Bach To The Future

NO!  That Is Not A Spelling Mistake
Damn your sclerotic eyes, you miscreants, haven't I told you often enough and loudly enough that your humble scribe does NOT make typos nor spelling mistakes.  If it's there, then it's there deliberately.
     "This is a bit late in coming," I hear you quibble.  "What happened to the afternoon post on BOOJUM!?"
     Patience.  I was getting round to that, and also to explaining today's title.
     Okay, today was the 2018 event "Autumn Shades", as has been put on annually for these eleven years now, by Church Organ World in Shaw.  Art?

C.O.W.

     I only just made it in time, as your Idle Pillock Who Writes went back to sleep after the alarm went off, then the bus was late, then the bus I caught to travel to Shaw turned off to go on a long detour -
     Anyway, the day started with recitals in the showroom, followed by a trip to Holy Trinity Church and a recital on the Makin Thirlmere there, then back to the showrooms again to finish with more recitals, by which time it was 15:00 three o'clock.  I then had to catch a bus from Shaw - stop me if I get boring, won't you? - back to Royton, get a paper, catch a bus home, endure Edna slavering with joy over my return and then take her for a trot.  By which time it was nearly four, and I'm not going to start composing a post that won't get put online anytime before five, especially since - Art?

|Trapped!  Trapped by Dog On Lap
(Hence no room for laptop)

     Okay, back to C.O.W. and the Johannus LiVE organ, which I got a picture of from the front row.  Art?

     I call this "The organ that wears the skin of another" because you can plug in sampled organs from different churches, including one in Dresden made by Silverman, which Prof. Ian Tracey used to play a couple of Bach compositions on (P.I.T. was the organ player for the day, not some passing academic waylaid on the street).  This is the 'future' bit of today's title, and one wonders what Ol' Jo would make of it.*
     P.I.T. is an excellent raconteur, who gave some fascinating and often amusing insights into both composers and organists.  Apparently Silverman hated Bach, and wouldn't allow him to play on any of his organs, because Ol' Johan Sebastian was a demon on the organ.  He would play them to the limits of their physical capacity, possibly to see if he could break them, as he frequently did.  Art?

Ol' Jo totally rocking the keyboards manuals

     Okay, time to move on, though we shall be coming back to this topic.  O yes indeed.
     It only remains for us to see if this 237 foot Victorian mill chimney has any blockages by dropping the motley down it!**

Divisional Histories
Switching from the sublime to the quite ghastly in places, your modest artisan went back to the Long, Long Trail website - which you ought to visit - and checked their list of Divisional Histories for the army of Perfidious Albion in the First Unpleasantness.
     It has been several years since I compiled a list of which divisions had a history published and which didn't, and it was worthwhile going back, as another six have been added to the "Published" list.  This is both good and bad news: good because it moves us closer to the total of <thinks> 64 divisions which fought, and bad because - O Noes! - that's another six more volumes to (eventually) acquire.  £££, don't you know.

Did I say £££?  I meant ££££££££££££££

     Take a gander at that diagram above.  I think there are about 47 published divisional histories.  Brigade's official histories are far less common, and if they exist tend to be from their parent division's Artillery brigades.  There are an Imperial ton of battalion and regimental histories, not all of which are modern reprints, in which case you're paying £££ for the originals.
     If you speak/read French or German, then the amount of works available is probably multiplied by four.***  Egad!

While my wallet gently weeps

     I can't leave on such a grim and forbidding topic, can I?  Let's brighten up the blog with LITHIUM WAFER BATT- no let's not.  Thermonuclear warhead design?  Exotic poisons of Classical Greece?  Prime number theorems?

Oh, let's just go with 'Trains Versus Zombies', a sub-culture sub-genre you never knew or cared about until BOOJUM! unearthed it.  Art?

Some people -

     - have entirely too much time on their hands.  And yes, I know this is howlingly ironic coming from myself and the blog.
     Incidentally, did you notice we'd changed fonts again?  This is Arial.  Just to see what it looks like.



*  "Demons!" he would say, exorcising them by playing the machine to death.
**  Don't worry, there'll only be some soot.  And bird's nests.  And small shrubs.  And giant spiders sitting in equally giant webs, dining on the bodies of the birds they've caught -
***  Did I say ££££££££££££££?  I meant £££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££