OK, this is too cool not to share.

A colleague's family visited Scotland recently (without him, poor guy!) and they told him about the Falkirk Wheel--a fascinating piece of engineering. It's a lock for connecting two canals and it's really cool; you need to click the link and see the Wikipedia article!

CDs listened to today:

• Beck: Sea Change
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas for Piano, disk 6
  
• DJ Shadow: Endtroducing
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Pierre Boulez: Le Marteau Sans Maitre, disk 4
• Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians: Perspex Island

OK, this really ticked me off.

I hoped that it wasn't true when I saw this on a Yahoo blog, but I found confirmation on the New York Times. What am I talking about? The US government asserts the right to inspect and copy your computer's hard drive--same goes for your other electronic devices such as your smartphone or PDA--when you re-enter the country. And they don't need probable cause!

They may not have the right to force you to provide logins, passwords, encryption keys, and so on, so you should probably consider taking some precautions. After all, I keep my personal information, including tax returns and my banking records, on my hard drive. I can't stand the idea of some customs official copying all that without any serious judicial safeguards.

Get a subpoena!

CDs listened to today:

• Various Artists: Totally 80s, disk 1
• Deerhoof: The Runners Four
• Richard Wernick: Musica Ptolemeica
• Remy Shand: The Way I Feel
• Paula Diehl: Right Of Way
• anonymous: Chant
  

There are some things I love about spring.

Denver's properties abound with crabapple trees and when they flower in April, they perfume the air with a heavy, sweet smell. I've grown up with the trees and their annual display and this year has been especially kind to the trees and they've responded with a showy efflorescence. I pulled up on my bicycle at a stoplight next to one of them and, even in traffic, the perfume was all I could think about, so powerful was the air around me.

And you would think I'm thrilled, since there's a dwarf crabapple tree right in front of my house--next to my bedroom window. It's so small and misshapen, my former neighbor compared it to Charlie Brown's Christmas tree, but the blossoms are a gorgeous pink. And it has no perceptible scent. Now I dream of what it would be like to open my bedroom window on warm spring nights and flood my room with the aroma of crabapple.

And don't get me started on the lilac bushes in Denver. In about two weeks, they'll bloom and they smell even better!

CDs listened to today:

• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"
• Willem Otterloo: Serenade For Brass And Percussion
• Spice Girls: Spice
• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
• Alfred Schnittke: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 2
• Various Artists: Awesome 80s, disk 1
• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet In A, "The Trout"
• Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15
  

This makes me so annoyed.

Have you heard the president's continuing argument that one important way to stimulate our ailing economy is to make permanent the tax cuts he worked to enact in 2001 and 2003. You remember 2001, right? That was back when the federal budget was balanced and the national debt was shrinking.

Well, now that we have a mis-managed war and a huge federal deficit--not to mention financial chaos from lax federal regulation--we have the president insisting that the key to helping the economic situation is making permanent the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts that are set to expire in 2010. This is just the most bizarre reasoning. Somehow, the president argues, the confidence inspired by these lower tax rates (mostly for the wealthy) will improve the economy.

Arrant nonsense.

Mr. President, the reason consumer confidence is low is partly because you are in office. Perhaps if you and Vice-President Cheney resigned, that would help inspire confidence in our economy?

Just a suggestion...

CDs listened to today:

• The Joggers: Solid Guild
• Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies, disk 7
• Public Enemy: Greatest Misses

This review is another about brass instruments, but I promise that will change next time!

As I mentioned a few weeks ago in reviewing Manhattan Wildlife Refuge, it was a key influence for me as a young musician. Another important disk for me, from the same artist, is The Tiger Of San Pedro by Bill Watrous. Like the Manhattan disk, it's for a classic big band, but shows the same 1970s eclecticism of lush ballads, a latin-themed number, a bit of what passes for funky, and a fairly traditional showpiece chart at the end.

This disk isn't quite as much fun as the other album, lacking some of the sense of fun--and showing off--that makes the first Wildlife album such a joy. Mr. Watrous is still heard on every number, showing his dazzling trombone skills and pure, lush lyrical style, while Danny Stiles is also present on the trumpet (although he sounds less sure of himself than before, while Mr. Watrous shows fine consistency). There are precious other solos outside of these two musicians and the rhythm section seems a bit less unrestrained, to the detriment of the band's sound. Still, the arrangements here are first rate and the band is still impressive, ranging from a beautifully sensitive approach to color on "Quiet Lady" to a huge, brassy roar on the re-worked version of "Sweet Georgia Brown".

