Pivotal Moments

There were long discussions around the Sportman's home last evening. My Daughter is in the enviable yet stress-laden position of having to choose which College to attend next year. She has been accepted at some excellent schools and is having a hard time making the selection. As her Father, I endeavour to offer useful advice. I hope I am being helpful and providing meaningful guidance based on my experience and knowledge.
For many high school seniors this is one of the first really important and difficult choices they make in the transition from kid to adult. Liz is certainly cognizant of the gravity of the choice and is trying to approach the decision intelligently.
All of this led me to think back on some pivotal events in my own life.
Two of these events are pictured here. The first is the day I met U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan. This photo was taken in his Chambers on a day we visited him and attended Court and saw Lawrence Tribe argue the Pennzoil v. Texaco case. One of my best friends from Lehigh is Brennan's Great-Nephew and that is how the visit was arranged. Meeting this brilliant Jurist cemented my desire to attend Law School and pursue a career as a Lawyer.
The second photo is the moment I was instructed to "kiss the bride" at my wedding. My wife and I had been dating since high school, but in this captured moment, it was now official. Marrying this wonderful lady was one of the best things to have happened in my life.
Pivotal moments and events that shape and dictate our futures; we often see them coming and recognize them as they happen.Sometimes we do not. My daughter is experiencing a pivotal event presently and I fervently wish the result for her is as postive as as these moments were for me.

Judo Team

The Main Line Y.M.C.A. Judo Team in 1974. The team was organized and coached by Howie. He had won a spot on the 1968 U.S. Olympic Judo team. However, a severe knee injury just before the trip to Mexico City crushed his Olympic prospects. Howie brought that level of Olympic discipline and dedication to teaching a bunch of kids the Martial Sport founded by Dr.Jigaro Kano in Japan in 1882.
We had regular practices and fervent competition and participation. The work-outs were tough but fun. We all learned life lessons about discipline, combat sports and team spirit. The team competed in local and regional matches and many of us had significant success. I managed to win a Gold Medal in the regional Junior Olympics and a Bronze in the East Coast Regionals. I still have those medals and I am proud of the fierce work and competition they represent. I reached Purple Belt at 13. Sadly, the call of after school jobs, girls and school sports, coupled with the increased level of dedication required to try for a Brown Belt and move to the Junior High division, put an end to my career.Equally sad is how Judo was overshadowed by Kung Fu and the like with the advent of various movies and TV shows glorifying the more agressive forms of Martial Arts.
But man, check out the Afro's on some of my buddies!

A Violet Eyed Beauty

I just saw the news that Elizabeth Taylor has passed away. Suffice it to say she was stunning on screen and led a tumultuous personal life.
From a Sportsman's perspective, I always loved the role she played in 'National Velvet." The story of a determined girl and a fine timber jumping Thoroughbred horse; an intrepid girl who loves her horse and sets out to win the Grand National Steeplechase.
From a different perspective, her beauty and charm took one's breath away in "A Place in the Sun." Likewise, her Maggie opposite Paul Newman in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" was a character of depth and sensuality.
She is gone but her film legacy lives.

The Fighting Chair

Late 1930's, somewhere off the coast of Central New Jersey, perhaps 30 miles out.The man on the right is my maternal Grandfather, about whom I have posted before...pictures of old time Football and Baseball. The man on the right is his brother...my Great Uncle.
His name was Wilson and they called him Wils. He graduated from Lehigh in 1933, 52 years before me. He was a Chi Phi brother. (Based on this "legacy" I received a pre-bid during Rush...but turned it down for a variety of reasons.)
After college he worked in Manhattan as a coal broker for Bethlehem Steel. The the War intervened and he ended up spending the war years in the Army in Langely, Virginia. He was supposedly in supply and logistics, but based on some things he said over the years at Thanksgiving or Christmas pre-dinner cocktails,when he was lubricated with a Maker's Mark Manhattan, I suspect there was more going on. Perhaps he had some minor intelligence role based on where he was stationed.He certainly was far too smart and talented to merely arrange shipments of Spam and socks.
He enjoyed a long life and made rural Connecticut his home.
Wils and my Grandfather loved to fish and would book a charter to chase Tuna off the Jersey coast. I love the tone of this old photo,the leather jacket and the neckties the wooden rods and the massive Penn Reel above Wils's right hand, the overhang of the upper deck and the wooden framing, the padded fighting chair and the focus of the fisherman off the stern. According to my Grandfather, his younger brother Wils hauled in a fairly massive Tuna that afternoon.
Uncle Wils once bought a fine field grade Belgian Browning 20 ga. back in the early 50's that I still have and sometimes use to hunt Rails and Quail. He was a Sportsman and a Gentleman and a Lehigh man and liked nothing more than to be in a fighting chair trying to haul in a big one.

