I was mostly frustrated with him because it felt like he never learned a damn thing, At the beginning it seemed like he did nothing but made choices in a desperate attempt to appease his desire to regress to a simpler time and those choices later on turned into horrible mistakes that blew up in his face.
Granted we all make mistakes it’s a part of being human but when a character makes mistakes I expect them to grow from it and for the longest time it seems like Ethan was more disappointed that his hair brain plans didn’t work out rather than see why it wouldn’t have worked in the first place and that got me frustrated.
At the beginning of this comic I have the same type of animosity towards Joyce but that faded away when I saw her progress and learn from her choices and she then great on me and even become one of my favorites. Ethan on the other hand to me for the longest time felt like he stayed the same up until recently but I just grew used to not liking him. In the end eventually I would have had to learn to let it go.
Point is I can learn to be ok with any character in a story on a certain level as long as I know they’re trying the hardest to improve.
That And I hated who he was paired up with romantically. His relationship with Joyce was nothing but a lie that again with him stringing along a girl he had no romantic interest in just so we can get his old life back.
And then there was that thing with Danny despite him being with Amber but I feel like I lost my right to criticize that one anymore because I’m backing Joyce and Jacob to be a thing even it’s a slightly similar situation.
No offense to anyone who likes Ethan but for the longest time I thought he was a tramp.
It’s important to keep in mind just how slowly time passes in DoA. Expecting Ethan to change significantly over a few weeks of DoA time isn’t really reasonable to how slowly real world people evolve. And, unlike Joyce, he hasn’t had repeated tragedy after tragedy to deal with to shock his system.
Even better, I was taught piano as a child, hated it and quit after awhile, almost 15 years later I have bought myself a piano after years of TRYING to play ukulele and suddenly realizing that I’m waaaayyy better at piano than I am at ukulele/guitar.
she has not earned her pride and by not the narrowest means deserves it. i learned the piano simply due to the fact that i grew up with one in my childhood house and my natural inclination. i began at age 11. if i had been pressured into it as you have, i would’ve been like you.
if she hadn’t done that, you could’ve been like me.
We had an electric organ when I was 7. I never took the time to try learning it, and a year or so later we gave it away. Today I wish my parents had forced me to take lessons.
I had a terrible piano teacher in middle school. She used the ‘brute force rote memorization’ technique to teach the usual songbook of traditional nursery rhymes. No theory, no fun, just months of “play ‘hot cross buns’ and do your scales”. The experience soured me on learning an instrument for years.
Learned violin then self-taugh other instruments. I am grateful (now, of course) for those years (not months) where I had to exercise scales and play no fun tunes. After a few years, songs began to become a bit more fun (like Liszt or Berio), and I got to play in the music school orchester, first no fun lines, then solos (even if I never did like solos per se, just that they were more developed). Would I have never had brute techniques taught before, I’d not have been able to teach other instruments myself later on, because, you know, discipline over creativity is great to make you progress on mastering things. Of course without creativity, it’s hard to put any heart into exercising. So, when nobody was looking, I sung and composed for my very young self. The experience only began to sour me when I became a teenager and questioned my liberty, as I was taught by close family.
Other thing: sal should thank piano for being able to fine tune the uke. human ear is not made to her very well fine tune differences in the low frequences, so bass probably wasn’t what taught her to listen. Heck, I more than once voluntarily played songs half a tone under/over with my bass and nobody beside me remarked it (apart from one drummer once).
I had piano lessons as a kid but ended up dropping them because our piano sucked. My parents couldn’t understand why the piano drove me crazy. “These notes are *wrong*!” I said, pounding on certain keys that were out of tune. My parents were utterly baffled, it sounded fine to them, neither of them could carry a tune in a bucket or tell the difference between a C-note and a hundred dollar bill. Eventually I ended up teaching myself guitar, harmonica, Irish whistle, electric bass, and, finally, piano again — this time on an electric piano that can’t go out of tune, thankfully!
Yes, literally tone-deaf parents. The hilarious thing is that my mother was brought up in a church that required the congregation to sing, and she grew up singing every Sunday morning and Wednesday evening… badly, out of tune. Family Christmas caroling time was utterly painful! Anyhow, some years later I checked out a book from the public library about how to tune a piano and tuned the bloody thing myself since my parents insisted it sounded fine and thus didn’t need tuning… but that was years after the attempt at piano lessons died on the beach of a ridiculously out-of-tune piano.
Yeah, most people don’t get that if you buy a piano, you have to have it tuned by a professional. We had two at home, and the semi-forte, in a rather cold place, was tuned once very five years so we never used it much.
Reading this again, I sound like a snob (what isn’t an astonishment) privileged (that, as white, I am again) bourgeois – this part bathers me. I must then add that my family lived of these instruments (and other) and that it wasn’t décor or nouveau-riche fantasy.
Plus pianos weren’t all that expensive back then. I think we paid $100 for ours. That was back in the era when it was expected that middle class kids would get piano lessons, and the pianos were dumped at a ridiculously low price after the lessons were finished, passed on from family to family. Today, the kids get XBoxes, and real pianos are stupid expensive even used.
Well if you want you could basically get a paino for free now, at least where I live. They are just too cumbersome to move etc, many relatives of older people who move away from a family home or pass away will basically let you have it if you only come get it yourself.
Thunderstruck on the guitar. My family is starting to hate that song. I am not there yet, although there are times I can’t bring myself to play it. If they complain, however, I start playing Smoke on the Water at loud volume and distortion cranked, usually shuts them up.
This is just my opinion that no one asked for but even though a Danny X Sal romance can work beautifully I can’t see it this time around. Sure at the beginning I suggested this but they seem more platonic then anything else.
I mean if you want to play Devil’s Advocate I could bring up how they share something in common about how they both have parents who give them expectations they want them to live up to and then are put down for it when they can’t. But that’s more of a thing they can relate to each other with more than bond romantically.
They seem to have more of a two peas in a pod buddy buddy thing going on.
Yeah I’ve got to agree. I think Sal is opening up to Danny as a replacement Marcie. As she’d have no interest in dating Marcie those feelings kinda attach to Danny. She’s always had that one person to air her troubles to, now that they’ve become unavailable she’s found a (possibly temporary) replacement in Danny, someone she sees as completely harmless in every way.
