All I Know³
Information, transmission, modulation, and noise - 3rd Edition

The trouble with having been born on January 6th is that every birthday I expect something new to be revealed to me. Some sort of epiphany to come my way. Lately, I’m left still waiting. We’ll see about today.

Being born in the middle of winter, right after the holidays, doesn’t leave much to look forward to. It’s a pretty dark time of year. Bad time for birthdays. At least in the Northern Hemisphere.

I’ve been pretty grumpy the past month or so. Not much to smile about. Things seem to be going from bad to worse. Mention a topic and it’s never been as bad as now. And in 5 years I’ll be 70. That’s too scary to contemplate. So that’s why the sour face.

The future is getting really scary. Even with big, historic changes in Washington. I’m hoping for a personal epiphany this time, tho. And a quiet day.

Sitting on a cornflake
Waiting for the van to come
Corporation T-Shirt
Stupid Bloody Tuesday
Man, you been a naughty boy
You let your face grow long

At least it’s not as bad as last year.

Turned on the ham radio this afternoon and made two contacts in Japan on the 20m band!
First for the new year and first to Japan in many many months.

We are, after all, at a low point in the sunspot cycle.

Still, it was exciting to know that the radio still works. Haven’t turned it on in months!

Things aren’t going well with my attempt to get off Photoshop and on to Gimp.

I feel a bit unhinged.

Things are not working well with Gimp. It’s a much stranger land. Things don’t seem to be the same .. they’re oddly different. And I’m not at all pleased with the results I’m getting.

Maybe I just need some more time, need to read thru some more tutorials. It’ll be all right.

It’s interesting how out of joint this has made me feel. What I used to do so easily takes so much more effort and time, and it’s very frustrating.

I’m still committed to the attempt. But I’m falling behind. Everything seems to be tottering on the edge. I must be in Photoshop-withdrawl.

I’ve resisted rebooting back to 10.3.9. I’m sticking with 10.4.11

Is this what it’s like to give up smoking? Or drinking?

Yet, I wish I could feel as confident about using Gimp for all my photographic needs as I did a few days ago. Now I’m not so sure.

What really bugs me is that many of the dialogs for enhancing images do not have a preview setting, so you can’t see the results until you click “Ok” .. whereas with PS just about everything you do is instantly reflected in the preview. And when Gimp does have a preview function, it takes many seconds for the image to be updated.  This really cramps my style of working.

What really bugs me about Photoshop is that I really don’t want to have to pay for yet another upgrade just because I updated my OS. This is absurd blackmail. Ugh.

One of the real conundrums this time is worrying over how to upgrade my working system. I’m a “trailing edge” person .. I’d rather not upgrade my software unless it’s absolutely necessary. So my primary, not-for-work-but-just-for-me system is a 1 GHz PowerPC Mac G4 running OSX 10.3.9. (The system I use for working-from-home is a 2 GHz AMD 64 laptop running OpenSolaris).

I should really upgrade to 10.4.11 (I believe 10.5 doesn’t run PowerPC’s) because a lot of the upgrades for software that I do use is no longer being made available for 10.3.9.

So I’ve been experimenting with 10.4.11 on a second internal disk drive. I can now boot either 10.3.9 or 10.4.11. The only trouble is with Photoshop .. my version 8 won’t run on 10.4 without an expensive upgrade. I refuse to pay it.

I also believe strongly in open source software, so I’ve been trying to replace my Photoshop habit with Gimp (Gnu Image Manipulation Program, http://gimp.org), which does run on 10.4 (under X11) and not on 10.3.9.  I’ve been using Gimp on my OpenSolaris systems because Photoshop doesn’t run there, and on my Solaris SPARC workstation back at the office, so I’ve had some worthwhile experience with the thing over the years.

But I’ve been using Photoshop for years as my digital darkroom. I probably only use a tenth of the features, and sparingly. My feeling is that if one of my images requires hours of fiddling in Photoshop, then it’s not a good picture and should be rejected. Mostly, all I do is crop, adjust color balances, brightness, contrast, and saturation, and in some cases add sharpening. Scans of my older slides will require a some color compensation (some have faded or shifted), and dust/spot removal. But that’s all. I don’t get into masking layers and other non-photographic effects. That’s not for my eyes.

And as you’d expect, I’ve pretty much gotten it down to a routine, where I can quickly take a scanned slide or digital image and process it thru Photoshop and upload it to my photo blog in a manner of a few minutes. But I think now the time has come to rid myself of Photoshop and use Gimp for real.

