On February 21, 2025, I accompanied the 1926 film The Flying Ace at the Plaistow, NH Library. This YouTube video combines an MP4 file of the film with the audio recording of my live accompaniment on a Roland keyboard, with about four minutes of introductory remarks by librarian Jennifer O’Connor, who does a great job making these movies happen, and by me.
The next movie I’ll accompany there will be Peter Pan on April 11.
Continue reading
If you pay for an e-book that has DRM (digital rights management) on it, you aren’t really buying it, no matter what the vendor says. At best, it’s a long-term lease which can be revoked at any time. Amazon has made this plain by removing the ability to download permanent copies of any and all e-books you may have “bought.” As of February 25, 2025, you will no longer be able to download your “purchases” to a device that isn’t directly under Amazon’s control.
If you care about keeping what you “own,” you need to download all your “purchases” before then. You have to do it one book at a time, which can get tedious if you’ve “bought” a lot of books.
(more…)
Guest post by Rudyard Kipling: “The Old Issue,” 1899.
Note: Kipling wrote this poem, strangely enough, as a justification for Britain’s entry into the Boer War, not as a protest against any aspect of British rule. While we need to understand the historical context of any written work, this one is more satisfying if we take it on its own and apply it to our times, apart from its origin.
“Here is nothing new nor aught unproven,” say the Trumpets,
“Many feet have worn it and the road is old indeed.
“It is the King — the King we schooled aforetime!”
(Trumpets in the marshes — in the eyot at Runnymede!)
“Here is neither haste, nor hate, nor anger,” peal the Trumpets,
“Pardon for his penitence or pity for his fall.
“It is the King!” — inexorable Trumpets —
(Trumpets round the scaffold at the dawning by Whitehall!)
“He hath veiled the Crown and hid the Sceptre,” warn the Trumpets,
“He hath changed the fashion of the lies that cloak his will.
“Hard die the Kings — ah hard — dooms hard!” declare the Trumpets,
Trumpets at the gang-plank where the brawling troop-decks fill!
Ancient and Unteachable, abide—abide the Trumpets!
Once again the Trumpets, for the shuddering ground-swell brings
Clamour over ocean of the harsh, pursuing Trumpets—
Trumpets of the Vanguard that have sworn no truce with Kings!
On Friday, February 21, at 1:00 PM, I’ll accompany the silent film The Flying Ace at the Plaistow, NH Library. Admission is free. My plan is to record the accompaniment and combine it with the movie in a YouTube video, if no technical problems arise.
I chose this movie for Black History Month. In the silent era and for some time afterward, black actors couldn’t hope for leading roles in mainstream movies. Some studios produced “race films” — movies with black casts for black audiences. One of them was Norman Studios in Florida. As far as I know, the only film from it which is still available is The Flying Ace, released in 1926.
(more…)
Most recent cars have a nice feature called a Tire Pressure Measurement System (TPMS), which warns you when your tires are low on air. My previous car, which was a Honda Civic like my present one, would automatically reset the warning after I inflated the tires and drove a little way. The current one, a 2019 model with a lot more tech, requires a manual reset which is almost impossible to figure out. I don’t know why the tech is moving backwards. If it were obvious how to reset it, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but Honda has no idea how to make a decent user interface.
For starters, the owner’s manual doesn’t say you have to do anything after you see the warning and inflate the tires. The first time this happened to me, I thought something was broken and had a service shop look at it. When it happened last week, I knew that I’d have to reset it, in spite of the absence of information in the manual. I checked some websites and videos and discovered that there are many kinds of Civic, even within the same model year, with seriously different ways of resetting. None of them matched my car. I’m a computer guy, so I was able to figure it out after a lot of trial and error, but if it gave me that much trouble, most people won’t be able to do it at all.
(more…)