iPod crime

Brussels should team up with think tank The Urban Institute to discover that kids kill kids for iPods the world over. Thanks to Chip for this link.

As the US watches coverage of the assassination of former female Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in indignation (during a return engineered in part by the US), let us also ask ourselves how a woman, from 1988 to 1990, led a nation as far behind the US as we perceive Pakistan to be, while we still elect our male-dominated governments smug in the knowledge that we are far more civilized that most nations in the 21st century.

Member of the 80's "Antwerp Six" Ann Demeulemeester is apparently as much of an architectural enthusiast as ever. Owner of the only Le Corbusier house in Belgium (in Antwerp of course -- always another discovery to be made in Antwerp), she's now selling her line in a remarkable new building by Mass Studies in Seoul. Reading an NYT article about her in 2006, I'm flustered at how typically Belgian her attitude is (and how uncomprehendingly the reporter capitalizes on it), and yet how delectably different this makes her as a fashion designer.

To bookmark this entry with another death, Carlos Sousa Jr. left his parents on Christmas Day and didn't come home for Christmas dinner. He was never to come home -- his parents watched the coverage splashed across dinnertime Christmas news about an escaped tiger mauling three people at the San Francisco Zoo with no clue until the next morning, when they were called in to identify the corpse in a body bag, that the victim was their own son. The Siberian tiger Tatiana was shot by police as it mauled on of his two friends -- friends who may have been taunting the tiger to provoke it as the zoo emptied out towards closing time on Christmas Day.

Potentially aggressive young men attacked by a Siberian tiger in California on Christmas Day splashed across the media -- another day in our globalized, violent, voyeuristic society.

A full page feature on the carillon summer series appeared in Currents on July 2.

I'm not insane after all. I do get fatter the moment I set foot back into the United States -- and so do immigrant children. Take the example of 13-year-old Adrian McHargh, who grew up "active and skinny" in Kingston, Jamaica and put on 30 lbs upon moving to Atlanta. 30 lbs on a 13-year-old is no small change, and it was accompanied by hypertension, high cholesterol and high risk for type 2 diabetes.

We live in a country of plenty. Plenty of junk.

In other news, Rochester is one of the least congested metropolitan areas in the country. That doesn't make me like the transportation infrastructure of Rochester any better, although it makes me suspect that population loss is freeing up space on an infrastructure built to accommodate more people. The study estimates that drivers wasted 2.9 billion gallons of fuel while sitting in traffic, and that a total of 4.2 billion hours were whiled away in 2005, up from 4 billion the year before. I'm sad to say that San Francisco ranks 3rd on the map for worst congestion.

Speaking of San Fran, I just came across architect Pietro Belluschi and learned that he is responsible for the BofA Building, Davies Symphony Hall, St. Mary's, as well as... Juilliard.

stuck in a large, bell-filled tower for an hour

To continue in the vein of bad publicity for the carillon, a family gets stuck at a carillon for an hour because of a habitually dysfunctional elevator! Not that I would have had any problems in the same situation (I am always looking for excuses to get stuck at a carillon), and fortunately the former news has been superseded by the dedication of Moser Tower on Sunday, but still... you have to feel sorry for this family being pointed towards the interior ladder as an alternative exit down which they could somehow take their 20-month-old child.

The most memorable part of the article is its description of the belfry as "a large, bell-filled tower in Washington Park." Sounds like a diseased architectural tumor.

old news

This study "showing" that Americans have difficulty understanding the point of view of others is just about the least scientific study I have ever read and the biggest jump in reasoning I've seen in a while, but it is amusing. They cite no research linking spatial perception to "understanding others," nor do they use a control group to isolate whether there is a different between the spatial perception of Asians versus say, Europeans or Russians (another "collectivist" group). The sample is hardly large enough to compensate for the many racial backgrounds that constitute "Americans," nor do they seem to have inquired into whether the Asians tested were raised with collectivist or individualist values or whether they were American-born or naturalized. There's no use bringing this study down further, and perhaps the journalist is equally guilty of inaccurate and oversimplified reporting, but it is funny to see people trying to demonstrate "old news" scientifically. It's not funny that this kind of joke happens at UChicago.

bayer's cashing in + a new idol

"Bayer HealthCare...announced its decision to leave the New Haven area in November and put the site up for auction. Mark C. Bennett, a Bayer spokesman, said there were 17 bidders...a Yale official confirmed an Associated Press report that the price would be about $100 million. Dr. Levin said that money was not a problem and that Yale would pay cash."

The Rochester Museum of Science had an exhibit about money that showed the volume occupied by $1,000 or some such amount of one-dollar bills. I'm envisioning freight trucks of cash-filled suitcases pulling up in front o Bayer's headquarters in Germany.

Also... some clever words from an open letter to a Senator the writer once knew well: We have seen more people die last year from spinach then pot.

Finally... I WANT THIS MAN'S LIFE. I can't believe I'd never heard of photographer Edward Burtynsky before. How does he track down such extraordinarily haunting scenes of the industrial waste of the world? Perhaps they're not so difficult to find. Perhaps they're everywhere -- everywhere that we don't look.