One of the first lessons in Psychology at university blew my mind. People are like points, any two of them defines a straight line, i.e. any random pair of people will have something in common, you just have to look. It changed the way I relate to people.
Food is often a good choice, though that presents some problems of its own through special diets. Still, most people have an indulgence they can get excited talking about.
Cool! I’d like to do something like that at my own wedding (if I ever have one). To be honest, I don’t know many piano songs, I spent most of my time fricking around and experimenting until I became an actually okay pianist? Nowhere near professional level, though. xD
I tried to teach myself piano in college. It didn’t stick. Guitar on the other hand, did for some reason. So much so I’m now (many years later) playing rhythm guitar in a band.
The original Marc Bolan/T-Rex version (with Flo and Eddie on backing vocals) was far superior! 🙂 (but you are right, the bass on the remake was pretty damned nice)
Oh no I could have done any battle pairing from that anime and a derail was ensured because like 90% of the ability names and like 30% of the characters are named after famous bands and songs.
Still, C.S. Lewis. Can’t go wrong there, at least with the novels. Wish the guy Puddleglum was characitured after hadn’t burned the 4th book, in what could have been more than a trilogy, though.
Danny has his moments with flirting, but I don’t think he’s doing it here. Still, I think there’s been a mutual attraction in the past, so who the fuck knows.
Depends on what they both want. If Sal wanted sex, she’d just take off Danny’s pants and expect him to keep up. We don’t know how she forms an actual relationship.
Danny, yeah, if he was flirting, he’d overthink it, be a dork, and ruin it. Sal is just a friend to him, because he’s never been single around her, so he hasn’t yet made the leap that a relationship could be on the table. It’ll be interesting to see how he reacts if Sal puts one on the table.
I think a lot of it has to do with being forced, as a child, to take piano lessons, versus being interested in them and/or having a good teacher.
A choir-director friend of mine was an all-state flutist at the age of 13 and quit the flute shortly thereafter, because her teacher was a martinet and made her hate the flute. (She later took up bassoon and was quite good at it.)
And the right teacher, or teaching approach, too, as mentioned by many here.
We had an electric organ so that’s what my lessons were. Good teacher for me. The reading music part never stuck but my ear developed nicely, and is an asset my to self-taught guitar styling.
Please don’t diss those of us who did learn (or were forced to learn) to play the piano. You wouldn’t badmouth Billy Joel, Freddie Mercury, Elton John, or Ray Charles, would you?
I was forced to play the violin, although I wanted the piano. They just told me I can’t be in piano lessons if we don’t have one at home. I wanted to play the flute then, but the lessons were full. The only place left was the violin. I am grateful for the music theory lessons though, they helped a lot when I later actually wanted to learn playing an instrument.
I listened to an interview with Tony Banks (keyboardist for Genesis) recently. Even he almost gave up piano as a child due to a bad teacher. It was actually his next teacher who inspired the love of playing for him.
Except Sal doesn’t hate Danny, she finds him cute in a non-threatening way (and might feel bad about trying to engage in meaningless sex with someone so commitment oriented)
So I have a question, and as I am a lonely person with few real life friends, I will ask here:
How do you like to be approached/generally approach others on dating apps/sites? I’m talking first message and also specifically in reference to Tinder, though experiences with other platforms are welcome.
I don’t want to send a message that’s just “Hey” (in part because plenty of people are like, “don’t just message me hey”), but I also think people might find it off-putting if I send a longer message right off the bat. I don’t know.
Also my only friend who actually uses Tinder is a straight girl, and it seems, uh, different for her, so really just give me all your Tinder advice.
OK, straight cisguy here, so proooobably all my of my experiences are completely useless, but just in case some of it isn’t, here we go:
I used OKCupid-like sites in the past, and well, I didn’t often get messaged first; but even then, I did prefer it to be more substantial than “hey”. I mean, I’d usually say hello back, and then try and fish for something to use as an actual conversation starter, usually by reading (or re-reading) their profile.
Still, I vastly preferred it if someone at least said something like “Hey, funny profile you got there.” At least then I would know that a) they apparently enjoyed reading it, and b) I can make a joke back, or thank them politely and give them a short and simple compliment about their profile in return. And then just let the talk happen.
so yeah, one or two fairly short sentences that above all indicates that you actually read their profiles should, in my opinion, do the trick.
as a straight, very nerdy male, I just like it when a remotely attractive nerdy female notices I exist so honestly I take any message I can get, but ideally a message pertaining to something on my profile shows they read what I wrote about myself and are actually interested.
My experience is pretty much entirely on sites dedicated to the BDSM community, but my experiences suggest that Emperor Norton has the right if it. One to two full sentences that show you were interested enough to actually read their profile and maybe have a shared or tangential interest.
Girl here. Being messaged first was really pleasant, but on tinder that didn’t really happen very often (for good reasons though haha, one tends to be a bit off putting when they don’t use any real pics of themselves oops). Generally I’d make a joke about whatever little conversation provoking phrase or sentence tinder had pasted onto the empty messaging thing, and about 4 times out of 5 I’d get a response. That works for me, but also might not as well for you. I would say that Emperor Norton is correct, based off the first messages I’d get from people. All you really know about the person so far is vaguely what kind of person they are, based off their profile, so a “good job with your profile” or a “hot damn you like hot fries too?!” is pretty pleasant. I don’t really remember what I did right with either the boy or the girl, but I do recall very strongly thinking that these people were people I needed to know at any cost, and somehow the banter has kept working for over 3 years now.
I do think that you should consider what kind of person you want to meet though, because it does affect your plan of attack with the first message. I wanted to meet someone else who I could build a rapport with out of almost nothing and banter for a while b.c deargodiamalonelyperson. So people making jokes about my profile, or my profile pic, that was a great signal to talk for a while. Sending self depreciating one liners as a first message also was a thing that worked as a litmus test of sorts, b.c if they were self depreciating back it was ehhh but if they tried to reassure me blindly it was not a good sign. If you don’t want to send a small commentary on their profile, a calculated tester line to feel them out works too.
I was surprised to find memories of playing good king wenceslas… I can even remember the annoying way I’d slow down on certain parts. I had no idea I’d learnt to play it until today 🙂
…and now my crappy childhood rendition of it is going to be stuck in my head all night 😛 damn you willis!
