Spam Roundup: May 2013

Spam's a fact of Internet life. But they sometimes can provide some unintentional humor. Here's a selection of some of the best(?) spam I've received this past month.

Increased traffic has meant increased spam to this blog. And a few comments have provided some unintentional humor. Here's a sampling of some of the best of the worst -- with my own thought thrown in as well. My comments are bracketed.

Everybody's Favorite Word
 - Wow, this paragraph is fastidious, my younger sister is analyzing these kinds of things, thus I am going to tell her.

What is it with spammers and hemorrhoids?
 - When someone writes an paragraph he/she maintains the thought of a user in his/her brain that how a user can know it. So that's why this paragraph is outstdanding. Thanks! [You/you're welcome/thanks.] Here is my web page :: HemorrhoidMiracleDiscount

How's that again?
 - Genuinely when someone doesn't understand after that its up to other users that they will assist, so here it happens.

Yeah? Look who's talking
 - obviously like your web-site but you have to test the spelling on quite a few of your posts. A number of them are rife with spelling problems and I in finding it very troublesome to inform the truth nevertheless I will surely come back again. [Tell you what. I'll work on spelling if you'll work on grammar.]

Point, Counterpoint 

The heart of the controversy. Spammers either loved or hated my post
about this homemade childhood toy.

[Both of these were posted to the same article, Clackety-Clack Train.]
- I think that everything published was actually very logical. However, think on this, suppose you added a little information? I mean, I don't wish to tell you how to run your website, however what if you added a post title that grabbed people's attention? I mean "Clackety-Clack Train" is kinda vanilla. [Really!?] You might look at Yahoo's front page and note how they create post headlines to get people interested. You might add a video or a picture or two to grab people excited about what you've got to say. In my opinion, it might bring your website a little livelier. [And we all want to bring on the livelier.]

 - Hurrah! Finally I got a webpage from where I know how to in fact take useful data regarding my study and knowledge. [Now here's a reader who gets the livlier I brought!]

Typical 
 - Because the admin of this site is working, no hesitation very shortly it will be famous, due to its feature contents. [I do all the writing, admin gets all the credit. -- as usual.]

Night and Day 
[Two comments about CCC 018 - Max Richter, a composer profile.]
  - The next time I read a blog, I hope that it doesn't disappoint me as much as this particular one. After all, I know it was my choice to read through, nonetheless I genuinely believed you'd have something interesting to talk about. All I hear is a bunch of crying about something you could fix if you were not too busy seeking attention. [Oh yes, I would fix Max Richter's music in a heartbeat if I wasn't so needful.]

Howdy! This blog post couldn’t be written any better! Going through this article reminds me of my previous roommate! He constantly kept talking about this. I will send this information to him. Pretty sure he’s going to have a very good read. Thanks for sharing! [I guess he liked it better on second read.]

"Alley" is not a euphemism
[In response to my comic strip commentary "Gasoline Alley and the Old Comic Strip Challenge"]
- Yes! Finally something about anal. [It's not. I promise.]

I'm all about helping the Internet people
 - Thіs paragraph wіll help the intеrnet people for building up neω ωeb sіte or even a blog fгom stаrt to enԁ.

Smartly-liked from various angles
 - What i don't understood is in fact how you are now not actually a lot more smartly-liked than you might be right now. You are so intelligent. You know therefore considerably when it comes to this topic, made me personally imagine it from so many various angles. Its like women and men are not interested unless it is one thing to accomplish with Woman gaga! Your own stuffs outstanding. All the time handle it up!

Till next month, keep enjoying my outstanding stuffs -- if you can handle it up, that is.

The monthly spam roundup

When Facial Recognition Fails

In researching some vintage comic strip characters (see: Gasoline Alley and the Old Comic Strip Challenge), I discovered that Internet searches aren't quite the be-all-end-all that many assume. While facial recognition has improved quite a bit the same can't be said for the graphic arts.

In the sequence below, Walt Wallet (right in first panel) is talking to a character (marked "1") from a vintage discontinued comic strip. But which one? And who's the character? (click on image to enlarge)

The frustrating thing is that the character looks somewhat familiar. But since I can't come up with a name, I can't do an image search to verify. I've looked through several comic strip resource sites, such as Barnacle Press, Don Markstein's Toonopedia, The Stripper's Guide, Wikopedia (of course) and more.

No one has a complete listing of syndicated comic strips from the 1920s-1930s. And worse yet, not all the entries have accompanying images. In the sequence I'm researching, Jim Scanarelli has drawn not the main characters of the comic strips he's referencing, but sometimes the supporting characters instead.

And since many of the image references I found only show the main character, that makes my task even more difficult. Fortunately, there are some excellent printing histories still floating around. The successful end to this search may be off- rather than online.

Spam Roundup: April 2013

Increased traffic has meant increased spam to this blog. And a few comments have provided some unintentional humor. Here's a sampling of some of the best of the worst -- with my own thought thrown in as well.

For some reason, my post on Fastidious Spam (which was about goofy spam) attracted a fair amount of its own. Goofy spam, that is. My comments are bracketed.

 - This is a topic that is close to my heart. .. [I'm sure it is -- spambot] best wishes! Where are your contact details though [to the right, in plain sight]


  - Way cool! Some very valid points! [Points you've just helped prove, BTW]  I appreciate you penning this post and also the rest of the website is extremely good. [Why thanks. High praise indeed for a spambot.]
 

  - Hey very nice blog! how to cure hemorrhoids at home on Fastidious Spam [OK, that's not an image I want in my brain.]
 
  - Thanks for finally writing about > "Fastidious Spam" < Liked it! [Oh yes, we're into hard-hitting editorials here at Off  Topic'd.]  Also visit my web page - treatment for hemorrhoids [What is it with hemorrhoids? Is it just professional admiration from one pain the ass to another?]  

