If you haven’t yet visited www.paleisthenewtan.com, then you owe it to yourself to do so. I’ll wait.

Watched the trailer for Legion. There’s a scare in the first 10 seconds or so that made me jump out of my pants. (Which can be embarrassing, but I was alone.)  Check it out. Movie looks kick-ass, like a filmed version of Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim in some ways. Features Paul Bettany as an angel with wicked fashion sense, and disaster movie veteran Dennis Quaid. (Link to the apple version of the trailer is here, but I viewed on my TV via XboxLive, in the dark, and suggest you do the same.)

Got in some more hours playing Dragon Age last night. Still loving it, still occasionally getting annoyed at the uneven difficulty curve. Was in a forest. In said forest, there are three tombstones. When you touch each tombstone, a powerful undead creature spawns, called a Revenant. It spawns with 4-5 skeletons defending it. I cleared out the first two tombstones without breaking a sweat. For the third, my party wiped (game over in Dragon Age parlance) 10 times before I just gave up on that encounter. There’s no discernible difference between the three encounters. Heck, the third one appears to have the weakest collection of opponents overall. And yet we wipe. Repeatedly. I moved on, entered a ruin, killed a dragon, and felt much better.

The CERN facility is now online and expects to begin injecting the first particle streams tonight. Very cool, as we could know within days whether they discover a Higgs boson, thus proving the Standard Model. In Brian Cox’s book, he suggested that if they don’t find the boson, it will be because it doesn’t exist – fatally undermining the Standard Model. But recently, some have suggested that maybe the boson will time-travel to avoid discovery. So there you go. All I have to say is that the Time Traveling Bosons would make for a great band name.

Edit: update – per @CERN, “A clockwise beam has just gone half way round the LHC.”

Ballet five times in eight days? Why not, I say, why not? And with the highly touted presentation of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s newly choreographed “E=MC2″ (in their “Quantum Leaps” program) and the opportunity to see a fancy (and usually expensive) story ballet from the Opera House stalls for 60 quid (Sleeping Beauty), how could I say no? Then, well, new Macgregor at the Royal Ballet, and a new(ish) story ballet (Cyrano), and, er, a commitment to see the Royal Ballet’s mixed bill program twice, and hey! It could happen to anyone, really.

First, the Agon/Sphinx/Limen triple bill, which I saw twice (Friday November 13th, cast list here, and Tuesday, November 17th,
cast list here). “Agon” reminded me how very difficult Balanchine really is – but only the second time I saw it, when the male dancers failed to hit the right sense of unity, I twice saw people adjust themselves after failing to hit their mark, and the whole thing generally smelt like “work” instead of “dance.” The long duet toward the end was particularly different; whereas on Friday, Acosta seemed somewhat bored and workmanlike as he manipulated his partner through a series of movements (including a “drunk ballerina” sequence in which she keeps falling into the splits and being lifted up again), the same duet seemed forced and uncomfortable Tuesday, as if the dancers hadn’t done it enough to forget about what they were doing and just do it. I felt every technical detail of how to make a catch and how to do a turn was exposed to the naked eye, and I didn’t like it.

On Friday, I got caught up in the weirdness of the extremely late 1950s Stravinsky music and the great deep drums (and – was that xylophones?), though I wasn’t entirely able to get caught up in the experience of the dance due to the off-putting nature of my far right seats (cutting off a quarter of the stage). Still, in retrospect, I realize Friday’s cast was pretty well hitting the mark, though in general I think Pacific Northwest Ballet does this dance better.

“Sphinx” … well. Much as “Agon” was as purely late 1950s as Peggy Guggenheim’s house, “Sphinx” was totally late 70s. The costumes were Tron meets Stargate with some headbands thrown in for good measure, and … God, I saw it twice, and I just found it the most unspeakably pretentious thing I’ve seen since the horrid “Pierrot Lunaire“. There’s a bit where “Anubis” is dancing in circles around “The Sphinx” and “Oedipus,” and I just thought … why why why? Who cares about what they’re doing? Why are they acting like they’re performing in a silent movie? Why does he keep balancing her on his shoulder when it’s so clearly a wiggly place to sit? When is there going to be some dancing that actually matters? Why was this revived at all? The music wasn’t bad but … never again.

Finally, Wayne Macgregor’s new ballet, “Limen,” my last and best hope for great new ballet of the year and the reason why I was at this program twice.

Well. I’m sorry to say, but it looks like David Bintley, about whom I knew almost nothing before this week, has utterly stolen the hot ballet trophy away from Wayne this year. (Let’s be clear: much like the search for the world’s best gelato, the search for the hot ballet of the year is one in which the searcher will always win. Still, I was surprised.) Wayne gave us … er, boxes and lines on the floor, and a cool projection, and good music … but the dance was … kinda out of the same box of stuff he usually uses, the great extensions, the butts sticking out, but without the cool “breaking the boundaries” moves he’s thrown in to spice it up. In fact, with almost no partnering in this ballet, it just felt a wee bit sterile.

Except, of course, for the utterly gorgeous middle bit in which a man and a woman did the most amazing work. Both times I saw the same cast, he black and she white, looking like yin and yang together … the movement utterly enchanting, in some ways almost a response to the Balanchine that opened the evening, making the manipulations worked on the ballerina earlier seem so heavy and coarse … now delicate, lifting, bending, flowing, working together as one, his strength, her grace and flexibility … perfect.

And then it was time for the big black wall with the winking blue lightbulbs to show up and end the dance, and I found myself thinking, “E=MC2 was it, I’m so glad I went, I wish I’d seen it twice”, and bam, the end of the night, the end of the ballet year, let down but glad I’d hedged my bets and run off to see BRB earlier in the week.

The day before my second viewing of the mixed bill I went to see Sleeping Beauty, and I really am just not going to be able to say too much about it as, well, it was dry. I realize this production is some kind of touchstone for the British ballet public but for me I about choked on the dust rolling off of the sets and costumes, which reminded me of some little girl’s room in her grandmother’s house, circa 1950, pastel green on pastel pink on pastel purple BAH. The ballet itself has almost no plot and is just really a set piece for some tricksy dance moves, so if you want emotion and not canned Petipa “let’s show of the technique of the dancers,” then it’s going to be Cyrano for you. Admittedly, even the New York Times’ reviewer criticized Tamara Rojo for her rather stiff Aurora, and perhaps this was part of the problem; I could go “ooh, she stayed on that balance almost until infinity,” but I didn’t really care. It was just like watching … the circus or something. I wanted to be involved, like the way I am when my heart breaks for Giselle, but I wasn’t.