.. at least I was one of the few kids learning piano by choice. I miss it every so often, but not enough to do much about it. there isn’t really space for a proper piano here anyways, and tiny plastic keyboards with only a couple of octaves drive me nuts.
After a long wait, here is the first installment of the third Some1 alternate universe. Dungeons and Dumbing.
Dungeons and Dumbing Part 1
Joyce got up slowly and rubbed her eyes, shielding herself from the blinding sun. She discovered she was in a field, poppies littered the ground and the smell of grass hung in the air. Small animals, around a foot in height and two feet long with stubby legs and short trunks munched on the poppies. They were darkly colored and seemed completely uninterested in her, shying away when she turned to approach one. Suddenly a voice struck through the air like an organ strikes the silence of a church.
Voice: Joyce Brown. You have come to my domain.
Joyce: Who are you? What are you? Is this heaven? Are you God?
Voice: As for what I am, that question must remain a mystery, for even I lack that knowledge of self, I cannot call myself God because although my powers here are great, I lack the ability to affect anything outside my domain and even here I have limits on my abilities. As for where you are, this land has no name for names are not used here, but it does have a story. But first you will be wanting to meet your friends, they too have arrived here and must be looking for you. As I have spoken with you I have spoken with them.
Suddenly Dorothy and Walky appear in front of Joyce, Danny appears from the side and Billie appears in the sky about five feet from the ground.
Billie: Shit (slams into the ground)
Dorothy: Joyce! Are you okay?
Joyce: I’m fine, bit concerned I’m dead though
Dorothy: Last thing I remember I was studying and then I was in a field of giant butterflies.
Joyce: Did you get the whole speech thing?
Dorothy: Yeah, I asked if this was computer simulation. Jeez this is really going to eat into my study time…
Walky: I just assumed I was dreaming
Billie: eh, booze induced hallucinations
Danny: I didn’t ask anything. It told me that I should be more questioning.
Joyce: But where are we?
Danny: in the land of no names I suppose.
Suddenly the voice reappears
Voice: To leave this land, you must journey to a castle made of silk that sits upon the highest wave. For that I have seen fit to provide you with a plethora of weapons and spells, take what you see fit.
Suddenly a large create appears in front of them as the voice disappears again. Joyce peers into it and pulls out a broadsword. The metal is engraved with various animals and the hilt is formed form gold with a ruby at the very tip of the handle.
Danny: Sweet there’s a ukulele in here!
Dorothy: Danny you should probably take a real weapon…
Danny: this land seems pretty peaceful, but I guess I’ll also take this knife as well.
Walky: hmm, hey Dorothy, what are you going to take.
Walky looks over to see Dorothy is holding a red leather book with strange writing in the front.
Dorothy: Ignitus fireballus
Suddenly a flame of light shoots out from her and scorches a patch of grass.
Dorothy: I guess this.
Billie: I’m taking this hammer.
Walky thinks for a moment before grabbing a rapier stuck between some larger weapons.
Joyce: Great now we only have to figure out which way to go, what to do and who to do it with. Easy!
Voice: go to the eastern lands!
Dorothy: So, go East?
Voice: Maybe…
Billie: lets go east.
Voice: I really need to get better at speaking in riddle.
And so, they traveled on their way and Billie only threatened to shove Danny’s uke down his throat one time.
Ah, but just because a region is named “The Eastern Lands,” that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is in the East. Outright deception aside — and we don’t yet know anything about the alignment of this organ-in-a-church voice — if, say, you’re in Thailand and you want to go the Middle East, your quickest path is due West.
Billie: Ok… so… which way is east?
Voice: WHAT
Joyce: Give us a break! We’re all city people! We have iPhones to tell us which way is north!
Dorothy: Guys, it’s OK! The sun rises in the east, we’ll just head towards the rising sun!
Walky: There you go, we’ll be fine!
*4 hours later, the party encounters a shepherd tending his flock*
Dorothy: Excuse me, sir? Do you know how far we are from… ‘The Eastern Lands’?
Shepherd: Ayup, nat faar. ‘Bout’ days’ journey… t’th’east. *points back the way they came*
Everyone: WHAT???
Shepherd: What kinda puddin-heads dun’no which way’s east? Yer jus foller ther settin’ sun.
Dorothy: Wait, SETTING SUN?!?!
Walky: *sigh* Stupid fantasy worlds!
*Danny plays ‘Road To Nowhere’ by The Talking Heads*
I’ve been thinking ( oh no!), and it finally came together.
Why would AG go out and do stuff without Amber along? Why would she not want Amber to remember? Because she went out to meet someone that Amber wouldn’t approve of. And, who would that be? Who did AG go from swearing eternal vengeance against, to practically gushing over to a sceptical Amber? And, why is Sal smiling so much?
Sal and AG hooked up last night.
“You leave the mask on, and I’ll leave my gloves on.”
I tried to learn guitar as a kid but I never put much effort into it for some reason. Instead I ended up playing the saxophone. Haven’t played in years though.
Cheese’in counterpoints. They’re about as nice together here as Mike and Ethan were in that one other strip. This feels like a double disaster getting primed to happen.
For some reason, I can see Sal grabbing a 6-string and then her and Danny delivering an impromptu performance of Rose Garden. IMO, at least, the lyrics fit Sal in many ways.
So I forgot to look up yesterday’s atl-text and my reply to that question is that’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson he has the ability to make anything seem better than it actually is. Why do you think Hollywood puts him in so many shity movies they need to sell ?
The follow-up, in which which Pachelbel sings how much he hates the Canon to the tune of the Canon, does not appear to be on YouTube.
(Fine, here it is, since it seems I can’t cajole or coax you,
Knock yourselves out, people, here’s your Canon, hope it chokes you.
I offer you a whole smorgasbord of subtle flavours,
All that you want is an avalanche of semiquavers!)
Mixed race and struggles with identity cause of it, curly as fuck hair that she straightens compulsively, fingerless gloves, “too cool” demeanor adopted as a coping mechanism for emotional vulnerability, regret flavored affair with an overdressed English guy with a thing for being all professor-like AND plays bass guitar? If Sal was also bi/gay then I’d feel like Willis stole my likeness
I’ve never really understood the appeal of non-piano instruments. Is it just that it’s easy to play things that sound good without needing to actually learn what the notes are?
