Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Shaman's Hand for December 21, 2008

Shaman's Hand Blog Talk Radio show will have special guest Buck Bannister to talk about the highly acclaimed movie "Milk" which stars Sen Penn.

After moving to San Francisco, the middle-aged New Yorker, Harvey Milk, became a Gay Rights activist and city politician. On his third attempt, he was elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in 1977, making him the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the USA. The following year, both he and the city's mayor, George Moscone, were shot to death by former city supervisor, Dan White, who blamed his former colleagues for denying White's attempt to rescind his resignation from the board.

Mr. Milk had been the subject of several books and the Academy Award-winning documentary feature, The Times of Harvey Milk (1984); but Milk (2008) is the first fictional feature to explore private aspects of the man's personal life and career.

Milk was filmed on location in San Francisco. Many of Mr Milk's real-life surviving friends and former associates participated in the making of this film, several appearing on camera.



The show airs at 8pm MST this Sunday night, December 21, 2008. You can call in or join us on the chat board during the broadcast. You can also visit the Shaman's hand Blog Talk Radio site anytime to listen to the archives.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Right Brain Left Brain Test (?)

Brain Lateralization Test Results
Right Brain (56%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain.
Left Brain (52%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain
Are You Right or Left Brained?
personality tests by similarminds.com



Often times when I take tests like this I find questions posed in a way that are not in the way I think. SO doing the best I can to accommodate the questions those were my results.


Left brain dominant individuals are more orderly, literal, articulate, and to the point. They are good at understanding directions and anything that is explicit and logical. They can have trouble comprehending emotions and abstract concepts, they can feel lost when things are not clear, doubting anything that is not stated and proven.

Right brain dominant individuals are more visual and intuitive. They are better at summarizing multiple points, picking up on what's not said, visualizing things, and making things up. They can lack attention to detail, directness, organization, and the ability to explain their ideas verbally, leaving them unable to communicate effectively.

Overall you appear to have fairly Equal Hemispheres

In the evening sky

Last night I noticed what at first seemed to be a plane in the eastern sky. It was after dusk but early in the evening. I watched it for a while the realized it was not moving. The lights where a bit unusual as far as planes or helicopters, we have a lot of military aircraft around where we live.

After some time I noticed that it kept pace with the stars around it and I could also see smaller red lights and blue filaments around these two or more pulsating lights.

Later I went back outside and saw Orion rising in the eastern sky. It's belt pointed to the spectacle above and I then realized it was in the Constellation Taurus. The Pleiades. I had never seen it before. Where it was in the sky that night made for an amazing display for the unaided eye. I can't wait for tonight where I get home I'll be out back again to see more of this wonderful sight.

"Many a might I saw the Pleiads rising thro' the mellow shade,
Glitter like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid."


Thursday, November 20, 2008

Paderewski, pianist, composer, statesman

"Paderewski The Story Of A Modern Immortal"
by Charles Phillips



NEW YORK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1934


From the introduction by Edward Mandell House:

After finishing his work at the Peace Conference, Paderewski returned to Warsaw, and, as Prime Minister, welded together the new Poland. When this had been successfully accomplished, he went back to that kingdom of which he had been so long master, and received a welcome which must have touched and gladdened his heart. Absence in another field of endeavor had in no way lessened his musical genius, and his triumph was one of the most remarkable incidents in his career. The statesman, the executive, the diplomat and orator were now merged in the artist, the composer and the poet. Again the magic of his hands stirred the hearts of his audiences to rapture and to tears.

You can download the entire book at the title link above. The picture is linked to Wikipedia.


On the last Shaman's Hand radio show we talked a little about the great Paderewski. My connection to him is through my teacher John Suter who saw him perform in Phoenix and also in Chicago. He was a big fan of the great pianist as was his teacher Mr Karl Hakes.

We also featured a piece by Paul Hindemith who was born on Nov. 16, 1895. We played his trio for Heckelphone. One of his students at least for a short time was Norman Dello Joio whom I had the honor of singing under with the Masterworks Chorale some years ago.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Shaman's Hand Piano Meditations on CD at Amazon.com

It's up and ready for purchase at amazon. Just click on the picture above to check it out. The pieces are remastered versions of Eternal Ecstasies: Born in Bethlehem done as a music version by request. The music is somewhere between classical and new age, contemplative and for the most part relaxing and at times deeply emotional. The recording was done on my teacher John Suter's 1885 Steinway Concert Grand fully restored by James Reeder. The sound is rich and up close.

