad one yet. He's putting out his whole back-list, especially the early pot boilers, as cheap Kindle books.

Got to mention his 2d main series -- a bunch of mystery novels about Bernie Rhodenbarr who is an antiquarian bookseller and burglar (!) in NY.

His 3d series (begun more recently so not as extensive) are again mysteries, the main character being a professional hit man named Keller. The titles all reflect the theme of the series: Hit Man, Hit Parade, Hit and Run, etc.

Also recommend Lindsay Faye's book Gods of Gotham, a detective mystery set in NY in the 1840s. Terrific book. And there's a follow up too.

No shortage out there of things to read!

Posted: **Mon Sep 22, 2014 1:41 pm**

I've been reading The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon. Weird book that lops over several genres -- it's a detective novel set in a kind of alternate universe (sorta). The movie rights were sold to Scott Rudin, who turned it over to the Coen brothers...who wrote a script and apparently lost interest in actually making the movie.

Posted: **Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:24 pm**

payitforward wrote:Over the late Spring and Summer, I have been reading Haruki Murakami. He is great. If you're new to his work, you might start w/ Sputnik Sweetheart. If you know some of the novels but haven't read either Wind-up Bird Chronicle or 1Q84, they are fantastic, two of the best novels I've ever read. Finally, I just finished his newly-released Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage, which once again is a magical book.

Kafka on the Shore is a really strange book that I could not put down - very entertaining - coming and going of age.

RealGM

Book Thread. I have nothing good to read.

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