Fire!

Fire in The Grove - John C Esposito

A terrible fire, a horrible moment in Boston's history, told moment by moment in this fascinating book. I had heard the tale of the fire, but was not sure of the horrible details. This book also contains a summary of the Station Nightclub fire from a few years back, and shows how perhaps we have not yet learned our lessons?

Chuck Palahniuk - Survivor

I'm certainly on a Chuck Palahniuk kick. I had stumbled across a few quotations from him, sought out his books at a recent Border's trip, and couldn't put his fiction down. This book is not the kind I would ever pick up based on the plot's premise - and yet I could not put it down based on the style of writing. I have the rest of his works on order from the library!

Gehry's Eyes....

"You know, whenever I go to a museum I fall in love with something - Botticelli's Primavera, for example - but each time I see it differently from the last time. Today I would look at the fabrics. And I would see it architecturally, whereas I never saw it that way before. When I drive I'm listening to Proust now. I read Proust thirty years ago. I slogged through it; I wasn't ready. Now I just go nuts. I play it over and over...I'm ready to hear it. I respond to where I am and what I'm doing at the time." -Frank Gehry

I used to say the same thing about the music of Gustav Holst. Well, I always loved it - but I hear new lines and new phrases every time I play it. Usually related to what I have been doing musically lately, playing a new instrument, focusing on bass lines, learning the words to the folk songs.

I just finished Gehry Talks: Architecture + Process. Very similar thoughts to the film Sketches of Frank Gehry. And a great glimpse of artistic process, I subject I love to examine incessantly.

In the film, Gehry's psychiatrist says that most people come to him to help them cope with the day-to-day problems of the world, but the artists come to him asking how to change it. I guess that's the definition of the "artist mentality"?

What is Art?

I visited the ICA for the first time yesterday. An amazing place, as much for the views and location as the art itself. I saw Tara Donovan's "untitled" (pins). I had heard about this art - where the artist sent directions, and the ICA staff assembled it (twice) for display. Is that art? Or, I guess, whose art is it?

The full article here, from the Boston Globe.

I think art (for me anyways) as always been about how it makes you feel more than what it actually is. I have begun, in the past few years, to appreciate "modern" art - truly wacky, performance "what the heck is that?" art - much more than paintings of bowls of fruit. And while I can appreciate how hard it is to get fruit to look like, well, fruit, it is still just fruit. Some of this "new" art creates a space for me where new ways of thinking can take place. And that's my definition of "art".

So perhaps it is okay that lights going on and off can be "art". Or John Cage's silence can be "music". They are all but a glimpse into the artists' experience, what makes her "space" of creative thought and change. How many times have I looked at a painting years after the first time I've seen it, only to be amazed at what I have missed upon my first reflections long ago? Did the painting change? No.

I did.

Some things cannot be spoken or discovered until we have been stuck, incapacitated, or blown off course for awhile. Plain sailing is pleasant, but you are not going to explore many unknown realms that way. - David Whyte

General Tso's ubiquitous chicken

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles - Jennifer 8 Lee

There are more Chinese restaurants in America than McDonalds, Burger Kings, and Wendys combined. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles is for anyone who has ever wondered who is General Tso and why are we eating his chicken; why Jews eat Chinese food on Christmas; and who really invented the fortune cookie.....The book is a tribute to immigrants and to America. If our benchmark for Americanness is apple pie, ask yourself, how often do you eat apple pie? Now how often do you eat Chinese food? (from the book website)

This was very interesting. A little restaurant history, American history, and yes indeedy, there are more Chinese restaurants around than any other in every town I've lived in. I've never noticed them in such abundance until now.

Also a good analysis of the "Chinese" dishes we all love that no one from China's ever heard of, General Tsao's chicken, and "chop suey" ("Odds and ends" in Chinese).

Read it - and go get some lo mein!

stopping and listening

“Just remember, the same as a spectacular Vogue magazine, remember that no matter how close you follow the jumps: Continued on page whatever. No matter how careful you are, there's going to be the sense you missed something, the collapsed feeling under your skin that you didn't experience it all. There's that fallen heart feeling that you rushed right through the moments where you should've been paying attention. Well, get used to that feeling. That's how your whole life will feel some day. This is all practice. None of this matters. We're just warming up.”

-Chuck Palahniuk

I have spent the past 2 weeks feeling a little lost. Most likely a lot of medical issues (that luckily are being resolved - hooray!) started the spiral. Taking too much too seriously. Not stopping to see the value in the little things.

Good to have a little school vacation time to get back to some reading and writing. I fought a bad case of stomach flu yesterday - but it left after only a day of explosive fury. I wonder how much of it was me mentally purging the past few weeks. I emerged feeling tired and spent, but more open to new experiences. I always seem to get physically ill after mental challenges. Coincidence?

I look forward to adventures and rest. Balance! Onward!

Olympic-Sized Carbon

The Olympic Torch's Carbon Footprint

The 2008 Olympic torch relay has not exactly inspired warm feelings of international cooperation, as in years past. Pro-Tibetan activists mounted protests in Paris and London, and even managed to force the extinguishing of the flame on a few occasions. But in the long run, the torch could generate more pollution than political dissent. Its journey across the world (and back again) is leaving a historic trail of CO2 emissions. (Slate.com)

You can track the path on Google. Follow the link to see. After all the political torch hoopla, you'd think someone would notice this.

And we are debating buying a Prius for our next car. Who cares with all this torch carbon - we are all doomed. =(

Top Ten Composers?

Ten composers you should know:
(from Music Composition for Dummies)

Claudio Monteverdi
Charles Ives
Béla Bartok
Igor Stravinsky
Aaron Copland
Raymond Scott
Leonard Bernstein
Arvo Pärt
Steve Reich
Eric Whitacre

I was alerted to this from Eric Whitacre's blog.

Of course they are all special. How do you pick just ten composers? Who the heck is Raymond Scott?

Choral Music of the 20th Century

We are 4 weeks away from our spring concert. We like the Britten (almost) and it's all coming together. Even as someone who knows what it's like to put things together over time, it's hard not to have heard it all with soloists. But I am convinced it will be a phenomenal performance!

This weekend I heard another group (and my friend Leslie, their outstanding soloist) perform the Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem. Another reminder of how difficult pieces can come together. Our performance last spring was very moving, after some challenging rehearsals.

All this choral stuff! It is very satisfying. Come see what it's all about!

http://www.newburyportchoralsociety.org/

Back again

Okay, okay - so much for new year's resolutions. Things come and go. Like old Dunkin Donut signs.

Fascinating things have been happening. Lots of good books and films and life. Time to record more....