Pieces are titled: Touch of Rebirth, Touch of Creator/Creation, Touch of Purity, Touch of Mercy, Touch of Joy, Touch of Meekness/Strength, Touch of Infinite Love, Touch of Inner Peace and Shaman's Blessing.

Perfect for letting go of all the tension and energy blockages and entering those blissful, peaceful waves that correspond to the higher brain frequencies. It has been said by one listener to have a levitating effect on the mind/body consciousness. I have enjoyed listening while freeway driving!

The picture above is a blending of the piano and Lake Michigan where I grew up. We will be playing some of the music on Shaman's Hand Blog Talk Radio in the coming weeks to celebrate the release of Shaman's Hand, Piano Meditations!

Monday, October 20, 2008

One more version of the Shaman's Hand Design


On the next Shaman's Hand Radio Show we'll be featuring three pieces of Domenico Scarlatti, son of Alessandro Scarlatti. He wrote some 550 keyboard sonatas, few of which were published in his lifetime. I'll be using one example on harpsichord and two on piano.

One of the neat things about doing a radio show is learning and relearning so many things about music that I have had the opportunity to have connections to whether it be something I've studied or performed or a connection through fellow artists.

The radio show also features wonderful spiritual readings, great poetry, some of which I put to music, and great guests.

Listeners have participated in little contests and won mugs and CDs.

There's always something I've learned by doing Shaman's Hand.

Click on the picture for more information on Scarlatti.
Click on the graphic to check out the Shaman's Hand radio site.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Shaman's Hand Poster

Friday, October 17, 2008

Design for Shaman's Hand Piano Meditations


This is one of two versions of some artwork for Shaman's Hand, Piano Meditations that is about to be released at amazon.com. The images are from pictures Jesse and I took of some of the natural wonders around Newberry, South Carolina. The Great Egret on the right was found in Tucson, Arizona, (can you believe it) over at Christopher Columbus Park, not far from where we live. Could make a neat poster!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Tannhäuser anniversary of 1845 debut


October 19th, 1845 Wagner's opera Tannhäuser was performed for the 1st time. The opera is based on the legend of Tannhäuser which is based on a real person who lived in the middle of the 13th Century and was a German Minnesänger and poet. Tannhäuser's poems are parodies of the traditional Minnesänger genre.

He was active at the court of Frederick II of Austria, and the Codex Manesse depicts him in the habit of the Teutonic Order, which suggests he might have participated in the Fifth Crusade.

The Codex Manesse is the single most comprehensive source for the texts of love songs in Middle High German, representing 140 poets, several of whom were famous rulers. The term for these poets, Minnesänger combines the words for "romantic love" and "singer", reflecting the content of the poetry, which adapted the Provençal troubadour tradition to German.

The manuscript is "the most beautifully illumined German manuscript in centuries;" its 137 miniatures are a series of "portraits" depicting each poet.

In the legendary account, Tannhäuser finds the Venusberg, home of Venus, and spends a year there worshipping the goddess. He leaves the Venusberg an eventually is filled with remorse. He travels to Rome to ask Pope Urban IV if it is possible to be absolved of his sins. Urban replies that forgiveness is as impossible as it would be for his papal staff to blossom. Three days after Tannhäuser's departure Urban's staff blooms with flowers; messengers are sent to retrieve the knight, but he has already returned to Venusberg, never to be seen again.


Of course there's a little more to the opera. Check it out here.


We'll be celebrating this anniversary on Shaman's Hand Blog Talk Radio this coming Sunday night 8:00 MST. Check the sidebar for links.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Rigoletto at Arizona Opera


Watch the preview of Arizona Opera's Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi at the Arizona Opera's website by clicking on the picture above. This picture hangs right in front of me on the wall just above the monitor as I sit at the computer. I was fortunate to have the experience of singing in this opera with Arizona Opera many years ago. Giorgio Tozzi sang the role of Sparafucile. He later became my teacher.

