Infinitely CRAZY: August 2008

Thursday, August 14, 2008

TT - Interesting Facts About Paris

Paris is the capital city of France, the largest country of Western Europe with 550 000 km² and with about 60 millions inhabitants in the Whole of France.

The City of Paris has about 2,160,000 people living there and it covers about 41 square miles. The altitude of Paris averages between 90ft and 120ft above sea level.

Some of the attractions of Paris include The Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame Cathedral, The Arc de Triomphe, The Louvre Museum, The Champs-Elysées, and Musé d'Orsay.

The Eiffel Tower is probably one of the most famous symbols of France and was built for the International Exhibition of Paris of 1889, took 2 years to complete and it was the world's tallest building up until 1930.

The Eiffel Tower has over 2.5 million rivets, 15,000 iron pieces, over 40 tonnes of paint and there are 1652 steps to the top.

The River Seine actually breaks the city into the Rive Droite (Right Bank) north of the river and the Rive Gauche (Left Bank) south of the river.

Paris is a huge tourist destination and every year 13 millions visit Disneyland Paris, 5.5 million visit the Eiffel Tower, about 5 million visit the Louvre museum, and about 3.25 million visit Versailles Palace.

The Tour de France is a race which occurs each summer were more than 100 professional cyclists take part in a 2,000 mile race. The race lasts up to three weeks and the route changes from year to year. Once the Tour de France actually included Ireland.

Tourists may like to know that the average January Temperature is 39F and the Average July Temperature is 69F. The time is 1 hour ahead of GMT (or 6 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, New York), the Country Dialing Code is 33 and the Paris area code is 1. Electricity in Paris and France is 220 Volts AC, 50 Hz and plugs are round with two-pins.

Paris has over 70 Museums, monuments and cultural tourist stops. Some of the best art in the world is housed in Parisien Museums.

The region of Paris was settled since around 4200 BCE. The city itself was founded by the Parisii, a Celtic tribe, around 250 BCE. The Roman renamed it Luteca from 52 BCE, and it only became known as "Paris" after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century.

20% of the French people live in the Parisian region.

Paris is also known as the Capital of Romance

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 4:00 AM 37 comments

Monday, August 11, 2008

Thursday Thirteen - More Piano Facts

Spinet pianos were made by Samuel Blythe as early as 1789 at Salem, Mass.

The term Grand was first used in 1777.

Abraham Lincoln used Chickering Grand #5070 while at the White House.

During 1869 the US produced 25,000 pianos valued at $7,000,000, during 1910 production was 350,000 pianos valued at $100,000,000 !

The term "Tickle the Ivorys" refers to playing the ivory keys of the piano, however, ivory has not been used to make piano keys since about the 1950's (they are plastic, sometimes referred to as "Ivorine").

That there are currently over 50 Brand Names of pianos?

During the past 100 years there have been approximately 5000 Brands of pianos placed on the market. Most are still on display in homes or elsewhere.

Pianos are made of thousands of pieces of wood glued together to form various parts of the playing mechanism as well as the cabinet. Felt, buckskin, paper, steel, iron, copper, and other materials are also used.

Don't forget to visit PianoSuppies.com for piano lamps, bench cushions, tuning equipment and more !
Or the Piano Book Store for great books about pianos .

Independent studies show that children who learn piano tend to do better in school. This is attributed to the discipline, eye-hand coordination, social skills building, learning a new language (music) and the pleasure derived from making your own music.

It should also be noted here that anyone considering a career in any facet of music should consider studying the piano . Many music schools require at least one semester of piano, regardless of your major.

Over the years there have been many attempts at "improving" the piano. One such experiment was to replace some of the wooden action parts with plastic. It didn't work, they cracked with age. (If you own one of these pianos, you might want to check out Piano Tuners to get it repaired or even Piano Dealers to replace it).
There were many other ideas that tried and failed including the Jensen piano which had 2 keyboards, a vertical grand, one that had a keyboard that was more like a typewriter and many others.

Spinet pianos were made by Samuel Blythe as early as 1789 at Salem, Mass.

The term Grand was first used in 1777.

Abraham Lincoln used Chickering Grand #5070 while at the White House.

During 1869 the US produced 25,000 pianos valued at $7,000,000, during 1910 production was 350,000 pianos valued at $100,000,000 !

The term "Tickle the Ivorys" refers to playing the ivory keys of the piano, however, ivory has not been used to make piano keys since about the 1950's (they are plastic, sometimes referred to as "Ivorine").

That there are currently over 50 Brand Names of pianos?

During the past 100 years there have been approximately 5000 Brands of pianos placed on the market. Most are still on display in homes or elsewhere.

Pianos are made of thousands of pieces of wood glued together to form various parts of the playing mechanism as well as the cabinet. Felt, buckskin, paper, steel, iron, copper, and other materials are also used.

Don't forget to visit PianoSuppies.com for piano lamps, bench cushions, tuning equipment and more !
Or the Piano Book Store for great books about pianos .

Independent studies show that children who learn piano tend to do better in school. This is attributed to the discipline, eye-hand coordination, social skills building, learning a new language (music) and the pleasure derived from making your own music.

It should also be noted here that anyone considering a career in any facet of music should consider studying the piano . Many music schools require at least one semester of piano, regardless of your major.

Over the years there have been many attempts at "improving" the piano. One such experiment was to replace some of the wooden action parts with plastic. It didn't work, they cracked with age. (If you own one of these pianos, you might want to check out Piano Tuners to get it repaired or even Piano Dealers to replace it).
There were many other ideas that tried and failed including the Jensen piano which had 2 keyboards, a vertical grand, one that had a keyboard that was more like a typewriter and many others.

"You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish"
Answer: Sure you can, you just adjust it's scales!. This was a joke

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 4:26 AM 21 comments

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

TT - Interesting Facts About France

Nearly 20% of the territory of France lies outside Europe and known as "DOM-TOM" (overseas departments and territories), where over 2.5 million French citizens live.

More tourists visit France each year than any other country in the world, with 67 million annual tourist arrivals (more than the country's population).

André Gide, French writer and Nobel Prize of Literature, said "French people are Italian people in bad mood".

The tides in the region of Brittany and Normandy are the strongest in Europe, with a difference in level of up to 15 meters between high and low tide.

French used to be the language of the nobility and diplomacy all across Europe and in the Ottoman Empire, then the world's first real international language until English replaced it in the mid-20th century.

The name "France" comes from "Frank", a Germanic tribe that invaded the Western Roman Empire in the 6th century and founded the first independent kingdom covering most of today's France.

The French state is one of the oldest in Europe; it was founded in 843, splitting from the Carolingian Empire based in Aachen (Belgo-German border).

The spectacle "Ionesco" has been playing at the Théâtre de La Huchette since 1957, with over 15,000 performances - a world record.

The capital of Malta, Valletta, was built by and named after the French nobleman Jean Parisot de la Valette (1494-1568), Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller and ruler of the island.

"La Marseillaise", France's national anthem, was composed in Strasbourg in 1792, not in Marseilles as its name might induce to think.

France has won the 4th most Summer Olympic medals (including gold) in history after the USA, USSR and UK.

France has won the most Nobel Prizes for Literature of any country (13 so far) and the second highest number of Field Medals (mathematics) after the USA.

On 10 June 2007, a sabre having belonged to Napoleon I was sold at an auction for € 4.8 million - the most expensive weapon ever sold.

posted by The Crazy King of Clowns @ 3:57 AM 25 comments