Anyway, in the dances of the various fairies in the prologue, I did get quite a kick out of the technical prowess and charm of Sian Murphy as the “Fairy of the Woodland Glade” (she stands en pointe with her supporting leg slightly bent and does two kicks in front, then pulls up into an arabesque – did I get the fairy right?) – as well as the lightfooted (and charismatic) Iohna Loots as “Fairy of the Song Bird,” and of course I liked the bit with Puss & Boots, and the Big Bad Wolf and Red Riding Hood, and of course (I must say!) the Bluebird pas de deux in the final act … but the damned “vision” scene in the second act was just SO LONG I was running out of energy to be there any more. AAARGH. And I didn’t enjoy the dancing in that scene, either. I mean, I saw this ballet done by Pacific Northwest Ballet the year they debuted it, I didn’t enjoy it then, and still I went back. It’s like I don’t learn. It’s still the same ballet. I might just need to see it with a different ballerina in the lead, though as expensive as story ballets are at Royal Ballet it’s unlikely I’ll go back to see this in less than five years. The fact remains that it needs to be massively freshened up and redone for the 21st century instead of being such a museum piece.

Ah well, but if you look at the net result, of five nights of ballet, I did get something to enjoy every night – but for this round, it was Birmingham Royal Ballet that I enjoyed more, and ultimately David Bintley’s choreography that cranked my chain. I can’t wait to see what 2010 will have to offer!

I have become increasingly intrigued with the science of ‘memetics’ — being the study of the ’systems dynamics’ of cognitive evolution as a parallel track to the biological kind.

The other day, for example, I was half-watching an old-ish movie on TV; a comedy about a handsome young man who goes celibate for 40 days and his office-buddy who starts a betting pool at work, hedging how long the handsome young man will be able to keep the self-imposed vow.

At one point the ‘office slut’ decides that (on behalf of women everywhere, but mainly on behalf of her own frail ego) she can’t afford to allow the handsome young man to ‘have the power’…

The ‘power’ of course being that she (aka: women) is somehow ‘entitled’ to use sex as a weapon; a tool of manipulation; a means to an end of getting her own way; having whatever she selfishly (no matter the consequences to others) wants.

And by strict terms of biological evolution, such ‘dominator’ behavior is not only sanctioned… it is genetically encoded as the ‘key to survival’.

In fact, the whole strategy of all biological genes is self-satisfaction. And the memes (aka: cognitive genes) which collaborate (in a chicken/egg duo) to compel dominator behaviors have no morals.

By prime directive of what science calls ‘4-F memes’*, the better a single member of a given specie is at establishing hierarchical superiority — no matter the bullying, trickery or abuse — the greater is that individual’s chance for survival and thus the better the odds to pass along his or her own biological and cognitive predispositions, ie: to achieve genetic/memetic immortality.

Still, as memetics clearly points out, humanity has the power to transcend 4-F reactions by ‘choosing’ to ‘look at things differently’, ie: to ‘rise above’ our engendered behavior code. That is, at base-line in our unique humanness we each still recognize a somewhat uniform ideal about how things ’should’ be in terms of egalitarian equitability… but for the most part such altruistic morals are subjugated by fear-driven 4-F reactions.

The good news is, of course, that we do not have to be slaves to our preconcieved dispositions. Having the ability to ‘think’ and to ‘reason’ and to ‘evaluate’ and to ‘decide’, we have the innate capacity to self-determine our own behaviors. The only question then, it seems to me, is why would we choose to do otherwise? And the only logical answer I have arrived at so far is because we do not recognize (aka: are unaware) that it is a personal choice. ~~~

* 4-F memes: By strict biological terms, the four ‘prime behaviors’ which ensure ‘perpetuation of the specie’ are Fleeing, Fighting, Feasting and F*cking. By strict cognitive terms, we are each (to various degrees) slaves to these memetically encoded behaviors — until and unless we (1) recognize the validity of this paradigm, and (2) appreciate the fact that — as thinking beings — we have the everpresent liberty to ‘choose’ how we will (or will not) behave.

In this triple bill each work was a team effort, and the dancers performed superbly. The sequence of ballets was well-judged and made a great evening of dance.

The first item, Powder was a revival of a 1998 ballet by Stanton Welch, an Australian-born choreographer who is now artistic director of Houston Ballet. It’s a sensuous use of dance to accompany Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major, completed shortly before his death. The seven couples were led by Natasha Oughtred and Robert Parker. She was beautifully musical, vulnerable and sexy, well supported by her partner, and by Victoria Marr and Ambra Vallo as the other principal girls. The costumes by Kandis Cook — tight shorts for the men, and long chiffon skirts with various satin bodices for the women — were admirably sensual, and the subtle lighting by Mark Jonathan was very effective. The long sweeping motions in the choreography made this work the gentlest of the three and the right one to start with.

The second ballet, named after Einstein’s equation E = mc², was the main focus of the evening for me. It’s a new work by artistic director David Bintley, in four movements each with strongly rhythmic music specially commissioned from Australian composer Matthew Hindson. The first movement represents energy — the E in the equation — and was vibrantly physical. The energy represented here is the chaotic energy of the Big Bang, and I particularly liked the sextet of men, which showed immense power amid the rhythmic chaos. The second movement represents mass — the m in the equation — and is a complete contrast to the energy movement, reflecting the fact that we perceive mass and energy to be quite different, despite Einstein’s equation showing they are manifestations of the same thing. The sudden transformation of mass to energy informed the third movement, representing the dropping of two atomic bombs in World War II. This was demonstrated by powerful sound effects and a single white-faced dancer, Samara Downs in a kimono and with a large fan. Then came the fourth movement with a square array of lights on a screen at the back of the stage gradually becoming visible. This was the c² of the equation — c being the speed of light. The choreography here was particularly inventive, extremely well performed, and fascinating to watch. There was no physical set, and changes of mood were signified by Peter Mumford’s clever lighting, with sudden shafts of light streaking across stage. Costumes by Kate Ford were different for each part, and I particularly liked those for the second movement with their sombre colours and black shorts for the men. Altogether this four-part ballet was a feast of ideas, and I look forward to seeing it again.

The final item on the programme — The Centre and its Opposite — was a new work by Garry Stewart, artistic director of Australian Dance Theatre. It was extremely physical with unusual movements not normally seen from a ballet company, and was performed to electronic music by another Australian, Huey Benjamin. There were unusual rhythmic elements in the music, as befits a composer who has performed widely as a drummer. The set comprised vertical light strips round the edges and horizontal ones above, designed by Michael Mannion, and the tight grey costumes with black hgihlights were cleverly designed by Georg Meyer-Wiel. The audience reaction to this last item of the evening was strongly positive, though I found the new ballet by David Bintley to be the most interesting item in the programme.

Fringe: Season 1: Episode 19: “The Road Not Taken”

Olivia and Charlie at the latest Pattern occurrence.

Someone with the ability to generate and/or control fire was bound to show up in Fringe sooner or later, though this is overshadowed somewhat by Olivia’s dimension-hopping. In this post, I’ll be making the usual comments about how much suspension of disbelief is required to enjoy the show.

