Here’s the video.

Also, Yo-Yo Ma recently performed at the Charlotte Symphony.  
Here are a few photos I took at the reception following the performance.  

The path to senior IT management can be reached from many different directions. The most important factors in achieving this level are the abilities to be a good leader and understand the needs of the business. Clearly an understanding of information technology is important. Having a background in various IT positions at different levels can be very useful. But when it comes to rubbing shoulders with the other C-Levels you need business intelligence. An MBA is probably one of the most useful degrees to attain in your quest for more responsibility and to be a CXO. Combining this with various experience, leadership roles and maybe even a certification or two.  I think if there is one trait that really matters its personality.  Knowing how to explain information technology concerns at any level takes a certain amount of finesse.  Going from the help desk to CXO depends greatly upon being able to communicate effectively to any audience. Whether it’s a Power Point presentation in the board room or just being articulate and having some common sense.

Before and After of Green Infrastructure Improvements
(Source:“Green Cities Clean Waters” Plan)

In an earlier post titled “Making Green Infrastructure Common Place” we discussed the recent release of Philadelphia’s $1.6 billion dollar “Green Cities Clean Waters” Plan. Its thrust is to transform over 4,000 acres of impervious areas within the City’s Combined Sewer System to green space over the next 20 years through the use of green infrastructure strategies. This would involve converting over 34% of all existing impervious areas. Of this, the conversion will primarily be made on public property and right-of-ways. Green streets, the most widely used management tool, will comprise nearly 38% of these improvements (see graphic). The report claims this is “the largest green stormwater infrastructure program ever envisioned in this country”. While green infrastructure has been utilized and proven in many parts of the country, the sheer magnitude and commitment of the city is a radical departure from the conventional approach to stormwater management practices.

Map of Green Street Locations
(Source:“Green Cities Clean Waters” Plan)

So why did Philadelphia decide to rely so heavily on green infrastructure as a means of reducing overflows in their CSO system? Quite simply it was cheaper, significantly cheaper. The plan estimates over the next 20 years the plan is to be implemented, the “triple bottom line” benefits (social, environments, economic) of the plan alone will add up to a present value of $2.2 billion dollars. The following is a breakdown of the benefits that comprise this figure.

• Heat Stress Mortality Reduction (35%)
• Recreation (22%)
• Property Value Added (18%)
• Water Quality and Habitat (14.5%)
• Air Quality (4.6%)
• Avoided Social Costs from Green Jobs (3.7%)
• Energy Savings (1.0%)
• Carbon Footprint Reduction (0.6%)
• Reduction in Construction- Related Disruptions (0.2%)

So instead of employing conventional underground infrastructure that is one-dimensional, and is estimated to cost $16 billion, the city has decided that implementing a multi-dimensional strategy with multiple benefits made more sense. But not only is it more desirable, it is politically easier to implement because it makes the city a more beautiful and healthy place. So if you are going to have to spend the money anyway, why not make it count.

The shortcomings of the conventional “tanks and tunnels” approach were not only that it exceeded the EPA’s affordability standard for stormwater management (2% of median household income), but it also did not address water quality issues and could require green infrastructure tools anyway to meet these requirements. In addition, the report points out that the conventional solution isn’t aligned with the EPA’s broader goals of sustainability, reduces streams baseflow thereby damaging the resources that is designed to protect, and doesn’t offer any secondary triple bottom line benefits. Furthermore, since the conventional solution is not delivered incrementally it is not flexible and does not offer any benefits immediately.

Green infrastructure on the other hand offered the city the opportunity to revitalize and restore the city’s streams and rivers, enhance the quality of the built environment throughout the city, improve air quality, reduce the heat island effect, and sequester carbon. While accumulating these benefits, the approach was more flexible, offered immediate benefits, and, most importantly, the cost of implementation was offset by the dollar value of the benefits. (see Volume 2: Triple Bottom Line Analysis of the plan for specifics)

While conventional infrastructure has its place, the combination of the two can play a significant role in addressing many of the issues facing our cities. It is critical that we continue to move toward making these strategies common place. By doing so we can make our cities healthier and more beautiful for all of us to enjoy, while at the same time responsibly managing our stormwater.

