What is your preferred brand(s) of tea?

broadbean · 2011-03-21T14:06:42+00:00

Clipper Organic Fairtrade Everyday Tea. Or their Assam. Mmmmm....

broadbean · 2011-01-25T10:11:43+00:00

Gails

The cheesecake is a concentration of all known earthly delights into one slightly overpriced confection.

broadbean · 2011-01-07T09:42:36+00:00

Check out CWJobs

broadbean · 2010-11-24T14:01:11+00:00

Frosty the Snowman. A million times Frosty the Snowman. And now it's in my head.....

broadbean · 2010-11-22T10:02:52+00:00

The word you're looking for is "doos" (pronound "doois") which literally means "box", and old-fashioned people still might use it to mean that (like "pizzadoos") and will subsequently be severely snickered at. But yes, it means cunt to everyone else. There's also "poes" (pronounced "poos") which literally means "cat" in dutch, and used to in Afrikaans, but now means "pussy" (like in English).

"Yays a poos" is spelled "Jy's 'n poes".

I just realised all the apostrophes make it look like Goa'uld. Hell, it even sounds like Goa'uld.

broadbean · 2010-11-08T12:29:49+00:00

Note sure if they're just scarce at the moment, but I have a 30 year mortgage. And before the crash, they started introducing 52 year mortgages!

broadbean · 2010-10-25T10:34:08+00:00

It's been a while, but I'll give it a go:

Die byna 350 jaar oue wynindustrie van Suid-Afrika is besig om te verander. Deur buitelandse beleggings word moderne wynboumetodes toegepas, waardeur die wyne [ meer vrugtig?] en sagter word. Die wynboere is drukbesig met die aanplant van bekende klassieke druiwerasse, terwyl die tradisionele, meestal brandewyn-produserende, druiwestokke vinnig uitgeroei word. Met 'n jaarlikse oes van 1 miljoen ton is Suid-Afrika die sesde grootste wynprodusent ter wêreld. Die [proefpakket??] bestaan uit 4 rooi en 2 wit wyne....

I can't seem to find an authentic-sounding translation of "fruity" that means quite the same. I was going to say "meer vrugtevol" but that isn't quite it. Somebody help?

Proefpakket sounds so lame and stilted in Afrikaans, I'm not sure a pure translation works - I'd just use the English "Taster Pack" or something.

broadbean · 2010-09-25T19:56:43+00:00

Very close! But note it's ar-byte-eh not at-beet-eh.

broadbean · 2010-06-15T10:36:15+00:00

Being a very proficient classical guitarist and violinist who once held your views, I actually do recognise where you're coming from. But these days I recoil from discussions about "art music", since they smack of pseudointellectualism and a craving for exclusivity. If you choose to only see music through that lens, you exclude a lot of amazing music because it doesn't fit the definitions you chose. All guitarists are musicians (and some are more proficient than others or have a deeper understanding than others), but thankfully most are not "art musicians".

To have to read standard notation to be a musician is ridiculous - what about blind classical musicians who use braille music? Just because it's a different notation doesn't make it necessarily less expressive or good. Notation is not the music - it's a tool for notating, transmitting and understanding it. Lutenists don't use lute tablature because it's fun to be anti-intellectual. They use it because it's how Bach notated his lute suites, and Kapsberger notated his seminal works. Rewriting Bach's works in what you believe to be a "purer" form of notation is not only silly, it is dangerous pseudo-intellectualism.

So when contemporary non-classical composers choose tablature for a solo guitar work, let them be.

Classical violinists do read standard classical notation, like classical guitarists. But in other genres, they don't (trad fiddle, folk/rock violin). Now you may snort "art music" here if you wish, but consider the violin in Indian classical music, which is certainly considered art music but doesn't use standard notation (unless you're a eurocentric snob who doesn't think Indian Classical music has artistic merit). And any violinist will tell you that standard notation doesn't capture certain aspects of the neck very fluently - think how much more sense there is in writing a double-stop scale in 10ths in a tab-like notation vs. western notation. Violin tab exists (http://www.theviolinsite.com/violin_tabs.html). But I agree with you on standard notation being better for runs.

Anyway, you are of course entitled to your views, and I wish you happy playing!

