The latest from Michael Wesch and Digital Ethnography

Brilliant "Anthropology of YouTube" explains a lot about how the whole "Web 2.0" thing works. Fun, fascinating, and instructive, it's worth the time it takes to watch (about 40 minutes).
Michael Wesch at Kansas State U. has created several wonderful videos with his students and collaborators, and his Digital Enthnography blog gives background and details about them.

Thanks for all the fish! and head over to Levy On TV for SYTYCD open thread

So long, BSYTYCD! You will be missed!
No idea if any of my readers will care, but since Ted at BSYTYCD has put the blog on hiatus, Nate Levy, the fastest recapper in the blogosphere has kindly opened a thread at Levy on TV on his blog for tonight's results show.

Thanks to Ted, Natalie, and Sue B for hosting their wonderful blog for most of this season. I wish you well, and will miss checking your blog compulsively every day for the updates, recaps, song lists, and great commentary fun.

Loren's fabulous chocolate cake recipe

For my mom, since making this cake is a birthday tradition, and today is her birthday!!




Colorado Cache cookbook's Chocolate Fudge Cake

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

3 squared of unsweetened chocolate
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/2 cup butter
2 1/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1 cup sour cream
1 cup boiling water

Melt the chocolate and let it cool. Sift flour, baking soda, salt together. Beat butter until soft. Add brown sugar and eggs, and beat until fluffy. Beat in vanilla and add cooled chocolate. Stir in the dry ingredients, alternating with sour cream, and beat with a wooden spoon. Stir in boiling water.

Pour into greased and floured 9" pans.
Bake 25 minutes or until it tests done with a toothpick, and cool on a rack 10 minutes.



Frost with the most decadent chocolate frosting you can find.

'The world as it is and the world as it should be'

Listen to this man. Think about the world as it could be.

After eight awful years, isn't it exciting to contemplate a leader who can complete a grammatical sentence, speak in full paragraphs, follow a train of thought that is his own, respond with reason and even humor to questions, explain his own ideas, frame problems-solving in terms of cooperation and collaboration?

Here are his remarks in France.
In London, in Berlin before a crowd of over 200,000 people.

Michelle Obama spoke to the DNC's Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council

ETA: a reminder of why McCain must be defeated!

Fun, yes, but funky?

Will Wingfield fans are so bummed that he will not be in the final six on SYTYCD. I loved the fact that he auditioned to a spoken word piece, and his dancing was marvelous on many occasions, especially in the pas de deux with Katee. I think he will continue to have great success in the dance world. But for me, he was not "the best dancer on the show ever" or my favorite. He seems like a lovely person, he dances incredibly well, but his performances as a partner were not as strong as some others. He's fast, but doesn't dig into the floor, especially in his jive (where I liked Gev better) and the samba (where I thought Josh had more of the samba motion). I just didn't get the funky vibe from him that I get from Twitch, whose partner dancing I find lacking, but whose Hollywood Swinging solo was all kinds of awesome.

With Will I appreciated more of the upward and outward vibe of a cerebral dancer.
That's why the Jame Brown solo was a big headscratcher for me.
Leee! Really? the arms!


Do they remind you of this?


or this?

Chronic Illness/ Wellness

The insurance company turned down my application for long-term care insurance because of pre-existing medical conditions, even though I disclosed them when I applied. I'm not sure if that is legal, but that's a subject for further research.

This is my meditation for today:

The UC Berkeley Wellness site says this:

What is "Wellness"?

Wellness is much more than simply the absence of sickness. It is optimal physical, mental, and emotional well-being, a preventive way of living that reduces—sometimes even eliminates—the need for remedies. Wellness emphasizes personal responsibility for making the life-style choices and self-care decisions that will improve the quality of your life. One crucial tenet is that preventing illness is even more important than treating it, especially since many chronic diseases are incurable.

Wellness is a positive, day-to-day approach to a long, healthful, active life. It includes both highly scientific and practical medicine—from the latest research and most advanced tests to reliable home remedies and common sense.