Of course, my experience with a piano mostly involved sitting down with lesson books, playing through every piece in them in order, and then asking for the next book in the series.
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or “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”*
*viola arrangement
Violas are objectively the best instrument. I say this with absolutely no bias. Ignore the violas hidden behind me.
#justaltoclefthings
What do you call 100 violas at the bottom of the ocean?
A good start.
What’s the definition of a minor second?
Two violists playing in unison.
A waste of perfectly good firewood.
Violas are just like violins, except they don’t *necessarily* sound as annoying as screaming baby. There, I said it.
*Internal screams*
Sal’s eyes in panel four
I rather like her smiling in panels 6 and 7.
David, Sal’s expressions here are amazing.
Yeah <3
Agreed.
–Dave, BLESS YOU WILLIS
THE SCLERAS ARE COMING OUT
Did someone say SHIP IT?! (cuz I definitely ship it)
i realize i’m a few days late on this, but walky-hating-comments-guy must be having a field day right now.
He actually realized the error of his ways right around the time that Walky said that he was thinking of breaking up with Dorothy.
It was interesting timing.
Sounds similar to when I grew out of my blind hatred of Ethan, feel like I can relate tor this guy your taking about.
Can I ask what your reasons were? Ethan seems ridiculously inoffensive to me.
I was mostly frustrated with him because it felt like he never learned a damn thing, At the beginning it seemed like he did nothing but made choices in a desperate attempt to appease his desire to regress to a simpler time and those choices later on turned into horrible mistakes that blew up in his face.
Granted we all make mistakes it’s a part of being human but when a character makes mistakes I expect them to grow from it and for the longest time it seems like Ethan was more disappointed that his hair brain plans didn’t work out rather than see why it wouldn’t have worked in the first place and that got me frustrated.
At the beginning of this comic I have the same type of animosity towards Joyce but that faded away when I saw her progress and learn from her choices and she then great on me and even become one of my favorites. Ethan on the other hand to me for the longest time felt like he stayed the same up until recently but I just grew used to not liking him. In the end eventually I would have had to learn to let it go.
Point is I can learn to be ok with any character in a story on a certain level as long as I know they’re trying the hardest to improve.
That And I hated who he was paired up with romantically. His relationship with Joyce was nothing but a lie that again with him stringing along a girl he had no romantic interest in just so we can get his old life back.
And then there was that thing with Danny despite him being with Amber but I feel like I lost my right to criticize that one anymore because I’m backing Joyce and Jacob to be a thing even it’s a slightly similar situation.
No offense to anyone who likes Ethan but for the longest time I thought he was a tramp.
It’s “harebrained”. The word is derived from the animal and not from the stuff you (presumably) have growing out of your head.
It’s important to keep in mind just how slowly time passes in DoA. Expecting Ethan to change significantly over a few weeks of DoA time isn’t really reasonable to how slowly real world people evolve. And, unlike Joyce, he hasn’t had repeated tragedy after tragedy to deal with to shock his system.
Danny IS dangerous. He goes to pieces so fast people get hit by the shrapnel.
(Any opportunity to quote Douglas Adams is a good one.)
Now there’s a hoopy frood who knows where his towel is.
A: Well, that’s life.
B: Life? Don’t talk to me about life.
Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they ask me to pick up a piece of paper. You call that job satisfaction? I don’t.
What is this, judgement day?
Oh, do we get to see that as well?
Part of me wishes that I had learned to play an instrument early on, but mostly I’m glad I never had to take piano lessons.
ironically, i’m a self-taught pianist
Even better, I was taught piano as a child, hated it and quit after awhile, almost 15 years later I have bought myself a piano after years of TRYING to play ukulele and suddenly realizing that I’m waaaayyy better at piano than I am at ukulele/guitar.
My mom is so proud of forcing me into those.
she has not earned her pride and by not the narrowest means deserves it. i learned the piano simply due to the fact that i grew up with one in my childhood house and my natural inclination. i began at age 11. if i had been pressured into it as you have, i would’ve been like you.
if she hadn’t done that, you could’ve been like me.
We had an electric organ when I was 7. I never took the time to try learning it, and a year or so later we gave it away. Today I wish my parents had forced me to take lessons.
You aren’t a pianist until you can play Boogie Woogie Stomp…. Now do it! :3
I had a terrible piano teacher in middle school. She used the ‘brute force rote memorization’ technique to teach the usual songbook of traditional nursery rhymes. No theory, no fun, just months of “play ‘hot cross buns’ and do your scales”. The experience soured me on learning an instrument for years.
Learned violin then self-taugh other instruments. I am grateful (now, of course) for those years (not months) where I had to exercise scales and play no fun tunes. After a few years, songs began to become a bit more fun (like Liszt or Berio), and I got to play in the music school orchester, first no fun lines, then solos (even if I never did like solos per se, just that they were more developed). Would I have never had brute techniques taught before, I’d not have been able to teach other instruments myself later on, because, you know, discipline over creativity is great to make you progress on mastering things. Of course without creativity, it’s hard to put any heart into exercising. So, when nobody was looking, I sung and composed for my very young self. The experience only began to sour me when I became a teenager and questioned my liberty, as I was taught by close family.
Other thing: sal should thank piano for being able to fine tune the uke. human ear is not made to her very well fine tune differences in the low frequences, so bass probably wasn’t what taught her to listen. Heck, I more than once voluntarily played songs half a tone under/over with my bass and nobody beside me remarked it (apart from one drummer once).
*piano lessons
**hear (not her)
I had piano lessons as a kid but ended up dropping them because our piano sucked. My parents couldn’t understand why the piano drove me crazy. “These notes are *wrong*!” I said, pounding on certain keys that were out of tune. My parents were utterly baffled, it sounded fine to them, neither of them could carry a tune in a bucket or tell the difference between a C-note and a hundred dollar bill. Eventually I ended up teaching myself guitar, harmonica, Irish whistle, electric bass, and, finally, piano again — this time on an electric piano that can’t go out of tune, thankfully!
Literally tone-deaf parents?
I’ve never figured out if that is a genetic thing, but glad you stuck to your guns as a kid.