-Brian Phelps

-Cső. ma nagyon unalmas napom volt. tiszta álmos
voltam szinte egész nap, napközbe aludtam is egy kicsit, de olyan rosszul aludtam, hogy nem emlékszem miről álmodtam… de valakiről, hogy valahol, valamit csináltunk, arra emlékszem, és ha jól emlékszem azzal voltam, akit régen nagyon nagyon szeretem… de még most is szeretem. :$ ma voltam kint, Tomival és Dáviddal, .. mentünk bényén egy kört, komenczi csak levegőzni jött ki. xD  mert beteg .:S és nem tudunk azért buziskodni.. jó hír, decemberbe fogunk menni budapester, a tudományos múzeumba .. vagyis eddig minden igaz oda megyünk.. egész napos túra , kirándulás lesz.. szóval lehet suli időbe meünk, és akkor nekünk nem lesz suli. .. de nem is érdekel annyira.:D felőlem mehetünk hétvégén is. .. jah és februárba újra fogunk menni korcsolyázni.. de jó lesz.. prímáhhh. :$   nah cupcup.                 Suta.♥

Oria était engagée sur les deux bons concours de Bretagne, Pontivy et Vannes, démarrant ainsi la saison indoor durant laquelle elle va faire quelques parcours avant les grandes vacances sur des épreuves à 1.30m (Gd prix et vitesse).

C’est tout ce qu’il faut à ces jeunes chevaux  après les grosses barres du championnat !

Et d’ailleurs Oria répond présente et est aux résultats  !

A Pontivy, une belle 6ème place dans le Gd prix et 4 points dans la vitesse du deuxième jour.

A Vannes, deux très belles 2èmes places dans les deux épreuves de vitesse courues, avec plus de 100 engagés !

Bravo à notre belle blonde… et à son cavalier !

Mikor porszívózás közben felszippantok valamit és az végig kocog a csőben. (Zsófi boldogblogja)

(To the ground by ShotgunxSerenade)

CSOs plan mass protest against Guinean junta
 
Date: 12-Nov-2009       
 
 

West African Civil Society Organisations (CSO) on Wednesday initiated moves to galvanise mass social and civil agitation across the region against the military junta in Guinea.

The mass social and civil agitation would also target the ECOWAS Commission, member countries and the African Union (AU) to adopt proactive and punitive stand against the Guinean military dictators, Mr Alimou Diallo, Regional Coordinator, West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP) stated in Accra.

Mr Diallo was speaking at a regional public forum organised by Media Foundation for West Africa on the “Political Situation in Guinea – End Impunity Now.”

He said the suspension of Guinea from ECOWAS and AU in line with the principle of zero tolerance for unconstitutional change of government was not enough.

Mr Diallo said the socio-economic conditions of the ordinary Guineans had worsened and there was widespread fear that the nation was being held hostage by an unidentified group of individuals motivated by personal gain.

He said there was rising concern that the political imbroglio unfolding in Guinea, once regarded as an oasis of calm against the civil wars in neighbouring countries, could lead to uncertain and dangerous scenarios that would spread across the region.

Mr Diallo said the mass agitation therefore would expose the carnage the military junta was perpetrating on ordinary Guineans especially women, children and the vulnerable.

Mr Thierno Balde, Guinean Attorney and President of the Research Institute on Democracy and Rule of Law (IRDED), said the level of security in Guinea had deteriorated steadily since the coup in December 2008 and had been made worse by the massacre of more than 150 people on 28 September in Conakry.

He said although Conakry was currently relatively calm the city remained tense with sporadic shooting and looting of shops at night.

Many shops, offices, banks and petrol stations are currently closed while the military junta that took over power on 23 December 2008, the National Council for Democracy and Development (CNDD) had banned any gatherings of large groups and prohibited demonstrations.