For me, wellness cannot be understood as the absence of sickness, because I have lived with the symptoms of two chronic illnesses -fibromyalgia and chronic depression--for most of my adult life. Cheri Register's book The Chronic Illness Experience: Embracing the Imperfect Life is the best book I know about the challenges of coming to recognize that these conditions will never go away, and that I must find ways to live well. I am fortunate that I am able to work (although not at the capacity I would like) and be physically active (although not always, and not always the way I'd wish), and that I am not now disabled.

For years, before I was correctly diagnosed (in my mid thirties) I was told there was nothing wrong with me (the implication being that it was all in my head) but I kept trying to "get better" because I was suffering. I believed, because I had been told by so many doctors, that all I needed to do was eat right, exercise, and have the right attitude, and I would be able to somehow achieve wellness, understood as the absence of disease. I also believed that if I was not successful at "getting better", it was because I was doing it wrong, or had character defects of some kind: I was a Type-A personality, a perfectionist, "too angry", the adult child of an alcoholic, hysterical, another one of those women. It turns out that research has shown that these are myths.

Correct diagnosis and a holistic treatment plan have made it possible for me to manage my symptoms better. The idea of wellness as a daily practice helps me think about my "chronic illness experience" as part of me, rather than something that has happened to me. I'm not through mourning the loss of the person I thought I was going to be, but I embrace my imperfect life.

"En una noche oscura"

Inspired by fresca's inclusion of the English translation of this very famous poem by San Juan de la Cruz, I went looking for the original and found this musical setting of the poem "En una noche oscura":

It took me a while to track down who is singing the arrangement of the poem in Spanish in this video. It turns out to be Amancio Prada, who has set many poems to music from Rosalia de Castro (in Galician), Lorca and San Juan. He first recorded San Juan's poetry in 1977. Here is the text of the poem in the original Spanish. One thing to notice is the that poetic voice (the "I") is feminine (el alma, the soul) and not masculine (San Juan).

Carlos Saura directed a film called La noche oscura in 1989, which is centered on one event in his life: as part of the Reform movement of the Carmelites, following the lead of Santa Teresa of Avila, San Juan was imprisoned by the Inquisition in Toledo and subjected to torture. It was during his confinement that he composed this poem. Saura says that the film is about the act of creation. Apparently, it was appreciated by a few, but not a success. I'll have to see if I can find it in Netflix.

Argentine Tango on SYTYCD + the real thing

Argentine Tango on SYTYCD has proven to be popular, (although most people don't know the difference between the AT and Ballroom Tango). This season, ballroom competitor Chelsie Hightower was paired with Mark Kanemura as the dancers were cut from 20 to 10. For many people, their Argentine Tango was a highlight. I loved the performance: Chelsie is an accomplished partner dancer who has never danced AT, while Mark is a talented dancer with a gift for projecting a character. Even though there are some moments where she breaks out of his hold, he is completely focused on her and their partnership throughout, so the illusion fits the character of the dance.

Once the show began to mix up the couples, Chelsie was paired with Josh for another Argentine Tango. Josh has his moments of feline movement, and the choreographers love to exploit his strength for lifts, but he doesn't have enough of a sense of the character of the dance to unify the pieces of his performance. Chelsie is better in this one because she is less ballroomy, but because Josh doesn't know how to lead, she isn't able to create the illusion of attentive following that is so key to this dance.


Here's my very favorite movie scene of a tango exhibition style, from Carlos Saura's film Tango. Here, the old pro is supposedly inviting a young woman to dance,lead and follow, although in fact this dance was choreographed for the film. Gorgeous.

But THIS is the the real thing: tango tal como se baila en Buenos Aires, in which the man is leading, and the woman is following, WITHOUT choreography, only through the connection and their incredible skill and musicality.

