jwilzewske: May 2012

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Graduate

This Tuesday was the final session of waterfowl-dog training with Genna. She "graduated" and received her diploma. We trained at Rebel Ridge Retriever Training in Delaware. Lyn Yelton, who runs the show, is a damn fine teacher. She trains and runs in Field Trials and Hunt Tests all over the Nation. Her facility is top-flight. The property has specially constructed ponds for water reteives and some ponds have islands so the dog has to swim, run across the island, grab the bird and return. Her crew is also great...they shoot the blank cartridge shotguns and throw the ducks to simulate real hunting and hunt test conditions. Genna did fairly well...and I learned how much I do not know and what areas need work and improvement. I will keep working thru the Summer to have her ready for next Season. She is not gun-shy which is a huge plus...I have been working on that since I welcomed her to my home. She has great drive and really loves the birds and the swimming. She should do very well in most hunting conditions we encounter. However, we still have plenty of training ahead.

Dawn of a New Adventure (Part 12)

With my schools talks tapering off for exam time, I’m making fast progress on my third book, Prison Time, which picks up where Hard Time left off, and features my unforgettable friends such as Frankie, Two Tonys, Xena, T-Bone… I’m drawing on the blog, letters, memory and input from prisoners. I’m using stuff I wrote that I couldn’t post while in prison that range from fights to details of Frankie’s sex life.

The prequel to Hard Time, Party Time, is going to be published by Mainstream Publishing (Random House). It’s slated for spring 2013 in the UK, not Christmas like I earlier thought.

Webpage for Party Time

Facebook page for Party Time

If I finish Prison Time before the end of 2012, I can submit it for publication for Christmas 2013, thus completing the English Shaun Trilogy.

I’m also working on T-Bone’s life story, and I’m going to explore my parents’ attic for the draft of Two Tonys’ life story that he dictated to me in his cell.

I did my first talk to Rotarians at the Rotary Club of Sutton Nonsuch, Chipstead Golf Club, Coulsdon, where there was much ringing of bells and toasting Queen Elizabeth. I had an excellent veggie dinner with business gentlemen who help the community, and told them my story. It was all quite Masonic. I now know the secret handshake to get out of police trouble, and if that doesn’t work what to say to the judge, “Is there no help for the widow’s son?”

Thanks to the heat, I’ve discovered a correlation between the amount of words I write and my consumption of Nobbly Bobbly ice-lollies. My Polish dentist won’t be pleased.

The trick to not damaging your keyboard while typing furiously with a Nobbly Bobbly stuck in your gob is to lean backwards slightly, so the hundreds and thousands that the Nobbly sheds don’t get jammed in the tiny gaps at the sides of the keys.

This Saturday, I’m signing copies of Hard Time at the O2 Centre Waterstones, London from 2pm onwards. Click for further info.

Click here for Dawn of a New Adventure (Part 11)

Shaun Attwood

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Online Article

Russell Brand, Shaun Attwood, talking drugs to Stoke Newington students

Monday, May 28, 2012

Question Time

A student emailed:

I would like to ask you questions on your time in prison and how drugs got you there. In your DVD, it says that you were sent to prison for talking on the phone to someone about drugs. Is that 100% true? Another thing, you said you went to prison and some of your bouncers went to the same one. What happened to them? You said you didn’t need their protection later on because you had people from the Mafia and others protecting you. Did your bouncers have a hard time or do bouncers immediately go straight up the prison ranks? You said you wrote your blog on a wall. How did you get it put onto paper without anyone knowing? My dad was in prison, and as soon as he went in he was in the higher ranks, and no one said anything to him. He said there were a couple of people trying to steal his back, but he sorted it by giving them turbo laxative and clean-filming the toilets. He had a couple of fights, but not like the violence you describe at the jail.

My school hasn’t watched your DVD yet, but I saw it when I was in inclusion because the ‘drugs and prison’ tittle caught my eye. I really enjoyed watching your DVD, and I’m ashamed to say that I have smoked drugs in the past, but now I’m completely clean. Thank you for bringing the video out to schools, and I’m now going to buy your book.

My response:

I was convicted of talking about drugs on the phone. By the time they caught up with me, I had stopped the Ecstasy business. They didn’t have much evidence of the bigger deals, but I broke numerous drug laws over the years, so it was time to pay the price for my life of crime. Sooner or later it catches up with you.

For the first year of my incarceration, there were lots of people in Arpaio’s jail who were arrested with me, including a best friend from my hometown, Wild Man, who the gangs respected for his fighting skills. He looked out for me, and we all looked out for each other. I was split from my codefendants after the first year, so then I had to rely on my people skills, Englishness, education… to avoid trouble. Writing blogs about other prisoners enabled me to make some powerful alliances, including with Two Tonys, a Mafia mass murderer, and the mighty T-Bone.

Bouncers have better fighting skills than most people, which makes it easier for them to move up the prison ranks.

I started the blog by writing with a tiny pencil sharpened on the wall and door of the cell. Parts of the door usually worked best. I wrote on paper that my aunt smuggled out of the jail. Click here for how this blog started or watch this video.

Click here for the previous Question Time

Shaun Attwood

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Chamber Music Repertoire for Didgeridoo?

