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Solving your writing problems since 1998! |
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The
Write Way
27 June 2008 Just a Little to the Left, Now ... Greetings, Before we get started, I have to tell you that today is a momentous occasion in the life of this little missive ... it's celebrating 500 issues! Yes, for the past 500 Fridays (never missing one), The Write Way has winged its merry way through cyberspace to land, feathers a-flutter after its long flight, in your email box. Not bad for an old chook from Down Under, eh? OK ... time to settle in for the next 500! My darling dad always used to say that there was no such thing as a "little job." Mum would ask him to do a little job for her such as, "just move the brown side table into the sunroom." Dad would roll his eyes and mentally check his shed for all the tools he knew would be needed to carry out this seemingly simple task. For as often as not, once he moved the brown side table from its accustomed spot, he'd discover that the floor under it was blemished in some way, which would entail sanding back, several coats of varnish (as was done in those days) and keeping off the floor for about a week. A request to fix a window that was jammed would mean having to take out the lead weights hanging inside the window frame, this would lead to scratches on the paint, which would mean having to repaint the window surrounds, then, because the paint couldn't be matched to other woodwork in the room, they, too, would need to be repainted ... and so it went. I was reminded of this a couple of weeks ago when the Love of My Life and I lashed out and bought ourselves a new fridge. Our old one had served us well, and while it was still in perfect working order, its users weren't, and I was finding it more and more frustrating trying to see what was at the back of all the lower shelves. Getting down into a crouch to peer into the icy regions of our fridge is still easy, it's the getting back up again that leaves me with a furrowed brow, reaching for the support of the bench to haul myself up and pondering where the years have gone. Why don't my bits work like they used to? I'm sure it was only yesterday when I could spring up from a crouch, my arms laden with frozen peas, bottles of milk and assorted vegetables. Sigh ... so we relegated our upstairs fridge to downstairs, gave our downstairs fridge to our son and waited for the arrival of our shiny new fridge. The delivery men arrived promptly as promised, man-handled our new baby off the truck and onto a trolley and wheeled it uneventfully to our front door, whereupon the man-in-charge wiped his brow, complained about his bad back, looked at the width of our door, compared it to the width of our fridge and announced one into t'other would never go. And had I been Home Alone, that's how things would have ended ... in tears for all concerned. Fortunately, the LoML was around and before you could say, "Ooh! My aching back ..." he'd reached into his trusty bag of tricks and emerged with his nifty electric drill. He had the door off before the man-in-charge knew what was happening. Then all three grunted and puffed until our fridge had made the perilous trip up the stairs and into its spot in the kitchen. All that was left to do was to wave goodbye to the men and their truck and re-hang the door. Remember what I said earlier about little jobs? Time passes ... Afternoon, and the LoML has puttied up the holes in the woodwork behind the door that he discovered had just been packed and painted over by a previous owner, sanded them back and painted them. Once the paint dried, we just had to shave a smidge off the bottom of the door, (because the house had shifted in the recent drought and the door wasn't closing quite as smoothly as it should and since we had the door off anyway ...) wangle it back into position, wedge a couple of doorstops under it while it was fastened securely into position and then hope it would still lock. Sigh ... but the fridge is great! There's a little ripper of a novelty song that those of you who were around in the 60s might remember. It's called "Right! said Fred, and it tells the story of workers trying to manouevre a bulky piece of furniture into place. Sing along now. See? You can write a song about almost anything! Get some help writing a song and read some tips from a professional songwriter on how to go about it ... "A song is totally based on its lyrics and melody. Writing lyrics for a song may seem difficult at first. Some people think it takes years of formal training to write good lyrics and become a decent songwriter. I believe it's quite the opposite though. Lyrics are all around us every day, if we just observe. You have to develop a lyrical mindset. Songs can be written about anything. "It is easy to get ideas for writing lyrics by ... " Click here to read about where to get the best ideas for writing songs.
This week's Little Something Extra has some insights into just how an organ works ... Go on, admit it, you've always wanted to know. I know we've been talking about organs, but we started with fridges ... The staff nurse of an emergency department calls in the next patient. He's badly cut and bruised and visibly shaken. She asks him what happened while she attends to his injuries."Well, I was driving along, minding my own business, when out of nowhere, this fridge smashed through the windscreen! I'm lucky to be alive!" She bandages him up and calls in the next patient, who walks in with cuts to his hands and a back injury. "What happened to you?" she asks. "Oh, I feel such a fool," says the man, "I've never trusted my dear wife and I get fits of jealousy even though she's completely innocent. I got home early this afternoon and burst through the door thinking I might catch her with another man but she was alone in the kitchen ironing her skirt ready for work. "She shouted at me for being an idiot and ruining the door, and I went into a fit of rage and ended up picking the fridge up and throwing it out of the window! I'm such an idiot, someone could have been killed! AND I've done my back in with the strain of it!" The nurse tut tuts and gives him some pain killers and tells him to rest. Finally a third man is wheeled in, he's broken both his legs and an arm and he's naked and covered in milk. "What happened to you!" she exclaims. "Well," he begins, "I was in this fridge ..."
