A Symphony played on Water Instruments

To be presented by Marko and I this Saturday 

in Rotterdam during Museum Night.

See You There!

Want to know more about this project? Click Here.

A Symphony for Waterlanders

Museum Night in Rotterdam is THE night that the City's Museums pull out all the stops in creating wow-ing exhibits, spectacular shows, join-in-the-fun happenings, blow-the-roof-off parties... It's a big damn Cultural Fandango, a Wild Evening of Fantabulous Art and all the Essential Fantastically Wonderfully Weird People and Things that goes with it.

Tear Bottle
(ca. 1870)

The theme for the coming edition of Rotterdam's Museum Night on the 9th of March is Waterlanders. We've been commissioned by Museum Rotterdam to create an interactive musical composition using 'water' instruments.  For this we are composing a symphony which we are calling 'A Bottle of Tears'.

The name was inspired by the ancient ritual of collecting ones tears, usually a womans, in small tear bottles or lachrymatory. There are stories of hired mourners who were given little bottles to collect their tears. At the end of the funeral for which they were hired to grieve, their bottles would be measured and so the mourner would be paid accordingly. It is also said that a widow would start collecting her tears in a bottle directly after the death of her husband till after his burial at midnight. The bottle would be left upon her husbands altar perhaps on her mantel. The moment the tears had all evaporated signaled the end of her first phase of grieving. In Victorian days these bottles of tears were corked and saved as a momento to their departed loved one. On a more joyful note, upon the birth of a child, the mother's tears would be saved in a small bottle as a keepsake. 

The theme of 'tears' takes on yet an extra poignant meaning for Museum Rotterdam. Due to drastic and idiotic cut-backs in the funding of Arts and Culture the museum is being forced out of their original location in the beautiful Schielands huis. Tears of grief, thus. On the otherhand, there are tears of joy for the fact that the Museum will be opening it's doors at a new location unlike countless other cultural organizations that have been forced to close their doors for good. Museum Night is the last event that Museum Rotterdam will be holding in the Schielandshuis.

So far in preparation we've constructed such hydrophones as a Glass Harp, A Bottle Xylophone, A Human Bottle 'Organ' and we've also used the sounds of Drops of Water into various receptacles. We've been collecting glasses and bottles for a couple of weeks now and there have been bottles and long stemmed glasses and measuring cups and water all over the place for days. The tuning of these various intruments is the 'cussing' part of the creative process. I'm now teaching myself to play a glass harp and that ain't easy, y'all. All respect to this smart ass. DANG.

We still have LOTS of work to do. After we get the piece written and a demo recorded we have to figure how to make it interactive so that the audience can participate plus there is the staging, technical aspects of sound, lighting and extra curiosities which we want to add to enrich the experience. We have lots of nifty ideas. A tearful update is bound to follow in the coming weeks, hopefully joyful tears rather than tears full of 'what-the-f*ck-were-we-thinking-of' woe.

If you would like to know more about the interesting history of Tear Bottles, get your hanky ready and click here for an interesting article on the subject. 

'The Queen's Tear Bottle', illustrated by Norman Price for
'The Golden Apple Tree' written by Virna Sheard, 1920

Video of the Year

The Recycled Orchestra.

Help them to make a movie about the Recycled Orchestra via Landfillharmonica Movie on Facebook

"The coolest cats dig the solid beat of this crazy, mixed-up tub."

Turning a new page...

Our new shop, The Jumping Flea Market, has it's own Facebook Page. We hope that you will 'Like' it.

'The Jumping Flea Market' In the Metro!

The Metro is a free newspaper in Holland which is mainly distributed at the Bus, Street Car & Subway stations. Today there was an awesome article in it about our shop, 'The Jumping Flea Market'....
Click on the image to ZOOM!

Dear Santa,

I've been a really good girl this year. For Christmas i would like a Silvertone Plastic Table-Top Radio & Record Player from Sears & Roebuck. Merry Christmas!

Goslink & his Homemade Instruments on Klokhuis

This is SUCH a charming peice. It's from a great childrens show here in the Netherlands called 'Klokhuis'. This edition features my buddy Harm 'Goslink' and his amazing home-made instruments. I've posted about him before. He's my absolute favorite musician around. So, here's Harm showing his instruments and how he makes them. He's in the entire length of the video with a couple of interuptions so stay tuned during the 'caveman' parts. Oh, and it's in Dutch but i'm sure you will enjoy it never the less.

BIG NEWS!

I've never been busier in my life. That's why i haven't posted anything in such a long time. We've been working on sometheing really special. Something i've dreamt of for a long time and it's nearly a reality...

OUR NEW SHOP,
The Jumping Flea Market
Mostly Musical Wonders & Curiosities We'll be opening up for the first time tomorrow at 1pm and will be open everyday until Christmas Eve. If you are close to Rotterdam Noord, stop by. If you're not, i promise lots of photographs and stories about our new place. Well, got to go. Whole hell of a lot to do before opening time. We may pass out upon completion. We were passed exhausted about two weeks ago. But all is good. It was worth it. Let's say we actually do pass out, we ask you to kindly step over us and continue shopping. : )

Do-It-Yourself Ukulele Article from 1955

This was sent to me from my Belgian friend, Karl Catteeuw. It suggests using a bed leg for the neck and the back of a closet for the body. Won't Mom be happy!