This episode is debunked at Popular Mechanics and Polite Dissent, and you can read more about it at Fox, IMDb and the A.V. Club.

Random thoughts

Why dismantle a perfectly good electron microscope and Geiger counter when you could almost certainly just requisition the parts? Broyles did say something along the lines of, “Whatever you want, you can have.”

Peter’s gift to Walter, while sweet, may be a little unnecessary – vinyl doesn’t really get water damage, and can even be cleaned with soap and water.

While the idea that sound waves will deform softened glass is quite neat, surely there wouldn’t be much in the way of temporal information? Peter’s success in “playing” the window borders on the preposterous.

1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane

The spray that the FBI use to break the lock on the warehouse door is probably a refrigerant such as 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane (R134a). Due to its low boiling point (around -26 °C), it evaporates instantly on contact with the metal, cools it rapidly and thus makes it brittle enough to be broken.

LP to MP3

Despite Peter making a near-unforgivable breach of laboratory etiquette (taking someone else’s equipment), his vinyl record scanner delights Walter and is completed just in time to help solve a case. He seems to have constructed an environmental scanning electron microscope, which would be able to resolve surface detail down to about 5 nm. Of course, this is far smaller than the bumps in a record groove but software will presumably take care of the smoothing.

The big clanger, aside from the lack of any obvious cooling or vacuum systems for the electron beam, is the gap between the sample (LP or glass window) and the electron emitter. Electron beam intensity decreases exponentially as a function of distance, because the electrons interact with atoms and molecules in the air (this is why most electron microscopes operate at high vacuum). At atmospheric pressure, the sample must be less than 1 mm from the emitter to pick up a reasonable signal. The enormous, open gap in Peter’s device would not only reduce the effective beam intensity to zero, but also irradiate anyone foolish enough to stand nearby (as well as high-energy electrons, electron microscopes give off X-rays).

Mass-energy equivalence

Walter says that the average adult contains enough energy to “explode with the force of five very large hydrogen bombs”. Is this true? Let’s see about that mainstay of casual science, a back-of-the envelope calculation.

The largest hydrogen bomb ever deployed by the USA was Castle Bravo, a 15 megaton Teller-Ulam design (by contrast, the largest device deployed by the Soviet Union was the 50 megaton Tsar Bomba). A megaton (Mt) represents 4.184 x 10¹⁵ J, or the energy released by detonating one tonne of TNT. If we take the Castle Bravo test as a “very large” benchmark, five of them might be expected to release 3.138 x 10¹⁷ J.

Mass-energy equivalence is dealt with by Einstein’s famous equation E=mc², which would be the upper limit of a person’s potential energy. If an “average” adult has a mass of 70 kg, then (the speed of light being about 2.998 x 10⁸ m s^-1) they could contain 6.292 x 10¹⁸ J (around 1500 Mt), 20 times as much as our group of hydrogen bombs. If we assume that modern weapons are more powerful than those of the Cold War, Walter would be exactly right.

&

Cam aşa aş caracteriza, campania asta electorală pentru prezidenţiale: “Spune surdului despre sunet, iar orbului despre raza soarelui”. Mda, cine e surdul şi cine e orbul!? Păi să cam fie aşa: Surdul e politicianul care nu vrea să audă despre adevăratele probleme ale muritorul de rând orbul e românul care se complace în situaţia în care este şi se face că nu vede că ar trebui ruptă pisica în două. Iar puterea exemplului este cea mai bună.

Da stiu, sună radical. Dar cred că numai aşa soarele va reuşi să topească vălul opac care împiedică ochiul să vadă, iar surdul nu mai este fudul de urechi.

Primul pas vreau să îl fac eu.  Aşa cum bebeluşii învaţă să meargă aşa am să învăţ şi eu altceva. Fără prea multe promisiuni, multă acţiune şi la fel de multe, dacă nu chiar mai multe gânduri şi sentimente pozitive. Nu am să scriu: votează pe X, Y sau Z. Nu, ci doar deschide ochii înainte şi gândeşte-te dacă conştiinţa e de acord cu ceea ce intenţionezi să faci. Ceva sau cineva acolo sus a făcut o treabă tare bună când ne-a dat conştiinţă căci ea e măsura faptelor noastre. La mine merge de minune. Ea conştiinţa mă trage de mânecă şi nu mă lasă să mă îndepărtez prea tare de adevăr. În rest întamplarea e cea care decide, sau … sau poate destinul ?!!

Să fie oare 2012 şi încă nu ştiu. Mda, odată cu schimbarea orei mi s-a schimbat şi calendarul. A sărit deodată la sfârşit. Nu mi-a lăsat nici măcar posibilitatea unui preludiu, sau nici măcar să trec printr-un purgatoriu.

Deci hai să râdem atât cât mai avem timp… eu una mă pregătesc să încep. Vreau ca sfârşitul să fie când râd cu gura până la urechi. Mereu am în minte un citat al lui Michelangelo spunea cam aşa: “Genialitatea e răbdarea nesfârşită.”

Deci am răbdare şi vreau să încep să râd. Dar până atunci încă o mostră a preferatului meu Michelangelo Buonarroti asta ca să începem să exersăm răbdarea deci:

“Când un copac e smuls din rădăcină,
Desprins de sevele ce-l înalţă,
Ori se usucă, ori, în timp de vară,
S-aprinde când e arşiţă haină.

La fel şi biata-mi inimă străină,
Trăita-n plâns, hrănind-o jar şi pară,
Azi, când e din sălaşu-i scoasă afară,
Ce rău n-ar omorî-o fără vină?”.

E nu a fost greu, acum gata am început să râd şi chiar pe bune. Cum de ce pâi îmi închipui cum vreun internaut rătăcit a ajuns pe blogul meu şi a dat de postul asta.. haaa ce mirare este, ce mirare va fi … şi tot aşa. Cred că o să o duc dintr-o repriză în alta … de râs se înţelege. Nu-i aşa că viaţa e frumoasă chiar dacă am ajuns la sfârşit, na.. sau mă rog calendarul meu arată un sfârşit de lume în desfăşurare.

Mă uit pe fereastră, ce văd! Lume nebună.. disperată să facă bani să fie vedete de cinema sau tv dacă nu chiar bancher sau “în cel mai rău caz ” un patron multimiliardar.

Deci e sfârşitul lumii asta gândesc şi încerc să găsesc soluţia… ceasul, înpoi nu îl mai pot da… mmm calendarul. Da calendarul ar fi soluţia. Dar mă uit că foile sunt şi ele arse aşa rămâne, ca de obicei, râsul. Cum de cine râd, păi de data asta chiar râd de mine că am fost numai cu ochii pe calendar şi am pierdut pe drum câte o filă în plus.

Aşadar,

Sfârşit de zi în

sfârşit de octombrie,

într-un sfârşit de an,

într-un sfârşit de calendar,

ce se sfârşeşte,

într-un sfârşit de lume.

