Intrepid Adventurer

Today I must laud and recognize the recent accomplishment of my particular friend Bill R. Bill and his son Billy are pictured above at the Summit of Mount Kilamanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. We all know people who prattle on about trips they would like to take or feats they would like to attempt. Bill is the type of guy who quietly goes about doing it.
Bill is an intrepid sailor who participates in Races such as Newport to Bermuda and other "blue water" sailing events. In addition,he is as a licensed yacht surveyor, an avid skiier, a good father and husband and an all-around gentleman. I have hunted with Bill, sailed with him, shot trap with him, played many nights of poker with him and we shared a memorable trip when we took our Families to the Winter Olympics together in 2002 in Salt Lake City.
Candidly, I am in awe of a this consumate Sportsman who conquered a feat like climbing Kilamanjaro. He conceived the plan and executed like a true Adventurer. He was accompanied by his son Billy who just graduated from Penn State. The "Riverbend" banner they unfurled at the summit is representative of a local conservation group which has a preserve near his home and for which he raised money on this trip.Well done Gentlemen, well done!

Pennsylvania Hunt Cup Races 2010

This post is certainly late in terms of time lapse since the event: The running of the Penna. Hunt Cup Steeplechase Races in late October. We had our traditional tailgate space along the homestretch near the finish line. We used my Ford F-150 Pick-Up to stage the tailgate food offerings and had the bar set up along the rail.
It was a fairly cold but sunny Fall day in Southern Chester County: a perfect day for Steeplechase racing, wagering and consuming cocktails in a field.You can tell by my friend Suzanne's bundled up presentation that some of the ladies present felt it to be a little too cold for outdoor socializing. Suzanne was a trooper and indeed brought along a thermos of hot buttered rum to compliment our bar.(Note the vintage Rolls behind her in that shot.)
The PA Hunt cup is a rigorous course set up to approximate what a rider would experience in a day's fox-hunting in Chester County. The rail fences are unforgiving and it is not a race for untested mounts or jockeys.
Of course our crew offered the requisite betting pool and pictured above is my friends 4 year old daughter getting an early schooling in the finer points of betting timber jumpers. Personally, I bet with our Pool and slipped in a few wagers with the "Punters"...private bookmakers who set up along the course with an easel depicting their offered odds who take bets on a more parimutuel basis. The Pa Hunt Cup closes the Steeplechase season and we will now wait until the Maryland races start in April and the Radnor Hunt Races in May.

Hockey Fights/Jody Shelley vs Shawn Thornton Jan 13, 2011

Many people decry professional hockey for the fighting that is inherent in the sport. I have debated this topic countless times with people who range from Far-Left Vegan Hacky-Sackers to an Army Ranger who felt the Euro-brand of Hockey without fighting was superior. Regardless of your particular opinion of fighting in the N.H.L. or whether you even like Hockey, the attached Phila. Daily News interview from Jody Shelley of the Phila. Flyers is very interesting and a cogent analysis on this topic. In the opinion of this Sportsman, protecting teammates is the primary utility of on-ice fisticuffs. With a bit more protection,perhaps Eric Lindros would have had a longer career here in Philly and helped etch the Flyer's names on Lord Stanley's Cup.


Re-printed from Phila. Daily News, Wed. 2/9/2011


POSTED: February 9, 2011 Flyers' Shelley lays out five rules of fighting
By FRANK SERAVALLI
Philadelphia Daily News

seravaf@phillynews.com

THE FIRST RULE of Fight Club is that you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is that you DO NOT talk about Fight Club.

Yes, those were Brad Pitt's unforgettable rules from "Fight Club," the 1999 cult classic about an underground club where newcomers would join to pound the snot out of each other. Fighting in the NHL isn't much different, as players don't often divulge the details from their on-ice brawls.

Fighting in hockey, believe it or not, is a science. It's not just for the physically gifted or the intimidating. If so, the toughest knuckles from your local watering hole would be drafted. And NHL teams would save a whole lot of money on the salary cap with a neighborhood goon.

This season, there will be close to 700 fights in the NHL. More than 40 percent of games will have at least one fight. Some say fighting - illegal in every other professional sport except boxing and mixed martial arts - makes the NHL savage.

But to carve out a career as an enforcer in today's NHL, you have to not only win, but you need to know when, how, and with whom to dance. Like "Fight Club," and dueling, there are rules of engagement.