After the great success of Manhattan Wildlife Refuge, this disk can be a bit of a letdown. The ear wants to have as much fun as last time. I think it's common for any group's second recording after a notable debut (cliché alert: call it a "sophomore slump"), but a careful listen still reveals a rewarding disk where the group still swings and prances with abandon. Enjoy!

7 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• LTJ Bukem: Journey Inwards
• Nick Didkovsky: Amalia's Secret
• Alan Hovhaness: Mountains And Rivers Without End
• Nitzer Ebb: Belief

I've certainly noticed inflation in my lifetime, but nothing like this.

As the world economy overheats, due in large part to huge demand-side expansions in China and India, inflation is quite noticeable. You may have read my mention of gasoline prices (and I saw a sign for diesel at $3.999 per gallon recently), but the real shock for me has been seeing prices rise in such a hurry. I'm used to seeing prices creep up. You know, the bag of potato chips that's still $2.99, but is now 13.3 ounces instead of 14 ounces, or the favorite restaurant raising entrée prices by 25¢ each. Tonight it really hit home when I saw the new menus at a favorite place and the prices had gone up by more than 20%. My favorite combination plate was $7.50 and now it's $10.50. I mentioned to the waitress that I had heard of staples going up, but was a little shocked. She said the owner explained to her that cheese has gone up 50%.

I think my personal finances are in for a long year...

CDs listened to today:

• Dizzee Rascal: Boy In Da Corner
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Pierre Boulez: Le Marteau Sans Maitre, disk 3
• Lauryn Hill: The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill
• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• Claude Debussy: La Boite A Joujoux
  

Will it blend?

I just love these guys at BlendTec. This is a commercial blender company (now also offering pricey home versions) that likes to show how great their blenders are--by putting things in their blenders you shouldn't put in a blender! Here's awesome video answering the question, "will it blend?" about an iPhone. You can visit BlendTec's own site to see plenty more at www.willitblend.com.



CDs listened to today:

• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet in A, "The Trout"
• Norma Wendelburg: Sinfonietta
• Bill Frisell: Bill Frisell Quartet
• Deerhoof: The Runners Four
• Paula Diehl: Right Of Way
• Eugene Anderson: Tuba Concerto No. 1
• Beck: Odelay
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• Ludwig van Beethoven: The String Quartets, disk 5
  

I've started bicycling to work now that the weather is warm.

The thing is, I don't do it to "save the environment", nor do I do it to improve my city's traffic. I'm not worried about reducing my carbon output, either. Instead, I do it because it's cheaper than paying for parking, because I enjoy it most days, and because I can pretend it's exercise.

Please, please, don't call this a virtue.

CDs listened to today:

• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Various Artists: As Seen On TV
• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
• Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13
• Various Artists: This Is Home Entertainment, Vol. 3
• Paula Diehl: Right Of Way
  

New pop songs for the spotlight!

• The Raconteurs have come back with a surprise release (the supergroup recorded and released in a real hurry). The new single, called "Salute Your Solution", is a classic approach to rock-and-roll, featuring a big, catchy, guitar riff and a chunky beat. I recommend it!
  
• September's "Cry For You" is another one of those darned dance-oriented nothings from the UK top 40. There's no need to hear this synthetic product--and the singer is buried in the mix!
  
• I'm not a huge fan of Death Cab For Cutie, but "I Will Possess Your Heart" is really changing my mind. The opening uses something you almost never hear in pop music: an actual diminuendo in the opening moments that draws the listener in. The track is tuneful and the lyrics have a restrained elegance.
  
• Is Chris Daughtry going to ever stop having hits? "What About Now" is about the, what? Eighteenth top 20 single in a row from this guy? This, my friends, is a pure power ballad: overwrought emotions, big chorus, overstuffed sound. Not his best.
  
• I didn't like Scouting For Girls' last single about Elvis, and "Heartbeat" isn't making things better. I usually only notice unusually good or bad lyrics and this band specializes in very bad ones. And the melody isn't so great, either!