T here are a few orchestral works that include didgeridoo (Sean O’Boyle and others), but for conservatory recital or chamber performances there are currently only about 3 dozen chamber music compositions that are readily available. Most of these are indexed at the Australian Music Centre (Duos, Quartets, Quintets, Sextets, Octets; Solo with vocal ensemble). You may also want to consider Peter Sculthorpe’s String Quartet No. 12 with didjeridu, and ‘Lorin’s Piece’ for didjeridu and voice; Neal Corwell’s ‘Aboriginal Voices’ trio for tuba, didgeridoo, and voices; Philip Glass’s ‘Voices’ for organ, didgeridoo, and narrator; and Dubravko Lapaine’s ‘Rescribi’ trio for piano, didgeridoo, and percussion.

[50-sec clip, Dubravko Lapaine, ‘Kosmopterix’, ‘Rescribi’, 1.6MB MP3]

and ‘Putnik’:

[50-sec clip, Dubravko Lapaine, ‘Kosmopterix’, ‘Putnik’, 1.6MB MP3]

T he aboriginal people have a great deal to teach the western world about wind playing in general and lip reeds in particular. The trombone may seem old when compared to western orchestral instruments, but it is only a five hundred year-old baby when compared to the possible forty thousand-year-old tradition of the didjeridu.”
— Stuart Dempster, 1979.

V irtuosic double- and triple-tonguing in the didgeridoo repertoire have parallels to ‘cursus’ in classical Latin oratory and medieval chant (see Eklund, link below), and you might consider that idea in preparing a program. Rhythm—the patterning of accents in speech or singing—establishes expectations; it entrains the listener and the speaker, phase-locking them to the pattern. Accents in Latin fall on at least one out of every three syllables. But in English and other languages the gaps are longer—you can often go for five or six syllables between accents. The didge literature tends to emphasize prosody and oratorical aspects—not only because of your vocalizations into the didge, but also because you have just the fundamental (and pedal), plus a few harmonics (‘toots’, ‘trumpets’) to work with. (Years ago, Juilliard professor Ivan Galamanian famously drew an analogy between instrumental (violin) playing and speech, in which he asserted that attacks are consonants and the sustained notes are vowels, and performers should treat them as such. The analogy is true enough for strings and other instruments, but it’s hardly even an ‘analogy’ in didgeridoo playing: given all of the tongue, jaw, and vocal tract technic involved in didge performance, the vowels-consonants assertion is a self-evident fact of how the didge sounds are produced.)

V ocal and instrumental rhythms are sometimes direct translations of a poetic meter. In other words they may be sung or played, interchangeably. Far more often than not, however, vocal and instrumental rhythms create what we might call ‘rhythmic counterpoint’ when heard with reference to the poetic meter—the interplay among two or more rhythmic threads or voices. By continually altering the durational relationships and varieties of accent in a succession of syllables, musicians can elicit the close attention of listeners.”
— Michael Tenzer, p. 43.

I n thinking about other instrumental repertoire that might be suitable as-is or transcribable for chamber didge recital, you might explore pieces whose articulation and accents entail sound-envelopes that are marcato ‘thrust-followed-by-decay’, an accent that resembles a plucked string instrument like a double-bass. With the didge, the decay is because the outflow of air from the cheeks that occurs while you are inhaling through the nose in circular breathing can’t be as forceful or sustained as the outflow of air when supported by the diaphragm. In general, highly rhythmic, marcato pieces in low register are likely to be feasible and stylistically coherent with didge performance practice, regardless whether they are for winds, strings, or percussion. There are pieces for tympani (for example, Daniel Jenkyn Jone’s ‘Sonata for Unaccompanied Kettledrums’) that could be performed as-is or transcribed for didgeridoo. And there are a number of chamber pieces for bass clarinet or low brass that are plausible. More links that you may find useful follow.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Memorial Day

The weekend that kick's off the Summer mood for most of us. I enjoy watching the Indianapolis 500..."the greatest spectacle in racing." There will be some poolside lounging and some time spent at the Devon Horse Show watching serious equestrians, young and old, compete over scary jumps in the Dixon Oval. There will be cook-outs and yard work and perhaps a movie...we want to see "Crooked Arrows" the film about a lacrosse team. There will be great NCAA lacrosse on TV as well...the finals from Foxborough, Mass.

AMC offers a whole weekend of good war movies also. Which brings us to the point. This weekend is about honoring the brave souls who were cut in half by MG42 fire at Normandy or froze their feet off (literally) at Valley Forge or died of dysentery in Andersonville or were blinded by shell fragments at Belleau Wood. My associate Mike is a Civil War re-enactor. His unit will place over 1500 American Flags on veterans graves this Sunday. That is a Memorial Day activity to be lauded.

Home

The sun finally came out in England. My bedroom feels like an Arizona jail cell. But without cockroaches, just occasional wasps. Insects are much friendlier here. Even the mosquitoes hardly bite. These days, I love “lights out” because I get a good night’s sleep with no guards shining flashlights in my face and prisoners arguing, snoring and singing Spanish love songs. No sound of water leaking from a shower shared by hundreds of men, its drains blocked up with pubic hair, and semen swirling around my feet in a puddle.

Shaun Attwood

New Pics

These were taken by the brilliant Libi Pedder after she read Hard Time. Libi works with many big names such as Keira Knighley as you can see at her website.