Flyers forward Jody Shelley has dropped the gloves 184 times in less than 10 years of service in the NHL, most of it spent with Columbus and San Jose. He signed a 3-year, $3.3 million contract with the Flyers in the offseason. Shelley, one of the most respected players in the league, opened up about the NHL's unwritten and unspoken "man code" in a recent interview.

Here are Shelley's 5 rules for fighting:

1 HAVE RESPECT

"You've just got to be a man about it," Shelley said. "There's a code - and it's respect. You treat each other like men and when the battle is over, say it's over. Have respect before, during and after the fight."

Surprisingly, Shelley said there isn't always a lot of trash talk before a fight. Not that trash talking doesn't happen, but Shelley said it's often a more sophisticated and businesslike approach. And if you pull a cheap move, Shelley said word spreads among players to not fight you.

"If you're going to fight someone, you're not going to kick them in the groin," Shelley said. "It has to be a straight-up fight, not just to see who's tougher, but it's just going to be a fight. I'll know when I've [beaten] you. You know when you've gotten me. It's just little things, like when you have a guy down, you don't punch."

2 PROTECT TEAMMATES

For those who think fighting is savage, in hockey, it's a way for players to police themselves and keep the game safe without the use of a referee. It's not a wise move to attack a finesse player who doesn't fight. And players know they'll have to answer to Shelley for a questionable hit.

"When he comes out of the lineup, other teams at times feel like maybe they can take some liberties," coach Peter Laviolette said. "With him in the lineup, maybe not so much."

Shelley gives his teammates peace of mind.

"I almost compare it to a basketball team, when you're going into a gym and you know someone is going to push you around and they're going to take advantage of your small and skilled players. That's a bad feeling," Shelley said. "But it's a nice feeling for a team to have a guy that you know is going to settle all of those guys down and make sure that no one gets taken advantage of. It's nice to be on a team like that where everyone has your back.

"Sometimes a fight is just a fight to prove you're tough, or to show where you're at, or you needed a fight just to stay sharp. But when it's a reaction fight, say when Claude [Giroux] got run over [against Ottawa on Jan. 20], you want to send a message.

"You want to say, 'What you did is wrong. You expect me to come and I'm coming.' That's a different mentality. That's a big part of your job. You just want your teammates to know that certain players aren't going to [try to hurt them]. There will be a reaction. That's how it works."

3 KNOW WHEN

Shelley said keeping an eye on the scoreboard and your team's energy level are a big part of fighting. Fighters want to spark their teammates, but Shelley also knows momentum can swing the other way if you allow yourself to fight - and lose - when your team is ahead.

"That's something you should learn, especially now with each point being so valuable," Shelley said. "It's not just to go out and fight whenever you want. There's a momentum thing. You have to know when and when not to go. If you're on the road, and your team scores two or three quick goals, if a guy just goes after you, you need to brush him off. You don't engage him just to get the crowd going.

"But if we start a game at home and we're down a goal, you try to get it going with momentum."

Some have criticized Shelley's role on the Flyers, but they've been ahead in so many games this season that he hasn't needed to mix it up too often. Shelley and Dan Carcillo are tied for the team lead with nine fighting majors apiece.

4 USE RESTRAINT

Just because it appears that the Rangers' Sean Avery suckered an unwilling Flyer isn't a green light for Shelley to fight him. Just as it is in the real world, it isn't exactly ethical for a heavyweight to drop the gloves with a lightweight. Or an inexperienced rookie. Or an injured player.

"When a guy is injured or hurt, or his face is looking mangled, maybe you don't pursue him as hard as when he is healthy and ready to go," Shelley said. "It's just little things like that."

Shelley has twice been suspended for punching too early in a fight.

"It's hard," he said. "But after you get suspended two times in a row, it's not as hard. It's not the slap on the wallet so much, it's about perception, too. You don't want to be marked as a total goon of a personality type, as someone who is a waste of space. You know you're on probation."

5TAKE YOUR LUMPS

Going toe-to-toe against some of the toughest players a couple hundred times, you're going to lose a few fights. Shelley has fought George Parros eight times, Derek Boogaard and Georges Laraque each six times, Bob Probert four times, and even Riley Cote (twice) and Flyers assistant coach Craig Berube (three times) in his career. He has had more stitches, broken noses, broken fingers and blood loss than most could count.

"You're not going to win every fight," Shelley said. "Sometimes you just have to live to fight another day."

Having lost in front of 20,000 screaming fans sometimes leaves you with a bruised ego. And considering he plays just 6 minutes per game and 60 percent of games go without a fight, he has a lot of time to think about the losses - and the wins. But he wouldn't trade his job for anything.

