Music from Lizzie

Long-term MBer Lizzie sent us three sound files of her playing the violin. It took us several days to convert them to blog-friendly format (sorry, Lizzie), but here they are at last: Part 1, Part 2, and Cadenza.

Here’s Lizzie’s description:

Long-term MBer Lizzie sent us three sound files of her playing the violin. It took us several days to convert them to blog-friendly format (sorry, Lizzie), but here they are at last: Part 1, Part 2, and Cadenza.

Here’s Lizzie’s description:

A few months ago, I asked the blog if anyone would be interested in
hearing a recording of my playing. Several people responded
positively, so I went off and recorded me playing the concerto I was
working on at the time, which was the first movement of Paganini
Concerto no. 1. Since the piece is about 20 minutes long and really
hard to play through well at one sitting, I split it into three parts
(the first part, the part that comes after that and approx. 50
measures of rest, and the cadenza that comes after the second part).
Hopefully, I included them all in attachments in a format that you can
open / post. The first part is probably the best, the second part
contains some really cool parts that may, alas, be slightly out of
tune (or more than slightly, but hey, I’m still a student, and I’m
getting better), and the third part the hardest and most showy (Sauret
cadenza. I swear, that man must have had a horrible childhood or
something, and had this unresolved grudge against the world of
violin-playing, and decided to get it out by writing the hardest, most
evil cadenza he could think of).

Music from the Spokane Kokonvention

During last week’s Muserly get-together, Alice, Cat’s Meow, and IBCF — all loyal members of Muse Academy’s Spector House — recorded themselves singing the house song (with lyrics by POSOC). You can hear an MP3 file of the performance by clicking right here.

WE’RE BACK again!

MuseBlog’s host company, DreamHost, seems to have solved its server problems, so it looks safe to post here again.

MuseBlog’s host company, DreamHost, seems to have solved its server problems, so it looks safe to post here again.

Meanwhile, those of you who missed the overnight-and-morning excitement should know that we’ve instituted a “lifeboat blog” that MBers can move to whenever MuseBlog goes offline. Called “Muse Academy,” it’s at http://museacademy.wordpress.com. We just threw it together and made it up as we went, but it kept us all occupied and communicating when the chips were down. We’ll leave the threads open for a little while just in case.

Whew! Now let’s hope we just have ordinary MuseBlog weirdness for a while.

Incredible Shrinking Comment Boxes

Ever since we installed the new blog software, some of you have been afflicted with comment boxes that get smaller and smaller until you can’t see what you’re trying to post.

Good news: a WordPress programmer is on the job and says he expects to solve the problem this week.

Of course, that will require another upgrade… *shudders*

You Can Start Posting Again

At least, we think so. The blog is back online, mostly, apart from the page tabs (“Who’s Here,” “What’s Here,” etc.), which we’re working on.

Meanwhile, please note the new “Who’s Talking” feature over on the right. We’re hoping that it won’t cause the same sorts of problems that “Recent Comments” did, but it’s too early to say. So keep your fingers crossed, and start blogging!

Blog Maintenance Ahead

We’ll be taking the blog offline on Thursday morning (March 13) to try some more tinkering. Anyone visiting the site will see long periods of nothing interspersed with weirdness. In the unlikely event that you are able to post, your comments will be lost. So you’ll be better off doing something else — studying, getting some fresh air and exercise, that sort of thing.

See you before and after.

We’re Back! Did You Miss Us?

The good news is that dear old MB is back online. Post away, and let’s hear how you spent your Saturdays!

Now here’s the bad news:

We didn’t manage to upgrade the software. Robert spent his Saturday trying to install three different versions of new WordPress software, each of which proved fatally flawed. As a result,

1. we haven’t been able to revive the “Recent Comments” sidebar; and

2. we’re going to have to go through the upgrade ordeal again in the near future.

The partially offsetting compensatory news is that we’ve stumbled across some new things that we think you like and plan to try them soon.

But not yet! It’s too nice a day here (and here, and here, and here).

Strange Days

At the moment, as you’ve undoubtedly noticed, MuseBlog is even weirder than usual…

At the moment, as you’ve undoubtedly noticed, MuseBlog is even weirder than usual.

We’re not sure exactly what’s going on. Apparently the blog’s software started sending too many queries to our Web host’s server, so the host company took us offline. We’re back, but the blog appears to have amnesia — either because we can’t tap into the database, or because the database has been erased.

We’re trying to restore things to what passes for normal around here. Meanwhile, we’ll open some temporary threads so that you all can keep communicating. It will be a little bare around here for a while, but MUCH better than a MB-less universe. [Not as bad as we feared. A little mopping up has solved most of the problem. –Robert]

Keep on Musing — and posting!

–The Administrators

March 2008 Incredible Morphing Chameleon Thread

Unlike the random thread, this discussion thread stays on topic until the topic changes.

Newcomers should read The Rules and The Guide before plunging in.

Current topic: Princesses (real, not fictional, and emphatically not Disney; requested by Kokonilly)
Fairy tales and Disney and such
Spelling mistakes (including one in Harry Potter)
Plans for Easter/spring break and Favorite colors