Shatner remix

Hi Fresca!
Shatner on Conan, aka "Shatner does Woo Woo!"

glumbert - William Shatner Goes Woo Woo

Now check out this "Shatner Woo remix"

Gilbert Price, Langston Hughes and more Nina Simone

Gilbert Price's voice was a revelation to those who heard him sing for the first time, from his earliest roles. An article in the Harvard Crimson of 1965 has so much more information about his life than the scanty Wikepedia entry: a young man who had a gift that opened doors for him, and an acclaimed performer who died much to young at the age of 48. Here's how a reviewer described him in one of his earliest theatrical performances:

The young male lead was listed in the program as Gilbert Price. When he appeared on stage, I saw a fellow of fairly small frame, strikingly handsome, with dark brown eyes, a winning smile and shining white teeth. But the moment he started to sing, I was hardly conscious of anything else except The Voice. From that modest physique issued a radiant stream of ravishing beauty and expresivity, which, when the occasion demanded, expanded to so enormous a size as to seem almost a physiological impossibility.

Gilbert Price sang in the acclaimed Langston Hughes musical production, co-directed with Alvin Ailey, called Jerico-Jim Crow. I haven't yet found a recording of Price singing "Oh Freedom" from the cast album, but it was a hit. When they say "Price became Langston Hughes protogé" it's unclear if that is code for lover, or not. There is still a fair amount of mystery shrounding the lives of writers who had to hide their sexuality, sometime even from themselves. Ampersand's biography of Hughes describes the relationship as a loving friendship between the older man and the talented boy. Certainly, there was a loving relationship between the two.

Price got his Broadway break in "The Roar of the Greasepaint..." where he stole the show with the song, "Feeling Good." He would go on to be nominated for four Tony awards for his roles in musicals. But it seems that in his later years, he disappeared from public view. Here is a rare clip from fan, of Price on TV singing "I've Gotta be Me"

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

More fabulous Nina:
Listen to her piano playing and the great arrangement of this swinging "Love me or Leave Me." What a great musician she was!
The animation for this video set to "My Baby Just Cares for Me" is sweet! One of my few ballroom routines was a West Coast Swing/Foxtrot to the first part of this song.

"Feeling Good"

On the SyTYCD Top 10 results show, Mia Michaels choreographed a number for the five women to a version of "Ave Maria" by Celine Dion, while Gev did his solo to a cover of the great standard "Feeling Good". He used the version by Michael Bublé, and lots of folks were wowed by how he meshed the b-boy moves with this song.

It's a song from a Broadway musical, originally sung by Gilbert Price in an arrangement that was like a spiritual. What an amazing voice he had! But when Nina Simone sang it, she gave it a jazzy swagger which has marked almost all versions since.

Oddly enough, I had just heard Simone's cover, which I have listened to endless times, a few days ago when I watched a clip of my favorite champion ice-skater Johnny Weir, debuting his new routine in Seoul, Korea. This video also has his performance of his crowd-pleasing "Ave Maria" showcase number. Cosmic convergence!I wonder if Gev, who comes from a family of professional figure-skating performers, was inspired in his song choice by Weir? It's not impossible since he's also a skater.


Here Nina Simone sings "Feelin' Good" with a wonderful visual someone created for a class!

Feeling Good, Nina Simone
by mrfnk

I don't mind Michale Bublé'sversion, and I quite like what Muse has done to the song. Apparently, Nescafé used their version without permission in a TV ad; they sued and won, and donated the money to Oxfam. And Celine Dion tried to name her Vegas show Muse, but they said No, they didn't want people to think of them as her back-up band.

The SYTYCD heartbreak begins.

Now that it's up to the vote of the viewing public and not the judges to cut the contestants, the results are much more unpredictable. In the bottom two for the men were Mark and Gev, two of my favorite dancers of the season. Gev might not have been best dancer all around in terms of technique, and I knew he wouldn't get to the top four, but he was the most entertaining for me, and the one who brought the "most improved" arc to the show. And I don't think any of the other dancers could do many of the moves he does. He danced his heart out every time. I'm going to miss seeing him on my TV! I hope he will be able to continue to grow as a dancer and a performer after the tour.

Someone who has made some incredible remixes of routines is buffmetube.Check out the remixes and montages for an example of fabulous editing. This remix of Gev and Courtney's rumba substituted a Portishead song for the R and B ballad "Wishing on a Star" used for the performance. The effect is amazing.


