Things I noticed

[offcntr]

I've been reading a book called On Looking: Eleven Walks With Expert Eyes. Think I heard about it on a podcast, 99 Percent Invisible maybe? She talks about the the things we fail to notice in our surroundings, and goes out walking with different specialists--a typographer, artist, biologist, her toddler--and describes the different things they find, even their different ways of seeing. I highly recommend it. And it may have got me noticing a bit more at Market yesterday. Some examples:

My strawberry from Farmer's Market has feet.

Social distancing is multi-dimensional.

After a half-hour of annoying echoes from the street-preacher-with-a-bullhorn a block away, it was a pleasant surprise to have them drowned out by harp music. Danny's friend, watching his booth while he got lunch.

And the same space, two hours later, as the second shift arrives.

Comments

[tibicina]

Does he normally play his harp backwards?

[offcntr]

Huh.

I'm not a musician (though I used to play a lot of them on the radio, wakka wakka) so I had to Google Irish harp players, and sure enough, he's playing it backwards.

I have no idea if that's his regular way of playing, this is the only time I've seen him. Maybe he's self-taught? I know sometimes left-handed guitarists (Bill Staines and Libba Cotton, for two) teach themselves to play on a right-hand strung instrument, but flipped over. Could this be something like that?

But it's kinda hilarious that I messed something like this in a post about noticing stuff. Thanks for pointing it out!

[tibicina]

He could be self taught. (It's amazing how often people don't understand how to hold instruments they don't play. Like, watch people who don't play flute trying to do flute stuff.) Honestly, it's easy enough to just switch shoulders and which hand is playing high or low that the weird weight distribution from playing it backwards seems like a strange choice. They're built so they can sit on your lap or the floor or a stand and lean against your shoulder. You really want it to stay where it is even if neither hand is touching a string. Harpsicles (painted plywood harps, they're the cheapest really usable folk lap harps. Like, they're really instruments that sound right and hold tuning properly, but because they're not hardwood, they're a couple hundred dollars instead of a thousand or more.) also have pegs for guitar straps so you can play standing or just for extra security if you play them sitting.

But I've spent a lot of time watching people try to stick harps in their fantasy art and fail that I end up noticing stuff like that. (they frequently have the strings going between the wrong sides or do other weird things with the shape.)