Performances are scheduled for October 11 and 12 in Tucson. Then 16th through the 19th in Phoenix.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Michael Emmanuel in the news

From the Newberry Observer in Newberry, South Carolina:

Local Legend signs on with ‘Coyote Girl' in Arizona

By Cindy Pitts, Staff Writer
Monday, September 29, 2008 11:50 AM EDTA
Local Legends finalist has released a new album.


Former Newberry resident Michael Koch, who goes by the stage name Michael Emmanuel, has released “Morning Sun“ through Coyote Girl Records, a private label.

Koch was a finalist in the 2007 Local Legends contest sponsored by The Newberry Observer and Radio 1240 WKDK.

The new album features selections that can also be heard on his Internet radio show, “Shaman's Hand.” Shaman's Hand can be heard live or in a podcast format and airs each Sunday at 11 p.m.
The new album, available through Amazon.com, features Emmanuel's original songs, which were composed over a number of years while he lived in Newberry and at his new home in Arizona.

read all here

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Renee Fleming shines in MET Gala Opener



The Metropolitan Opera opened its 125th-anniversary season on Monday evening with a gala Renée Fleming showcase. Everything about the three-part evening was fashioned, quite literally, for Ms. Fleming.


She was featured in three favorite roles: Violetta in Act II of Verdi’s “Traviata”; Manon in Act III of Massenet’s “Manon”; and the Countess in the final scene of Strauss’s “Capriccio,” conducted by Patrick Summers. To lend an extra tou
ch of diva dazzle to the evening, the Met commissioned three renowned fashion designers to create Ms. Fleming’s costumes.

For weeks waggish opera bloggers had been calling the evening “The Renée Fleming Fashion Show,” “The Renéesance” and such. And in a way the gala was, as Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, said recently on “Charlie Rose,” a “kind of retro affair.”


The NY Times article has a slide show of all the costumes Ms Fleming wore and an aiduo clip from "Capriccio." Click on the photo at right to see the NY Post review.

Below Ms Fleming sings "Song to the Moon" from Rusalka by Dvorak with the Welsh National Orchestra.


Saturday, September 20, 2008

"Lost" Mozart score found in France

From the BBC News article: (click here to read all)

A previously unknown piece of music by Mozart has been discovered at a library in western France.

Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation in Austria, said the single sheet of music was "really important".

"His handwriting is absolutely clearly identifiable," he added. "There's no doubt that this is an original piece handwritten by Mozart."

Also found: a rare portrait of the composer.

A portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that lay unidentified for more than 200 years has been proved to be authentic, according to an expert on the composer.

Professor Cliff Eisen from London's King's College has spent more than a year trying to confirm that the picture was of Mozart, who died in 1791.

He said: "This is arguably the most important Mozart portrait to be discovered since the composer's death." Its significance came to light after it was bought by a US collector in 2005. read all here





There are links to other interesting Mozart related stories at the BBC you may enjoy.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Photos from Hubble Space Telescope

I received an interesting email today with the top ten photographs taken by the Hubble telescope. I always mention something about our awesome galaxy, space/time reality on my radio show, Shaman's Hand. Here's a link to more pictures.

The Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth - was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, are as spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across.


Here's the Hubble site. Here's the Hubble Heritage Project.



Unusual Stuff


"An astronomer in Cambridge, UK, has captured on camera an "upside down rainbow", which is considered to be an anomaly of nature."

I heard about this a few days ago but had not run across a picture till today. Click on the pic to go to the story.

Monday, September 15, 2008

George Li, eleven year old pianist




This is a fun piece by Franz Liszt. One of the Hungarian Rhapsodies, No.11. George Li, or whoever handles his YouTube account, invited me to be a friend. So I accepted knowing full well that he may know nothing of it. All the best to this young prodigy.

George Li, is a resident of North Andover, MA where he is a student at the Annie Sargent School. George has been playing piano since the age of four and enjoys taking tests, math and of course, the Red Sox.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Janine Jansen playing Vaughan Williams' Lark Ascending



Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Shaman's Hand Interview with Ron Klestinski

You can check out the interview with former head football coach Ron Klestinski on the Shaman's Hand Blog Talk Radio, (see side bar). Here's a picture of me winning the conference 100 yard dash after breaking my leg in the previous football season. It was taken by the local newspaper and I got a copy and gave it to him at the end of the year which was my senior year at Roncalli High School in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Ron was recently inducted into the Wisconsin Football Coaches Hall of Fame.