Here's Gev's farewell solo:


This is my second favorite solo by Gev, from the Top 14 show:


He missed a move in the beginning of this solo, but watch what he does with his shirt!:

Are we funny yet?

So, David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker magazine, mistakes himself for the T. Herman Zweibel, the "editor" of The Onion, and all hell breaks loose. "Can't people take a joke?" ask some. "What was he thinking?" ask others. "It's supposed to be satire!" cries the New Yorker.

But satire only works when it is a successful collaboration between the satirist and the audience, and if it is poorly done, it fails. What is the object of satire in the now infamous Obama cover? It isn't clear: is it Obama himself? the right wing that makes up lies about him and his wife? the media that perpetuates those racist, anti-Muslim, hateful stereotypes about him and his wife? or the "ignorant-bumpkins-who-don't-read-the-New-Yorker-and-actually-believe-that-stuff"? This image, appearing as it does at this time, really upset a lot of people, for very good reasons. It is a good example of an attempt at satire that failed, like a firecracker that fizzles (or, to use J.L. Austin's terminology about illocutionary speech acts, it is neither true nor false, it is "infelicitous.") Whether humor works depends on the audience, not the intentions or even the performance of the humorist.
(Want a more technical explanation of how that works? Go here.)

I think the folks over at Culture Kitchen get it absolutely right when they call the New Yorker's Obama cover an example of "Hipster bigotry."

The current master of political satire in the U.S., Jon Stewart, weighs in: "Come ON folks, repeating unsubstantiated claims and perpetuating stereotypes is the job of TELEVISION NEWS, not something for smartypants magazines!"


Now here's a satirical piece that really works for me!

How to advertise online without making people watch your commercials

It's all about content. Find out what people want to watch or read, give it to them, and they will come.
There are only three of them, but they are the most brilliant cartoons about living with a cat that I've seen. They've also generated millions of views on YouTube, and when they are picked up by megatraffic sites like Cute Overload, we are thrilled to find them. Simon's Cat has his own YouTube channel where you can see the other two cat cartoons. There's not much on the channel: "Official home of the 'Simon's Cat' films from Tandem director Simon Tofield." As far as I can tell, Simon's cat is a great mode of advertising for the Tandem website, although I wonder how many cat cartoon viewers actually click over on the site link in the profile to see what Tandem is all about, watch the ads they make, read about the company. Maybe industry people, who are probably the principal target market? He's left bait in the form of a fourth video just called Tandem logo. When you click on it, that is all you see: the logo.

Maybe Chris Matyszczyk, over at Pond Culture, could explain it to us; he seems to have created the blog Pond Culture as an experiment: make a blog with the plainest of templates, no archives, no links to other posts, blog about some of the most highly trafficked stories of the day and provide only wordpress tags to generate traffic. Monitor the site to see who comes there and why. If they bother to click on the profile, they can find the URL of his other website, but it is not hotlinked. So part of the experiment seems to be seeing who actually goes to the trouble to venture over to his other sites which is embedded in complete connectivity. Oh, and he writes witty and dryly entertaining posts about being a European living in the SF Bay Area and what the view is like for us pond dwellers as we look up at the antics of the mass media, the advertisers, the politicians, and the sports franchises as they market, sell, and promote. I found his site through a link on BSYTYCD, but found it funny enough to read my way back through the blog even though he provides absolutely no archive or category shortcuts (that would compromise the purity of the experiment, as would external links).

But I digress: here's the latest from my cat's alter ego on the internet, Simon's Cat 'TV Dinner'. It is not an exact reproduction of Leo's behavior: Leo's voice is much louder and more annoying; Leo claws at the bed just out of reach rather than the sofa to get me to get up to feed him; Leo jumps up on the TV tray table in order to knock my electronic devices out of reach; we don't have a remote, but I'm sure he could work it if we did. He does steal your spot as soon as you get up, get all in your face while you are using a laptop, yowl relentlessly for food (or toy activity) while you are trying to watch TV, and do that thing with his claws when he does get on my lap.