Muscle Car Weather

The recent weather has stirred thoughts of Spring.With thoughts of Spring comes the urge to unleash the growling beast which has rested dormant in the garage since the leaves began to drop and the weather turned cold. Said beast is pictured above. I posted about my 1969 Olds 442 some time ago. Then I came across a better photo in my desk at the office, this time the American muscle shown with top down.
I have lusted after this particular, year, make and model since 10th grade.In that year I began to work at a local gas station after school and on weekends. One of the mechanics at the station had a 69 442 and I simply fell in love.I liked Mustangs and Vettes, but something about the 69 442 captured me. Being 15 and having no money, I had to settle for admiration from afar and the occassional ride in the mechanics car.

Fast forward to 1998 and a listing offering a 1969 Olds 442 convertible for sale in Norristown, PA. Now I possessed the means and the garage space. The sale was consumated and I have been enjoying this car ever since. When the weather turns the cover is removed, washing and waxing is completed, oil is changed and fluids are checked. A drive around the back roads of the Main Line on a soft, sunny Spring day is a type and form of therapy not often found.

Back to Boxing

My fighter is slated to get back into the Ring on Friday April 1, 2011. He has been training exceptionally hard and has a new trainer as well. We hope that he can score a win and get things back on track. He better win, April 1st is my Birthday!

My Evening with Max....minimus

Perhaps some of you have already read of the now infamous evening last week when this Sportsman had the pleasure and privilege of meeting up with ADG, the wordsmith at the helm of Maxminimus. Max scooped me on the post and I have been intending to give yet a second account of that night.
I had read in passing thru ADG's very enjoyable and damn well crafted Blog that on occassion his business brings him to Philadelphia. I suggested we meet for drinks on one of his visits and he agreed. Apparently, he was not worried that he would wake up in a strange hotel down by the Airport with hastily sewn sutures over his abdomen where one of his kidneys had been harvested and sold to Russian drug lords.
On the appointed evening I suggested we meet at the Vesper Club. NOT the Vesper Boat Club pictured above, which is on the river and home to some very accomplished crew racers and scullers. Rather, the Vesper Club which is a private dining and drinking club tucked away on Sydenham street in Center City, across from the back door of the Philadelphia Raquet Club. The Vesper Club was organized back in the days when it was necessary to get around old Quaker "Blue" laws which forbade the sale of alcohol on Sundays. Vesper is a bit frayed around the edges, and is about as exclusive as a 7-11....but it has exceptional service, a great Bar, excellent food and barman and staff who know all the Members names, make you feel welcome, and know their business.
Max was all business when he sauntered in, greeted my friend Linc and I and immediately ordered a Stoli Martini, up with 3 olives. I was already working on a Basil Hayden's Old Fashioned.
Let me simply put it this way: ADG is, to borrow a phrase from one of my High School age children, "way cooler" than even comes across from his writings and photos on his Blog. We were instantly at ease with one another. As I stated in a comment on his far more creative narative of the evening, meeting Max/ADG was like catching up with a long lost Fraternity brother...albeit a better dressed version than the beer-swilling maniacs I banged around with at Lehigh.
We drank, ate clams casino and jumbo lump crab meat,drank some more and touched on numerous topics. He even hit it off with one of my oldest buddies,Linc, who came along as my wing-man as he never misses a chance to drink at the Vesper Club and smoke a good cigar. Coincidentally, another boyhood friend came in that night, a guy I have hung out with since 7th grade.
As the talk and ribbing and jokes and laughs and anecdotes poured like the hooch, we hit topics ranging from the raising of daughters and dealing with their boyfriends,to our mutual obsession with collecting antique toy soldiers. We talked about WWII history and Ambrose's book "Pegasus Bridge" (he had an interesting personal connection to that story) to sporting art and prints such as A.B. Frost and the Vanity Fair prints and watercolors he collects. We discussed other Bloggers and their posts and ones he'd met and the ones we thought were great and the ones we thought were less than great. We talked about guns and gunning and I promised I was going to get him out duck hunting. We talked about owning our own businesses and we had a similar curiosity about the particulars of each others professions.
As tends to happen when guys get drinking and bullshitting, the time flew and I suggested we adjourn around the corner to Chris' Jazz cafe, the Jazz Club I owned from 1999 to 2006. I sold my interest to my partner who still runs the place but still hang out there and get what we used to call "The Sinatra Treatment" anytime I come thru the door. It is a great joint.
So we arrived and I dragged him through the kitchen and to the office to meet my former partner: my particular friend Mark. Max was still hungry despite the clams and crab, and he needed a booze sponge. Mark is Italian and takes it as a personal affront if someone is going around hungry within 10 blocks of his Joint..He is always one to oblige a hungry guest so a delicious hot roast beef appeared for Max's enjoyment and sustenance. We continued to laugh and talk and enjoyed the Guitar jazz wafting from the stage.
At the end of the evening a sartorial disaster did unfold which accounts for the scorched jacket pictured above and described in Max's post. I leave it to him to disclose exactly how this unfortunate episode of rapid oxidation was visited upon his Flusser-made jacket. Knowing him and his clothes obsession thru his Blog, I fully appreciated the horror he must have felt...but he was a good sport and took the calamity in stride.
We popped next door to my garage, collected my Caddy, and I dropped him at his hotel. In retrospect I should have driven my F-150 hunting truck with the custom camo seat covers just to stay in Sportsman's persona.
In the final analysis it was a great night enjoyed with a great guy. Max's mix of South Carolina charm, worldly wit and refinement, and well read and well bred perspective, along with his uncanny attribute of seeming like a long lost buddy, makes for a guy you would be happy to spend time with anywhere from a Tap-room banging back drinks to an auction house seeking rare prints or a Football game or a quiet dinner party and everything in between. Now that we have the mutual admiration posts out of the way....what about that jacket.....