So I’ve been deep into Gimp this weekend, reading the online help and the many tutorials online (just Google “gimp tutorials”), trying to develop a Gimp workflow similar to what I’ve been doing with Photoshop.

What I’ve discovered is that Gimp is slower than Photoshop for some actions, but better for others. Knowing Photoshop helps a lot because they are similar in many respects. Still it’s the differences that are hard to learn. For one thing, the sliders on many of the adjustment dialogs are not as nice in Gimp as they are in Photoshop. And not all features have a usable preview mode, so you can’t always be sure of what your doing.

I went thru my usual workflow with an Ektachrome slide from 1975. Instead of conrolling the scanner from within Photoshop’s Import menu, I had to run the scanning software (SilverFast AI) stand-alone and generate a TIFF file for Gimp to open. Then the usual image cleanup/color/brightness/contrast/saturation/sharpen/resize steps, and finally saving as an 800 x 533 px jpg for uploading. The result is here.

I’m not entirely too happy with the result, and not sure if it’s my ineptitude with Gimp, or with the image itself. And, I’m unmotivated right now to reboot the system into 10.3.9 and try the same steps with Photoshop, and compare. Not sure what that would prove either.

I may be ready to drop Photoshop altogether at this point. Just need to read more and play with it more. But the images you will see on my photoblog will be processed by Gimp and not Photoshop going forward.

But another issue related to the upgrade to 10.4.11 is what to do about my asset management software. Up to now I’ve been really quite happy using iView Media Pro 3.  I bought the software a few years ago after getting totally frustrated with iPhoto. And I’ve lived thru two versions of iView until they were bought out by Microsoft last year. Now it’s called something dumb like Microsoft Expression Media. And I won’t buy it, or anything from Microsoft.

Luckily, iView Media Pro 3 works as is (apparently) on 10.4.11. But I can’t expect any updates. It works really well, making it possible to keep my 35 GB Pictures folder organized and easily accessible. And it can do other things like create slide shows, bulk process images, and keep annotated notes about each image.

So, what do I replace it with? I haven’t been able to find anything comparable as open source software. I would prefer something I could also run on OpenSolaris or Windows, as well as Mac OSX. And it be low cost. Anyone know of anything out there? I’d like to hear about it.

Meantime, I’m bouncing back and forth between 10.3.9 and 10.4.11. At some point I’ll see no need to be on 10.3.9 and use that disk only for backup.  The other programs that I use daily (Logic Express 7.1, Audio Hijack Pro, Reason 2, Jam 6, Toast 6) all seem to work on 10.4. I’m not willing to shell out more $ for upgrades every time I move to the latest OS.

… and sometimes I start thinking about how nice it would be to throw the whole kit out, forget about email and the web, buy envelopes and stamps, get my old IBM selectric  typewriter working again,  dig out the old vinyl records, close the blinds, and await Armegeddon while watching reruns of I Love Lucy.  I think the downfall of the human race started with the touch-tone telephone.

But that’s another story.

Just back from a brief but wonderful Winter Solstice concert over at the Julia Morgan Chapel of the Chimes, which is just a short walk from our house. A number of local musicians, organized by Sarah Cahill and New Music Bay Area, were featured in the two chapels.

But I came to hear Eva-Maria Zimmermann perform a short program of music by (it’s his 100th birthday this month), Olivier Messiaen, Paul Dukas, Maurice Emmanuel, and Tristan Murail. The program revolved around two of Messiaen’s early Preludes from 1929 (when he was 21), including pieces by two of his teachers at the Paris Conservatory, Emmanuel and Dukas.

Such dream-like pieces! I was really amazed by the Dukas Prelude from 1904. One immediately thinks of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Micky Mouse, pails of water, and lots of brooms when Dukas’ name is mentioned. And also a lot of organ music. But I didn’t expect what I heard at all, and it’s sending me to the catalog to look up recordings of these early pieces. Same with Maurice Emmanuel, who taught music history and introduced Messiaen to “Hindu music”, but whose music I’d never heard before.

And of course the early Messiaen Preludes are an extraordinary achievement for a 21-year old. And in them you can already hear hints of the music he wrote all thru his 60-year career.

The program concluded with a Prelude by one of Messiaen’s students, French composer Tristan Murail, completing the circle. This angular piece, written to honor Messiaen’s death in 1992, is based on many of the sounds from the early Messiaen Prelude just heard.