Shaun Attwood

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Throwin' the Bones and the Stones

My Grandfather taught me the fundamentals of Craps when I was about 8 years old. My Mom was not pleased with this set of lessons, but I liked throwing those red cubes against a wall in the garage while Grandad schooled me on the Pass line and how to "fade" a bet. That is back alley craps. I refined my game at the tables of Atlantic City and Vegas....playing the Casino version. I think it is the most "fun" game in the house. People at Blackjack are all so serious and cannot help but criticize some tourist rube who takes a hit when the "book" says you shouldn't..they gripe and hunch over and grind.
At the Craps table, you can jump up and down and hoot and hug a leather faced 78 year old Filipino man who is wearing a sleeveless Molly Hatchet T-shirt because he just rolled his point of 8 the hard way and you had odds on the Pass line and a 20 dollar hard eight! There is simply more fun and energy at a hot Craps table.
When you live 60 miles from AC a Sportsman sometimes feels like hitting the tables. As this is Memorial Day weekend, and the "official" start of Summer, the Casinos will be packed. What pisses me off is the way the casinos skew their table limits on big weekends. For example, you will be damn lucky to find any table, Blackjack or craps, under a $25.00 minimum. The issue is that when you play Craps you cannot really play a single bet. At a $5.00 Crap table any decent player is going to have at least $25.00 or more on the table. The Blackjack player can likewise play a hand with a $25.00 chip. However, when you make the Craps minimum $25.00, you cannot really play effectively without at least $100.00 or more. So, trhe Casino creates a de facto prohibition from playing Craps because of this counter-intuitive minimum scheme on weekends. Yeah, I know they think a high Blackjack minimum keeps out some of the riff raff....but it unfairly penalizes Craps players and ultimately loses flush players for the House. So I probably will not head to AC this weekend but I will smile when I recall the story of my Grandfather winning his neighbor's car in a garage Craps game at a neighborhood cocktail party while the wives gossiped in the living room and the men sucked on Pall Mall and Camel non filters and drank the hard stuff.. They were all pretty stoked with Bourbon that evening according to Grandad and that particular wagered vehicle bet was forgiven the next morning when heads had cleared.

Mara Gibson’s ‘Canopy’: Arboreal/Neuronal soundscape/artscape for viola, percussion, and tape

I recently had the privilege to experience a new chamber music composition by Mara Gibson at the opening of a new art exhibit in Kansas City. The work was commissioned by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Premiered in April by Michael Hall, ‘Canopy’ was inspired by ‘Ferment’, Roxy Paine’s (1966-) outdoor installation in the sculpture garden at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.

I n the 13-min composition, Gibson meditates on Paine’s conflation of neuronal dendritic architecture and treeness... the multiplicity of meanings of what we perceive in nature is called into question. We all are trees; we all are neurons now.

L arge-scale sculptures and exotic mixed-ensemble chamber music (viola-percussion-tape) aren’t commonly paired with each other. However, in this instance it is an inspired piece of programming, an account that plumbs the depths of the sculpture’s seeming desolation... a melancholy that stems from the constitutional rootedness of a ramifying, arborizing structure that is situated where it is with little prospect of changing its venue (you; the neurons that make up your brain and make you who you are; the tree). And yet the composition culminates in a radiant, nature-affirming performance that leaves the listener-viewer with more than solace—a sense of quiet optimism.

H all takes great care with the score’s myriad directions, resulting in an intensity and beauty that would delight any composer, as well as any audience. There is a brief pause/silent_stasis at about 07:00. The solo_viola/denuded_tree resumes with a soliloquy. Then, with a harrowing climax, the percussion and recorded track of the viola reappear with renewed vigor, and with the live viola layered on top of them—effecting a grieving voice of the solo viola answering its echo and the percussion more quietly, survivors against all odds! The micrometer-precise diminuendo from 11:00 to the end is perfectly realized—and we immediately appreciate why Gibson wrote it in this way.

H all’s technique is superb throughout and manages to sound like 5 different violas, by using combinations of diverse pressures on the bow, bowing near and far away from the bridge, etc.—pensive, taut, with some ‘extended’ viola techniques. Bob Beck’s recording and production values aptly serve the intimacy of this beautiful piece. Few recordings achieve such a level of detailed commitment from the artists and the recording engineer! (I am grateful, too, that Gibson has made digital recordings of ‘Canopy’ available for download on BandCamp.com.)

A nyone who has tried to devise a likeness of a tree—sculpting one as a kid in school, or, with more serious intent as an older person—will recognize how difficult it is to do well. The fractal character of the branch points and the Fibonacci-like decimation of the caliber of the branches as you go further and further out on the limbs is hard to emulate. It is so easy to end up with a ‘fail!’—a crude likeness that looks contrived, a caricature of a tree! But Paine achieves a high level of fractal verisimilitude—a tree representation with enough character-development and complexity and depth to be believable as a tree or as another living organism with moral standing. Gibson’s writing is not ‘representational’ as such, but with equal care and finesse achieves comparable moral weight and attractive, believable, attention-holding verisimilitude.

I n summary, Gibson’s sonic stimuli synergize nicely with Paine’s sculpture’s visual and haptic stimuli. I enjoyed being immersed in both of them at the same time. The visual and musical elements are independent and exciting in their own right and (in the case of Paine’s sculpture, ‘have already stood’ and--) will continue to stand ably on their own. But, together, the two works manifest a cohesion that is evident to listeners/viewers as they encounter the works simultaneously. It is a brilliant success as a tandem installation, and ‘Canopy’ is commendable as a commissioning project. Other galleries and museums should take note of this as an example they can replicate—commissioning companion chamber compositions to accompany major new acquisitions, and organizing gala première performances (with food and wine, as the Nelson did) to cultivate new membership and community involvement! No better way than this to dispel the ignorant museum stereotype of grey-hair elites!