"It's such a fast game, it's a high-impact game where there's a lot of frustration," Shelley said. "There's a lot going on that fans see, that the players see, that the TV cameras don't always pick up on. It's just situations that come up that sometimes just have to be addressed."








Find this article at:
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/flyers/20110209_Flyers__Shelley_lays_out_five_rules_of_fighting.html?viewAll=y&c=y

Allégresse: Just-Released Recording of New Flute-Oboe-Piano Compositions

T he new Allégresse Trio recording has three wonderful newly-commissioned compositions by Ingrid Stölzel, Bryan Kip Haaheim, and Gabriela Lena Frank.

S tölzel’s ‘There are Things to be Said’ is inspired by the poem by American poet Cid Corman (1924-2004). It is contemplative—heavy silences of the sort that you might experience when visiting a sick loved one in the hospital, interspersed with intense dialogues when the patient is awake or when other friends and relatives arrive. The characters/identities of the sometime-reticence-keepers/sometime-voluble-speakers (instruments) are vividly portrayed by the Allégresse members. The indeterminacy of the health and outcomes of the speakers and listeners that permeates Corman’s poem is preserved in this elegant meditation by Stölzel.

I   was struck by the simplicity and openness of [Corman’s] words. It is often in such elemental simplicity that we find true and powerful meaning.”
  —  Ingrid Stölzel.

H aaheim’s ‘Halo’ is intended as a sonic essay on the co-optation of religion by fundamentalism, i.e., aggressive exclusionary and territorial supremacist political factions—a sort of requiem for the loss of genuine and inclusive spirituality that each of the major traditions offer. Radiance, symbolically embodied by the image of the halo, denotes a spiritual balancedness, “visible” to others but more about ‘being’ than ‘vision’ per se. As such, the textures in ‘Halo’ afford equal prominence to each voice—a communitarian/collectivistic ethic, rather than an individualistic one... ‘knowing’ and being peaceably content in knowing, as opposed to ‘seeing’ and feeling compelled to convert every living being to your own all-fired righteous ‘vision’ of what Truth is. Equanimity for three.

F    or me the musical elements of melody, harmony, and color that pervade the work seem to invite light into the mind and bring the attention to a subtle yet profound potential inherent in being human.”
  —  Kip Haaheim.

F rank’s ‘Canto y Danza’ is a one-movement work in ABA form—quick, mercurial, with a helping of fado-type saudades. Philosophically compatible with the other works on this disc, it is a case-study in members’ asserting their identities in a small ensemble while simultaneously committing themselves head-long to the collective goal. Sing as one, dance as one, but freely and without anyone at any time relinquishing any of her autonomy. (To achieve this intensity of image and solidarity, you have to play with these, your friends in the trio, almost every day, I think. Virtual or impromptu trios who don’t know each other very well or who perform together infrequently—no chance. It would be music, but not animated in the way that Allégresse carries off.)

T   he Canto is a series of three calls before entering a coda that is like the call that has become frayed... The Danza begins with a short intro, after which begins the karnavalito rhythm and spirit in the piano... The two-note oscillating gesture is quite typical of [Perúvian or Bolivian] folkloric styles.”
  —  Gabriela Lena Frank.

T he miking and engineering/mixing of the recordings on this disc are admirable—expressively coherent with the aesthetic intentions of each of the works. For one thing, they chose a congenial room for this project. Oboes don’t necessarily respond well to close-miking techniques, and the rich harmonics of the instrument can become lost in too-small or heavily-damped spaces. But on this disc there is a nice lively ambience and presence. We hear nice reflective-surface effects, consistent with some distant-miking at 2 meters or greater... possibly large-diaphragm condenser mics, such as AKG C414s for the distant mics, and a large-diaphragm dynamic mic up-close?

O n my second and third listens, I underline my notes: the close-miking is really well-done here, with a tasteful amount of mechanical oboe and flute key and breath noise to give you the feel of being in Row One at a recital—very close and personal.

S mall-diaphragm omnidirectional mics or ribbon mics on the flute? The latter tend to give a rounder, mellow sound, while the former have more ‘edge’.

I n summary, really beautiful performances of these new flute-oboe-piano trio compositions! I look forward to hearing Allégresse live, but, in lieu of or until that, this recording is a wonderful consolation. Bravo!