E=MC2 is a new program in Loyola Village that encourages recycling, composting, and living green. E=MC2 might be the world’s best-known algebraic formula, relatively speaking. It’s also the name of a new eco-friendly competition underway at USF’s Loyola Village this semester. “It stands for Energy Saved = My Conservation2,” said Joe Murphy, USF environmental safety director. “The concept being that with a little effort people can save a lot of energy.” E=MC2 consists of two components, one aimed at encouraging Loyola Village residents to conserve electricity by tracking and reporting how much they use, the other focused on making it easier for residents to recycle, compost, and conserve water on a personal basis.

Residents can win $1,000 in flexi cash from Bon Appetit, a $150 gift card for the USF Bookstore, and a yearlong Zipcar membership and one day’s free car rental, among other prizes. Both residences and individuals can win awards, the former by cutting back on power and the latter by keeping a log detailing the amount of recycling, composting accomplished as well as water saved by turning off the faucet when brushing teeth or energy saved by shutting down ones computer.

A primary goal of the pilot program is to educate Loyola Village residents about how much their lifestyle impacts the environment as well as their pocket book when they are responsible for paying the full utility bill, Murphy said. During the competition, the amount of power, including the associated cost, is tracked for each Loyola Village housing unit then reported to the residents at the end of each month in a mock utility bill.  “This contest gives students and residents the opportunity to see their electricity usage and the associated cost and experiment with what they can and cannot do to bring that figure down,” Murphy said.

The idea is to encourage residents to develop good habits and carry them on after they leave USF, said Christin Anderson, Well Life Program manager and USF Green Team co-chair. “We want to institutionalize this type of behavior and include it as part of the university’s orientation,” she said. In addition to educating the USF community about green living strategies, E=MC2 was designed to illustrate that a sustainable lifestyle is a daily set of choices involving the use of resources and the consequences of those decisions. “Sometimes, those consequences are immediate and other times, as with global warming, they take a while to manifest their full effect,” Murphy said.

E=MC2 runs through Nov. 12. and the Winners will be announced in early December, after which USF administrators will evaluate the pilot program’s results, Murphy said. The feasibility of expanding E=MC2 to other residence halls and university offices will be part of the evaluation.

We love CNC hacks, so when [Jonny] sent in his nearly complete CNC router we were ecstatic. There are only a couple of posts thus far, and it takes some digging, but its pretty easy to understand his mindset and overall plan while making the CNC. It currently has full 3 axis movement and he replaced the previously dinky Harbor Freight Dremel with a much more powerful DeWalt that even Tim Taylor would be proud of. Software side of things he uses a combination of EMC2 and their collection of open source CAM codes. The project is coming along nicely and more updates are promised. Check out some more videos after the break.

I wasn’t going to bother with this but people have been asking for my take on Mariah Carey’s new album, and though I’ve heard it and I’m not impress, which I knew I wasn’t going to, I’ve decided to give it a few more spins before making any final judgment.  In the meantime, here’s my take on her and her catalog.

It took forever to find a pic of her not doing some ridiculous pose or dress like a hooch.

Mariah Carey’s voice took the world by storm, well at least the US, while I was in middle school, which probably explains why, after all these years and going through so many phases, and letting my taste for music get a bit more sophisticated, I still care to listen to what she’s selling, even if more often than not, I don’t buy it.  It isn’t that she hasn’t given us some good songs; in terms of pop music she has delivered some great fun records: “Vision Of Love” “Emotions” “Dreamlover” “Honey” “Breakdown” “Heartbreaker” “We Belong Together” “Shake It Off”  and “I’ll Be lovin’ You Long Time” are among those.

As far as covers go, she’s practically the Queen of *Covering The 80s.* She’s obsessed with the decade that saw her as a teenager, hell, she herself hasn’t grown past 14yrs old.  “I’ll Be There” may have been in the 70s but she does good with it, and say what you will, her covers of “Bringing On the Heartbreak” and specially “The Beautiful Ones” are among her best work.

And then there’s the gems of her catalog, which strangely it’s formed largely by songs that were not commercially released as singles, which only shows how dumb either the execs at her record companies or she can be: “Vanishing” “Now That I Know” “Fantasy” (no matter what version, “Fantasy” ruled) “Babydoll” “Outside” “All My Life” “One and Only” “So Lonely (One and Only Part 2)” “Migrate” “That Chick” “Cruise Control” and what are arguably the single best songs Mariah has ever produced: “All I Want For Xmas Is You” “Stay The Night” and “The Roof.”

The most maddening issue with Mariah Carey is the fact that for all her talent as a vocalist, she continues to make sub-par music; bizarrely, the older she gets the more childish her stuff and just mediocre her lyrics gets.  She’s been feeding the public the same *our love was so good, no one can touch it, you’ll soon realized boy, you need to be with me* song from day 1, and her public antics don’t make it any better.  She’s become the new Janet Jackson: scare to death of growing older and not being popular anymore and desperately and embarrassingly trying to seem hip by acting like a nymphomaniac teenager.

She’s never going to get respect from critics and she’s never going to be remember for her music.  Her voice yes, but her music will be forgotten.

Mariah Carey.  The album that started it all has surprisingly not aged as bad as I thought. “Vanishing” still remains the best song on the whole thing and one of Mariah’s more emotionally resonating songs.  And everyone that smirked at her later hip-hop co-opting? The girl raps during “Prisoner” for crying out loud!  Grade: B

Emotions. This was the quick follow up to keep momentum after she’s blown up. The title track gave her her fifth consecutive number 1.  Right around this time, Whitney started complaining she was just a carbon copy of hers and people started wondering if she was another Milli Vanilli and her voice was a studio trick.  With the backlash, her singles after the title track weren’t as succesful and the album was even considered a flop. A flop! At 4x platinum you can hardly call it that. Unfortunately the album wasn’t as solid as the debut, and basically nothing past “If It’s Over” is very memorable, which probably has to do with the haste in which it was made.  Grade: C

MTV Unplugged. She did it to hush everyone who said it wasn’t her voice on the records and with the stripped down arrangements of the songs and the intimate setting, she not only shut every one up, she did herself proud by singing each song with the sort of emotional depth that has sometimes been missing from her studio work.  “Someday” was more defiant, “If It’s Over” was more surprinsingly more heartbreaking “Vision Of Love” was more show off-y and “I’ll Be There” simply killed in how simple she performed it.  Grade: A-

Music Box. Or as I call it the “Deceiving Album Part 1.” Make no mistake, Music Box is good, very good actually, there’s almost no song in it that you can possibly dislike, with the exception of the gag-inducing “Hero.” The album was produced with the sole purpose of appealing to anyone and everyone so that it would sell buckloads of copies and it did.  But like any good junk food, you gorged yourself in it until you get a stomach ache and you get dizzy and you realized that though delicious, it isn’t nutritionally good for you.  Music Box is so busy seeking commercial success and mass appeal that it sacrifices, emotional connection with its audience.  All around good, all around fun, but hollow; containing no spirit.  Grade: B+

