Archives for May 4, 2009

You may have been wondering why, to submit a comment to Rifftides, you are asked to type in a box two words like these samples.

A curious and, possibly, irritated reader asked,

Isn’t it funny when they want you to type in the words at the bottom – it’s like a “TEST” to see if you can make them out? Why don’t they make it easy for us?
Why is that? We can’t cheat. We are on our own computers. That is so funny isn’t it?

It’s not so funny if spammers grab your e-mail address and plague you with junk mail. Artsjournal.com Commander-In-Chief Doug McLennan explains:

They have to make them obscure enough so that computer spam bots can’t read them. That’s the whole point. Modern scanner algorithms can read images that are clear. This captcha program is supposed to be one of the best.

I hope that you feel safer. Test the system; click the Comments link below and send one. We’re always glad to have Rifftides readers’ opinions and observations.

Last Friday, Leonard Lopate of WNYC radio in New York invited Bill Charlap to drop by the studio where Lopate does his Please Explain program and talk about how jazz improvisation works. Seated at the piano, Charlap spoke clearly about the raw materials of music and showed what jazz players do with them in the act of creation. He used “These Foolish Things” and the blues as his demonstration models. Lopate, a personification of the inquiring mind, asked good questions. He reached a couple of layman’s conclusions with which Charlap politely and firmly disagreed. Toward the end of the half hour of good conversation and music, Lopate and Charlap took a few calls from canny listeners. It is all entertaining and instructive, even for those who may know, or think they know, the answers. To hear the program, click on the arrow in the box below. You will get a brief WNYC promotional announcement, then the show.