CDs listened to today:

• Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies, disk 6
• Public Enemy: Apocalypse '91...The Enemy Strikes Black
• The Joggers: Solid Guild
• David Ott: Symphony No. 2
• Britney Spears: ...Baby One More Time
• Paula Diehl: Right Of Way
• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"

I just love molecular biology and the biology of evolution.

First, I need to acknowledge what a debt I owe to my biology teacher in college. She made cellular biology so much fun and interesting! One of my colleagues at the office called me on my nerdy love of the subject when I mentioned that some scientists theorize that most DNA appears to be viral in nature. In other words, it appears likely that an important engine of evolution (hey, it's biology, you can't do that without Darwin) is viruses and the genetic errors they create.

This is part of the fascinating study of viruses and retroviruses. Are they truly life? After all, a virus is little more than a protein plug that bumps into a compatible cell's socket, then injects DNA or RNA into the cell to hijack the cellular programming to create new viruses rather than new cell parts or whatever.

Isn't it interesting how our current understanding of biology just happens to use metaphors from, information processing, the dominant technology subject of our time?

CDs listened to today:

• Love And Rockets: (eponymous)
• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• Sarah Hopkins: Cello Chi
• Nirvana: In Utero
• Nick Didkovsky: Amalia's Secret
• Paula Diehl: Right Of Way
  

OK, reviewing another CD about brass instruments.

I think this is about the third in a row--and I'm pretty sure my next review is also a disk featuring a trombonist. It's only natural, since I studied on the 'bone, right? This one is marketed under the title Beyond The End Of The Century, although I'll file it as Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century) by Juraj Filas--not a clever pun, is it? It's another recital CD from Joseph Alessi and if you've been reading carefully, you'll know this isn't my first review of Mr. Alessi's recorded work.

It opens with an unaccompanied piece by Enrique Crespo which isn't a great work, but shows off Mr. Alessi's charm as a musician. The Filas sonata is well-crafted, but isn't terribly engaging and there are three other works for trombone and piano that are all roughly equal in quality--meaning you won't find your view of music changed forever after listening. There is a lovely treat in the middle of the disk: a "Concertino for Trombone and Woodwinds" by Raymond Premru. The colorful writing is a welcome change! And Mr. Alessi once again shows himself to be a generous supporter of the trombone by closing the disk with Pierre Gabaye's "Spécial" for trombone choir and soloist.

None of the works on this disk really left me excited or impressed, although the Premru is pleasing enough. As always, Mr. Alessi's talents leaven every performance with great musical judgment and taste (not to mention the aforementioned charm). I swear, he can make anything sound great.

7 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• Pierre Boulez: Le Marteau Sans Maitre, disk 2
• Joe Henderson: Big Band
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Michael Daugherty: Metropolis Symphony
  

Is this physics or just noodling?

I mentioned to a friend that my fridge is mostly empty and he said I should fill it with water bottles to save energy. As I see it, he's probably half-way right. I think there are two things that a bunch of water bottles and gallon jugs would do: first, they would reduce the amount of air inside the refrigerator, meaning that when you open the door, less cold air could escape; second, water has a huge thermal mass, so it would stabilize the temperature of the contents.

I think the first part, that you reduce the amount of cold air that can escape, is useful. But here's the thing, since water has such a significant thermal mass, it also takes a substantial amount of energy to cool. Doesn't that mean you lose a lot of energy efficiency bringing the water down to the desired temperature and keeping it there? Perhaps it would be better to stuff the fridge with balloons filled with air since they have a lower thermal mass and would still reduce the amount of air in the machine.

CDs listened to today:

• Johann Georg Albrechtsberger: Concerto in D for Trombone
• Bebop Deluxe: Raiding The Divine Archive
• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone and Piano (At the end of the century)
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas for Piano, disk 4
  
• The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy: Hipocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury

Time to review a CD!

I've filed this disk under Dan Welcher's Brass Quintet, but the label has titled the disk "Premier!", performed by the American Brass Quintet (ABQ). They've recorded four works for this. In addition to the Welcher piece, it includes Gunther Schuller's Brass Quintet No. 2, David Sampson's Distant Voices, and Jan Bach's Triptych.