Extra credit goes to Eva-Maria, who played them with great delicacy even tho the chapel, true to its faux-medieval style, was unheated and absolutely freezing on this cold and rainy night in Oakland.

The connections between the music and the architect of the chapel are many. Julia Morgan, designer of Hearst Castle and other impressive buildings in Berkeley and San Francisco, studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at the turn of the century. And I wondered if she and Dukas ever crossed paths?

Having a hard time believing that the year is almost over.

And, I appear to have entered serious hibernation. The desire to pull up the covers and sleep til the sun comes back is now overwhelming.

And, I’m deeply into observing the movement of raindrops across the bedroom window.

It was a wonderful event

From the Other Minds “Mind Alert”:

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President-Elect Barack Obama!

From my window here in Oakland I can hear car horns and people shouting.

We held our breath. Could it happen?

Yes, it could!

Yikes! It just did!

We voted this morning on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland. We were told that the line went into the street with everyone stopping in before going to work. But when we got there around 10am there was no line at all.

This time, besides voting for President, Congress, State Assembly, and a few judges and other local city/county officials, there were 12 state propositions, one Oakland school measure, two other Oakland city measures, and two “district” measures (transit district, parks district). The accompanying voter guide we got in the mail last month was many pages thick.

This was a paper ballot because the state decertified the touch-screen voting machines it had paid millions of $ for earlier in the year. Still, the ballot, which we marked with a pen, had to be scanned and you don’t get a copy of the scanner’s results so there’s no way to know if your votes were correctly recorded. This is truly “faith-based voting”.

Either way it turns out, this will be a historic election: we either demonstrate how far this country has come since the civil rights act in the 60’s by electing an African-American to the presidency, or we once again see the Republicans stealing the election thru corruption, greed, fear, and racism — in other words business as usual.

 This is the leadership we need today:

It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.

This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.

As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

The right of every family to a decent home;

The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

America’s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our citizens.

Franklin D Roosevelt - Excerpt from 11 January 1944 message to Congress on the State of the Union

And this, I’m afraid, is what the Republican crazies like McCain/Palin do NOT want. Is this socialism? Hardly. But it is deja vu all over again. So vote Democratic, again.

Pianist Eva-Maria Zimmermann (right) and soprano Lara Bruckmann (left) have been working on this project for quite a while! This should be something worth the trip. There will also be an Ondes Martenot demonstration that children would enjoy. (The Ondes Martenot is an early electronic instrument).

Music by Messiaen, Debussy, Jolivet, and Delbos.

The detailed information and program is at www.chamberbridge.org

CHAMBERBRIDGE: MESSIAEN ILLUMINATED

WHEN: Saturday, November 15th, 2008
Concerts starting at 3pm, 5:30pm,and 8pm
Ondes Martenot demonstration at 4:30pm
Receptions after each concert, featuring visual art by Srimonkol “JAX” Darawali.

WHERE: Old First Concerts, San Francisco
1751 Sacramento Street (at Van Ness)

TICKETS: Single Concert $15/$12 seniors and students with ID
Festival Pass $35/$28 seniors and students with ID

BOX OFFICE: (415) 474-1608 www.oldfirstconcerts.org

The John Cage Legacy: Chance in Music and Mathematics
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 from 5:30 pm to 7 pm

A Happening with the composers/performers from the MERCE CUNNINGHAM DANCE COMPANY in a CONCERT followed by a DISCUSSION between the MUSICIANS and moderated by Bob Osserman, Special Projects Director at MSRI

For more information visit http://www.msri.org

F R E E A D M I S S I O N

Appearing from the Merce Cunningham Dance Company are members of The Company’s “Music Committee”

• Music Director Takehisa Kosugi
• Stephan Moore Sound Engineer and Music Coordinator
• Longtime Merce Cunningham collaborators, David Behrman and Christian Wolff
• and mathematician/magician randomness expert Persi Diaconis of Stanford University

@MSRI’s Simons Auditorium, Shiing-Shen Chern Hall
at 17 Gauss Way, Berkeley CA
Near the intersection of Grizzly Peak Blvd. & Centennial Dr.

See http://www.calperformances.org for MCDC performances, Nov. 7-15

Today, the New York Times endorsed Obama in an editorial:

Barack Obama for President

New York Times - Published: October 23, 2008

Hyperbole is the currency of presidential campaigns, but this year the nation’s future truly hangs in the balance.