Mr Balde said areas of Guinea bordering Senegal and Guinea Bissau were reported as being tense with increased military presence, whilst the border areas with Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone were also unstable.

Mr Balde, who is also a member of the Guinean Bar Association, said the country was on the verge of total collapse and called on ECOWAS, AU and the international community to intervene immediately.

Mrs Adwoa Kluvitse, Country Director, Actionaid Ghana, condemned atrocities committed against women and girls, especially alleged gang rape of over 30 women and girls during the massacre of opposition protesters in Guinea.

On September 28 some military personnel opened fire on thousands of opposition activists protesting against the prospect of the junta leader standing in presidential elections set for January 31 next year.

Whilst the junta claimed 56 civilians were killed, the United Nations put the death toll at more than 150, while the Guinean Human Rights Organisation quotes at least 157 dead with about 1,253 being wounded in the crackdown.

Professor Kwame Karikari, Executive Director of MFWA, said the foundation in collaboration with other civil society groupings was using the forum to draw attention to the deteriorating political situation in Guinea.

He said the Guinean case would send a negative signal to the international community on democracy and good governance in West Africa.

by Taher Elgamal
Chief Security Officer
Axway

(To read Part 1, click here.)

This is going to continue to be an arms race for a long time.

I don’t think society will actually change. People in important positions don’t even listen to financial experts, let alone IT security experts. And I’m willing to bet money that there is another financial problem that somebody has warned us about, and that nobody is paying attention to, because of the cost. People are hesitant to take action with anything that involves cost. I’m not saying you should spend money on a whim. But there are certainly a collection of experts in every single one of these technical fields that can make a judgment call as to how much risk a system is willing to take and when we must draw the line. And right now, we’re drawing the line so far out that a lot of criminals can gain a great deal of unauthorized access, and the level of fraud online carried out today is indicative of this.

The real issue is a fundamental lack of imagination on the part of the decision makers and CEOs. “Why am I going to spend all this money?” the CEO asks. The CEO waits until a regulation comes up. When the government actually speaks up and sticks a regulation to a certain type of company for something, the CEO puts forth the effort to get there. The problem with mere regulation—and this is how the entire system works—is that it doesn’t solve the real problem. It just makes people compliant. It does not make sure that the wrong people don’t gain unauthorized access, it just makes sure that the right people are acting just a little bit more safely. It’s true, I’ll admit, it is a little bit better to be compliant with all these regulations. But it does not address the real issue.

Finally, consider this:

If the concern over cyber issues is now an integral part of business, if it’s no longer a back office thing, if it’s now front and center, in the middle of everything, then cybersecurity people should be involved in the decision-making process, not just dismissed as back-office techies. That implies more training for the cybersecurity people to both be able to evaluate risk and to understand the particular business needs that the enterprise faces. Are you ready for that?

by Taher Elgamal
Chief Security Officer
Axway

Michael Fitzgerald’s excellent piece for CSOOnline.com, “Organized Cybercrime Revealed,” continues to be pointed to on Twitter more than a month after its publication.

And rightly so. It’s a nice article, full of excellent details and compelling information.

But the thing that puzzles me always about an article like this is why it discusses, as news, something that is completely expected. If you put money in front of a criminal, what do you think they’re going to do with it? We’ve continued to blame criminals for criminal acts, which makes no sense: it’s what they do! When society provides opportunities for criminals to act like criminals, it’s society who is truly at fault.

If you would’ve asked anyone in the security/technical community—any reasonable CSO—at any time in the last fifteen years, “How will the profile of a hacker shift in the future?”, they would’ve told you that the smart hacker who wants to be famous by writing cute little viruses will be replaced by an actual criminal committing an actual crime, because things online aren’t secured very well. Sure, we have some controls and technologies deployed, but there has not been enough support to deploy even simple authentication technologies, and the absence of these technologies gives modern hackers gumption. The entire Web runs on passwords, and these passwords are very easy to guess. And that this is still the paradigm reflects a fundamental ignorance on the part of business people and governments. People who implement systems and run corporations—they don’t want to listen to security guys because security guys are, in their opinion, flat-out paranoid. Why would you want to listen to a paranoid guy tell you that there is a possibility that at some point in the future something bad will happen? But despite the fact that so many bad things are happening, and this “just ignore the paranoid security guy” attitude led to these bad things, we still think this way.