First, a comment or two about the ABQ. I've played in a few brass quintets myself, and I much prefer the standard instrumentation of two trumpets, horn, trombone, and tuba. These guys don't have a tuba, they employ a very fine bass trombonist instead, John Rojak. But no matter how good he is, a bass trombone just doesn't make the sound a tuba does--and it greatly diminishes the sound of the group (a tuba is a big, warm sound and a bass 'bone can't fill that). The other note? My mother once mentioned that when we lived in Aspen, the ABQ used to rehearse next door to us during the summer music festival. I don't recall that at all!

How's the disk? None of the works here are sparkling, but the Sampson has some lovely sonorities, if we perhaps hear a lack of substantive development, leading the four movements (named for people who have inspired the composer) to drag a bit. But Mr. Schuller's quintet is the weak work here. Perhaps it's because he's a brass player by training, but he seems trapped by the history of the instruments and how they are used. Rather than imaginative use of their sounds, he uses the brass instruments in what seems to me like the most clichéd writing. Still, he's a skilled artist and the work is skillfully composed, thankfully showing little of his clumsy jazz interest from earlier in his career.

Jan Bach is a familiar name to brass players, and his Triptych has a Canzona to start, a Fuga to close and both outer movements are scintillating. They have a sense of forward motion and rich complexity in a modernist take on counterpoint. Frankly, it's one of the better works I've heard from Mr. Bach. Dan Welcher's work is also strong. I particularly enjoy the touches of mixing muted and un-muted instruments in some passages and his sinuous melodies are pleasing.

Given the uneven works, the ABQ is still able to play to their usual high standard. They are top-notch in all respects. As a group, these are all fairly modernist works, meaning that we get a lot of shifting moods with quickly changing textures and outbursts. Especially during the weaker works, this begins to feel a little tedious and directionless.

6 out of 10

(June 3, 2008 Note: I've made a correction to this review. A reader has pointed out that I got John Rojak's name wrong. My apologies!)

CDs listened to today:

• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
• Dan Welcher: Brass Quintet
• Matias Aguayo: Are You Really Lost
• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet In A, "The Trout"
• Deerhoof: The Runners Four
• Paula Diehl: Right Of Way

This is actually a nice toy.

Check out this link at the University of California. It's a program for organizing distributed computing (aka, "cloud computing") for charities and research. I suppose most of us have heard of SETI@Home (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence), but this allows you to find and support other efforts--not that SETI isn't valuable.

I also like it because they support Macs!

CDs listened to today:

• Erik Satie: Relache
• Various Artists: The Antidote
• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"
• Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 12
• Various Artists: Sounds Of The Seventies: 1979
• Deerhoof: The Runners Four
  

New songs in my pop spotlight!

OK, we had a lot of new songs this week.

• The Kooks have a new album out and the lead single is "Always Where I Need To Be". They're an admirable power-pop band and this song is classic pop--complete with a catchy chorus. Still, this isn't up to the standard of their last disk.
  
• Day 26 is getting a prominent spot on MTV's TRL with "Got Me Going". The rhythm track is cribbed from an ancient Bee Gees track, and the singing is so smooth, it's anonymous.
  
• I haven't heard them before, but Ashes Divide arrives with "Stone". It's a tuneful hard rock track that exhibits a reasonably aggressive guitar sound balancing out the sugary melody. It's a pleasant balance.
  
• "These Hard Times" is the latest from matchbox twenty. I'm a little tired of this band's boilerplate songwriting and performing and this song is just another mid-tempo number with slick production. I suppose this is intended to catch the zeitgeist with a not-so-subtle metaphor.
  
• I'm really enjoying the joint effort from Fall Out Boy and John Mayer. They covered the old Michael Jackson hit, "Beat It" and they treat it as a ripping rock tune, avoiding the slightly soft edges of the original. Poor John Mayer guests as the guitar soloist, a thankless chore, being compared to Eddie Van Halen's original solo.
  
• Three Days Grace rises in the charts with "Never Too Late", a sweeping power ballad with an acoustic guitar riff as the key hook. Like matchbox twenty, this is just reliable, expensively made, big-record-company product.
  
• We have another new-to-me band, the Courteeners, on the UK charts with "Not Nineteen Forever". It's a bouncing, danceable indie-rock beat with a forgettable melody
  
• Natasha Bedingfield is back with "Pocketful Of Sunshine". It's a lush arrangement with a taut drum track and a really stupid chorus. No thanks.

