Hand of Yahweh

Next time you need to have some humility instilled in you simply watch this video of THIRTEEN year old Itzhak Perlman play a difficult Mendelssohn concert.

His fingers move so effortlessly… that is true virtuosity.

 

Music and Noise

I think I was born at the wrong time.  It seems like all the doable great deeds that have needed doing have already been done.  All that’s left now is the insane complicated and the stuff that no one is really interested in.

 I find this even reflected in music.  Ever since the 80s music has really gone to shit.  People have adopted this Rococo post-modernist approach of not actually making sense in the liberal arts department.  It seems that there’s two sides today in the composition world, with a few notable exceptions like John Williams and Hans Zimmer.  There’s a bunch of post-modernist noise embraced for it being different and then there’s pop trash which took all the knowledge of music accumulated over the years and now uses it as a template to pump out top 40 hits.

That’s why I’ll stick to the Little Fugue in g minor by Bach.  Vivaldi is amazing with sequences. Felix Mendelssohn’s concerto in e minor.  The cadenza is AMAZING, the first person is better, but you must go to around 7 min to hear it. There’s so much good music out there, why listen to the crap noise that comes out now? 

Itzhak Perlman will make you cry. Here’s one of my favorite pieces to play on the Viola (except I don’t sound anywhere close to this).  Handel-Halvorssen Passacaglia in D major.

Michelangelo Batio will give you an orgasm with his playing.  Check out his song no boundaries song pay attention to crazy shit at 1:53 and the sequence that will make you horny around 2:10. 

Even Guns n’ Roses gave us quite possibly the greatest ballad of all time: November Rain.

but darling when I hold you don’t you know I feel the same? Nothing last’s forever and we both know hearts can change…. and it’s hard to hold a candle in the cold November Rain.

The only two songs that have a chance at challenging said supremacy? Lynard Skynard’s Free Bird

If I leave you here tommorow, would you still remember me? I must be traveling on now, because there’s too many places I’ve got to see.  If I stay here with you girl… things just couldn’t be the same, because I’m as free as a bird now and this bird you cannot change. 

Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody

I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy, because I’m easy come, easy go… little high, little low.  Anyway the wind blows doesn’t really matter to me.  Mama…. just killed a man, put a gun against his head. Pulled my trigger and now he’s dead.  Life had just begun, but now I’ve gone and thrown it all away.

Those are songs that have stood the test of time. 

Now, I’m not closed mind against new music.  I have grown to respect Eminem as an artist and have even begun to appreciate the emo melodrama that is My Chemical Romance, especially in their music video for Helena. MCR’s use of imagery, symbolism, and color is quite impressive in my opinion.

I enjoy pop for what it is, music designed from chord progression that are scientifically known to be pleasant (V-I).

If you’ve been paying attention to my music choices, you’ve probably pegged me as a hopeless Romantic… and you’d be right!

Santana

I just went back and listened to some of his older work.  Toussaint L’Ouverture, No One To Depend On, and Oye Como Va to name just a few.   All I have to say is that music is the perfect groove music.  No need for house or epileptic seizure causing electronica.  Pop in an old santana mix CD and the day at the office writing code just flies on by.

In other news, I’ve decided and already informed my girlfriend that I’m only going to continue dating her into I find something better and she has until then to convince me that I should continue dating her.  As expected she thought I was joking, gave a token apology, then pretty much continued as before.

On a positive note, I’m going to North Carolina in two weeks to visit one of the most amazing girls I’ve ever met.  She’s doing her P & O residency at the UNC hospital @ Chapel Hill.   Up until her, I had never met a girl I could trust.  She has more integrity, intelligence, and honesty then most of my male friends.  I cannot overstate how much I respect her.

The US needs more women like her.