Comments on: Talk to The Hand

Talk to The Hand

jackspace — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 12:00:14 -0800

Talk to The Hand . They say you should always sing from the heart, but no one ever said anything about what do to with the hands. Enter Robert A. Wilson, N6TV, manualist extraordinaire. If you thought the Human Beatbox from Spearhead was great, wait until you see Robert perform the Theme from Hawai'i Five-O or for Classical music lovers, there's The Toreador Song, from Carmen and The William Tell Overture (Lone Ranger Theme).

Robert is no stranger to talking with his hands. He's also a ham radio operator, a hobby and public service which is not only celebrating 100 years of wireless voice communication, but also makes excellent use of another mode of communicating with the hands: Morse Code. As old and seemingly antiquated as it seems at first glance, Morse Code has been used to allow those with physical challenges communicate with those around them.

By: pmbuko

pmbuko — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 12:17:38 -0800

[my hands] fart in your general direction.

By: wheelieman

wheelieman — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 12:18:28 -0800

Nicely put together. Great stuff

By: bigmusic

bigmusic — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 12:19:43 -0800

I can fart with my hands but this is truly amazing... I guess I just need to start with my scales.

By: dammitjim

dammitjim — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 12:32:41 -0800

Man, that made me laugh.

By: bondcliff

bondcliff — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 12:34:10 -0800

Invisibility shminvisibility. If I had to pick a superpower, that would be it.

By: PurplePorpoise

PurplePorpoise — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 12:38:08 -0800

Nikola Tesla

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 12:59:28 -0800

So this is what Robert A Wilson does when not selling conspiracy porn to college kids? Also: Without Sarah Purcell, Skip Stevenson, Byron Allen, or John Davidson around, he'll never get his 15 minutes.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 13:04:31 -0800

That is talent. I love the William Tell Overture one. On preview: I was thinking the same thing, sourwookie.

By: wanderingmind

wanderingmind — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 13:57:54 -0800

Wow. Someone needs to start a Spike Jones tribute band and get this guy in as a frontman.

By: nlindstrom

nlindstrom — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 14:16:30 -0800

The FCC needs to hurry up and drop the Morse Code requirement from the Amateur Radio tests already!

By: Slarty Bartfast

Slarty Bartfast — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 14:18:22 -0800

Can't wait to hear the first manualist orchestra... (this is good)

By: jenovus

jenovus — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 14:22:53 -0800

There's a lot of pitch variation inherent to the process. Still, pretty funny, and the tunes are at least recognizable. I give this a rating of PARTY TRICK EXTRAORDINAIRE.

By: dammitjim

dammitjim — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 14:27:17 -0800

nlindstrom: not that this is on-topic, but you can get a Technician-level license without knowing morse code. You have to know code to proceed to General. So unless you need to operate in HF, you have no excuse not to get a license. Besides, what's so wrong with learning code?

By: isopraxis

isopraxis — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 14:27:57 -0800

Yes, but what is the sound of one hand farting?

By: timsteil

timsteil — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 18:38:24 -0800

I remember seeing a guy on the Tonight Show years and years ago doing this, and thought it got debunked as some sort of ventriloquism sort of thing.

By: afflatus

afflatus — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 22:26:48 -0800

Wow. Spearhead (well, RadioActive) and Ham radio in one post. I have interests in both. Never did it occur to me to combine the two. When it comes to expressive hands, though, I have to refer you to K & K Mime Ministry (warning, freaky twin gospel mime action)

By: rob511

rob511 — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 23:23:08 -0800

S'all right!

By: Aknaton

Aknaton — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 23:28:08 -0800

A friend of mine spent a great deal of his Romanian army service learning to play tunes by snapping his fingers. During a snap, he would curl or uncurl the remaining fingers to form an echo chamber of the right size to get the desired note. Usually, he played Popeye the Sailor Man. I shit you not. I will try to get him to upload Popeye to teh intarweb. His pitch control was significantly better than this guy's. He told me that the guy who taught him could harmonize (snapping with both hands simultaneously). Alas, this I never saw for myself.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 04:58:02 -0800

I once got on TV playing "How much is that doggie in the window?" by whacking the top of my head with a dessertspoon. But this - this takes talent.

By: The Monkey

The Monkey — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 15:14:49 -0800

This is completely ludicrous. And the fact that so many people have now taken the time to watch it makes it also completely hilariously.

By: scruss

scruss — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 19:25:02 -0800

Aknaton, sounds like what Lesley Clarke can do (scroll down to March 12).