CDs listened to today:

• Public Enemy: Fear Of A Black Planet
• Nick Didkovsky: Amalia's Secret
• Julian Orbon: Tres Versiones Sinfonicas
• The Soup Dragons: Hotwired
• The Joggers: Solid Guild
• Deerhoof: The Runners Four

On ABC World News Tonight this evening, I was struck by a quote

Cokie Roberts reported that the president said he admired Pope Benedict XVI for his "moral clarity" when he spoke. I can only assume that the president wants us all to reflect on how the president also speaks with the same clarity. I suppose that you do, Mr. President, no matter how wrong you are.

Of course, even when the president speaks with this "moral clarity", his actions--and those of his staff--reveal something else.

CDs listened to today:

• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Alfred Hoose: Gestures And Intimations
• Nirvana: Nevermind
• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies, disk 5
• Deerhoof: The Runners Four
  

I actually behaved like a responsible adult this evening.

A lot of nights, when I get home from work, I have the bad habit of sitting down and going "oof". I end up sitting and relaxing to decompress from the long day at work (and it seems like they're all long days lately). But tonight I won the battle with myself and never sat down when I got home. I changed clothes, set up the iPod shuffle and headed out on my bicycle for a nice spring bike ride.

I forget that riding after work is just as much decompression as sitting and saying "oof". Just a lot healthier...

CDs listened to today:

• Pierre Boulez: Le Marteau San Maitre, disk 1
• Reverend Horton Heat: The Full-Custom Gospel Sounds of the Reverend Horton Heat
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• Richard Danielpour: Concerto For Cello And Orchestra
• Joe Lovano: Joyous Encounter
• Deerhoof: The Runners Four
  

Oh, the fuss over Senator Barack Obama's remarks this weekend.

Yes, saying that small town citizens are bitter and find refuge in guns, religion, and bigotry is downright bizarre and I can't explain the comment. But Sen. Obama is no more elitist than the president, Sen. McCain, and Sen. Clinton. Consider the backgrounds of the four:

• President Bush: Grandson of a senator, son of a president, prep school, Yale degree, Harvard degree. That wasn't a silver spoon he was born with, it's platinum with a diamond setting.
  
• Senator McCain: Grandson of an admiral, son of an admiral and an oilman's daughter. Prep school and the Naval Academy. Unlike the president, he is a great American who has served selflessly, but his background is pure elite--and his wife is apparently quite the heiress.
  
• Senator Clinton: Father was a successful businessman, Wellesley and Yale degrees, husband is, well, a former president.
  
• Senator Obama: Father and mother were from modest backgrounds. Bachelors from Columbia, law degree from Harvard. He has the least-distinguished background by a mile.

When you look at it, only Senator Obama has any direct knowledge of the middle- and lower-classes' struggles. It's a fiction and a bald-faced lie to say he's any more or less elitist than these others. Yes, it was a stupid, clueless remark, but any of these four politicians are prone to these things. Can we get on with it and look at the merits of the candidates, please?

CDs listened to today:

• Beats International: Let Them Eat Bingo
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas for Piano
• Dinosaur Jr.: Where You Been
• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)
  

More TV shows to talk about!

Let's talk about the post-strike dramas that debuted, shall we? NBC picked up the web-based quarterlife from the production team that brought us thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, and Relativity, among others. The first thing you need to know is that the program was canceled after one showing, but did get a second episode aired. It's hard to believe that this came from the same creative team as those other shows. It's pretty bad, but did it really deserve such a speedy end? It's about a woman who begins a video blog and is so brutally honest, her comments damage and re-arrange all the relationships in and around her life. I think the problem is that the main character is not only unsympathetic and thoughtless, she isn't even connected to the people around her. It's a shame.

Fox brought a lot of new shows this spring and New Amsterdam is something of a science fiction program involving a cop who's over 400 years old and has been slowly shifting his life and his persona to fit the times and conceal his identity. He's been told he'll die when he finds his One True Love and maybe he just found her? It's not a bad show, but he's inexplicable unaware of himself and any deeper truths of life, despite the long years. The writers even seem to acknowledge this conundrum, since his sexagenarian son is clearly more wise. I keep hoping the show will improve, but for now, his romantic lead, Alexie Gilmore looks radiantly gorgeous and the flashbacks to other times in the Dutch-born colonist's long, long life keep me engaged.

