John Cage on his project

 Our intention is to affirm this life, not to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply to wake up to the very life we're living, which is so excellent once one gets one's mind and one's desires out of its way and lets it act of its own accord. 

1 30 2021

 It was rainy at sunrise, so no go there.  

Later on in the day it was essentially a perfect day -- in the 60s, a great day to keep windows open and enjoy the fresh air.  

===

Worked a bit on removing a broken gate.  It appears a cold front is coming in so repairs and replacements will have to wait. for a nicer stretch of weather when I have the time.  

1 29 2021

The dawn featured lovely pinks.

To always accept change is to forfeit progress

G.K. Chesterton:

 It is true that a man (a silly man) might make change itself his object or ideal.  But as an ideal, change itself becomes unchangeable.  If the change-worshipper wishes to estimate his own progress, he must be sternly loyal to the ideal of change; he must not begin to flirt gaily with the ideal of monotony. Progress itself cannot progress.

1 28 2021

 I saw the sunrise.  It was a very good, expansive one. 

Stuckness

 Listening to Robert Pirsig NPR interview from back in the 70s.

He made an interesting point about "stuckness."  The clouds are particularly beautiful in those moments -- if you stop what you are doing and look.  Stuckness is a special type of moment when the world is very real.  

He elaborates that stuckness is a special type of non-doing and that is a problem in a culture trained for doing. 

Mottos and Mastheads

 G.K. Chesterton: 

The morbid logician seeks to make everything lucid, and succeeds in making everything mysterious.  The mystic allows one thing to be mysterious, and everything else becomes lucid. 

Similar point made by Pirsig about Quality.   If you let there be a mystery premise, you can build from there.  Back to Chesterton: 

 He puts the seed of dogma in a central darkness; but it branches forth in all directions with abounding natural health. 

My dogmas in the center are the ones I use on the masthead above (at least of the time of this writing).  I try to live by creation rather than consumption and giving rather than selling.  

1 27 2021

 The dawn was lovely in a very subtle way.  That is part of this whole looking out every day thing, however; it is an exercise in seeing.

===

I have not been playing with music as much.  I did scale work play on our keyboard last night, but I haven't been learning new songs.  Instead, I am dusting off my Spanish.  I'm pretty amazed that I have the mental energy to do this after work, and I am certainly monitoring for the early signs of discomfort as I would really like to not burn out.  

I have given up on learning oh so many languages, but I Spanish useful and beautiful enough that I think I should keep at it, at least get the next 1/3 million words read to hit my first million words read and go from there to see how much more needs to be done.

I have started with Anki again, this time using a large Spanish sentence deck, set to as little as 5 cards at a time.  

=== 

Sunset?  Yup.  Orange-y. 

1 26 2021

 A great sunrise.  At first I thought it was just going to be a band of rose, but compared to what I had been seeing, even that was a welcome change.  As it was, the sunrise developed over time.  It is cold outside, so I just turned off lights in the house to make the view better.  This caused some consternation with my wife as she was trying to go through her morning routine, but ultimately I think she understood. 

===

Sunset?  Yes. 

1 25 2021

 Yet another sunrise dud -- it is nice that I keep showing up, however. 

==

Sunset majoring in yellows at first and then moved into the clouds to great effect -- all sorts of colors.  

I found out that Saturday's sunrise, which I missed because I was talking to my wife, was good.  At least the person telling me that was able to enjoy it with his daughter. 

Right Before Newton. . .

While the time of Newton and Leibniz is absolutely exciting, they had predecessors that laid the ground work. 

Reading about Isaac Barrow is a trip.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Barrow

Isaac went to school first at Charterhouse (where he was so turbulent and pugnacious that his father was heard to pray that if it pleased God to take any of his children he could best spare Isaac), and subsequently to Felsted School, where he settled and learned under the brilliant puritan Headmaster Martin Holbeach who ten years previously had educated John Wallis.

And (!!!) 

He spent the next four years travelling across France, Italy, Smyrna and Constantinople, and after many adventures returned to England in 1659. He was known for his courageousness. Particularly noted is the occasion of his having saved the ship he was upon, by the merits of his own prowess, from capture by pirates. 

The links in the first block quote also start building out the world of thinker-mathemetecian-(and at that time always) theologians.  The birth of our world of numbers, data, and models grew out the religious world.  No big meaning to attach to that at the moment, just a fact.  

Also, Barrow was the first person to be the now-famed Lucias Chair at Cambridge, but gave it up six years later so Newton could hold it.  Imagine someone giving up an academic post so someone else, even someone more brilliant, could take it.  A very different world indeed! 

1 24 2021

 I now have proof that there are sunrises that are complete duds no matter where you are looking.  Today there was quite a bit of clouds and even some fog.  Still, I headed out to the Walmart parking lot to give myself a chance.  

I committed the additional sin of leaving the car on for heat and listening to the radio.  

===

Around sunset time there was some limited purpling, but the cloud cover remained all day, though the fog seemed to lift.  I didn't go a chasing the sunset. 

Back up of Metamodernist Manifesto

 I sure would hate to lose this, so I back it up. 

Attribution:  Luke Turner, 2011.  Originally at  http://www.metamodernism.org/ 

===

METAMODERNIST // MANIFESTO

1.We recognise oscillation to be the natural order of the world.

2.We must liberate ourselves from the inertia resulting from a century of modernist ideological naivety and the cynical insincerity of its antonymous bastard child.

