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

My daughter, Nora, is reporting from Palestine this month for KPFA and the Electronic Intefada. And she’s telling some horrific stories:

• Amir, ten years old, abducted by Israeli soldiers from his bed
• “I can’t live without this place”

Also on her blog: http://norabf.wordpress.com/

 I took this photo in October, 1970. I’d moved to Berkeley two years earlier, but came back for a visit. At that point I was unsure if I would be staying in California. I missed New York to some extent. I didn’t miss Winter, or Summer. Berkeley seemed an eternal Spring. But it lacked the intensity of New York… something I eventually learned to live without. Intensity is bad for the arteries.

Anyway, this image has become somewhat iconic. It’s been reproduced on a number of “New York in the 60’s and 70’s” websites, and I’ve sold quite a number of prints thru my “agent” in New York. But a few weeks ago I got one of those emails that sets you back a few feet.   Lisa wrote to tell me that she knew some of the people in that photo, and that they were all talking about it on Facebook!

Yes, those people in the picture all have names. A couple of them were friends, on their way somewhere, talking about something important, or not, and just then I snapped a shutter and this quite random moment was captured, but long forgotten by them all. Until recently when the image resurfaced in the webosphere. And now those people in the picture are talking to each other about this quite random moment.

I was standing on one of my favorite corners in the Village. Village Cigars was where I bought my, Gauloises,  Gitanes and Schimmelpennincks. And behind me would have been The Paperback Gallery, a great bookstore long gone. This was the entrance to the “West Village” with it’s cobblestone streets (long gone) and narrow early 19thC four-storey walkups.

I, of course, know none of these people. At least not yet. Now, some forty years later, I might just learn their names, and find out what they were doing on that corner on a cloudy afternoon in October. Still, it’s pretty amazing to think about, and so much has happened since. And now we’re all old people!

(PS: It’s also been pointed out that if you look really closely in the far distance above the roofs, you can just barely make out the construction of the first World Trade Center tower. )

Long before there was an Oracle Corporation, there was The San Francisco Oracle, a visonary and colorful newspaper distributed on the streets of San Francisco and Berkeley, and New York City. And it was in NYC that I saw my very first copy in 1966, and then again in SF on a trip.

I’d never seen anything like it before. The size was like the Village Voice, but it was in brilliant color and graphics.

“The San Francisco Oracle, published in the Haight Ashbury from 1966 to 1968, was one of the most unique and beautiful publications of the ’60s. It is remembered for its extraordinary graphic design by major San Francisco artists, its rainbow colors and the cultural explorations and breakthroughs in its articles, interviews and poetry.”  »Regent Press.

In my mind, The Oracle defined what was happening in San Francisco, which was so different from what was happening in New York City in 1966.

It was one of many things that ultimately led me to move to Berkeley in 1968.

Odd to think that now, 42 years later, I’d be moving from the Sun to the Oracle.

I doubt if the naming of the database company had anything to do with the mythic newspaper of the same name. But it is something to contemplate….

As some of you may be aware, I’ve been a bit preoccupied over the viability of my day job. This week my employer was acquired by a much larger company, and we’ve all been sweating the details. Suffice it to say that today I found out that I am fortunate to have a job in the new company, which hopefully will mean a good stretch of years coming without hearing the word “layoffs” ever again. Well, we can hope.

The emotional and  psychological toll on all workers faced with these events is awful, especially when they drag on for 9 months! And losing so many good people is almost as hard to deal with as a death in the family.

Certainly I’m glad to know that I’m secure in my job going forward. But it is tinged with the pain of knowing what some of my ex-colleagues are now facing.

I only hope that for them this period of limbo is brief.

And, now maybe I can turn my mind back to more interesting things!

 We’re having a string of storms arriving from the Pacific. But they also bring rainbows. Double ones, too.

Today is my birthday .  King Richard II’s too. (1367). Curious.

I’m taking the day off. Going over to Pt Reyes in the morning. Take some pictures. Do some ham radio from my van (will I contact Japan this time? No sunspots.) Maybe take a walk if it’s not raining.

I’ve been getting all these automated emails from websites wishing me a happy birthday. Very strange. “Happy Birthday from blahblah.com”.  Thanks. Really.

A lot to think about. So what is 66 supposed to feel like? Any different than 65? Not really. So far. Can’t tell yet. It was midnight Jan 6th almost four hours ago in New York City. My mother told me I was born around midnight, New York time. So I really can’t judge. But I think I’m the same person I was 30 years ago. A few more aches and pains.