I've never understood the appeal of Juliana Margulies, now starring in the title role of Fox's Canterbury's Law as an embittered, slightly sleazy criminal defense lawyer. This show changes that a tiny bit as they go for an anti-hero similar to the hit program, House. She's a drinker who will betray anybody she needs to, but gosh, she has a heart of gold. If it weren't for Margulies' work as an emotionally sloppy and explosive woman (she seems to mewl across every scene when she's not intimidating people), this show wouldn't be much to watch, but it's not bad.

Jericho is back from a long, long hiatus and what was an anguished CBS drama about a post-nuclear holocaust community coming together after the shock of seeing me destroyed in a nuclear explosion (Denver is destroyed in the premier; thanks guys!). After being canceled and brought back to life by a fan campaign, the show came back this spring as a brawny action drama that uses a favorite plot device these days, the paranoid tale of a corrupt group of wealthy cabalists who hijack the government to their own ends. You would think that such a shift in tone would harm the show, but in fact, it's almost as good as The Sarah Conner Chronicles and features plenty of big-budget fun.

My friend, T & A, has been telling me about Dexter since before it premiered on Showtime. Of course, I'm way too cheap to pay for premium channels, so I ignored him. Now, I'm getting to see what had him so excited as CBS runs a bowdlerized first season of Dexter as a strike-replacement show on Sunday nights. Having not seen the original, I can only imagine that some of the nudity and gore is gone (and the obvious dubbing of mild oaths for the profanity is kind of obvious--how many times would somebody really say "freaking"?). But the plot and the character study, of a serial killer trained by his police detective father to hunt and kill other serial killers, is brilliant and mordantly funny at times. T & A was right, this is worth seeing and I'm very much enjoying it.

CDs listened to today:

• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
• Michael Weinstein: Concerto for Wind Ensemble
• Lightning Bolt: Hypermagic Mountain
• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet in A, "The Trout"
• Johann Georg Albrechtsberger: Concerto in B flat for Trombone

My hit tracking service tells me that yesterday, my blog reached 1,000 visits since I installed the software on October 18, 2007.

That's a bit better than five unique visitors per day. No exactly big-time, but an interesting figure. I'm definitely curious about who they are, what they're looking for, and what they read.

But really, I only know of one routine visitor and I doubt he accounts for more than 10% of my hits...

CDs listened to today:

• The Joggers: Solid Guild
• Jan Sandström: Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra
• Various Artists: Amp 2
• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"
• Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11, "The Year 1905"
• Various Artists: Sounds Of The Seventies: 1978
  

How about a video today?

This is a really cool ad for an Italian washing machine:



CDs listened to today:

• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies, disk 4
• Public Enemy: It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
• Nick Didkovsky: Amalia's Secret
• Julian Orbon: Concerto Grosso For String Quartet And Orchestra
• Soundgarden: Superunknown
  

More pop songs to talk about!

So, the spotlight is a bit brief this week--only four tunes:

• Sam Sparro's "Black And Gold" is his debut single in the UK and it's a curious evocation of the way synthesizers were used in the 1970s (especially the song's opening). It's a pulsing groove that supports a somewhat generic soul tune. He's got a pleasant voice and I suspect his major-label backers will ensure we hear more from him.
  
• Lately we've seen more country artists cracking the US top 20 charts and the latest is Trace Adkins' "You're Gonna Miss This". If you've ever heard the old Harry Chapin chestnut "Cat's In The Cradle", you may recognize this sort of sentimental narrative song: a glimpse of life's stages. It's tolerable, but this is the kind of song that relies too heavily on the lyrics and that rarely stands up to repeated listening.
  
• I didn't realize this until now, but I now know that I was hoping I wouldn't have to hear any more James Blunt songs. But here it is: "Carry You Home". He has a signature sound, you know. High, reedy voice; sensitive, romantic lyrics; simple, plucked guitar arrangements. Ick.
  
• Playradioplay! is actually a high-school kid from Austin who got featured on Fuse TV. "Madi Don't Leave" has a very strong resemblance to the Irish band, The Thrills, which is odd, considering that the two acts have nothing in common in their backgrounds. He has a soft voice and a nice touch with the homemade arrangements.

CDs listened to today:

• Pierre Boulez: ...explosant-fixe...
• Juliana Hatfield: Hey Babe
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• Ingolf Dahl: Sinfonietta
• Louis XIV: The Best Little Secrets Are Kept
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Arthur Honegger: Symphony No. 3
• Nine Inch Nails: With Teeth
  

Not that I don't watch too much TV...