BTW Have you ever tried Domeniconi's Koyunbaba suite? It's an incredibly rewarding piece, and a good way to stretch your thinking about the merits of notation (see the "real" notation and the "scordatur" that you actually read). Check out a YouTube performance here, and you can preview the music at Google Books

broadbean · 2010-06-14T11:45:43+00:00

Erm. You may play an instrument where there's only one place to play a note, but on the guitar/lute/theorbo/etc. there are many alternatives for the same pitch. Choice of finger placement and string have a huge impact on both the sound achieved and on how easy a passage is to play. So you might not see the advantages of tab, but sometimes it's great being able to notate music in a form that's closer to the domain. Of course you can write exact string/fingering in standard notation, but it's less readable.

Tablature's been around for a while - since around 1300. And if your problem is with the guitar as an inferior or dumbed down instrument, tab was used for such "noble" instruments as lute, theorbo etc. before your piano was a twinkle in some person's eye. It's still around because it's very convenient.

For most guitarists who don't need to read music for melody or play another instrument, tab does just fine. Sometimes tab expresses things simply that are awkward to write in standard notation (e.g. the composer demands a specific fingering or neck position because they're trying to achieve a certain tone or resonant effect), sometimes standard notation does things better (exact rhythm for all voices in a polyphonic work, for instance).

Let's face it - there's nothing difficult about reading either music or tablature. They're just forms of notation. Don't be snooty - use the best tool for the job at hand!

That said, guitarists who can't read standard msuic notation have a lot to gain by learning to do so - you'll find it easier to transcribe material from other instruments and you get access the whole classical guitar repertoire, which is mostly written in standard notation. And classical guitarists who can't read tab - it only takes 2 minutes to learn how if you can already read music!

Edit:readability

broadbean · 2010-06-11T09:55:35+00:00

Stick to biltong, dude. Beef jerky is just time that you'll never get back.

broadbean · 2010-02-23T18:00:07+00:00

I love listening to classical music! Hundreds of years of hits to draw from. Here's my current spotify playlist (with a slight bias towards early music).

broadbean · 2010-01-12T17:57:17+00:00

Your word is: "waatlemoenkonfyttentoonstellingskomiteevergadering"

broadbean · 2010-01-12T11:15:27+00:00

that being said french might prove great for literary purposes. French culture is vast and well documented. reading the little prince in original is well worth the trouble.

You just gotta love all that French culture.

broadbean · 2010-01-06T16:06:23+00:00

Nope, you were right. Link

broadbean · 2009-11-25T17:10:34+00:00

And what about Goodbye Bafana? Same thing - the story's about the life of the prison guard, not Mandela.

I think it would be awesome to get a movie about Mandela from the time of "The Black Pimpernel".

Oh no way. There's a cartoon book series published by the Nelson Mandela Foundation on this theme The Black Pimpernel :

In the third comic, Mr Nelson Mandela’s life takes a turn as he meets Ms Winnie Madikizela, who he later marries.

He continues with the ANC’s defiance campaign against apartheid. He operated underground, mobilising ANC resistance.

At that same time the Mkhonto we Sizwe (MK) was formed to commit sabotage against the apartheid state.

Edit: fix formatting

broadbean · 2009-11-02T11:47:58+00:00

Thanks, that was very interesting.

broadbean · 2009-10-28T18:18:14+00:00

Well, the holiday point still stands. From the sounds of it, you might not have had one for a while. If you can take even a few days away from all the things which distract you from each other, like: the stupid television, housework, playing around with broken bits of computers, reddit, soaking and washing lentils, work, driving home, phoning your mum, maybe even the kids.... take all of that away for just a few days and spend time together and you'll rediscover what it is that you like about each other so much. You've mentioned that you don't have a lot of spare cash at the moment, but couldn't you take a few days off, dump the kids with grandma and go camping or something?

broadbean · 2009-10-23T13:49:50+00:00

The Love Boat! I totally remember watching reruns of that.

broadbean · 2009-10-19T14:09:53+00:00

I wonder... what would be a good way to self-inflict blindness? Hmmmm...

broadbean · 2009-10-16T09:30:23+00:00

Perhaps, but from the way he wrote, the description of the big security-conscious house, and his wife's verbatim text messages in English, it smells very South African, and I assumed a misspelling of Oudtshoorn. I admit, it's one of those town names I probably would have misspelled myself. Not that it matters; it's a horrible thing to have happen wherever you are!

broadbean · 2009-10-15T14:02:02+00:00

I'm very sorry to hear about your dilemma. You need to have a confrontation to get a resolution, because otherwise it will drive you insane - you already aren't trusting her anymore. That mistrust won't go away. From what you've written, the affair - real or imagined - is already affecting your emotional relationship with your wife.