 - What's up to all, it's actually a fastidious for me to pay a visit this site, it consists of priceless Information. [Your use of "fastidious" is priceless to me.]

This is the toy that inspired spambots to write about
lollipop cigarettes, online money, South Africa, and poetry.

Another popular post proved to be The Straco Layout, Part 23 - Lumbering along, which is just about a small Japanese tin toy car. Really. So I'm not sure why it attracted the following comments:

  - I used to be able to find good info from you? content. My weblog - South African Government Travel Advisory [So sorry to disappoint. But I didn't have much to say about South Africa in my post about an early 1960's lithographed Japanese toy car.]

 - Yes! Finally someone writes about money online. [Really? Well they didn't do it here!]

  - Lollipop shaped v2 cigarettes incredibly preferred amongst ladies. [Cryptic advice from the spammers. You heard it hear first, ladies.] 

  - Hi there colleagues, how is all, and what you wish for to say on the topic of this article, in my view its truly awesome for me. [Yes, how is all, y'all?]

  - What a material of un-ambiguity and preserveness of precious familiarity regarding unpredicted feelings. [Sheer poetry.]

And in conclusion, we have a comment that refers back to a previous post and ties everything together nicely.

What's up, this weekend is fastidious for me, since this point in time i am reading this wonderful educational article here at my residence. 

Wishing one and all every fastidiousness at their residence.

Fastidious Spam 2 - What's my part?

What is it about this penny toy that spammers find
so attractive?

If I commented on all the goofy, awkwardly translated spam that this blog attracts, that would pretty much by the subject of every post. While most of it is pretty crude, occasionally I receive something that is amusingly off the mark (see Fastidious Spam).

For some reason, part of my long-running series of posts about my Japanese tin toy display has attracted an extraordinary amount of spam. The Straco Layout, Part 23 - Lumbering Along is a modest essay about how Nomura used a simple design to create various different tin toy vehicles.

Something in the post apparently has something spammers are looking for, and it consistently remains one of the most highly trafficked Off Topic'd posts. Like this one:

Highlу energetic artiсlе, I liked that bit. 
Will thеre be a part 2? Feel free to ѕurf to my web site :: Hotels Near Mactan Airport Cebu Philippines 

I found this amusing for two reasons (three if you count the mis-match between the subject of vintage Japanese toys and hotels in the Philippines). 

The first is the characterization of the article (that the spambot hadn't read). Here's a quote from that "highly energetic article."

I recently purchased a small lumber truck to add to the display. As with the other vehicles, it was made in Japan in the 1950s’-1960’s. And like the other vehicles, it has some features that I found of interest.

The first was the quality of construction. Although the metal chassis isn’t painted, it still completely encloses the body. It has a friction drive and rubber wheels, so this is a higher-end “penny toy.”

The second is the request. "Will there be a part 2?" Dude, it says Part 23 in the title! We're way beyond Part 2. But I'm thinking the spambot didn't read that either.

Fastidious Spam

Recently the inbox for this blog has been overflowing with spam. Some of them have been carefully worded to generically apply to most any subject matter -- with a link to their own handiwork, of course. Like this one (all links disabled):

I am sure this post has touched all the internet visitors, its really really pleasant piece of writing on building up new weblog. Feel free to visit my homepage; low carb food 
my website - high fat diet 

OK, not too bad -- even if the comment was attached to the post HD Radio's Rate of Decay (maybe HD Radio would do better on a low carb diet?)

But this one really takes the cake -- er, processed meat product. Twice this week I've received a comment using the word "fastidious."

According to Merriam Webster, fastidious means:

a : having high and often capricious standards

b : showing or demanding excessive delicacy or care

c : reflecting a  meticulous, sensitive, or demanding attitude

And here's the latest comment I've received with the word -- this one from a classical CD review (Weinberg: Symphony No. 6 - A Russian composer is given his due ):

Hi Dear, are you really visiting this site daily, if so after that you will absolutely obtain fastidious knowledge. 
Also visit my webpage ... Freaky-Monster Wohnaccessoires 
my site > MiniMonster Geschenkegroßhandel
 [MiniMonster Wholesale Gifts in English]

Sure,  toots, thanks. So is this knowledge you refer to capricious, delicate, or demanding? My writing can be characterized many ways (such as good, bad or indifferent), but I have yet to hear this term from any of my editors!

I don't think spammers have gotten more creative -- just stranger.

---

UPDATE: Shortly it went live, this post received its first comment:

If some one needs to be updated with most up-to-date technologies afterward he must be visit this site and be up to date all the time. My webpage: Privat Krankenversicherung Kind

More spam. And not particularly fastidious, either.

Tone-deaf Spam

I received the comment below for my post Walt, Skeezix, Dad and I. Yes, it's spam, phrased so vaguely it would seem to fit most any post -- except the one it landed on. I was writing about my father, our mutual love of comics, and the passage of time.

You've made some good points there. I looked on the internet for more info about the issue and found most individuals will go along with your views on this website. 

 Sure, sport. Except this was a  post with no issues, nothing anyone has a particular opinion about, or anything related to the "comment." But what really got me was the last line. Because with the post I included a picture of my father and I (reproduced above).

Also visit my blog - how to get rid of belly fat

What!? Are you saying that picture makes me look fat?

Pubcasting and the HD Radio pretense

Jacobs Media just released their fourth annual study of core public radio listeners. There are lots of posts about the marked increase of tech and social media among listeners, which is something the study clearly shows.