Listen to the archived show, August31, 2008...you'll love him!
The inscription at the bottom reads in full: We did it! With tons of love and appreciation.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Beautiful Blossoms

Cactus blooms in the front of our casita in Tucson. Here's a link for cacti info. This is a pair of barrel cacti that were planted by the owners. We are fortunate to have a beautifully landscaped yard.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Fish pedicures creating something of a "splash"

Fish pedicures are creating something of a splash in the Washington D.C. area, where a northern Virginia spa has been offering them for the past four months. John Ho, who runs the Yvonne Hair and Nails salon with his wife, Yvonne Le, said 5,000 people have taken the plunge so far.

The toothless Garra rufa, or doctor fish nibble away dead skin from the toes of their "clients." What a great idea! I'd try it just to see how it feels.

Nature, how wonderful to be a part!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Elephant Art

Have you seen the interesting paintings done by elephant? Here's a group that is dedicated to Conservation and education: The Asian Elephant Art and Conservation Project.

The Asian Elephant Art & Conservation Project (AEACP) is a non-profit organization dedicated to aiding people in need and to saving the diminishing number of Asian elephants left on our planet through its work with domesticated elephants. The AEACP raises funds through the sale of artwork created by elephants in order to generate money and create awareness for the people and elephants of Asia.

The painting on the left is by Boon Rod pictured above. It's Boon Rod #o29 selling for $650.
The one on the right is by Ging Gao. It's 041 and sells for $500.00

From their website:

The AEACP exists to:

  • improve the welfare of domesticated elephants by facilitating appropriate standards of training, care, food and habitat.
  • help support the efforts of conservation organizations working to sustain and protect wild elephant populations.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Brahms' Intermezzo Op118 No2

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

"Those were my molecules."

From an article by Stacey Lawson titled:

Edgar Mitchell: An Astronaut's Detour Into Inner Space


As astronaut Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon, completed his Apollo 14 mission and returned home toward our big blue earth, he experienced a sudden and radical epiphany. Trained in all the disciplines appropriate for space exploration -- physics, engineering, orbital mechanics -- nothing could have prepared him for this life-changing experience:

"On the way home from the moon, looking out at the heavens, this insight - which I now call a transcendent experience - happened. I realized that the molecules of my body had been created or prototyped in an ancient generation of stars - along with the molecules of the spacecraft and my partners and everything else we could see including the Earth out in front of us. Suddenly, it was all very personal. Those were my molecules.




Read all at link above.

Institute of Noetic Sciences Site

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Check out Buck's post about CSN in Tucson

Crosby Stills and Nash in Concert

What a great experience to see CSN live after loving their music for so many years. Clickon the link above.

80 Million Monet

LONDON — A water lily painting by Claude Monet sold for more than $80 million Tuesday, breaking the auction record for the French impressionist artist, Christie's said.

"Le bassin aux nympheas," or "Water Lily Pond," which sold for $80,451,178, was part of a four-work collection of water lily paintings
that Monet put up for sale during his lifetime.

The four large-scale paintings of Monet's water lily garden were signed and dated by the artist in 1919. One of the other paintings is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, while another was sold at auction in 1992 for $12.1 million and is in a private collection. The final painting in the series was cut into two before World War II.









Shamanic Connections


Best Resources invites you to join Tom and Bobbi Best along with Peruvian mystic and shaman, Don Americo Yabar, in an exploration of the timeless world of Andean shamanism.

These adventures in consciousness with Don Americo are the continuation of a crucial exploration of the human spirit initiated by the elders of every tribe of humanity before the dawn of civilization. The legacy of this exploration is your inheritance from the ancestors. Doing 'The Work' with Tom and Americo offers you the means to mend the fabric of your life by reconnecting the luminous filament of your spirit with the eternal tapestry of the Great Mystery.


These mystic experiences are an immersion into the ancient wisdom that transcendence, mystic states and God are not the destinations of some grand journey of seeking. They are the vibrant point of being from which you begin the projection of the Spirit.

This is a picture of me with some Mollomarka Indian children playing which hand is the candy in. Notice the small band of musicians in th background. Picture taken at Salka Wasi*, Americo's ancestral home.

