Me on teevee yesterday. I didn’t have any speaking lines (I’m the one in the inauthentic shades playing the psaltery), my cousin Martha did the talking. The behind camera experience with the reporter was keeping us in stitches. She was brainiacally challenged, yet her bio claims she has a Master’s. Listen at the end where she says she can’t hear anything. It was a shoestring budget one-camera deal. Her name is pronounced BLONCH, as she made clear.
Yeah. Gee, you know, I don’t think I would have gone with BLONCH. I mean, that’s roughly the sound a bodhran player makes when throwing up after drinking. Of course, now that I think about it, they don’t really throw up after drinking, do they?
Have they removed it? Other than the link to The Presidio I’m not seeing anything other than text.
djm
still shows on mine. It starts black then goes to opening frame…
Same problem here.
Slan,
D. 
BLONCH? Ouch. I knew of someone named Renee, but she pronounced it REENIE. Made me think of kidneys and ureters every time.
I’d have to skip the link even if it worked. My irksome 'puter would do the e-quivalent of going cataleptic.
This was also not a medical post. It just ended up sounding like it might be.
I didn’t see no badges.
Well, I saw it and heard it, after I upgraded my Flash player to version 9, like it told me (bossy old software!).
Shame you couldn’t hear much of what you were playing, Weeks. It’s hard to play while someone’s shouting in your ear. But you did get to say hello. If only you could have shown them your pantaloons!
That’s the biggest Psaltery I’ve ever seen. I’ve only ever seen ones you could hold in one hand, and play with a tiny bow in the other hand.
It’s the fellow at the back in the Tricorn hat I feel sorry for. That was a real person, right, & not a shopwindow mannequin?
I think the shades and the fedora could catch on… 
Nice going, Weekski!
Not a speaking part?? I thought you delivered the line “the psaltery” with great conviction and found it a very moving moment. When do we see your interview on that actors studio program? 
Blanch’s interviewing skills did leave just a bit to be desired, eh? 
I could get it. Thank goodness Martha had a lot to say! Blanche’s voice—I think she should see a coach—is entirely too loud and too piercing. Man, it really kind of gave me a headache. I’m glad that audio interview finally came on too—although I admit, I was sort of dying to see what poor Blanche would do if it didn’t come through. I think Martha would have bailed her out. Weekenders, you made a nice group there and Martha’s comments were very illuminating.
Sounds like Blonch matches her name. Poor girl.
Hey, are those period shades you’re wearing? Sort of a rock-star psalterer look. I was suprised to learn that you are several centuries old. (Blanche: “We’re here with living descendants who came to the presidio 230 years ago…”)
I thought Martha was really going to demonstrate the nursing-accessibility of that blouse more graphically, a couple times. Blonch looked a little nervous, there.
I too was very moved by your delivery of the line " the psaltery" Weekski.
I think the camera man did you an injustice however. Another second or two of the spotlight might have given much more power to your performance and possibly led to a leading role in a major motion picture..
All kidding aside, that was pretty cool Weekski…
Awesome! You make me proud to know you!
Yeah, that’s what was funny, the overall unease. Blonch was practically shouting because tourist buses kept passing by and she was afraid of losing the audio. Martha was winging it and indeed, I was beginning to wonder about the nursing bit. The cameraman was ordering everyone around because he was the only pro. It created the kind of tension that makes you want to laugh and rebel and…well, I did my part.
Martha is probably the foremost expert on Spanish and Mexican period era women’s clothing. She has an unpublished clothing manual for the Petaluma Adobe that is awesome and she stitched about 30 full costumes for volunteers doing re-enactments. [park]. It was one of the homes of her GGGrandfather Gen. Vallejo.
Russ Ruiz, the big guy in the background with the funny hat, is very active in Santa Barbara re-enactment circles and is a distant relation. He frequently portrays either presidio comandantes, soldados [soldados info], King Charles III, etc. He came all the way up for this wingding.