But buried in the data is another story, I think. Consider -- according to the report:

1. HD Radio is only used 6% - a 3% decline from last year.
2. The average age for listeners who have been a contributor for more than 11 years is 63.
3. The average age for listeners who have been a contributor for less than 5 years is 50, with 19% being in the 25-34 age group (a demographic that doesn't even appear in the 11+ category).

In the olden days, most public radio stations were primarily classical music and news. Then Morning Edition and All Things Considered became the "tent poles." Both listenership (and giving) spiked dramatically when those two shows were on. So it wasn't long before stations were looking for ways to keep the magic going, by programming more news/talk.

But what to do about classical music? Everyone knows that only old people listen to classical music. They also represented the long-time (and sometimes big money) supporters of the station. But the real money -- and the younger audiences -- were in news/talk. So changes had to come.

No public radio station wants to be characterized as a culture-killer. Witness the firestorm when WETA dropped classical to go news/talk a few years ago. So rather than get rid of classical, some stations simply moved it to their HD Radio digital channel.  "No, classical isn't gone. We still broadcast it, and you can listen just as before -- if you have a special HD Radio, that is."

HD Radio has enjoyed greater usage in the public radio market than the commercial broadcasting field -- but its penetration is still dismal. And (see fact 1), it's shrinking. So for a station to claim that everybody wins when classical gets shoved onto a frequency that no one can receive seems a little disingenuous.  "No, we're not getting rid of it -- we're just putting it in the back of the attic where no one can easily get to it."

Fortunately, there's an upside to all this. Most stations that shift their music programming to HD2 also move it to the Internet. And online listening is an option that's growing among public radio listeners (just like the rest of the public).

The Jacobs Media survey shows the Internet to be the second-most used media for their study group (mobile phones were tops at 96%, Internet second at 91%). And over half regularly listen to content from their smartphone or MP3 player in the car. Sure, it could be podcasts (44% usage for this savvy group), or stored songs, or Pandora (only 18% usage). But there's a good chance that a significant part of it is content from the station -- and not necessarily their broadcast signal.

I have to admit that as much as I hate the programming of over-the-air WQXR (which I think is bland and boring), I love Q2 Music, which is their online-only alternative classical music service. It's innovative, it's fresh, it features living composers and unusual repertoire -- it's great! And it's online.

And I don't think they ever pretended it was available on an HD Radio channel.

WTJU and the Offline Pushback -- Epilogue

Yesterday I shared my story of the listener who will no longer listen to our radio station because I mention the website too often. (WTJU and the Offline Pushback -- Part 2)

The post elicited some interesting responses. One reader was thrilled to discover that WTJU had an archive of shows (wtju.net/vault). I've mentioned it several times on air, but it was reading the information online that did the trick. Call it another benefit of being online, I suppose. While I announce that information often on the air, if you're not listening the moment I do so, it's as if I never said anything at all. Links in feeds, though, are there whenever the reader gets to them.

The best overall comment about all this came from a colleague of mine at another station. During a Twitter discussion of the post he reminded me of an important concept of broadcasting.

"One caller represents the views of... one caller."

The responses from folks on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ were all positive. Many expressed amazement (or was that amusement) that well into the 21st Century someone's dead-set against any of that interwebtubes stuff.

But of course, the response group was self-selecting. Because anyone who shared my ex-listener's viewpoint would never see the post, because they avoid going online.

I regularly say on air, "If you're only listening to us on the radio, I think you're only getting half the WTJU experience." In this case, my ex-listener and those like her missed the entire conversation.

WTJU and the Offline Pushback -- Part 2

If you read my original post WTJU and the Offline Pushback, then you know the background. A listener called in to complain that I was talking too much about the WTJU website. She didn't do things online, and didn't want to hear about them.

I tried to dial back the announcements, recognizing they were a little long. Since that time, I've basically stuck to three types of announcements.

1) The station ID - "This is 91.1, WTJU Charlottesville VA. Remember you can always listen to us online at WTJU.net."

2) Service to the listener - "And if you missed some of the show, remember you can always hear it again at your convenience at WTJU.net (I just say "WTJU.net" but what I really am pointing to is "WTJU.net/vault." Since I do an early morning program, I think this is a benefit -- I know a lot of folks who don't tune in until the second or even the third hour of the program).

3) Promotion of our online services - "We reviewed this CD on the WTJU Classical Comments blog. Once the music starts, I'll post a link to that review on our Twitter, Facebook and Google+ feeds."

Well, apparently it was all too much. The listener called this morning to let me know that she loved the music I played, but she could stand all that talk about the website anymore. She would no longer listen to WTJU.

I was sorry to hear that she felt that way, but I don't think it will change things. We're broadcasting in a very crowded market (four non-commercial stations sharing the same audience). Growing our listenership by expanding our coverage area isn't an option. So the best way to get the word out, and attract new listeners is online. (click on images to enlarge)

The WTJU Classical Comments blog stats for today. My show runs from
6:00 AM to 9:00AM. I don't mention the URL on air, but I do send it
out via our social media channels.

Online listeners alone aren't the answer. While our overall numbers are up, they're still small compared to our analog audience (like most every other station). But each online listener is still a listener, and one more likely to help spread the word about WTJU -- because they're already online.

And there's been a significant upturn in the number of folks using our virtual tape vault to listen (or relisten) to previously aired shows.

Yes, my online-hating listener is gone. She's history -- in more ways than one.

Note the overall growth for the blog. As long as the trend continues, I'll keep
talking about WTJU's online services on the air.

SNOPA and Snooping

Just introduced in the House is H.R. 5050 - Social Networking Online Protection Act (SNOPA).  It's a pretty straight-forward bill (read the full text). Basically, an employer can't demand that either an employee or prospective employee hand over their passwords for personal email and social media accounts. Further, an employer can't punish an employee for refusing such a request (that demand is in plenty of company policies already).