3.Movement shall henceforth be enabled by way of an oscillation between positions, with diametrically opposed ideas operating like the pulsating polarities of a colossal electric machine, propelling the world into action.

4.We acknowledge the limitations inherent to all movement and experience, and the futility of any attempt to transcend the boundaries set forth therein. The essential incompleteness of a system should necessitate an adherence, not in order to achieve a given end or be slaves to its course, but rather perchance to glimpse by proxy some hidden exteriority. Existence is enriched if we set about our task as if those limits might be exceeded, for such action unfolds the world.

5.All things are caught within the irrevocable slide towards a state of maximum entropic dissemblance. Artistic creation is contingent upon the origination or revelation of difference therein. Affect at its zenith is the unmediated experience of difference in itself. It must be art’s role to explore the promise of its own paradoxical ambition by coaxing excess towards presence.

6.The present is a symptom of the twin birth of immediacy and obsolescence. Today, we are nostalgists as much as we are futurists. The new technology enables the simultaneous experience and enactment of events from a multiplicity of positions. Far from signalling its demise, these emergent networks facilitate the democratisation of history, illuminating the forking paths along which its grand narratives may navigate the here and now.

7.Just as science strives for poetic elegance, artists might assume a quest for truth. All information is grounds for knowledge, whether empirical or aphoristic, no matter its truth-value. We should embrace the scientific-poetic synthesis and informed naivety of a magical realism. Error breeds sense.

8.We propose a pragmatic romanticism unhindered by ideological anchorage. Thus, metamodernism shall be defined as the mercurial condition between and beyond irony and sincerity, naivety and knowingness, relativism and truth, optimism and doubt, in pursuit of a plurality of disparate and elusive horizons. We must go forth and oscillate!

1 23 2021

 I didn't do the sunrise today.  I actually got up with my alarm -- 6:33 [1],  but my wife wanted me to stay and talk, and so I did.  

[1] Chosen to be a multiple of 3, but not of 9.  That's just a little number game I play.  When I warm up food in the microwave, I also try to follow the same rule.

===

No to sunset.  

I ended up doing quite a bit of writing today, but all for private consumption.  

Strangely enough, this switch in format to me blogging a lot of very small pieces frequently coincides with me becoming a more private person. 

1 22 2021

 Sunrise was a dud again.  It must have something to do with my angels and what is obstructed.  

===

Just knowingly skipped the sunset.  Some times I just want to rest. 

1 21 2021

 I looked out at the right spot at the right time for the sunrise, but it was a dud.

===

At 4:44 there were beautiful streaks of nebula pink in the Western horizon.  

Another round of laying down with a good angle on the sunset.  Work exhausts me as ever.

The sunset majored in whites and yellows creating a heaven effect and it moved into some pinks during the die down3 

1 20 2021

 The clouds didn't catch color as they often do before the sunrise as they sometimes do, but I don't consider the time and attention wasted as I think it is on the whole a good ritual.  

===

Sunset? Yes.  

===

I can actually play the strings correctly on Plucky using my fingers pressing on the frets instead of using a slide.  I think I'll start developing string-player callouses on my left hand. 

1 19 2021

 My insomnia afforded me a good, long cuddle with my favorite cat before the sunrise, which I saw.  

===

I have a couch by the window where I can watch sunsets laying down, at least this time of year.  

===

Learning some Itsy-Bitsy Spider on both Plucky and Jack (we're going to shorten Jack's Can Guitar to just Jack).  I'm getting sound from the 15th fret just fine, if not 16.  It makes me wonder if I really need that second string on Jack, or if I need to bother with making any more one stringers any time soon -- I have some just novelty stuff to do, like try to make a one out a big popcorn tin that we got for Christmas. 

My wife said "music is the constant creation."  A nice little aphorism. 

Insomnia Edition

 I woke up around 2:30 AM and couldn't get back to sleep.  

So, game plan with music:

• Use noob notes to collect a bunch of melodies from songs I know and love.  
• Learn them on the keyboard.
• Figure out how to play them on one or two-string set ups (currently Jack's bass.  I have two more strings to make another one -- sink the resonator can so that I can have frets). 
• Learn how to read sheet music.
• Collect melodies that work in the range of the one-string set up. Draw much from traditional and folk music
• I will then be my own jukebox. 
• THEN if I want to get intricate, I can do so on the keyboard.

1 18 2021

 Sunrise?  Nope.  

I stayed up a little late working on untitled SPAM project to the point of stringing it and playing around, but not yet finding where the frets go.  

I like the sound of the thing, but this aint you grandad's SPAM box.  The tin is really, really thin and the inside is actually plastic.  The force of strings under tension is pulling the box in on itself with big dents that have the strings as their center.  I'm going to play around with it and see if this is a failure mode, either with total collapse or an inability to keep the strings in tune for long.  

So I am abandoning the name Spamjo because I am not sure that will be the resonator for all that long. Also, Porky is not a good name.  And having spent the last few days with the SPAM food product, I don't believe it rises to the level of pork. 

Since I the wood I used for the neck and a little base to make it easier prop up came from something from a neighbor, I think I'm going to name it Jack's guitar. 

===

My wife agreed that the sound to the thing was great, so we had some fun playing around on Jack's guitar.   Because the one of the strings was nice and thick my wife had flashbacks to her cello days.  

