It's an often-framed theme: given the opportunity to enjoy just ten recordings through which to enjoy many countless hours waiting for salvation from a deserted island, which ones would you choose from your collection?
There's a spot in the American movie National Lampoon European Vacation starring Chevy Chase where they go to a French bistro near the Eiffel Tower, and the food served is actually re-heated TV dinners.
While I recently visited France, I once again took it upon myself to shop for some music, something I've always enjoyed doing.
I had some time this morning, a Saturday, alone. I have a project I've been plugging away at, but I have a hard time staying motivated. Suddenly, having that space of time to devote to it made the process inviting.
I found this article on NPR Music to be of interest, questioning if we can learn to love music that we (at first) hate. It makes perfect sense to me.
I am still getting through to appreciate the Glenn Gould Bach edition. This morning's listen includes the first half of the French Suites, which I note were recorded in 1973.
I was a big fan of the ABC show Lost, which just ended back in 2010. It had a good 6-year run, as a new type of epic television show. At the time, I claimed it was the best thing ever that happened on television.
With the new year, comes a new project. I'm giving myself just one year to build this; if it never takes off, that's fine. It will be a learning experience.
Christmas/New Year's this year was a holiday season of compromises. I participated in two gift-opening sessions, one at home (above) and the second visiting my parents in Orlando.
I have enjoyed for a number of years Glenn Gould's 1981 recording of BWV 988, his last. But I actually had the recording courtesy of a former public library, from which I copied it.
Speaking on matters of taste and preference, without any pedigree in such academic subjects, might be a risky proposition for someone such as myself.
I just watched this film via Netflix; I was in New York City last fall when it just come out. We had several choices to make at an art film house, and we chose Mr. Lazar instead, which I enjoyed.
This July, I visited Cambridge, MA for a conference at the MIT Media Lab. There was an experience there that has stayed with me, since visiting.
Accees this image here, courtesy of bexross on Flickr. Recently, I've been in a constant cycle of losing things.
Probably what was most surprising to me during my recent visit to Paris was captured my last evening there, as it warm, and I strolled along the banks of the Seine, from above, from the Île Saint Louis to the Île de Cité.
I had a great time in London for the Lufthansa Baroque Festival. I then traveled to Paris. For those interested, photos are available here via Flickr.
I recently pulled several iPods out from my closet. The two I started charging were those above (I scanned them on my flatbed scanner, and I included one of the backs in the collage above).
It's worth viewing this one full size to appreciate the detail.
Tilt-shift is a type of lens which can be used to mimic a psychological effect when looking at photos; in this case, I used Snapseed to add a digital effect.
One of my goals this time to NY was to visit more than one Apple Store. I brought my Canon with me to the Grand Central Station to capture Apple's newest store, the one seen above.
Close to the Eataly food emporium and Monroe Square Park stands one of New York's iconic buildings, the Flatiron. I captured this one with the Sigma wide-angle and the lens flare is natural.
Perhaps one of the iconic images we have of NYC at Christmastime is skaters under a light snow at Rockefeller Center. No snow, and way too many people.
This photo lacks the depth and detail of the other shots; it too was (heavily) edited in Snapseed. But the remarkable thing is that the original photo was not taken with the 5D, but with the iPhone 4S.
Macy's -- didn't see it in person -- but captured this shot from the Empire State Building using the 400mm (full zoom) setting of the new lens. The perception of detail is pretty good; I did some mild editing in Snapseed.
One of my best NYC eating memories was here, at Joe's Shanghai, home of where many people consider the best place to find Chinese "soupy" dumplings.
I hope you forgive me in sharing some of my favorite photos from my trip to New York. For Christmas, I received a new lens, and I really enjoyed seeing a lot of different things in the city, many ripe for photographing.
I visited New York on a whim over Christmas. We chose excellent weather (it didn't rain, despite the forecast until this afternoon, when we had already left). And I captured this shot on top of the Empire State Building.
On January 15, 1993, I sent this letter to my friend in college; he was in Ohio, and I was in Rochester, NY. He sent me copies of almost every letter I sent him last year, and I am now just getting around to reviewing…
I visited three cities during this past week's travels to Canada. First, we flew into Burlington, VT, which I think is a nice little town.
What has become one of my favorite meals is roast chicken, following a recipe by Thomas Keller, chef of several well-known restaurants, including Per Se in New York, and The French Laundry in California.
As part of my regular regimen of self-torture (where I peruse things online I cannot have, usually because of cost), I re-visited the Bach Leipzig Festival website, and found their booklet for this year's event.
This past weekend I visited the grounds of what's called Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC, up the hill a bit along Wisconsin Avenue. This estate is owned by Harvard University and the grounds are beautiful.
Over the past month, I've purchased a couple "complete sets" of music, as I'm often inspired by Mr. McElhearn writing about his boxed sets, although, I am not sure I like Liszt enough to own his complete piano works.
The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D. C. is a pain to get to... it's far from the mall, and the path isn't so well marked on getting there.
You can buy all of Bach's cantatas, as some enterprising conductors have set to do just that, record them all! There was Harnoncourt, then Koopman, among others...
Great chamber ensemble from the San Francisco area in California. Among all their videos online, I liked this one the best.
One of my small pleasures I sometimes have the opportunity to engage in is a Saturday visit to the local library. I really like the Tuckahoe library near us, it's not the closest one in my county, but it's 2 stories.
I am always intrigued by the sounds I hear when I have had the opportunity to travel to foreign places. And by foreign, I mean outside the U.S.
There are little stories behind some of the photos I took recently on my trip to Paris. This one was taken right after we walked around the back of the Sacre Coeur, a peaceful place.
This video featuring the work by Bertali, performed by Christina Pluhar and her L'Arpgeggiata is clearly demonstrating two distinct types of virtuosity: technical virtuosity and emotional virtuosity.
