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Readers!

 

My July fund-raising campaign to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black is now over. I want to thank all those who so generously donated or subscribed, especially those who have become regular supporters. I can't do this without your help. I also find it increasingly hard to express how much your support means to me. God bless you all!

 

The donations during this year's campaign were sadly less than previous years, but for this I blame myself. I am tired of begging for money, and so I put up the campaign announcement at the start of the month but had no desire to update it weekly to encourage more donations, as I have done in past years. This lack of begging likely contributed to the drop in donations.

 

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Samara Ginsberg – Inspector Gadget for 8 cellos

An evening pause: Hat tip Jim Mallamace.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

4 comments

  • janyuary

    Poor fretless stringed orch critters such as the violin, viola, cello, and double bass, were really designed to play in groups, unlike pianos and guitars, whose natural habitats are acapella.

    What’s the dif between a fiddle and a violin?
    The same dif as between C# and Db!
    *laugh dammit*

  • Jay

    I enjoyed it and listened to her others as well. I thought the best one she did was the Airwolf theme.

  • Diane Wilson

    That was fun! I played cello for 10 years, growing up. I assume she knows about Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas Brasileiras. No. 1 is scored for 8 cellos! No. 5 for 8 cellos and soprano.

    @janyuary, solos and no frets – not a problem. As you learn the instrument, you begin to know where the notes are. You just know. I have trouble comprehending how to play with frets.

  • janyuary

    I always thought of cellos as junior basses, and violas as jumbo violins. I know the viola is tuned in fifths like the violin, and that for violin and double bass, the order of the strings is reversed, on the bass tuned in fourths, lowest is e, then a, then d then g as the highest, and that violin tuned in fifths is lowest g, next d, then a and e … tuned in fifths. I expect cellos, like basses, must be tuned in fourths, lowest to highest. It makes more sense. Cellos are beautiful things played well.

    Diane, I hope you still play or return to it … on a fretless orch critter, learning young it’s like riding a bicycle any age. You always remember how to play, it comes back quickly. Me, frets freak me out. You have to be smart to play an instrument with frets. I don’t think one has to be too bright to play an orch beast!

    The conductor of a well known city symphony once asked me if I knew the difference between a viola and a violin. Before I could frame a literate response, he answered his own question: “The viola takes longer to burn if you throw them both on a bonfire!”

    Ah, musicians humor …

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