For any of us that have spent a significant of time online, these demands have always rankled and seemed overreaching. After all, you wouldn't ask an employee to hand over their personal mail, would you?

Since most of my friends are either occasional or even reluctant Internet users, I think I can see the employer's viewpoint. There have been plenty of mainstream media news stories about people being caught because of embarrassing Facebook photos, or blog rants, or even tweets. A good number have been disgruntled employees venting about their bosses is a pretty public fashion.

I can easily imagine an HR administrator (such as one of said friends) who lets an assistant deal with all that interwebtube stuff thinking it would be a good thing to monitor employee behavior online. And the only way to do that, in their limited worldview, is to access the employees' accounts. I really believe these policies were created by folks who have little or no knowledge of how social media works.

Why? Well, because an employer can find out everything they really need to know by simply going online themselves. Look up some people you know on Facebook that you're not currently friends with. Sure, some accounts are wide open with pictures of bachelor parties and everything else -- but then there are others that are locked down. You can't see the information unless you're their friend.

And if a company is concerned about the image an employee might project, I think that would be a good sign. Sure, the company can't see what's going on in that person's life -- but the general public can't either. And that's really all the company needs to know (in my opinion).

Twitter's a little different. You can't filter who sees it. So foolish people will crack on their bosses -- and get caught. Others will be more discreet. And again, that's all a company should be concerned about.

LinkedIn is a little different. Since it's basically a job search site, everyone's putting their best foot forward. But it might be worthwhile for companies to check and make sure that the LinkIn resume matches the one the prospective employee gave them. But if there's information blocked, than so be it. On LinkIn that's a disadvantage to the user -- the ones who get the most out of the service want prospective employers to see everything.

Google+, in my opinion, hasn't reached critical mass yet. It's a lot like Facebook in that there are circles of friends, and you can set different privacy levels for different groups. Again, as an employer I would just want to know what an employee allows to be public (and hopefully not that NDA).

What I haven't seen in the discussion is Pinterest. Pinterest boards are pretty public. They can give you real insight into a person by seeing what they consider of interest. Sometimes you can learn a little too much.

While I think some folks are starting to think carefully about what they post on Facebook and other places, Pinterest choices seem based more on the Id than the Ego. It may be where  your employer can find out more than you want them to know. And they won't need a password to see it.

A Life Less Virtual

For the past two days I’ve been offline. It was time for the biannual trip to York, PA with my Dad, and keeping up with social media just wasn’t an option. So what’s been happening over the past two days?

It’s easy to buy into the notion that in the world of social media you have to publish or perish. That turned out not to be true. Here's what I discovered after doing nothing online for two days:

Facebook: No one seemed to notice I was gone (at least from the comments). What did I miss? Several posted slogans, a few video links, and some detailed reporting on the minutiae of my friends lives. I didn’t lose any followers, nor gained any. So no change.

Twitter: It looks like I missed some interesting discussions, but that’s OK. I actually picked up five new followers while I wasn’t tweeting. Maybe I should have more no-tweet days to boost my numbers! Also, Klout reported that – during my absence – I’m now influential in a new category. Not sure how that works…

LinkedIn: Some people looked at my profile, and I received two connection requests. So business as usual with no input from me.

Google+: No one added me to their circles, but no one kicked me out of any I was in. So no change.

Podcasting: I wasn’t able to publish any new podcasts this week. Although I missed my deadlines, the number of downloads for both the DCD Classical Cast and Garage/Soul ’66 increased. Less is more? Or are people just getting caught up?

Bottom line: the past few days simply confirmed something I already suspected. I can step away from the Internet whenever I want to without doing any real harm to my online brand equity (such as it is). And that’s good to know.

Because sometimes it’s good to get away.

Incomplete change

Yesterday I talked about the pushback I received from some older listeners who (apparently) wanted nothing to do with the Internet. One of them came around (some) when I explained I wasn't talking about computers, but about the WTJU website that could be accessed by either a smartphone or a tablet -- no PC necessary.

Which got me thinking. It's easy for me to think of people who seldom venture online as a minority of irrelevant dinosaurs -- but are they really?

24.9 percent of all American adults have no land line in their home
-- which means that 75.1 percent still do.

35 percent of all Americans own a smartphone
 -- which means that 65 percent don't

19 percent of all American adults own a tablet
-- which means that 81 percent don't.

All of these figures tend to skew young. Half of the wireless-only homes are those of 20-somethings, for example. So if I were to go to a Starbucks, then there's a good chance the majority of folks I would run into would have smartphones, tablets, and probably no land line.

And these technologies are trending. So if we were to revisit these figures a year from now, the percentages would be higher.

But for now, the old technologies (and old technology users) are reluctantly giving up their hold. Which tells me I need to keep those new technology on-air plugs short and sweet.

Dynamic view, part 2

Monday I changed the layout of this blog to a dynamic view, and asked for feedback (Does this make my blog look fat?). After only a week, the results are pretty inconclusive. Traffic looks to be about the same, and there's been no major blowback. But I'm still not sure. I may be tinkering with this again over the next month, so if there are features you'd prefer to see (or never see again), let me know.

Any design decisions I make should be to increase the readability and usefulness of the blog -- everything else in secondary.

The Many Faces of Me

I've noticed something interesting as I flit from social media site to social media site. Although I share a lot of the same things, the overall pictures they build up are different.

So the folks who only follow me on FaceBook have a different view then my Twitter followers, or my Google+ circlers, or even my LinkedIn contacts.

I don't think that necessarily a bad thing. Some of these sites have specific functions, and so broadcasting the same post to all doesn't make a lot of sense. LinkedIn, for example, I use for business purposes (which was its original intent), so not a lot of personal stuff gets posted there. FaceBook is more for family and friends-style content (at least for me), while Twitter is just for light conversation. Google+ I'm still just getting into, so I'm probably somewhat of a cypher there.

