Tuesday, June 23, 2009

When an Ear Witness Decides the Case

When an Ear Witness Decides the Case

Excellent article on how the brain uses both vision and hearing.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Columbia balks with 'Moneyball'

Columbia balks with 'Moneyball'

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Unpaid Internships Illegal

Interesting blog post about the status of unpaid internships, which are now the de facto way to get a foot in the door in the entertainment industry.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Rockies Make it 10 Straight!

The Colorado Rockies have quietly leaped from last in the NL West to 3rd by winning 10 consecutive games. Along the way, they did some remarkable things, including a sweep of the Cardinals in St. Louis. In addition, they are now 12 -4 under new manager Jim Tracy.

Jason Marquis pitched very well tonight and would have had the win had Manny Corpas not blown the save in the 8th. In the strange world of baseball stats, Corpas ends up with the win as the Rockies broke the tie in the bottom of that inning. Huston Street pulled off another save in the 9th.

This was not the Rockies at their best, but a win is a win, and well-needed. By the way, the team in second place in their division is San Fransisco. The Rockies are only a few games behind them. The Dodgers are the runaway leaders in the division, so the Rockies most likely hope for post-season would be as the wild card. What team is the wild card right now?

San Fransisco. However, it's a long season ahead to hope that the Rockies continue their incredible run. But I will be watching. The game was delayed 42 minutes due to a sudden thunderstorm that passed through. Announced attendance of 31,000 seemed quite high compared to those at the park.

Monday, June 08, 2009

MemorySuppliers.com

I ordered a RAM upgrade today and after placing the order received the following offer. I have not used this vendor before, nor have I received the product, so I cannot vouch for them yet, but this seems like a good idea. I chose them as a vendor because their website was fast at finding the right RAM, and the price was low (with free shipping). I will update this post after the order is received and again after the RAM is installed.

"We have a special money saving offer for you today: If you would like to receive a $15.00 credit back on your credit card for this order, simply post a link to MemorySuppliers.com on your website, blog, personal profile page (i.e. myspace) with a short one or two line description of our website and products. When finished, email us the web address where the link is posted and we will give you a $15.00 credit back on to your credit card. We do require the link to be posted for 90 days or more."

6/15 Update: RAM has arrived via standard mail on time. I will not get a chance to install it for a few days.

6/18 Update: RAM installed in iMac. Took about a minute. Works fine. I have not installed the RAM in my MacBook yet, but will update again when I do so (which may not be for a while).

6/20 Update: RAM installed in MacBook. Works fine. iMac is still fine. Overall, excellent experience.

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Mahler's 2nd

It was quite a night at the symphony tonight, with Jeffrey Kahane choosing to finish the season with the Mahler 2nd Symphony, the "Resurrection." Disclaimer, Mahler is far from my favorite composer. The 4th Symphony is tolerable as it is brief and light-hearted, and I like the trumpet call in the 5th (I was a trumpet player), but most of the time that I am forced to listen to Mahler, I feel like I am serving penance. He takes himself far too seriously, and the orchestration is always far, far over the top. There was a good turnout for the finale tonight, but I still suspect the number of people onstage rivaled the number of people in the audience.

However, I did learn a lot listening to this in person. The climactic moments were very moving. And looking at it from a historical point of view, he did push the envelope in almost every in terms of harmony, tonality, form, scope, instrumentation, and orchestration. And the vocal solos are amazing. The evening really belonged to mezzo Sasha Cooke, who has an absolutely stunning voice. I was in the fifth row tonight, about 30 feet from her when she was singing, and I felt like I was getting a private performance in my living room. Janice Chandler Eteme, soprano, was good also. And as usual Kahane's conducting was exceptional.

It would not have been the piece I would have picked to end a season, but it worked. The audience loved it, and it does make me look forward to September.