I thought it might be neat to have both strings the thick, lower note bits.  Well, in trying to get the tension on the string it pulled through the hole in the SPAM resonator. . . So much for that.  

That leaves a one string instrument that sounds pretty good, but I already had a one string; I was wanting to get two string to increase my range to all of the pop melodies I've been collecting.  So back to the drawing board.  Time to take a break from making -- at least from making instruments.  

===

Tore out the SPAM resonator -- oh, what a saga that was!  I put a flat used cat food can.  It is obviously less powerful of a resonator, but much easier to mount.  

I'm pretty happy with Jack's Can Guitar -- final name for the project. 

===

Saw in meme form: art is how we decorate space, music is how we decorate time. 

===

Saw that the sunset was doing that special space nebula thing, so I sat outside and working on finding my frets on Jack's Can Guitar while watching.  I might become that guy who plays music on the porch -- wouldn't that be an interesting type of guy to be? 

1 17 2021

 Slept in, so I missed the sunrise.  I stayed up a bit late cutting that plank for untitled SPAM project -- it'll either get the label Spamjo or Porky. But sometimes something has to exist before you can give it a name. 

The bird song is really something right now. 

===

I just came up with a way to think about normies: 

It is a fractal universe, always another layer to be found, but normies are just stuck on one level of description -- often one aspect of one level of description.  

This isn't bad -- some of these are narratives are those of saintly good -- it's just thin.

===

Beautiful blue sky today acting as perfect frame for the clouds.  Just an endless pleasure to look at.  

===

Easy to catch the sunset when I am working in my garage with the door open, often facing out as I work.  

Decent sunset. 

Thomas Müntzer

 The book I am reading introduced me to Thomas Müntzer, who counter-intuitively was the first Lutheran (since he took on the label, which Martin Luther did not).  

Holy crap, this guy was a radical personified. 

He and Cola di Rienzo show there was no lack of people with the abilities and psychological traits to create extreme change before the eras of extreme change.  Rather, context had its part to play. 

1 16 2021

 I could tell it was going to be a brilliant sunrise, so I went to the Walmart parking lot -- my go-to place for a wide view.  The view did not disappoint.  At one point a Coke delivery truck parked right in my line of sight, so I had to move, but no matter. 

===

I had bought some SPAM because I saw videos of people using the rectangular can to make a good resonator for string instruments.  I sizzled some up and then added eggs to make a scramble. 

I can see how someone might acquire a taste for it, but I am not in love with it.  A "what is this?" signal keeps going up my nervous system when I get too big a bite of Spam without enough compensating egg. 

===

I think what I have been learning on the keyboard fits well with today: a section of Oh, What a Beautiful Morning from the musical Oklahoma -- yes I know you want me to link to Hugh Jackman singing this.

Oh, what a beautiful morning

Oh, what a beautiful day

I've a got a wonderful feeling 

Everything's going my way

If I am going to play this on a string instrument (at least in the key it is written) I think I'm going to need a second string to increase my range I can pick.  So, I better keep working on eating that SPAM.  I want to build another string instrument for under $2 soon.   

===

The cloud cover stayed all day, leading to a glorious sunset as well.  My wife and I went to the location where we can get a good view of sunsets.  It's good to know these things in advance. 

===

Emptied the SPAM out into a bowl and put it in the refrigerator so I could clean out the can.  I started cutting out some a strip of wood to be the head stock. It was from a piece a neighbor had given me, knowing my hobby and that he just wanted to throw it out anyway. 

 After discussing the matter with my wife, I am going to be conservative and try to make a 2-string instrument out of the spam can because I have seen examples of that before, but never one as a 3-string.  Why take the risk?  I only need a few more half-steps of range to play the rest of the songs I currently want.  This means I'll have to save making a three string for another later, and unless I want to disassemble Diddley One, Plucky, or untitled SPAM project, I'll need to buy some more strings -- $5-$10.  What am I made of money? 

Catch up on sunrise and sets

I didn't let the internet fast stop me from noticing sunrises and sunsets.  I made a chart on a piece of paper.  Here is what I recorded: 

Day       Sunrise         Sunset

M              y                   n

T              y                    n

W            y                     y

Th           n                     y

F            y                     y

So happens that today's sunset was the most glorious of the bunch.  Such great purples available at almost any angle.  

Internet Fast

 I plan on taking a fast from non-work internet the next work week.  

I don't have a phone that can do internet, so at least I don't have the "before I get up, as I go to sleep" habit to fight.  I tend to do mostly school work at school, so even that isn't a week spot.  I need to just turn off my computer I use at home 

What the world really needs

(Must admit certain *ahem* news events at the Capitol got me to break my YouTube fast.  At least I saw this.  On to the next fast. . .) 

1 10 2020

 This time the cat stayed on me, and I did indeed miss sunrise.  

==

I have given the following names to my homemade one-string instruments: Diddly One and Plucky (because it with the bridge lower it can be played very closely to a guitar whereas Diddly One can only be played with a slide).  

I figured out the frets for Baby Shark.  My God, that sounds good (at least in the annoying spirit of the song) on Diddly One. 

1 9 2021

 I thought I was going to miss the sunrise for the adorable reason that a cat got on me shortly after I got up and settled in for some reading and writing.  

But the cat in question got up just in time.  From the first look I got outside one cloud was so positioned as to go pastel pink.  Turned out that when I got another angle -- went to make coffee -- it was two clouds, but the composition was better the first way, a kind of metaphor about uniqueness.  

