My thoughts (almost) exactly!

Admit it, you're as bored as I am

After 40 years and 1,500 concerts, Joe Queenan is finally ready to say the unsayable: new classical music is absolute torture - and its fans have no reason to be so smug.

During a radio interview between acts at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, a famous singer recently said she could not understand why audiences were so reluctant to listen to new music, given that they were more than ready to attend sporting events whose outcome was uncertain. It was a daft analogy. Having spent most of the last century writing music few people were expected to understand, much less enjoy, the high priests of music were now portrayed as innocent victims of the public's lack of imagination. If they don't know in advance whether Nadal or Federer is going to win, but still love Wimbledon, why don't they enjoy it when an enraged percussionist plays a series of brutal, fragmented chords on his electric marimba? What's wrong with them?

The reason the sports analogy fails is because when Spain plays Germany, everyone knows that the game will be played with one ball, not eight; and that the final score will be 1-0 or 3-2 or even 8-1 - but definitely not 1,600,758 to Arf-Arf the Chalet Ate My Banana. The public may not know in advance what the score will be, but it at least understands the rules of the game.

Read all at link above.

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.

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."

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

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.

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!

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.

Shaman's Hand Poster

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!

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.