The United States is battered and drifting after eight years of President Bush’s failed leadership. He is saddling his successor with two wars, a scarred global image and a government systematically stripped of its ability to protect and help its citizens — whether they are fleeing a hurricane’s floodwaters, searching for affordable health care or struggling to hold on to their homes, jobs, savings and pensions in the midst of a financial crisis that was foretold and preventable.

As tough as the times are, the selection of a new president is easy. After nearly two years of a grueling and ugly campaign, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has proved that he is the right choice to be the 44th president of the United States.

Read »the entire editorial. It is excellent.

Harbor College Music Recital Hall, 1111 Figueroa Place, Wilmington, CA, 90744. Starts at 8:00 p.m. Admission is $10.00

“The Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen, a memorial tribute concert, will take place on October 25, 2008. Included in the concert are “Telemusic” (electronic music); “Klavierstück 7” (piano solo); “Connection” (improvised music from “The Seven Days”); two works from his Opera cycle “Light”, one for soprano and baritone vocals with basset horn and flute (“Proposal” from “Freitag aus Licht”), the other for trumpet and string bass (“Halt” from “Donnerstag aus Licht”); “Tierkreis” (Zodiac melodies); as well as three other solo works for flute, clarinet and piano. The participants in this program are from various Southern California music communities. Some are members of the improvisation ensemble “Surrealestate”. Others are from the new music group, “Wholesale Orchestra”. Quite a few are music educators at local universities and music schools.

 

For further information please contact: Bruce Friedman at www.brucefriedmanmusic.com, or by phone at (310) 259 - 7417. This event is sponsored by LIRA Productions. Directions and parking information for Harbor College can be found at: www.liraproductions.com.”

Bruce Friedman (no relation, as far as I know), is a horn player in the L.A. area. Kudos for doing this. Wish I could be there.

O to be in London this weekend.

The BBC’s Cut & Splice, along with Sonic Arts, will be presenting Stockhausen’s Aus Den Sieben Tagen in a two-day festival.

>Website

This is one of Stockhausen’s most bizarre pieces, composed after spending a couple of months in early 1968 in and around San Francisco. The score is completely verbal .. 15 short texts instructing the players how they should imagine the music they are to play. But this isn’t supposed to be mystical. Just very deep. And just about anything can happen.

Sometime in the early 1970’s, when I was producing programs for KPFA in Berkeley, we were able to get a set of tapes from the Cologne Radio of a series of performances of ADST done in their studios by Stockhausen and his ensemble at the time. And, after much lobbying at the station, I was able to present the entire 5 hours in one overnight broadcast sometime in 1972, I think it was.

The event itself was of dubious value. My criticism at the time was that most of the pieces seemed to all sound the same, regardless of the poetic instructions to the performers. But some of them were brilliant and quite remarkable.

Still, this London performance will be quite something else, it seems. On their website, they indicate what to expect for one of the pieces, Gold Dust:

Gold Dust

live completely alone for four days
without food
in complete silence, without much movement
sleep as little as necessary
think as little as possible…

Gold Dust, requires two performers to be isolated in adjacent hotel rooms for 4 days. On the 4th day (Friday 25 October), in the evening, they leave and go directly to Wilton’s Music Hall and play together. They may not eat food for the duration of this event, but may have only liquid sustenance. They must have no contact with the outside world. They are required to maintain an online blog, writing of their experiences of this process, to serve as a real-time document of the work.

This I’ve gotta see. Alas, tho. I’m busy this weekend, and London is so so far away.

If you’re going, let us know how it turns out.

The Goethe Institute website has a good article on the late Mauricio Kagel, who passed away last month:

Smack on Target: The Absurdity of Our Society as the Deeper Sense of Art – On the Death of the Composer Mauricio Kagel

Things were taken seriously in the musical world of the late 1950s. So seriously that even Adorno warned that one should not, amidst all the theoretical debates about the new possibilities of music, forget the human being. Visions were projected of the total availability of musical material, which the composer, in his comprehensive control over every parameter, had only to give order.

… »read the rest

Other Minds, in cooperation with the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Eugene and Elinor Friend Center for the Arts of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, and the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, is proud to announce that the following artists will be featured at the 14th Other Minds Music Festival (OM14), March 5-7, 2009, in San Francisco.