If you follow me on more than one of those sites, you'll have a more complete picture of who I am and what's important to me. And it's something I've noticed in others. Some people have almost have a completely different personality for each site.  Which is something I need to keep in mind.

In real life, we all fill different roles -- what I talk about at work is different than what I talk about among close friends (and even if the subject is the same, the tenor of the conversation is usually not). There was a time when I thought I had but one online persona. Glad to realize that's not the case.

eBay -- Knowing when to quit

Oh well, better luck next time.

I just walked away from an eBay item I was bidding on. And it was very hard.

In my post eBay Reality I talked about the importance (at least for me) of knowing the total cost of an item. I ran across this Industrial Rail work caboose that I thought would be a nice addition to my O Gauge Zen Garden. (the actual item doesn't matter for the point I'm making)

The opening bid was $0.99, which seemed a like a good deal. Shipping was $9.49. Now we're not talking about an especially rare or collectible item here. The Industrial Rail rolling stock isn't on par with Lionel for desirability. Mostly they're wanted by operators who want to add cars to their trains (that's actually why the line was produced).

The Industrial Rail pieces I've accumulated have all come from the big toy train meets in York, PA. Most of them I purchased for $10 - $15, which is a fair price.

Throughout most of the auction, I was the only bidder, so it looked like the $0.99 offer would hold. But in my mind, I wasn't offering $0.99, I was offering $10.48 which included the shipping cost. It was the total amount I was obliged to pay. I had even set my max bid to $10.00, or $19.99 total. It was a little higher than I was used to paying, but not too much higher.

The current bid is $10.50, which topped my bid. It was tempting to go to $11.00. After all, I was used to paying up to $15 for these things. But with shipping, that would have pushed it to $20.99, and that's over my limit. So rather than up it to $11.00, then $11.50, and then who knows what, I'm not responding.

Taking into account the total cost has saved me from many Pyrrhic bidding victory.

#ClassicalFactsWithoutWiki

Several major sites on the Internet went dark yesterday to protest SOPA. In addition to raising awareness about the issue, the darkening of Wikipedia also sparked an amusing -- if tightly focused -- hashtag subject on Twitter. Without Wikipedia to check facts, what misinformation might be spread about classical music? And so tweets with the hashtag #ClassicalFactsWithoutWiki flew fast and furious yesterday.

The tweets seem to have started from KUSC, with at least three announcers participating early on. But it soon spread, as you can see from the entries below. The first grouping are all the tweets (except mine) and the second grouping is just my own contributions.


I admit that for the average person, these won't seem like much. But if you're into classical music -- enjoy!

#ClassicalFactsWithoutWiki
(all of these tweets are in reverse chronological order)

dtwayfarer
After meeting Freud, Mahler replaced the Mater Gloriosa of his 8th Symphony with the better known Alma Mater.

Tim Senior
Tchaikovsky wrote his 1812 overture in the form of a cannon.

hayasa tanaka
Boccherini is the cheese, Bocconcini is the composer.

hayasa tanaka
Johann and Richard Strauss are related.

David Das
Ravel's Bolero actually an orchestration of Mussorgsky's 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.

David Das Barber's
Essays for orchestra all written during after-school detention.

David Das
Copland found it devastatingly hard to get Lincoln to sit still for his portrait.

George Wallace
Arvo Pärt's brother Arlo wrote a 'Cantus in Memoriam Ristorante Alyesha'. Also more often than not got the girl.

Tim Senior
Post-minimalism was invented when Steve Reich's fax machine broke down.

Tim Senior
Johann Strauss couldn't count up to 4.

Brian Lauritzen
After lighting the fuse, most cellists choose to stand in front of Pachelbel's Canon.

George Wallace
Will Rogers loved opera, and the first draft of his catchphrase was: "I never mezzo soprano I didn't like."

Rich Ching
Filet du Regiment was a failed opera about a steak in the military.

George Wallace
The 12 tone system developed because Schoenberg had an extra, vestigial digit on each hand.

Rich Ching
The Ring Cycle has a happy ending.

Jennifer Grim
Pop singer Engelbert Humperdinck also wrote the opera, Hansel and Gretel!

Rich Ching
Don Giovanni was a character from The Godfather.

Rich Ching
Boheme was modeled after RENT.

Rich Ching
Puccini, Verdi, and Donizetti are kinds of pasta.

Rich Ching
Werther was named after the candy.

matthewlrigdon
Beethoven planned a 10th symphony, a prequel that would have been based on Schiller's "Ode to Smug Satisfaction"

Tim Senior
80% of Phillip Glass works have a missing repeat mark.Trombones can only be played by pathologists.

George Wallace A loophole in Viennese law allowed Pachelbel to purchase his famous Canon at a gun show w/out a background check.

Kevin Zhang
Boston's Greenhouse Apartments houses 80% of all resident botanists at the neighboring New England Conservatory

Gail Eichenthal
Mahler WOULD have finished his 10th Symph. but his cellphone rang.

Brian Lauritzen
John Cage wrote a completion for Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, but I bet you haven't heard it.

caroline davies
While touring Italy on a Vespa, Vaughn Williams wrote ' The Wasps'.

George Chambers
All of Finnissy's trademark piano pieces are written by drunkenly throwing himself onto the keyboard.

radiogirlok
Debussy's "Music is the silence between notes," intellectual property stolen by John Cage. Ah, 1942 clarified.

Brian Lauritzen
The score for John Cage's 4'33" is marked fortissimo.

weetles
Beethoven thought he'd get a small role in "Saturday Night Fever" so he let them rock a Fifth

Brian Lauritzen
Janitors at Disney Hall are only allowed to clean with magic brooms.