In the second part of this blog entry, I’ll speculate on where this is all going.

Getting more for less is an approach almost everyone can appreciate. Why wouldn’t you want to get the most out of your investments? Appropriately applying green infrastructure in ways that effectively addresses critical stormwater issues while creating a more beautiful and economically vibrant community is common sense. Unfortunately, it isn’t common place. As the use of the available sustainable site tools and technologies continues to grow, it may not be long before green infrastructure is the conventional approach to stormwater management.

With the Release of their “Green Cities Clean Waters Plan”, Philadelphia joins a handful of cities across the Country that have committed to green infrastructure and seek to institutionalizing it throughout the city. Philadelphia’s plan published last September sets forth a bold plan to invest $1.6 billion. Of this total 62% ($1 billion) of it will allocated directly to green stormwater infrastructure. Another 18% ($290M) will directed to stream corridor restoration and preservation and 20%($320M) will address wet weather treatment plant upgrades.

Over the next few weeks we will take a closer look at Philadelphia’s plan. At over 3,000 pages, there is a lot of information to sift through. In addition, we will also look at Pennsylvania Environmental Council released a report titled “Implementing Green Infrastructure: Developing a Winning Strategy to Fund Philadelphia’s Ambitious Plan” that looks at the economic benefits of the plan and how other cities across the country are funding their stormwater initiatives. Together they are an impressive step forward for the City of Philadelphia and the Nation.

-Brian Phelps

Saiu do forno o novo website da Global Pilates feito aqui na CSO. Criação e programação de Luiz H. O. Perez. Confiram clicando na imagem.

Gartner communitylerin tümünü ve oradaki bireylerin ve grupların tümünü “The Collective” olarak isimlendiriyor.

Buyrun bunun Türkçesine ne demeli???

Önerileri olan buraya yorumlarını yazarsa, birlikte Türkçemize yeni bir kelime, kavram kazandırabiliriz.

“The Collective” web 2.0, web 3.0 ve enterprise 2.0, enterprise 3.0 dünyasında bireylere ve gruplara daha çok önem verilmesi gerektiğini vurguluyor. Sadece pazarlama amaçlı değil, daha çok hassasiyet göstermek için, inovasyon için fikir toplamak için, fikirler hakkında feedback almak için, müşteriler ve bireyler arası self-support tesis etmek için, önemsenmeli, kullanılmalı.

Bankada kendi işimizi kendimiz halletmeye alıştık. Hatta şubeye gitmemekten dolayı memnunuz. Çünkü istediğimiz zaman yapabiliyoruz, çünkü istediğimiz yerden yapabiliyoruz. Bu kabiliyetlerini önemseyen kurumlar, mümkün olduğunca iyileştirmeye ve geliştirmeye gayret ediyorlar.

Telekom şirketleri çağrı merkezinde ve destek internet sitesinde gönüllük bazlı, müşterilerin birbirlerine yardımcı olmasına izin veriyor. Çünkü pek çok müşteri destek uzmanlarından daha iyi destek verebilecek konumda. Böylece o tüketici kişisel tatmin ve sevinç yaşıyor, iyi hizmet alan diğer müşteri memnun oluyor ve telekom şirketi sadece platformu sağlayarak ilave bir masrafa girmeden müşterilerine destek vermiş ve müşteri memnuniyetini artırmış oluyor. “Let them work for you and make it convenient”

Nasıl? Hoş, değil mi?

Peki! Şu “The Collective” için Türkçe önerisi olan var mı? Teşekkürler.

