Dancing with the Stars

Last saturday 7th, boxer-crooner-congressman Manny "Pacman" Paquiao faced "Sugar" Shane Mosley in defense of his world welter weight title for a guaranteed 20 million purse.
Although Mosley is a widely recognized bona fide boxing champ he entered the ring as a 5-1 underdog. Still, he had declared before the fight that he considered those figures an insult and that his power would neutralize the Filipino warrior.
Mosley looked tentative in the first two rounds and in the third, a straight left bomb sent him (and his heart and soul) to the canvas. You could see the dazzled look in his eyes. After the knockdown he turned into a defensive fighter. He ditched boxing and changed his sport to running and backpedaling. He became unwilling to engage and appeared interested only in survival.
In the end, the scorecards read 119-108 / 120-108 / 120-107 All by unanimous decision in favor of Mr. Paquiao. Another one bites the dust.

                                                 No mas!

Mr. Summers, Pickering’s harem and the Harvard Computers

Back in January 2005, Mr. Lawrence H. Summers, then president of Harvard University sparked an uproar at an economics conference when he said that “innate” differences between men and women might be one reason that female scientists are under-represented at elite universities. It is inconceivable that such a foolish statement could be uttered by such a prominent individual. I will call this remark by its proper names: prejudice and ignorance. Both are very much alive in the 21^st century. Apparently this eminent dullard didn’t know about the exceptionally brilliant women scientists that contributed to enhance Harvard’s illustrious name.

Back in the late 1800’s, Mr. Charles Edward Pickering, Director of the Harvard Observatory hired a group of ladies to process astronomical data and replaced his inept male assistants. Williamina Fleming (1857-1911) started as Pickering’s maid but working at the observatory she devised a system of star classification. And in time she discovered additional nebulae and stars.  She accomplished an honorary membership at the Royal Astronomical Society in London.  Annie Jump Cannon (1863-1941) was a physics graduate from Wellesley College and at the Harvard Observatory she developed a classification system with the letters O. B, A, F, G, K and M. Astronomers learn the sequence with the mnemonic “Oh, Be a Fine Girl, Kiss Me.” Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1862-1921), a graduate from Radcliff College, was at first assigned to count images on photographic plates but went on to discover the period-luminosity relationship of Cepheid variables. This breakthrough allowed astronomers to measure galactic distances and changed forever our conception of the universe. And finally, Antonia Maury (1866-1952) educated at Vassar College, indexed spectra of over 500,000 stars, published a catalog of classifications and completed work on the spectroscopic analysis of the binary star Beta Lyrae.

These bright ladies were chauvinistically known as “Pickering’s Harem” or the “Harvard Computers”.

Mr. Summers should be made to write on an immeasurable blackboard ALL these compilations in Victorian handwriting. Maybe then he will see the light.

                                          The Harvard Computers

Night and Day

San Francisco at night can be a city of multiple contrasts. On Friday April 15^th, I was fortunate to attend a jazz performance at the Herbst theatre across City Hall on Van Ness Avenue. Munich native Barbara Dennerlein opened the extravaganza on the Hammond B-3 organ. Her talent was evident as she maneuvered with precision, grace, power and dexterous footwork through her original compositions. She was followed by wily veteran Dr. Lonnie Smith who dazzled the audience with his ultra-modern kaleidoscopic and chromatic harmonies.  I had the good fortune to meet personally fraülein Barbara and purchased one of her autographed CD’s.

After the concert I headed to famous City Lights Bookstore. Considered a landmark of insurgent thinking and anti authoritarian politics it was, back in the fifties, the epicenter of the beatnik movement. Alas! When I arrived it had already closed so I resolved to explore the surrounding territory. The corners of Broadway and Columbus are surrounded by an eclectic variety of businesses. At a glance you can spot Chinese eatery “New Sun Hong Kong”, a branch of Wells Fargo bank, “Tutti Melon”, “Nizario’s” Pizza, “Big Al’s” adult bookstore and the “Condor Club” topless a go go. Throngs of revelers filled the sidewalks and in a period of about an hour I saw drunks, beggars, glittering stilettos and furtive eyes.

Santa Cruz by day can be a delightful experience. I walked through the hilly meadows of  U.C.S C’s campus and the winding paths among the tall redwoods. And then I biked downhill at breathtaking speed. In the afternoon I went to Steamers Lane and Pleasure Point and saw die-hard surfers riding deep blue, frigid and kelp saturated waves.

It was nice experiencing night and day in the northern lands with my son. Only I wished I could have shared these experiences with my dear wife.

Maybe next time. Here’s a song for you darling….

Columbus & Broadway

The Condor Club

Dark Alley

Pleasure Point

Santa Cruz Harbor

U.C.S.C  Meadows

Der Erlkönig

A few days ago I purchased a 4 CD pack at the school library for .50 cents. As I played the third CD, I came upon a piano piece that caught my attention. It is called “Der Erlkönig” which means “The Erl King”. It was written by Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828) in 1815. After some research I found out that Schubert’s piece was called a “Lieder” which is a musical arrangement for a single singer and a piano. Schubert’s piece is based on a poem by German writer and polymath Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832). The poem describes the tragic account of a child’s death as his father carries him on a galloping horse.  The child is delirious and hallucinates imaginary beings. The Erlkönig represents the grim reaper.

