I hope everyone will watch this video.
Constantinople's Gypsies Not Welcome in Istanbul - TIME
Hey there, so for two reasons I’m moving my personal blog to www.peterjaques.com. First, I’d like to separate my personal ramblings from my professional website. Second, I’m tired of maintaining my own blog software (Movable Type), so I’m letting Blogger do it for me. So this will likely be my last post here. Please go to www.peterjaques.com from now on.
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Thanks
Hi everyone— As some of you already know, my vehicle was burglarized last Saturday night while I was inside playing a gig in West Oakland (California). Among the many things stolen, the two most important are two clarinets I love very much. I’m asking your help in tracking them down. I know many of you aren’t in the area, but apparently stolen instruments are often fenced on ebay or craigslist now, which means they can end up anywhere in the country. If you are in the area, and you find yourself at a flea market, secondhand store, or the like, please have a look around, as these are apparently nowadays the most common place to find stolen instruments. My phone number is 415-867-9260 (or 415-574-5829), please call anytime.
Unfortunately I don’t have serial numbers for either one, but here’s the most detailed description I can give of them:
Amati G (Turkish) clarinet, Albert/Oehler system. Two months old. I THINK the serial number is 5244, but that’s just from memory. It’s in a hardshell plastic case, with the pivot missing from the left hand hinge. The most distinguishing characteristic is that I’d sanded the inside of the cup in the bell (where the lower joint gets inserted), and instead of being black, there are red streaks visible. Also, the left hand G#/C# key (which plays concert D#/A#) squeaks noticeably. This instrument has been my inspiration and joy for the last two months (since I bought it) and it’s devastating to have lost it.Case lining is red. It has two barrels, an Amati mouthpiece with Rovner (black vinyl) ligature. There was a four-reed case inside, with Barre-Mec #1 reeds (could be a Rico in there too).
Eb (sopranino) clarinet, also Albert system. In a tiny wooden case (about 16”x4”x4”) covered in whatever that fake leather stuff is) with yellow foam pieced together as dividers between the pieces. There was a two-reed case with (I believe) La Voz reeds, and a small box of cork grease.
Please pass this information along to friends, especially musician friends who might find themselves in music stores.
Thank you very much, Peter Jaques 415-867-9260 or 574-5829
my 35 hour escapade home: The Turkish airport bus is the only competent transit agency between Istanbul & Oakland. 30 minutes sharp from Taksim to Atatürk Havalimani. Turkish Airways wasn’t honestly that bad except for being late taking off, thereby compressing my 35 minute layover even more. Made it, miraculously, to the next gate in Rome just in time to get in line. They boarded us, and we sat. Turns out someone had checked 2 bags & then never gotten on the plane, so they had to find those bags & remove them. By then we’d missed our window for flying over France & had to wait for another permission. Arrived very late to Chicago, by which time they’d lost my bags (perhaps that was Turkish Air’s fault too) & i’d missed my flight to San Jose. They put me on the next flight to San Jose three hours later, which put me arriving after 11pm, too late to catch public transit to Oakland, and I didn’t have anyone’s phone numbers to call for a ride, so I camped out behind a church, in short sleeves (since, remember, I didn’t have my bags) till 5am & caught the first bus, first subway to Berkeley then. Nice breakfast with real coffee… now i’m decompressing a little.
I’ll perhaps write about my actual time in Istanbul soon, but for now I’m gonna lay low.
From slashdot:
“The folks at Open Voting Foundation got their hands on a Diebold AccuVote TS touchscreen voting machine. They took it apart (pictures here), and found the most serious security flaw ever discovered in this machine. A single switch is all that is required to cause the machine to boot an unverified external flash instead of the builtin verified EEPROM.”
For those baffled by jargon: it’s really easy, by flipping one switch and inserting a single chip, to start up one of these machines with any program you like. The implication is that it would be very easy to commit massive voter fraud, by making a program that looks like the real thing, but (for example) tallies a Bush vote instead of a Kerry vote, say, half the time. Also from the article: “This model does not produce a voter verified paper trail so there is no way to check if the voter’s choices are accurately reflected in the tabulation.”
Jerks.