Brian Lauritzen
Orig sketches for Disney Hall included teacups for seats and "It's a Small World" playing on loop in the lobby.

Classical KUSC He was caught plagiarizing Bach works & decided to take the sting away by legally changing his name to Offenbach.

radiogirlok
Johann Helmich Roman laid the foundation of modern musical life in Sweden, creating ABBA. Drottningholmsmusiken

Chris Cresswell
John Cage wrote 4'33" late one night, after completely forgetting he had a commission due the next morning.

Betsy Kardos
"Amadeus" is a musical in which Mozart sues the British rock band Queen for plagiarism.

Betsy Kardos Mussorgsky wrote "Night on Bald Mountain" after a "Hangover"-type experience at a Hair Club for Men convention.

EddieLouise
As well as being a gifted violinist, the young Mozart was a tumbler in a circus act.

Rebecca Cweibel
The trombone was originally made from a bone found only in invisible cartoon elementary school teachers.

Classical KUSC
Leonard Bernstein ranks 3rd in appearances on The Match Game after Charles Nelson Reilly & Richard Dawson.

Rebecca Cweibel
It's called an "organ" because it requires donation of a bodily one to stay in tune and play in time

Isaac Schankler
Chuck Berry wrote "Johnny B. Goode" as a tribute to John Cage, which is why the song is 4 min. and 33 sec. long

tenor of illusions
Beethoven did not write any music for the guitar.

Chip Michael
Andrew Lloyd Webern, after establishing the second Viennese School, established the school for classical cats

Miss Music Nerd
The riot at the premiere of Le Sacre was actually sparked by a patron in the front row accepting a telegram

Alex Sramek
Clara Schumann was known to take out mafia contracts on unruly audience members.

LosAngelesElectric8
Cage's working title for 4'33" was "0.075833333333333333 hours."

Jay Harvey
When Sergei Prokofiev was a starving student, he wrote an opera called "The Love for Two Oranges"

ClassicalMPR
Vivaldi's lesser-known fifth season: Road Construction--Largo, non con moto.

Ronni Reich
Madame Butterfly is the sequel to Puccini's little-known early opera "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"

Noel Garwood
Queenies and Phil the Greeks jubilee barge used to belong to Rosie and Jim.

Classical KUSC
The 'Period Instrument' movement had its roots in Middle School, when there was limited availability to play.

Brian Lauritzen
Interestingly, Rudolph Kempe also had a very shiny nose.

ClassicalMPR
Composer Johann Heinichen changed the spelling of his name after inventing - and drinking too much - lager.

Classical KUSC
As of this date, no one has asked composer John Adams if he is related to the US President of the same name.

Gail Eichenthal
Schubert's Gretchen am Spinnrade was inspired by a fetching Whirling Dervish, the toast of Vienna in the 1820's

David Weininger
In honor of Bruckner's slow, winding symphonies, New York named a perpetually clogged expressway after him.

opus111
Mahleria is a fatal disease that sets in within two hours of listening to the Symphony of a Thousand.

Kelsey Walsh
A Cappella: just a couple-a people singing.

Brian Lauritzen
Olivier Messiaen wrote the music for Nintendo's Duck Hunt.

Alyssa Brode
puccini wrote the role of lauretta, originally a 10 year old girl, for jackie evancho.

Kelsey Walsh
Carlo Gesualdo was an Italian criminal hiding in a conservatory, masquerading as a composer of the avant guarde.

Matthew Guerrieri
Maurice Ravel once killed a man just to watch him die. The man was was Vincent D'Indy.

Alyssa Brode
schumann went insane from hearing lmfao's "party rock anthem" over and over in his head.

Classical KUSC
Mendelssohn named the Ge-Wand-Haus Orchestra because of his love for Olivander in the Harry Potter series.


Matthew Guerrieri
Lauritz Melchior was the inspiration for the popular cartoon character "Garfield."

Chip Michael
Gustav "Mahler" was originally a WWF wrestler before he began conducting

Carly Rose Gillis
Actually, Richard Wagner invented the internet.

opus111
Haydn Sikh was a popular game among Viennese children in the Classical era.

opus111
Howlin' Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart grew up in the Mississippi Delta before moving to Detroit in 1948.

Eric Gewirtz
Like the Giants and Jets, the New York Philharmonic plays in New Jersey

Michael Hamad Wow: Claude Debussy was French Canadian??

Blue Derkin
Beethoven spent an afternoon in jail in San Dimas but got out in time to help Bill & Ted pass the history report

Geoffrey Burleson
Strauss' "Metamorphosen", based on Kafka's short story, was originally titled "Song of Samsa the Cockroach."

Classical KUSC
R.Schumann went crazy when Clara & Brahms would not let him join their reindeer games.

Brian Lauritzen Actually, Gershwin prefers to fly Delta.

klangfarben
The Guidonian Hand is to earthly music notation as the Greedonian Foot is to intergalactic thug semiotics

Geoffrey Burleson
If Schoenberg hadn't been a 12-toed mutant, he would have instead devised the 10-tone system.

Brian Lauritzen
Delius hated orange juice. Abe Christian Josquin Des Prez wrote the first polyphonic setting of the Mass Ordinary.

klangfarben
Arnold Schoenberg developed the 12 tone system 'cause it just makes sense when you have 12 toes.

Abe Christian
Astor Piazzolla: composer/performer wrote a tango based opera! Maria de Buenos Aires! Also a bandoneón virtuoso

Classical KUSC
Die Fledermaus is Strauss Jr's opera about an extreme sports loving Rodent.

Jackie P Verdi's
La Traviata: A three hour vocal lesson on how to sing through your end stage tuberculosis.

