My Spiel on Glockenspiels
on June 15, 2016
at 12:07 am
Contrary to how yesterday’s strip began, I wasn’t going to do a strip about my problem with glockenspiels. But when I thought about it, I did have a problem with glockenspiels.
Bug Martini
Random nonsense three days a week
This is the most nonsensically true thing I’ve ever seen. You’re right, in a very unequivocal manner, but it MAKES NO SENSE THAT YOU’RE RIGHT and I CAN’T EXPLAIN YOUR RIGHTNESS because you are right in a way that is either seen or not seen and no one can change whether they see it.
And now I want a glockenspiel. A real one, not one of those dumb instrument things.
okay, i’m pretty sure that last panel is referencing a book i once read in grade school. had a scene where kids had to improve their ability to imagine, and wore dumb hats to help them to do so.
but i can’t for the life of me remember what it’s called, outside the title stealing a creature name from willy wonka or something…
You are probably thinking of “The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_the_Really_Great_Whangdoodles
Hey, now! This is a family site.
I always picture some complex clockwork thing with little dancing figurines.
Yep. I can almost picture what you’re talking about.
For some reason I always thought a glockenspiel would be something like a harpsichord.
I always imagined it as a sort of large, wind-up music box thing. I have no reason to think that, it’s just the image the word “glockenspiel” summons in my brain.
Hmmm. That’s the second time a character has interrupted a a comic one day, then the ACTUAL comic showed up the next day. The first being the marriage proposal thing.
Makes it seem like the whole comic series is a group of actors in a theatre. Which is pretty cool.
Ohhhh yeaaaaah. The marriage proposal thing. How did that turn out, Adam? Did she say yes?
P.S. Unicorn farts make these things fly, but Red Bull gives you wiiiiiiiiiiings. As do some feminine hygiene products. But no…I don’t think you’re genderly qualified to write a comic based on feminine hygiene products(this is not a challenge for you to “accept” either, just an observation).
As always, Adam, awesome comic!
Mollie (the girl Josh proposed to) did indeed say yes. She even baked me cookies! They were de-lish.
And that’s the difference between me and Mollie, besides me being a guy;
My cookies always turn out to be door stops.
Weeeeell… no. “Glockenspiel” is a perfectly descriptive Name, because it sounds like bells („Glocken“ in German) which are played (“to play” = „spielen“). Whimsically we call the Glockenspiel used by military walking bands (as shown) „Lyra“ ’cause its frame looks like one.
Having explained that I declare a strong personal longing for the Dr. Seuss contraption and a tank of unicorn farts to set it in motion.
funny… we just called them “bells”
There are also “actual” Glockenspiels (or “Glockenspiele”… Glockenspiels just sounds weird to me). Those are mostly made out of bells in different sizes and play a melody. I think the other kind shown in the comic are called that, because the sound is similar. Didn’t even know those were also called Glockenspiel, did just know them as “Xylophon” (the e at the end is missing because I used the german spelling. It’s kind of shocking to realise, that we have a word that is shorter than the english counterpart).
Well, you have “Ja”, while we have “Yes” – which we shorten to “Yeah”…
You mean those Glockenspiels (hehehe) being mounted at the outside of (representative) houses or church buildings. For those we have another in Germany: „Pest“ (which is “plague” in English and which is shorter than its English counterpart, too).
Btw, Xylophones are made of wooden bars (Greek “ξύλον” = “xylon” = “wood” and “φωνή” = “phōnē” = “sound”, “tone”, “voice”).
Oh I hope the series goes on. Maybe with Autozone or drunk Dr Seuss.
I feel the same way about flugelhorns. It makes me picture some complex tangle of valves, reeds and bells, but it’s just a trumpet with a slightly different shape.
Someone already said something to this effect, but it’s so impressive I want to say it again. It’s absolutely wonderful how you can take something that is intentionally created to be a random, throw-away non-sequitur and then turn it into its own full-fledged comic. You, sir, never fail to impress.
Aw, thank you so much!
*sigh* If no one else does it…
“This is a Glockenspiel. It spiels Glocken.”
Now I’m ashamed of myself.
Way late here but I only now saw this comment and it made me laugh!
A flugelhorn is what happens when a cornet mates with a tuba and they raise their son to be a French horn. It’s called that because it’s been fluged. Repeatedly.