A Diddley Bow on Lonnie Pitchford's Gravestone

Lonnie Pitchford (October 8, 1955 – November 8, 1998) was an American blues musician and instrument maker from Lexington, Mississippi. He was notable in that he was one of only a handful of young African American musicians from Mississippi who had learned and was continuing the Delta blues and country blues traditions of the older generations.

In addition to the acoustic and electric guitar, Pitchford was also skilled at the one-string guitar and diddley bow, a one-string instrument of African origin.

If you look closely at the picture you will see a Diddley Bow permantly mounted to the right-hand side of his gravestone.

In this wonderful documentary by Alan Lomax called 'The Land Where The Blues Began' you can see and hear Lonnie Pitchford demonstrating his amazing technique on the Diddley Bow beginning at 3:58.

The Elegance of a Hand Saw

"Duifje"
Small handsaw i picked up at the market for a couple of Euro's. Printed on the wooden handle, in a wonderful letter type i might add, is 'Duifje', meaning 'Little Dove', a common Dutch pet name for a sweetheart.


Photograph from a 1930's Musical Saw Instructional Booklet


Der Rote Sarafan
I've never heard two Singing Saws played in harmony. I wonder if Marko would like to learn to play the saw?


And lastly, visit Bad Axe Tool Works for some Vintage Hand Saw Goodness.

Let's Limberjack

A LimberJack is also known as a Jig Doll, SlapJack, JiggerMan, LimberJim, LimberJill, Dancin' Dan, or Paddle Puppet, particularly common in the Appalachain region in the United States but probably originates in the 'Old World'.

I have seen these before and i loved how the dolls were built and the automation of the figure but quite honestly found it pretty damn irritating to listen to after a short while. You see, these dolls are actually a percussion instrument as the figure 'tap dances' with the help of a paddle. But today i saw this video of a gal named Trish. Now this is some good LimberJacking. Quite humorous as well...



I looked around a bit and found some pretty cool Limberjacks available online. Here's one in doggy form made (and played) by Miss Mary Lee. Her Limberjacks are available at Piper Grove

She also makes a frog Limberjack and a plain one which you could embellish yourself. There are also LimberJack Kits available at Prairie Wind Toys. Excellent gift to find in your shoe from St. Nicolas or in your stocking from Santa! A Limberjack would also be quite easy to make from scratch. Tip: The best Dancing Jacks have an articulated ankle. For more information about Dancing Dans and Limber Jims, visit Chris Brady's Jig Doll Page.

Home Made Pianos

In my last post i shared an article about how to make your own bottle piano, which i really want to make. By coincidence, my buddy Harm ('Goslink') posted a photograph online this morning of a piano he had made. Man, this is the coolest piano ever. Just look at it!...
By the way, speaking of 'the coolest ever', you have bought the Goslink CD already, haven't you?!!!
via Goslink

Un Piano a Bouteilles

Via Agence Eureka

Get In That Kitchen & Rattle Those Pots & Pans

The Maritza, 3-string Cigar Box Guitar

I have recently completed this 3-string slide guitar and i am VERY HAPPY with it indeed. Pretty damn elegant for a cigarbox i'd say. Sounds great too. Big smooching thank you to Marko. His slide playing expertise were very helpful in fine tuning the design. Oh, and his soldering technique helped me electrify it. You can plug this sucker in! Video coming soon...

'A Fistfull of Carrots' - A Vegaphonic Soundtrack

This musical composition was recorded using instruments made completely of vegetables (and 3 rubberbands). It was inspired by the soundtracks from such films as 'Once Upon A Time In The West', 'A Fistfull of Dollars', and 'The Good, The Bad And The Ugly' composed by Ennio Morricone. Marko and i call our composition...


'A Fistfull of Carrots'
composed by...
ONION Morricone.
*pause for knee slap*

Characters and Instruments:
Horse - Bottle Pumpkin Clapper
Steam Train - Bag of Onions & Paprika Shakers
Steam Train Whistle - Carrot Flutes
Notes of suspense - Pumpkin Guitar with Rubberband strings
The Hot Breeze - Baritone Carrot Flute
The Dripping - Pinto Bean dropped into a Pitcher of Water
Note: The dripping noise is meant to give you as the listener a 'view point' in the scene. Your standing on the train platform and there is a constant drip from a leaky water barrel close by.
Outlaw #1 - Winter Carrots 'walking' through Pinto Beans
Outlaw #2 - Leek 'walking' through Pinto Beans
Voice - Note: On this track there is a spoken conversation between the two outlaws. In the live version this 'conversation' takes place between a Cauliflower Trumpet and a Bottle Pumpkin Trumpet.
Gunshots - Carrot flutes played by popping your finger out of the mouth peice.

This composition was written especially for Museum Rotterdam and was executed on MuseumNacht 2011. Will we ever perform as The Vegaphonic Orchestra again? Yes, if you pay us a substantial amount of money. Have you ever tried tuning a carrot? I can tell ya, it ain't easy. : )

Cigarbox Guitars in the LA Times

An excellent article was published in the LA Times today about Cigarbox Guitars written by reporter and music critic Randy Lewis. Also, there is an additional blog post on the LA Times website. On it, i came across this video of 3-string cigarbox player Pinecone Fletcher who became one of the grand finalists in last year's national “King of the Blues” competition sponsored by Guitar Center. Whoa Daddy-O...

The Vegaphonic Orchestra on the News

We made the 6 o'clock national evening news (Starts at 9:40) with the Vegaphonic Orchestra during Rotterdam's Museum Night! And even better, we also made it on the The 'Jeugd Journaal' which is a daily national news program for kids here in Holland. (Starts at :40)...