Brett Baldwin
Young Beethoven traveled forward in time to play the role of Jake on Two and a Half Men.

Abe Christian
Carmina Burana: Carl Orff. A collection of Medieval poems and songs set to a glorious homophonic orchestra.

Classical WQED-FM Bach sold used cars on the side.

USC Ice Hockey
#Beethoven was a #StBernard famed for his musical acuity and ability.

USC Ice Hockey
Rachmaninoff turned to music after retiring from the #KHL due to a career-ending lower-body injury.

Elise VDB
Schubert didn't finish his 8th Symphony because he had to save some material for the sequel

Smelsey McDonalds Bach's working title was "Gloria in-a Smelsey's Deo"

Gail Eichenthal
Fur Elise was Beethoven's touching homage to his favorite female teddy bear

Mirto Picchi
Messa di voce is when a singer really makes a messa things.

Elise VDB
Beethoven wrote Für Elise just for me

Classical KUSC
Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata was intended only to be played on the Piano of a Carpenter.

David Das
First draft of Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini actually based on Heart and Soul.

Classical KUSC
A Contralto argues with all the other Altos over who's flat. // Zing!

David Das
Mr. Holland's Opus ghostwritten by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Elise VDB
La différence entre un violon et un alto: un demi-ton

David Das
John Cage's 4:33 written during a 4:33 smoke break from real composing

David Das
Original working title for West Side Story? Romeo and Juliet: Reloaded.

Classical KUSC
Copland's love for the suspension from a defunct W.V. Ford Motor Co. factory resulted in Appalachian Spring.

Elise VDB
Tuba players only need to know how to make two notes to play Carmen's overture

Elise VDB
Beethoven was so deaf he lived his whole life believing he was a paintor

Classical KUSC
Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah was about the casting of his favorite Hobbit in #LotR.

Brian Lauritzen
Ben Jonson wrote most of Verdi's operas.

Elise VDB
Catalani's "Ebben ne andro lontano" is his only good aria because he had Puccini's helping hand for it.

Geoffrey Burleson
Messiaen knew 158 different Elk calls, which he used as motivic material in his music.

Brian Lauritzen
Most professional violinists are just failed violists.

Brian Lauritzen
Ferde Grofé never visited the Grand Canyon.

Rodrigo Ruiz
The triangle (percussion) is shaped like 1 because the manufacturers figured it used less materials than a square

Robert Vijay Gupta
Brahms sent his C minor pno 4tet to publisher w picture of a man holding a pistol to his head.

Classical KUSC
Chausson died while training for the Tour De France.

Ben Horrigan
Beethoven completed nine symphonies; more than the rest of his litter put together.

Kris Rudin
The Ring Cycle was Wagner's attempt at retelling The Lord of the Rings

Grant
Beethoven's 'Erotica' symphony was originally commissioned as a filmscore for an early adult film

Geoffrey Burleson
Haydn, the "father of the symphony", wrote 104 of them, one for each of his children.

Nick Norton
Mozart had great financial success, with a never ending stream of patrons.

Brian Lauritzen
The Ring Cycle is mostly about Wagner working out his commitment issues.

Nick Norton
Adorno, as it turns out, was a master of Iyengar yoga

Out West Arts
Delibes at first rejected BA's commission for an ad jingle. He later relented when offered free upgrades for life

Nick Norton
Mozart also abstained from alcohol and sex for his whole life

Kelsey Walsh
Mozart loved the trumpet, said it was the most softly beautiful thing he'd ever heard

Doug P
Beethoven moonlighted as a stand-up comedian under the stage name Ludwig Van Beetroot......

Doug P
The Last Night of the Proms is free on a first come first served basis.

Classical KUSC
A Little Night Music was a tone poem fantasy based on Sondheim's musical of the same name.

Wimblebear
There's a bit in The Lark Ascending that Vaughan Williams based on the old folk tune "The Referee's a ******"

Doug P
The triangle player is the highest paid in an orchestra.......

Geoffrey Burleson
Bach wrote a heavily chromatic 20-voice fugue to symbolize his bewilderment in having had 20 children.

Classical KUSC
Dame Joan Sutherland played the bassoon......

Classical KUSC
Beethoven was born deaf, but slowly regained his hearing

Classical KUSC
A Countertenor is the Tenor who keeps a tally of the singers present.

Classical KUSC
The Flute is just a Lute with keys on it.

Classical KUSC
To this day, no one can correctly spell Aram Kacha--- Chata--- Khaki--- Khachaturian on the first attempt.

Daniel Bodeman
Handel was a huge Tebow fan. The original words for Hallelujah were TimTebowGo.

Classical KUSC
Stravinsky punched Queen Elizabeth I at the premiere of Le Sacre Du Printemps.

Brian Lauritzen
Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks is a work that ends with a holiday-themed practical joke.

ClassicalKUSC
Johann Sebastian #Bach had 6.02×10^23 children.

And my own contributions to the meme:

The open strings of a ukelele are the M, D, H, and F strings.

It's only by coincidence that Eric Carmen & Barry Manilow came up with melodies resembling Rachmaninoff's.

Gilbert O. Sullivan is a direct descendent of Arthur Sullivan, of Gilbert & Sullivan fame.

Arthur Bliss was not known for his intelligence. A common phrase in his day was " ignorance."
Marc Antoine Charpentier spent most of his life trying to write the bon motet.

A minor scale is one that has under thirteen notes.

Villa-Lobos kept his lycanthropy a secret -- even though his name translates as "House Wolves"

Roy Harris market-tested his compositions with focus groups. These were known as Harris Polls.

Englebert Humperdink always wanted to be a star in America. His great grandson would fulfill his dream.