Robert Levin: Meta-Mozart and Mozart’s Own Experimentalism/Eclecticism

M   olding the ‘clay’, getting your fingers ‘wet’: discovering how Mozart thought, how he might have written things, how he went about doing what he did. This is inevitably humbling—this improvising cadenzas and whole movements that are missing from his works. But it also enables you to more accurately perform and understand the parts that are not missing; to have a better sense that there are [performance] ‘options’ from which to choose.”
  — Robert Levin, pianist.

I s it ‘creation’ or is it imitation? Honestly, it is both!

• Mozart – Prelude and Fugue in C, K. 394 (4.0 min; 3.5 min)
  
• Mozart – “Adagio variee” K3 Anh. 206a = K6 Anh. A 65 (1.5 min for each of 4)
  
• Mozart – Suite “In the style of Handel”, K. 399 [Sarabande completed by R. Levin] (3.5 min; 3.5 min; 2.2 min; 4.3 min; 3.5 min)
  
• Mozart – Piano Sonata No. 15 in F, K. 533/494 (26.5 min)

W   hat you hear in this Adagio, K. Anh. A65, are two parts, A and B, composed by Mozart. And for each of these, I have deconstructed them, stripped them down, and created versions, A’ and B’, removing the decorations… to show what might have been.”
  — Robert Levin, pianist.

I n Levin’s improvised material in last evening’s MainlyMozart program in San Diego we get a sense of genuine authenticity in terms of motivic elements, harmonic progressions, modulations, durations that each chord/key prevails until a change is introduced, and so on. Really convincing and wonderful. You don’t necessarily have to have comprehensive (or even ‘adequate’) explanations for the formal structure of Mozart’s music to produce new compositions (or, as Levin is famous for doing, completions of Mozart’s unfinished ones) that have tremendous verisimilitude.

