Mairlyn's Photos - Mar 30 2026 - Musical

 

Musical notation has existed for 3,400 to 4,000 years.  The standard Western musical notation developed in Europe around 1,000 years ago.  And most of us took some form of musical notation training in public school.   Compare that to dance notation - it has existed for a shorter time - for 500 years or more. The earliest known attempts to record dance movements date to the late 15th century. Good thing Shakespeare wasn't a choreographer, or we would be pretty empty-handed in terms of documentation.  When we took dance lessens as children, there were no dance notes to take home to practice.  There was lots of music to take home to practice on the piano.  No wonder music lessons lasted a lot longer than dance lessons.  Here's an example of dance notation from Wikipedia.  La Cachucha, by Friedrich Albert Zorn using Zorn Notation.   I would guess the percent of the population that can read dance notation would be well under 1%.  For musical notation, it is only 5-12% of the population that can read music.  For word literacy, it is approximately 87% of the global population aged 15 or older can read and write.  It was 1 in 10 in 1820.   I got to thinking about notation systems yesterday.  I found an extended version of "Three Notes Walk into a Bar".  It seems to combine everything humorous about musical language and the written/spoken word.     C, E-flat, and G go into a bar. The bartender says, "Sorry, but we don't serve minors." So E-flat leaves, and C and G have an open fifth between them. After a few drinks, the fifth is diminished, and G is out flat. F comes in and tries to augment the situation, but is not sharp enough. D comes in and heads for the bathroom, saying, "Excuse me; I'll just be a second." Then A comes in, but the bartender is not convinced that this relative of C is not a minor. Then the bartender notices B-flat hiding at the end of the bar and says, "Get out! You're the seventh minor I've found in this bar tonight."  E-flat comes back the next night in a three-piece suit with nicely shined shoes. The bartender says, "You're looking sharp tonight. Come on in, this could be a major development." Sure enough, E-flat soon takes off his suit and everything else, and is au natural. Eventually C sobers up and realizes in horror that he's under a rest. C is brought to trial, found guilty of contributing to the diminution of a minor, and is sentenced to 10 years of D.S. without Coda at an upscale correctional facility. The conviction is overturned on appeal, however, and C is found innocent of any wrongdoing, even accidental, and that all accusations to the contrary are bassless. The bartender decides, however, that since he's only had tenor so patrons, the soprano out in the bathroom and everything has become alto much treble, he needs a rest and closes the bar." The Spring flowers are just starting to show at the pop-up stands.  I was able to get a flat of Muscari /Grape Hyacinth along Fourth Avenue on Saturday.  Such a beautiful blue. This picture is from a few years ago, when they first showed up.

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Marilyn's Photos - Mar 29 2026 - The Space Between

 

Do we pay attention to the spaces between?  The physical gap, distance or interval separating objects, words, or moments.  Is a musical note an object or a word?   The Japanese word for this is "Ma." It represents areas for potential growth, mindfulness, and calm amidst daily activity.   That is how I consider the end of March - it is a time between - winter has ended, but has Spring begun? Most people want Spring to start, so they are in anticipation and in that space between.   It makes me wonder how do people determine that Spring has begun.  There are three areas in nature: Migration - there are legions of Robins everywhere.  That certainly is a sign of Spring. Blooming flowers - there are snowdrops, crocuses, irises.  It likely is the daffodil that is  the defining flower of Spring.  So we are not at Spring yet. No Snow - daytime temperatures staying consistently in the no snow zone - not like yesterday's mini-blizzard for a few minutes. We're definitely pre-Spring when it comes to snow. We can get snow into April. It might only be a blizzard moment, but it weighs on the mind.  That widely varying temperature range keeps people from embracing the arrival of Spring.   The average snowfall in April in Centra Ontario is a discouraging chart to review.  While it says 2.1 inches/5.4 centimetres, we want assurance that the snowfall is happening at the beginning of April rather than the end. So here we are at the interval between, and a musical interpretation of difficult times.

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Marilyn's Photos - Mar 28 2026 - Early Birds

 