Oddly, so many of my friends seem to have their birthdays around this time as well. In fact, many of my best friends are within the first 3 weeks of January. What’s the significance of that?  I’ve always wondered.

I think we make too much of age, and aging.  Beats the alternative, however.

   This is me right now.

I’ve got my grumpy face on.

The interesting thing about having your birthday in the first week of the year is that my new years  are in synch with everyone’s calendar new year.

But I kinda think everything is going to turn out all right in the end. Don’t know why I feel that way. I’m not an optimist.

We’ll see.

Lately I’ve taken to listening to the Q2 stream from WQXR in New York City. Now that WNYC (the major NPR station in NYC) has taken over the “classical music” station WQXR and made it non-commercial (and changed it’s on-air frequency from 96.3 to 105.9).

The WQXR offers two streams: It’s primary WQXR stream, which is like any classical music station, mostly the usual familiar stuff with lots of mindless chatter. (Why does so-called classical music have to be packaged this way!?)

But the other, alternate stream, which they call Q2, presents “500 years of new music”.  And what you can hear here is quite impressive. Here’s the list of what they’ve played so far today: playlist for 12/31

I don’t know who is programming Q2, but they’re doing a great job. Quite a mix of always interesting and unusual music. So I’ve taken to running the Q2 stream at our house these days. Since I mainly work from home, it’s on nearly all the time (I have replaced the FM tuner in my sound system with a laptop running Ubuntu Linux and streaming internet radio).

There are now a good handful of streams to listen to on the internet. Pandora, of course, is still a major resource. It’s great for Jazz and general popular music, but it’s classical library, while still growing, has problems, like too many repeated plays, and not playing an entire work but just single tracks, which makes mince meat of most music.

There’s also CounterStream from the American Music Center which plays a lot of music by composers and performers I’ve never heard of, which is good.

And, there’s sfSound Radio, a local stream of very experimental music, that is always surprising.

But I’m really enjoying Q2.

When I was growing up in New York (1950’s), WQXR, WNYC, WKCR, WNCN, WBAI, were all resources for hearing great music. WQXR eventually declined to become more of a “lifestyle” station, selling the stuff that seems to go with “classical music”. But that’s where I got my musical education. And it’s latest reincarnation, via WNYC, is a blessing.

By the way, the iTunes URL for the Q2 stream is http://wnyc2.streamguys.com:80/

Happy listening.

The song of holy thanks on recovering good health, in the Lydian mode, from Beethoven’s A minor quartet, #15, opus 132 (1825). At the time LvB was completely deaf, and could hear only his own imagination.

I put this here as a source for contemplation on the year ending, and the year to be. May we all recover good health in 2010.

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So today I do have something to blog about, so I’ll come out of hibernation for a few minutes.

I read this morning in the »NY Times that SAAB cars have come to an end.

My very first car was a »SAAB 96. That was in 1969:

I had bought it used from someone in Berkeley. I think it cost me $800. And I drove it all over. Even to Baja.

I loved this car. Not only because it was my very first car, but it fit me very well. And, it was cranky. A two-stroke, three-cylinder engine with a flywheel, you had to put oil in the gas tank before you put in gas, which baffled most garage attendants .. “Are you sure you want to do that?…”  (These were the days before self-serve.) Especially when I drove off in a puff of blue smoke.

When I arrived in Berkeley from New York City in 1968, I really didn’t know how to drive. I bought the car in ‘69 with a friend. I had a learner’s permit, and he taught me how do drive it in the parking lot at Golden Gate Fields (how many people learned to drive in that parking lot?!).  I was 25 and up to then all I had was a motor scooter.

I had the 96 until 1973, when I sold it before moving to London for a year. And when I was in London, I bought a similar car there, altho  it was a newer V4 model and used regular gas. I sold that one when I left London and returned to Berkeley in 1974. And back home I bought a used SAAB station wagon. The first of two, I think.  I’ve had many cars, mostly old used clunkers. But that old 96 was always my favorite.

Once, in 1970, I drove down to San Diego, and on the trip back up to Berkeley the engine froze up on the freeway. I was able to coast to the next off ramp and stopped by the side of the road to call AAA. Amazingly there was a SAAB repair place nearby (I forget where .. someplace north of SD). I had to leave it there and it took almost a month to get it back after they replaced the engine. They were able to find a replacement!

