Ruminations Part I – “Your eyes are completely healed” #togetherwerise https://josephcarrabis.com/2021/05/19/ruminations-part-i-your-eyes-are-completely-healed/ #AboutMe

50 Years of Music in Gainesville

I turned 40 this weekend, which is a bit of a mind-blowing experience. It so happens, that this same weekend was the 50th Anniversary Celebration for the Gainesville Community Band (GCB), so I went to the concert as part of my birthday celebration as well. I played in the GCB for about 5 years a while ago, before work schedules interfered. When my work schedule changed so I could go to rehearsal again, I quickly found out that my stamina was no longer up for 2 hour music practices1 and I had to finally quit for real. This made me very sad, as it was something I did with my mother (she continues to play in the band), and also kept me playing my clarinet on a regular basis. It was also just plain fun. Some of my favorite memories are from band rehearsals and concerts, and GCB is no exception.

The Concert yesterday was a typically wonderful experience, even if I had to watch from the audience instead of sitting on stage with everyone else. The current conductor, R. Gary Langford is great fun to play music for, as well as an expert at working an audience. He’s my second favorite conductor I’ve ever played for, only surpassed by my high school Band Director who was exceptionally cool and gave me a lot of great opportunities. Gary is a bit of a card, and can be counted on to both dress exceptionally snazzily and tell many jokes between pieces.

The concert was a bit of a walk through musical eras, with such favorites as Blue Tango, St Louis Blues, Grease, and ending with a patriotic sing along of From Sea to Shining Sea. Before St Louis Blues Gary demonstrated a jazz improvisation on his trumpet, which I was able to capture below.

https://youtube.com/shorts/auOVKTCHDic?feature=share

Along the way, the band also played a tune called The Old Grumbly Bear, which featured one of the bassoonists soloing on a contra-bassoon, an exceptionally funny instrument. It plays the lowest note in the orchestra, getting as low as the lowest note on a 64 foot pipe organ. Below is just the first 15 seconds of the piece showing the contrabassoon, but you can also listen to a previous performance of the piece in its entirety on my YouTube. The video is just of my leg in that one, but the audio is pretty good still.

https://youtube.com/shorts/EjpemsM3u5Q?feature=share

The crowning point of the concert though was a piece that Gary commissioned one of his former students and a former member of the band to compose & guest conduct, called Tree City Triptych. This concert was the piece’s World Premiere, and it was lovely. The band did a stellar job of performing it, and the piece was really beautiful. To quote part of the program notes for the piece

Tree City Triptych, a three-movement piece, is based on a motive derived from the band’s three initials, “GCB.” Those three pitches appear as the melody which begins the first movement of the piece, “Sojourn.” This motive reappears many times over the course of the composition in its original form, but also inverted (as in “Solace,” the second movement) and also in retrograde. In the third movement “Sonare,” the motive is transposed to the key of E-Flat, the relative major of C minor, the key of the opening movement.

There is a full video of the piece below. Dr Chris Sharpe, the composer and conductor for this piece, is an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Lynchburg (Virginia). I think his musical talent really shines through in this piece as well. He has said he drew inspiration for the piece from the band itself, the city of Gainesville, and from a well-known piece of music called Men of Florida.

https://youtu.be/5pJRyjSK3s8

Overall, it was a lovely way to celebrate my birthday. Afterwards my family and one of my closest friends went out for Indian food at a really nice new restaurant in town. Sometimes, living in Gainesville is good, actually.

1. It doesn’t seem like it should be as you’re just sitting in one spot moving only your fingers, but playing a wind instrument is insanely tiring. I always work up a good sweat on a long practice.

#aboutMe #communityBand #concertBandMusic #concertBands #GainesvilleFL #music

fun fact about me: i sleep better with small plushies 🐻🐨🐶🐄🐱 #funfact #aboutme #personal

Hi, I’m Eddie 👋
I’m an indie developer 🧑‍💻
I’m building Virtual Controller, it’s open source and turns your iPhone into retro game controllers 🎮

I plan to share my progress here

#IndieDev #RetroDev #GameDev #RetroGaming #MacGaming #iOSGaming #Apple #iOS #Mac #SoloDev #OpenSource #Emulation #AboutMe

🗞️ In the noble quest for SEO dominance and obscure digital glory,
I’ve planted a fresh backlink to my studio site:

🔗 https://about.me/foxandthistle.studio

Crawlers welcome. Bots encouraged. Humans optional.

cc:
@mastobot

@FediFollows

#SEO #search #websites #backlinks #indexing #mastodon #aboutme

I have a poodle. He accidentally said "hello" once when yawned. It sounded so much like real speech that it gave me the creeps, like someone had sneaked into my apartment. I started searching the flat for intruders, but then he yawned again and I realized what happened.

#randomfacts #aboutme #poodle #dogsofmastodon

Scifi Saturday!