*the House of Undomesticated Energy

More at Salka Wind Home Page

Monday, June 23, 2008

Abraham Quotes

"By choosing better-feeling thoughts and by speaking more of what you do want and less of what you do not want, you will gently tune yourself to the vibrational frequency of your Broader Perspective. To see your world through the eyes of Source is truly the most spectacular view of life, for from that vibrational vantage point, you are in alignment with—and therefore in the process of attracting—only what you would consider to be the very best of your world."


Abraham's site.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

What is Real, Really?

From an interesting article: Time Storms in the Matrix
Stephen Wagner at About.com has an article featuring a book by Jenny Randles titled Time Storms: Amazing Evidence for Time Warps, Space Rifts, and Time Travel. Here's one of the fascinating stories:

Putre, Chile, 1977 - At 3:50 a.m. on April 24, during army training exercises, a guard saw two fuzzy violet lights descending from the mountain and heading their way. At 4:15 a.m., Corporal Armando Valdez set out into the dark to investigate them. He returned 15 minutes later, but from the opposite direction in which he set out. He seemed to be in a kind of trance, muttering, "You do not know who we are or where we come from." Inexplicably, the corporal had several days growth of beard, and his watch had stopped at 4:15 - but showed a date of April 30!

Read more at the links above.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Free Opera in Brooklyn

A free concert is scheduled for tonight at Prospect Park starring opera's real life couple Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu.

From the article:

To accommodate what the Met officials said they hoped would be a crowd of 150,000, the concert has been planned for the Long Meadow in Prospect Park, which has twice the capacity of the Great Lawn in Central Park.

But the decision also means that for the first summer since the house’s outdoor concerts started, in 1967, the Met will not be heard in Central Park. That will probably not please the faithful who arrived with their blankets at 7 a.m. in front of the stage on the Great Lawn year after year. Nor will residents of the Bronx, Queens or Staten Island have a chance to hear the Met on their home turf.

Mr. Gelb said putting the concert in Prospect Park placed it closer to the city’s geographical center and sent a less elitist message than a lone concert in Manhattan would have. “It seemed like the more democratic choice to place it in Prospect Park,” Mr. Gelb said.



Read the article here. You can see videos at the New York Times' site of these two great performers also.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

What? Eat waste and excrete petrol!!

Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol

Silicon Valley is experimenting with bacteria that have been genetically altered to provide 'renewable petroleum'


"What is most remarkable about what they are doing is that instead of trying to reengineer the global economy – as is required, for example, for the use of hydrogen fuel – they are trying to make a product that is interchangeable with oil. The company claims that this “Oil 2.0” will not only be renewable but also carbon negative – meaning that the carbon it emits will be less than that sucked from the atmosphere by the raw materials from which it is made."

“Our plan is to have a demonstration-scale plant operational by 2010 and, in parallel, we’ll be working on the design and construction of a commercial-scale facility to open in 2011,” says Mr Pal, adding that if LS9 used Brazilian sugar cane as its feedstock, its fuel would probably cost about $50 a barrel.mosphere by the raw materials from which it is made.

Read all at link above.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Musical Lineage

In piano studies here's my lineage: I, (born 1956) studied with John Suter, (born 1910). John Suter studied with Carl Hakes. Carl Hakes studied with Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler(born 1863). Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler studied with Theodor Leschetizky(born 1830). Teodor Leszetycki, (his true Polish name), studied with Carl Czerny, (born1791).

Czerny was born in Vienna to a family of Bohemian origins. He was taught piano by his father before taking lessons from Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Antonio Salieri, and Ludwig van Beethoven. He was a child prodigy, making his first appearance in public in 1800 playing a Mozart piano concerto. Later, he gave the Vienna premiere of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor" in 1812.

Hummel, born 1778, was taught and housed by Mozart, (born 1756) for two years free of charge and made his first concert appearance at the age of nine, at one of Mozart's concerts. Hummel's father then led him on a European tour, arriving in London, where he received instruction from Muzio Clementi and stayed for four years before returning to Vienna. In 1791, Joseph Haydn, who was in London at the same time as young Hummel, composed a sonata in A flat for Hummel, who played its premiere in the Hanover Square Rooms in Haydn's presence. When Hummel finished, Haydn reportedly thanked the young man and gave him a guinea.