This week's quiz: Let's see how musical you are ... match up these terms and their meanings: phasing, embouchure, ritornello, pipa, raga, diatonic, aulot, dulcimer, arpeggio, sforzando 1. double-reed pipe; played for public and religious functions in ancient Greece 2. melodic pattern used in music of India; prescribes pitches, patterns, ornamentation and extramusical associations such as time of performance and emotional character 3. melody or harmony built from the seven tones of a major or minor scale 4. technique in which a musical pattern is repeated and manipulated so that it separates and overlaps itself and then rejoins the original pattern 5. placement of the lips, lower facial muscles and jaws in playing a wind instrument 6. broken chord in which the individual tones are sounded one after another instead of simultaneously 7. short recurring passage that unifies an instrumental or vocal work 8. a sudden stress or accent on a single note or chord 9. Chinese lute with four silk strings; played as solo and ensemble instrument 10. early folk instrument that has strings that are struck with hammers instead of being plucked Did you know that every newsletter is archived? So if you've missed anything since 1998 or want to revisit some favourites, you can do so any time! Don't forget to bookmark the page when you get there ... or even make it your Home Page. (For Internet Explorer, just click on Tools ... Internet Options ... General ... fill in www.write101.com/archives/index.htm and click OK. For Netscape, select Edit ... Preferences. Then select Navigator from the left menu, click Home Page and enter the URL above next to Location and click OK. For all the flash new browsers, you'll have to do a search on my mate google to find what to do. There's a search box on the archives page!) If you've received this little missive from a friend, you can get your very own issue, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed every Friday morning by clicking here: mailto:WritingTips-subscribe@yahoogrups.com And I'm even prepared to offer a shameless bribe. An Ape that wants to play Hamlet after being type-cast as King Kong, a talking anvil and that rottweiller ... Dr Morgenes is still caught in the nightmare that is the casting couch. Help him find a plot! Just click on the Comments button at the end of the entry to add your contribution. If you have friends who fancy themselves as writers, invite them to contribute (just forward this newsletter in its entirety to them). I often trawl this for comments to post on my site ... so if you say something about the newsletter or site, be warned, you may end up being read by one of the 2,000+ unique visitors who visit Write101 every day! Make your Mark on the World. Then stop by our Map of the World and read the messages. (Just click List) and add your mark. And here's a little story about the value of music lessons ... Little Billy came into the house
with a new harmonica and said, "Grandpa, do you mind if I play this in
here?" Last week's quiz: Let's see how well you'd do if you had to build a tunnel ... bedrock, caisson, mullion, abutment, cut and cover, anchorage, torsion, pendentive, tensegrity, vault 1. an action that twists a material TORSION 2. a triangular shape that adapts the circular ring of a dome to fit onto a flat supporting wall - PENDENTIVE 3. a method of tunnel construction that involves digging a trench, building a tunnel, and then covering it with fill - CUT AND COVER 4. the outermost end supports on a bridge, which carry the load from the deck - abutment 5. the solid rock layer beneath sand or silt - BEDROCK 6. a secure fixing, usually made of reinforced concrete to which the cables are fastened - ANCHORAGE 7. a watertight, dry chamber in which people can work underwater - CAISSON 8. the property of skeleton structures that employ continuous tension members and discontinuous compression members in such a way that each member operates with the maximum efficiency and economy; an array of tension cables and compression rods that supports a structure - TENSEGRITY 9. a vertical member, as of stone or wood, between the lights of a window, the panels in wainscoting or the like - MULLION 10. curved ceiling of a tunnel or underground building - VAULT Even though we have our weekly oxymoron below, I also found these great musical oxymorons (OK ... oxymora) and just had to include them ... Professional Drummer Wealthy Muso Talented Percussionist And lastly ... Q: What song is the ultimate musical oxymoron? A: Madonna singing Like a Virgin. A Little Something Extra Organs are things we take for granted ... someone sits on a stool, pounds on a keyboard, pumps a couple of pedals and magic music fills the room. But have you ever wondered just what makes this happen and how all the bits work together to produce the sounds? Then wonder no more, my little lovelies ... Read all you need to know about how an organ works here. And discover a couple of organs you won't find in anyone's lounge room here. Word of the week: Syncopation (n) a shifting of the normal accent, usually by stressing the normally unaccented beats; shift of accent in a passage or composition that occurs when a normally weak beat is stressed This useful musical word comes from the Latin syncopare 'to shorten,' also 'to faint away, to swoon.' Oxymoron of the week: musical recorder (We're referring to the instrument of torture here, not the person who records things.) This week's Latin phrase is for when someone does something really nice for you (like removing the front door so you can get your new fridge in) ... Da mi basia mille [DAH MEE BAH-see-ah MEEL-lay] (Give me a thousand kisses.) Did you know that you can have your very own Latin reminders? How about undies proclaiming, Bene est rex esse? (It's good to be king) Or a shopping bag that warns, Emptrix nata sum (Born to shop)? Kind regards, Jennifer P.S. Want to donate to the upkeep of this newsletter? Just $17 a year seems a small price to pay for all this wit and wisdom, don't you think? C'mon, that's just a tad more than 30 cents a week! 1.Toss a few pennies into my Running Away Fund at PayPal (Send to jennifer @ write101.com ... without the spaces, of course) OR 2. Click here to subscribe for a full year OR 3. Use your credit card on my secure order form. (You can also access the PayPal subscription link from this page if the link above didn't work for you. With PayPal, you can use your credit card, PayPal account or pay online using your own cheque account.) OR 4. Send a cheque (made payable to Jennifer Stewart) To unsubscribe from this list, send
a blank email to: mailto:WritingTips- Copyright Jennifer Stewart 2008 Individual articles copyrighted by their authors. |