Last week, I attended the CSO performance of Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, with music director designate Riccardo Muti conducting. The CSO dedicated its four performances of the Requiem to the CPS students that have lost their lives in the senseless violence of the previous months and to the families and friends they have left behind. This was a thoughtful gesture, although it would truly speak volumes if the orchestra donated a portion of the ticket sales to youth programs that keep teenagers productive after school.

The Requiem Mass contains some of the most beautiful texts in the Roman Catholic liturgy; Brahms, however, carefully chose his own biblical passages from the German Luther Bible to set to music. The title is often misinterpreted: the modifier “German” refers solely to the choice of language. Brahms wanted the Requiem to be universal in a personal way, as he wrote it (or more precisely, completed it) while grieving for the death of his mother in 1865. It is also likely a memorial to his mentor, Robert Schumann, who passed away in 1856. I’m not sure if this is accurate, but Brahms may have started the tradition of Requiems intended for the survivors of the deceased, in contrast to the fire/brimstone themes in those of Mozart and Verdi. From my own experience, it works – I sang the fourth movement for a classmate’s funeral in high school. The first lines of the Requiem are from Matthew 5:4:

Selig sind, die da Leid tragen, denn sie sollen getröstet werden.

Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Having recently repeatedly listened to Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago, I am struck by how music composed with earnest emotion never fails to entrance, even though it may take different forms. Brahms uses his chosen passages effectively – the choir is at times plaintive, longing, rejoicing, and death-defying (literally). He expertly oscillates between soft and loud, building and pulling back with deftness. Notably, he accomplishes this not only in the framework of each movement (the second movement is a model), but within the structure of the entire Requiem itself. The first movement conveys the essence of loss, sudden rudderless-ness, and confusion in survivors that follows a recent death. The third and sixth movements wear their emotions more on their sleeves, with fugues bombarding the audience with gorgeous sounds. The fourth movement is mellifluous, the fifth relatively serene. The last movement concludes peacefully, like a final release from the pain of mourning. One could write a thesis on this piece, but I’d encourage you to just sit down and listen, preferably at a live performance.

It is unfair for me to give an objective review of the concert as my seat was in the last row of the upper balcony with a non-existent view of the stage; unfortunately, the CSO did not reserve student tickets for this performance. My attempt to save a couple of bucks was unwise. The sound balance was off: the choir was too soft, the percussion seemed muffled, the woodwinds sounded distant, and the horns were deprived of their capacity to rivet you in your seat. From what I could hear, the choir sang admirably, although the tenors were a little underpowered, as was Torontonian baritone Russell Braun. I don’t remember the soprano soloist, as I think my attention wandered during her solo movement. The strings were consistently strong, but the woodwinds seemed out of sync at some points. There was also one French horn whose entrances were noticeably weak.

Much has been made of the CSO landing Muti as principal conductor, luring him away from La Scala in Milan (where his tenure was not without controversy). Apparently, the New York Philharmonic was also courting him as a successor to Lorin Maazel. I’m not an expert on contemporary conductors and their styles, but I know how important a conductor is to shaping an ensemble’s sound and coaxing the best performance out of its players. I remember reading somewhere that American orchestras tend to play at faster tempi than their European counterparts. Not so for this performance. Although Muti never lost the shape or phrasing, the music dragged at times (especially during the second movement). Thankfully, the fugal passages did not suffer.

At the conclusion, the audience gave a long and resounding standing ovation. Muti gave a speech about the CSO being a world-class orchestra. Unfortunately, my $24 did not grant me auditory privilege to his words.

Mizoram is the only state where per-capita income has remained above the national average through the past 15 years. As per the net state domestic product data released by the National Accounts Division of the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), incomes in seven of eight northeastern states are below the national average.

In 1993-94, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Sikkim had incomes 10 per cent to 20 per cent higher than the national average. All three have now crashed as Arunachal is below the national benchmark by over 15 per cent, while Nagaland is lagging by a whopping 25 per cent. Sikkim is fractionally below the national average by 2 per cent.

