h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

... because I've lost my voice and I'm definitely sick of whispering hoarsely at everyone. I'm so glad that one's typing is not affected by the state of one's larynx.

In other news, the fingers of my right hand have gone a strange purplish colour after having fingered notes on a guitar for the past two hours. The fingers of my left hand are suitably callused from seven years of violin and viola, but I'm left-handed and since I've started to play guitar I've had very painful fingers.

Hmmm, a journal entry, a scant few days after the last one, about my various aches and pains. I must be turning into BH.

Oh, and it's now only four days until my quizbowl team departs for San Antonio!

San Antonio. I lived there for several years. Enjoy.

And I hope your throat fels better soon.

Traveller in Time picking strings
"Before you leave, and your fingers as well, one has to push the button "

Ah, Hyp, you know the area, then! Is there anything besides the Alamo that we should be sure to visit?

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Nah, if that were the case it would have been a scant few hours after the last one.



az

If you play the violin right handed, why don't you play the guitar right handed?

Superglue on the fingertips?

i have been playing the guitair now for 9 months and i can probley stop buillets with the tips of my left hand

Hope you get better before the Quizbowl!

Maybe you should find a megaphone and use that to talk through. Could be your thing, you know, quirky EMR with the megaphone.


What?




Don't look at me




I 'unno *shrugs*

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Downtown:
The Paseo del Rio (RiverWalk) is the most visited tourist attraction in Texas, I believe. The observation deck on the Tower of the Americas. The Buckhorn Saloon. La Valita is a historical district. The Spanish Governor's Palace. El Mercado is a Mexican Market with lots of import shops, restaurants, an art gallery and strolling mariachis. San Fernando Cathedral where the ashes of the defenders of the Alamo are supposed to be buried. (I don't believe this one, personally.) The Japanese Sunken Gardens and the Zoo are at Brackenridge Park. The zoo is excellent. The Witte Museum is on the edge of the park. It's my favorite museum in town. The San Antonio Botanical Gardens are near there, as well.

If you have time there are the Spanish missions. If you can see only one of them, go to San Jose. It is the best preserved and is worth a visit. Course, being from California, I'm sure you've seen a lot of Spanish missions.

There are theme Parks for anyone who likes that sort of thing. Sea World and Fiesta Texas owned by Six Flags. They opened Fiesta Texas right before we moved, so I have no personal knowledge of that one, but we went to Sea World often. F loved the penguins and I always made a beeline for the otters.

Now you have me missing San Antonio again.

I'd have thought that in Quizbowl you'd get extra points for answering in semaphore.

Or Klingon. That'd work with a sore throat.

Thanks, Hyp! That certainly presents us with a lot of options.

Gnomon, due to a somewhat complicated series of events, I have a left-handed guitar. I suppose I could restring it, but that would be boring and I would lose the cool left-handedness factor. Besides, now I'm pretty good at switching back and forth. It's good to be versatile, surely.

Plus if you have two guitarists, one left and one right handed, you can stand next to eachother and either have both frets pointing out, so its like the size grows as it gets in towards the person, or you can do it the other way so that the frets point in, as if both guitarists are simultaneously pointing to the other out of praise.

Very aesthetic I think.

Like John and Paul???


az

Never seen The Beatles live because I much prefer their post Sgt. Pepper's music which they didn't tour but I imagine so, though Paul's bass was always odd looking, way to thin and long for a bass.

Was thinking more Brian May and Tony Iommi at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. Though there is a nice moment when two-right handers, May and Slash, do a guitar duo and they both keep rocking up and down and there's just a barrage of hair and noise; wonderful!

While we're here...can anyone explain to me...what *is* the point of those double-necked guitars favoured by prog-rockers? I caught a glimpse of The Eagles on telly the other night living it up at the Hotel California. A guy was playing the lower one, while the other has a capo on it, presumably for the next song. Wouldn't it be just as simple to put the capo on between songs? Or even have the guitar tech bring him a fresh guitar? (the kind of people who went for double-necks also tended to have guitar techs).

I had a roommate at university who built his own. He could have saved himself a lot of bother if he'd just gone out and bought a Magic Marker and written 'tosser' on his forehead.

Mostly I think it was just a cool look at the time, as all us men know, we are simple things. Hence why we like the idea of threesomes and women don't so much - we think "what do we like?" "woman" "what makes that better?" "er....more woman....2 woman" Same with guitars, what makes it better, more guitars.

Also though there is occasional semi-practical uses. Jon of Bon Jovi used to come up behind the lead guitarist and play one of the guitars, while the lead guitarist (whose name escapes me) played his one, yes he could have used his own but the stage performance has an aspect to it.

Sometimes as well the two guitars can be of different strings, Bon Jovi's guitarist used to often have a six and twelve string, allowing for different types of precision within song. Also have seen six string and bass guitars in one, so that you can switch between the two.

Perhaps The Eagles didn't like having roadies come on and change their guitars midset, it can look a bit sloppy. Are you sure he didn't play the one with the cappo on half way through?

Also guitars can act as a penis extension, so you know, more guitar, more manhood.

Nope. I not have them. I can't think of a single musician worth listening to who would *ever* consider playing a double-necked guitar. Did John Lydon die in vain?

(OK...Jimmy Page.)