What caught my attention was the fast playing of repeated chords, which corresponds to the galloping horse. This technique is extremely challenging and it is played by Gerald Moore. The voice belongs to baritone Dieter Fischer-Dieskau and it complements perfectly the intended lieder’s tone. 

The Erl King

Who rides, so late, through night and wind?
It is the father with his child.
He has the boy well in his arm
He holds him safely, he keeps him warm.

"My son, why do you hide your face so anxiously?"
"Father, do you not see the Erl king?
The Erl king with crown and tail?"
"My son, it's a wisp of fog."

"You lovely child, come, go with me!
Many a beautiful game I'll play with you;
Many colourful flowers are on the shore,
My mother has many golden robes."

"My father, my father, and don't you hear
What Erl king is quietly promising me?"
"Be calm, stay calm, my child;
The wind is rustling through withered leaves."

"Do you want to come with me, dear boy?
My daughters shall wait on you fine;
My daughters will lead the nightly dance,
And rock and dance and sing you to sleep."

"My father, my father, and don't you see there
Erl king's daughters in the gloomy place?"
"My son, my son, I see it clearly:
The old willows they shimmer so grey."

"I love you, your beautiful form entices me;
And if you're not willing, I shall use force."
"My father, my father, he's grabbing me now!
Erl king has done me some harm!"

The father shudders; he swiftly rides on,
He holds the moaning child in his arms,
is hardly able to reach the farm;
In his arms, the child was dead.

 This video shows a performance by Russian master pianist Evgeny Kissin (1971- ) without voice accompaniment. Illustration by Alarie Tano (Simon Schmidt).

Oh Barbara!

Über fräulein Barbara Dennerlein was born in Munich in 1964. She began playing the organ at age 11, and at 15 she was already performing at Jazz clubs. Known as “the organ tornado from Munich” she soon became a leading organ virtuoso. Her compositions range from blues to ballads and includes jazz, swing, bebop funk and Latin rythms.

Her unique style combines furiously fast pedalboard footwork, frequent changes in meter and creative use of the Hammond B 3 with samplers and synthesizers. She will be performing in Santa Cruz, California at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center on April 14 at 7 pm; and at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco the following night.  

Here is a sample of her virtuosity:

Fatal Attraction

On Wednesday March 16th, Sion Milosky a 35 year old big wave rider from Hawaii, drowned at "Mavericks".  The infamous break is located on Half Moon Bay, a few miles north of Santa Cruz, California.
He was last seen by Chris Killen, a surf filmaker who captured Milosky's last wave. After he paddled on to a 50 foot behemoth with a smile, he was able to negotiate the steep drop but had to straighten up as the mountain of white water engulfed him. He was riding an 11 foot board and Killen could only see 3 or 4 feet of the board out of the water, as it tensioned its leash and drove him deep underwater.  The next giant wave broke directly on the board. With 50 ft waves repeatedly holding you down, there's no chance of survival. Milosky's body was found 20 minutes later by Nathan Fletcher. He was transported to Seton Coastside Hospital in Moss Beach and pronounced dead at 7:46 pm.
Shane Dorian, another Pro surfer from Hawaii also had a close call last year. And Mark Foo, a well known pro, drowned a few years ago. Anyone who surfs Mavericks has to accept the fact that they might get badly injured or killed. Because, even though there are ski patrols, there's a limitation to what they can do. Realistically you are out there by yourself and you will have to deal with such situations on your own. Here's a short video tribute by Jeff Flindt:

Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, Pataphysics and Alfred Jarry

“Joan was quizzical studied pataphysical

                                               Science in the home

                                               Late night all alone with a test tube,

                                               Oh oh, oh oh…………………”

Pataphysics is a French absurdist concept. It is a pseudo philosophy that pretended to probe beyond metaphysics. The Beatles mentioned the word “pataphysical” in their 1969 song “Maxwell Silver Hammer” from Abbey Road.   Pataphysics as Alfred Jarry defined it was a science of imaginary solutions, mixing science, science fiction, technology and art.

Alfred Jarry (1873-1907) was a French writer born in Laval, Mayenne. At the age of 15 he had written Ubu Roi in collaboration with a classmate at the Lycee de Rennes to ridicule a pompous mathematics teacher. The coarseness of the language and anarchistic tones shocked even W.B. Yeats who attended its opening night on December 10, 1896 at the theatre de L’Oeuvre.

Jarry quickly drifted into a chaotic bohemian life. “We won’t have destroyed anything unless we destroy the ruins too”, was his program. He was a midget, had a taste for absinthe and lived in a bizarre apartment. Gide wrote of him: “his face was dusted with flour, he had a mechanical speech without intonation, the syllables were even spaced and his words were made up or distorted”. He even spoke in a high falsetto. Jarry died of alcoholism and tuberculosis at age 34 in Paris. He was a predecessor of the theater of the absurd and his writings had a profound influence on the Surrealist and Dada movements.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTNIqJE80nQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTNIqJE80nQ