Of the remaining four states, always poor in terms of incomes, three have slid even further down. Assam and Manipur are trailing by over 35 per cent, compared to about 25 per cent in 1993-94. Meghalaya used to be 10 per cent below the national average, and now it is 17 per cent behind.

Tripura used to be the most laggard state 15 years ago with its net state income per person almost 30 per cent short of the national average. In 2007-08, it is still behind, but only by 5 per cent.

Who ate the development funds?

Home to more than five crore people, belonging to over 80 ethnic groups, the eight northeastern states are rich in mineral and natural resources. The policymakers in New Delhi have spent several billions on development of the region; yet, the results are dismal.

Since 1998, all central government ministries have been earmarking 10 per cent of their annual budgets for northeastern states. According to the Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region, between 1998 and 2006, more than Rs 42,600 crore was kept for the northeast.  Moreover, the North-East Council, the key agency for channelizing funds to the region, has approved nearly Rs 1,100 crore in the last three years for development projects. Have all these funds been appropriately spent? The northeasterner would know better.

The unspent funds meant for the northeast were collected in a huge treasure chest that goes under the rather awkward name of Non-Lapsable Common Pool of Resources. It was to be used to directly fund developmental projects ranging from educational institutions to roads and bridges. Between 1998 and 2006, over Rs 10,000 crore were accumulated in the corpus.  About Rs 4,800 crore of this has been spent, that is, less than 50 per cent.

Since it is common for funds to get lost in India’s bureaucratic-political maze, officials, like always, claim that implementation is poor at the ground level, while activists say that the whole set-up is driven with nepotism and corruption. Project sanctioning has become a tool for patronage rather than development.

This was two weeks ago. It was 10 minutes to 8pm before I had to move sound equipment with my fellow CCF Worship Team members. It is the routine Wednesday evenings of this fall semester for all of us, whether or not you’re scheduled to play the keyboard or not. I was slated to play for the evening. As I scrambled for my car keys, my cru buddies, Steve and Theo, went off moping about how I couldn’t stay a bit longer to jam with them. If only they showed up sooner, like an hour earlier. Don’t we all wish people showed up earlier or on time, so we could have more quality time?.. well, my worship team beckoned the same from me.

I got to Crosby suites, parked my car, got let into Crosby suite, and did the routine heave-and-ho through the hallways, down the stairs or the elevator, and to the curb. We loaded the equipment; I shottied a ride with Preston to SERC building. A valuable conversation commenced:

Me: Have you been busy lately? You have not keyboarded in a while.

Preston: Yep.. been pretty busy. So you’re playing twice in a row!

Me: I know.. but I’ve been pretty busy with stuff too. You know.. I had to do two papers today, because they were both due today..

Preston: Huh, that’s crazy.

Me: Yup, but I’m still heree

Preston: Great job

Me:.. There is this thing called “time management”

Preston:..Time management? Whoa.. I think I might have heard a term like that before. But tell me more about it! *sarcasm of course*

Me: Haha. Suree. So time management.. you know, when you just plan way ahead of time. You give certain hours for studying, and sleeep..and eating. Say you give 4 hours of studying each day, an hour and a half eating, and 8 hours for sleeping.. that gives you.. 24 hours minus 13 1/2,  equals 10 1/2 hours to do everything else!! And Wednesday Large Group meeting is only..3 hours!

Preston: Mm..but you got classes too!

Me: I’m sure those 10 hours are more than enough for that, exams and many things. So you really have no excuse to skip keyboarding.

Preston: Haha.

[3 hours goes by, CCF large group meeting over, heave-and-ho of sound equipment ensues, and loading of them finishes.]

On the car-ride back to suites..

Preston: Cecilia, you should play for the CSO event.

Me: Why? I don’t even like The Fray. What’s the song they want from us again?

Preston: You Found Me.

Me: Mmm.. I would give it a listen. But why can’t you play it?

Preston: I don’t know it that well. You can’t really hear the keyboard in the song, only in the intro.