A documentary featuring his work, "Manufactured Landscapes," seems a likely candidate for my favorite film since Koyaanisqaatsi. I've been so out of it. If only my usual life gave me the spare time to chance upon things like this more often.

the best buildings you'll ever hear

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.
Originally uploaded by carillonista

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." So Elvis Costello or some other fellow quipped. But what if architecture is one of the keys to the future of music?

I finally understand the subject of one of my favorite photos from Germany. Herzog & De Meuron (one of my favorite architectural firms) is turning this building on the perimeter of the industrial harbour of Hamburg into a rather monolithic concert hall. A recent NY Times article describes the exciting marriages of innovative architecture and symphonies taking place today. The dreamlike ballpark interior of this hall will certainly draw me back to Hamburg to attend a performance. I just hope all these new halls incorporate really good organs. At least the organ still seems like a requisite piece of the pie, even if few composers actually use it in their concert hall pieces.

Through a thought-provoking article on reviving urban centers through innovative architecture, I finally discovered Giorgio de Chirico.

koyaanisqaatsi

Life out of balance. The “State of the World’s Mothers 2007” report from Save the Children has found that "In Sweden, which topped the list, one woman in 29,600 dies as a result of pregnancy, 72 percent use contraception, women’s life expectancy is 83 and the average number of years of education is 17. One in 250 children dies before its fifth birthday," and yet "In Niger, which came in last in the ranking, one in seven women dies of pregnancy-related causes, 4 percent use contraception and life expectancy is 45 years. One child in four dies before its fifth birthday." How can certain of us have come so far and others be left in the dark ages?

California college students want an egalitarian society, it seems. I wonder why the researchers didn't take the extra step of gathering a more representative test population from the area. Curious results, and encouraging. I can't wait to see the results this experiment would yield in different places and cultures. The question is: Is the "Robin Hood impulse" strong enough to influence our actions in everyday life?

And today it is. Here goes nothing.

I like Arnie's political advice to politicians not jumping on the environmental bandwagon: "Your political base will melt away as surely as the polar ice caps -- I can guarantee you of that. You will become a political penguin on a smaller and smaller ice floe, drifting out to sea. Goodbye, my little friend."

It seems odd that a few days later, one would find the headline "Penguins rally past Senators" in Sports Illustrated.

gay Cinderella weddings

Reluctant as I am to admit it, children's programming does affect their social perception. Tracy told me me how her daughter completed a coloring sheet for her religion class so that each person was of a different ethnicity, careful to ask what color to use for the Native American. Tracy thought the politically correct multiracial casts of children's television shows were behind it and marveled at how different the "norm" for children today is from the norm she knew. Should I be amused that children's understanding of the norm in society now comes from television rather than real life?

I'm curious as to what changes Disney's go-ahead for gay marraige ceremonies in front of Cinderella's Castle may likewise effect. (Incidentally, why is our government more conservative than the Disney corporation?)

plastic bag ban in SF!!!

Gooooooo SF for planning to ban plastic bags!!!! (Thanks to Tom for sharing.)

my contributions to Belgium

include being one of the over 200 million passengers who traveled by rail last year, setting a historic record, and wearing out the Brussels sewer system (only a tiny bit), which is going to take a century to replace.

blastoff!

If only, only, only I could see the Coliseum come down on 20 January in the Have. It was one of the best, if most infuriating, structures ever for us to navigate, a sign of its poorly executed Modernist/Brutalist design and yet also of what made it an intriguing challenge. The hidden tunnel system was fascinating as well. If I get around to it, I'll post a few photos. Here's one from my site:

hummers go green!

An algae-filled recyclable Hummer that opens like a flower to absorb sunlight is pretty funky and an attention-getting way of designing a fully recyclable car. It's a nice surprise for GM spokesmen to speak of the SUV's original intended customers as "people who worked in the outdoors, environmentalists, naturalists and outdoorsmen." But my favorite is Toyota's "electric-powered, tandem-style vehicle with wicker seats that the occupants could opt to pedal through stop-and-go Los Angeles rush-hour traffic." I'd definitely get me one of those.

The most intriguing social commentary I've seen in a while: For one analyst of popular culture, [the popularity of public apologies and rehab solutions is] a measure of the "therapeutic culture" that we live in. "It's like a huge moving conveyor belt. Once you declare yourself to be a client of our therapeutic culture, we say, 'OK great! Welcome aboard,' " says Jerry Herron, professor at Wayne State University. "Somewhere, there will be a sofa waiting for you."

thanksgiving feast

Allan and Stephanie threw a wonderful Thanksgiving feast today, and I took the opportunity for five hours to meet as many artists in other disciplines as I could and to learn everything I could from them about their art and involvement in Rochester. It was wonderful that our hosts brought together so many different kinds of artists. The feast was superb, and despite its size came together seamlessly unlike the tiny dinner parties I've struggled to host. The only blotch on the party was the man whose conversation I deserted when he described how he hated the one time he tried cycling in Belgium and then how he couldn't live without TV. Later I unfortunately ran into him again, and he grilled Matt, Christina, Allan, and me with naïve and almost hostile questions. Whatever. I met yet more composers (man those Koreans know how to make fashion statements), and Liz now wants to write a carillon piece! I may well "have to" play a concert of new carillon works next year. What a delightful surprise that Eastman composers are so eager to write for the instrument if I simply offer the opportunity! It's not a standard part of the repertoire, it's not common, it's not well-known... but I suppose what they want is a new medium more than any of those things. They want something to explore. Lucky for me and the carillon world.