Daydream. Her marriage to Tommy Mottola was about to go bust and she decided to kick start that divorce into high gear by putting her foot down and producing an album closer to her style, to the things she liked and who she was, and wuala, she had another massive hit.  And unlike Music Box, this one wasn’t calculated.  By incorporating R&B and hip-hop sounds she gave a slightly darker but fresh appeal to her saccharine, old school pop.  She also sounded liberated or at least on her way to be, and plagued by headaches that she was going to get through.  This was the first glimpse of the human being behind the super-voice-acrobatics and her music, specially her lyrics benefitted from it.  Her second best all time offering. Grade: A-

Butterfly.  Finally free from Tommy Mottola (in marriage that is) and emerging from metamorphosis, shedding her cocoon (in her case her clothes…literally) the aptly titled cd found Mariah fully submerging herself and her music in hip-hop without completely forgetting the pop that made her a star in the first place; feeling like she could be herself and let her emotions show. This is the real emancipation of Mariah Carey the woman, Mimi is just some teenage girl who likes to dress like a hooch.  There’s not one song that hurts the flow of the album, even the lesser ones like “Fourth Of July” and “Whenever You Call” hold a mystic that her early work didn’t have.  It truly was as if she had come of age, sounding honestly heartbroken yet defiant on “Breakdown” reflective “Closed My Eyes” strong “Outside” playful and sexy “Fourth Of July” “Babydoll” “Honey” wrecked from the inside out on the stand out Prince cover “The Beautiful Ones” and exuding miles and miles of sex-appeal on the album’s best track (and her best song period) “The Roof.” Butterfly is the peak of her career; it may not be one of the greatest albums of all time when compare to the giants of contemporary music but in terms of Mariah Carey, Butterfly is her Masterpiece. Grade: A

#1’s. Thanks to this, now everyone and their mother puts out #1’s albums even though (unlike Mariah who had every right to) they’ve never had enough #1 singles to justify putting an album like this.  Though not an *official* greatest hits, it still feels like one because that’s what it basically is!  Up to that point the songs seemed to hold up still, with the exception of the God-why-that-retarded-song-again! retching-ness of “Hero” and “One Sweet Day.” The likes of “Emotions” and “Always Be My Baby” seem more comfortable among this set of songs than their respective parent albums, though this set makes clear the point of the accusations that her album lead singles all sounded alik. Grade: B

Rainbow.  What a mess.  How is it possible that so soon after hitting her peak with Butterfly she started free-falling so quickly and losing her marbles? Her breakdown may had been a few years away but all the signs were already there: up-ing the ante on her hooch persona, acting more and more childish, getting breast implants, rambling crazily on the album’s liner notes and fan messages… and then there’s the music.  “Heartbreaker” is about the only solid thing on the album, everything else is mediocre, banal in the case of “Did I do That?” I mean for Christ sake she’s duetting with 98%!! How on earth do you go from Boys 2 Men to Whitney Houston to 98% is a mystery.  And her ode to orgasm “Bliss” is one of the most embarrassing, laughable songs she’s ever put out. Awful. Grade: D

Glitter. Can her album names get any worst? Sometimes critics just love to pan something out of spite but in this case, they were right on target. (I’m sure Tommy Mottola was so happy they let her go as a Sony artist) This album is exactly the equivalent of the movie it promotes: a catastrophe that’s only good if you are watching the mystery science theater 3000 version of it because the riffing on this is priceless. Almost every take on 80’s synthesizer-heavy music is awful, just AWFUL. Her version of “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life” could have been great but it gets ruined by all the stupid rapping provided by Busta Rhymes, Fabulous and DJ Clue. If they had left her alone, the song would have been great, at the very least a club hit.  This album deserves an F but it escapes that grade only because “All My Life” (its one saving grace, written for her by Rick James, proving how awesome he was) is so good, it should have been a single.  Grade: D-

Charmbracelet. Emancipated from Sony, she made one of the worst albums of the decade. Dropped by Virgin she should have pulled all her strengths and showed that she could make it but instead she sort of retreated deeper into her persona and came up with this forgettable, over-long collection of run of the mill songs.  She tried to go back to the pop of her early days but lightning didn’t strike anywhere near and the R&B stuff wasn’t particularly catchy either. “Lullaby” a sequel to Butterfly’s “The Roof” wasn’t anywhere near as good as that song but it was one of the better songs on the album along with her surprising cover of “Bringing On The Heartbreak.” At least one can say it is the only album during her 30s in which Mariah Carey has acted her age. Grade: C

The Emancipation Of Mimi. Or as I call it the “Deceiving Album Part 2.” Like Music Box before it, Mariah re-learned that if she wanted to be the popular girl at school and be named Prom Queen then she needed to forget realism or all personal turmoil, abandoned emotional depth and just concentrate on making the most accessible, most commercial, most addictive album she could ever come up with; something that would be even more crack-like than Music Box.  Out came Mimi and the rest is history as soundtracked by the sound of cash registers.  Mimi is good, very, very good, and you have to give her credit for it no matter what. It is even more deceiving than Music Box because it feels like is reaching for something other than commercial success whereas Music Box was just so blatantly obvious.  Everything old was new again and Mariah took it and ran with it. Her full on singing was back, no more annoying whispering.  She didn’t just used hip-hop more prominently than ever and contempo R&B, she looked beyond her muse the 80s and brought back some old school soul and R&B from the 60s and 70s lending the album a classic sheen that was unheard of her.  She brought back the gospel of past gems like “Vanishing” and “I’m Free” and united all in what was deservedly a blockbuster comeback.  What the album could have used and what kept it from ranking higher than Butterfly were slightly better lyrics.  Yes, we liked all the club songs, it was good to hear her have fun but the majority of the ballads have that same old: *our love was soo good, no one can’t touch it, boy you know you are going to come back to me* tired subject, as if she just can’t be inspired to write about anything else than the same song.  Otherwise one hot album and her 3rd personal best. Grade: B+

E=MC2. She’s obsessed with being popular and completely scare to death if her lambs find another shepherd, but did she had to go and make a carbon copy of The Emancipation Of Mimi? And a mediocre at that?  That’s Mariah Carey for you, as soon as she reaches the top, she immediately free-falls back into crap.  It is as though renewed popularity gets her dizzy and she can’t keep steady. What’s even more maddening is that E=MC2 starts really good, “Migrate” is the exciting party jam “Is Like That” wishes it was, but then we stumbled on the idiocy of “Touch My Body” (no matter how comic, the track isn’t great) but we recover quickly with the insanely catchy island jamming of “Cruise Control” only to fumble again with the boring ballad “I Stay In love” trying to copy “We Belong Together.”  In fact, all the ballads are awful xerox of “We Belong Together.” “That Chick” and “I’ll Be Lovin’ You Long Time” are the only things worth a listen past track 5 along with “Side Effects” that shows Mariah finally talking about something other than being a 14yr old girl.  Even the last song is a copy of Mimi’s “Fly Like A Bird” down to the bible reading. This could have kept her momentum going but she ruined it. Grade: B-