==

While we were driving, I got to see the most glorious sunset of the year so far, and it was one of the best ways to see it as there was good, open land where we were driving.

1 8 2021

 Sunrise -- looking outside, but no effects.  No pinks, yellows, etc.  Did I know it could do that?  Have I been seeing many more sunrises than I thought and just not registering the crap ones? 

Should I learn to notice better and see more levels of subtle beauty?  Probably. 

==

Ghostly hues of washed-out yellows for the pre-sunset.  

==

Keyboard -- working on "King of the Road." 

1 7 2021

 Play: recorder.  Still very much in the frequent squeaky notes phase.

Also keyboard.   

1 5 2021

 Sunrise? Yup.  A little thin, but nice.  

It's almost like writing about this every day has brought it to my attention, and increased my likelihood of noticing it. 

===

Along with the keyboard, my mother-in-law gave us some very easy song books, the type with large print with the letters written in the bubbles of the notes.  I'll be working through those for the foreseeable future.  

The first song I've been working on out of that collection is "Always on My Mind"

My bench might have been cat proof, but it was not "play music on a rug that has patterns sticking up" proof.  Partly the screws I used didn't go deep enough.  I repaired the joint in question by using glue and decently longer nails to go in.  

===

Sunset?  Nope.  I was looking at the set up, but got to working on something and forgot until too late.  The cloud cover was nice, so I bet it was a decent one I missed.  I feel a bit saddened by that.  Regrets. 

1 4 2021

 My sunrise streak ended at one.  I had one last day off, so I slept in until 9:00, making up for the absurdity of waking up early yesterday. 

The bench/saw horse I finished yesterday is holding up well under the cat test.  Cat-levels of jumps don't make it rock.  A human can, but they have to really try.  Now I have two benches, so I can cut sheet goods much more easily, and I can have one sitting near the door of the garage to make it extra convenient when I wish to go outside to saw or sand.

===

I started thinking about work tomorrow and then got highly frustrated when I realized there was a bit much more complex than I had previously imagined.  My wife suggested I go the trails, and so I did so with a notebook and towel in my backpack.  I stopped cleared my head and stopped several times to write notes.  The sunlight and the perspective really helped improve my mood.  

Also the way the wind blew made the water of the pond lap up against one of my favorite spots.  I recall sitting there shortly after I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for the first time -- in spite of the title, it is quite the book to help open your eyes to reality around you.  I sat there that day for a long, long time, smiled and said "this is so much better than television."  

You have to be able to see for yourself to be able to dream for yourself.  Go back to the source. 

===

I've been seeing a lot of pigeons in my back yard lately.  I'm really digging them. 

==

Sunset? Yes.  A bit weak, but there were some pink clouds on the opposite sky.

Books Read 2021

The Odyssey.  Homer.
Tuck Everlasting.   Natalie Babbitt.
BIP 2013.  Discordians.
The Unreformed Martin Luther. Andreas Malessa.
Where the Heart Beats. Kay Larson.
Orthodoxy.  G.K. Chesterton. 
The Shadow King. Lauren Johnson. 
Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him. Tracy Borman.
We Have No Idea. Cham and Whiteson.
Life and Writings of Sir Thomas More.  T.E. Bridgett.
Martin Luther. Eric Metaxas.
The Secret Life of Groceries.  Benjamin Lorr.
Apocalypse Never. Michael Shellenberger
The Man Who Invented Fiction.  William Egginton
The 1500s: Headlines in History. 
The 1600s: Headlines in History
Oliver Cromwell.  Theodore Roosevelt.     
Hume's History of England, Vol F. 
The Inimitable Jeeves.  Wodehouse.    
The Age of Genius. A.C. Grayling
Curiosity.  Philip Ball.
Newton and the Counterfeiter. Thomas Levenson.
When You Trap a Tiger. Tae Keller.
The Code of the Woosters.  Wodehouse
Frederick the Great. Tim Blanning
The 1700s: Headlines in History
An Essay on Man.  Alexander Pope.
Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf.    Jennifer L. Holm
Four Lost Cities. Annalee Newitz
Letters on the English. Voltaire.
Fire and Light. James MacGregor Burns. 
Very Good, Jeeves.  Wodehouse.
The True History of the American Revolution.   Sydney George Fisher.
Evening in the Palace of Reason.  James R. Gaines 
Candide. Voltaire. 
Forgotten Founder, Drunken Prophet. Bill Kauffman
Revolution. Peter Ackroyd.
The Lady and Her Monsters.  Roseanne Montillo.
Romanticism: A German Affair. Rüdiger Safranski
Andrew Jackson.  Don Yaeger and Brian Kilmeade. 
American Lion.  Jon Meacham
A Country of Vast Designs. Robert W. Merry    
Dominion. Peter Ackroyd.
Opium: Reality's Dark Dream. Thomas Dormandy
Underbug.  Lisa Margonelli
Friedrich Nietzsche. Curtis Cate
Friedrich Nietzsche. Georg Brandes

1 3 2021

 I wouldn't have thought that it would be a sunrise I would have seen first rather than a sunset this year, but there you have it.  It was a good sunrise, as those go, which made me think what makes me prefer sunsets so much.  

A bit of science to the rescue, highly recommended if you are a sunset aficionado -- or even one of those hip, contrarian fans of the sunrise. 