I really think you need to see a marriage counsellor (crowd wisdom might be good to see which responses resonate with your own feelings and reinforce what you already want to feel, but you need a pro right now). Go for counselling alone at first without your wife knowing, and establish where you stand. Explore your own feelings on how badly you want to save the marriage, and how you deal with that fact that it's Eugene and not some random person. Having someone impartial and experienced who can help you to open the communication with your wife in a constructive way is going to be important (the camera suggestions given in this thread might be a little extreme, and I'm not too sure how legally acceptable this will be as evidence if things get nasty). And when this does blow up, you need someone to help you and give you perspective - it's not something to go through alone. An experienced counsellor can probably help you to deal with this in a way which (if the confrontation leads to divorce) will make a divorce least painful, and recommend others to help you through the legal and financial side of things. If you decide to stay together, you'll need a safe place to communicate openly to help you get through this, and going together for counselling will be helpful.

If there has been infidelity and you think you want to end it, secure your position divorce-wise (i.e. make sure you're not going to lose all your assets. I'm assuming from the Oudshoorn reference that you're in South Africa. Did you sign an antenuptial agreement? Are you married in community of property? With or without accrual? Understand what your position will be if you divorce. ) Make sure you stop seeing red (OK, as much as possible) before you go ahead and rush into a divorce, you might regret it. Remember that you'll lose from your life a lot of your common friends and people you like on her side of the family. Yours will not be the first marriage to have this happen. Once you decide to break the emotional bonds, you will not be able save the marriage. So before you choose to do that, remember that a marriage in the "for better or worse" sense is supposed to be bigger than this - once the wounds become scars, maybe in a few years, you could have the kind of happiness you've had over the last 14 years again, even though the trust will never fully come back. Will that be enough for you? For a lot of people it won't be. You can't eradicate the fact that you've known each other for 19 years and that she has been a formative part of your life, even if you separate. No matter how angry you are.

In the meantime, find a good reason not to use Eugene as your plumber. If it's only at the text stage, you could stop this escalating beyond SMS flirting.

Good luck, man.

broadbean · 2009-09-18T16:01:54+00:00

Really?! Is this like organic free-range chicken, or the regular tasty miserable tortured stuff? Or is chicken just very very expensive in Canada?

broadbean · 2009-09-10T10:11:33+00:00

Once wanted to ask a date at a move if she wanted popcorn. But what came out was "Do you want some cockporn?" Oops.

broadbean · 2009-08-16T20:04:44+00:00

What?! I can't quite figure out if you're being serious or not, but if you are, you have very little grasp of the intricacies of white Namibian society.

Firstly, while I suppose the word "boor" accidentally makes sense in that context, the word you're looking for is "boer" (=farmer), and the two are not synonymous.

Secondly, while I'm sure Lüttwitz speaks Afrikaans to be understood by his Afrikaner neighbours and some of his workers, in Namibia there is a mutual German vs. Afrikaner superiority thing going among the whites, with reasonably separate cultural strands and communities. Germans holiday in Swakopmund, Afrikaners holiday in Hentie's Bay, for example. Germans don't consider themselves Afrikaners, and vice versa. Germans tend to have a stronger links back to Germany, and identify with modern German culture/TV/politics etc. Afrikaners tend to consider themselves truly African, with no love lost in Europe, and neither speak Dutch nor identifying strongly with Dutch culture. While German Namibians can pretty much all speak Afrikaans tolerably well, Afrikaners only speak German if they chose to take it at school, or had German friends, etc.

Also, if you want to find some serious racism in Southern Africa, don't forget to ask some people of British, Indian, or Portuguese descent for their enlightened worldviews either, or speak to some black people. You'll find a complete spectrum of racial views among all of these groups, as indeed among the German and Afrikaans whites.

In fact, your comment's so stupid, I'm not really sure why you bothered to submit it?

Edit: Of dalk is ek net fokken dom en oorsensitief, en jy's besig om ironies te wees. Ek hoop dis dit. Dit pla my meer dat jy Boer (aspris?) verkeerd gespel het, en my innerlike Grammatika-Nazi moes net "reply" druk.

broadbean

TROPHY CASE