My TiVo is once again overflowing and we've seen some more new TV shows now that the writers' strike is over. I'm afraid the news isn't all good.

Fox brought us two new comedies, Unhitched and The Return Of Jezebel James. Neither is as bad as CBS' Welcome To The Captain, but Unhitched isn't genius, despite the genial charm of lead Craig Bierko and a little production help from the Farrelly brothers. It's not fun watching this sex farce. Of course, that's a far better experience than watching Parker Posey star in Jezebel James. The plot's logic, which isn't a critical item for a sitcom, is so riddled with holes, it doesn't even hold together to help the characters make sense. And Miss Posey's performance is so mannered and artificial, I can't even figure out what she was thinking.

The remaining sitcom for this spring is Miss/Guided. It's structured a bit like NBC's The Office with reality show-style interview commentary by the characters and a painful awkwardness that runs throughout. It's not that great. Still, Judy Greer is charming in the central role and Brooke Burns is gorgeous. I may keep watching. Final note: a couple of colleagues keep talking about how they enjoy The Big Bang Theory, so I've been taking another look. I still find the characters all grate and there's precious little imagination here. How could the creators of Two And A Half Men come up with this junk?

I promise to run down the dramas (oops, I mean discuss) soon.

CDs listened to today:

• Antonio Albinoni: Adagio In D
• The Beatles: Alternate Rarities
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas for Piano, disk 2
  
• Digital Underground: Sex Packets
• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)
  

I've been watching the protests in London and Paris.

I wholeheartedly agree with the protesters that the Chinese government should be called to task for its imperialistic, thuggish actions in Tibet. I also agree that the Olympics should celebrate the human spirit; and it's hard to argue that the Chinese authorities are anything other than an aggressive dictatorship bent on accumulating power and wealth--and that's no celebration of that humanity. Still, I detest these violent protests that really target innocent torch runners and the unlucky police who protect them.

These protests are really as barbarous as the Chinese government and I'd feel much better if the activists took a page from Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King. If they had organized a large, peaceful effort to block the torch route repeatedly by simply sitting in the street, I'd be much happier and willing to support their efforts. Also, the Chinese media couldn't then portray these self-righteous demonstrators as savages and we could focus on the lawlessness of the government in Beijing.

CDs listened to today:

• Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10
• Various Artists: Sounds Of The Seventies: 1977
• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
• Anton Webern: String Quartets
• stellastarr*: (eponymous)
• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet In A, "The Trout"
  

"Aimer, ce n'est pas se regarder l'un l'autre, c'est regarder ensemble dans la même direction." --Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

That's just such a great quote, I had to share it. Roughly translated, it means:

Love isn't looking at each other, it's looking together in the same direction.

Words to live by! Thanks Tony! Oh, wait, he's dead...

CDs listened to today:

• Soundgarden: Badmotorfinger
• The Joggers: Solid Guild
• Esa-Pekka Salonen: L.A. Variations
• Various Artists: Amp
• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"
  

I just noticed this.

You would think that, since I switch between editing my posts in HTML and using the WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get) in Blogger, that I would have better control over the appearance of my posts. But I just looked at my main home page and noticed that the line spacing on some of my recent posts is mismatched. Sometimes, they're close together, and other times, they have room between the lines. I'm not aware of anything I've done to cause that, so I suppose I have to go and look over the code now.

Oh joy.

CDs listened to today:

• Cuong Vu: Vu-Tet
• Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies, disk 3
• Public Enemy: Yo! Bum Rush The Show
• Nick Didkovsky: Amalia's Secret
• Maurice Ohana: Tombeau De Claude Debussy
  

It's embarrassing really.

All of the lights in my house that I use regularly are compact fluorescent (CF)--except for the old-fashioned fluorescent downstairs. And as the little-used lights go out, I'll replace them with CF, too. So that makes me a good, green citizen, right?

Except, here's the thing: I find myself using the lights more and leaving them on longer. It's probably because they use 80% less electricity than regular ones, so I feel like there's not as much harm. But that's not a very green habit, is it?

