Tuesday, January 31, 2012

"What Is In The Box?"

Notes are in the box, as it happens, musical notes -- that is, if the box is a Shruti Box, a sort of preset background accordion. Looks a bit Subcontinental to me.

Having fallen over the site, I was going to make a snarky comment about it being an exotic, foreign musical instrument that even a clueless hipster could play; but after listening to the haunting little improvisation linked to at the site, I'm inclined to give it a break. It's pretty darned kewl -- and way better than handing the lead signer a tambourine.

PS: I was also intending to make some remark about the device's similarity to the drones of bagpipes still not being a serious threat to the Scottish dominance of that fearsome weapon of war; good thing I had second thoughts, since (of course) India has bagpipes of her own, with a long and ancient lineage.

This gives rise to another question: what odd quirk of English character is it that leads 'em to go ruling over nations of canny, thrifty bagpipers with a high degree of mechanical and mathematical aptitude and little inclination to surrender? "Oh the haggis is well enough but I'm minded to have a curry now...." Gads.

(Or is it all an elaborate, satirical warning of the dangers of stereotyping and over-generalization? Still, it's tempting to wonder if we owe the Industrial Revolution, seminal work on microwaves and huge swathes of mathematical physics to a desire for a more-varied diet and finding someone who could do something about the drains.)

3 comments:

JohnMXL said...

The Shruti Box sounds similar to the instrument described in 'Starship Troopers'.

Once again life imitates Heinlein!

Roberta X said...

Or, perhaps, the other way 'round?

Grayson said...

Roberta...
God made whisky, and then gave it to the Scots, so that the Scots would be less likely to leave their Highland territories to go and conquer the rest of this planet.

Then, God made bagpipes, and gave them to the Scots, so that the rest of the world would at least have some warning that really murderous trouble was on the way, with kilts, basket hilted broadswords, and the determination to kill as many noble Englishmen as possible.

True story. ;)

Cheers.