Yes, literally tone-deaf parents. The hilarious thing is that my mother was brought up in a church that required the congregation to sing, and she grew up singing every Sunday morning and Wednesday evening… badly, out of tune. Family Christmas caroling time was utterly painful! Anyhow, some years later I checked out a book from the public library about how to tune a piano and tuned the bloody thing myself since my parents insisted it sounded fine and thus didn’t need tuning… but that was years after the attempt at piano lessons died on the beach of a ridiculously out-of-tune piano.
Yeah, most people don’t get that if you buy a piano, you have to have it tuned by a professional. We had two at home, and the semi-forte, in a rather cold place, was tuned once very five years so we never used it much.
Reading this again, I sound like a snob (what isn’t an astonishment) privileged (that, as white, I am again) bourgeois – this part bathers me. I must then add that my family lived of these instruments (and other) and that it wasn’t décor or nouveau-riche fantasy.
Plus pianos weren’t all that expensive back then. I think we paid $100 for ours. That was back in the era when it was expected that middle class kids would get piano lessons, and the pianos were dumped at a ridiculously low price after the lessons were finished, passed on from family to family. Today, the kids get XBoxes, and real pianos are stupid expensive even used.
Well if you want you could basically get a paino for free now, at least where I live. They are just too cumbersome to move etc, many relatives of older people who move away from a family home or pass away will basically let you have it if you only come get it yourself.
SAL OPENING UP!
Literally opening her ‘windows to the soul.”
Pop Goes the Weasel on the recorder *shudder*
Thunderstruck on the guitar. My family is starting to hate that song. I am not there yet, although there are times I can’t bring myself to play it. If they complain, however, I start playing Smoke on the Water at loud volume and distortion cranked, usually shuts them up.
Welp. Now I’m shipping them.
ALL ABOARD THE ROOMIES OG SHIP :toot toot:
Same.
Now I’m shipping them too. Damn it I can’t stop shipping random pairings!
This is just my opinion that no one asked for but even though a Danny X Sal romance can work beautifully I can’t see it this time around. Sure at the beginning I suggested this but they seem more platonic then anything else.
I mean if you want to play Devil’s Advocate I could bring up how they share something in common about how they both have parents who give them expectations they want them to live up to and then are put down for it when they can’t. But that’s more of a thing they can relate to each other with more than bond romantically.
They seem to have more of a two peas in a pod buddy buddy thing going on.
Yeah I’ve got to agree. I think Sal is opening up to Danny as a replacement Marcie. As she’d have no interest in dating Marcie those feelings kinda attach to Danny. She’s always had that one person to air her troubles to, now that they’ve become unavailable she’s found a (possibly temporary) replacement in Danny, someone she sees as completely harmless in every way.
It’s cute seeing characters bonding over stuff who, at first blush, wouldn’t appear to have a lot in common.
One of the first lessons in Psychology at university blew my mind. People are like points, any two of them defines a straight line, i.e. any random pair of people will have something in common, you just have to look. It changed the way I relate to people.
Food is often a good choice, though that presents some problems of its own through special diets. Still, most people have an indulgence they can get excited talking about.
haha, I found a compromise, I self-taught piano for…three or four years now? It’s been that long? o-o
I self-taught playing Bach’s Joy to Man’s Desire to play at my wedding. It included playing two-handed for the first time.
Of course, I did find the absolutely simplest arrangement to do so.
Cool! I’d like to do something like that at my own wedding (if I ever have one). To be honest, I don’t know many piano songs, I spent most of my time fricking around and experimenting until I became an actually okay pianist? Nowhere near professional level, though. xD
I tried to teach myself piano in college. It didn’t stick. Guitar on the other hand, did for some reason. So much so I’m now (many years later) playing rhythm guitar in a band.
*can’t help but think of that great back-and-forth between the guitarist and bassist of The Power Station on “Get It On (Bang A Gong)”*
The original Marc Bolan/T-Rex version (with Flo and Eddie on backing vocals) was far superior! 🙂 (but you are right, the bass on the remake was pretty damned nice)
NERDS OF DUMBING OF AGE I CALL UPON YOU:
ZA WARUDO VS KING CRIMSON
GO
King Crimson, because between the two I’ve only heard their material.
King Crimson, for the fact that Adrian Belew’s “Oh Daddy” should have been a #1 single.
That is literally the most absolutely bizarre question I’ve seen today.
Who?
I am going with K.C. because: Fripp!
It’s been years since I read the Dark Tower, but I remember I thinking the Crimson King was a terrible villain.
And while this is not the Crimson King you’re referring to, I couldn’t help but derail this thread.
Oh no I could have done any battle pairing from that anime and a derail was ensured because like 90% of the ability names and like 30% of the characters are named after famous bands and songs.
Still, C.S. Lewis. Can’t go wrong there, at least with the novels. Wish the guy Puddleglum was characitured after hadn’t burned the 4th book, in what could have been more than a trilogy, though.
Oooh boy are they flirting ? ARE THEY FLIRTING ?
Nah. Sal would be way more direct, and Danny would find a way to be even less direct.
Danny has his moments with flirting, but I don’t think he’s doing it here. Still, I think there’s been a mutual attraction in the past, so who the fuck knows.
Depends on what they both want. If Sal wanted sex, she’d just take off Danny’s pants and expect him to keep up. We don’t know how she forms an actual relationship.
Danny, yeah, if he was flirting, he’d overthink it, be a dork, and ruin it. Sal is just a friend to him, because he’s never been single around her, so he hasn’t yet made the leap that a relationship could be on the table. It’ll be interesting to see how he reacts if Sal puts one on the table.
keep “up”. heheheeheheee
Unintentional flirting.
Or maybe just pleasure in the back and forth.
…do…do I ship it?
Yes, yes you do.
Is Sal closing her eyes to focus on tuning or just to make panels 6 and 7 even cuter
It’s how she switches the whites of her eyes on and off (compare her eyes in panel four with her eyes in yesterday’s strip).
And Sal joins the “Holy shit, sclera!” Club.
Also she is too cute and I want to hug her forever.
What’s with all the piano lesson hate? Being able to play the piano is awesome!
I think a lot of it has to do with being forced, as a child, to take piano lessons, versus being interested in them and/or having a good teacher.