Michael Harrison (USA)
Ben Johnston (USA)
Catherine Lamb (USA)
Chico Mello (Brazil)
Pawel Mykietyn (Poland)
John Schneider (USA)
Linda Catlin Smith (Canada)
Bent Sørensen (Denmark)
Pawel Szymanski (Poland)

This year’s event will bring together artists from distant corners of the musical world, from ages 26 to 82, including two thrilling composers from Poland, four world premiere presentations, and radical re-definitions of “song,” with influences from Brazilian classics in the case of Mello, and composed for just-tuned guitar, in the case of Johnston.

Save the dates–March 5, 6, and 7–program details to be announced soon.

Tickets for OM14 are already on sale at the JCCSF website.

Wanting to escape from current anxieties, I took to my room this afternoon to watch a DVD that arrived recently from Netflix - a 1987 Glyndebourne Opera performance of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande.

Now, I have to admit first that I am a strong admirer of Debussy’s music. Almost all of it. And, that while I’ve heard P&M many times, I’ve never seen it live. So this was why it was on my Netflix list. But I’ve been putting off running it thru the DVD player for weeks, not feeling the right moment, til this afternoon.

I also have to admit that while I probably read the plot synopsis sometime ago, I was still hazy about details. So when I heard part of a Canadian performance on the radio a while back, I made the mental note to see if there was a DVD performance at Netflix. Finding this one, I ordered it.

Also, my tourist French is hardly good enough to be able to make sense out of the words as sung, so I’ve always gotten my greatest enjoyment merely at the pure sound of the opera. And, in the versions I’ve heard, the voices and orchestra shimmer in a fin de siècle radiance that always makes me sink to my knees.

But, I’ve had little interest in the actual libretto, until now. Because watching this DVD performance with English subtitles made me realize how totally bizarre it is.

The opera is based on Maurice Maeterlinck’s 1892 play of the same name. The synopsis can be stated in just a few sentences:

Golaud discovers Mélisande by a stream in the woods. She has lost her crown in the water, but does not wish to retrieve it. They marry and she instantly wins the favor of Arkël, who is ill. She falls in love with Pelléas. They meet by the fountain, where Mélisande loses her wedding ring. Golaud grows suspicious of the lovers, has Yniold spy on them, and discovers them caressing, whereupon he kills Pelléas and wounds Mélisande. She later dies after giving birth to an abnormally small girl.

The libretto is apparently adapted from Maeterlinck’s play. (And so is the title. Play: Pélléas et Mélisande; Opera: Pelléas et Melisande.) But at times the dialog is bizarre. And many questions about the plot are left unanswered, the most important being who is Melisande, this beautiful young woman found by Prince Golaud weeping by a stream. The whole play, and opera, is filled with a sense of foreboding. And, of course, it ends with the death of Melisande and Pelléas.

Maybe what I found strange was the Glyndebourne Opera’s production, which put the action entirely in a single set that looked like an elegant Edwardian drawing room, and put everyone in 19th C dress. The stage setting had an interesting transparent floor lit from below and filled with flowers that contrasted with the walls and decor of the room. But it had to serve both as the main room of a castle along with the woods, a cave, and a tower. The most bizarre situation comes at the beginning when Golaud, lost supposidly in the woods comes across Melisande at the stream. Actually, Golaud gives his opening monologue while seated in an upholstered chair and wearing a jacket and tie, only to discover a nearly naked but conveniently draped Melisande on the mahogany end table. Very strange. One thinks we’re watching two people enacting some sort of make believe foreplay ritual. Very strange indeed.

But that might just be this particular production. And I think it suffers by contrasting a concrete image of a 19th C drawing room against a mystery play anchored somewere in the really distant past. Perhaps a bare, minimal stage, like the way the original play was described to have been performed in 1893, would have been better. But this was quite a stretch. After a while it gets too confusing to watch. Later, as Debussy’s music surges with foreboding, Golaud pours himself a drink in a matter-of-fact manner that defuses the power of the music. Right there you’re aware that this isn’t movie music.

Still, the opera leaves you hanging, not sure what really has happened. Is Golaud mad, or is it Pelléas who’s mad?

But now I’m not sure reading the subtitles aided my appreciation of this work, which I have loved for so long without really knowing what exactly they’re singing about. It may have now left me more confused and unsure, and have distracted me from enjoying the music.

