Strike Blogging

NYC Transit went on strike early this morning. Periodically, extraordinary things happen here in New York City. Sometimes, buildings fall to the ground, sometimes, the power goes out for millions, sometimes, the trains stop running.

Invariably, New Yorkers hit the streets, and talk to each other. Today is no exception.

I'm sure, for many, it was a serious hardship that the trains stopped running. For the vast majority, it was just the right level of inconvenience that they got shaken out of their little shells and looked at the amazing city around them, and stopped their busy lives to see the extraordinary people.

This is a good thing.

I got up early, and walked into the city over the Brooklyn Bridge, which was very crowded. It was rather chilly.

The Red Cross, which apparently didn't have any disasters to deal with this morning, set itself up at the foot of the bridge to serve people coffee and hot chocolate.

I think its important for the city that both the union and the MTA work this out without either side needing to capitulate. They have (and many New Yorkers) have very different ideas of labor and the value of labor. But this city is negotiation central, and we're seeing it at its best, not its worst. So let's help those who need help, and the rest of you, stop whining.

More pictures at Flickr.

Carnival of Music and "Critical Mass"

JohnL at TexasBestGrok laments about a languishing Carnival of Music...

I have not been as engaged in the Carnival over the last few weeks as I should be, and I'm sure that hasn't helped much. Still, it seems like the Carnival hasn't ever reached that critical mass of readers to stimulate volunteers for hosting and posting.

So I brainstormed with myself and came up with the following:

• I'd say we need to narrow the theme. While lots of people are passionate about some aspect of music, I'm not sure what it means to be passionate about the topic as a whole, which is what makes people participate in the carnival. This doesn't mean that you have to redefine the carnival, it could be more fun to dedicate a particular issue to a narrow topic (I like his suggestions, and I'll add on: jazz, composers, chamber music, art song, getting published or recorded, music and intellectual property, community music-making, singing in the shower, music software reviews, etc, etc, etc).
• Seems to me that people overestimate the impact of blog readership, and underestimate the need for personal communication, at least for getting together that elusive "critical mass". You need a small group of friends you communicate with regularly who are passionate about the subject, and are willing to do some of the heavy lifting. Give your friends homework ("everyone get me one post on composers and composing by friday!"). You may think you're giving them work, but they'll see it as a scavenger hunt.
• Invent games around music, and host them on the carnival. How about "everyone submit a blog entry where you've posted a recording of yourself singing your favorite Carpenters tune". Or, "walk around one day this week with a notebook, and write down all the background music tunes (elevators, on hold, shopping) that you recognize. Post the resulting playlist, and send me the link." (I actually hosted an all-day scavenger hunt that had people scurrying all over manhattan with tape recorders in search of sounds, musical and otherwise. It was a blast).
• I think this kind of carnival, especially with rotating theme that goes deep rather than wide, would do better as a monthly event, rather than weekly. That doesn't mean we can all sit on our asses for more time, it means we have more time to talk it up.
• Carnival hosts don't need to live off submissions; I think it's great to see links to articles and web resources that the host found and thought were interesting enough to share.

Anyway, that's just off the top of my head. What else might we do?

Tickle, my fancy...

I love Tickle.com. I did their IQ test, and they said I'm a visionary philospher. I did their inkblot test, and they said:

You have a deep desire to be kind and fair to others. You are preoccupied with finding kindness in the world around you, far more than you may realize on a conscious level. This makes you unusually empathetic and very sensitive to other people's feelings.

Your kind nature makes you an optimist at heart and allows you to see the best in the people around you. Because you're not judgmental, others seek you out when they need a friend.

Your psyche is very rich; the more you learn about it, the more you will understand who you really are.

Perhaps I like them most because they say nice things about me. How indulgent. I wonder what would happen if I answered all their questions as if I were an evil idiot? I'll try that later.

Check out their test, What breed of dog are you?

Blogosphere Growth Spurt

It seems the entire blogosphere is going through a growth spurt this week.

We have Flickr apologizing for its downtime today:

Now I don't even know how many drives are going in tomorrow. It's definitely in the hundreds. Crazy. We're switching to a new arrangement with a new hardware class, capping off a year of insane growth and architectural reworkings which are all coming to sweet fruition over the next little while.

BlogLines has given a candid assessment of its situation ("Bloglines performance has sucked eggs lately"), and announcing a move to a larger facility.

TypePad, one of the larger blog hosting services, was down yesterday, with disk failure, and restoration from backups.

And Blog Carnival just tripled its infrastructure size, enough to get them through the next month, no doubt.

It looks like, even with bit densities skyrocketing, demand is increasing faster than supply. And you know what that means... Time to invest (again) in hard disk storage technology.