A choir-director friend of mine was an all-state flutist at the age of 13 and quit the flute shortly thereafter, because her teacher was a martinet and made her hate the flute. (She later took up bassoon and was quite good at it.)
And the right teacher, or teaching approach, too, as mentioned by many here.
We had an electric organ so that’s what my lessons were. Good teacher for me. The reading music part never stuck but my ear developed nicely, and is an asset my to self-taught guitar styling.
Please don’t diss those of us who did learn (or were forced to learn) to play the piano. You wouldn’t badmouth Billy Joel, Freddie Mercury, Elton John, or Ray Charles, would you?
I’m gonna guess Joe Jackson had em too. And Richard Tandy.
I was forced to play the violin, although I wanted the piano. They just told me I can’t be in piano lessons if we don’t have one at home. I wanted to play the flute then, but the lessons were full. The only place left was the violin. I am grateful for the music theory lessons though, they helped a lot when I later actually wanted to learn playing an instrument.
It’s the recommended first instrument to learn, with piano much later.
I listened to an interview with Tony Banks (keyboardist for Genesis) recently. Even he almost gave up piano as a child due to a bad teacher. It was actually his next teacher who inspired the love of playing for him.
Chances Sal uses Danny as a sex toy replacement for the boorish TA?
Appropriate avatar is appropriate.
Except Sal doesn’t hate Danny, she finds him cute in a non-threatening way (and might feel bad about trying to engage in meaningless sex with someone so commitment oriented)
Sal how dare you stop being so adorable.
So I have a question, and as I am a lonely person with few real life friends, I will ask here:
How do you like to be approached/generally approach others on dating apps/sites? I’m talking first message and also specifically in reference to Tinder, though experiences with other platforms are welcome.
I don’t want to send a message that’s just “Hey” (in part because plenty of people are like, “don’t just message me hey”), but I also think people might find it off-putting if I send a longer message right off the bat. I don’t know.
Also my only friend who actually uses Tinder is a straight girl, and it seems, uh, different for her, so really just give me all your Tinder advice.
id suggest, if its there, questions about stuff someone is into on dating sites(i.e. nerd stuff, sports stuff, architecture, etc)
OK, straight cisguy here, so proooobably all my of my experiences are completely useless, but just in case some of it isn’t, here we go:
I used OKCupid-like sites in the past, and well, I didn’t often get messaged first; but even then, I did prefer it to be more substantial than “hey”. I mean, I’d usually say hello back, and then try and fish for something to use as an actual conversation starter, usually by reading (or re-reading) their profile.
Still, I vastly preferred it if someone at least said something like “Hey, funny profile you got there.” At least then I would know that a) they apparently enjoyed reading it, and b) I can make a joke back, or thank them politely and give them a short and simple compliment about their profile in return. And then just let the talk happen.
so yeah, one or two fairly short sentences that above all indicates that you actually read their profiles should, in my opinion, do the trick.
as a straight, very nerdy male, I just like it when a remotely attractive nerdy female notices I exist so honestly I take any message I can get, but ideally a message pertaining to something on my profile shows they read what I wrote about myself and are actually interested.
I send really terrible jokes or ask painfully detailed questions about their field of expertise. Shockingly, neither works.
So my advice is do something I don’t.
Less conventional the better in my experience, and the more open you are about yourself the more open people will be with you as a rule of thumb
My experience is pretty much entirely on sites dedicated to the BDSM community, but my experiences suggest that Emperor Norton has the right if it. One to two full sentences that show you were interested enough to actually read their profile and maybe have a shared or tangential interest.
Girl here. Being messaged first was really pleasant, but on tinder that didn’t really happen very often (for good reasons though haha, one tends to be a bit off putting when they don’t use any real pics of themselves oops). Generally I’d make a joke about whatever little conversation provoking phrase or sentence tinder had pasted onto the empty messaging thing, and about 4 times out of 5 I’d get a response. That works for me, but also might not as well for you. I would say that Emperor Norton is correct, based off the first messages I’d get from people. All you really know about the person so far is vaguely what kind of person they are, based off their profile, so a “good job with your profile” or a “hot damn you like hot fries too?!” is pretty pleasant. I don’t really remember what I did right with either the boy or the girl, but I do recall very strongly thinking that these people were people I needed to know at any cost, and somehow the banter has kept working for over 3 years now.
I do think that you should consider what kind of person you want to meet though, because it does affect your plan of attack with the first message. I wanted to meet someone else who I could build a rapport with out of almost nothing and banter for a while b.c deargodiamalonelyperson. So people making jokes about my profile, or my profile pic, that was a great signal to talk for a while. Sending self depreciating one liners as a first message also was a thing that worked as a litmus test of sorts, b.c if they were self depreciating back it was ehhh but if they tried to reassure me blindly it was not a good sign. If you don’t want to send a small commentary on their profile, a calculated tester line to feel them out works too.
It was the entertainer for me. Also time to google good king wenceslas and then kick myself for it
Entertainer ftw 🙂
I was surprised to find memories of playing good king wenceslas… I can even remember the annoying way I’d slow down on certain parts. I had no idea I’d learnt to play it until today 🙂
…and now my crappy childhood rendition of it is going to be stuck in my head all night 😛 damn you willis!
.. at least I was one of the few kids learning piano by choice. I miss it every so often, but not enough to do much about it. there isn’t really space for a proper piano here anyways, and tiny plastic keyboards with only a couple of octaves drive me nuts.
Those damn Christmas carolers came round
Near to Christmas Eve. Then
My Robots crushed them into pulp
Deep and crisp and even.
*mic drop*
WILLIS WHAT ARE YOU DOING THEY LOOK SO CUTE TOGETHERRRRRRR
After a long wait, here is the first installment of the third Some1 alternate universe. Dungeons and Dumbing.
Dungeons and Dumbing Part 1
Joyce got up slowly and rubbed her eyes, shielding herself from the blinding sun. She discovered she was in a field, poppies littered the ground and the smell of grass hung in the air. Small animals, around a foot in height and two feet long with stubby legs and short trunks munched on the poppies. They were darkly colored and seemed completely uninterested in her, shying away when she turned to approach one. Suddenly a voice struck through the air like an organ strikes the silence of a church.
Voice: Joyce Brown. You have come to my domain.
