Haydn’s pencil

Elaine found a photograph of Franz Joseph Haydn’s pencil. Or one of his pencils. He probably used more than one.

Related reading
All OCA pencil posts (Pinboard)

NPR, sheesh

From the sublime to the not-sublime: NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday had a segment this morning announcing the winner of a contest run by Bleeding Fingers Custom Music Shop, a company that supplies music to reality-television shows, “everything from Duck Dynasty to Survivor.” The prize: a job as a staff composer at Bleeding Fingers. No irony here, just Rachel Martin’s cheerfulness. Speaking to the winner: “I imagine you have to be kind of thrilled, right?”

NPR, what’s going on?

Other cranky NPR posts
NPR speaking
A yucky Wednesday on NPR

Sonny Rollins on music

Sonny Rollins, on NPR’s All Things Considered this afternoon, responding to the question of whether there is anything more he would like to do in music: “Music is an open sky.”

Related reading
All OCA Sonny Rollins posts (Pinboard)

Mark Trail revised

One more time.


[Mark Trail, May 3, 2014.]


[Mark Trail revised, May 3, 2014.]

Much better this way. The context is here. Look out where yr going, Mrs. Trail.

*

9:08 p.m.: There’s no end to it.


[Mark Trail revised again, May 3, 2014.]

Chet Baker was an influence here.

Related reading
All OCA Mark Trail posts (Pinboard)

Anthony Catalano, friend of Boro Park

[Anthony Catalano, “NYC Blizzard of February 6-7, 1978 Brooklyn, Boro Park, New Utrecht Ave Tel: ULster 1-5012.” Available at Flickr. Licensed under a Creative Commons 2.0 License. Click for a larger view. And here’s the original size.]

Looking online for Brooklyn past, I saw the sad news that Anthony Catalano has died. I never knew him, but I have taken great pleasure in his photographs. His Flickr account (which his brother says will remain active) has 2,897 photographs, many of life in Brooklyn, and many of life in Brooklyn’s Boro Park. Mr. Catalano also contributed to the Facebook group Old Boro Park. For Boro Park ex-pats of a certain age, Anthony Catalano’s photographs are powerful madeleines, even more powerful than a Coke and a slice.

I chose this photograph for New Utrecht (my family lived close to the Avenue, and I’ve always liked its name) and the signage. The ULster exchange is a bonus. The Coca-Cola sign, by the way, is what’s called a privilege sign. Notice too the Breyers sign in the window.

A related post
P. S. 131, 44th Street, Brooklyn

[People from Boro Park tend to spell its name without ‑ugh.]

Mark Trail revised

[Mark Trail, May 2, 2014.]

Like films and television shows, Mark Trail at times has continuity problems. In yesterday’s strip, it was getting late, and dark. Darkness filled the darkening air. Today, too, it’s getting late, as Cherry Trail observes, but things are brighter, lighter. Whither the dark?


[There it is! Mark Trail revised, May 2, 2014.]

Joining yesterday’s revision to today’s would make a nice strip:


[Mark Trail revised, May 1–2, 2014.]

But the more I studied Cherry’s face, the more I could see only one thing to do:


[Cherry Cherry Cherry Cherry, May 2, 2014.]

Note: No one — no one — messes with Cherry’s hair.

Related reading
All OCA Mark Trail posts (Pinboard)

[All revisions made with the free Mac app Seashore and Preview’s Instant Alpha tool. I am beginning to understand Alpha.]

BASIC

It’s the fiftieth anniversary of Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. Time has a lengthy report: Fifty Years of BASIC. Dartmouth has a celebration: BASIC at 50. It puzzles me that Google has nothing. Doesn’t BASIC’s fiftieth rate a Google Doodle?

Raise your hand if you remember typing in BASIC programs from books and magazines.

Mark Trail revised

[Mark Trail, May 1, 2014.]


[Mark Trail revised, May 1, 2014.]

Thinking about this panel, I thought of Sappho: “Midnight. / The hour has gone by. / I sleep alone.” I thought of Djuna Barnes: “Watchman, What of the Night?” I thought of Ted Berrigan: “It is night. You are asleep. And beautiful tears / Have blossomed in my eyes.” And then I just thought “night.”

To revise this panel, I borrowed some night (not pants) from today’s Hi and Lois.


[Hi and Lois, May 1, 2014.]

It’s getting late. I was supposed to punch in at the Continental Paper Grading Co. nineteen minutes ago. Back tomorrow.

Related reading
All OCA Mark Trail posts (Pinboard)

[The lines from Sappho are from Stanley Lombardo’s 2002 translation. “Watchman, What of the Night?” is a chapter title in the novel Nightwood (1936). “It is night”: from XXXVII, The Sonnets (1964).]

Mark Trail revised

[Mark Trail revised, April 30, 2014.]

Look at Mark.

Related reading
All OCA Mark Trail posts (Pinboard)

[If you don’t read music, go here and here.]

Ballpoints, not for writing?

Caught during the “Breaking Barriers” episode of the PBS series Pioneers of Television, Tom Willis (Franklin Cover) of The Jeffersons speaking to his wife Helen (played by Roxie Roker):

“Helen, I can’t find my fountain pen.”

“Use one of the ballpoint pens. There are lots of them on your desk.”

“Ballpoint pens are not for writing. They’re for making marks. I need a pen with a point. Now what have you done with my pen?”

“I don’t know, I might have taken it to do the marketing list.”

“You wrote with it?”

Some ballpoints are a pleasure to write with: writing with, say, a Parker T-Ball Jotter is a breeze. But I understand where Mr. Willis is, as they say, coming from. The clip begins at 47:33.

Related reading
A 1963 Jotter ad : A 1964 Jotter ad : A 1971 Jotter ad : Five pens