Today, at the American Thinker Mike McDaniel has a post noting that The Mar-A-Logo raid was always a fraud and the American people knew it. Now, it seems, the FBI has come clean with an internal memo. So, let's see if any heads will roll.
I have not been posting much as a couple of you may have noticed. Mrs. PolyKahr has pointed out to me that I am an old fart (true), am not working (true) and especially no longer working in the government (also true.) I have no special insight anymore, nor any influence. Nobody listens to me. All true. Therefore, she concludes, I spend too much time on the computer, getting stirred up and failing to do things that I actually have control over. She is right again. So, while I have a lot to say about current events, I have kept my thoughts to myself. Which leads me to what I am doing with the time I would have spent prattling on about this or that.
I may have mentioned from time to time that I play the organ. Many years ago, when I was around 15 or so, I bought a little Thomas organ and switched from piano to organ. I haven't played any more than a scale or two on a piano since. The piano and the organ both have at least one keyboard, but the piano's keyboard is sensitive to how hard the keys are struck. This sensitivity to touch allows the pianist to create expressive music by varying how hard they strike the keys. The organ, by contrast is insensitive to how hard you strike it. Varying the loudness of the music is controlled by the expression pedal.
The Thomas organ was a portable version of their popular home organ. It broke down into three boxes, one for the manuals and controls, one for the lower pedals, expression control and speakers, and a third for the Leslie speaker. You could switch the Leslie on by pressing a switch while seated at the organ. The Leslie had rotating baffle inside that created a warbling effect simulating a tremolo. I have looked, but could not find an image of the Thomas, but the layout was like this one. Leslie was popular in the day because they also made a box for the Hammond B3, featured on such hits Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum.
I still have the books from I learned the organ. My organ teacher's marks on them indicate I switched from piano to organ in July 1968. Back then I was still trying to play the whole organ, which includes two manuals and a pedal board. Unfortunately, when I went to college, I stopped playing music and concentrated on my career. Eventually, the Thomas was sold, and I didn't touch an organ for at least 3 decades.
At some point, Mrs. PolyKahr happened on a Kimball organ for something like $100 and brought it home. I played on it some. After retirement, I started taking lessons at the local piano and organ store on a Lowery instrument. Typically, these lessons, for old farts like me, involved a song a week. While others had Lowerys to practice on, I was using the Kimball, and had trouble keeping up.
Lowery had a patent on a system whereby you pressed the key to the left had chord that you wanted to play. So, for instance, to play a "C" chord, you pressed the "C" on the lower manual. This is true for all 12 major chords. The minor chords are similar, though these require two fingers, one on the key and the other on the flatted third. So, for "C minor" you would press "C" and "E flat". These chords include the pedals. All together the available chords include most that you might need to play any popular song and a bunch of hymns as well. So, I bought a Lowery Majesty and have played that ever since.
The Majesty is what is called a Theatre organ. As such, in includes a huge number of sampled instruments and accompaniments. As wonderful as the Lowery Majesty is to play, I have always felt like I needed to go back to the roots of my desire to play the organ, which began with a Hammond C3 in church. Beneath the theatre organ overlay, there is a traditional organ in the Majesty. You can set the stops and play as a traditional organist. So, I dug out the old books, now 57 years old, and I have been reacquainting myself with playing an organ the right way. Oh, and I am having a lot of fun doing it. Perhaps in a few years I may play a voluntary at Church. Not that we need another organist at church. Our cup runneth over with talented organists.
I haven't given up entirely on this blog, I am just facing the fact that the world is going to be what it is going to be. I can only influence myself in the end.
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