Food By Mail

What a wonderful surprise in the mail today! Thanks to R, J, B, A, and J!

This reminds me of a wonderful new game flying around the blogosphere, called blogging by mail. Here's roughly how it works. The organizer decides on a foodie theme (e.g. candy. spices. canned goods). Everyone who wants to play sends their e-mail address to the organizer, who divides the players into pairs at random. Each player mails his or her partner a box of food items (my mom would call it a C*A*R*E package). Some box of food items that represent the theme, and are typically particular to the senders locale. The recipient gets their foodie gift from half way around the world, usually containing substances that are completely inscrutable, prepares something with it, takes photos, blogs about it, etc.

I was worried that U.S. customs would be unhappy having food products cross our borders, but the FDA seems to indicate that it is OK (though, one might run into other problems sending certain herbal contraband).

The version of this game organized in the U.K. has a different name, of course, european blogging by post.

Listen, if you've got time to blog, you've got time to play. This is even better, since you can't eat your blog.

Christmas Time is Here by Golly

More flash madness - [warning: parental advisory - explicit content] - NO CHRISTMAS FOR YOU.

Better than bubble wrap.

Tis Better To Give...

Don't ask me why I was poking around for interesting holiday gifts today, but I came upon this most unusual suggestion in a 2002 edition of USA Today:

While diagnostic exams and blood tests hardly seem romantic, nearly all the gifts on this list can help the people you care about live longer and healthier lives. And what better way is there to express your love?

Admittedly, the very first item on our list might have you thinking this gift is for someone who's been naughty, not nice.

Colonoscopy is a standard procedure for detecting colon cancer, the second-leading cause of cancer death in the USA. Approximately 90% of all colorectal cancers occur in people over age 50. Women are more at risk than men. And African-Americans are the most at risk of any racial group. While the cost of around $1500 is daunting, the procedure itself is even more resisted by patients.

But now there's an FDA-approved alternative that eliminates the need to feel like you're competing on Fear Factor — the virtual colonoscopy. Using electron beam computed tomography or "ultra-fast CT," a patient's colon is mapped without using sedation or an internal scope. Available from Heart Check America for $950 but is often covered by insurance if prescribed by your physician. A follow-up standard colonoscopy is needed in the occasional cases where the virtual exam shows that a biopsy is needed.

I turn 45 next year, so go ahead, ask me what I want for my birthday...

First Snow

Dateline New York - the first snow of winter has fallen, while I wasn't paying attention. I woke up, and there it was.

Bubblewrap - Bloggers Echinacea

Lucy Macdonald, author of Learn to Be an Optimist, just posted the inaugural edition of the Positive Carnival, and [spoiler alert] you should read the whole thing just to get to the bubble wrap at the end.

I nearly died laughing.

I guess that's positive.

Her carnival page at Blog Carnival is here.

Must Have Music

WNYC is in the middle of a week of must have music, with both their own music hosts and special guests talking about their essential picks.

My friend Stephen Herschkorn brought this to my attention, in the course of passing on to me his own "must have" list, which I found so inspiring, I thought I'd post it (with his permission). He prefaces this with "How can I express in words why I must have these discs?  How can I verbalize what the music expresses?  All these selections simply transport me."

Herschkorn's Playlist

Adams, Nixon in China, Page, Sylvan, Maddalena, de Waart, et al.; Nonesuch.  Thrilling, profound.  I recommend playing either Act I, Scene 3 or Act II, Scene 1 in its entirety.

Berlioz, La Damnation de Faust, Graham, Moser, van Dam, Nagano, et al.; Erato.  Play Scenes 7 and 8 (Faust, Mephistophélès, and the chorus of students) or Scenes 11 ("Le roi de Thulé") and 12.

Bernstein, Arias and Barcarolles, Kaye, Sharp, et al.;  Koch International.  So expressive.  Play the title cycle.

Brahms, Piano Quintet in f minor, Op. 34, Curzon, Budapest String Quartet; Naxos.  Such tension and passion.  Such mystery and triumph in the third movement.

Britten, Peter Grimes, Vickers, Harper, Davis, et al.; Philips.  One of the last truly great operas.  For an excerpt, play the tavern scene at the end of Act I.

Britten, works for tenor and orchestra, Pears, Brain, Britten, et al.; London Historic.  Utterly classic.  Play the Serenade.

Chanticleer, With a Poet's Eye; Chanticleer Records.  The Rorem and the Sametz always bring tears to my eyes.