T here is a lot of latitude for interpretation in these pieces—including Levin’s slow, dilated accounts of the first two movements of Sonata in F, K. 533. For example, Schiff, Eschenbach, Uchida, and others turn in Allegro times ranging between 7 min and 9 min, compared to Levin’s 11 min for the Allegro last night. Others’ performances of the Andante range between about 6 min and 10 min, with Levin’s account close to 9 min. And the Rondo Allegretto of this Sonata is, in others’ hands, incredibly varied, ranging from as short as 6 min to 8 min or more; Levin’s tendency toward hyper-masculine emphasis leads him to 6 min 20 seconds with a flourish.

I ’m studying—we all should be studying, like students learning a new language. People study French, German, Italian, Chinese… eventually they become fluent speakers, if they work hard at it. Well, why not think of Mozart as a language, one that must be learned, in a conversational way? I am studying Mozart! I’m just trying to improve my diction—trying to get my ‘accent’ better.”
  — Robert Levin, pianist.

L evin’s remarks remind me of David Cope, composer and professor at UC Santa Cruz, who 20+ years ago created Emmy, a LISP-based software application that produced scores in the style of classical composers. Some time ago Cope decided to sunset Emmy. It has been superceded by a new package, called Emily Howell, another in his suite of computer models of musical creativity.

L iterary theorist Frederic Jameson considers the ‘effacement’ of a personal style and its replacement by ‘pastiche’—not parody as in Bruce Adolphe’s comedic and educational routines but the borrowing and recoding of historical idioms, adopting jargon popularized by others, and repurposing ornaments and decorations that previously held different meanings—as fundamental elements of post-modernism. It is a “celebration of surfaces, which denies the hermeneutics of depth” (Jameson, pp. 64-5.) It’s like speech in a dead language, but speech that is devoid of parody’s ulterior, satiric motives. [Satie and Debussy co-opted and experimented with other styles and did pastiches. Nyman’s book covers some of this history of ‘experimental’ music.]

L evin marveled aloud about the brevity of the fragments that were his starting-materials… conjured the notion of Mozart as a dilettante... abandoning a Gigue in 5 bars; the Sarabande that Levin completed, abandoned by Mozart in 4 bars, just the merest sketch now extant; Mozart becoming very quickly disinterested in the art of fugue, having been goaded into attempting it by his wife.

B ut these idiosyncrasies and peccadillos of Mozart’s become in Levin’s hands a wonderful asset—they serve as a pretext for better understanding the man and the music, or, as many have noted, reviving the art of improvisation and honoring ‘freshness’ and novelty in classical music performance.

W   hat has happened in the last generation or so is that objects—musical scores—have become ‘sacred’. People focus far too much on adhering literally to the notes that are written on the page. It is far better, I believe, to have a sense of responsibility to create something new in performing each work—it needs always to be ‘dangerous’.”
  — Robert Levin, pianist.

R obert Levin studied piano with Louis Martin in New York City, and composition there with Stefan Wolpe. He was invited to study with Nadia Boulanger at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France, and in Paris while still a teenager. He studied composition with Leon Kirchner, and piano with Clifford Curzon, Robert and Jean Casadesus, and Alice Gaultier-Léon. He was appointed head of music theory at the Curtis Institute in 1968, on the recommendation of Rudolf Serkin. Levin’s highly praised Mozart fortepiano concerto series, with Christopher Hogwood and The Academy of Ancient Music, was released in 1994 on the L’oiseau-Lyre label. Levin has been commended especially for his improvised cadenzas, a once-popular performance practice that some have credited him with restoring to tradition. His version of Mozart’s Requiem was premiered in 1991 in Stuttgart at the European Music Festival, conducted by Helmuth Rilling. Since 1993, Levin has been a professor at Harvard, where he serves as a Dwight P. Robinson Jr. Professor of Music Performance & Analysis and Professor of the Humanities.

• Robert Levin page at MainlyMozart.org
  
• Robert Levin page at Harvard
  
• Levin R. Improvising Mozart. Academy of Ancient Music,
  
• Robert Levin CV and publications
  
• Orchestration MUSI-4526, Columbia Univ Dept of Music (typical course involving learning to compose 'in-the-style-of-X')
  
• Adolphe B. Piano Puzzlers: Thirty Familiar Tunes Disguised in the Styles of Famous Composers. WannaCracker, 2006.
  
• Baudrillard J. Simulacra and Simulation. Univ Michigan, 1995.
  
