A Car from Rock Vegas?

Artist Michel de Broin has constructed a Shared Propulsion Car which is part sculpture and part quadricycle by stripping a 1986 Buick Regal of its engine, suspension, transmission, and floorboards and installing votive candles for headlights.

The artist describes it as ‘an expression of a paradox; the big luxury American car, and pedal power, or the right to drive versus the right to pedal a car’.

Justice of the Peace Patrick Marum (Toronto) has ruled that it is safe and pointed out that Amish people use candles on horse-drawn buggies.

Source: www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=d58997be-dbc1-4ea1-97b1-d00ba2f47489

Tom Leonard

Years ago, I fell in love with his poem ‘Fathers and Sons'.
Today, I came across a litany he wrote entitled ‘Blair’s Britain' and was delighted to find that he doesn’t think too highly of Blair’s politics.

b-52pray for us
CBU-72 cluster pray for us

Other poems on his site which I like include ‘Being a Human Being' and ‘treat the child gently'.

Special Orders

by Edward Hirsch

I’ve turned on lights all over the house,
but nothing can save me from this darkness
…
Death is a zero hollowed out of my chest.
God is an absence whispering in the leaves.

Hirsch is the poet who cited the late William Matthews on the four subjects of poetry: [2]
1. I went out into the woods today, and it made me feel, you know, sort of religious.
2. We’re not getting any younger.
3. It sure is cold and lonely (a) without you, honey, or (b) with you, honey.
4. Sadness seems but the other side of the coin of happiness, and vice versa, and in any case the coin is too soon spent, and on what we know not what.

Links:

[1] http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/2008/03/edward-hirschs.html (Source)
[2] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5331955
[3] An excerpt from Special Orders: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl/display.pperl?isbn=9780307266811&view=excerpt

Standing Woman with Three Pink

I was a bit puzzled whe I first saw the title. It turns out that it’s the name of a painting by Frederick Stuart Church (1842 - 1924).He was an American artist who did not visit Europe till he was quite old and apparently thought that American art had little to learn from anyone else.Rather a different take from the music world which tried to create American Classical Music when they found they had none worth speaking of by importing a Czech composer for a while.

Opera Singer Dies

Giuseppe Di Stefano, who was once Maria Callas’ partner and who was the artist Luciano Pavarotti modelled himself after, died yesterday at the age of 86.
Links:
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/nyregion/04distefano.html?ref=music
[2] http://music.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2261836,00.html

A Photo of an Indian Woman

She’s looking down, quite literally seeing nothing but the ground beneath her feet. Her gait seems more purposeful than elegant and her heels are cracked. The way she’s draped her sari is anything but chic. And her footwear is both sensible and inexpensive although she’s wearing a reasonable amount of gold: earrings, two bangles along with those made of glass and a chain.

I’ve fallen for this photo. It was uploaded on to Flickr on November 29, 2007 by Harneet and has been published under a Creative Commons licence.

Respecting Monuments

Reuters reports that a British man has been sentenced to five days’ detention for urinating on the ‘Freedom Monument’ in Latvia which was erected in 1935 as a symbol of the State’s resistance to foreign rule.
I am rather disgusted by his conduct especially since I can’t imagine any Briton ever behaving in a similar manner in his own country.
However, it also makes me think of the state in which many Indian monuments lie — not quite so much in a state of ruin but in a state of rubbish. The last time I went to Karla caves, it was well nigh impossible to go anywhere near parts of the the caves because of how much they stank, and I can’t think of too many times I’ve gone to a monument and failed to see graffiti of the ‘Sonu loves Monu’ variety etched into it.
I’m not sure why we don’t value monuments enough to be able to enjoy them without being disrespectful towards them.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL1988648520080219