===

My wife and I enjoyed putting together the first shelving unit for the garage yesterday that we did the other one today right after we did our grocery shopping. 

===

I was working the garage so I saw the sunset all the way from development to finish. Meh. Not much cloud cover so it didn't do much.  

Charles V, Emperor of the Road

One thing I've been interested by in studying this time period is what a mess the Holy Roman Empire was.  

From La Wik:

Charles V revitalized the medieval concept of the universal monarchy and spent most of his life defending the integrity of the Holy Roman Empire from the Protestant Reformation, the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, and a series of wars with France.  With no fixed capital city, he made 40 journeys, travelling from country to country; he spent a quarter of his reign on the road

1 2 2021

 I found that my canjo only stays in tune if it is laying flat -- picking it up and playing it like a guitar either muffles or moves the can resonator, or both.  To solve this, I found a small block of scrap 2 by 4, cut that in half using a miter box and hand saw then put those under the thing to make legs.  

This makes it a table top instrument which engages all of my stabilizing and movement muscles in my hands and arms in different ways -- some of that variety which I hear is the spice of live and all that.  

I should back up a bit.  As I recently decided to learn music and started doing my research, it seemed like simple string instruments -- one to three strings -- were the way to go.  I do love minimalism and I had dreams of a minimal musical system with home made cigar box guitars and a recorder to use to tune them -- and, you know, play songs on.  I have just a set up now, but in my enthusiasm for the idea got my wife wanting a keyboard, which led me to almost buying one until we told my mother-in-law which prompted her to ask us to take her old keyboard off her hands.  For under $20, I now have four instruments  I am learning to play -- flat canjo, one string guitar, recorder, and keyboard.  I can play "Mary had a Little Lamb" on all of them.  If my friends could see me now . . . 

I have made a curated YouTube playlist with some videos about three string, two string, and one string instruments.  I am shooting for this being my last time on YouTube for a while, unless I am searching for something and it comes up as the most plausible way to learn.  

===

Beginning to put up shelves in the garage to get it organized.  But it is a massive Tetris problem to create enough room to work to set up the first shelve unit.  But once that is done, I should be able to clear up enough space to make the other one much easier.  

Hume on Richard III (and notes)

From Hume's History of England. 

Hume was not a fan: 

Never was there in any country a usurpation more flagrant than that of Richard, or more repugnant to every principle of justice and public interest. His claim was entirely founded on impudent allegations, never attempted to be proved; some of them incapable of proof, and all of their implying scandalous reflections on his own family, and on the persons with whom he was the most nearly connected. His title was never acknowledged by any national assembly, scarcely even by the lowest populace to whom he appealed; and it had become prevalent merely for want of some person of distinction, who might stand forth against him, and give a voice to those sentiments of general detestation which arose in every bosom. Were men disposed to pardon these violations of public right, the sense of private and domestic duty, which is not to be effaced in the most barbarous times, must have, begotten an abhorrence against him; and have represented the murder of the young and innocent princes, his nephews, with whose protection he had been intrusted, in the most odious colors imaginable. To endure such a bloody usurper seemed to draw disgrace upon the nation, and to be attended with immediate danger to every individual who was distinguished by birth, merit, or services. Such was become the general voice of the people; all parties were united in the same sentiments; and the Lancastrians, so long oppressed, and of late so much discredited, felt their blasted hopes again revive, and anxiously expected the consequences of these extraordinary events. The duke of Buckingham, whose family had been devoted to that interest, and who, by his mother, a daughter of Edmund, duke of Somerset, was allied to the house of Lancaster, was easily induced to espouse the cause of this party, and to endeavor the restoring of it to its ancient superiority. Morton, bishop of Ely, a zealous Lancastrian, whom the king had imprisoned, and had afterwards committed to the custody of Buckingham, encouraged these sentiments; and by his exhortations the duke cast his eye towards the young earl of Richmond, as the only person who could free the nation from the tyranny of the present usurper.

He will not brook defenders: 

The historians who favor Richard (for even this tyrant has met with partisans among the later writers) maintain, that he was well qualified for government, had he legally obtained it; and that he committed no crimes but such as were necessary to procure him possession of the crown: but this is a poor apology, when it is confessed, that he was ready to commit the most horrid crimes which appeared necessary for that purpose; and it is certain, that all his courage and capacity, qualities in which he really seems not to have been deficient, would never have made compensation to the people for the danger of the precedent, and for the contagious example of vice and murder exalted upon the throne. This prince was of a small stature, humpbacked, and had a harsh, disagreeable countenance; so that his body was in every particular no less deformed than his mind

I read to the book -- really, only one volume of the book --  to figure things out about the development of government, the implicit and living (rather than explicit) constitution of England.  Hume did not disappoint me.  The same concerns were often at the front of his mind.  

The gradual progress of improvement raised the Europeans somewhat above this uncultivated state; and affairs, in this island particularly, took early a turn which was more favorable to justice and to liberty. Civil employments and occupations soon became honorable among the English: the situation of that people rendered not the perpetual attention to wars so necessary as among their neighbors, and all regard was not confined to the military profession: the gentry, and even the nobility, began to deem an acquaintance with the law a necessary part of education: they were less diverted than afterwards from studies of this kind by other sciences; and in the age of Henry VI., as we are told by Fortescue, there were in the inns of court about two thousand students, most of them men of honorable birth, who gave application to this branch of civil knowledge: a circumstance which proves, that a considerable progress was already made in the science of government, and which prognosticated a still greater.