Salieri was born the year Johann Sebastian Bach died, 1750. He was a teacher to many famous composers, including Ludwig van Beethoven, Carl Czerny, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Franz Liszt, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Ignaz Moscheles, Franz Schubert, and Franz Xaver Süssmayr. He also taught Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's younger son, Franz Xaver, some years after the death of Franz's illustrious father.

Beethoven was born in 1770. It is unclear as to when his birthdate was, but the family celebrated it on the 16th of December. In 1792, Beethoven moved to Vienna, where he studied for a time with Joseph Haydn: his hopes of studying with Mozart had been shattered by Mozart's death the previous year. Beethoven received additional instruction from Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (Vienna's pre-eminent counterpoint instructor) and Antonio Salieri. By 1793, Beethoven established a reputation in Vienna as a piano virtuoso.

So six "generations" from Beethoven seven from Mozart!!! A heritage that spans two hundred years from 1756 to 1956, although built on the music and the musicians prior to the 18th century of course.

Quotes




"The greater danger for most of us is not that
our aim is too high and we miss it,
but that it is too low
and we reach it."
Michelangelo

The Decline of the Art of Journalism

Journalism or the Press is considered the Fourth Estate. In the United States it can be seen as the fourth branch of government. Edmund Burke said after the French Revolution, looking up at the Press Gallery of the House of Commons, said, 'Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, and they are more important than them all.'"

Although not so directly tied to music the effects of this art form non-the less effect us all. Perhaps the relationship is similar to pop music, music made for the money directed at the unknowing, the uneducated, compared to music with noble intent and significance. For instance rock music becoming a parody of its former self. IMHO

Read this: When a Little Dissent is too Much

"Barry Nolan's opinion of Bill O'Reilly spun him right out of his job," the ABC website reported late last month. "The fed-up TV newsman lost his anchor seat after protesting a decision by a New England media association to bestow its top journalism award on the Fox News Anchor.
The Comcast management thought that Nolan’s use of the First Amendment was unbecoming of an anchor.

Barry Nolan’s response: "I'm interested in telling everyone in the country to stand up and say something is wrong when something is wrong. We've been through an awful dark time in our history where there are a lot of people telling you to sit down and shut up. From Dick Cheney to Bill O'Reilly, I'm done with bullies."



Be true to your art, your ideals and to truth. Humanity needs it.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Rare but Real: People Who Feel, Taste and Hear Color

From an interesting article I found today:


Long dismissed as a product of overactive imaginations or a sign of mental illness, synesthesia has grudgingly come to be accepted by scientists in recent years as an actual phenomenon with a real neurological basis. Some researchers now believe it may yield valuable clues to how the brain is organized and how perception works.

"The study of synesthesia [has] encouraged people to rethink historical ideas that synesthesia was abnormal and an aberration," says Amy Ione, director of the Diatrope Institute, a California-based group interested in the arts and sciences.

The cause remains a mystery, however.

My piano teacher said he could see colors when he heard music and that certain keys, like the "key of C", had a certain color.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Memorial Day

No Room on the Wall

by: John Cory, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

"What happens when the gardens of stone can no longer name the dead? Will the wind catch their souls and whisper their names to the midnight sky? Or will silence be the lullaby of the forgotten?"

John Cory is a Vietnam veteran. He received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star with V device, 1969 - 1970.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Famous Pianists, Composers and Musicians for June


Here's a great page for a list of famous pianists, composers and musicians born in the month of June: click here for exact birthdates

My favorite composers, (and the ones I know best) are Sir Edward Elgar, Aram Khachaturian, Robert Schumann (in picture with wife Clara, also a great pianist), click on picture for link, Edvard Grieg, Charles Gounod, Igor Stravinsky, Jacques Offenbach, Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, Theodor Leschetizky, Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

A great pianist that I had the pleasure of meeting through my teacher, John Suter: June 20, 1946 - Andre Watts, the American pianist, was born in a United States Army camp at Nuremberg, Germany. His mother was Hungarian and his father was an American soldier.

Others that are not known for classical music so much although some have written in that genre include: Paul McCartney, Leroy Anderson, Guy Lombardo, Burl Ives and Cole Porter.

On another note, the gemstone or birthstone for June is the Pearl. It signifies longevity and tranquility.