Doo-wop lullabies

Zaragoza is seven hours ahead of us here in the Midwest, so when we iChat, my daughter is usually about to go to bed.
I used to sing her to sleep every night, with songs I remembered my mother singing to me, and any song I could remember: old Joan Baez, tenor arias my old boyfriend used to sing in the shower, Raffi. For a while, at least, she thought I was the greatest singer ever!

Today in Cute Overload, Meg posted this hilarious video of a man singing his puppies to sleep. What makes it especially sweet to me is the song; in high school I dated a guy who was the lead singer in a Sha Na Na cover band (yes, a cover band of a nostalgia doo-wop cover band, but they were fun!)

Here is the puppy lullaby:


The original version was by The Spaniels! They were a doo-wop band in the fifties that got ripped off like so many other black musicians. One of the singers from Sha Na Na has been working to make sure that the old groups don't continue to get ripped off by groups passing themselves off as the originals.

Get This Party Started X 3

I went to see a friend who performs at the Townhouse Bar in a drag revue called Pumps and Pearls. The MC, Lily White, did a number to the song "Get The Party Started," written by singer, musician,songwriter and producer extraordinaire, Linda Perry, and made a huge hit by Pink on her second album in 2001, but this version was sung by Dame Shirley Bassey! (You know, "Goooolllldfingaaaahhhh!"). She has just come out with a new CD, at age 71, and her cover of this song is fabulous!
Here's a live version by Pink who performs l some incredibly daring aerial moves on Chinese silks with her dancers:

Here is the Welsh Diva, Dame Shirley Bassey, consummate vocal artiste, giving it her own spin:

and here is local favorite Esme Rodriguez doing Shirley doing Pink at the Bryant Lake Bowl:

Dance inspiration from the summer dance shows

My summer addiction is now So You Think You Can Dance AND America's Best Dance Crew. Since I dont' get MTV I'm really glad the ABDC show provides complete episodes on its website. I'm getting a hip hop education, and a kind commenter provided me with a link to an incredible hip hop dance documentary called The Freshest Kids, that puts hip hop dance into historical perspective.

Quick SYTYCD round-up: We now have the top ten dancers out of the twenty contestants. They are Mark and Chelsie, Joshua and Katee, Twitch and Kherrington, Will and Jessica. I'm very happy with this group, although there were some talented and entertaining dacers among those who were cut. The top ten are the dancers who will go on tour after the winner is announced. Since this show is a reality show, and really is "America's favorite dancer" and not necessarily "the best dancer of the bunch," the show relies on a combination of truly entertaining and sometimes even brilliant dancing, and the manufactured narratives that pit the audience against the Judges: are the critiques really about the judges expertise, or are they (also) trying to influence fans with more crass, commercial motives? Half the fun for some viewers seems to be arguing about conspiracy theories, while the other half involves the pleasures of the dance itself, the attractive contestants and the possibility of sharing the love with other fans.
Here's Gev's solo:

Here's Will's solo

Josh and Katee's contemporary:



After dancing with the same partner for the last several weeks, now the dancers will be paired with different partners, and have a chance to show us what they can do with new partnerships in the various styles. The voting will now be viewers only ("Americker") and not the judges, so there is a different dynamic, more about the individuals and less about the couples.

For some of the best recaps--creative, funny, smart, snarky-- I've been following Leee! over at Television! You Black Emperor, Matt at Ranting Details (he's a dancer and a whiz with Photoshop), BeckyLooo at If a TV Falls in the Woods (also a dancer), the threads at TWoP, and, of course, the great crew of Ted, Natalie and SueB over at BloggingSYTYCD, who kindly provide a roundup of news, videos, and live open threads during performances. It's fun to get different perspectives on the performances, especially from those with dance background. I really appreciate their recaps and song lists as well.

Now that my shoulders have healed enough so that I can get back to dancing myself, I have rejoined the Y, started taking stretch classes and will work my way up to going back dancing. I don't want to jump right in, because I am so out of shape that if I overdo it right away, it will through me into a fibromyalgia flare-up, so I figure I'll see how I do after a couple of weeks with dance stretch and water aerobic cardio. Then I'm going to make the rounds: cajun/zydeco at the Half Time Rec on Sundays, salsa at Babalu, late night Swing over at Tapestry on Thursday where I am sure to find the lindy hoppers, and some ballroom studio parties where I can get back in the swing of my favorite dances.