• Berger J. 'Who cares if It [automatic-listening software] listens? An essay on creativity, expectations, and computational modeling of listening to music,' in Virtual Music: Computer Synthesis of Musical Style. Cope D, ed. MIT , 2004.
  
• Blitstein R. Triumph of the cyborg composer. 22-FEB-2010.
  
• Chew E. PalestrinaPal: Grammar-checker for music compositions in the style of Palestrina. USC, 2001.
  
• Cope D. Computers and Musical Style. A-R, 1992.
  
• Cope D. Experiments in Musical Intelligence. A-R, 1996.
  
• Cope D, Burman L, Paiement N. Virtual Mozart. (Centaur, 2000.)
  
• Debord G. Society of the Spectacle. Black & Red, 2000.
  
• Jameson F. Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Verso, 1991.
  
• Levin R. Who Wrote the Mozart Four-Wind Concertante? Pendragon, 1989.
  
• Levin R, 'The Devil’s in the details: Neglected aspects of Mozart’s piano concertos,' in Mozart’s Piano Concertos: Text, Context, Interpretation. Zaslaw N, ed. Univ Michigan, 1997, pp. 29-50.
  
• Levin R, in Century of Bach & Mozart: Perspectives on Historiography. Kelly T, Gallagher S, eds., eds. Harvard Univ, 2009.
  
• Levin R. 'Musical improvisation,' in Art, Education and Society. Solis G, Nettl B, eds. Univ Illinois, 2009, pp. 143-9.
  
• Lewis J. 'Creation by refinement and the problem of algorithmic music composition,' in Music and Connectionism. Todd P, Loy G, eds. MIT, 1991.
  
• Nayberg A. Musicological Pastiche. Hats Off, 2000.
  
• Nettl B. Speculations on musical style and musical content in acculturation. Acta Musicologica 1963;35:35-7.
  
• Nyman M. Experimental Music. 2e. Cambridge Univ, 1999.
  
• Wilkins M. Creative Music Composition: The Young Composer's Voice. Routledge, 2006.

Meditating on Ken Ueno, Musical Seismology, Japan

U   eno’s concert music, writing for a variety of ensembles from chamber groups to orchestra, has been informed in significant ways by his experiences as a performer... Cultural resonances abound in his music; for example, the biwa and shakahuachi concerto Kaze-no-Oka (‘Hill of the Winds’) has an architectural basis, being inspired by buildings designed by Fumihiko Maki... [Japanese] ideograms are used as musical formants, the details of which can be extrapolated and recontexualized to create an organic, but continually changing, whole. Subjecting an acoustical object or objects to scrutiny using computer-based tools of timbral analysis, Ueno extracts details of its musical makeup, such as its prevailing frequencies and how that profile might change over time... What are the limits of perception? ... In Kaze-no-Oka, in addition to the architectural origin, the conceptual-musical idea is of the orchestral body as a reflection and amplification of the biwa (orchestral strings as ‘super-biwa’) and shakuhachi (bass sax and contrabass clarinet as ‘super-shakuhachi’).”
  —  Robert Kirzinger, liner notes, Ken Ueno - BMOP ‘Talus’ CD.

I was relieved to hear that composer Ken Ueno’s parents, grandma, and other family members in Japan are okay following the quake and tsunami.

T hinking of them and others affected by Friday’s magnitude 8.9 temblor and hundreds of aftershocks, I put Ken’s CD ‘Talus’ on to play. I look at its CD jewelcase. It still bears this orange warning label:

I  think: how big is the dynamic range in decibels of the music in this recording, to which the safety warning label refers? The quietest room on Earth (the old Sound 80 studio in Minneapolis) has an ambient sound pressure level (SPL) of -9.4 dB. And the latent SPL of the top-of-the-line audio signal path (microphones, cables, connectors, pre-amps, amps, EQ, digital recording media, audio workstations/mixing consoles, audio CD media, playback amplifier and EQ, monitors/headphones, tympanic membranes and ossicles in the ears, cochlea, Organ of Corti, spiral ganglion, and acoustic nerve, cranial nerve VIII) is about 3.1 dB RMS, at 2 KHz and 20 years of age.

T he corresponding minimum perceptible ambient vibration in the Earth is about -0.7 Richter, according to Thouvenot and Bouchon (see link, below).

