Nats Safe at Home

I walked to the new National's Stadium in DC from the National Mall, and it was a nice 25 minute walk to a dream site for DC. It was a perfect way to start a new season, when hope for a great season in a renovated neighborhood is at its peak. Oh yes, I miss RFK with its history and its claim to be the first home that ended DC's baseball draught. But what is passed is past.

The new stadium is a cross between the new Phillies Stadium and the recent-retro Orioles Park, with more of the Phillies modern look. Announcer Jon Miller apparently called the Nats Stadium the "La Scala of ballparks," while the Washington Post architecture critic called it a "missed opportunity" and an utilitarian means of sucking money from fan's wallets. It is somewhere in the middle of those comments.

The bright new park with the huge TV hi-def screen/scoreboard was a perfect setting for the perfect ending to a game. A passed ball allowed the Braves to tie the game in the visitors' half of the ninth, and a walk-off home run for Ryan Zimmerman with two outs in the bottom half of the ninth won the game for the Nats. It was a magical scriptwriter's ending to the beginning of what hopes to be a magical season (but I know that all seasons open with that potential for magic).

Freekonimics

Last year, we discussed rock, royalties, and Radiohead's decision to give its new CD away for whatever people wanted to pay. The discussion was at the following address:

http://phivel.blogspot.com/2007/10/rockn-royalties.html

Paste Magazine also offered the pricing choice for a subscription to the magazine last year.

Now there's a thought-provoking cover article in Wired Magazine, by its editor Chris Anderson who covers the FREE Market. Anderson is also the author of The Long Tail, and will be producing a new book, FREE, next year. The article is, of course, free at the following address:

http://www.wired.com/print/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free

The magazine can also be read for free online.

But this is not an endorsement. Although we like the idea of free- (and not fee) bies, we would never endorse either free or non-free items.

Whatdoyakno?

In a newspaper article about a new book, The Age of American Unreason, by cultural critic Susan Jacoby, the author tells of a dinner conversation with a student who was about to graduate with honors from Michigan State University in 2006. After the author mentioned President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "fireside chats," the author watched as the student "looked absolutely blank" in response.

Is this par for the course?

The article goes to reach the following conclusion:

"A slew of new books, studies and films all tell a similar tale: Americans — especially young Americans — don't know much about much. Overfed on self-esteem, pop culture and digital entertainment, students are starved for genuine literary, historical, scientific and mathematical knowledge, critics say."

This complaint is nothing new. Down through the ages, adults have complained about the lack of knowledge of the youth of their times. But the charges seem more serious if not paradoxical now.

On the one hand, with the advent of the Internet, students of all ages, have every bit of knowledge known to "man/womankind" readily available, and know more. On the other hand, the bombardment of media of all types, including the Internet seems to lead to short attention spans, and less depth of knowledge. In certain respects students are given more challenging assignments, and courses are more advanced than ever before, on the other hand, many aspects of our modern life are being dumbed down. It will be interesting to see whether this knowledge gap winds up over the next few years.

Beach Music (Chesil that is)

"Chesil Beach" is a short novella about time in two parallel universes--in this case the world of the male and the world of the female struggling toward maturity in 1962, just before the world opened up to the freer sixties. The words on the page faithfully record a wedding night drama in almost real time, while lurching briefly back to the beginning of the relationship and forward through fifty or so years of life in just a flash of a few pages.

Two characters are stuck in time in a seaside resort beside a small eighteen mile strip of pebbles extending into the sea. Their story is part small part large, part trite part dire, part tender and part pathetic. In the short 200 pages, the author tackles topics of universal interest -- innocence and naiveté, confidence and self-delusion, desire and repression, opportunity lost or rejected -- and creates a small but complete universe around them.

The author, Ian McEwan keeps us on the edge of sympathy for each character, but stays with the male figure--even though it is female, Florence, that creates art as a tremulous lead violinist in a string quartet, while the male, Edward, only drifts through life being a rock record shop owner. The male starts as a ardent historian interested in writing short biographies of semi-obscure figures who lived close to the center of important historical events, but his ideas freeze when he confronts the bride he considers "frigid." The virginal and inexperienced male is demanding just a few years from the sexual revolution of the later sixties. The female is also virginal and inexperienced, but is closer to being non-sexual and pleads for time to adjust to the demands of her mate. But he cannot wait, and cannot find the words to communicate, and loses the love and the ambition of his life. Words fail both of them, and that's the book side of things.

Meanwhile, in the parallel universe of the CD version of the book, the beautiful narration by the author with his smooth British accent is a perfect fit for the words of the novel which have more of a reality coming through his voice. The narrated version creates a more vivid view of the distance between two selves, two subjective views of life: two who try to be “one,” and fail miserably.

Reading the book and hearing the CD at the same time, casts a huge spotlight on a small speck of time.

De-Bugged

After fighting off assorted Trojan Vundos, Downloaders, and pop-up ads, I am hoping to be back with more normal posts. It is a tough virtual world out there, but hopefully the worst is over. My XP was considered "unstable" and "open to attack," and Windows Security Pack 2 was summoned to the rescue (I hope). I am cautiously optimistic, but we will see.

Been Doing Some Hard Travelin'

Since my last posting, I have been to the northwestern part of Germany, to Amsterdam, and then back to the U.S.A. for a trip to Nashville. Each trip had a music and education connection. In Germany, I chaperoned a talented high school symphony orchestra rehearsing endlessly with their German gymnasium orchestra and then playing two challenging concerts very well. The concerts included pieces by Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, a tango, and some interesting vocal pieces by Vaughn Williams.

In Nashville, I attended an education conference, and one night went to the Grand Ol Opry, and the Country Music Hall of Fame. The sense of tradition at the Opry at the Ryman Auditorium with the traditional radio show, and the old and new artists was refreshing and very comfortable.

2008 Finds

Picking up from last year, a new discovery is Priscilla Ahn, with musical ties to Regina Spektor and Norah Jones (a little silkier than the smokey-voiced Norah) and a debut album on the way on Norah's label (of course), Blue Note. Her site on My Space lists a good "coolection" of influences--Ani DiFranco, Pink Floyd, Jack Kerouac, Neil Young, Syd Barrett, Jeff Buckley, the color yellow, Radiohead, Nick Drake, Sufjan Stevens, Andrew Bird, Ayrton Senna, Pinback, The Kinks, Sparklehorse, Juana Molina, love lost-love found. Another find is Kate Gaffney, a strong-voiced folkie from Philly. A third 'newie but a goodie' is Bodies of Waters, a rather joyous bunch from LA with influences from Polyphonic Spree to the Mamas and the Papas to Arcade Fire to Sufjan Stevens. The group lists many more as their influences, but also describe themselves as "abba meets the muppets."