A Few Random Things

The Pink Insider has discovered the power of Twitter and sadly is starting to microblog there. I won't release the address yet, because I fear that I might eventually give up over here on the regular blog. There is a certain elegance to being able to write in complete sentences. Here are a few things I've posted over there already.

1. MuseScore
I am a fan of cross platform and especially open source software, even more so when it is free. When it comes to musical notation the software I use is the ridiculously expensive Sibelius. That's why I am very glad to see the marvellous MuseScore available for download. Check it out now!

2. Inuit Throat Singing
If you went on one of the Pink Singers winter weekends away a number of years ago, you may remember Fran trying to teach us how to "throat sing". Of course, having never heard it before, none of her acolytes could actually do it, so it is interesting all these years later to see a couple of pros (okay, high school girls) performing it so well.
The first thing to say is that it sounds an awful lot like burping (I have a cousin who given a can of warm Coke and a firm shake can burp through his ABCs) but in a rather controlled way, so it can create a tempo like a percussion instrument. The second thing to say is that the resonance chamber in the neck seems to fill and empty like a bullfrog. Very cool and strangely hypnotic.