Pat Blythe – Technology vexations…..and a tune or two

This will be a very short column this week. I am facing serious technological challenges and limitations. To call the past few days frustrating is an extreme understatement! Being without my third arm (or second brain) is akin to a floundering fish gasping for water. In my case, I’m gasping for my laptop. I am lost and bereft without it, and the tiny screen of my phone doesn’t cut it. It sounds ridiculous I know, but when absolutely EVERYTHING we do is dependent on technology, when we don’t have access to it, it become a crisis of world proportions.

Pat Blythe – Where do we go from here? ……and music

Throughout the past two years we’ve all tried to predict, guess, envisage, calculate, even hope what the future of music will be, once we are no longer struggling and fighting this global pandemic. We have been living in a world that seems surreal…..like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from, just by rubbing your eyes. That anything like this could happen in the 21^st century seems rather absurd and unbelievable. Thing is…..it did. We are not impervious, but we are arrogant in thinking that we are. Lately, events have proven that we still have a long way to go. There remains, in all parts of the world, a whole level of uneducated obtuseness that exists even after we’ve heard from Archimedes, Aristotle, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Einstein, Stephen Hawking and their ilk. Baby…..we have a looooong way to go.

Pat Blythe – Today’s column is brought to you by……and music

That one just popped into my head as I’ve just finished posting this week’s podcast.  I’m now 36 podcasts in, 36 conversations, 36 artist voices, 1,100 downloads, 29 followers and over 3,000 “listens”. People from all over the world including Australia, Europe, UAE, South America, the U.S. and Canada have been tuning in.  The purpose was to check in with local artists. As a neophyte podcaster, I had no expectations. Ten downloads made me happy to know someone was listening. Even though I’m still small potatoes, it’s like the little engine that could….it keeps growing by leaps and bounds. Still a guppy in the ocean of podcasts; but folks ARE listening and the music is being shared.

Pat Blythe – The productive years…..and “bewitching” music

I came across an article, Between 65 and Death, a couple of years ago, and for some reason kept it. Now that I’ve very recently earned this distinctive “honour” of attaining this magical number (and a government pension), the article popped up again when I was searching for something else. I’m not going to quote the entire piece here, but looking back at those 65 years, man I did a lot!!! A very rich life, full of ups and downs (and some of those ups were worth a whole passel of downs), was crammed into those years. Would I change a thing? In all honesty there are one or two things I’d like to go back and tweak. Do I have regrets? Nope! Well, maybe one…..I never have managed to meet Roger Taylor….yet!

Pat Blythe – Remembering a life……and music

It’s been a flurry of activity over the past couple of weeks. Thanksgiving was wonderful! I finally had my boys and their wives over dinner…..first time in a very long time. Of course, loads of leftovers which made their way to new homes. Homemade turkey soup dealt with most of the remains. Working on a new podcast project, which is finally gaining some legs (at least up to the knees anyway), and hopefully next week’s meeting will bring it to hip level. Garden work and spending time with friends make up the balance.

Pat Blythe – Musings…..thanks…..a few shows…..and music

Is it me, or are the days and weeks running into each other? It feels like I just finished a column and here I am writing another…..albeit late as usual. Today was one of those days where you just seem to bounce from one thing to the next. A 3am bedtime call after spending hours editing today’s podcast, was not conducive to an early morning rise, simply to rush downtown and open my maw for the dentist. Two hours later and I feel like my mouth has received the white glove treatment. Mr. Clean and the Lysol Lady have thoroughly cleaned and sanitized my mouth. Everything is now shipshape and spotless…..just don’t eat. It’s kind of like after your mom cleaned, tidied and dusted the living room. You couldn’t sit anywhere!

Pat Blythe – Hello September…..music news…..and music

September…..the beginning of my favourite time of year. There’s something so crisp and refreshing…..a newness spring doesn’t possess. New jobs, new schools, new grades, new homes, new lives…..September to me has always meant “beginning”. Maybe because it’s the month of my birth, or maybe it’s all the fall colours and brightness of the air, but I always feel inspired and invigorated in the comfortable cool months of fall. Of course, all things pumpkin spice doesn’t hurt either!

Pat Blythe – On your mark…..book report……and music (of course)

…..and so it has begun. Music is starting to break out everywhere and many artists are “quietly rushing” to bust through the starting gate. With fewer venues, and so far, slightly smaller audiences, (which is going to mean a slightly lower pay day in the short term). I think the gates are going to get so jammed you won’t be able to slip a blade of grass through (among other things). It’s going to be quality over quantity so I hope all those drumsticks, keyboards and guitars are “sharpened”, tuned and at the ready. There’s been roughly 18 months of “practice” time.

Pat Blythe – Boom boom tsst – Part 3….Come Ride with Me….and music

…..and the cymbal saga continues. Here’s an interesting little tidbit. Ever heard of the bock-a-da-bock? Me either. Say it really fast though and it begins to sound familiar. Now Google it and there’s a whole history behind this fascinating little number…..introducing the hand cymbal commonly known as the Bock-A-Da-Bock.

Originally designed by Billy Gladstone, one of the most significant and finest percussionists of his time, Gladstone was continually inventing, building and perfecting instruments. “Gladstone’s ‘Device for Operating Cymbals’ comprised a pair of spring-loaded scissor tongs bearing two small, heavy cymbals facing each other; when the player squeezed the tongs, the cymbals closed together. A range of interesting sounds were made possible as the player held the device in one hand, opening and closing the cymbals whilst striking them with a stick held in their other hand. Its creator having received a patent, the ‘Ludwig Gladstone Cymbal’ appeared in the drum company’s 1927 catalogue.” (Drums in the Twenties)

Pat Blythe – Boom boom tsst…..Part One……and music

Why not?! I’ve covered the guitar, the violin, drums, the cowbell, all things keyboard and synthesizer….so why not the cymbal? There’s nary a drum kit or a percussion setup without them. From marching bands to the person in the back of the orchestra who sits patiently, waiting for the build-up and that one moment when they can leap to their feet to crash those two giant cymbals together for that dramatic crescendo……and then (like Christmas) it’s suddenly over. I can’t think of one child who doesn’t love banging and clanging those noisemakers together. So let’s delve right in, shall we.