Somewhere in the 70’s SAAB stopped making practical cars and went for the high end, competing with BMW and the rest. I lost interest. My first new car was a Honda, followed by many Toyotas, and finally my current VW Eurovan Camper. I never got the car lust, like my southern California wife. To me a car is just a tool, a mechanical necessity. But sometimes I wish I still had that 96, blue smoke and all.

So yet another memorial, but this time to a car company. RIP SAAB.

I’m finding it harder and hard to find things to blog about. At least just now. This is the part of the year I tend to hibernate .. roll the rock in front of the opening and move to the back of the cave.

Maybe I’ll think of something, but don’t expect much for a few weeks, ’til the whole thing blows over and the sun returns.

Season’s greeting.

December is turning out to be the cruelest month.

We’ve already been stunned with:

Thomas Hoving, Remaker of the Met, Dies at 78

Mr. Hoving transformed the Metropolitan Museum of Art during his tumultuous decade-long tenure as director.

Stephen Toulmin, a Philosopher and Educator, Dies at 87

Mr. Toulmin was an influential philosopher who conducted inquiries into ethics, science and moral reasoning and developed a new approach to analyzing arguments.

Paul A. Samuelson, Economist, Dies at 94

Paul A. Samuelson, the first American Nobel laureate in economics and the foremost academic economist of the 20th century, died Sunday at his home in Belmont, Mass.

Now comes the word that local photographer Larry Sultan has passed away

Larry Sultan, California Photographer, Dies at 63

Mr. Sultan was a highly influential California photographer whose 1977 collaboration, “Evidence” became a watershed in the history of art photography.

63!!

Cruel month, indeed.

Other Minds 15

Gyan Riley

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 15th Other Minds Music Festival (OM 15), March 4-6, 2010, in San Francisco.

Natasha Barrett (Norway)
Lisa Bielawa (USA)
Chou Wen-chung (China/USA)
Jürg Frey (Switzerland)
Tom Johnson (France)
Kidd Jordan (USA)
Carla Kihlstedt (USA)
Pawel Mykietyn (Poland)
Gyan Riley (USA)

This year’s Festival will bring to the Bay Area three highly influential senior composers:

* Perhaps the first modern Chinese composer to emigrate to the US, Chou Wen-chung became the founder of a movement for contemporary Chinese music, and counted among his students Zhou Long, Chen Yi, Tan Dun, Bright Sheng, Ge Gan-ru (OM 9), and Chinary Ung (OM 14).

* Kidd Jordan of New Orleans organized the first World Saxophone Quartet, and in 2005 received knighthood from the Republic of France.

* From 1972 to 1982, composer Tom Johnson was also one of the most influential new music critics in the US, writing brilliant reviews for the Village Voice of emerging “other minds” of the day such as Frederic Rzewski (OM 3), Pauline Oliveros (OM 8), La Monte Young (OM 3), Meredith Monk (OM 1), Philip Glass (OM 1), and Paul Dresher (OM 4).

These new music stalwarts will be joined by local talents Gyan Riley and Carla Kihlstedt, Bay Area ex-pat Lisa Bielawa, Switzerland’s radical minimalist Jürg Frey, Poland’s rising star, Pawel Mykietyn, and Natasha Barrett, an electroacoustic and acousmatic sound installation composer from Norway. Performers will include ROVA Saxophone Quartet, Quatuor Bozzini, the Del Sol String Quartet, and Eva-Maria Zimmermann (piano).

The January 2010 issue of Linux Journal is devoted to Ham Radio!

There’s a lot of software out there for amateur radio applications. But up to now most of it has been for Windows PCs. Which is strange, because amateur radio is really about doing things yourself, outside the box. For which Linux and the whole Open Source movement seems a natural. In fact, the lead article in the January issue of Linux Journal calls amateur radio the “first open source project”.

I just hope more ham radio software migrates over to Linux. I hate seeing some really exciting ham radio apps offered Windows-only. More and more apps are appearing for the Mac, which also seems more natural than Windows.

For example there are some really good apps for learning and exercising Morse Code. But most of the best are still on the PC/Windows. So I have to keep one system around with Win/XP just to run those apps. This is silly. I bet if the apps were written in Java they could run on any system.

Lets see more Linux apps out there.