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So now we know: before becoming the erudite writer, scholar, and compilor that he is (talents for which all in the post-Harry world are eternally grateful), Philip Blackburn was yet another "philosophic music-man seduced into carpentry". This QR looks damn close to me, and I've spent time behind bars -- of the Quad, that is -- with only the whimsy and curvaceousness of the eucalyptus bough and regality of the Tori bar missing here.
In keeping with the accuracy Dr. Blackburn is famous for, he notes that the instrument is stored in a garage somewhere in England (as if we didn't hear enough hard luck stories from Partch himself). My suspicion is that the stand leans left in a desperate attempt to cross the Channel to the west; there is, however, no truth to the rumor that those are actually Petaluma 'petals' littering the grass in the background...
We can see the Philip had his hands in this Partch thing for a long time; few people would take on the daunting task of replicating one of the bar instruments. Maybe James Cameron will do a new film of Delusion now that he's got that Titanic monkey off his back. Hats off to PB, along with the standing invitation to include a sound clip of this beauty if he ever whacks it again!
Philip Blackburn can be reached by methods posted on his main page elsewhere on the Meadows.
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