Harpist Ann Hobson Pilot retires from BSO

I heard a story yesterday on NPR about the retirement of Ann Hobson Pilot, harpist at the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the past 40 years. When she was recruited by Arthur Fiedler in 1969, she was one of only four women in the BSO, and for 20 years afterwards, she was the only African American! There’s a video of her at NPR, and if you’re an NU affiliate, you can log in and listen to a little of her playing as accompanist to the flutes in Gaubert’s Divertiseement grec on the Naxos Online album “Gaubert: Works for flute”.  (Need to see about why that’s not in NuCat yet–but I found it in Nexpress, luckily!) Last night at the BSO’s Opening Night, Hobson played a piece by John Williams commissioned for the occasion of her retirement, which I’m looking forward to hearing re-broadcast on WGBH this weekend.

Brick City

I wanted to quickly post on Brick City, a five-night documentary series that started last night on the Sundance channel.  (I caught the last twenty minutes of it). I had read glowing reviews of it over the weekend, and so I’m DVR-ing the remaining four nights.  And from what I’ve seen and read, I would really recommend it. It focuses on Newark, New Jersey, and its mayor, Cory Booker, as well as a number of citizens: Jayda and Creep, a couple who are also a Blood and a Crip respectively; Ras Baraka, principal of Newark’s Central High School; and Police Director Gary McCarthy. I also tried to search for some background materials in our Library that relate to the history of Newark.  You can find (among others) mystery novels, government documents, history books, and a 2008 New Yorker piece by Peter Boyer on Cory Booker (His piece is from February 4, 2008 and is titled “The Color of Politics”).

Comment Sections: Do we Need them?

I have an obsession with going to Boston.com— website of the Boston Globe– not to read the actual news, but to read the comment sections for each article. This is simply because I have a pornographic fascination with moronicness and unqualified sensationalism. I can look at the heading for an article saying ‘Obama calls for new financial regulations’ and I can expect an overload of comments reducing the issue to ‘Obama’s a socialist’ or ‘Obama’s better than Bush.’ And then there is the ensuing back and forth bickering and name-calling, along with ironic reprimands from people who tell others not to resort to name-calling, while they engage in said activity. This is the Internet, and of course it’s not just on Boston.com; YouTube, NYTimes.com, MSN.com, Yahoo.com, Google forums, all forums that are broad enough to touch on the political, cultural and personal all at once– these are where comments thrive. And while we all realize that the majority of these comments are a highly un-constructive waste of time, we all post them ourselves from time to time. And you know what? We love them. Several disclaimers: I do not post comments myself (several on YouTube in the past, but not really). I actually think the Boston Globe has become a very dismal newspaper, though not because of the comments section, but rather because of it’s trivial news reportage and it’s purging of some of the best writers over the past five years. Furthermore, the aforementioned article on Boston.com– about Obama’s healthcare overhaul– saw a surprisingly civil debate ensue. However I do have a sensational thrill, similar to how a raccoon probably feels when he rummages through all the junk in a trashcan, when I read the comments on various stories. This for example from ‘Typical-White-Person’ under a story about Health Care costs rising in Massachusetts: ‘BUT THE PRICE IS STILL THE SAME IF YOU CANT’ READ A LICK OF THIS ARTICLE…FREE!!’ It took me a little while to realize that the author was implying that poor, uneducated illiterates are receiving free health care, with the all-capital letters implying that this is a disgrace to everybody else. That the author calls themselves ‘Typical White Person’ does not exactly help for their opinion to be taken seriously. Yet it has not been removed, as some truly inane comments are. It has even been recommended by five people. Elsewhere on this same site I have seen comments stating that Obama’s cigarette smoking is ruining the economy and one commenter who said that he would beat his daughter if he found out she were gay. (This comment was removed). Just to prove how politically unbiased I am, I saw a more left-of-center comment under an article about the tea party protests in Washington D.C. stating that some people are too stupid to be allowed to vote. Also sheer lunacy, and I delight in it as much as I do in reading it’s reactionary cousins. There are plenty of insightful comments to be read on these sites, and one could argue that the content of the story influences the insightfulness of the comments. Whatever Obama said about Kanye West, for example, does not matter, and hardly begs critique. But a general pattern of what David Denby in his latest book calls ‘snark’ permeates all online message boards everywhere, and one can only conclude one of two things; either there are far too many stupid people in the world, or there are a mixture of smart and stupid, but writing on the Internet drags everybody down a notch. I go with the second. Snarkiness is the inevitable by-product of internet commerce. It is what will come out of your (figurative) mouth if you take the internet too seriously. I am guilty of it and so are you. So perhaps this is another reason why newspapers and magazines should stay in physical print circulation and why letters to the editor are really not a bad idea. The Internet has not really become more democratic; it has become more sloppy and anarchic. If it gets too sloppy and anarchic, what will happen? Will it explode? But it’s not going to change. New comment sections will keep popping up on new sites. The reason is not because we are a democratic, debating, conversing people. It is because we are snarky speed demons addicted to trash for the pure thrill of it. We love snark.

The YikeBike-an Electric Penny-farthing..What next!

Do you want urban freedom and urban mobility? If so, then check out the YikeBike. For all you cyclists out there just an FYI to let you know that there is now an electric 2 wheeler bike that is being tested in the UK. It is designed and assembled by a couple of inventive Kiwis. It is hoped that the first orders will be appearing in mid-2010. This new form of transportation called the Yike Bike– it travels up to 13 mph, weights 22 lbs, has a 20 inch front wheel and 8 inch back wheel which are pneumatic, frame is carbon fiber,  operated by a lithium phosphate battery that has a charging time of 30 minutes and can range up to 6 miles, has electronic, anti-skid brakes, built-in front, rear, indicator and brake lights. Now, what more could you want? You can fold it into a bag and carry the 22 pound package to your office and store it under your desk, and no parking problems! the YikeBike

Japanese Children’s Stories

I grew up with Japanese fairy tales because my dad grew up with Japanese fairy tales. It had nothing to do with being Japanese (we aren’t) and everything to do with the stories being magical (they are). My dad told me that when he had kids, he hunted through the bookstore for books from a specific publishing company – Tuttle Press – because the pink fabric cover and stylized illustrations were so familiar to him. I recently found a 2003 copy of one of these Tuttle books in the Favat Children’s Section! This collection includes classics like Momotaro (Peach Boy) and the Grateful Jizo statues, as well as lesser known ones like the Bobtail Monkey and the Magic Teakettle.  I even remember watching cartoons of stories like Urashimotaro in elementary school. What is always so interesting to me is how similar a lot of the fairy tales are to western fairy tales, as if they all came from the same place, fragmenting somewhere along the way, and adding a glass slipper here, a red rose there; a rice cake here, a persimmon there.