If you watched the whole clip, you might have seen Don Garate on horseback. he is the chief ranger at [Tumacamori National Park] in Arizona. He portrays Anza down there and is in the middle of writing a three volume history of the Anza family. Both father and son were quite interesting fellows.
The psaltery is a hog-nose type, not played with a bow but plucked. Father Font brought one on the expedition at Anza’s request because you can demonstrate the basic diatonic scale, modes and even chords on it. I built it from a kit and put the gold crosses on it.
thanks for comments. It was fun to finally be noticed. We were even on Spanish teevee though I can’t find the link Every year, this celebration is completely overshadowed by the Gay Pride Parade. This year, the Parade was a week early and the organization decided to do it on the actual weekday of June 27 anyway, which is the official SF birthday but not really the correct date. It’s more like June 16, when my 7GGrandfather began the construction of the Presidio.
This seems to be a high point in Anza Trail history. The NPS has finished most of their trail markings and site developments, there is a new book out about the expedition, and our overall goal of getting Americans to include it along with the California and Oregon Trail is progressing. It’s a very interesting story.
More info : [here] and my cousin’s site (he’s the guy on Martha’s right [here]
Ah but think how that humble little clip will look at the start of the retrospective video that plays just before the academy gives Weekski his lifetime achievement award!
Now if he can just refrain from using his celebrity to push his politrix… 
Weeks, you did have a speaking part… “… it’s a psaltry.” Those words will live on in infamy.
Oh, and by the way, I really want your hat. 
Well, actually, I was interviewed at length by an independent film maker who is doing a new documentary about the trail and the effort to promote it. I stayed up all night dreaming up concise sound bites to get the message across. Nyuk.
And Alan, politrix do come up, even at these things. The City of SF has been very ambivalent about doing anything to promote the Spanish history because they are afraid of stirring up the Ward Churchills of the area. They took two statues off of their mounts in town, one of Anza and one of the King of Spain, and put 'em in a warehouse. They are finally gonna put 'em back up way out by Lake Merced, where only fishermen and joggers will see them.
Man, you got good ears. You must be a musician. Nyuk. I didn’t even notice when I first watched it, but now that you mention it, I remember saying it but figgered it wasn’t picked up over Blonch’s din. I even got a mini-closeup!
Martha mentioned her ancestor on the Trail, Feliciana Arballo. She is quite famous because of the following diary entry from Padre Font.
“At night, with the joy at the arrival of all the people, they held a fandango here. It was somewhat discordant, and a very bold widow who came with the expedition sang some verses which were not at all nice, applauded and cheered by all the crowd. [Footnote 135] For this reason the man to whom she came attached became angry and punished her. The commander, hearing of this, sallied forth from his tent and reprimanded the man because he was chastising her. I said to him, “Leave him alone, Sir, he is doing just right,” but he replied, “No, Father, I can not permit such excesses when I am present.” He guarded against this excess, indeed, but not against the scandal of the fandango, which lasted until very late.”
And here is something that make historians laugh. His quote from the next day
“Monday, December 18.—I said Mass and in it spoke a few words about the fandango of last night, censuring the performance, saying that instead of thanking God for having arrived with their lives, and not having died from such hardship, as the animals did, it appeared that they were making such festivities in honor of the Devil I do not think that the commander liked this very well, for he did not speak to me once during the whole morning. I suppose he was offended at me a good many times. for I spent most of the journey in this way; because, since he has a sensitive and proud spirit, he took offense at every little thing, appearing very much hurt and bearing an air of great seriousness. Sometimes he even went two or three or more days without speaking to me, or passing very few remarks with me, and sometimes he spoke somewhat gruffly without listening to what I said, even though he might have asked me a question. This, together with the illness which I suffered from flux, and which kept me very much prostrated, served me as a quite sufficient cross, thank God.”
(Flux is diarrhea). Nyuk.
For possible hats, check this site. I’m favouring a Mexican priest’s hat right at the moment. http://www.ushist.com/victorian_clothing.htm
Bloch’s voice is still ringing in my ears.