But that distasteful man... If I'm amazed at the amount of television my roommates watch, perhaps I'm the one in the wrong. They're well below the national average of 299 minutes per day in the US and 227 in Europe. Why the Icelandic people watch the least TV is beyond me... how much is there to do in Iceland?

Unfortunately I was nearly burnt out by the end of the party (but apparently the bubbliness [which my ECMC colleagues just recently made me aware of in mysef] worked while it lasted -- one composer compared me twice with a girl who had been at the heart of composition department social life in previous years, and it was also awesome to be compared to Jason Price as a performance major in the ECMC), when Allan asked me about San Fran and Belgium. I hardly had the energy to move my mouth anymore, let alone talk about myself. But somehow I perked up when I asked if Stephanie was into Op Art (there were some striking pieces in the house that set off fireworks in my visual cortext). Apparently he has difficulty seeing the effects of Op Art and cited a study finding that musicians are actually not visually inclined (perhaps even less than Joe Schmoe). I was surprised by this, but perhaps should not have been, considering how little interest there is at Eastman in visual arts (nobody to go to the art gallery with, talk about architecture with, blah blah). Then he spoke in shockingly dark terms about the lives of musical prodigies he's known and how most of them ultimately walk away from music. I told him I sometimes wish I'd been a prodigy and not been good at other things so I could have found my path directly and could focus on it now. To my amazement, he said with confidence that most of them would trade places with me any day.

But apparently Eastman has become populated with many more students who got started in music later in their careers, rather than with students whose parents shoved violins under their chins once they learned to walk. When Allan first came to Eastman, he wondered if he'd make it through because people were so focused -- "living in that one speck of dust," he phrased it in his signature sarcastic style. But decades later, he's still here. "You'll make it through," he assured me. "But you'll always have a love-hate relationship with Eastman." We need to talk more.

Yet in the midst of mingling with artists from other disciplines and mostly in older age groups, I noticed that my colleagues hung out with each other. This confused me until I remembered that I'd always been one of them, watching enviously and admiringly as social butterflies made their way effortlessly around the room. How, when, and why did I go from one extreme to the other? Did it just happen this year when I took up promotion of the carillon as a cause and thus justification for meeting anyone and everyone? Did it start because I'm tired of my Eastman colleagues? Did it start because I want to set an example for them? Last night, I sought to assemble the most varied crowd possible for my dinner party, and to my amazement, the groups did not mix: composers, keyboardists, and even within that group, a giggling Asian contingent -- either they aren't comfortable meeting different people or really are satisfied with the limited interactions one can have within one's own crowd, something Allan ranted about with regard to conservatory musicians.

Except that Ryan walked in all alone (I don't even know how he let himself in), tossed a six-pack of Vermont Woodchuck Cider in the fridge, and then dived right out of the kitchen into a crowd of people in which he knew absolutely nobody at all and to whom he certainly wasn't connected through his studies. I never got the chance to introduce him or orient him. He didn't need it, didn't even need to chat with me to start feeling comfortable in new surroundings. Without his presence, the whole point of the party would have been lost for me. I suppose I could have done a better job of introducing people, but I did introduce most everyone as a big group. They just didn't take up the starting offer, which was all I could offer considering the amount of food I was concocting in the kitchen.

David and I found ourselves kindred souls in missing the university setting, and also enthused by and grateful for the presence of Bill Porter, who brings not only musical genius, but intellectual depth and somehow a calming effect, civility, to the department, exemplified by his saving that Thursday EROI morning when the professors had a run-in with the EROI crew. Like me, David wondered if he wouldn't have had this problem at Yale. I recounted Bill's description of the ISM's reluctant and unsure relationship with the university, and we were both a little relieved.

The deeper I dig, the more people I find who feel trapped, who came from infinte lives and found themselves suddenly clamped within four thick walls at Eastman. Even when you find your way out, it's hard to find hope or an outlet outside. It's comforting to know I'm not alone in my frustration. But what good does it do me to know there are others unless I find someone who is fighting the status quo?

At least Bill gave me the right perspective. Even if I cannot receive, I can give (rather than resent). But still, in a place like this, I need a few sympathetic souls. Do I really have to range all over the River Campus and Rochester to find them? And once I find them, can I keep in touch with them?

carillon in the Philippines?

Kan er echt een beiaard in de Filippijnen staan?! Het is niet op de WCF website.

Oh, and the most heartwarming article for Joe Schmoe and most dismal one for a carillonneur I've seen in a while.

don't go!

I never cared for football. But for the 49ers to relocate to yuppie Silicon Valley? Will the Stick just become another spelunking spot? The plans for a renewed complex might have done good for Hunter's Point. Now we may never know (not to mention not get to come home to the Olympics).