J. Cohen, The World of Adam de la Halle; Vox Turnabout (LP).  This music is as wondrous and beautiful as it is ancient.  Play Le jeu de Robin et Marion or "Volez-vous que je vous chante," "Je muir d'amouretes," and "Or est Baiars."

Delibes, Lakmé, Dessay, Kunde, van Dam, Plasson, et al.; EMI Classics.  Unjustly neglected of late.  Play the quintet that follows the jasmine duet; ot rivals the quintet from Carmen.

Floyd, Susannah, Studer, Hadley, Ramey, Nagano, et al.; Virgin Classics.  I can never listen to "The trees on the mountains" just once.  For an extended excerpt, play Act II, Scenes 2 through 4.

Górecki, Symphony No. 3, Upshaw, Zinman, et al.; Nonesuch.  Hits the depth of your soul.

Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde, Ferrier, Patzak, Walter; Decca Legends.  Definitive, soulful.

Messiaen, Quartet for the End of Time, P. Serkin et al.; RCA Gold Seal.  Paralyzingly profound.

Pärt, Te Deum, Kalijuste; ECM New Series.  Play the title piece, which is frozen bliss.

Perlman, violin concerti of Berg and Stravinsky, Ozawa; Deutsche Grammophon  Crystalline beauty and sorrow.  Play the Berg.

Poulenc, Dialogues des Carmélites, Dubosc, Fournier, Dupuy, Nagano, et al.; Virgin Classics.  Play Act III,  Tableau 4 (the finale), which is always heart-wrenching and spellbinding.  In this scene (the best of the opera), Nagano and his forces achieve an ensemble which is lacking in the Dervaux.

Puccini, Il Trittico, Tebaldi, Gardelli, et al.; London ADRM.  Play Michele's aria ("Nulla!...Silenzio!") from Il Tabarro, sung by Robert Merrill.  It is my favorite Puccini baritone aria.

Schnittke, works for chorus, Holst Singers, Layton; Hyperion.  Play the "Minnesang"; it is a wonder.

Schoenberg, Gurrelieder, Voigt, Moser, Sinopoli, et al.; Teldec.  Post-romanticism at its pinnacle, sung with heart and soul.  For an excerpt, play the Wood-Dove's scene (i.e., the finale to Part I).

Schoenberg, "Friede auf Erden"; R. Strauss, "Deutsche Motette."  Luscious, thrilling post-romantic works for multi-voiced chorus and soloïsts.  Find me worthy commercial recordings.  (I don't care for Shaw's or Westenburg's much.)

Schubert, Lieder, Ameling, Demus, et al.; Deutsche Harmonia Mundi.   This "Der Hirt auf dem Felsen" is the best around; the "Gretchen am Spinnrad" breaks my heart each time I hear it.

R. Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos, Voigt, Dessay, von Otter, Sinopoli, et al.; Deutsche Grammophone.  Another of the last great operas.  What a cast, including Dessay as Zerbinetta!  Play "Grossmächtige Prinzessin"!

R. Strauss,  Burleske in d minor.  The recent Decca recording by Thiubaudet and Blomstedt is fine.  What a wondrous piece, filled with whimsy.  An early, one-movement piano concerto where the tympani play an important melodic rôle (including the announcement of the principal theme).

Stravinsky, Œdipus Rex, Pears, McCowen, Solti, et al.; Decca.  Thrilling and terrifying, this sends chills down my spine.  Play the section starting with the narrator's introduction of the messenger and shepherd, through Œdipus's final utterances.

S. Sylvan, Beloved That Pilgrimage; Nonesuch.  Both the Chandler and the Barber are spellbinding.  For an excerpt, play the last song in the Barber if not the entire Hermit Songs.

Upshaw, Knoxville, Summer of 1915; Nonesuch. This recording of the Barber is the most beautiful thereof that I know.

Verdi, Otello, Rysanek, Vickers, Gobbi, Serafin, et al.;  RCA Living Stereo.  Pure heaven.  Play the beginning of Act IV, through the Willow Song.

Wagner, Tristan und Isolde, Dernesch, Vickers, von Karajan, et al.; EMI.  Play the Liebestod.

Webern, Complete Works, Boulez; Sony Classical.  How could anyone live without these?

And how could I live without Bach's St. Matthew Passion; the string quartets of Bartók and Shostakovich; the symphonies of Beethoven, Holmboe, Mahler, Sibelius, and Tubin; Brahms's rhapsodies and intermezzi; Debussy's mélodies; the œuvres of  Ligeti and Tallis; Prokofiev's sonate; Ravel's original version of "Le tombeau de Couperin"; Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms;...?

The important thing to know about Stephen is that he has the largest CD collection of any individual on the planet (if I'm wrong, at least I'm close).