In which David Recommends Three NPR Pieces

• I've read several of L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez's articles about a homeless, schizophrenic Juilliard-trained violinist named Nathaniel. It's a powerful story that could yet have a positive ending. Articles might be available be at the Times' website (if you register you can see pictures). Instead, here's Lopez's NPR piece about how Nathaniel visited Disney Hall.

• If you need proof that our country has revived the fifties, I suggest the fatuous NPR series called "This I Believe". When it comes on I change the station hoping to stifle the urge to submit my own article about how I don't believe any of that, er, stuff. Fortunately Penn Gillette has written something even better. (P.S. Leslie decided that I don't really look like Penn Gillette. But do I think like him?)

• I mentioned earlier that I'd like to boycott corporate voice mail systems. I learned on NPR about a catalog of tricks on how to avoid the computer and go straight to the human. Here's the NPR article or, to save time, go directly to the list of phone menu cheats.

Media

Religion

Music Reviews

30 Second Spots - While He's Doin' a Run

click here to hear While He's Doin' a Run - you probably won't like it. It's thirty two measures long - sort of divided into four 8-bar phrases - each measure lasts one second. Plus a fermata at the end and a kind of one-chord coda. Formal, huh?

Explanation of 30 second spots

30 Second Spots

In which there are Three Cat Pictures

Leslie is in Costa Rica for two weeks as part of her never ending search for the perfect worm. She mentioned that her hotel room is insufficiently stocked with cats. So I'm posting new pictures of our three felines to keep her up to date. The rest of you are probably not interested.

This is Batty on the left) with Chickapea

This is Miss Ivy Turnstiles, the six-toed cat

This is OJ

Biology
Cat Pictures
Stories

In which David links to Richard's Website

A friend of mine from graduate school and from Zappa days has started his own website. His name is Richard Emmet. His website is here. Check it out.

He has the obligatory biography and audio examples of his music. If you click on "Zappa Stuff" you can read Richards essay about working for Frank. And there are pictures.

Something about those pictures seems really familiar to me. With Richard, Frank and John Steinmetz there's a guy with a beard and not a single gray hair (yet). And he's playing the clarinet. Hmmm. That was ME more than 20 years ago.

(And do check out the pictures of Richard back at Cal Arts in the 70s.)

Music Reviews
Stories

In which David talks about Bird Flu, Pizza and Chicago

I noticed a bit of "news" about Richard Nixon - apparently he lied to us about the war in Cambodia. Now there's a surprise.

I like to point out that the real job of the President is to lie to the people.

Sometimes they call it "leading" getting us to follow him. Sometimes it's putting the best face on a situation which is called "spin". He doesn't always have to speak the lie - he has people for that.

At certain times politicians go freaking crazy telling falsehoods. That's called "campaigning". Whatever it's called, it's always about manipulating the facts proving the President is right. And to prove "the other people" are idiots or traitors or enemies.

Our current president is now being accused by people who watch the polls of lying to get us into war. He's indignant at the charge.

I remember clearly how the administration "campaigned" (i.e. "lied") for the war; they were geared up back then just like they campaigned to win election. It seemed they would say anything that proved their case, no matter how true or false.

Anything that might detract from the opposite argument was also okay. Frightening the public was okay too - mushroom clouds over New York indeed. When they were caught in one lie, they found a new one. WMD or Democracy - take your pick. It was war they wanted.

Back then the opposite viewpoint wasn't hard to find (unless you only listened to Fox News.) The administration must have known the opposite viewpoint because they spent so much time refuting it, discrediting the people who dared mention it in public. The opposition party (called the Democrats - I mostly think of them as the left wing of the Republican party) knew all about it but voted according to the polling numbers. The President now finds great solace in this.

Finally a guy named "Scooter" has been charged with telling a lie. Not a lie about going to war but a lie about lying about going to war. Whatever. He could still be found innocent. But at least someone has to answer to something in court.

Unfortunately, other people should also be answering. Those people are protesting indiginantly. What astounds and depresses me is the arrogance of their faith that they were right all along. Instead of admitting they were wrong they want to talk about bird flu.

I was sitting in Starbucks when a man answered his cellphone. "Instead of having a bible lesson tonight," he said "I'm going to bring a pizza." Shifting focus. There's a song in the musical Chicago called Razzle Dazzle. I'd like to play it for you now.

Politics
Stories

In which David links things

Paradiddles and Piledrivers - who would have imagined combining drum fundamentals with a professional wrestling attitude. Check out Worlds Fastest Drummer. The have a championship belt and a special e-meter for measuring drum strokes, plus a Girls of the WFD section. (I found the link at Music Thing where electronic instruments are actually amusing.)

Waltzes and Windows - listen to Fatal Exception - an mp3 of piano parlor music flavored by Microsoft Windows system sounds. Mac users may be clueless. (This was in WFMU's Beware of the Blog. Here's another link to 21 versions of They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha Ha, a much more appropriate reaction to Windows.)

Asteroids and Art - imagine an old fashion shoot-the-boulders video game combined with a video and music synth. I was bored after not very long - but your mileage may differ. It's called Transcend and the better you do the nicer the music and graphics. Or so it claims.

Music Reviews
Computer Headaches

30 Second Spots - His Royal Highness, the Duke of Gloucster

As I was finishing this my friend Bill Howard appeared in Starbucks and I asked him for an original title. He thought for a second and said "His Royal Highness, the Duke of Gloucester" Bill's an Anglophile & a Storyteller so he thinks along those lines. At that point he had no idea why I was asking and had not heard the music.