Pearls differ from other gemstones in that they're not mined from rock, but rather harvested from mollusks, especially oysters. Clams and mussels have been known to produce pearls as well. Basically, a pearl is produced when an irritant such as sand gets caught inside the oyster. To protect itself, the oyster secretes a substance akin to mucus. This substance builds up around the sand and hardens. The end result is a pearl.

Friday, May 9, 2008

In memory of Stan Meyer

The Water Car

Schuyler Ebbets

There are not words to describe the magnitude of this tragedy. It is the greatest injustice in history as it effects all of humanity and the earth. This catastrophe exceeds the burning of the Royal Library of Alexandria in the fourth century A.D., which set back the industrial revolution by a thousand years.

This scientific advancement is greater than the discovery of electricity by Benjamin Franklin, greater than the day Edison switched on his Pearl Street generating station's electrical power distribution system changing our world forever. It surpasses the achievements of Nikola Tesla who's patents and theoretical work formed the basis of modern alternating current and helped usher in the second industrial revolution.

This one invention dwarfs all preceding achievements because it undoes all of the evil and destruction and human enslavement, which has resulted from man's past relationship with science and technology. It would have completely eliminated global warming as it relates to the burning of fossil fuels. It would have ended the destruction of pristine environments in the quest for oil, like those in southern Africa, South America, and Alaska. It would have made dirty, dangerous, and inefficient nuclear power even more obsolete and ridiculous than it already is. More energy is required to produce nuclear fuel rods than they produce when a nuclear power plant is in operation. This new technology produces infinitely more power than it uses because it's fuel is water.

Imagine a world where wars fought over oil are no longer necessary. The mass killing of millions of men, women, and children by America in it's quest for oil would no longer be necessary. It would not be necessary to buy expensive gasoline, purchased with your labor and the blood of innocents. An ordinary car converted to run on water would be virtually free to operate except for the cost of mechanically maintaining the car.

This one invention by a gifted soul would have saved our ecosystem and turned our genocidal civilization into a utopia. But tragically and unjustly it is not to be. In order for humanity to climb out of their self imposed pit of pollution and war, the wealthiest among us must overcome their greed and lust for power.

The people who are raping and murdering our planet will not suddenly awaken and realize that water is a far superior fuel source. It is easier and more profitable for them to attack country after country, killing and enslaving the people, and stealing their oil. After all this has been the barbaric behavior of human kind since we first emerged from the caves.

The corporate elite who now hold a noose around the collective neck of humanity tell us to accept our fate and not struggle, the noose will only grow tighter. More people die, our planet's atmosphere heats up and the destroyers of life become richer and more powerful. It can only end with a damaged ecosystem and millions of dead human beings. It will end with melted ice caps, coastlines under water, and weather so cold and erratic that food is extremely difficult to grow, and in America as with the rest of the world, people will starve to death.

This is what awaits you and your children. You have given over your destiny and your planet to corrupt corporations and the people who own them. The ruling elite have decided that the earth's population has become too large and now threatens the quality of life for them and their offspring. Disruption of the eco system will aid them in culling the herd. Of paramount importance is their power and wealth, and the survival of their self serving dynasties. Half of humanity will die so that a privileged few can continue their homicidal reign on earth. For them it is better to rule in a hell of their own making than to live as ordinary men on a peaceful and beautiful planet.

Stan Meyer was our technological savior. He said that America had become too dependent on oil and he wanted to change that. Although he had no formal education having quit high school, Stan Meyer was an inventive genius and his ideas were revolutionary. Using his amazing intellect for good rather than personal gain, he intended to help humanity. He wanted to free us from our enslavement to the Oil companies. He wanted to stop global warming. He was bound for the greatest glory that any person has ever known. He would have been the man who shattered humanity's oil dependency forever, ushering in a new dawn of prosperity, freedom, and hope for all except the greedy maniacal few who profit from selling oil and war.

His water powered car was better than an electric car because without numerous solar panels and plenty of sunlight they too must be charged by electricity produced ultimately from fossil fuels. Stan's car was far ahead of General Motors hydrogen car, which simply burned hydrogen stored in a fuel tank which had also been produced with power generated by fossil fuels.

Stan found a way of using only half an amp of electricity to fracture water molecules separating the oxygen and hydrogen on demand. As the hydrogen was produced it was burned creating combustion more powerful than gasoline, and water was the only significant exhaust emission. Stan Meyer's water engine technology could easily have been developed to power planes, ships, trains, and spacecraft, completely eliminating our need for oil.