His thoughts on some of the antecedents

The ancient Saxons, like the other German nations, where each individual was inured to arms, and where the independence of men was secured by a great equality of possessions, seem to have admitted a considerable mixture of democracy into their form of government, and to have been one of the freest nations of which there remains any account in the records of history. After this tribe was settled in England, especially after the dissolution of the heptarchy, the great extent of the kingdom produced a great inequality in property; and the balance seems to have inclined to the side of aristocracy. The Norman conquest threw more authority into the hands of the sovereign, which, however, admitted of great control; though derived less from the general forms of the constitution, which were inaccurate and irregular, than from the independent power enjoyed by each baron in his particular district or province. The establishment of the Great Charter exalted still higher the aristocracy, imposed regular limits on royal power, and gradually introduced some mixture of democracy into the constitution. But even during this period, from the accession of Edward I. to the death of Richard III., the condition of the commons was nowise eligible: a kind of Polish aristocracy prevailed; and though the kings were limited, the people were as yet far from being free. It required the authority almost absolute of the sovereigns, which took place in the subsequent period, to pull down those disorderly and licentious tyrants, who were equally averse from peace and from freedom, and to establish that regular execution of the laws, which, in a following age, enabled the people to erect a regular and equitable plan of liberty. In each of these successive alterations, the only rule of government which is intelligible, or carries any authority with it, is the established practice of the age, and the maxims of administration which are at that time prevalent and universally assented to.

To understand history, and abstract principles from it, reveals how foolish blind ancestor worship truly is:

Those who, from a pretended respect to antiquity, appeal at every turn to an original plan of the constitution, only cover their turbulent spirit and their private ambition under the appearance of venerable forms; and whatever period they pitch on for their model, they may still be carried back to a more ancient period, where they will find the measures of power entirely different, and where every circumstance, by reason of the greater barbarity of the times, will appear still less worthy of imitation. Above all, a civilized nation like the English, who have happily established the most perfect and most accurate system of liberty that was ever found compatible with government, ought to be cautious in appealing to the practice of their ancestors, or regarding the maxims of uncultivated ages as certain rules for their present conduct. An acquaintance with the ancient periods of their government is chiefly useful, by instructing them to cherish their present constitution, from a comparison or contrast with the condition of those distant times. And it is also curious, by showing them the remote, and commonly faint and disfigured originals of the most finished and most noble institutions, and by instructing them in the great mixture of accident, which commonly concurs with a small ingredient of wisdom and foresight, in erecting the complicated fabric of the most perfect government.

Hume on Edward IV (and notes)

From Hume's History of England

Now that's how a King (or even usurper) should carry himself: 

Edward entered the capital amidst the acclamations of the citizens, and immediately opened a new scene to his party. This prince, in the bloom of youth, remarkable for the beauty of this person, for his bravery, his activity, his affability, and every popular quality, found himself so much possessed of public favor, that, elated with the spirit natural to his age, he resolved no longer to confine himself within those narrow limits which his father had prescribed to himself, and which had been found by experience so prejudicial to his cause. He determined to assume the name and dignity of king; to insist openly on his claim; and thenceforth to treat the opposite party as traitors and rebels to his lawful authority. But as a national consent, or the appearance of it, still seemed, notwithstanding his plausible title, requisite to precede this bold measure, and as the assembling of a parliament might occasion too many delays, and be attended with other inconveniences, he ventured to proceed in a less regular manner, and to put it out of the power of his enemies to throw obstacles in the way of his elevation. His army was ordered to assemble in St. John’s Fields; great numbers of people surrounded them; an harangue was pronounced to this mixed multitude, setting forth the title of Edward, and inveighing against the tyranny and usurpation of the rival family; and the people were then asked whether they would have Henry of Lancaster for king. They unanimously exclaimed against the proposal. It was then demanded whether they would accept of Edward, eldest son of the late duke of York. They expressed their assent by loud and joyful acclamations. A great number of bishops, lords, magistrates, and other persons of distinction were next assembled at Baynard’s Castle, who ratified the popular election; and the new king was on the subsequent day proclaimed in London, by the title of Edward IV.

An attempt to roll it all back: 

They expressed their abhorrence of the usurpation and intrusion of the house of Lancaster, particularly that of the earl of Derby, otherwise called Henry IV.; which, they said, had been attended with every kind of disorder, the murder of the sovereign, and the oppression of the subject. They annulled every grant which had passed in those reigns; they reinstated the king in all the possessions which had belonged to the crown at the pretended deposition of Richard II.; and though they confirmed judicial deeds and the decrees of inferior courts, they reversed all attainders passed in any pretended parliament; particularly the attainder of the earl of Cambridge, the king’s grandfather; as well as that of the earls of Salisbury and Glocester, and of Lord Lumley, who had been forfeited for adhering to Richard II.

Hume, adherent of rule of law, lover of institutional stability scoffs: 

Many of these votes were the result of the usual violence of party: the common sense of mankind, in more peaceable times, repealed them: and the statutes of the house of Lancaster, being the deeds of an established government, and enacted by princes long possessed of authority, have always been held as valid and obligatory. The parliament, however, in subverting such deep foundations, had still the pretence of replacing the government on its ancient and natural basis: but in their subsequent measures, they were more guided by revenge, at least by the views of convenience, than by the maxims of equity and justice. They passed an act of forfeiture and attainder against Henry VI. and Queen Margaret and their infant son Prince Edward.