Symmetry and Impossibility

A post which mentions the Necker cube led me to pages with M C Escher's work. The first time I saw some of his works was sometime in the 80s. Someone had printed them out on what, by today's standards, was a superbly lousy printer and they were a bit patchy but they did introduce me to him. I've been entranced by his art ever since then although I don't have any books which contain any of his work.
Gallery: http://www.mcescher.com/

Nine High Cs

There's something about the finality of death which tends to leave me either relieved and/or immeasurably sad.
Beverly Sills died in July. And now, Luciano Pavarotti's just died of cancer. His career began long before I was born and I've listened to him my whole life. The beauty and sheer power of his voice has brought me to tears more times than I've kept count of although what I most love about him is that he singlehandedly did more than anyone else has done in recent times to make operatic arias accessible to the general public, and I can hardly believe that he'll never sing again.
Last week his voice was apparently a whisper; a comment on the BBC site says, "We are able to let go because Mr Pavarotti deserves respite from his suffering, and because we have his music to remember him by." I couldn't agree more.

Listening to Rafal-Alexandre Luszczewski

I went for a concert on September 11 that was held to commemorate 50 years of Indo-Polish diplomatic relations, and 70 years of the establishment of the Polish Consulate in Bombay.

I don't often go for concerts like this one but I'm glad that I did go for this one. The concert, which was to help promote Indo-Polish ties, was by a pianist called Rafal-Alexandre Luszczewski who made debut in the international area at the age of 16 with the Tokyo Symphony.

Apart from being one of the best-structured concerts I've gone for in a long time, Luszczewski's playing was brilliant. He's exceptionally talented, and the evening turned out to be one of the best I've had in the recent past.

In the first part of the programme, he took the audience on a Journey through Europe. He began with a Prelude, Fugue and variation in B minor (Op. 18) by Cesar Franck (1822 - 1890), a Belgian composer who spent a large amount of time at Paris.

A fugue is a piece which is structured in a subject-answer form, with the answer to the subject being in the dominant: in this case, in F. This particular piece was originally written for the organ. He played it so beautifully that just listening to it and being able to appreciate it was a challenge in itself.

After that he moved on to 'Sonetto di Petrarca' which has been composed by the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886) who is reputed to have written some of the most difficult music ever composed for the piano. Petrarca was an Italian poet.

The next piece was Ballade from Klavierstuck (Op. 118) by Johannes Brahms (1833 -1897). I hadn't heard this piece before and listening to it for the first time ever felt so amazing.

And then Luszczewski concluded the first part of the concert with two Spanish dances, one by Manuel de Falla (1876 - 1946) and the second by Isaac Albeniz (1860 - 1909). He played Danza Espanola from 'El Amor Brujo' or 'The Love Wizard' by the former and 'Puerto de Tierra' by the latter.

'Puerto de Tierra' or 'The Gate of the Earth' is actually a piece from the suite 'Memories of the Journey' which is in seven movements. Albeniz was influenced by a number of well-known composers of the day such as Liszt and d'Indy and finally Felipe Pedrell who influenced him to incorporate elements of the vibrant and rhythmic traditional Spanish folk music such as dances from Asturia in the North, Andalusia or flamenco dances from the south of Spain, into his work.

After that came the interval and the second part of the programme where Luszczewski concentrated on polish composers: Ignacy Paderewski (1860 - 1941) and Frederic Chopin (1810 - 1849). He played Cracovienne Fantastique (Op. 16), which was based on a traditional folk dance from the Krakow region of Poland by Paderewski who was both a pianist and a politician. Luszczewski played both Fantasie - Impromptu (Op. 66) and Andante Spianato and Polonaise (Op. 22) by Chopin, who needs no introduction. In fact, Paderewski although well known for his own compositions, was particularly famous for his renditions of Chopin.

The point of this write-up, however, isn't to list out the programme: I only wish there was some way that music could possibly be captured in words: I want to be able to remember the concert forever, and I don't want to rely solely on my memory to be able to do it. Listening to Luszczewski play was such a pleasure and it must give him so much joy to be able to play so beautifully.