Roy Lotz Music

Roy's Random Fact (2/22)

Did you know...

That the well known folk song, "Oh! Susanna" has a very seldom heard second verse?

Here's how it goes:

I jump’d aboard the telegraph and trabbeled down de ribber,
De lectrie fluid magnified, and kill’d five hundred Nigger.
De bullgine bust, de hoss ran off, I really thought I’d die;
I shut my eyes to hold my bref -- Susanna, dont you cry.

Oh! Susanna, do not cry for me;
I come from Alabama, wid my Banjo on my knee.

In fact, this "folk" song isn't really a folk song at all, but was actually written by professional songwriter Stephen Foster (1826-1854). At the time, racsist minstrel shows featuring white men dressed up in blackface were the most popular form of entertainment in America. Professional songwriters would commonly supply music for the shows, and would use incorrect English as a way of "imitating" the vernacular of the African Americans living at that time.

Stephen Foster

So now you know why the song is rarely sung after the first verse. Either that, or the performers change the lyrics, as in this performance by the 2nd south carolina (they sing "chigger", which is type of mite).

 

Also, I learned a new word today!

Flossinaucinihilipilification: The action or habbit or estimating something as worthless.

This word is mainly known as being one of the longest words in the English Language, with 29 letters. The word was created by students at the English public school Eton in the 1700s, by combining a list of latin synonyms for "nothing" (flocci, nauci, nihili) with"fication".

And, 280 years ago today, George Washington was born! I need not describe his accomplishments, but I think it's interesting to note that President's Day was this Monday even though his birthday is today. That's just because President's Day is celebrated on the third Monday of February, so we have extra long weekends year after year! Another famous individual who shares this birthday is Frederic Chopin, the famed piano virtuoso. This is one of his most famous compositions:

 

-Cheers!

 

Roy's Random Fact (2/21)

Did you know...

That contrary to appearances, the Gingko tree is more closely related to evergreens than to deciduous trees? Here's a picture of the leaf:

You probably recognize it, as it is commonly planted in city streets and parks. In evolutionary  terms, the Gingko is the oldest tree in the world, having survived nearly unaltered since the Jurassic. In Europe, prior to 1691, it was believed that the Gingko had gone extinct, but that year German explorer Engelbert Kaempfer discovered them growing in Japan. Because of it's medicinal use, the tree was tended in Chinese Buddhist monasteries since the 1100s, and spread into Korea and Japan. The Gingko tree is only one of many species that had been thought to be extinct and then rediscovered, the most famous being the Coelacanth fish:

Also, today's word is...

Exoteric-intended for, or likely to be understood by the general public.

Yes, it's the uncommonly used antonym of "esoteric". I like it, because the term itself isn't likely to be understood by anybody in the general public.

And, 181 years ago today, Andres Segovia was born. Andres Segovia was one of the most influential classical guitar virtuosos of all time. Among his many achievements, he popularized the use of finger nails to pluck the strings, as well as being one of the first to advocate using nylon strings instead of gut strings (can you believe guitar strings used to be made of gut?). And here he is playing a transcription of Bach's prelude for his cello suite in G major:

 

Cheers!

Roy's Random Fact (2/20)

Did you know...

That there are two different genetically determined types of earwax? Yes, earwax follows the classic dichotomous Mendelian pattern in having a dominant and recessive gene determining earwax type. The ‘wet type’ gene is dominant, whilst the ‘dry type’ is recessive. Wet type earwax is (as its name suggests) moist, and its color can range from light brown to dark brown. It is more common in people of European or African descent. Dry type earwax is dry and flaky, and is more grayish and blackish in color. Dry type is more common in people of Asian or Native American descent. Anthropologists have even used earwax to track migration patterns of certain populations, such as the Inuit in northern Canada. This brings me to my word of the day…

Cerumen: earwax 

A funny technical term for earwax.

Also, 45 years ago today, Kurt Cobain was born. Kurt Cobain, as part of the band Nirvana, achieved international success with their hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. Additionally, Nirvana’s second album Nevermind is consistently ranked very high on ‘best album’ lists (it’s number 17 on the Rolling Stones list). Struggling with drugs and fame, on April 5^th 1994, Cobain was found dead in his apartment from a self-inflicted shotgun wound. Thus he joined the ranks of many other famous artists like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones, and Amy Winehouse in the ’27 Club’ of artists who died at 27 years of age.

 

Cheers!

Roy's Random Fact (2/19)

Did you know...

That the song "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" by The Beatles was based on a real story? Girls known as 'Apple Scruffs' had taken to hanging out around the Apple Studios and the bandmember's appartments. One day, one of them grabbed a ladder, snuck into the second floor bathroom of Paul McCartney's house, and stole a photo of his father. As a result, McCartney wrote a song about it. Musically, this song is unusual in having only one verse before the chorus.

And here's the song! It's one of my favorites in the Abbey Road medley.

 

Also, 539 years ago today, in the Polish city of Turin, Nicolaus Copernicus was born! Copernicus is known for discovering and popularizing the knowledge that the Sun is the center of the solar system, not Earth (as was the common belief at that time). His demonstration of the heliocentric solar system in his book 'De revolutionibus orbium coelestium' (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) was one of the major sparks of the scientific revolution in Europe. 