H all is a former president of the Chicago Viola Society and a founding member of the Lake String Quartet. He has performed at numerous summer festivals, including the Grand Teton Festival, the National Orchestral Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music School, and the Aspen Music Festival. Hall serves on the faculties of Illinois Wesleyan University, VanderCook College of Music, and the Chicago Academy for the Arts. He is a graduate of Ball State University, with graduate studies with Peter Kamnitzer and with the LaSalle and Tokyo String Quartets, at the University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and doctoral studies with Michelle LaCourse and Scott Rawls at the UNC, Greensboro.

G ibson graduated from Bennington College and completed her PhD at SUNY Buffalo. She attended London College of Music; l’École des Beaux-Arts, Fontainebleau, France; and the International Music Institute, Darmstadt. She has received grants and honors from the American Composer’s Forum, the Banff Center, Louisiana Division of the Arts, Arts KC, Meet the Composer, the Kansas Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, the International Bass Society, ASCAP, and the John Henrick Memorial Foundation. She is also founder of the UMKC Composition Workshop for Young Composers and co-director/founder of ArtSounds, now in its seventh year. ArtSounds specializes in “immersive art-music fusion” experiences, similar in spirit to ‘Canopy’.

T he greatest hindrance in the understanding of life lies in the impossibility of accounting for it by the enumeration of its properties. It must be understood as a unity. But if the organism [tree; neural network] is a unity, in what sense are its component properties its parts? Who is it, really, and why? How does this unity arise? To what extent must it be considered a property of the organization of the organism, as opposed to a property emerging [undeliberated] from its mode of life? These questions remain open....”
— Humberto Maturana & Francisco Varela.

Medical Issues (Part 12 by Lifer Renee)

Renee – Only a teenager, she received a 60-year sentence. Sixteen years later, Renee is writing from Perryville prison in Goodyear, Arizona, providing a rare and unique insight into a women's prison.

Around 1pm, I was called back to Medical, where officer G gave me the story, “I have to write the disciplinary ticket because if I don’t write you up I have to let others off.”

I just ignored him.

I was weighed and had my blood pressure taken. I waited, thoroughly frustrated.

Finally, I entered the cramped doctor’s office.

“Well, we have your MRI results. C1 vertebrae…” He continued in medical jargon I couldn’t understand all the way down to C7.

I looked at him, “Can you give it to me in layman’s terms?”

The doctor turned and looked me dead in the eyes, “Your neck is fucked up!”

My jaw dropped. “Really. What’s wrong?”

“You have bone spurs growing on your spine and two permeated disks. I need to send you for a surgery consult to see what your options are, but for the pain you’re having down your arm and the thinning of your nerves, I want to make sure there’s no nerve damage.”

I signed a release form and again waited for another medical appointment.

The next day the disciplinary officer came into work and gave me a verbal warning for my ticket. Thank goodness there were no sanctions.

Clickhere for Medical Issues Part 11

Shaun Attwood

Monday, May 21, 2012

Race Weekend

It was a beautiful day at the races. We enjoyed G&T's, cold beer,Bloodys and hot horses. The menu was cold fried chicken, turkey club tea sandwiches and pate'. The first race was a real barn burner...on the first jump from start there were falls. Indeed, one horse, Out of the Ghetto, was injured and had to be put down...a tragic loss and one reminder of the danger and risk of this form of racing. It is not all Mimosas and pretty hats....jockeys can be gravely injured and horses can face euthanasia.

On the brighter side of this first race, the brother of my hunting buddy was the winning owner. Michael Moran's Staying On...an Irish bred, took the finish in an exciting race.

None of my later picks of the day were very accurate. But my wife and I had a wonderful time with friends. The Preakness was an stirring bit of flat track deja vu.

Coming up we have the Indy 500, The Greatest Spectacle In Racing" and the highly competitive Devon Horse Show. Indeed, next Thursday finds the U.S. Olympic Equestrian Team hopefuls jumping in the Devon Gran Prix. I need to slog through this week and some court appearances to get to the weekend with some serious dog training in between.

St. Catherine's (Bexleyheath) School Visit

Had a fantastic reception from the girls at St Catherine's today. After the bell went, they stayed for their entire break, asking questions. They also signed up for almost 100 autographed copies of Hard Time, almost breaking the record set at Maricourt Catholic High, Liverpool of 120 copies. My two brilliant readers below are Simi and Pelumi.

Shaun Attwood

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Terry Riley’s Aleph (א): Music to Code By

A leph in Jewish mysticism represents the oneness of the Divine. The letter can been seen as being composed of an upper yud, a lower yud, and a vav leaning on a diagonal. The upper yud represents the hidden and ineffible aspects of God while the lower yud represents God’s revelation and presence in the world. The vav connects the two realms.”
— Wikipedia.

T he 1-hour 53-min recording of Terry Riley’s solo synth performance of his composition, ‘א’, is beautiful—and precisely the sort of experience you would expect from Riley.