Me: I mean, I could try. The thing is my schedule’s gonna get crazier come November.

Preston: Mmm..well, there IS this thing called “Time Management.”

[Two second pause..]

Me: Hahaha…oh wow..

Preston: Yup! There you go.

Me: Dang, you’ve caught on, Preston! Good job!

And there you have it. If you’ve ran out of time for something that you would like to do, it is never because there’s not enough time. There always is, and I speak this in the midst of my worst week of hell ever: exam, 3 long papers due, weekly assignments due. On top of all that, I have til the weekend to submit some applications and extraneous writing projects. Also, it is baseball postseason. Things can’t get more distracting than this, with the Yankees in the World Series and the temptation to head to Philly for Game 3 Saturday. I feel screwed and fatigued. Even so, that is still not enough to argue with Time Management.

sabemos apenas dos o tres cosas. La pr­imera es que él sólo se hace si preservamos lo conquistado por las máquinas célibes -tener autonomía de vuelo, un vuelo donde el encuentro con lo irreductiblemente otro nos desterritorialice; ser pura intensidad de ese encuen­tro. La segunda es que, si eso es necesario, no es suficiente: al mismo tiempo que se da la desterritorialización, es preciso que, a lo largo de los encuentros, se construyan territorios. Y nos empeñamos en la creación de esta nueva escena (¿Nuevas escenas?). Somos casi replicantes, ya sabemos también de qué está hecho ese empeño: está hecho de amor. (ROLNIK 2008)

Ah, the Wednesday after fall break. Fall break is done (so sorry!) so you should theoretically be well rested and excited about getting back to work (what a joke!), but wait! It’s a Wednesday, so you are faced with a serious case of humpdayitis along with a mild form of can’tconcentrateafterfallbreakosis.

We will try to help you get over both highly serious and highly contagious conditions, but it may be hard; they’re difficult to treat. As a prescription, we are announcing some oh-so-lovely events for you to check out (we mean it, really go and check them out).

After Smith:

Interested in grad school? The UK? Royal Holloway/University of London is coming to Smith for the day to talk about graduate programs and opportunities in the UK. Upperclasspeople, be sure not to miss this: you never know what another country could offer you. They will be at one of the information tables in the Campus Center (presumably downstairs) from 11:30 am – 1:30 pm on Wednesday. For more information about the school, click here.

Driving:

The SGA is hosting another van certification training session. This is the first class you have to go to (if you’ve already done that, don’t go to this one). If you want to drive your house or club around, be in CC 103/104 from 5-6 pm on Wednesday. For more information, click here.

Blood!

Sign-up to donate blood or volunteer at the upcoming blood drive, hosted by the Community Service Office. The blood drive will be October 19 and 20, but the sign-ups are from 12-1 pm at the information tables downstairs in the Campus Center. Someone will be there all week at this time.

That’s all I have for today! If you have any events you want to advertise, email us at smithstalker@gmail.com.

Also, did you do anything exciting over fall break? Share your stories or pictures (or both) with us and we’ll post them. Email us at smithstalker@gmail.com.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

I have no excuse for not frequently attending CSO concerts. I appreciate “classical” music, I live a 20-minute bus ride from Symphony Hall, the CSO is one of the premier orchestral ensembles in the world (with principal conductors Bernard Haitink, Pierre Boulez, and Riccardo Muti), and I can take advantage of $11 student tickets (including fees).

On Thursday, the CSO played a program of French and German music by Fauré, Bruch, and Saint-Saëns, which featured Joshua Bell on the violin in Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1. There was an article published in The Washington Post magazine in 2007 by Gene Weingarten about an experiment conducted by the Weingarten and Bell: would subway commuters recognize a world-class violin virtuoso’s musicianship during the morning hour rush? I won’t elaborate – a discussion of this would be a whole other blog post.