My opera-loving friends say that the plot line and words are equally if not more important to an opera as the music. But I disagree. Which is why I never really liked operas in English. The words are too easy to understand and distracts from the music. But that might just be me.

Anyway, it was an great way to spend an afternoon, but I’m still worried about who is the real Melisande…

from politicalirony.com

FDR, March 12, 1933

I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking — with the comparatively few who understand the mechanics of banking but more particularly with the overwhelming majority who use banks for the making of deposits and the drawing of checks. I want to tell you what has been done in the last few days, why it was done, and what the next steps are going to be. I recognize that the many proclamations from State Capitols and from Washington, the legislation, the Treasury regulations, etc., couched for the most part in banking and legal terms should be explained for the benefit of the average citizen. I owe this in particular because of the fortitude and good temper with which everybody has accepted the inconvenience and hardships of the banking holiday. I know that when you understand what we in Washington have been about I shall continue to have your cooperation as fully as I have had your sympathy and help during the past week.
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Finally, the rains have come. It’s raining right now in Oakland.

This is the first significant rain since, maybe, March. And outside it smells just fantastic.

Let it rain!

Rain

I opened my eyes
And looked up at the rain,
And it dripped in my head
And flowed into my brain,
And all that I hear as I lie in my bed
Is the slishity-slosh of the rain in my head.

I step very softly,
I walk very slow,
I can’t do a handstand–
I might overflow,
So pardon the wild crazy thing I just said–
I’m just not the same since there’s rain in my head.

Shel Silverstein

They tell me that today was the last day for Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. So hard to believe. The last time I was there for a game was in 1955 when I was 11, as recorded by my Dad’s Rollieflex shown above.

I remember the hot dog. And throwing up later. Don’t remember much of the game, but we did have seats down near the field. And I think there may be more pictures from that event. I did have my Kodak Brownie and the B&W drugstore prints must be somewhere.

Even tho by 1955 we were already living on Long Island and no longer in the Bronx, I do have much earlier memories of hearing the crowd from our apartment house nearby. At least, I think I remember it that way.

I still think baseball is one of the greatest sports, and I usually get caught up in the season enders. I was, and have been, spiritually a Yankee, altho it has been disappointing the past couple of seasons.

But I have feelings for the Stadium in the Bronx. Like so much of my New York childhood and youth, so much of the history has been taken away.

Another important post-WW2 European avant-garde composer has passed. Mauricio Kagel, closely associated with Stockhausen, Boulez, and others of that generation, has died in Köln at 76.

Mostly self-taught, Kagel’s music combined theatrics and comedy. Nothing he produced was ordinary in any way.

Some worthwhile obits do justice to his life and legend more than I can:

• Philip Clark in Gramophone
• William Grimes in the NY Times
• Adrian Jack in the Guardian
• Tom Service in the Guardian
  

Who’s left of that generation? Boulez, it seems, is all alone now.

Look here:

One of my photos now adorns the front and back covers of this new release on New World Records. It features the music of Michael Byron, Dreamers of Pearl.

The original image is on my photo blog. That’s my foot in the picture. This was originally a mistake, but sometimes mistakes not only happen but turn out well. I had my camera slung over my shoulder as I was making my way thru the crowd at a SF Giants baseball game, but I had forgotten to turn the camera off. So when it bounced against me it fired off the shutter while pointing down at my feet. And, with a little help from Adobe, turned into quite a nice image.

Not all mistakes are mistakes after all.

And, by the way, the music’s great too. Some incredible virtuoso piano music by Michael Byron performed by the incredible Joseph Kubera. It’s queued up for a future Music From Other Minds program. Stay tuned.

Sarah Palin might not be anything near what she and others claim.

Claim vs. Fact

• “Hockey mom”: True for a few years
• “PTA mom”: True years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since
• “NRA supporter”: Absolutely true
• Social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, but vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconsitutional).
• Pro-creationism: Mixed. Supports it, but did nothing as governor to promote it.
• “Pro-life”: Mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby but declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation.
• “Experienced”: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.
• Political maverick: Not at all.
• Gutsy: Absolutely!
• Open and transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.
• Has a developed philosophy of public policy: No.
• “A Greenie”: No. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
• Fiscal conservative: Not by my definition!
• Pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.
• Pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents
• Pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla’s history.
• Pro-labor/pro-union: No. Just because her husband works union doesn’t make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

This is from someone who has known Palin for years. Read the whole article at:
http://www.crosscut.com/politics-government/17341

She is really scary.