    [30-sec clip, Allégresse, Ingrid Stölzel, ‘There Are Things to Be Said’, 1.1MB MP3]

    [30-sec clip, Allégresse, Kip Haaheim, ‘Halo’, 1.1MB MP3]

    [30-sec clip, Allégresse, Gabriela Lena Frank, ‘Canto y Danza’, 1.1MB MP3]

• Allégresse website
  
• Fresh Ink disc at CDbaby.com
  
• Ingrid Stölzel website
  
• Kip Haaheim page at KU School of Music
  
• Gabriela Lena Frank page at Schirmer
  
• Barks C. Bridge to the Soul: Journeys into the Music and Silence of the Heart. HarperOne, 2007.
  
• Boykan M. Silence and Slow Time: Studies in Musical Narrative. Scarecrow, 2004.
  
• Cage J. Silence: Lectures and Writings. Wesleyan, 1961.
  
• Evenden M. Silence and Selfhood. Lang, 1999.
  
• Gann K. No Such Thing as Silence: John Cage's 4'33". Yale Univ, 2011.
  
• Losseff N, Doctor J, eds. Silence, Music, Silent Music. Ashgate, 2007.
  
• Takemitsu T. Confronting Silence: Selected Writings. Fallen Leaf, 1995.
  
• Tomes S. Out of Silence: A Pianist's Yearbook. Boydell, 2010.
  
• Tremain R. Music & Silence. Washington Square, 2001.
  
• Vogelin S. Listening to Noise and Silence: Towards a Philosophy of Sound Art. Continuum, 2010.

P    oetry occurs
in unanticipated ways—
bites and sniffs and keeps an eye on

spiritual territory—
Lets you know of what encroachments
bodies incur when they are free

of gross impediments. Enough
that when the poet himself has
done his thing and left his breath to

yours—you’re not intended to sound
his praises—weep—or bestow on
him supervacuous honors.”
  —  Cid Corman, ‘And the Word’.

Barnes Follow-Up

After posting yesterday, I received this cordial communique' from Friends of the Barnes. It is always fascinating to see who is reading.


Hello, Mr. Sportsman.



My son forwarded a link to your post about your visit to The Barnes, which I found very refreshing. I just wanted to let you know that information about the on-going controversy is available on the Friends of the Barnes Foundation website http://www.barnesfriends.org . I also thought you might not be aware (because almost no one is) that The Barnes in Merion is eligible for National Historic Landmark status, but only if it remains intact – with the art collection. A PDF of an Assessment of the site commissioned by Friends of the Barnes Foundation is attached.



With kind regards,

eyaari@comcast.net

Friends of the Barnes Foundation

www.barnesfriends.org

It Was When the Nagging Became Music (1:41) that Love Became Clear to Me 腾讯QQ

I    long with all my heart to return to my quiet home where I was born and have spent happy days in nature. Nature! Where can I find it here? Everything is so artificial...”
  —  Robert Schumann, letter from Leipzig to his mother in Zwickau, 24-OCT-1828 [Jugendbriefe, 2e., 2 vols., Clara Schumann, ed.].

M any composers have treated the subject of ‘Heimweh’ (German for homesickness)... Carl Gottlieb Reissiger (Op. 50, No. 1); Robert Schumann; Edvard Grieg; Arnold Schoenberg; Franz Schubert, Hugo Wolf, Johann Kalliwoda, Fanny Mendelssohn, Johannes Brahms, Franz Liszt, Max Reger, Mischa Spoliansky, Heinrich Proch, many others. Here in this Tencent QQ video we have it in an industrial marketing film. (Unfortunately, I am not yet able to find out who the performers of the soundtrack music in this video are, and I am not certain of the composition either.)

T he video is, I think, a fine example of how indispensable chamber music is for effective, impactful films, especially ones that address matters of family. Meaning is constituted not simply by its semantic content but also by its sonic content. Thirty years ago we had Roland Barthes’s concept of ‘the grain of the voice’. The effect of women’s voices, mothers in particular, was examined by Leslie Dunn and Nancy Jones in their book (link below). ‘Purely sonic’ features of the female voice in "the construction of its non-verbal meanings" involve roles played by (1) the person or people producing the sound, (2) the person or people hearing the produced sound and (3) the acoustical and social contexts in which production and hearing occur. The meaning of sound is co-constituted by performative as well as semantic and textual features.

I n the Tencent QQ video, the mother-son intersubjective acoustic space must be—and is—recovered. That is why this video and its supporting sound track work.

