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September 22

Which song is this?

Can anyone tell me the name of this tune? Thanks in advance. 69.156.218.101 (talk) 04:28, 22 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It's "Tom Hark". There's a great version by The Piranhas here. --Viennese Waltz 07:28, 22 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The original recording was by "Elias and His Zig Zag Jive Flutes", and reached no.2 in the UK chart in 1958. Ghmyrtle (talk) 09:15, 22 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I just found that the version I linked to (and prefer the most after hearing all three versions) is by Mickey Finn And The Blue Men, thanks for identifying the song for me! Much appreciated as it has been stuck in my head for a while now. 69.156.218.101 (talk) 09:40, 22 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

See Mickey Finn (guitarist) - more info here. Ghmyrtle (talk) 10:45, 22 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Tommy Lasorda

I just watched an interview with Tommy Lasorda on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and in it he said that he had been with the Dodgers for 64 years ("64 years with the Dodgers"). That would take him back to 1949. But according to his article, he's only been with the Dodgers since '54. Am I reading it wrong or does he have his dates mixed up? Dismas|^(talk) 09:12, 22 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Our article says that his minor-league contract was bought by the Dodgers in 1949, and he was assigned to their South Atlantic League team the Greenville Spinners. The lead also says, "In 2009, he marked his sixth decade in one capacity or another with the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers organization." Deor (talk) 09:57, 22 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

So it's not necessarily that he spent his time with the Dodgers specifically but with their organization in general. I see. Dismas|^(talk) 10:44, 22 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Reconstruction of historical martial arts

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen

There are people, who claim, that they are able to reconstruct and practice the extinct martial arts of medieval Europe. They claim, that they got this knowledge by reading some of the fighting manuals ("Fechtbücher" in German). Now, I do not have any experiences in martial arts whatsoever, but I am learning German, and I am a longtime practioner of modern day fencing. Under http://digital.slub-dresden.de/werkansicht/dlf/7522/53/cache.off and http://www.kb.dk/da/nb/materialer/haandskrifter/HA/e-mss/thalhofer/thott-2_290.html are two of the German Fechtbücher available. The tradition of these fighting manuals was never broken, even when fencing itself changed from the cutting to more thrusting oriented fighting styles (a great modern fencing book would be Prof. William M. Gaugler's "The Science of Fencing: A Comprehensive Training Manual for Master and Student"). My question is: is it possible to learn fencing by such old literature? There is a interesting comparison on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHEs2m0IXAk between the modern day interpretation and the original writings and drawings. I personally would doubt, that I would be able to learn fencing by consuming some of the modern day books on the subject (all the little details, like the the correct use of the motor leg or the binding of the blades in the very first phase), but then again, I have no idea, how most martial arts work.--92.105.189.138 (talk) 11:41, 22 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It's always possible that historical reconstructions get something wrong, but that's true for anything to do with history. That's part of the fun and part of the challenge! We have an article on Historical European martial arts, with a section on revivals and reconstructions. That should help answer your questions. Adam Bishop (talk) 12:20, 22 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Bear in mind that the reconstructors are almost certainly already proficient in one or more "living" martial arts, which would give them considerable insight into non-explicit details of the historical one(s) they're working on: they're not starting from a blank slate. Given certain aspects which the old manuals do prescribe, others probably follow by default, as there are only so many ways the human body can move and weapons be efficiently applied. There are similar reconstructionalist practitioners in the UK, as well: A relevant book I own is at home (while I'm at work) so I can't cite it, but Company of Maisters may be of interest. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 212.95.237.92 (talk) 13:13, 23 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

key

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxnTdFyd0l0

Hello, this song is off-key ? 198.105.120.239 (talk) 19:51, 22 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I think it's all in-key, but it's not at concert pitch (so if you're trying to play along to it with e.g. a piano it won't sound nice). Assuming it's in G, it seems to be very flat. That may be an artefact of the video transfer and encoding stages that have been applied to it (PAL<->NTSC, telecine) which may have pitch-shifted it from how it was originally recorded. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 22:39, 22 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

@Finlay, see previous similar question by same poster.

The song is, as Finlay states not at concert pitch, and I think judging by your previous, similar question with two versions of another song, that is what you meant by off-key. So yes, in that sense it's off key, flat, but slightly less so than the song of your previous question. As with the previous song, the key is F#. When played on the highest guitar string, that corresponds to 370 Hz. This time I needed to detune my guitar such that F# was at 364.2 Hz, to get the F# on the guitar to match the frequency of the song. Are you processing and uploading these files yourself? If so, what kind of equipment are you using? It is unthinkable nowadays that pop music is recorded at anything else than concert pitch, and if the music has been transferred and processed digitally, it wouldn't have gone out of tune. So what's going on? --NorwegianBlue^talk 23:04, 22 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

"Japanese bullet games"?

Hello, Ref Desk,

I just heard an interview on NPR with an author who was talking about mobile technology's role in our lives these days and said his latest addiction was "Japanese bullet" games (there might have been an additional word in the phrase. I did a search of Wikipedia and nothing popped up in the search.

Does this ring a bell? I don't think the author was a video game expert so it can't be something too obscure. Thanks for your help. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 20:04, 22 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps it was "bullet hell games" [danmaku] (a type of Shoot 'em up), games where enemies fire hundreds of missiles in dense patterns and the player must find a safe path through while still attacking enemies. See this video for some examples - the boss battle at 4:00 in that video is good example of true bullet hell. These games, while not exclusively Japanese, are particularly popular there, and most are produced in Japan for the domestic market. An even crazier example is here. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 22:19, 22 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sure that is it, Finlay McWalter! Thank you. It must really be Japanese, "bullet hell" games, rather than "Japanese bullet" games. I appreciate you addressing my question! ;-) Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 23:08, 22 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]