I don’t know much about the violin, and have only seen a handful of concertos played live. The first experience was exhilarating – Midori played Mendelssohn with the TSO, and she produced a purity of tone of which I did not think the violin was capable. I’m not familiar with Bruch’s work, although I am aware that his violin concertos are held in high regard. No. 1 is a great piece and Bell played admirably, coaxing a lot of emotion out of the violin during the second movement.

I have enjoyed Fauré’s music since singing his famous Requiem and Cantique de Jean Racine in high school. Among the still well-known composers of his era, his style seems oddly unique (and French, as it’s often described now). Fauré’s emotional restraint and harmonic innovations imbue his music with a sort of potency different from the grandiosity of other Romantic composers. Pelléas et Mélisande is typical Fauré: gorgeous and mellifluous.

Having grown up in a school that trained organists, I have always appreciated the “king of instruments”. One of my classmates was a good organist, and I used to turn pages for him (and press the “full organ” button at random intervals to annoy him). Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3 is not an “organ symphony”, but a symphony avec l’orgue; an organ symphony is a distinct form of music for solo organ. That being said, the symphony is fantastic: it’s catchy and accessible, it doesn’t need time to grow on you, but you need not be embarrassed for liking it. Although he was a prodigy and a polymath, Saint-Saëns wasn’t known as a pioneer – the program notes quote him referring to himself as “first among composers of the second rank” – but if I could produce even one work of this quality in my lifetime, I’d die happy. Saint-Saëns packs quite a bit of bombast, majesty, and artistic firepower in these 35-ish minutes.

I’ll list off some of the features of the piece that I personally find endearing. The misleading slow introduction that dissolves into restless strings. The rhythmic Dies Irae-like motif in the brass (perhaps for Liszt?). The lyrical “second” movement, especially the part where the organ chords and pizzicato strings transition from minor to major. Four hands on the piano. A piano. The opening of the “fourth” movement. A coda topped off by a descending scale on the organ played at a volume notated by a double-digit number of f’s. “French” music this is not.

The last few weeks have seen the classical seasons kick off in earnest in London. A time of year I always enjoy, especially this year after what has seemed to me to be a rather underwhelming Proms season  (I’m not a massive fan of the Proms anyway, but maybe more of that another time).

Opening the Southbank’s visiting Orchestra season was the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and I made it to the second of their two vastly over-priced concerts there. Really, the prices being charged were pretty outrageous – £75 for the stalls (usually about £35), £50 for the side stalls (usually about £25 or so). No wonder that the choir stalls sold out first, and that the second concert was some way short of full.

But hey, this is the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and with boring the esteemed Bernard Haitink, so surely we were in for an exceptional night out? Hmm… Well I have to say it was perfect. But unfortunately perfection doesn’t necessarily make for a thrilling evening. The opening Haydn had no joy, no life, no sense of fun, entertainment. It was as if to say ‘ this is how symphony orchestras play Haydn’, no one had bothered to rethink it, enquire or question. It was, in short, flat. Oh to hear the OAE or AAM play it! To be fair, I had higher expectations of the Bruckner that followed. But no, my hopes were dashed. Sure, it was very good, note perfect etc. But it had no passion, and I had no sense that the players or indeed conductor were really interested in playing it. Of course the performance was greeted by wild applause and a standing ovation, but if I had paid £75 I think I would have wanted to pretend it was the best performance ever too.

A spot-on review in the FT here:

A few days later I was back at the RFH for one of the LPO’s season openers: Mahler 2, coupled with a piece by Kurtag. Now, the LPO is by no means as perfect as the CSO, and Vladimir Jurowski’s performances are sometimes too clinical. But this performance, for me, knocked the socks off the CSO a few days previously. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but that doesn’t matter when you can feel the music in this way, when you are exhilarated, taken on a journey and transported. It wasn’t music making ‘by numbers’, and perhaps the fact it does stretch the orchestra adds to the excitement. For me, this was real music-making, done with seriousness, intent, but also love and passion, which for me, is what music is all about, be it classical or otherwise. For this season, the home team is currently winning one-nil.