What a great passage to shed light on the time period: 

There is no part of English history since the conquest so obscure, so uncertain, so little authentic or consistent, as that of the wars between the two “roses:” historians differ about many material circumstances; some events of the utmost consequence, in which they almost all agree, are incredible, and contradicted by records; and it is remarkable, that this profound darkness falls upon us just on the eve of the restoration of letters, and when the art of printing was already known in Europe. All we can distinguish with certainty through the deep cloud which covers that period, is a scene of horror and bloodshed: savage manners, arbitrary executions, and treacherous, dishonorable conduct in all parties. 

 

Edward IV as ruler: 

But this prince, who had been so firm, and active, and intrepid during the course of adversity, was still unable to resist the allurements of a prosperous fortune; and he wholly devoted himself, as before, to pleasure and amusement, after he became entirely master of his kingdom, and had no longer any enemy who could give him anxiety or alarm. He recovered, however, by this gay and inoffensive course of life, and by his easy, familiar manners, that popularity which, it is natural to imagine, he had lost by the repeated cruelties exercised upon his enemies; and the example also of his jovial festivity served to abate the former acrimony of faction among his subjects, and to restore the social disposition which had been so long interrupted between the opposite parties. All men seemed to be fully satisfied with the present government; and the memory of past calamities served only to impress the people more strongly with a sense of their allegiance, and with the resolution of never incurring any more the hazard of renewing such direful scenes.

Hume on Henry VI (and notes)

From Hume's History of England

Henry VI

You could not afford to be this as a monarch of the time:

In proportion as Henry advanced in years, his character became fully known in the court, and was no longer ambiguous to either faction. Of the most harmless, inoffensive, simple manners, but of the most slender capacity, he was fitted, both by the softness of his temper and the weakness of his understanding, to be perpetually governed by those who surrounded him; and it was easy to foresee that his reign would prove a perpetual minority. As he had now reached the twenty-third year of his age, it was natural to think of choosing him a queen; and each party was ambitious of having him receive one from their hand, as it was probable that this circumstance would decide forever the victory between them.

You've got to love a large blocks of text on debates about the legitimate succession of power from over a half millennia ago.  I do, at least.  It 

The partisans of the house of Lancaster maintained that, though the elevation of Henry IV. might at first be deemed somewhat irregular, and could not be justified by any of those principles on which that prince chose to rest his title, it was yet founded on general consent, was a national act, and was derived from the voluntary approbation of a free people, who, being loosened from their allegiance by the tyranny of the preceding government, were moved by gratitude, as well as by a sense of public interest, to intrust the sceptre into the hands of their deliverer: that, even if that establishment were allowed to be at first invalid, it had acquired solidity by time; the only principle which ultimately gives authority to government, and removes those scruples which the irregular steps attending almost all revolutions, naturally excite in the minds of the people: that the right of succession was a rule admitted only for general good, and for the maintenance of public order; and could never be pleaded to the overthrow of national tranquillity, and the subversion of regular establishments; that the principles of liberty, no less than the maxims of internal peace, were injured by these pretensions of the house of York.

. . . 

Those strong topics in favor of the house of Lancaster, were opposed by arguments no less convincing on the side of the house of York. The partisans of this latter family asserted, that the maintenance of order in the succession of princes, far from doing injury to the people, or invalidating their fundamental title to good government, was established only for the purposes of government, and served to prevent those numberless confusions which must ensue, if no rule were followed but the uncertain and disputed views of present convenience and advantage: that the same maxims which insured public peace, were also salutary to national liberty the privileges of the people could only be maintained by the observance of laws; and if no account were made of the rights of the sovereign, it could less be expected that any regard would be paid to the property and freedom of the subject: that it was never too late to correct any pernicious precedent; an unjust establishment, the longer it stood, acquired the greater sanction and validity; it could, with more appearance of reason, be pleaded as an authority for a like injustice; and the maintenance of it, instead of favoring public tranquillity, tended to disjoint every principle by which human society was supported: that usurpers would be happy, if their present possession of power, or their continuance for a few years, could convert them into legal princes; but nothing would be more miserable than the people, if all restraints on violence and ambition were thus removed, and a full scope given to the attempts of every turbulent innovator: that time indeed might bestow solidity on a government whose first foundations were the most infirm; but it required both a long course of time to produce this effect, and the total extinction of those claimants whose title was built on the original principles of the constitution: that the deposition of Richard II., and the advancement of Henry IV., were not deliberate national acts, but the result of the levity and violence of the people, and proceeded from those very defects in human nature which the establishment of political society, and of an order in succession, was calculated to prevent: that the subsequent entails of the crown were a continuance of the same violence and usurpation; they were not ratified by the legislature, since the consent of the rightful king was still wanting; and the acquiescence, first of the family of Mortimer, then of the family of York, proceeded from present necessity, and implied no renunciation of their pretensions that the restoration of the true order of succession could not be considered as a change which familiarized the people to devolutions; but as the correction of a former abuse, which had itself encouraged the giddy spirit of innovation, rebellion, and disobedience: and that, as the original title of Lancaster stood only, in the person of Henry IV., on present convenience, even this principle, unjustifiable as it was when not supported by laws and warranted by the constitution, had now entirely gone over to the other side; nor was there any comparison between a prince utterly unable to sway the sceptre, and blindly governed by corrupt ministers, or by an imperious queen, engaged in foreign and hostile interests and a prince of mature years, of approved wisdom and experience, a native of England, the lineal heir of the crown, who, by his restoration, would replace every thing on ancient foundations.