B ut, apart from whatever else it may be and apart from its merits as a composition and as a performance, I have found it to be especially conducive to my own productivity when working on complex math problems and coding software to solve them. For me, silence works only up to a point, after which I need minimalist music.

B ut not just any minimalist music. For example, Michael Nyman’s music interferes with concentration. La Monte Young’s music contains, for me, too many distractions. I do find Ellen Fullman’s recent work conducive, though, in the same way that Terry Riley’s ‘Aleph’ is conducive.

T he timbre of the Korg Triton Studio 88 Synth is bright like a Chinese single-reed or double-reed, but with a lot of spectral flux like a car horn... or a choir of Chinese tenor and bass suonas. Spectral flux and spectral irregularity are distinguishing features in car horns (see Lemaitre 2003, link below).

T he two-hour performance is filled with dense, organic, continually-changing textures—nimble car horns, if car horns can ever be nimble, and these are supernaturally nimble. The automaticity of preschool kids’ trying out their fingers on a keyboard, enjoying the raw pleasure of making notes and reproducing patterns and sequences... reflexive movements of their fingers and arms, yielding arpeggiation that involves just those notes that are within easy reach without stretching.

T he effect, some minutes into listening to it, evokes a freedom from intention and planning that is unknown to sober adults, and this is what facilitates my problem-solving and coding mind. The uncertain continuation of woodwind-like fingering patterns without aim, as long as they last, until superceded by some new motif... the stochastic, aleatoric innovations... Riley discounts the creative value of mind and deliberation and discounts it again, and again... the dollar-store of intellect... until the passion of meat is all that’s left, and animal instinct is restored...

O nly connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect...”
— E.M. Forster, ‘Howard’s End’, Ch. 22, 1910.

H ere’s a short MP3 clip.

T here is a ceremonial, magisterial, quasi-liturgical quality of ‘Aleph’ that reminds me of requiem forms. Or of chant, which can be heard as both archaic and contemporary. It is a mystical piece that unfolds at an implacable, glacial pace. The tone is largely meditative and serene, which provides space for contemplation and veneration. There are dozens-of-voices atmospheric Ligeti-like sound-fogs... fields of dissonance that convey an inhuman, infinite, primeval power—this surely is part of the Hebrew significance of Aleph; as is true also of the meaning of ‘א’ in mathematics—fitting as well in the context of requiem-writing.

I t has been said that my ‘Requiem’ does not express the fear of death and someone has called it a lullaby of death. But it is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience. The music of Gounod has been criticized for its over-inclination towards human tenderness. But his nature predisposed him to feel this way: religious emotion took this form inside him. Is it not necessary to accept the artist’s nature? As to my ‘Requiem’, perhaps I have also instinctively sought to escape from what is thought right and proper...”
— Gabriel Fauré, 1902.

T hroughout, the piece is prodigiously inventive, with prolific layers upon layers of rhythmic and harmonic complexity, yet all presented with what appears on the surface to be minimalistic... it embodies the best of what minimalism can be: full of latent variety that captures and nourishes the listener’s awareness. (Which is why I find it helpful to listen to when I am tackling a hard problem, and why I am writing this blogpost you are reading. If you are interested in reading more about quantitative evidence concerning music listening and work productivity, have a look at the links below, esp. the book by Vikram Kiran.)

T he seamless, cluster-like blends fan out like a spilled liquid on a flat surface—part of the organic quality of just intonation, providing a support structure for the synth suona-like parts, a Toop-style “rawness” of intonation that sustains the emotional intensity of the piece.

M ost a cappella ensembles naturally gravitate to just intonation because its ‘stability’ or ‘target-pitch predictability’ is comfortable. In that regard, maybe the spectral flux and on-again-off-again frisson of this Terry Riley recording will be of special interest to people of a vocal bent, both amateur and professional singers alike.

T his sound of synth suonas keening, synth voices keening, choir of synth car horns keening... bears some resemblance to the György Ligeti piece in ‘2001 A Space Odyssey’, ‘Lux aeterna’... A friend who was overhearing my repeated playing of the 2 Riley ‘Aleph’ CDs wondered aloud “How can you stand that!? It’s driving me nuts!” So, to be truthful I should say that this is an acquired taste, or reveals a patience borne of equanimity. It is like being transported by William Kraft’s music in the walkway between terminals underneath Chicago’s O’Hare airport. It is like listening to a choir of chainsaws in the forest at a great and comfortable distance. Or like the persistent-but-beautiful bleating and tintinnabulation of sheep in a high alpine meadow in the Swiss alps, below the Jung Frau Joch in the late mornings of mid-summer. In other words, the bleating and tintinnabulation signify tolerant, salutary, and humane qualities that are implicit in our planet’s troubled story. Children of the Universe, you (every living creature) are here, hurray. Have a good life.

I n short, these are qualities which make humans, the sum of which could be seen in love (esp. agape, which in turn can be seen as an embodiment of the ‘idea of One’). The musical gaze cast from this sphere upon the story world is distanced, more or less withdrawn, non-judgemental, calm, quiet, and slightly melancholic, yet non-sentimental. As film music, tintinnabuli music often qualifies as an ‘against all odds’ score capable of making the complicated plot-level matters more poignant.”
— Kaire Maimets-Volt, p. 172.

I f you were in a foreign country and experiencing the local people performing on their native instruments, a long raga, for example—you would exhibit a tolerance toward such bleatings and tintinnabulations. But if instead, like my friend, you regard it as a choir of annoying car horns—multiple car alarms being set off repeatedly by marauding kids on a street a couple of blocks away—you just want it to stop.