 

Random Fact (2/16)

Did you know...

That Darwin wasn't the original naturalist on the HMS Beagle? At the time, it was customary for the ship's surgeon to also fill the position of naturalist, so Robert McKormich originally held the title. So, why was Darwin invited in the first place? Well, at this point in history it was expected that captains maintain a strict social and physical seperation from their crew. Naturally, this would leave most captains in a very lonesome predicament. To resolve this, Captain FitzRoy invited Darwin to come along for some aristocratic companionship (Darwin's family was quite well-to-do). So, if Darwin was born of a low-class family, he would never have had the chance to sail aboard the Beagle and come up with his groundbreaking theory of evolution.

Also, 178 years ago today Ernst Heinrich Haeckel was born. Haeckel was a distinguished german biologist/naturalist whose many achievements include naming thousands of species, promoting and popularizing Darwin's work in Germany, and inventing the words "ecology", "phylogeny", "ontogeny", and the kingdom "Protista". He lived until the ripe old age of 85

-Cheers!

Random Fact (2/15)

Did you know...

That broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, and brussel sprouts (among other vegetables) were all originally created from the same species of wild plant? Yep, these domestic plants all come from the wild cabbage species, Brassica oleraca. The common foods that we know of today were developed through selective breeding to emphasis different parts of the original plant: leaves = kale, flower heads = broccoli and cauliflower, buds = brussel sprouts, etc. The only other species I can think of that has been breed into a comparable variety of forms is the dog.

Also, 448 years ago on this day, Galileo Galilei was born (1564-1642). Among his many accomplishments, he made significant improvements to the telescope, discovered four of the moons of Jupiter, and championed the heliocentric (sun-centered) cosmology of Copernicus. For his outspoken advocacy of Copernicus' views, he was placed under house arrest in 1636 by the Catholic Church to live out the rest of his life.

Cheers!

Roy

Random Fact (Valentine's Day)

Hokay!

 

Did you know...

 

That, contrary to the common saying, Valentine's Day is not a "Hallmark Holiday"? The tradition of commemorating the 14th of February was started by Pope Gelasius I in 496. It was later deleted from the General Roman Calender in 1969 by Pope Paul IV.

But the first recorded association of love with Valentine's Day occured in Parliament of the Fouls by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1382. Gradually through the Middle Ages and the 'courtly love' craze, the romance's relationship with the 14th of February became secure. By 1600, Shakespeare has Ophelia referencing Valentine's Day in Hamlet. And I quoteth...

To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,
And dupp'd the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.

Eventually, with the availability of cheap printing, ready-made Valentine notes grew in popularity. The first mass produced Valentine's Day cards in America were printed and sold in 1847 by Esther Howland.

 

Another interesting fact!

Did you know that in Japan, it is customary for women to give chocolate to men? Women can do this either as a sign of romantic affection, or as an obligation to an acquintance. This practice is said to originate from a typo in a business memo of a chocolate company executive back in the 1930s. But as of the 80s, men are expected to return gifts of greater value one month later on "White Day". Japanese chocolate companies back about half of their sales during this part of the year.

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Random Fact! (2/13)

I've been thinking of doing posts like this for a while. It seems that I have a lot of not particularly useful but still somewhat interesting information kicking around, and I thought I should make it into something. So, here it goes!

Did you know....

That the Olympic Torth relay is not an ancient Greek tradition? In the ancient games, a flame was kept burning to commemorate Prometheus stealing fire from the Gods. But the torch relay was introduced in the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Carl Diem. The first relay started in Olympia, Greece, and was carried over 3,000 miles by runners that carried it 1 km each. During the relay the torch passed through Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, countries that would all be under Nazi control within the next ten years.

 

Cheers!

Word of the Day (2/2)

February: the second month of the year

    Yes, another silly word for a word of the day, but I just thought that I would explain the origin of its seemingly nonsensical spelling. You'll notice that pronouncing 'February' the way it is spelled is quite awkward (Feb-roo-air-ree). That's because there are two similar consonant sounds, "roo" and "ree", in a row. Through a process called "dissimilation" by linguists, one of these sounds (roo) was usurped by the "you" sound we now use. This also allowed the word to fit into line with the pronunciation pattern created by "January" (notice that they rhyme this way?). That's a seperate process, that linguists refer to as "analogy".

This all reminds me of a funny video...

 

Cheers!

Word of the Day (1/30)

Hey guys, I'm back! Haven't done this in a while and figured that I'd start again.

Today's word is...

Guy: a man

Now, I know that you're probably thinking, "what a silly word for the word of the day, Roy's an idiot", but I just wanted to give a little history of this word. In 1605 a group of catholic conspirators attempted to blow up the house of parliament (as referenced in "V for Vendetta"). Guy Fawkes was an ex-soldier who was recruited to guard the store of gunpowder on that fateful night, but an anonymous tip helped the British authorities capture him and prevent the explosion.

In commemoration of this "gunpowder treason" effigies of Guy Fawkes (known as guys), usually made by children and dressed up in strange clothes, were cerimonially burned on November 5th (remember?) of the following years. Later, the meaning of the word guy expanded to include any strangely dressed person. Eventually in American english, the connotation of the word was lost and the meaning expanded further to include any male.

Cheers!

Roy