Further Listening: Merry Christmas (I do not listen to Xmas albums so I can’t give a grade to this, you are on your own, though the song “All I want For Xmas Is You” truly is fantastic, just get that). Greatest Hits Grade: B.  The Remixes Grade: C+.  The Ballads: Grade: B-

The above video contains the deleted scenes of  ‘The Secret’.  You will notice that speakers such as James Arthur Ray, Dr John F Demartini, Esther Hicks, John Asaraf, John Hagelin, Bob Proctor, Dr Ben Johnson all discuss how thought has a vibrational frequency thus it is the continuation of holding the same thought over and over and over for long periods of time that emit a frequency and hence what you hold in your mind for long enough eventually manifests as your reality. 

This was an important component of The Secret, and it is truly a pity that it has been omitted because the message here is quite important, in fact everything about the Law of Attraction hinges on ‘thought energy’.

It is interesting to discover how choreographers find inspiration for a new piece and how they bring their ideas alive through dance. When David Bintley first announced he would do a ballet inspired by a physics equation, E=mc², many were puzzled. How could Bintley turn an abstract mathematical statement into a ballet?

Using David Bodanis’s biographical account of the eponymous equation as source material, Bintley started from its components (or ancestors) energy E, mass m, speed of light c and squared 2, to create his ballet’s three main movements, plus an interlude, The Manhattan Project. He then added choreographic nods to the related discoveries of scientists such as Michael Faraday, Antoine Lavoisier, Émilie du Châtelet, among others and, most importantly, to Albert Einstein.

While there is no need to know about physics or Relativity to appreciate the piece, there is more to Bintley’s imaginative dancing than meets the eye and as I have the  advantage of a high energy physics background, all those scientific references certainly added to my enjoyment:

Elisha Willis and Joseph Caley in BRB's E=mc2 (Energy) Photo: Bill Cooper Source: BRB ©

In Energy, for instance, Bintley plays with Faraday’s idea of curling lines generated from a magnet’s interaction with electric currents so dancers curl their arms and hands throughout. An almost bare stage, a central projected strip of clouds, the piece starts with a bang and the corps de ballet come in and out, filling all the space, making swirling patterns to the pitching music. His choreographic framework is clearly Faraday’s engine: using the current of a power source near a dangling wire to charge a magnet Faraday visualised circular lines coming from it, which could “sweep” the wire and induce it to rotate magnetically as does the screw in the video below:

The swirling corps de ballet is to Bintley’s choreography what the circular magnetic lines are to Faraday, the main couple – Joseph Caley and Elisha Willis – acting as the dangling wire as they rotate around the ensemble of dancers and around each other in beautiful turns and pirouettes, with their burst of energy also echoing the electric currents printed in the costumes designed by Kate Ford.

Strikingly different Mass, with its shades of brown and a moody, melancholic violin score, revolves around three groups, each with two men and a woman, plus a central pas de deux for Gaylene Cummerfield and Matthew Lawrence. The women are lifted and moved around slowly, indicating heaviness, the influence of gravity and mass over every physical object. The focus on bodies and the various ways in which they can be used to create geometry (for instance the iconic image of the three lifted dancers in a triangle) as well as the various balances taken by the dancers across the stage all point to Lavoisier’s studies on mass conservation and his conclusions on the weight of substances before and after a chemical reaction. Bintley also reminds us of the connection between mass and energy when later on these dancers enter forming a compact mass, moving as a whole with their hands curling in the same way as the previous group.

Celine Gittens and Tom Rogers in Mass and Samara Downs in The Manhattan Project. Photos: Bill Cooper. Source: BRB ©

The interlude brings a red square of light in the background, a dancing white geisha and thunderous sound which develops into an explosion. This may be a short section but references to the atomic bombs and the destruction of  Hiroshima and Nagasaki could not be more direct. Though visually impacting I thought that Bintley could have done without this section, not least because it logically should have come after Celeritas², although logic in this case would have made for a grim finale and I much prefer the dazzler we got.

A background wall of lights directed to the audience, with the dancers playfully running and doing grand jetés from the sides lead us to closing piece Celeritas² (latin for swiftness) which uses notions of speed and wave-particle duality exhibited by light. Bintley reminds us that light waves are nothing but electricity and magnetism forever chasing each other in space, just like first soloist Alexander Campbell and principal Carol-Anne Millar when they “play catch” and switch between front and back, with oscillating movements.

Bintley reserves his most visually stunning trick for a climatic end which uses the ensemble of the corps. Looking at light in terms of particles he builds rows of dancers in non-stop soft soubresauts. The dancers propagate their light in waves from the front row all the way to the last, each individually a photon, a “light” particle and  collectively a “wave” of dance going all the way to the back of the stage. The ensemble suddenly stops and only then does the main couple break to the sides, in mind-blowing chaîné turns. He could not have devised a more crowd-pleasing, applause-generating number closer.

Artists of Birmingham Royal Ballet in 'Celeritas²'. Photo: Roy Smiljanic Source: BRB ©

Overall E=mc² does an excellent job of translating a deep and abstract mathematical concept, the result of the work of an outstanding group of thinkers, into dance. The meaning of each movement was made clear through the choreography, by Peter Mumford’s remarkable use of lighting and via the enjoyable score from Australian composer Matthew Hindson. While the piece looks modern and fresh the steps are pure classical ballet which will allow it to live in the repertoire for many years to come.

Bintley’s new piece was bookended by the work of two Australian choreographers, Stanton Welch and Garry Stewart. Welch’s Powder, set to Mozart’s luscious Clarinet Concerto in A minor, had cheeky muses playing around with mere mortals. Whilst Mozart is not the easiest composer to dance to there are many bright points,  such as the sequences for male dancers which evoked four greek marble statues coming to life through synchronised jumps and balances (special mentions to Yasuo Atsuji and Joseph Caley) – and in the elegant pas de deux between Robert Parker and Natasha Oughtred.

Natasha Oughtred with Kosuke Yamamoto, Steven Montieth, Joseph Caley and Yasuo Atsuji in BRB's Powder. Photo: Bill Cooper Source: BRB ©

It is impossible to look at the shape (dancers extending through rows of linear lights) and sound (strong/electronic beat) of Stewart’s The Centre and its Opposite and not think of Forsythe’s In the Middle Somewhat Elevated. But while the choreography is not very original it is certainly diverse in the interchange between modern extreme extensions and standard classical ballet combinations: deep grand pliés with arms on fifth, adagio dancing  (developpés going into a attitude en promenade and balances on arabesque) and a sequence of petit allegro steps (jeté, jeté, glissade, changements). I find Stewart’s use of a large group of dancers well judged since it allows many younger artists to appear alongside more established principals, with some fantastic dancing from young promises Dusty Button (a crazy balance that went for ages), Aonghus Hoole and Christopher Rodgers-Wilson, as well as the elegant Robert Parker, who made the most of his beautiful classical line in a different, surprising context.