T he biggest recorded earthquake was the Great Chilean Earthquake of 22-MAY-1960, which had a magnitude of 9.5 Richter. So, 10 times [9.5 minus -0.7] equals a perceptible dynamic range of 102 dB for maximum earthshaking ever, and 96 dB for Friday’s Japanese earthquake.

A nd the approximate maximum of dynamic range for playing this BMOP CD of Ken’s is about 96 dB on standard digital audio at 16-bit resolution and 44.1 KHz sampling rate, given the limits of CDs and available amplifier chains and monitors/headphones.

K en’s ‘Talus’ CD jewelcase orange warning label alerts us to acoustic SPL differences in his compositions that are basically comparable to the SPL differences of what people experienced in Japan on Friday, just in different ranges of frequency spectrum. [...Heeding orange warning label, turns volume down.]


    [30-sec clip, BMOP, Ken Ueno, ‘Kaze-no-Oka’, 1.1MB MP3]

K en’s music is like koans... not a progression from pain to realization, or pain and loss as a reminder of realization. It is the lean-ness of the mind focusing on the present, consciously exerting energy in the face of difficult odds and adversity. Yamada Roshi: “When you stand up, there is only that standing-up in the whole world, with nothing sticking to it.” Ueno’s music is, like, “This! Just this!” ... something of a ‘last word,’ a rhetoric of pure experience. His compositions’ expression is without judgment, sort of a Zen-like “letting the Shodo calligraphy brush write whatever it wants,” but that does not mean that it is ‘acquiescing’ or accepting of the reality, the suffering that Nature dishes out, nor is it free from worry.

O ur thoughts go out to those in Japan and their families.

Video #1
Video #2
Video #3

D   o not say
that the deepest meaning
comes only from one’s mouth!

Day and night,
eighty thousand poems
arise one after the other—

and in fact
not one audible utterance
has ever been spoken.”
  —  Musō Soseki (夢窓 疎石, 1275 – 1351).

• Ken Ueno page at UC Berkeley Dept of Music
  
• Ken Ueno website
  
• Ken Ueno on Twitter (#DJ_Moderne)
  
• Ken Ueno page at BMOP.org
  
• Bruce D. Interview with Ken Ueno. 29-OCT-2008, CompositionToday.com
  
• Ken Ueno page at American Academy in Berlin
  
• NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) online warning log
  
• Audio Engineering Society
  
• Acoustical Society of America
  
• Institute of Acoustics (U.K.)
  
• Seismological Society of America
  
• Fries B, Fries M. Digital Audio Essentials. O'Reilly, 2005, pp. 144–7. (dynamic range of 16-bit digital audio)
  
• Guidoboni E, Ebel J. Earthquakes and Tsunamis in the Past: A Guide to Techniques in Historical Seismology. Cambridge Univ, 2009.
  
• Hebenstreit G, ed. Perspectives on Tsunami Hazard Reduction: Observations, Theory and Planning. Springer, 2010.
• Hebenstreit G, ed. Tsunami Research at the End of a Critical Decade. Springer, 2010.
  
• Joseph A. Tsunamis: Detection, Monitoring, and Early-Warning Technologies. Academic, 2011.
  
• Kajikawa K. Tsunami! Philomel, 2009.
  
• Levin B, Nosov M. Physics of Tsunamis. Springer, 2010.
  
• Liu P, Yeh H, Synolakis C, eds. Advanced Numerical Models For Simulating Tsunami Waves And Run-up. World Scientific, 2008.
  
• Ray D. Hokusai: The Man Who Painted a Mountain. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001.
  
• Satake K, ed. Tsunamis: Case Studies and Recent Developments. Springer, 2006.
  
• Thouvenot F, Bouchon M. ‘What is the lowest magnitude threshold at which an earthquake can be felt or heard, or objects thrown into the air?’, in Modern Approaches in Solid Earth Sciences, vol. 2, Historical Seismology: Interdisciplinary Studies of Past and Recent Earthquakes. Fréchet J, Meghraoui M, Stucchi M, eds. Springer, 2010.
  
• Tsuchiya Y, Shuto N, eds. Tsunami: Progress in Prediction, Disaster Prevention and Warning. Springer, 2010.