Joyce: Who are you? What are you? Is this heaven? Are you God?
Voice: As for what I am, that question must remain a mystery, for even I lack that knowledge of self, I cannot call myself God because although my powers here are great, I lack the ability to affect anything outside my domain and even here I have limits on my abilities. As for where you are, this land has no name for names are not used here, but it does have a story. But first you will be wanting to meet your friends, they too have arrived here and must be looking for you. As I have spoken with you I have spoken with them.
Suddenly Dorothy and Walky appear in front of Joyce, Danny appears from the side and Billie appears in the sky about five feet from the ground.
Billie: Shit (slams into the ground)
Dorothy: Joyce! Are you okay?
Joyce: I’m fine, bit concerned I’m dead though
Dorothy: Last thing I remember I was studying and then I was in a field of giant butterflies.
Joyce: Did you get the whole speech thing?
Dorothy: Yeah, I asked if this was computer simulation. Jeez this is really going to eat into my study time…
Walky: I just assumed I was dreaming
Billie: eh, booze induced hallucinations
Danny: I didn’t ask anything. It told me that I should be more questioning.
Joyce: But where are we?
Danny: in the land of no names I suppose.
Suddenly the voice reappears
Voice: To leave this land, you must journey to a castle made of silk that sits upon the highest wave. For that I have seen fit to provide you with a plethora of weapons and spells, take what you see fit.
Suddenly a large create appears in front of them as the voice disappears again. Joyce peers into it and pulls out a broadsword. The metal is engraved with various animals and the hilt is formed form gold with a ruby at the very tip of the handle.
Danny: Sweet there’s a ukulele in here!
Dorothy: Danny you should probably take a real weapon…
Danny: this land seems pretty peaceful, but I guess I’ll also take this knife as well.
Walky: hmm, hey Dorothy, what are you going to take.
Walky looks over to see Dorothy is holding a red leather book with strange writing in the front.
Dorothy: Ignitus fireballus
Suddenly a flame of light shoots out from her and scorches a patch of grass.
Dorothy: I guess this.
Billie: I’m taking this hammer.
Walky thinks for a moment before grabbing a rapier stuck between some larger weapons.
Joyce: Great now we only have to figure out which way to go, what to do and who to do it with. Easy!
Voice: go to the eastern lands!
Dorothy: So, go East?
Voice: Maybe…
Billie: lets go east.
Voice: I really need to get better at speaking in riddle.
And so, they traveled on their way and Billie only threatened to shove Danny’s uke down his throat one time.
Ah, but just because a region is named “The Eastern Lands,” that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is in the East. Outright deception aside — and we don’t yet know anything about the alignment of this organ-in-a-church voice — if, say, you’re in Thailand and you want to go the Middle East, your quickest path is due West.
Billie: Ok… so… which way is east?
Voice: WHAT
Joyce: Give us a break! We’re all city people! We have iPhones to tell us which way is north!
Dorothy: Guys, it’s OK! The sun rises in the east, we’ll just head towards the rising sun!
Walky: There you go, we’ll be fine!
*4 hours later, the party encounters a shepherd tending his flock*
Dorothy: Excuse me, sir? Do you know how far we are from… ‘The Eastern Lands’?
Shepherd: Ayup, nat faar. ‘Bout’ days’ journey… t’th’east. *points back the way they came*
Everyone: WHAT???
Shepherd: What kinda puddin-heads dun’no which way’s east? Yer jus foller ther settin’ sun.
Dorothy: Wait, SETTING SUN?!?!
Walky: *sigh* Stupid fantasy worlds!
*Danny plays ‘Road To Nowhere’ by The Talking Heads*
Oh, poppies! I thought you said puppies, which seemed reasonable, because Joyce.
Also, nicely done.
But then you’d have the long-nosed animals munching on puppies, and that would freak Joyce out.
“Billie only threatened to shove Danny’s uke down his throat one time.”
But that one time was continuously through the entire trip.
WHY DOES SHE LOOK SO WISTFUL
It’s the best way for her to convey how wistful she feels.
Because it’s all about the base.
Was not in favor of taking piano lessons when I was a child. And taking them was totally worthless as well, I remember nothing.
Maybe your parents remember the private time they could have during your lessons?
I would’ve loved to have learned a percussion instrument as a kid.
You know, like the glockenspiel.
The fact that Sal can tune by ear is pretty amazing.
Soo…. how crazy do you think Amber would get if she saw this, or worse, if these two got together?
Her two split personalities would materialize into two separate physical entities.
Prediction: she stumbles onto a Sal-Danny-Ethan threesome.
the Dannythan ship sailed away a while ago.
But what about the Saldathan?
Both Amber and Amazi-Girl have gotten better about Sal. I think these days it would bother her, but she’d handle it.
I’ve been thinking ( oh no!), and it finally came together.
Why would AG go out and do stuff without Amber along? Why would she not want Amber to remember? Because she went out to meet someone that Amber wouldn’t approve of. And, who would that be? Who did AG go from swearing eternal vengeance against, to practically gushing over to a sceptical Amber? And, why is Sal smiling so much?
Sal and AG hooked up last night.
“You leave the mask on, and I’ll leave my gloves on.”
Aw. Friendship!
She’s doing it again! Sal never smiles. She’s to cool for smiles. But, she’s smiling!
I know folks here are getting confused and shipping them both but I’m reminded of a few good friendships with ladies that I knew back in college.
I am now kinda sad about that.
I don’t think I’d ever use the word dangerous to describe Danny.
he’s dangerously oblivious
I swear, all of these ships are gonna end up colliding together into a Titanic mess of an orgy
I…think you might have seen a different movie than I did.
Or else, the history books left some stuff out.
Ship x Iceberg was a pairing that really left some people out in the cold
That ship has certainly sailed
Ba-dum-tss
People died.
It seems I was watching the lesser-known movie, “Tits-tanic”. It’s basically “Titanic” but better
Huh, I’m actually identifying *really* hard with Sal right now
I tried to learn guitar as a kid but I never put much effort into it for some reason. Instead I ended up playing the saxophone. Haven’t played in years though.
Pick it up, the saxophone is pretty cool
I second that. I’ve picked mine up late last year after many years of not playing; now playing on some blues tunes in my band. The band loves it!