Dusty Button and Aaron Robison in BRB's The Centre and its Opposite Photo: Bill Cooper Source: BRB ©

This was a well-thought triple bill, which showed the diversity of the company and a new work which is sure to become a staple. It also served as a perfect showcase not only for the company’s stars but also for their corps members. With all the pieces making the most of BRB’s ensemble, we have proof that in ballet as in nature, one really needs to gather mass to generate huge amounts of energy!

Hampir sepuluh tahun lalu, majalah bergengsi Time dalam edisi tanggal 31.12.1999 menobatkan Albert Einstein sebagai tokoh terbesar abad ke-20 dengan runner-up mantan Presiden AS Franklin Delano Roosevelt dan Bapak India Mahatma Gandhi.

Untuk lebih mengetahui keputusan Time dalam pemilihan tokoh abad ini, sengaja berikut dikutipkan artikel dari Jawa Pos, tertanggal 27.12.1999 bagi Anda.

Siapakah tokoh terbesar abad ini ? Majalah Time menempatkan Albert Einstein sebagai yang teratas. Lalu, mendiang Presiden AS Franklin Delano Roosevelt di posisi runner-up dan Bapak India Mahatma Gandhi d posisi ketiga. Apa alasannya ?

Nama Einstein lekat dengan predikat ilmuwan jenius. Dialah penyibak rahasia atom yang mendasari seluk-beluk penelitian ilmiah soal ruang, waktu, dan masa pada era berikut. Karena itu, layak bila Time menyebutnya sebagai peletak dasar bagi ilmuwan lain di abad ke-20 yang disebut sebagai abad teknologi ini.

“ Dunia mengalami perubahan jauh lebih pesat pada abad ini dibandingkan dengan abad-abad sebelumnya. Alasannya, bukan karena faktor politik dan ekonomi, melainkan teknologi. Yaitu, teknologi yang melaju akibat kemajuan sains dasar, “ tulis Stephen Hawking, theoritical physicist, yang menyumbang esai soal Einstein di Time yang mulai diedarkan pada tanggal 27.12.1999 ini.

Berdasarkan pijakan pikiran itu, Hawking menegaskan bahwa tak ada ilmuwan sebesar Einstein pada abad ke-20 ini. Einstein-lah mahaguru bagi ilmuwan lain, yang tidak sekadar karena teori reltuvutasnya.

Selain Einstein, di posisi runner-up “Person of the Century” majalah berita mingguan terkemuka itu menempatkan mendiang Presiden AS Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Apa hebatnya FDR – julukan Roosevelt ?

Dia adalah simbol kemenangan kebebasan dan demokrasi atas kekuatan fasis dan komunis. Lalu, ada Mahatma Gandhi, truf abad ke-20 atas hakikat hak asasi manusia (HAM) yang selanjutnya menjadi faktor krusial dalam politik global.

“ Yang kita saksikan adalah Franklin Roosevelt-lah yang menjiwai tema besar (abad ke-20) kebebasan dalam menentang totalitarianisme. Gandhi mempersonofikasikan dari dari tema besar individu yang berjuang menggapi hak-haknya, “ tutur Redaktur Pelaksana Time Walter Isaacsin.

Begitu hebatnya kedua sosok itu, Presiden AS Bill Clinton (saat itu) ikut menyumbangkan satu esai tentang kebesaran FDR. Sementara itu, untuk Mahatma Gandhi, adalah tokoh antiapartheid (politik ras atau perbedaan warna kulit) dan mantan Presiden Afrika Nelson Mandela yang memberikan komentar.

Bagaimana kedua sosok itu dibandingkan Einstein ? Ranahnya memang berbeda. Dan, tandas Isaacson, cakupan dampak bagi manusia yang diukir Einstein jauh lebih luas.

“ Einstein adalah simbol sosok jenius besar sekaligus simbol revolusi ilmiah yang mampu membawa manusia pada kemajuan teknologi yang tidak terbayangkan sebelumnya. Inilah yang bisa memperluas cakupan pertumbuhan kebebasan (politik), “ papar Isaacson.

Einstein dilahirkan di Ulm, Jerman, pada 1879 dan meninggal di Princeton, New Jersey, 1955. Pada tahun-tahun awalnya, dia tidak menunjukkan tanda-tanda bakal menjadi manusia secemerlang itu. Karena telat bisa bicara, bicaranya pun sempat cedal. Saat duduk di sekolah dasar pun, dia termasuk siswa yang telmi (telat mikir) alias tidak bisa lancar menangkap mata pelajaran. Belajar pun, kalau di atur, dia tak sanggup.

Semua itu berlangsung tidak sebentar. Sampai lulus dari Swiss Federal Institute of Technology pada 1900 dengan spesialisasi gelar pengajar matematika dan fisika, dua tahun dia tidak mendapatkan pekerjaan. Baru pada 1902, dia bisa kerja di kantor biro paten (hak cipta) di Bern, Swiss.

“ Kisah hidup saya itu sesuatu yang sangat sederhana hingga tak menarik bagi siapa pun. Itulah faktanya saya dilahirkan dan itulah realitasnya, “ pengakuan jujur Einstein suatu ketika.

Toh, siapa kira tiga tahun kemudian Einstein membelalakan mata ilmuwan dunia. Tidak lain lewat teori relativitasnya, yang hingga saat ini masih dinilai banyak orang sebagai contoh sukses hasil imajinasi manusia. Siswa yang mengenal rumus teori E=mc2 pasti mengenal siapa pencetusnya. Einstein !

Ide Einstein ini berpatokan pada ide kuno Newtonian (cetusan dari Sir Isaac Newton) dan konsep Galilean (Galileo Galilei) atas jagat ini. Namun, analisis Time, kedua ide terakhir itu lebih banyak tertuju pada tataran teori. Tapi kemudian pada relativisme baru, Einstein-lah yang membuat ide itu dibumikan dan berdampak pada sosial budaya manusia.

“  Secara tak langsung, relativitas memang meretas jalan bagi relativisme baru (Einstein) dalam moralitas, seni, dan politik, “ tutur Isaacson menyebut alasan kunci pemilihan Einstein ini.

Karena pertimbangan itu, Time menilai, yang dilakukan oleh Einstein tidak hanya menyangkut ruang dan waktu, namun juga dampaknya bagi moralitas dan kebenaran. Wujud konteksnya,d ari teori umum relativitas, pada 1921 Einstein dianugerahi Nobel Bidang Fisika.