I n summary, playing these 2 CDs consecutively without a break induces an awareness that can facilitate productive concentration at work and lift you into a realm beyond human understanding or hearing. The music requires an audience who must be willing to accept the spirit of the work and suspend their disbelief in order to receive its many rewards.

Friday, May 18, 2012

T-Bone on Helping Strangers

Thursday, May 17, 2012

MUS-501 final exam question: Late Schumann Lieder were hip-hop anthems. Evidence? Discuss.

I n 1989’s ‘Fight the Power’, Public Enemy’s Chuck D spits a working definition of rhyme’s reason: ‘As the rhythm’s designed to bounce / What counts ... is that the rhyme’s / Designed to fill your mind.’ He is speaking of ‘rhyme’ here both as the practice of patterning sounds and as a name for the verse as a whole. In both meanings, rap’s rhymes have filled our minds with many things, not all of them good. But it is more than a matter of content—be it women and cars or prisons with bars; it is also a question of poetic form.”
— Adam Bradley, p. 55.

T he prominence of dark themes in Schumann’s lieder in 1851 and later, featuring violent language and desultory circumstances and the characters’ defiant reactions to them, is strong evidence in favor of this thesis. Likewise, there is a radically different relationship between the music and the text compared to Schumann’s earlier lieder: in the late lieder there is a much stronger emphasis on syllabic stresses, on rhyme, and on systolic pulsatility of the voice strongly sync’ed to the instrumental beat. Schumann’s settings of Kullmann poems especially are, essentially, rap over music.

D ominated by the energy of insistent repetition—from perfect rhymes to assonance and consonance—delivering on the promise... apocopated rhymes, where a one-syllable word rhymes with the stressed portion of a multisyllabic word. He matches the first line’s monosyllabic internal rhymes ‘last’ and ‘blast’ with an apocopated rhyme ‘fastball’ on the next line. He does the same thing in reverse with another rhyme as well—using ‘hit’ to rhyme with ‘splitter’. This creates a structure that binds the two lines together... almost every word is doing some kind of rhyme work... using rhyme to fashion rhythm.”
— Adam Bradley, p. 62.

Und die mich trug im Mutterarm	And she who carried me in arms
Und die mich schwang in Kissen	And rock me in the nest
Die war ein schön, froh, braunes Weiß	She was beautiful, happy, *red*—hot—but
Wollte nichts vom Mannsvolk wissen	She never want to mess
Sie scherzte nur und lachte laut	‘Round... She only joke and laugh,
Und liess die Freier stehen.	Dissin’ those who hit on her.
„Möcht’ lieber sein des Windes Braut	“I’d rather be fucked by da wind
Als in die Ehe geh’n!”	Than have sex with any of you!”
Da kam der Wind, da nahm der Wind	And dat wind came, and dat wind chose,
Als Buhle sie gefangen,	And beat her and rape her too,
Von dem hat sie ein lustig Kind,	And that how she birthed me, packin’ heat.
Jung Volker, mich, empfangen.	Know dis: Jung Volker is my name.
—Eduard Mörike (1804-1875)	Op. 125, No. 4 (1851)

P ianist Graham Johnson maintains that Dichterliebe (Op. 48) contains what is arguably “the nearest thing in lieder to the modern phenomenon of ‘rap’ ” (liner notes to Vol 3, Hyperion CDA67676, pp. 101-2, specifically regarding ‘Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen’, No. 11, a song about a young man’s rejection by the woman he loves). In my opinion, dubstep is the sound that Schumann was going for, instead of brostep. And a ducking ‘pump’ sound that you hear in techno and electro that comes from side-chaining. That and electro house drums. Kind of a ‘dark garage’ hip-hop dubstep with kicked-up bass. The late lieder would be great with custom Ableton controllers for that sound. Don’t get that on no Hyperion CD, though!

C ogan’s timbral reading of a piece is informed by the words sung in the performance. In his ‘Sounds of Song’, Cogan compares spectrographs of four recordings of Robert Schumann’s ‘Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet,’ a song he describes as ‘always obsessive, but uncertain, lost — quite literally traumatic.’ ”
— Smith Reed, Univ Pittsburgh, 2005.

Der leidige Frieden	Peace make me nervous,
Hat lange gewährt—	It last too long—
Wir waren geschieden,	We ‘part for weeks,
Mein gutes Schwert!	My blade, its song!
Derweil ich gekostet	Down in the cellar
Im Keller den Wein—	I drink dat wine—
Hingst du verrostet	You hanging rusty
An der Wand allein.	By the wall, bidin’ your time.
Von Sorte zu Sorte	Each juice
Probiert’ ich den Wein—	I tasted when my turn to—
Indessen dorrte:	Meantime, dat blood:
Das Blut dir ein.	It’s dried on *you*.
Ist endlich entglommen	Battle when you right
Der heisse Streit,	Ain’t no crime—
Mein Schwert, und gekommen	Blade, here comes
Ist dein Zeit.	Your thirsty time.
Ich geb’ deiner Klingen,	Wipe some more,
Den blanken Schliff:	You bright, smooth steel:
Ich lasse dich singen	I let you rap
Den Todespfiff.	Your deadly spiel.
Im Pulvernebel	In gunpowder haze
Die Arbeit rauscht—	You slash, rip steep—
Wir haben, o Säbel,	You ’n’ me, Blade,
Die Freuden getauscht.	We put ’em all deep.
Im brausenden Moste,	In foamin’ wine,
Mein durstiges Erz	Blade thirsty and smart,
Betrinke dich, koste	Drink deep and taste
Von Herz zu Herz;	From heart to heart;
Derweil du gekostet	While you’ve been tastin’
Das rote Blut,	Your crimson blood,
Is mir eingerostet,	My throat—it’s parched,
Der Hals vor Glut.	Waitin’ for a flood.
—Nikolaus Lenau (1802-1850)	Op. 117, No. 2 (1851)