What are the best practices for waking up in the morning?  Is the headline above one of them?   Here is the advice: "Place alarms far from the bed, and expose yourself to immediate natural light." There are lots of smaller steps to help one get to this place.  On the other hand, we can just head over to Reddit where there is very funny and laugh-worthy content, giving the morning a little boost.   I'll show you what I mean:  here's what pops up for the best practices to get up in the morning:   Q: How do people wake up so easily in the morning? A:  "Go to bed at 8pm and read for an hour.  Read an actual book or use an e-reader with a blue filter.  Then stop at 9pm and lie there until 5:30am." Do you want more laughter?  Go  back a few steps and there's entertainment in the originating question:   saporro32:  I'm going to graduate soon.  I'm afraid to face the work life since I still can't figure out how to wake up early.  The level of seriousness of my problem is that I can't wake up even when someone helping to wake me up.  All this time, I will stay up till the morning to attend class since I never believe that I can wake up by myself.   I hope fellow redditors can share your secret and tips. ~ saporro32 4years ago. (Please note, the grammar and typos are saporro32's and not mine.) A flurry of advice follows with saporro32's updates along the way of taking such steps as maintaining a strict wake-up time, even on weekends, as an effective strategy.   Because of the many entries, I get disinterested.  Reddit seems to sink into a self-help and improvement forum with everyone weighing in with whatever pops into their minds.   Despite how reddit appears to me,  it has a market capitalization of $23 - 26 billion with cash of $2.48 billion and very low debt.  I guess the reddit originators sleep tight every night. I took these pictures in 2012, back when the Canada Blooms show was at the Convention Centre.  There was a wall of neon light sculptures along the very long walkway to the convention hall.

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Marilyn's Photos - mar 27 2026 - Eat Eggs Every Day and Then What Happens

 

Well?  What happens?  The summary says that contrary to past concerns, dietary cholesterol in eggs has minimal impact on blood cholesterol for most people.  It may increase the good cholesterol.  That quote is a big change from the past when in 1968, the American Heart Association recommended limiting egg consumption based on cholesterol concerns.  This was based on studies that showed a correlation with cardiovascular disease.  However, the studies turned out to be flawed, very flawed.  The egg industry had to embark upon a journey of funding more scientific studies - they showed the correlation was false.  It took a long time and many studies. How long was it? That 1968 declaration was wasn't put to rest until 1999 with a large, long term population study on egg intake and cardiovascular disease incidence which showed no correlation.  Not until 2002 did the AHA update its egg restriction guideline. That's how we come upon headlines like:  "The Fifty Year Rehabilitation of the Egg."   So even after 50 years of significant amounts of research and proof, the what happens is answered: - they might help you fell more full and energized - they may make your hair and skin healthier - they might help you think more clearly - they may improve your vision - they might strengthen your bones - your heart health might improve Two expressions of weak or hypothetical possibilities that seems a bit sorry after such heroic efforts.  I found the story of the criminalization and subsequent rehabilitation of eggs HERE.  It is garden time.  The Snowdrops are looking wonderful in drifts in the garden along with Winter Aconites.  There are early Crocuses that squirrels haven't found, and Iris Reticulata.  This  crocus is a later variety - Pickwick - it will be blooming soon.

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Marilyn's Photos - Mar 26 2026 - Notwithstanding...

 

Wake Up on the Bright Side    Donald Trump's Country.  Isn't that quite the expression?  The headline is 10 reasons not to travel to Donald Trump's country.  What a seismic shift this headline reveals.  Whenever I see a headline with such consequences I go looking for the trigger.  Could this report be the trigger?  V-Dem Institute's 2026 Democracy Report titled "Unraveling the Democratic Era", published March 17th 2026.  It is the 10th edition and tracks democracy across the globe on 600 measures in 5 core indices.  HERE is the link. "Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) produces the largest global dataset on democracy with over 32 million data points for 202 countries and territories from 1789 to 2025. Involving over 4,200 scholars and other country experts, V-Dem measures over 600 different attributes of democracy." The highlight of the report is the steep decline in democracy in the U.S, losing its status as a liberal democracy for the first time in over 50 years.  Overall, democracy is back to 1978 levels for the average global citizen.  In the V-Dem report, Canada is not ranked as a liberal democracy, but the next level down - the electoral democracy.  A liberal democracy has free elections, protection of individual liberties, rule of law, and minority rights, limiting government power.  It focuses on how power is used.  Electoral democracy focuses primarily on competitive free, and fair elections to choose leaders but lacks robust protections for civil liberties or independent institutions. It focuses on how leaders are chosen, relying on majority rule. An electoral democracy can become illiberal if elected leaders use their mandate to erode checks and balances, diminish rights, or control the media, resulting in a system where voting exists but freedoms are restricted.  We have a case before the Supreme Court right now that is exactly in this space between liberal and elected democracy. Quebec's Bill 21 (religious symbols ban) has put the spotlight on the nothwithstanding clause in the Charter. For opponents of the bill, repealing it would restore a truer liberal democracy by upholding individual rights against state-mandated secularism.    The report says that in the U.S. under Trump's presidency, democracy has fallen back to the same level as 1965, but not because of Civil Rights. It is because of "a rapid and aggressive concentration of powers in the presidency."  The report says that "the speed with which American democracy is currently dismantled is unprecedented in modern history."  Both the U.S. and the U.K. are on the list of autocratizers, with the U.K. starting in 2020 and the U.S. in 2023.   We in Canada await our Supreme Court's ruling on the notwithstanding clause. It is considered the most consequential case of our generation, and challenges whether political power can override fundamental freedoms.   It is only a few weeks away to the Tulip Festival.  This is from last year.

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