A discussion of how to spell "His Royal Highness, the Duke of Gloucster (click here to hear)" ensued and I managed to get it wrong. So the official title of this piece is the wrong spelling - without the e. When he did hear it, Bill said something about folk music - I wasn't sure what he meant.

Here's a link about the properly spelt His Royal Highness, the Duke of Gloucester

Here's a link to prove I'm not the only one who can't spell Duke of Gloucster.

Explanation of 30 second spots

30 Second Spots

In which David Goes to Two Concerts at One Time

Backstory 1: I have more recordings of the Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach than any other work. My favorite is Glenn Gould's second recording. I listen to it often. I love the music.

The piece is comprised of 30 solo keyboard variations. They say he wrote it to help someone fall asleep. How anyone could fall asleep while paying attention to this piece is beyond me.

Backstory 2: Uri Caine is a jazz pianist & composer. My first exposure to his work was Urlicht/Primal Light - an album based on the music of Gustav Mahler. I was blown away by the creative combination of classical and jazz music. I remember saying "This is the closest the words 'brilliant' and 'jazz' have ever come."

Later I acquired his expansive "re-imagining" of those same Goldberg Variations which I found even more mind blowing. Instead of just combining classical and jazz he combined classical with many musical styles. Dozens of performers, 2 disks, 2 1/2 hours, 70 variations.

The Story: I was excited when I learned Uri Caine would be doing his Goldberg Variations in concert this month - presented by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. I guess I wanted to find out how (or, rather, whether) it could be played live.

But first there would be a whole other concert the same evening: the original solo Bach version played by Jeffrey Kahane (music director of LACO). I considered skipping the first part. I'd never heard it played live. The work seems so intimate on disc. How could it possibly have the same power in a room full of coughing, rustling people?

Turns out that I was completely enthralled by the solo keyboard performance. Kahane nailed it. Maybe the first few variations were a little shaky - but maybe I just needed to settle down. After that I was hooked. The tricky 20th variation has always sounded out of control to me - except this time. Nobody coughed. Nobody rustled. I was mesmerized.

If I could have an experience like that every time I went to a concert -- I'd go to more concerts.

Alas, following Kahane's Bach with Caine's Bach turned out not to be such a great idea. With only 7 players there couldn't be as much variety as in the recording. The improvised solos lost my attention every time. (Hey, all jazz solos do that to me lately.) Compared to the laser beam of the solo piano performance, this was diffuse, back-lit. With, say, 50 players instead of 7 it might work. Until then, however, the recorded version of Uri Caine's Goldberg Variations remains a great listening experience.


Music Reviews

30 Second Spots - Hypnotize You After Work

The music to "Hypnotize You After Work" seems to skip at the end. I think that must have been intentional. The title was probably something I didn't hear quite correctly.

Remind me to tell you what happened when Leslie discovered she had only 12 hours before her plane left for Costa Rica instead of 36 hours.

Explanation of 30 second spots

30 Second Spots

30 Second Spot - Earth Shoes Coming Soon!

The music to "Earth Shoes Coming Soon!" was inspired by something else, but the title was inspired by this picture taken in a Whole Foods market. Where else would you expect to buy Earth Shoes?

ADMINISTRATIVE NOTE: As I've threatened, the mp3's I post will be available for a limited time only. Starting with this spot, old mp3s have started to disappear. If you are somehow inconvienced by this, let me know.

Explanation of 30 second spots

30 Second Spots

In which David has Two Strange Conversations & a Coincidental Horoscope

On most of my trips to Starbucks I never talk to anyone beyond pleasantries. It's a coffee shop, not a coffee house.

But Saturday I found myself in two simultaneous inexplicable discussions, both with twenty-somethings - probably college students - half my age at most. Conversations One and Two overlapped; I'll tell about them separately.

Conversation One: a young man sat next to me and started asking questions out of the blue. "Are you from Pasadena?" "Married or Single?"

He kept it up "Where's your wife?" (My answer: "In front of a computer.") "Is she at home?" "What kind of car do you drive?"

"What country are you from?" I found this really surprising, even disconcerting. When I told him that I was Born in the USA he asked "Where are your parents from?"

Conversation Two: another young man had been walking about. At one point he was standing 10 feet away. I was looking off into space. He said to me "Are you okay?" I was worried by this. "Do I look like I'm having a problem?" Just his way of saying "Hello, how are you?" he explained. He wandered off.

At one point I remember sitting between these two, taking a deep breath and thinking "This is very weird."

Conversation Two returned and started into a long, fast monologue about students learning to do jobs "like becoming a medical doctor or something lower" and then going for a job interview and answering all the questions but not having any idea what was expected of them. I wondered if he was on drugs. When he left again I turned to Conversation One "Did you understand that?" "Yes." he said. But I was baffled.

At home I told the story to Leslie. For some reason I wondered "Can my horoscope explain this?" I almost never read them. Here it is, from the L.A.Times: Virgo Saturday 11/12/05:

"There's much to process as the world swirls around you. You're not sure what to think. If you don't immediately see the lesson or allow yourself to feel the emotions involved, don't worry. Everything in its time."

Of course I don't believe a word of it. No wait. The horoscope was good advice. Oh, I don't know what to think. There's a reason the Astrological Forecast is on the Comics Page. If I eventually figure out what those two guys were talking about do I have to keep reading my horoscopes?

Stories
California