Spam Roundup, March 2018

Even with spam filters, some comments manage to make it through the system. Some of it's so oddly written, that it's oddly amusing. Here's a roundup of some of the "best" comments I received this month from spambots around the world.

You know what I mean

Translation apps don't always do the best job.

 - The place else may just anyone get that type of info in such an ideal manner of writing. [Your manner of writing is less than ideal.]

 - Good thing about the posting drought is that I have not seen it criticiazed heretofore in the Objectivist literature. [That's right -- we're Anti-Objectivist around here, pal.]

 - I get pleasure from, lead to I discovered exactly what I used to be looking for. [*Used* to be looking for? What are you looking for now, exactly?.

See if you can find any connection between this
vintage lumber truck and any of the comments at left.

"Lumbering along" continues to, well...

The Straco Express Layout, Part 23 - Lumbering Along remains the most commented post on my blog. And not a single one has anything to do with the subject matter. Who knew so many "people" would connect with a vintage Japanese tin toy?

 - This post will assist the internet people for setting up new weblog or even a blog from start to end. [Those internet people need all the help they can get!]

 - Yes! Finally someone writes about mavic open pro wheelset. [Actually, I think it's just four small rubber tires.]

They don't really look much like
mavic open pro wheelsets to me.

Fastidious, indeed! 

While the frequency of the word "fastidious" has decreased in spam comments, it's misuse has not. 

 - Wow this post is fastidious, my sister is analyzing these kinds of things, therefore I am going to convey her. [Convey her where?]

And finally:

 - You need to be part of a contest for one of the greatest blogs on the web. I'm going to recommend this site! Have a look at my blog - Curing Hemorrhoids [I'm not sure I want to know what first prize is.]

That 's all for this month. And remember - please assist the internet people to help them find what they used to be looking for. 

#ClassicsaDay #WomensHistoryMonth 2018 - Week 4

Some of us contributing to #ClassicsaDay decided to celebrate the role of women in classical music for March. Those posts included both the #ClassicsaDay and #WomensHistoryMonth hashtags. There were many posts of female performers and conductors. I chose to stick with composers.

Here is an annotated list of the composers I posted for the second week:

Rosa Giacinta Badalla (c.1660–c.1710) - Non plagent

Rosa Badalla was a Benedictine nun. She wrote primarily sacred music to be performed within the walls of the nunnery. In 1684 a collection of her sacred motets was published in Venice. Very little of her music or details about her life have survived.

Maddalena Laura Lombardini Sirmen (1745–1818) - Violin Concerto No. 5 in B-flat major

Today Maddalena Lombardini is best remembered for a letter she received from her teacher, Giuseppe Tartini. The letter outlined important violin techniques and has become a major reference work for historically informed violin performances. Lombardini was an accomplished violin virtuoso, as was her husband Ludovico Simen. Lombardnin's compositions center around the violin and were most likely performed either by herself or in conjunction with her husband. She was a famous performer in her time, with six published collections of music.

Laura Constance Netzel (1839–1927) - Cello Sonata in E minor, Op. 66

Larua Netzel was a Swedish pianist, conductor, organist, composer, and crusader. She was active in several organizations throughout her life that supported the poor, especially women and children. She had about 80 published compositions, mostly for piano or organ.

Carlotta Ferrari (1975-) - Veni sancte Spiritus

Carlotta Ferrari is an Italian composer with an international reputation. She is especially known for her choral compositions and organ works. Ferrari combines Renaissance and Medieval traditions within contemporary musical frameworks.

Elinor Remick Warren (1900-1991) - Suite for Orchestra

Elinor Warren studied piano with Leopold Godwsky and Harold Bauer, and composition with Nadia Boulanger. Warren wrote over 200 works, including a symphony, oratorio, and a requiem mass. Although an accomplished pianist, solo piano music is only a small portion of her catalog.

Line Mar Match Box Construction 081 - 2 Wheel Barrow

I found a Line Mar Match Box Construction Set from the 1930s, complete and with instructions. The box claimed the set made 100 different toys. I decided to test that claim -- one toy at a time. You can read all the posts for the Line Mar construction project at 100 Toys.

081. 2 Wheel Barrow

This build came pretty close to the illustrated toy. There's no good reason why the upright dowels are short. I simply picked the wrong ones. 

Building these toys is always tricky. It doesn't take much for the whole thing to fall apart. So once I added the uprights, I was done. 

At least this one was possible to build as illustrated. 

Carl Czerny Symphonies No. 6 & 2 - Better than expected

Pianists the world over are familiar with Carl Czerny -- or at least his keyboard exercises. But Czerny, a student of Beethoven, also composed many other types of works, including symphonies. Unlike Beethoven, though, Czerny could produce, and produce quickly.