I n the aftermath of the notorious Amy Chua book, this is something of an anti-Tiger Mom video, complete with healing chamber music sound track. Reed-in-the-wind mother is mistreated by ambitious, impatient son who departs for U.S., makes good, feels remorse, gets a clue, starts treating mom better, from 20,000 kilometers away. There is not enough time to show whether son’s earlier irritability and maladjustment to parental implacability are in any way justified, nor whether there are any mitigating conditions, such as autism spectrum disorders. There is not enough time to show whether mom’s despair and hovering are related to ongoing chronic depression or other mitigating conditions.

A ll we see of son is the stage of exasperation and fuming resentment, followed by the stage of loneliness and isolation and regret. All we see of mom is stage of despair, sorrow, followed by stage of ecstasy at learning to use instant messaging and restoration of the relationship. Montemayor and Hanson (1985) reported a parent-adolescent child conflict event rate of 2 conflicts per 3 days, an average of 20 events per month, so maybe the video shows what is entirely within the bounds of ‘normal’. Warm, candid, poignant, gently humorous, it’s a story that has plenty of the cozy intimacy of chamber music in industrial ‘promo’ settings/jingles.

T his music amounts to a shamanic ceremony during which the shaman-surrogate commercial sponsor 腾讯 QQ produces this music and images to appease the spirits both within the family depicted in the story and within the broader community—by extension including you and me.

T he first violin makes three rhapsodic statements, each ending with a pause while the inner strings catch up with their parallel entries. The remainder of the track is comprised of pianissimo phrases on three voices, while the fourth voice carries a confessional folk melody (first and second violins, in turn). Cool, how this works...

  12年相伴 弹指间 心无间.”
  —  腾讯 QQ.

• Link to 腾讯 QQ YouTube video
  
• Tencent 腾讯 IM service
  
• Chou E. Chinese New Year Video & The American Dream. ChinaAndTheWorld blog 05-FEB-2011.
  
• MusicFromChina.org
  
• Abboud S, Kim J. Top of the Class: How Asian Parents Raise High Achievers. Berkeley, 2005.
  
• Andsnes L. Grieg: Lyric Pieces, Op. 57, No. 6 'Heimweh'. (EMI, 2005.)
  
• Barthes R. Image-Music-Text. Hill & Wang, 1978.
  
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• Chen Y. Burning for String Quartet. Theo Presser, 2002.
  
• Azure Ensemble. Invisible Curve: Chen Yi, Karent Tanaka. (NewWorld, 2008.)
  
• Chua A. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Penguin, 2011.
  
• Davis R. Complete Guide to Film Scoring. 2e. Berklee, 2010.
  
• Deliege I, John Sloboda J, eds. Musical Beginnings: Origins and Development of Musical Competence. Oxford Univ, 1996.
  
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• Music That Works (Herb Pilhofer, Sound80, Minneapolis). Buns O'Plenty blog, 29-MAY-2009.
  
• Hannevold P. Westby: Portrait of a Family: The Mother. (Albany, 2005.)
  
• Haynes S. Mothers and adolescent sons: Unique role of a mother. BBFA, 12-FEB-2008/
  
• Hoeckner B. Schumann and Romantic distance. J Amer Musicol Soc 1997;50:83-5. ['Heimweh']
  
• Hoover T. Keeping Score: Interviews with Today's Top Film, Television, and Game Music Composers. CourseTech, 2009.
  
• Isay D. Mom: A Celebration of Mothers from StoryCorps. Penguin, 2010.
  
• James S, Thomas D. Wild Things: The Art of Nurturing Boys. Tyndale, 2009.
  
• Johnson B. When Your Child Breaks Your Heart: Help for Hurting Moms. Revell, 2008.
  
• Kalinak K. Film Music: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford Univ, 2010.
  
• Kindlon D, Thompson M. Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys. Ballantine, 2000.
  
• Lang G. Why a Son Needs a Mom: 100 Reasons. Cumberland, 2004.
  
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• Montemayor R, Hanson E. Naturalistic view of conflict between adolescents and their parents. J Early Adolescence 1985;5:23-30.
  
• Papaeliou C. The origins of musical activity in Mother-Infant communication. Moussikos Loghos 2000;1:11-9.
  
• Rakow A, et al. Relation of parental guilt induction to child internalizing problems when a caregiver has a history of depression. J Child Fam Stud 2009;18:367-77.
  
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• Su L. ‘I Love Yous’ Are for White People: A Memoir. Harper, 2009.
  
• Thompson M, et al. Best Friends, Worst Enemies: Understanding the Social Lives of Children. Ballantine, 2002.
  
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