Stan Meyer said he trusted in angels to protect him, but in March 1998, Stan was poisoned and died in the parking lot of a restaurant in his home town of Grove City, Ohio. According to his brother Steve, the U.S. Government came to Stan's home a week after his murder and confiscated his car, which got 100 miles per gallon of water, and they stole all of his research equipment which he had used to develop the new technology.

Stan had been threatened many times and would not sell out to Arab Oil Corp. Stan said he was offered a billion dollars from an Arab to basically shelve his idea but he said, "No, this technology is for the people."

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These two videos prove that the present wars being fought over oil never needed to happen. The million killed Iraqi men, women, and children never needed to happen. It's all been a gigantic mass murdering fraud for the profits of oil and war. http://www.waterfuelcell.org/WFCprojects/Video/NewsReport.wmv /
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3333992194168790800&hl=en

Read more about this world class tragedy and watch more excellent videos about this subject at this site: http://waterpoweredcar.com/stanmeyer.html

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© Copyright April 4, 2007 by Schuyler Ebbets. This article is posted on http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org Permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media if this credit is attached and the title remains unchanged.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Something I was thinking about lately

More power to the performer

Musical scores came to be written as if dogma, down to the last pedantic detail; performers, even brilliant ones, became mere instruments to the composer's vision.

That may be a bleak view of the concert hall. But Kristjan Jarvi, the energetic Estonian-born conductor, is disdainful of the pseudo-intellectualism of some contemporary music and the "academic blackmail" to which it subjects performers.

The pianist and conductor is doing his bit to address the perceived imbalance between composer and musician. It's not so much a contest of wills as a spectator sport in which music as well as audiences should benefit.

"It is really important to make the performers feel that they have freedom, that they can express music rather than just play the notes," Jarvi says on the phone from Hanover, Germany.

"The only reason I believe that classical music concerts have become stale is that that kind of freedom and ingenuity is lacking."
Read all at link above.

In my opinion artists have a responsibility to bring their creativity forth in performing great works. I think, as a composer, that if someone where to interpret a piece of mine, adding their sense of art(lessness) it would add greatly to the work. It's not that I would have someone make a lot of changes, unless they say what they are doing is based on what the composer's ideas are or are understood to be. Who can say what Brahms sounded like each time he played or conducted a certain piece, or Liszt for that matter, or any of the great composers.

Making music means or can mean what is felt in the moment--the inspiration of improvisation, not that you change then notes-- but what you do with them.

Music comes from and is creation. It is now and always. It is so much bigger than the written page, the performer and the composer.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Show-Stopping Aria Encored at the Met


All Things Considered, April 23, 2008 - Monday was an unusual night at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

It wasn't so unusual that tenor Juan Diego Florez dazzled the audience with nine high C's in a row in the aria "Ah, Mes Amis," from Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment. And it wasn't unusual that the crowd went crazy.

But then Florez did something that hasn't been done at the Met in 14 years—he sang the aria again.



Read all here.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Working on a new song with poem (lyrics) by John Burroughs

I've enjoying writing music to some of the world's great poetry including Ode on a Grecian Urn, She was Phantom of Delight, Daffodils, La belle Dame Sans Merci, Rumors from an Aeolian Harp and others. My attempts are to create singable tunes in a style that is accessible to the trained or untrained vocalist. I hope I capture the intended emotions even at this level of interpretation.

WAITING

by: John Burroughs (1837-1921)

      Serene, I fold my hands and wait,
      Nor care for wind, nor tide, nor sea;
      I rave no more 'gainst time or fate,
      For, lo! my own shall come to me.


      I stay my haste, I make delays,
      For what avails this eager pace?
      I stand amid the eternal ways,
      And what is mine shall know my face.


      Asleep, awake, by night or day,
      The friends I seek are seeking me;
      No wind can drive my bark astray,
      Nor change the tide of destiny.


      What matter if I stand alone?
      I wait with joy the coming years;
      My heart shall reap where it hath sown,
      And garner up its fruit of tears.


      The waters know their own and draw
      The brook that springs in yonder height;
      So flows the good with equal law
      Unto the soul of pure delight.


      The stars come nightly to the sky;
      The tidal wave unto the sea;
      Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high,
      Can keep my own away from me.