Bugs Bunny had to play Stokowski in "Long-Haired Hare," as Leopold was still under contract to Disney.

Violists are the most respected and highly prized members of the orchestra.

Mozart faked his death to avoid creditors & assumed the identity of his "student" Franz Süssmayer in 1791

When "Das Rheingold" became a hit, Wagner was persuaded to write a sequel, then two more for the franchise.

The name of the crum horn is a derivation of its 16th century description - ye crummey horne.

Most medieval church music composers are anonymous, causing scholars to ask "Who was that Mass man?"

When two or more harps play in harmony, they create a harpsichord.

Beethoven wasn't really deaf. He faked it to avoid having to interact with stupid people (everyone but himself)

SOPA - Read it and weep

There's not much I can add to the Stop Online Piracy Act protest that hasn't been said better elsewhere. I would, though, encourage you to read the bill for yourself. There are many interpretations of what it says, and some of those interpretations are filtered through what the writer thinks it says.

So here's a link to the published version of the bill, H.R. 3261.IH.

My objections aren't to the intent of the legislation -- protecting intellectual property -- but the tools given for that protection. I'm especially concerned that there's no provision for due process. If you're accused of having infringing content on your site, then down it comes and we'll sort out the details later.

Let's move that concept offline.  I don't like you, so I tell the police that you have stolen property in your home. The police have a number of options, such as checking on the credibility of the report, doing some discreet investigating, or doing some active investigating. In other words, acting under the assumption that the accused is innocent until proven guilty.

If SOPA guidelines were used, the police would just show up at your home and begin a search -- without a warrant. They would not tell you why they were there or what they were looking for, nor what prompted their visit in the first place. And if  they received a second or third complaint, then you would probably be arrested, although a trial may or may not be at the end of the process (arrest is enough).

It's a recipe for censorship. Under SOPA, it's very easy to register a complaint. The consequences to the accused are dire, and recourse is limited.

So if I don't like you as a person, I could get your blog taken down by simply turning you in for having infringing material. You've been careful? How about that comment I posted using Bart Simpson as an avatar? According to SOPA any infringing content taints the whole site. Don't think that's fair? Well, there's precedent. Employees of Viacom fed YouTube videos posing as individuals -- then Viacom sued YouTube for copyright infringement.

Or like Viacom, if I don't like your business, then I can make sure you have infringing content and get your site taken down. And if I can get the government to do it, then even better -- it might stay down a year or more, which would cripple (if not kill) your business.

Or, if I don't like your political party....

Don't think that's likely? Well, one of the sponsors of SOPA  Senator Lamar Smith, just happens to have some infringing material on his website. So his site could fall prey to the very penalties he's pushing for.


One more thing: the folks behind this,the  RIAA and MPAA have a model in mind when they helped draft this legislation.

As Chris Dodd, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America said, "When the Chinese told Google that they had to block sites or they couldn't do [business] in their country, they managed to figure out how to block sites." (from Variety)


Yes, let's manage the Internet like China does for its citizens. Now there's a chilling thought.

Nation Wide Lines and A Hole in the Internet

Although, like many people, I rely on the Interent as a research tool.But it's not the be-all end-all. It's only as good as the information that's been made available online.

Case in point: I recently read an interesting article about a very specific subject: the history of toy train sets made for JC Penney by the American Flyer company between 1929 and 1931.(Don't worry -- this post isn't about toy trains.)


The article, Nation Wide Lines, was pretty interesting, and I wanted to know more. So I went online. And found.... well, not nothing. But a very small set of information endlessly repeated.

The house brand for these toys was Nation Wide Lines. Since all the search terms I was using (American Flyer, Nation Wide Lines, JC Penney, etc.) were common words with many different meanings, I was careful to use phrases and multiple-keyword searches to keep the results focused on my topic.

One of the top search results was the online version of the original article. The remainder were offerings from various auction sites. And worse yet, there were only about three or four different auction lots. All the hits came from sites that scraped data from eBay, Stout Auctions and another major auction house.

So what did I expect to find? Well, even for a subject as obscure as this there should be a fair amount of source material. For starters, there have been several scholarly works written about the American Flyer company which would have information about the Nation Wide line. Then there are histories of the JC Penny company. And there are original (and reproduction) JC Penney catalogs available. And there may be some other articles from other hobby magazines. But none of it is online.

So while I have a good idea of what these toy trains might be worth (thanks to the endless auction listings), I don't know anything else.

This is research that might have to take place offline.

A brush with greatness

 I've been commenting on the changes in Dick Tracy recently, and I actually received a comment on one of my posts -- from Mike Curtis, the writer for the strip!

It's one of the things I like about the Internet. It's possible to communicate directly with some of the folks you admire, more so then in the olden days of pen and paper letters. Through Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter I've had interesting conversations with authors, broadcasters, composers, and performers whose works I admire.

Mike Curtis may not be a household name (Chester Gould probably wasn't either), but I'm still flattered that the writer of a major comic strip would read -- and take the time to comment -- on my post.

Virtual Packing

I know I'm not the only one preparing to go out of town. And I'm not the only one to go off the grid at the same time. We'll be spending Thanksgiving at a home where there's no Internet access, so I'll be offline for a few days.

It's not a bad situation -- I can always sneak down to the public library or other Wi-Fi hotspot if I want to check on things. And it is nice to just get away from the virtual world for awhile.

But for me, it means some additional packing.

Just like I'll be laying out the clothes I'll want to wear three or four days into the future, I'll also have to pack my social networks with content, too. I'll have to write some blog posts and schedule them to publish while I'm gone. I've already scheduled some Tweets and Facebook status updates. Nothing extensive, just some things to keep my feeds current.

Just one more thing to do before we hit the road!