achase.net

In case anyone still subscribes to this feed or checks this site for updates, stay tuned. Like Eric, I’m delving into Drupal.

The Sliding Doors of CSS has been around for more than three years, but until now the pretty-tabs problem is one I’ve never had to solve with modern tools. (The last time I cracked this nut was working on the Edmunds.com redesign which never saw the light of day in 1999, and back then it was a sliced image and nested table nightmare.)

The basic solution in the Sliding Doors article is very, very clever in the kind of way that gives me great satisfaction.

If you’re wondering why the “Select Image” pulldown under the ‘Staff’ menu for the PeopleBook component in Joomla is empty, it’s probably because PHP is running without the GD module.

I realized just now that the you-got-your-acoustic-music-in-my-70’s-rock band I had trouble imagining would pretty much sound like most of Led Zeppelin III.

Another good example of the internet falling short: Go to the Mandolin Cafe message board and search for the phrase left hand position. You’ll find lots of very informative and helpful posts, but you won’t be a whole lot wiser for reading them. Several hours spent scouring the internet for descriptions on the best way to hold your left hand while playing mandolin is worth less than five minutes spent face to face with an experienced player, who can show you how it’s done, and give tips and observations based on what you’re doing.

I’ve thinking (and writing) a lot over the last year or so about being in a band. I was fortunate enough to find a laid back, informal bunch of musicians to play with at the now-cancelled Black Sheep session; I had a lot of fun and improved my playing by leaps and bounds when I was attending regularly.

That’s the kind of group I want to be in - people who enjoy playing together, with “success” (however you measure it) as a purely incidental concern. Or rather, where success is measured by how much fun people are having. Musically, I have this idea of an acoustic group with one foot planted firmly in the old-time/celtic camp and the other planted firmly in the classic 60’s and 70’s riff-based blues/rock camp. What the hell does that sound like? I don’t know; I need other like-minded people to jam with to figure that out, and I mean “jam” in the garage band sense of the word– everybody vamping off of everybody else until something unique precipitates out of the mix. Can it be pulled off without sounding like a novelty act? (For example, the increasingly tired meme of putting out Kiss, Metallica, and AC/DC bluegrass cover albums) I don’t know that either.

The simple truth is that I need to get out and play more, or at least find a way to meet more local musicians. Trying to connect online seems like a no-brainer to an introvert like me, but in my experience so far it always falls short. I’ve been on both sides of the Craig’s List equation: I’ve posted a “looking for people to jam with” message, and I’ve also responded to one… in both cases, a few e-mails have been exchanged, and then nothing has come of it.

Similarly, the Banjo Hangout features a players’ directory where you can post a brief profile indicating where you’re coming from musically, if you’re interested in jamming/teaching/whatever, where you are geographically, et cetera. I’ve had a profile there for a couple of years, and although I’ve found that there are plenty of other players nearby I’ve never been contacted, nor have I contacted anybody; it’s an awkward way to meet somebody.

It’s easy for a web developer to forget that there are a lot of people out there who don’t eat, sleep, and breathe the internet… maybe flyers, judiciously posted at music stores and coffee houses, are the way to go. In any event, I’ll need to work on my mandolin chops for a while before trying to take this to the next level.

Apart from being adrift again for much of the summer, my one reliable musical outlet was taken away when the Black Sheep Deli abruptly cancelled the weekly old time session that had been held there every Thursday for a number of years. I wasn’t there on the night in question, but apparently several regulars showed up and were told unceremoniously that they couldn’t play there any more.

The last time I got out and played with other folks was at the John Putnam Fiddler’s Reunion back in September - and even that was a bit of a letdown, as most of the circles didn’t feel particularly open or friendly. (If you want to be in a members-only band with your friends, then form a band and get some gigs - don’t show up at an open jam and then stand in a tight circle, refusing to make eye contact with people who might like to join in. Sheesh.)

The acquisition of a new camera in September hogged my attention for most of that month. My sister’s wedding, the Keene pumpkin festival, and a couple of other things chewed up October.

As the days get short and cold, though, the musical bug is starting to come back as I contemplate long evenings and chilly weekends stuck indoors. I recently made the mistake of asking to try out a used Epiphone MM-50 mandolin at a music store, and wound up putting it on layaway until I can get back there to trade in my Kentucky KM-150s. I will admit to suffering from scroll envy on a purely aesthetic level, but I also found that I really liked the balance of the F5 style’s larger peghead, and the slightly mellower tone the Epiphone has compared to my Kentucky.

This time around, I want to make a more serious go of the mandolin; I had only had my Kentucky for about a month when I won my Goldstar banjo, and I never got any further than dabbling with some “teach yourself” type tab books. This time I want to take some lessons to make sure I don’t develop any bad habits, and learn the things that are uniquely mandolin; movable chord forms/scales, double stops, picking/strumming techniques, etc. I’ve taken to lurking on the Mandolin Cafe message boards, and am gaining a better appreciation for the fact that playing mandolin isn’t exactly like flatpicking a tiny guitar.

Learning a four-string instrument tuned in fifths also makes tremendous sense in terms of the other instruments I want to learn someday, including fiddle (GDAE, same as mandolin) and tenor banjo (CGDA).

As for clawhammer banjo, I feel like I’m in a good place to put it down for a while. Not completely –there’s no reason not to pick it up and knock out a few tunes every week to keep myself from getting rusty– but now that I don’t have a weekly jam to go to I’d rather focus my energy on something new for a while.

As for 3-finger Scruggs/Reno/Melodic style bluegrass banjo, I’ve made peace with the fact that I lack the drive to spend the hundreds of hours of practice I would need to become a proficient bluegrass player, much less a proficient crossover Béla Fleck-type player. I know better than to sell or trade away my wonderful Gold Star GF-85, though - the bluegrass bug is bound to bite me again sooner or later.

There are other factors at work too, but more on those later.

In case you didn’t know, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 doesn’t understand a closed <script/> XHTML tag; if you try and do something valid like <script language="JavaScript" src="/path/to/my/script.js" />, MSIE will simply display a blank white page. Hooray!

Thankfully, I found a mention of the problem at http://kiza.kcore.de/journal/2005-02, via a Google search for msie css problem “blank page” So, you have to write script tags like <script language="JavaScript" src="/path/to/my/script.js"></script> to make MSIE happy.