A fantastic blog from Trey Gunn with a great selection of youtube clips… Still not sure about Wooten though… I think that clip just highlights why I don’t like his playing very much. The Bootsy clip is great though. 1! 1! 1! 1!
What is bass for? (blog from Trey Gunn)
March 8, 2010
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Posted by riadsala
From PDEs to Trig
March 1, 2010Hmmm. You know, maths is a lot harder than it used to be. Or maybe I’m just not as bright. Probably the later
where 
Time to refresh my memory of trig identities.
(Disclaimer: this post mainly exists as wordpress was the most convenient latex editor and I wanted to make a note of my equation so I don’t forget, and if you know me, you’ll know that my hand writing is pretty bad at times. So is my grammer).
In other, more exciting news, I have a gig this week.
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I have updated my about page
February 23, 2010Err, that’s about it really. It was pretty out of date, and now it is in date. Plus, as I’m having a very slow morning at work waiting for images to render, and sick of reading journal papers, I wrote a quick summary of various bands I’ve played in. Some of them were good, some of them weren’t. Some of them were a lot of fun, some of them weren’t. All of them introduced me to new, interesting people, many of who I’m still in at least irregular contact with (read: friends with on facebook).
So, have you seem them cakes?
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A Good Weekend
February 9, 2010I have had a pretty good weekend.
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Posted by riadsala
I never did take that course in PDEs
February 3, 2010 
I’m stuck. I was planning on being all clever and working out a neat optical ambiguity (maybe not the right way to describe it, but I can’t be bothered going into details).
But my M.Maths (hons) degree has let me down and I’m stuck with a PDE. A non-linear one at that. Anybody know if there’s an easy way to solve it? You know, at times like this, having the likes of Charles Cuthbertson, Derek Harland and Hugh Griffis around would be useful.
Anybody know the solution to:
????
My current line of attack (listening to Prince’s many side-projects via last.fm and thinking that it’s about time to have lunch) is not getting me very far.
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Posted by riadsala
Things are looking up for 2010…
January 30, 2010Nearly a month into 2010 and the year’s looking pretty good so far. The PhD is nearly all done and I’ve started an RA job. Which is great, although I’m not going to get my first paycheck for a little while. But that’s what credit cards are for right? I’m going to splash out on a squash raquet this afternoon… must start getting more exercise while I wait for the weather to improve. I think I might also buy some new kitchen scales for cake baking tomorrow… am giving a seminar Monday morning and if I bring cake, the hope is that people will be too busy eating to ask questions 
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Christmas Eve – still working on my thesis
December 24, 2009Well,
it’s gone 3pm on Christmas Eve and I’m still working on my thesis. Ho hum. Nearly finished now though. But, I think I’m about to run out of steam and will leave a few ends bits for next week.
Happy Christmas.
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Early December
December 5, 2009Hello avid followers. Hmmm. I wonder if anybody still reads this blog! Who knows.
Anyway, a certain amount of good news:
The thesis is nearly finished. And I have my RA job almost sorted out for next year. The ‘cello playing is going from strength to strength, although I miss playing bass now. Oh well. Will be playing live on my cello, for the first time in nearly a decade this weekend! Somewhat nervous, as I know I’ll be hitting some horrible out of tune notes. But, hey, mistakes are milestones along the path of progress.
I’m also slowly building up some enthusiasm for playing the warr guitar some more. I’ve been listening to some old tracks I recorded, and am thinking I’d like to do some more in the near year.
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Time Flies…
November 5, 2009First off, Time Flies, and the rest of Porcupine Tree’s new album, the Incident, is fantastic.
Secondly, yeah, time flies. Been a while since I blogged. Not had much to say! On the one hand, Cantor imploded, which is bad. Decided I was fed up with bass guitar, and warr guitar for that matter, and packed them away under the bed. I have this niggling feeling that the Warr guitar isn’t worth the practise. It is a somewhat confused and odd instrument (same goes for the Chapman Stick of course). Sure, you can do some truly epic basslines, but hmmm.
One the other hand, my “I’m fed up of playing music” mood only lasted a day, and then I decided to try and relearn the ‘cello again. Which is proving to be a fantastic idea! Such a nice change from bass guitar. I’m getting a few lessons, and having great fun trying to play Bach’s cello suites. And scarily, I’ve now been given some grade 7 pieces to learn. The only grade i ever passed at school was the first one! Time to get practising playing in treble clef I guess. Although, before that, i have to get the hang of playing the instrument…. my hands keep cramping up while playing at the moment.
And in more important news: PhD is going well. Hopefully be finished soon In less important news: Ali’s still showing zero interest so I’ve been having a go at playing with somebody else. Hopefully it won’t end as disastrously as the project with Eddie.
Oh, and I was lucky enough to see James McMurtry and the Heartless Bastards again. Only a three piece this time around but they still rocked
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Posted by riadsala
