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Jan 25

Bernard Greenhouse’s Stradivarius Cello Sells for More Than $6 Million

Unless you’re Itzhak Perlman or Yo-Yo Ma, long gone are the days when a professional classical musician could actually own a Stradivarius, Guarneri, Amati and so forth. With sales of these instruments now ranging in the millions of dollars, it is left to wealthy patrons to buy these instruments and hopefully loan them out to deserving players. Sometimes this happens and sometimes it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, it often sits in the house of the buyer collecting dust or is simply put on display in a museum where it is played perhaps once a year.

The most recent example is the sale of Bernard Greenhouse’s cello, a Stradivarius known as the “Countess of Stainlein” and built in 1707. The buyer, “a patroness of the arts from Montreal,” as the Times states, purchased the cello for $6 million and has now loaned it to Stéphane Tétreault,

The purchaser was a “patroness of the arts from Montreal,” who declined to be identified further, Mr. Reuning said. He said she has decided to lend the cello, known as Countess of Stainlein, ex-Paganini of 1707, to Stéphane Tétreault, an 18-year-old player from Montreal with a budding career.

Here’s to hoping Mr. Tétreault isn’t an avid iPhone user.

via Stradivari Cello Sells for More Than $6 Million – NYTimes.com.

Jan 23

Odd photos of odd people…

Sometimes you’ve just got to wonder what people were thinking when they allowed someone to take a picture of themselves in the most unflattering of situations.

There is no description for this photo...

Retronautic WTF V | Retronaut.

Jan 23

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New Brahms piano work debuted on BBC3

A recently discovered piano work by Johannes Brahms, “Albumblatt”, has received its world premier on BBC3 and performed by the pianist András Schiff. The work, written in 1853, was found inside an old book that used to belong to the director of music at the University of Göttingen in Germany and who Brahms probably knew well. The manuscript was found inside this book last year by the conductor and musicologist Christopher Hogwood in a library at Princeton University.

Some of this piece eventually found its way into Brahms’ Horn trio written 12 years later. But this work was written by a young Brahms around the age of 20, and was most likely a small gift to the director. Brahms was notorious for burning compositions of his that he felt were not fit for publication, and troves of his work, as well as letters to Clara Schumann, other friends and colleagues are lost forever. It is a rare occasion to a find a lost composition from a great composer such as Brahms.

The complete audio of the two minute and 16 second work can be found on the BBC’s website, although it seems that it is currently limited to people inside the UK only. Hopefully this will be available to people outside the country soon, unless one catches a repeat performance of it on the BBC3 Radio website.

Jan 22

World War One still resonates in some parts of the world

The New York Times has an opinion article in today’s SundayReview section about the continued resonance of World War I in movies, literature and poetry. In the opening paragraph he discusses a little village in France and the imprint left on it by that war:

“IN France I live near a little village called Sadillac. It’s no more than a cluster of houses, an old chateau, a church and a graveyard surrounded by a few farms and vineyards. The village probably hasn’t changed much since the French Revolution; its population hovers around 100. By the graveyard is a simple obelisk with the names of the 30 or so young men from Sadillac who died in the First World War, 1914-18. It’s almost impossible to imagine the effect on this tiny community of these fatalities over four years. Every year on Nov. 11 at 11 a.m. — the hour and the day of the 1918 armistice — villagers gather to participate in a short memorial service around the obelisk.”

Sadillac is no different than countless other little towns throughout the European countries that fought in the Great War. Every town has the obelisk with the names of victims of both World War I and II, with some additional memorial next to it to commemorate their sacrifices. In my travels around Europe, it is often one of the first things I look for in a town’s square, because it is almost always there, prominently positioned for all to see, whether it be Italian, German, Austrian, French and other countries. And I have seen the November 11 parades in Italy commemorating the 1918 armistice. It’s still very much an emotional event 90-plus years later.

Many Americans view “old history” as anything prior to 1980 or at the earliest when photography and movies turned to color. Only when they see the events of previous eras through the lens of color photography do they become real and emotional. I don’t intend to sound condescending in my description of this, but it is rather sad that a major historical event from a hundred years ago in which over 11 million people died in a short period of time is completely lost on most people who don’t pay the much attention to anything beyond their own shores.

Why World War I Resonates – NYTimes.com.

Jan 22

Phil Jackson a Knick yet again?

Some people just can’t get enough. Makes me wonder how many times Phil Jackson has had to quote Al Pacino throughout his life when considering returning to coaching in the NBA.

The New York Times has an article this morning about the remote possibility that Jackson may return to coaching, this time with the New York Knicks, the team he played with when the Knicks last won a championship in 1973.

“Every time Phil Jackson thinks the winter of his career is finally here, he awakens to find it is Indian summer and someone is luring him back to coaching. Elusive as Jackson may be at 66, the hunt continues. With 11 N.B.A. titles, he will not reach the end without saying no to at least a few more teams.” - Phil Jackson Is Seduced by the Energy of New York – NYTimes.com

Still rather amazing to think that the guy was part of 13 championship teams, 11 as a coach with the Bulls and Lakers and 2 as a player with the Knicks. That’s more than Bill Russell.

Jan 22

NASA Moon Rocks Go Missing

This is kind of pathetic. Many of the moon rocks that  NASA astronauts brought back to the Earth as a result of the Apollo program have either been lost forever or have gone missing, only to be found years later. Why some would be dropped in the mail is beyond me, but hopefully they’ll develop a better method of inventory as soon as possible. Or else it might provide a good excuse to go back to the moon to get more.

Last month, NASA’s inspector general, Paul K. Martin, determined that 517 moon rocks and other astromaterial samples that were lent between 1970 and 2010 had been lost or stolen. A report issued by Mr. Martin’s office found that 11 of the 59 researchers in the Houston and Washington areas who were audited could not account for all of the samples NASA had lent them, or the agency found other discrepancies, including researchers who had items that according to agency records either did not exist or had been lent to others. The space agency had also failed to update its records for 12 researchers who had died, retired or relocated, in some instances without returning the samples. One researcher, the report noted, still had lunar samples he had borrowed 35 years earlier though he never conducted research on them.

NASA Tackles Problem of Missing Moon Rocks – NYTimes.com.

Jan 22

Stung by Defeat, Romney Considers Adultery « Borowitz Report

Andy Borowitz sure doesn’t hold back in his comedic punches, and he’s extremely quick to release up to the minute comedic material. Just hours after the results were announced in South Carolina’s GOP primary and Newt Gingrich’s trouncing of Mitt Romney, Borowitz announced Romney’s decision to consider committing adultry. Definitely worth reading, but he saved the best line for last:

… an exultant Newt Gingrich made the following victory statement: “I’ve left Mitt Romney behind faster than a woman with cancer.”

Mitt Romney

via Stung by Defeat, Romney Considers Adultery « Borowitz Report.

Jan 21

Save those photos of yours for 50 years from now.

It is all too easy to judge a recently taken photo as not good and quickly dispose of it. Reasons for deleting them vary, but one thought that doesn’t occur often enough is what the picture might look like when viewing it ten, twenty or fifty years later. What might look corny one moment could be nostalgic and touching at the other end of time. Of course this could also depend on one’s photographic skills, but all photographs have different meanings to different people and perhaps it’s a good idea to preserve as much as you can. With digital photography, it is all to easy to lose a picture forever, whether it be from a broken hard drive or a deleted folder on your desktop. These are not issues one must consider when dumping photos into a shoe box or a photo album and allowing them to age in the attic or on an office bookshelf.

This all came to mind when listening to the photographic essay by David Gonzalez in the New York Times. Discovering photos after many years is the same as finding a time capsule in the ground, seeing images from a completely different perspective than what was intended when the picture was originally taken.

Read the article and listen to the audio/photo essay at the New York Times: “Faces in the Rubble”

Also recommended is Gonzalez’s essay on the now-bankrupt Kodak.

Jan 16

Separated At Birth: Cyberball & “Cleatus” The Fox NFL Sunday Robot

During my Salad days of high school, I spent many an hour playing Cyberball at the local 7-11. There was always that emotional rush when a robotic player was  destroyed by the exploding football after failing to convert on third down and sideline personnel transporting the resulting shrapnel from the field. In the 20-plus years since playing that game, Cyberball has receded in memory … that is until watching Fox Sports NFL Sunday and that stupid jumping robot Fox forces on viewers during the show’s introduction and conclusion as well as commercial transitions.

A little research into this robot tells me that “Cleatus”, the name of Fox’s jumping robot, first premiered on the Fox network in the 2005-2006 NFL season, 17 years after Cyberball’s initial release. While Cyberball players don’t play the electric guitar, jump up and down and dance, there seems to be a strong similarity between Cyberball players and Cleatus. Perhaps some poor sap of a graphic designer at Fox was under a tight deadline to come up with something for the network to fill in for self-promotional shots during NFL games. You be the judge. Are Cyberball athletes and Cleatus separated at birth?

Update 1/16/12: Seems I am not alone in making the connection between Cleatus and Cyberball: http://www.sflunaticfringe.com/tag/cleatus/

Jan 12

2012 New Hampshire Primary Speeches On Wordle

The 2012 New Hampshire primary is history, with the nomination process now moving onto South Carolina. As is the tradition, one person gave a victory speech along with several concession speeches. Considering the variety of personalities in this year’s GOP field, I thought it interesting to compare each candidate’s speech as a word cloud generated by Wordle.net. The themes of these speeches come out much clearer when seen as a word cloud. It also makes it easier to not have to read each speech in its entirety.

In a nutshell, Mitt Romney loves to say the word ‘America’, Ron Paul loves the word ‘liberty’, Jon Huntsman is very polite with “ladies” and “gentlemen”, Newt Gingrich loves a lot of words and Rick Santorum has a “message” and a lot of “faith”.

Here they are.

Mitt Romney:

Ron Paul:


Jon Huntsman:

Newt Gingrich:

Rick Santorum:

Jan 12

Early Color Photographs From The Great Depression

I love looking at old historical color photographs, particularly those from the first half of the 20th century. Each picture from major historical events are worth a thousand words. But look at pictures of World War I, World War II, pre-1917 Russia and more in color, the feeling is more personal, more emotional. Time seems to shrink right before your eyes. Add to that list The Great Depression. Seeing pictures like this make it seem that they were taken not that long ago.

See the entire collection at DenverPost.com.

P.S. Picture number 6 seems like an early version of Twitter.

Jan 9

Separated At Birth: Bill Daley and Bensonmum

Bill Daley and Sir Alec Guinness separated at birth?

Jan 8

“Somebody That I Used to Know” video by “Walk Off the Earth”

A refreshingly creative video from the band “Walk Off The Earth”, a band I had never heard of until about 25 minutes ago.

Tweet: “Somebody That I Used to Know” – Walk off the Earth (Gotye – Cover) – YouTube http://t.co/MdEOobGd … very creative and simple video.

Jan 7

When will Rick Santorm exit stage right?

At least none of the major news outlets covered him when he was in second to last place in Iowa. Unfortunately now we must hear his daily “gaffes”, which is loosely translated as “what he really believes in but tries to cover up by saying he was taken out of context.”

During his 15 minutes in the political spotlight, here are some good articles about Santorum’s hypocrisy:

“The Grating Santorum” – by Maureen Dowd

Tweet: “Better when Santorum was the ignored candidate. Thanks to Iowa, news has to pay attention to him & his hate. http://t.co/95Hxyywi #politics“

Dec 22

The “Beatles” sing ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’

There is something a tad bit creepy about this video. These guys have each of the four Beatles mannerisms down pat, making me wonder how normal of a life these guys have had.

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