CDs listened to today:

• Juraj Filas: Sonata For Trombone And Piano (At the end of the century)
• Andre Boucourechliev: Miroir 2
• P. J. Harvey: Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea
• Bill Watrous: The Tiger Of San Pedro
• Neil Currie: Tumbling Strain
• Jack Logan: Buzz Me In
• Alfred Schnittke: Symphony No. 8
• Vagn Holmboe: Concerto For Tuba And Orchestra
  

I think I should review a CD today.

If you look at my listening journal, you may notice that I enjoy the music of Beethoven. And his most plentiful oeuvre is the piano sonata, not surprising considering that he was a star piano soloist during his time and probably spent endless hours at the piano working on his sonatas. So it's only natural that I would have a 10-CD box set of The Piano Sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by Daniel Barenboim.

To me, his piano sonatas are like the diary of a master improviser. These are the ideas that Beethoven noodled at, working out every detail until he was ready to make them public (and, by all accounts, he was a careful, slow worker). While these aren't etudes, he also seems to have been working out his ideas about the instrument itself. I suppose that's not surprising for a working concert pianist with a huge reputation.

There are 32 of these sonatas, ranging from a relatively brief 6th to the monster 29th, "Hammerklavier". A lot of these are his highest genius, concentrated doses of Beethoven's evolution as a musician, as a pianist, and as a man. While I think that his string quartets, symphonies, and even his piano concerti are more enjoyable experiences, there is still a lot of substantial music here. The concentrated motifs that serve as melodic building blocks are less focused in these, leaving him with a more florid approach, highlighting Beethoven's stormy style and what, for his time, was a fairly violent manner of expression. And as the sonatas progress, you can also see his ideas on form evolve, slowly breaking apart the sonata form he inherited from Haydn and Mozart. At times, the rhetoric gets a bit long (hey, it's his one minor failing), but Beethoven's pianos sonatas are one heck of a sensational set of works.

This set was mostly recorded in the late 1960s, when Daniel Barenboim was a young, rising star. Overall, the performances are decent and consistent, but never scintillating. It seems like the young Argentinian he was then hadn't quite mastered the overwhelming series of works. Rarely do we hear a crystalline illumination of the formal concerns and even the most lyrical passages sound like he's just making sure all the notes are precisely placed. On the other hand, Mr. Barenboim is certainly up to the physical challenges.

6 out of 10

CDs listened to today:

• Stephen Albert: Symphony Riverrun
• The Beatles: Revolver
• Bill Watrous: Manhattan Wildlife Refuge
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas for Piano, disk 1
• The Didjits: Que Sirhan Sirhan
  

The hallmarks of bad design, courtesy Sony.

I have a portable CD player for listening to music at work and it has a really irritating feature. Whenever you press a key to adjust the volume, start, pause, or skip a track, it gives off a few beeps. Why on earth would any music listener want something that annoying while listening to music? Three clicks on the volume "+" button brings an electronic doodle-oo, doodle-oo, doodle-oo right in the middle of my tunes--and it's not a subtle, unobtrusive thing like iPod clicks. What's more, it's the default setting of the device and if you want to disable the noise, you have to insert the batteries while awkwardly holding down one of the control buttons (yes, every time you switch batteries).

The iPod permanently disables the clicks if you don't like them and it has three settings, to boot.

CDs listened to today:

• Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8
• Various Artists: Sounds Of The Seventies: 1976
• The Earlies: These Were The Earlies
• Anton Webern: Six Pieces For Orchestra
• My Morning Jacket: Z
• Franz Schubert: Piano Quintet In A, "The Trout"
  

I use Microsoft Outlook at work and I don't love it.

Not one bit. Now don't get me wrong, I find that it has powerful features and any idiot can write a decent email client, but the program's bizarre logic is just plain confounding. For unexplained reasons, I find that meeting invitations that I've accepted and placed on my calendar disappear.

But here's the main hassle. If I hit the delete button on a meeting in the calendar, it doesn't cancel the meeting like you'd expect. You can't even un-delete the meeting and put it back on the calendar. It's just in limbo. How annoying that I can't undo one lousy mistake.

CDs listened to today:

• Nick Didkovsky: Amalia's Secret
• Maurice Ohana: Etudes Choreographique
• Soul Asylum: Grave Dancers Union
• The Joggers: Solid Guild
• Aulis Sallinen: Concerto For Flute And Orchestra
• Various Artists: All Good Vinyl Classic
• Rand Steiger: Hexadecathlon: "A New-Slain Knight"