Mind, we were still taking baby steps toward the rule of law: 

While the kingdom was in this situation, it might naturally be expected that so many turbulent barons, possessed of so much independent authority, would immediately have flown to arms, and have decided the quarrel, after their usual manner, by war and battle, under the standards of the contending princes. But there still were many causes which retarded these desperate extremities, and made a long train of faction, intrigue, and cabal, precede the military operations. By the gradual progress of arts in England, as well as in other parts of Europe, the people were now become of some importance; laws were beginning to be respected by them; and it was requisite, by various pretences, previously to reconcile their minds to the overthrow of such an ancient establishment as that of the house of Lancaster, ere their concurrence could reasonably be expected. The duke of York himself, the new claimant, was of a moderate and cautious character, an enemy to violence and disposed to trust rather to time and policy, than to sanguinary measures, for the success of his pretensions. The very imbecility itself of Henry tended to keep the factions in suspense, and make them stand long in awe of each other: it rendered the Lancastrian party unable to strike any violent blow against their enemies; it encouraged the Yorkists to hope that, after banishing the king’s ministers, and getting possession of his person, they might gradually undermine his authority, and be able, without the perilous experiment of a civil war, to change the succession by parliamentary and legal authority.

Switching to Wikipedia to finish this up.  

As the situation in France worsened, there was a related increase in political instability in England. With Henry effectively unfit to rule, power was exercised by quarrelsome nobles, while factions and favourites encouraged the rise of disorder in the country. Regional magnates and soldiers returning from France formed and maintained increasing numbers of private armed retainers, with whom they fought one another, terrorised their neighbours, paralysed the courts, and dominated the government.[1] Queen Margaret did not remain unpartisan, and took advantage of the situation to make herself an effective power behind the throne.

. . . 

Amidst military disasters in France and a collapse of law and order in England, the Queen and her clique came under accusations, especially from Henry VI's increasingly popular cousin Richard, Duke of York, of misconduct of the war in France and misrule of the country. Starting in 1453, Henry had a series of mental breakdowns, and tensions mounted between Margaret and Richard of York over control of the incapacitated King's government, and over the question of succession to the English throne. Civil war broke out in 1455.

1 1 2021

 Beautiful way to start the year with snow blanketing everything in sight.  The nasty ice storm we had had in October had the effect of pre-pruning our weak branches, so this snow could be enjoyed without undue worry. 

Play: on keyboard, recorder. 

I'm doing easy songs from a site called Noob Notes.

Why Don't You Get a Job:

https://noobnotes.net/why-dont-you-get-a-job-offspring/?solfege=false&transpose=-5

The Wheels on the Bus:

https://noobnotes.net/the-wheels-on-the-bus-traditional/?solfege=false

Round Up #34

Before I decided on my format change, I was going to space out round ups by three months and then only have 10 slots -- using this to create some selective pressure toward quality.  

As it is, the real skill of going through a value bin is learning how to sort through for what is good and useful, so I will just be sending out my findings more in the style of a fire hose.  This might therefore be the final round up post.

===

1)  So why is a ruler called a ruler, and what does it tell us about how the pre-moderns looked at political power?

2) On Sauntering, from a rightful urban descendant of Thoreau's from the 1920s. 

A kind of philosophy distills itself in the mind of the saunterer. Painfully tedious as people often are, they have the sublime quality of interesting one. Not merely by what they say, but often by what they don't say. Their eyes—how amazing is the thought of all those millions of little betraying windows! How bravely they struggle to express what is in them. A modern essayist has spoken of "the haggard necessities of parlor conversation." But the life of the streets has no such conventions. It is real: it comes hot from the pan. It is as informal, as direct and as unpretentious as the greetings of dogs. It is a never-failing remedy for the blues.

3) Newton, Defoe and Financial Bubbles. 

4) http://elizabethandrama.org/  

Indeed, though most people only think of Shakespeare when they think of Elizabethan drama, Shakespeare wrote only 37 plays (a couple in collaboration) that we know of; happily, more than 600 plays from this era survive.  This means that, for those who savor the potential exquisiteness of the English language, our ancient dramas can be the source of a lifetime worth of reading enjoyment.

5) Another maker channel I enjoy, Noho91.  He has more equipment than my gold standard, but is willing to reach down more to useful low tech hacks to help with his projects.  Representative example. 

6)  Cola di Rienzo and the basically led a 1340s French Revolution in Italy.  The difference being he lost and didn't change the arc of events in the same way. 

7)  The Sibylline Books were Roman books that they consulted at key times, Foundation style. 

8) Coooool.

9)  Great discussion of technology and its effects.

10)  I love the patter this man gives as he shows levels of complexity in drawing. 

New Year, New Format

 I am no longer limiting myself to Wednesdays.  I am not worried about how well I have incubated an idea.  Just a journal of me being creative, being frugal, and learning.  So, let's begin:

I chipped a coffee mug and made a repair with super glue.  I ended up getting a good deal of the glue on my fingers.  I used sandpaper to scrub it off, finding that a creative solution and making me perhaps less hesitant to use super glue in the future.