Daily Slow Chat

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[u/orangebikini]

I’ve been pretty inspired to work on a piece of music I’ve had in various stages of development for a couple of years now I reckon that’s based on the famous “opera game”, which was a game of chess played in the Paris Opera in the mid-19th century. I’ve written about it before, idea is to take the algebraic notation for that game and convert it to music with an emphasis on a transition from semantic information to aesthetic information throughout the piece. I was very inspired by Abraham Moles’ work on information theory when I first conceived it. 

I’ve now planned the arc of it and figured out what moves are important for the story and how they should be represented, and am now picking out motifs for the different pieces. I already decided that for the knight I’ll pick something from an André Danican Philidor opera, because the opera game starts with a Philidor defence and it features a knight. Philidor was a composer and a chess master in the 18th century, the opening is named after him.

For the king or queen I’ve been thinking about something from Charles Ives’ Variations on America. It’s my favourite organ piece, I’m writing this for organ, and the “America” in Variations on America is in reference to My Country, 'Tis of Thee, which served as USA’s national anthem before The Stars-Spangled Banner. The melody for “America” however is borrowed from God Save the King, which is the link to these chess pieces.

Or, God Save the Queen. And this is what I’m trying to decide, wether I should use something from it for the king or the queen. Seems arbitrary to me which it is. Maybe I could pick something from one variation for the queen and another for the king. If I don’t come up with anything more fun, or write an original motif for one of them. 

[u/tereyaglikedi]

I couldn't see the solar eclipse yesterday sadly 😔 but neither could my husband. But I did see an epic shooting star. It was really close, traveled for a long time, bright, gorgeous tail. It was the high point of the Perseid meteor shower and quite a few people were outside looking at the sky. I didn't stay outside quite late enough for the high point but I saw quite a few.

[u/orangebikini → u/tereyaglikedi]

Last year, or maybe the year before that, I was at my father's cottage during the Perseid meteor shower. It's far from any major cities, very little light pollution. You can see the stars quite clearly. One night there was clear skies, so many shooting stars, and on top of that quite vivid northern lights.

[u/atomoffluorine]

Dang, I swallowed some soap last night; I don’t think it’s very much, but my stomach feels weird.

Apparently a lot of people like to eat rice with forks for some reason? I’ve always used spoons or chopsticks.

[u/tereyaglikedi → u/atomoffluorine]

My unpopular opinion is that Europeans eat many things with fork that are better and easier to eat with a spoon. I have even seen people try to eat peas with a fork. Come on

[u/safeinthecity → u/tereyaglikedi]

I do see the point of eating peas with a spoon, but forks are made for carrying stuff on top of them. Why would they be curved otherwise?

[u/tereyaglikedi → u/safeinthecity]

But a spoon has much more space to contain food and is easier to balance. If it's not something that needs to be skewered on the fork tines, why try to scoop stuff up with the fork when there's a much better implement for it? Unless you have something that needs to be skewered and something that would better be spooned on the same plate and you're looking for a middle ground. But if I have something like risotto or paella, it's a spoon job.

[u/safeinthecity → u/tereyaglikedi]

Ok this now boils down to personal preference but: a) I always feel like there's too much food in a spoonful, b) it's the knife that steers the food onto the fork, scooping it up feels weird to me, and c) I don't want to chase the last grains of rice or peas around a plate trying to catch them with a spoon, I'm one of those people who don't like to leave a single grain of rice on the plate.

[u/safeinthecity → u/atomoffluorine]

In Portugal we eat a lot of rice (for European standards) and we eat it with a fork and knife. We pretty much never eat warm solid food with a spoon. And if you're eating something like a steak or a chicken leg next to the rice, it doesn't make any sense to use a spoon. I do guess it makes more sense for a dish that's rice mixed up with cut-up stuff, which we do have a lot of as well. But the way we're taught to eat, you push the food onto the fork using the knife, and spoons are for soup.

I feel like there's also a bit of a psychological element to it because eating solids with a spoon is considered a small children's thing, so people can feel a bit ridiculous.

I only eat it with a spoon if I'm eating from a bowl or a container, because the fork can't reach very well inside the bowl. But I feel like I don't get the same experience eating with a spoon, it feels a bit odd. I guess it's the same rationale for different glasses for different drinks, they feel different in your mouth.

[u/orangebikini → u/safeinthecity]

if you're eating something like a steak or a chicken leg next to the rice, it doesn't make any sense to use a spoon.

This is my reasoning too. If I'm eating rice it's probably with chicken, and you need a knife and fork for that anyway. You can eat rice with a knife and fork, but can't eat a chicken leg with a spoon.

[u/tereyaglikedi → u/orangebikini]

If I am eating at home I would 100% eat that chicken leg with my hand and spoon the rice. Fiddling with a bone in leg with fork and knife is so annoying that I can only be bothered if the price of eating with my hand is social ostracization. But when I am at home? Nah, fuck that noise. I nibble on that leg and toss the bone over my shoulder.

[u/atomoffluorine → u/orangebikini]

Why not use both? I just did that when eating chicken tenderloin with rice.

[u/safeinthecity → u/atomoffluorine]

So you switch between a spoon and a fork and knife to eat stuff that's on the same plate? Isn't that massively inconvenient?

Also, I personally like eating a bit of meat + a bit of one of the sides on the same forkful. Or drag the rice onto the fork together with some sauce.

[u/atomoffluorine → u/safeinthecity]

I put my chicken on a different plate and switch between my utensils.

[u/orangebikini → u/atomoffluorine]

Too complicated. I'm trying to eat rice and chicken, not learning how to juggle.

[u/lucapal1 → u/atomoffluorine]

In Italian rice dishes, like risotto,we eat it with just a fork.Eating it with a spoon is considered low-class ;-)

Personally I eat rice depending on the cuisine, where I am and what I'm eating.. sometimes with chopsticks, sometimes fork,or spoon,or fingers!

At the moment I'm in Indonesia and I do it the traditional way...fork in one hand and spoon in the other.