"Best" Quixote translation?

My mother is reading Don Quixote in English with one of her reading groups, and asked me what I knew about different translations. I had to reply that I knew nothing, as I had read it in Spanish, and had never had the occasion to think about "the best translation" before. I started poking around (hey, the Wikipedia entry is good!)and after looking at some scholarly and not-so-scholarly discussions of the history and quality of the very many English translations, I decided that the one her group is reading (the Edith Grossman translation with Alan Bloom's introduction) is probably, in fact, the best for their purposes; it is not a scholarly edition with footnotes explaining every proverb and reference and arguing with past translators' versions, but it is a accurate, and most importantly, a lively and FAITHFUL translation that captures the tone and spirit of the work. Here is what Edith Grossman herself says about translating literary texts (she has translated many Latin America authors, including Gabriel García Márquez):

Fidelity is surely our highest aim, but a translation is not made with tracing paper. It is an act of critical interpretation. Let me insist on the obvious: Languages trail immense, individual histories behind them, and no two languages, with all their accretions of tradition and culture, ever dovetail perfectly. They can be linked by translation, as a photograph can link movement and stasis, but it is disingenuous to assume that either translation or photography, or acting for that matter, are representational in any narrow sense of the term. Fidelity is our noble purpose, but it does not have much, if anything, to do with what is called literal meaning. A translation can be faithful to tone and intention, to meaning. It can rarely be faithful to words or syntax, for these are peculiar to specific languages and are not transferable.

Why a new translation, when several were made right after its publication? Well, because English has changed a lot in 400 years, and Cervantes is, above all, a modern writer, and reading the original is an experience of great pleasure.
Without having looked at any of the texts myself it seems to me as if Grossman has done two important things: rendered the text in English that is colloquial and accessible, and captured the tone and multiples voices of Cervantes' text. Many people also had great praise for the audiobook read by Guidall.
Wikimedia has a lot of images of Don Quixote including the wonderful series of illustratioins by Gustave Doré.

Here's an interview with Edith Grossman
on translating Cervantes.

welsh welsh James Bond welsh welsh

Three Welshmen on the loose in "Los Angelees"

Like Richard Burton, who grew up in a Welsh-speaking household, actors Ioan Gruffuth and Matthew Rhys are bi-lingual Welsh/English speakers.

Wordle makes your text into a word cloud!

Jonathan Fineburg has created a lovely thing called Wordle. It allows you to make word-clouds out of any text and play around with fonts and colors. You can then post your creation to a gallery. The site's gallery makes these images available to anyone. As you can see if you browse the gallery, one need not choose a poem as a text; you can paste in any text, or write one of your own. Repeated words are bigger. Certain very common words (the, etc) are blocked.

I made one of the poem "Wild Things" by Emily Dickenson. You can paste in the code to embed it in your blogpost, like this. Click on this small image, and it will take you to the Wordle Gallery: Check it out!
Or, I can "print" it by saving it as a PDF, then use Grab to select the image in the pf and make a screen capture. This saves it as a TIFF file, but I can resave it as a JPEG then upload it as a picture, as you see below. Fineburg says that these images can be used for anything, fun, printing on T-shirts, making money, whatever.



OK, now I've realized that when I have created my little Worlde image, that I can click "print", then select PDF from the printer menu, and then choose to save the PDF to iPhoto and it will make a picture. No need to go through the screen grab method. (NB: the FAQ gives alternate instructions for PCs)
Wordle handles multiple languages as well. Here's another Worlde I made with César Vallejo's poem "Masa." This time, instead of generating the format by hitting the "randomize button" a bunch of times, I selected "edit,", then chose the font, colors and a few other features. Because I didn't save it to the gallery, it's not there. Why don't you try making one?

