27 November 2007
Rosslyn Glassman visited Mariánské lázně, a spa town in West Bohemia, and wrote about it in the travel section of the New York Times. The trip was not exactly as expected...
THE doctor looked at me over his steel-rimmed glasses. "And what is your problem?" he asked.

"Well, I’m tired and a bit stressed."

"That is not a problem."

"I have high blood pressure, and cholesterol."

"Yes, but why are you here?"

"I thought I’d try to lose weight."

"You could do that at home. Why are you here to take the cure?"

Oh dear, I’d better come up with something or he’ll refuse to let me stay.

"I damaged my ear drum and have tinnitus and bad balance."

"That is excellent," he said. "For this I will recommend six mineral baths, six gas baths, three gas injections, three inhalations and three manipulations. You will exercise in the pool and walk three miles a day. You will also go three times to the springs and drink three liters a day."



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Boring since 17:21 | Comments:

How to Record Music

10 November 2007
From the essay "Fieldwork: Recording Traditional Music" by George List (1972, U. Chicago Press):
The field expeditions of the Institute for Dialect and Folklore Research at Uppsala, Sweden, consist of a collector and a technician who travel in a small bus equipped with two racked tape recorders. The bus is parked in front of the home of an informant. the collector then goes into the house carrying a microphone attached to a long cord that issues from the bus. The technician remains in the bus, operates the equipment, monitors the recording, and switches the microphone from the input of one recorder to the other before the first tape is exhausted. (pp. 446-447)

...If only I'd had a small bus for my fieldwork!


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Boring since 23:26 | Comments: