Notes by Farouk Rojas

Today I remembered what I believe is a moment from my childhood: sitting in the front seat of my father's car, driving on the highway.  I think we were going north.  Back when I was a child highways in Mexico were smaller than they are now.  Most of the roads were two-way, and the grass grew tall at the edge of the road.  

I remember the green of farmland as far as my eyes could go, meeting the darkening blue of the sky; the smell of the air preceding rain. 

On the other side of the car, where my father sat, the sun was setting, and the sky was clear.  Sunset was imminent so I could make shapes with my hands and see them projected on my side of the road. 

We had a 1975 Ford LTD and the air conditioner almost never worked.  We would always keep the windows open on the highway.  

But what I remember the most is how well I was taking it all in.  It was as if I was soaked in the world: the colors were vibrant, the smells so penetrating. I was completely open to it all.  Judged nothing.  Expected nothing. Worried about nothing.  I was there, and the dirt was as important as my mother's long black hair.  The world was beautiful and there was nothing to do about it.

My father would be humming church hymns as he drove, perhaps to calm himself down, as driving made him nervous.  He had the blue sky in his voice.

If you don't like the view from your window, check this option for relocation:

"We wouldn't be surprised if there is life on this planet," said Stephane Udry, an astronomer on the project at the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland.

You are out of luck if your car's warp drive is not working.  

Check out this post @ The Movie Blog. 

Is it fair for movie theaters to charge you $10 for a movie and then show you commercials?  Would movies be more expensive otherwise?  Would you pay more for a commercial-free movie?

Long ago, there were no commercials at the movies.  

What do you think?

[through digg.com] 

Yup, you can read a whole book online, for free.  Google has scanned the whole Moby Dick—a very thick book by Herman Melville—and made it available online.  Too bad you don't look intellectual while staring into your laptop in a coffee shop.

By the way, Herman Melville is the great-great-great-great uncle of Moby, famous American songwriter, musician and singer.

One of my favorite architects, Frank Gehry, in his book Gehry Talks, said:

"The approach to architecture should be like science, with breakthroughs that create new information, not the repetition of old ideas."

He was talking about the process of developing the Nationale-Nederlanden Building (1992-1996) in Prague, Czech Republic.

The building is also affectionately called "Fred and Ginger", because one of the towers evokes the shape of a woman's dress, and they both seem to dance.

This was an exciting discovery for me.  While using the Last.fm application on your computer, and listening to the "Neighborhood" station, you can click on the "Playlist" button to add the currently playing song to a personal playlist. 

Once the playlist is long enough, you can play it from your personal profile in the last.fm website (click on the "Play in software" link) and enjoy listening to full versions of only the songs you selected.  You can't control the order, but it's all the music that you like, exclusively, and commercial-free.  Nice.

A friend recently needed this.  What you do is that you hold the mouse button while you are booting up the computer. 

Restart the machine and when it's coming back, press and hold the mouse button (or the touchpad button) until the disc is ejected.  

I just tried for the first time to play the first chords of Debussy's "Clair de Lune" on the piano.  Tough little assignment.  Turns out I first need to figure out where to put the fingers correctly, in order to be able to make the jump to the next chord.  It is quite a debate for me to spend time learning this piece, vs. all the other things I could possibly be doing, but I love it, and I think the experience with the music will help me in general.

I'm sure it's better for me than watching Grey's Anatomy, although I do enjoy the acting very much.

The answer is Alexander Borodin.  Yes, ANOTHER Russian composer I like.  It turns out that Johnny Mathis sings Stranger in Paradise, quite the famous song  based on a fragment of Borodin's Polovtsian Dances. And the link to Pavlov? (no pun intended)  According to Wikipedia, Borodin earned a doctorate in medicine at the "Medico–Surgical Academy, the later home to Ivan Pavlov".

For you see, Borodin was a prominent chemist, uncommonly enough, and also, won a posthumous Tony Award in 1954 for Stranger in Paradise.  

Try the Johnny Mathis song, and then get the Polovtsian Dances.  It'll be fun to compare the experience of the full piece to that of the popularized version.  Make sure to get the full set of dances.  You will find that you've probably heard some of them before somewhere.  If you still are up for it, go for the full opera (Polovtsian Dances is part of a larger composition), Prince Igor, which had to be completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov, as Borodin died before completing it.   

It was 1996 and I was in New York City for the first time.  At the hotel lobby I used my very limited French to help a lady communicate with the manager, and in return I received a night out with her son, who was more lost in the city than I was.  We randomly ended up in The Blue Note, a legendary jazz music club in Greenwich Village. 

Frenchman had very little to say, but we ended up sitting in a table with a japanese couple who had bought their tickets months in advance, and had flown from Tokyo with great anticipation to see Toots Thielemans.  I had no idea then who he was, but would soon find out why he's considered one of the greatest harmonica players alive.

Indeed, Mr. Thielemans seemed consumed by a great passion for his music, and the night was quickly difficult to forget.   As a result, I own his album, Chez Toots, and often listen to his rendition of Old Friend.  

Wikipedia says about Mr. Thielemans:

"...Apart from his popularity as an accomplished musician, he is well liked for his modesty and kind demeanor... "

His official website features the quote "I feel best in that little space between a smile and a tear."  Indeed, he will take you there.

As always, I owe Isao Tomita much of my affinity for classical music.  Gustav Mahler's 5th movement of the 3rd symphony is one of those pieces which, without Tomita, I may have never discovered or liked. 

Described as Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck (Cheerful in tempo and bold in expression), the 5th movement combines vocal, choral and symphonic work to create a unique atmosphere, at moments even christmasy (at least for me), if you would, but at all times different to most of what's out there.  The piece seems to march on like an army of giant, joyful alien ants, (if ever that could make any sense).  

I-tunes is giving away the piece for free right now.  A great way to try Mahler, and if you like the aesthetics of his music, taste the whole symphony.   

Ever since I heard Isao Tomita's interpretation of it (in my early teens), Modest Mussorgsky's Great Gate of Kiev has been one of my favorite musical compositions.  Scintillating, reflective and majestic, it is a wonderful expression of a kind of musical temperament that I, unimaginatively, describe as "very Russian."

The Great Gate of Kiev has a deep and rich history, worth reading about in Wikipedia, as it belongs to the suite Pictures at an Exhibition, written by Mussorgsky for the piano and inspired by the pictorial work of his friend Viktor Hartmann. 

The suite went on to become popularized through a series of orchestral arrangements, the best known of which, and illustriously so, was created by Maurice Ravel.  

My favorite recording of Pictures is conducted by musical powerhouse Valery Gergiev and puts together a strong selection of music with a superb orchestra (Vienna Philarmonic) and conductor, captured with modern-day recording technology.  

This album includes a recording of Night on the Bare Mountain.  This piece is a complete whirlwind of emotion, and I have NPR to thank for helping me rediscover it.  The announcer's interpretation of the piece was very engaging and enriching, and I walked away with a greatly deepened appreciation for it.

If you liked the movie RENT or the musical it's based on, you might be interested to discover that RENT itself is based on the opera La Boheme by Giaccomo Puccini.  

It has always been easier for me to approach an opera from the arias, usually the best-known parts of the opera, and work my way from there.  In this case, the first act of Boheme has a triplet of beautiful consecutive arias.  The tenor aria Che Gelida Manina, the soprano aria Mi Chiamano Mimi, and the duet O Soave Fanciulla.  

By all means, read the synopsis, then read the lyrics, imbibe the poetry, and enjoy how lyrics and music work together with the singers. 

My two favorite versions of this opera are the recording with a young Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni (where the piece completely succumbs to Pavarotti's voice, while Freni matches him with great authenticity and lyricism), and the version with Placido Domingo and Monserrat Caballe (Domingo is powerful and passionate, while Caballe shows off her impossible pianissimos).  If you want to see how it's done more contemporarily, get a video with Rolando Villazon and Anna Netrebko.  

Recently I expressed to someone that I thought they were sublime.  Little did I know how well the term captures my experience.    

Sublime="of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe." (Oxford American Dictionary)  

If you want to experience the sublime, try Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy.  According to Wikipedia, this is a musical interpretation of a poem by Paul Verlaine. The poem is indeed...well, you know...that word, but I prefer music.  Try this album if you want a good introduction to Debussy.