Here is a list of my science fiction related posts and activities for the past week (or so)!

https://readbeanicecream.surge.sh/2025/05/10/scifi-saturday/

#blogging #blog #indieweb #smolweb #smallweb #personalweb #books #movies #podcasts #fediverse #pixelfed #loops #bookwyrm #scifi #sciencefiction #aboutme

#Vorstellungsrunde

Moin ich stell mich mal vor! Lebe seit nem Jahr in #Berlin, mache #Foodsharing, bin ein kleines bisschen Nerd (#Linux, #GrapheneOS, #OpenStreetMap, #BeaconDB) und versuche mein Wissen weiterzugeben :)

Seit einigen Jahren #Vegan, für meine Gesundheit, die Tiere und die Gesundheit des Planeten!

Fahre nur #Fahrrad trotz Führerschein, bin Klimaaktivist und hab Lust auf #Natur und Menschlichkeit anstatt Egoismus und Konsum.

#Introduction #Vorstellung #AboutMe #NeuHier

#AboutMe #Reintroductions

looking for more mutuals and friends!!!!

im greer, a plural illustrator and wannabe entomologist.

my current interests are: character design, specbio, conlangs, biology, and more…
media interests include: D&D, sonic, transformers G1, ultrakill, and more….

ive also been working on a webcomic about aliens, bugs, and alien bugs for a few years now! im hoping to get the first pages drawn soon!

Hello, Wafrn!

My name is José but I also go by Jace, Troutfur, or 嘉安 (Jiā'ān). You may know me from my Tumblr blogs: @aerial-jace, @troutfur, and @kongque-jiaan. I am an archaeology student from Guatemala, naturally with expertise in Mayanist and Mesoamerican archaeology, a fanfiction writer for the Warriors (the middle-grade cat novels by Erin Hunter) fandom, and a recent convert to Buddhism practicing within the Chinese Pure Land and Gelug traditions.

Since it seems another round of Tumblr ending panics is going around, and since this site is rising as an alternative, I thought to give it a spin! I like making and reblogging (rewooting here, apparently?) posts about my interests, be it fandom (Pokémon, Warriors, Yu-Gi-Oh! sometimes, and assorted others), academic (archaeology generally, Egyptology, Mayanist/Mesoamericanist archaeology, history, religious studies, etc.), religious (apart from Buddhism I also have dabbled in reconstructionist paganism and Western occultism), or just anything I find funny or interesting.

I am not one to have a DNI or anything of the sort, but I will not hesitate to block liberally. TERFs, particularly, get the hammer.

When starting with an about me page the day after the third KrautPress Website Club, I made very quick progress until the next day. Then, something wild happened …

[…]

https://kittsteiner.blog/blog/2025/adding-an-about-me-page/

#AboutMe #Inspiration #KrautPress #Website

hello fellow future tumblr refugees and fediverse freaks (affectionate). i am cruftpunk, a middle-aged tired trans man. i like cats, drawing, davening, and singing. your interests, show me them

Hi! I'm Whimsy, a writer of fanfiction and doodler of the occasional heraldic device. I write stories that range from soft to dead dove and everything in-between. You can find me on Tumblr: a-wolrd-of-whimsy-5 and lemoncakesandwine, and you can find me on AO3 as lemoncakes_and_wine lemoncakes_and_wine (for my ASOIAF, Fire and Blood, and HOTD related stories) and a_world_of_whimsy (mostly Tolkien works). Feel free to drop a line if you like. I must warn you though, my space is strictly 18+, so minors DNI

I am a patient and gentle person, approaching life with curiosity and a love for abstract thinking. I see the world in my own way, often noticing connections that others might overlook. Learning comes naturally to me.
#aboutme #personality #selfintrospection

Back in the 14th century, one of my ancestors saved a king from certain death by rescuing him from the clutches of a group of 'Saracen warriors', as the grant of arms says.

Listening to my grandmother's sister tell stories about the family history was fun and amazing. But finding the actual genealogical papers in my grandfather's study decades later: that was incredible.

#randomfacts #aboutme #genealogy

The first programming language I learned was Python. I learnt it myself from Gérard Swinnen's book to write automated tests for a pirate-themed board game I had invented (graphics made with Inkscape and GIMP).

Although the development was stuck at ~87% completion and never finished, Python and automated testing became my speciality and paved my career.

🌍 https://gridranger.frama.io/random-facts-about-me

#boardgames #pirates #Inkscape #gimp #python #testautomation #randomfacts #aboutme

RE: https://critter.cafe/users/aisling/statuses/114322152542897941

Hi!

I'm Eli (any pronouns), I've been making backup accounts in a few sites just in case Tumblr gets nuked and I came across the Fediverse, I still don't understand much of it or how it works so I hope I'm doing this right. This does look like the closest thing to Tumblr though, so I'll probably be slowly posting all my art from there here just to be safe. In the meantime I'm still more active there ( also @/cosmiclion), for all its faults that hellsite is still my home and the only way I'll fully switch to here is if it gets burned to the ground and I get kicked out and have the door slammed on my face.

I like to draw and occassionally take photos :D I also like to write sometimes but not as often, I don't know how writers do it but honestly mad respect.
Currently hyperfixating on Black Butler and Yuri!!! On Ice but will post original art and concepts and fanart of other things I'm into.
I'm a bigass furry but I draw all kinds of characters (the lion is my fursona btw!).
Also keep in mind that I'm an adult and I enjoy making NSFW art often.