O bscure poems that portray dysfunctional or oppressive gender relations, cars and money or jewels, and weapons—a throw-away objectification of people and ‘live-for-the-moment’ violent materialism—are also characteristic of these late Schumann lieder, in a fashion that presages modern hip-hop themes and postures. Braggadocio and lyrics that proclaim the singer’s greatness—these appear in Op. 117, Op. 104, and others.

W hile rap may be new-school music, it is old-school poetry. Rather than resembling the dominant contemporary form of free verse—or even the freeform structure of its hip-hop cousin, spoken word, or slam poetry—rap bears a stronger affinity to some of poetry’s oldest forms, such as strong-stress meter of ‘Beowulf’. As in metrical verse, the lengths of rap’s lines are governed by established rhythms—in rap’s case, the rhythm of the beat itself.”
— Adam Bradley, p. xv.

Du nennst mich armes Mädchen	“Po’ ho’,” you call me;
Du irrst! Ich bin nicht arm!	You full o’ shit! I’m not po’!
Entress dich, Neugier halber,	Wake up, you pimp,
Einmal des Schlafes Arm und schau’	from yo’ drunk-ass sleep,
Mein niedres Hüttchen	An’ look at my mansion
Wenn sich die Sonne	Wit da paradise sunrise
Hold am Morgenhimmel hebet:	When da morning sun come to me:
Sein Dach ist reines Gold!	Dat roof is pure gold!
Komm’ Abends, wann die Sonne,	Or come in da evening when da sun,
Bereits zum Meere sinkt,	Sinking in da sea,
Und sieh’ mein einzig Fenster,	See only my window,
Wie’s von Topasen blinkt!	Sparklin’ wit da topaz jewelz!
Du nennst mich armes Mädchen	“Po’ ho’,” you call me;
Du irrst! Ich bin nicht arm!	You full o’ shit! I’m not po’!
—Elisabeth Kuhlmann (1808-1824)	Op. 104, No. 3 (1851)

E mblematic of all rap music is constructing an image of power through gestural cues, which may be in the words or the music or both. The cues include punched-up rhythms and phrases about money, expensive clothing, jewelry, killing and dying, and going places and doing things. Late Schumann lieder got those!

T he situational exigencies of late Schumann lieder are accessible to anyone whose mind is open, and are not dependent on exterior markers for their manifestation. Instead, they are rooted in demonstrating values in interacting with others—values such as defiance, aggression, and action; support, mutuality, and reflection—‘power over’; ‘power with’. Don’t need no fancy or subtle analysis to identify features of hip-hop in late Schumann. Jus’ need to open our minds to the sonic and textual evidence that’s right there in front of us.

T wo hundred years ago popular music and art music were joined at the hip. Beethoven’s works and the birth of the Romantic Era coincided with the rise of the middle classes. Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann composed lieder that could be sung and played in the home by amateur musicians. At the same time that the middle classes expanded, they received a more formalized and substantial education and formulated an idea of art and music. The masses were able to sing and play music that did not require the same technical ability as music that one would ﬁnd in the concert hall, but was more suited for the salon. The music was ‘attainable’, and it featured poetic verses with melodies that were relatively easy to sing.”
— Gabe Kanengiser.

Steeplechase Weekend

This weekend will find us in the box seats at the Radnor Hunt Steeplechase races. One of my favorite days of the year...an excuse to drink cocktails in the afternoon, be outside all day in beautiful countryside, wager, socialize and see some of the best horses in the business race over timber and brush fences. My wife and I are on the race committee so we will have a few duties throughout the afternoon.
After the races conclude, there is a separate cocktail party under the Steward's Tower to watch the Preakness. The Jombotron is tuned to the coverage and a new round of wagering ensues.
Below I have excerpted the report from the National Steeplechase Association website about the race. Jockey's up and place your bets!

Radnor’s National Hunt Cup draws competitive field

Thursday, May 17th, 2012

A well-balanced group of American Steeplechasing’s rising stars will clash on Saturday, May 19, in the $50,000 National Hunt Cup, one of the feature races of the 82nd annual Radnor Hunt Races. First post time is 1:30 p.m. for the six-race program at the W. Burling Cocks Memorial Racecourse in Malvern, Pa.

Also on the program is the $40,000 Radnor Hunt Cup, a race over timber fences that attracted a large field, including stakes winners G’day G’day and Delta Park.

The National Hunt Cup, a 2 3/8-mile race over National Fences, features novices, or horses in their first seasons of competition over fences. Racing Hall of Fame member Jonathan Sheppard, who trains his large stable in Chester County, entered his Sergeant Karakorum. The six-year-old Thunderello gelding indicated that he is coming of age with a score in the $50,000 Georgia Cup at the Atlanta Steeplechase on April 14. Brian Crowley, currently the sport’s leading jockey by purse earnings, has the mount.