Danny is a badass.
In case anyone is wondering, it is possible to play bass while wearing gloves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=390Nz5Gm8Hw
You can play anything wearing gloves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RzwvPk8Aqo
I ship these two because I want to see Danny’s parents’ heads explode when they meet her.
same gravatar!
Relevant gravatar is relevant
Danny’s eye-twitch in panel five is neat and makes me believe he could be a danger to himself or.others, given a wrong musical prompt.
Again she’s full of suprises being self taught and all that’s actaully pretty sweet… damn I’m actually impressed.
it’s a good way to catch bad habits that are a pain to correct later, tho
Sorry, but:
THEY’RE BONDING! SQUEE!
ahem thank you
We needed wholesome positivity from two characters not recovering from mental breakdowns
Well I guess that’s debatable for Danny
Cheese’in counterpoints. They’re about as nice together here as Mike and Ethan were in that one other strip. This feels like a double disaster getting primed to happen.
They both are kinda clunky with each other, and people in general, but I think these two could really get a lot out of a friendship with each other.
Dammit Sal
Why do you have those beautiful eyes
I’m wondering if Danny/Sal is going to happen and derail Mike’s plans for Ethan (leaving Mike with a boyfriend and no viable ‘Plan B’).
That could be interesting.
here is kitty’s finnish word of the day!
sarjakuva (comics)
willis’s favorite thing, he is physically unable to stop making comics.
have a nice day!
I’m interested, but I can’t help thinking that I need a pronunciation guide.
o yeah… i should include that
its sar-ya-kuva. finnish j is like a soft english y
i think this guide is good? http://ielanguages.com/finnish-pronunciation.html
oh man, sal and danny’s odd little friendship is one of my favorite parts of the comic and this one is an especially sweet interaction. love it!
For some reason, I can see Sal grabbing a 6-string and then her and Danny delivering an impromptu performance of Rose Garden. IMO, at least, the lyrics fit Sal in many ways.
new danny is too much like me when i was 14 i feel attacked
GOOD KING WENCESLAS LAST LOOKED OUT, ON THE FEAST OF STEVEN!
Bonus points if you shout it in no recognisable tune.
WHEN – THE – SNOW lay ROUND aBOOOUT, DEEP and *mumble* and-
*Flips page*
…eEEVEN…
Good King Sauerkraut looked out
On the feets of Steven
While the snoo lay roundabout–
Snoo? What’s snoo?
I dunno, what’s snoo with you.
Heh, snoo snoo.
Oh, that’s where the line comes from!
Heh. Novel approach to joining the dark side.
“Now in C-minor. No that’s wrong. Ha. Yes, let the hate flow through you! From the top!”
Thank you for sparing us from Danny’s fury, Sal
Sal was all about that bass, ’bout that bass…
Together, you shall make such beautiful music!
Awww Sal looks so peaceful in that last panel. Heh, nothing makes people bond more than mutual suffering I guess.
So I forgot to look up yesterday’s atl-text and my reply to that question is that’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson he has the ability to make anything seem better than it actually is. Why do you think Hollywood puts him in so many shity movies they need to sell ?
Shipping intensifies. 😀
Look, I don’t want to come across as bassist or anything, but I just think electric basses are superior to Ukeleles.
A clearly bassless assertion.
….
….. wait….
To be fair, I don’t see what they’re bassing that statement on.
Definitely fishy.
Now that’s brass!
Sal actually bonding with someone else???
squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Don’t know what this is, but I like Danny and Sal bonding over music. 😀
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd, then they shag!!!!
So, Amazi-Girl’s “Hey you two, break it up down there!” indicates Future Vision as one of her superpowers?
Sal’s also tuning herself.
Sal is Marceline? Anyone?
For a brief moment I thought you were talking about Marcie and I was very, very confused.
Malaya may constantly abuse Sal about her fabricated aloofness, but it’s only Danny who actually, effortlessly gets her to put it aside.
It’s because he’s the Goodest Egg™
… reminds me of the Pachelbel Rant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM
Which in turn reminds me of Pachelbel’s Rant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2BOAvHwaKM
The follow-up, in which which Pachelbel sings how much he hates the Canon to the tune of the Canon, does not appear to be on YouTube.
(Fine, here it is, since it seems I can’t cajole or coax you,
Knock yourselves out, people, here’s your Canon, hope it chokes you.
I offer you a whole smorgasbord of subtle flavours,
All that you want is an avalanche of semiquavers!)
I’ve never shipped anything so hard.
Mixed race and struggles with identity cause of it, curly as fuck hair that she straightens compulsively, fingerless gloves, “too cool” demeanor adopted as a coping mechanism for emotional vulnerability, regret flavored affair with an overdressed English guy with a thing for being all professor-like AND plays bass guitar? If Sal was also bi/gay then I’d feel like Willis stole my likeness
Always wanted to learn bass.
Joke’s on Sal. Unless you’re willing to tune daily, don’t ever try to help tune a ukulele with young strings.
Hah, called it, she played bass.
Should I ship this? I feel like I should ship this.
Not a bad thing to read to start my birthday with.
Sal can smile? Without justifying it through violence?
Sal tunes the uke, while imagining Malaya chained to a rack, and the uke is resultantly pulverized.
Me reading: “Sal (…) imagining Malaya’s (…) rack”
Yup, the shipping goggles seem to be working!
How did King Wenceslas have his pizza?
Deep pan, crisp and even.
This is terrible. I applaud you.
Piano lessons are useful if you ever envision a future as a strangler. This can apply to other activities such as making pottery.
I’ve never really understood the appeal of non-piano instruments. Is it just that it’s easy to play things that sound good without needing to actually learn what the notes are?
Of course, my experience with a piano mostly involved sitting down with lesson books, playing through every piece in them in order, and then asking for the next book in the series.
Well, I tried to learn guitar and a few other things because you can pick them up and take them with you. 🙂
Non-piano musicians hate that you can’t bend the pitch of a note, being locked into what the keystrike gives you.
Im… starting to ship this…
….then Sal starts in playing…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqjUWJtH88c
I love Sal’s smile in the last two panels. She looks absolutely content — it’s a good look on her.
Oh, wow. I think we saw an actual unguarded expression from Sal for a panel there.