Domo arigato, Mr. Bento

K and I went to see Wall-E today and ate at Obento-Ya on Como after. Their backyard garden seating is lovely, and we enjoyed our bento dinners.
I have long been considering buying a bento box for lunches, but there are so many choices! K told me she bought a Mr. Bento lunch carrier at an Asian grocery store on Snelling. It's four containers are microwavable and also insulated to keep things hot or cold. I need to get me one!

Listening to Bach's Goldberg Variations over the years

I took piano lessons when I was younger, but was lazy about practicing. As we moved a lot, I had a number of different teachers. The last one was sour and mean and would hit me on the head with a pencil when I made a mistake. Needless to say, I quit!--It would take me a few decades to learn how to have a different reaction to such behaviors, but that's another story. I picked up playing again briefly in college when I was singing in the University Chorus. The worst grade I ever got was the C+ in the "Theory for non-majors" class I took from Professor Swackhammer during the summer; I may not have done very well in my little compositions working out figured base lines, but I loved the concepts. Because everything I composed probably sounded like the Scarlatti pieces I had learned, the professor didn't give me a good grade, but I learned what it was like to be considered "adequate but not excellent" in a subject.

I didn't play the piano again until last year, when I took some lessons with my wonderful teacher, Max. For the first time a piano teacher treated me with respect and taught me the rudiments of theory. It was marvelous, but when I started having the pain that announced my rotator cuff problems I had to stop. Now that I'm on the other side of that year and a half of physcial therapy, I'm going to start practicing again.

So, in anticipation, I downloaded this recording by Simone Dinnerstein of the Goldberg Variations by Bach. This wonderful review by Evan Eisenberg in Salon, puts her recording in context: the long shadow of Glen Gould, the evolving relationship of public to live performances and recording, the mythical origin story of the variations (that they were written to be played for a nobleman who had insomnia).
This video has an interview with her


Of course, there will be arguments about playing harpsichord music on a piano, about which interpretation is truer to the spirit of Bach, but I'm not a purist; I'm that enthusiastic C+ student who is enchanted by music.

I'm sure that if there was a recording of the Goldberg variations in our house when I was growing up, it was Gould's 1955 record, so my ear was formed by his first recorded performance. This video presents Gould's 1955 recording and his 1981 re-recording of the first aria that begins the variations, so that one can compare how the same artist changed his interpretation. There is an fantastic interview at the end of the clip in which Gould talks about the experience of re-recording the piece, how he went from the "speed demon" virtuosity of his younger self to the deliberateness of the later version.

Here, for comparison, is Dinnerstein playing the same aria. This video is part of a film project on Bach by Michael Lawrence. I love how he has filmed her hands while she is playing.

Llama time!

Loren, this one's for you! A classic Sesame Street clip about a girl with a llama. Via Eda Cherry at Your Dress Would Look Better On Me

Page 123 meme

Here's how this meme works:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the 5th sentence.
4. Post the next 5 sentences.
5. Tag 5 people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

I was tagged by Gugeo. The book sitting on the top of the pile is Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, which I have never read and must read.

"He struggled violently. "Let me go,' he cried;'monster! ugly wretch! You wish to eat me, and tear me to pieces. You are an ogre--Let me go, or I will tell my papa.'
"Boy, you will never see your father again, you must come with me."

Anybody want to play?

Remedies for earworms

A while back I poked around on the topic of "the phonological loop" and earworms, those songs you get stuck in your head.

The good folks at RadioLab polled their listeners about their earworm, and their remedies for earworms, and came up with this fun post, with a podcast of both the songs and the remedies their readers suggested. One of the remedies is to listen to the song all the way through to the end. Another is to deliberately think of a "cleansing song." One that was suggested was The Girl from Ipanema. Another was James Brown's Sex Machine. Go figure.

Lately the songs that have been trotting around in my head are the ones used for the SYTYCD routines, because I've been watching the videos. As usual, I only remember the first line or so, and it gets stuck on repeat. Today's earworm is "Stop and Stare" by One Republic. It was the audition song for one dancer and the solo for another (who got cut). I guess I'll have to listen to it all the way through so I can stop walking around singing "stop and stare" over and over again.