Unionville-based trainer Leslie Young entered Hickory Tree Stable’s Gustavian, who ran a strong race for finish second, defeated by only a half-length, in the $50,000 Queen’s Cup MPC ‘Chase, a novice stakes in North Carolina on April 28. Two-time champion jockey Xavier Aizpuru will ride.

Trainer Lilith Boucher won last year’s National Hunt Cup with Mede Cahaba Stable’s Complete Zen, and the Unionville-based horsewoman will saddle Mede Cahaba’s Class Indian for this year’s edition of the National Hunt Cup.

No stranger to Radnor, Class Indian won his first victory over fences in last year’s $25,000 Milfern Cup. Most recently, the five-year-old Waquoit gelding finished first in the Daniel Van Clief Memorial at the Foxfield Spring Races in Charlottesville, Va., on April 28 but was disqualified for a medication positive. Richard Boucher, the trainer’s husband, will ride.

Armata Stables’ Cornhusker was elevated to the winner’s spot in the Van Clief, and he is part of a three-prong entry from Maryland-based trainer Tom Voss. Also in the Voss entry is The Fields Stable’s Wanganui, last year’s three-year-old champion who has yet to start this year. Newcomer Kieren Norris will ride Cornhusker, and Danielle Hodsdon was named aboard Wanganui.

Anne Pape’s Fog Island, who left his opponents in the dust in a $35,000 allowance race at the Virginia Gold Cup meet on May 5, will be saddled by Virginia-based Richard Valentine. Darren Nagle has the mount.

In the 3 1/4-mile Radnor Hunt Cup, Magalen O. Bryant’s G’day G’day will be seeking his second stakes victory of the spring season. Trained by Doug Fout, G’day G’day won the Middleburg Hunt Cup on April 21 and then was a hard-closing second, beaten three-quarters of a length, in the $75,000 Virginia Gold Cup. Carl Rafter will again ride the nine-year-old Eastern Echo gelding, who won last fall’s Pennsylvania Hunt Cup.

Arcadia Stable’s Delta Park closed out his 2011 season with a victory in the $50,000 New Jersey Hunt Cup and kicked off the current campaign with a third-place finish in the $50,000 Mason Houghland Memorial timber race at Nashville’s Iroquois Steeplechase on May 12. Nagle will ride the eight-year-old Johannesburg gelding for trainer Jack Fisher.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Gang Mayhem in Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Jail

The YouTube video is a call from a black inmate describing the present state of gang warfare in Arpaio's jail. The majority of the gangs, led by the Mexican Mafia controlled gang, have been instructed to kill any and all black inmates on sight, causing a two week lockdown of the jail to prevent mass murder.
The YouTube video was put out by Sheriff Joe Arpaio - the architect of one of the most gang-controlled and dangerous jails in America - in an attempt to take credit for saving the lives of the black inmates by ordering the lock-down. My question for Arpaio: how about running a safe humane jail where murder and mayhem and gang violence aren't going on in the first place?

Aryan Brotherhood murder video and book about the gangs in Arpaio's jail: http://shaunattwood.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=...

Jail survival tips: http://jonsjailjournal.blogspot.com/2006/02/31-jan-06-fish-survival-guide-fis...

Jail survival guide: http://jonsjailjournal.blogspot.com/2008/05/07-may-08-how-to-survive-sheriff-...

Shaun Attwood

Monday, May 14, 2012

Steeplechase Oil on Canvas

The Willowdale Steeplchase ran yesterday here in Southeastern PA.
This Saturday May 19th features the Radnor Hunt Races. We are gearing up for this event and will be camped out in the box seats near the Clubhouse. If you are going to the races...stop by for a drink and place a wager.

This fine oil painting is by artist Ellen Gavin and was painted in 2002. Titled: "Precursory Fidget" this canvas captures the pre-race tension and "riders up" in the Paddock right before a race at Radnor.

Lehigh drops 10-9 heartbreaker to Maryland in NCAA Tourney

It was an unusual way to spend Mother's day....but my wife and I took the kids up to Lehigh to watch the first round of NCAA lacrosse tournament against my wife's alma mater Univ. of Maryland. She was actually cheering for Lehigh and wearing Lehigh gear...so her alumni allegiance has been dulled by her husband's dedication to the Brown and White.

Earlier in the day we let Mom sleep late and then prepared a brunch of fresh bagels, salmon, whitefish,fruit salad,pork roll and baked raisin pecan French toast. My mother joined us on the patio and with the help of some fine weather and Vivaldi and Boccherini CD's (purchased for .50 each at the Saturday Church Fair) we enjoyed a splendid late morning. My Mother's day gift was a complete detailing of my wife's Suburban....I dropped it at the detail shop Saturday and picked it up looking brand new ....that was what she wanted!

We departed for the Lehigh sports complex at about 6 P.M. and arrived at the game in perfect timing for the 7:30 start. Not a traditional Mother's Day evening but my wife thoroughly enjoyed watching top-notch Div. I college lacrosse....she watchs our son's games with me and watched me play for many years as well.

It was a great game with a sad outcome...I will let the video below tell the story.

Videos » Lehigh drops 10-9 heartbreaker to Maryland in NCAA Tourney