Pianist John Field wrote about Czerny's system after visiting with him:

A large cabinet served [Czerny] as a receptacle for models of all kinds of passage work, figurations, etc., which were immediately available as required. 

In the adjoining room assistants worked on what the master had assigned to them... pieces were produced section by section and inserted during the copying process. Thus, the difficult-to-negotiate development sections could also be produced with ease. One just had to fit the passages together correctly, and already the next sonata-form movement was finished.

So what do these paint-by-number symphonies sound like? Actually, they sound pretty good.

Czerny's Grande Symphony No. 2 is a model of late-classical/early romantic construction. This four-movement work is big, with big motifs and grand gestures. And yet it's also somewhat unassuming and matter-of-fact. To my ears, it seemed to resemble Schubert or Mendelssohn more than Beethoven.

The 1854 Symphony No. 6 receives its world premiere recording here. The score remained in manuscript and (presumably) unperformed until recently. The work is leaner and more tightly organized than Symphony No. 2. It also seems to be a more personal work, somehow.

The conductor Grzegorz Nowak has researched Czerny and was responsible for the first concert performance of the Sixth Symphony. These are knowledgeable, unapologetic performances of these finely-crafted works.

Make no mistake: Czerny isn't about to knock Schubert or Beethoven off their pedestals. But these are compelling symphonies that can both excite and delight. And they definitely deserve to be heard.

Carl Czerny: Symphony No. 6 in G minor; Grande Symphony No. 2, Op. 781
SWR Rundfunkorchester Kaiserlautern; Grzegorz Nowak, conductor
SWR Music SWR19419CD

Collecting -- and Collecting Information Part 32

Two new offerings on eBay provided some additional information on the evolution of Shioji's line of friction toy trucks.

In Part 28 I outlined the development of the trucks from the mid-1950s through 1963. At that time there was a change from all-metal to a mixture of metal and plastic. These new offerings are from that post-1963 transition period.

L-R: Gen 3 tank and cattle trucks; Gen 2 covered bed and dump trucks; Gen 1 tow and express trucks.

A Bit of Background

During the late 1950s, Shioji offered a series of all-metal friction toy trucks. The primary differences were the truck bodies. But there were some small changes in the manufacturing process over time as well. These changes made these toys a little cheaper to manufacture. And with the slender profit-margins Shioji was working with, any cost-cutting was welcome.

Here's how I've broken down the changes:

• First generation: Rivethead hubcaps, flat chassis bottom, six securing tabs.
• Second generation: Solid hubcaps (cheaper to make and install), rounded chassis bottom
• Third generation: Four securing tabs instead of six

Using up inventory

The fourth generation used a plastic cab and frame. Why not just go to injection-mold plastic? I think the answer was cost. First of all, creating a brand-new set of molds was expensive. And I believe that Shioji had some leftover parts from their previous runs. 

The fourth generation trucks have solid hubcaps (from Gen 2) and use the truck bodies from the previous runs.  

I had previously found two examples of Gen 4 plastic chassis trucks. 

In these models, Shioji replaced the stamped metal cab and frame with plastic one. Although the cab shape is different, it's made to fit the same metal parts of the old Shioji trucks.

Gen 4 plastic trucks. The one at left has a Gen 3 tank body, the other
a Gen 2 covered bed.

The new listings offer some additional variations -- and insights -- into the later days of this truck's production run.

Gen 4 plastic trucks. The one at left has part of the Gen 2 covered bed.
The other a modified Gen 1 tow assembly.

One of the trucks has an open yellow bed. It's one of the components for the Gen 2 covered bed. Both versions were offered. I haven't found an example of the open bed on an all-metal Gen 2 chassis. My conclusion is that Shioji had fewer covers than beds in their inventory. Once the covers were gone, the truck was sold with just the bed.

Also of interest is the tow truck. Originally offered in Gen 1, the body is pretty complicated. It has a white frame. Attached to it are a yellow crank assembly and a yellow crane. All three pieces need to be shaped, painted and tabbed together. The Gen 1 version also has a side panel that's also tabbed to the frame.

In this shot, you can see the separate "Service" side panel. Note in the back
the tab holding the other side panel in place.

The Gen 4 version of the body eliminates the separate side panels.

These side panels are missing from the Gen 4 version. Two fewer pieces to manufacture and assembles means a little more to the bottom line. I do wonder how many pieces of the tow truck were left over.  If the side panel slots were one the frame, I would have guessed all of them.

But there are no slots, so these frames were made from a modified stamper. Perhaps there were some bins of the yellow tow truck parts that needed to be used up.

And there's another mystery. The Gen 4 tow truck doesn't have the crank, string or hook. These were always early casualties with this toy (even the Gen 2 version). It would have been cheaper to simply leave these parts out and let the child's imagination supply them.

Is that what Shioji did?  I'm not sure -- yet.