Jan 7 - Lawrence Welk's Still Bubbling Along

OK, I actually watched the Lawrence Welk Show last night.  It was on PBS.  I was transfixed and fascinated.  People wearing formal jackets - all orange.  There are pictures of them all in green, all in yellow.  Here is one to prove I did see it. Lawrence Welk is 'classified' as old-fashioned, melodic music.  The first episode was July 2 1955, and it was decades later that the final episode aired on April 17, 1982.  It continues as a Memories show, with interviews after the show concludes.  This week it was with Norma Zimmer.  She was his 'Champagne Lady' from 1960 to 1982.  Her favourite memory  was singing backup on Crosby's famous version of White Christmas.   The Washington Post summary:  "From his origin in a polka band called L.W.'s Hotsy Totsy Boys, he gradually stapled the choppy syncopation of Wayne King and others onto the warbling, muted saxophones popularized by Guy Lombardo and produced a saccharine, bouncy sound vaguely reminiscent of the turkey trots of World War I."    In keeping with this, it isn't surprising to find the retrievals for Lawrence Welk bounced all over the analytical map.  There were straight-forward articles on the show and band members who went on to fame, and then strange references, many of which don't seem to show up in the articles. This turned out to be perfect.  It is a scientific article excerpt where Lawrence Welk music was used in a synthesis experiment:   "The dramatic percussion crescendi from Gustav Mahler’s second symphony have been synthesized using corpora of monkey and animal sound effects, a Muslim Imam chanting the Ko- ran, an hour of vocal music by John Cage, three hours of nostalgic Lawrence Welk, and all four string quartets of Arnold Schoenberg." And further: "A recording of American President George W. Bush has been synthesized by corpora of monkeys, alto saxophone, and Lawrence Welk, and Bach’s Partita for flute". And the next paragraph's first line seems like a fitting conclusion for today: "Specifying a target that is polyphonic understandably leads to trouble". We revisit Longwood's wonderful Orchid Show last January 2018.

Repeat Again

This is Groundhog Week!  The Groundhog Day movie is a movie on the theme of repetition.  What about unnecessary repetition?  Wouldn't that be what redundancy is?  Do you think Bill Murray's character felt the repetitions were redundant? Here are expressions that could be termed 'groundhog moments' in celebration of the movie.  Redundant is what they are: a moment in time – A moment is essentially a period of time. ATM machine – ATM already stands for “Automated Teller Machine” true fact – By definition, facts are true. join together – How else would something join? free gift – Because when’s the last time you had to pay for a gift? added bonus – The word bonus indicates something outside of what’s expected, so of course it’s added. end result – Results always come at the end. final outcome – Related to the above, an outcome signifies the end, or finality. plan ahead – Planning always refers to the future, or what’s ahead. repeat again – Ah, the irony here! close proximity – To be close to something is to be in proximity. past experience – Experience refers to what has happened in the past. most unique – Unique implies there’s nothing like it, so one cannot compare it to something else. rise up – When rising, there’s no other way to go but up. the reason why – A reason explains the why. new innovations – An innovation is something that did not exist before, i.e., it is new in and of itself. unexpected surprise – If you were expecting it, it wouldn’t be a surprise. advance notice – When giving someone notice, you’re always doing so in advance. What redundant phrase do you find yourself using most often? Are you having Groundhog moments? This wonderful list is courtesy of proofreadnow.com  The orchid arch at Longwood is twelve feet high and contains more than 600 orchids. The reconstruction of the Longwood Main Found Garden is shown in this youtube video time-lapse :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjuioDG74Jk