Lalu, apa wujud komitmen moralitas Einstein ? Salah satunya adalah kejadian pada 1939. Tatkala dia menyurati FDR agar membuat bom atom sebelum Nazi Jerman membuatnya. Meski Einstein sendiri, yang saat itu sudah enam tahun menetap di Princeton University setelah menghindari roda fasisme Nazi, tak ikut dalam proyek bom atom “Manhattan Project” FDR.

“ Karena saya tak melihat energi atom itu bisa memberi banyak manfaat sebelum jauh di masa datang, saat ini pun harus saya katakan ia adalah sumber bencana, “  kata Einstein.

“ Barangkali, hal terbaik memang demikian. Ia memang mengintimidasi manusia dalam urusan internasionalnya. Tapi, andai tidak ada rasa takut, sudah seharusnya hal itu tidak dilakukan, “ kata Einstein suatu ketika tentang usulan “kontroversial” ke FDR tersebut.

“ Dalam abad yang banyak dikenang dengan sains dan teknologi ini, khususnya kemampuan kita memahami kekuatan keji atom bagi dunia, orang pasti mengingat hanya satu orang besar sebagai tonggak abad ini : si ramah, profesor dengan otak tanpa henti berpikir, dengan rambut model halo, mata tajam, yang terlibat dalam kemanusiaan dan mematrikan wajahnya sebagai simbol jenius. Albert Einstein, “  tulis Time.

Sumber   :

Albert Einstein Tokoh Abad ini Versi Time – Jawa Pos, 27.12.1999

Cu totii stim (chiar daca nu toti, dar asa trebuie sa zicem) ca ateii se inchina pe ascuns la Darwin si la maimuta, il considera pe el un fel de Dumnezeu atotputernic in a le explica toate minunatiile create bineinteles de Imparatul Nostru Ceresc (asa scrie in Biblie, deci e adevarat).

Ei cred ca daca unele intrebari nu au inca raspuns, automat trebuie sa umple gaurile din cunoastere cu tot felul de formule si ecuatii pe care nu le intelege nimeni. Ei bine adevarul nu este asa, adevarata cunoastere implica magie, metafore, poezie, divinitate, imaginatie, vorbe frumoase, lirism, muzicalitate, sunetul vioarei sau toaca de la biserica, astfel incat sa priceapa si crestinii despre ce e vorba, altfel e un nonsens pentru urmasii Domnului.

Ce poti intelege din E=mc² ? E o prostie, niste litere insirate alandala. In schimb “Dumnezeu a facut totul” e perfect logic, pentru orice credincios.

In plus, daca Darwin ar fi atotputernic, atunci ar putea el sa creeze o piatra atat de mare incat sa nu o poata ridica? (hai ca v-am incuiat cu asta, ateilor, hahaha).

Nachdem EMC² nach spannenden Übernahmepoker Anfang Juli den Deduplikationsspezialisten Data Domain übernommen hatte , geht man nun erneut auf Einkaufstour. Wie letzte Woche in diversen Pressemitteilungen zu lesen war, ist die Übernahme des amerikanischen Anbieters FastScale Technology perfekt.

“Mit diesem Schritt erweitert EMC sein Ionix-Portfolio um Lösungen für ein vereinfachtes Management von Private Cloud-Infrastrukturen.” (Quelle )

Als nächstes steht nun die Übernahme das Software-Unternehmen Kazeon Systems an, mit dem berteits eine entsprechende Vereinbarung unterzeichnet wurde.

“Kazeon bietet Lösungen im Bereich eDiscovery für Unternehmen, Regierungsstellen sowie Notar- und Anwaltskanzleien. Die Kazeon-Technologie erweitert die SourceOne-Produktfamilie von EMC und bietet Möglichkeiten für integriertes und modular aufgebautes eDiscovery, Archivierung und Compliance.” (Quelle )

Lösungen der EMC erhalten Sie auch bei der SIGMA Chemnitz GmbH als EMC-Velocity-Partner.

Judging by my empty cupboards (completely bare except for a 12-pack o’ Ramen noodles), the time has come for yet another soul-searching Stash It or Cash It blog post, in which I mine my over-abundant CD collection for expendable yet slightly profitable goods. Hopefully I’ll find a few treasures worth selling at Wherehouse music (or for cherishing–but in this time between paychecks, I’m more keen on cashing in). As I rifle through my collection I stumble upon a Mariah Carey three-fer: her triumphant comeback of sorts The Emancipation of Mimi (2005), the serviceable though inferior Mimi retread E=MC2 (2008) and the pivotal yet impossible-to-remember Charmbracelet (2002).

I will start by saying that Mariah Carey holds a special place in my heart. She speaks to the part of me that’s eternally adolescent, poorly-adjusted and hopelessly insecure. Carey touches the Outcast Mixed-Race Girl in all of us who’s still finding her way and trying to belong. I love Mariah Carey. That said, I need to part ways with my colossal CD collection. Sacrifices must be made. Therefore, I take the opportunity to reflect on Ms. Carey (okay…Mrs. Nick Cannon) and what her music means to me.

Somehow fans began to take Mariah Carey for granted as the 2000s fell upon us. We eased away from her records to attend to a new crop of singers who boasted one name (Ashanti! Pink!), were former Mouseketeers (Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, the bushy-haired boy in NSync), or were of Latin heritage (Ricky Martin of Menudo  and an intriguingly tacky Fly Girl named Jennifer Lopez). If you were a teenager during Carey’s 90s heyday you may have taken a notion to attend college where the Butterfly singer was considered passe and, as a result, you started trolling Wuxtry Records or attending shows at the 50 Watt to learn what real music was.

We left her side for a moment, figuring that things would be okay. When we returned, however, things had changed. She was no longer Mariah Carey, the glorious capital-S Singer; she was now one of the Hyphenate, like the aforementioned Lopez: singer-slash-actress. Carey starred in a film called Glitter, a semi-biographical Cinderella tale that is not bad if you set aside all expectations and suspend all disbelief.  The film flopped.  September 11th 2001 occurred, a day that is not remembered for being the release date of the Glitter soundtrack. Rumors swirled of her deteriorating mental health and she wound up in a hospital, suffering from exhaustion.  So far, the New Millennium was not treating Carey so kindly.

Mariah Carey needed to return to her roots, to vent her frustrations and to turn a new page in her career. This brings me to the part of this post where I actually begin discussing her 2000s discography. With the exceptions of Glitter (which I borrowed from the library once, listened to and returned the next day) and her Greatest Hits album, I own all of her New Millennium catalog. I’ll start with her 2002 release Charmbracelet, a necessary yet ungainly album. There were a literal handful of songs that I liked. “You Had Your Chance” is a bouncy, candy-painted kiss-off song aimed at some lousy boyfriend. Not especially groundbreaking but it was one of the only two songs from this album to be put on repeat for at least 20 minutes–when I like a song I really like a song. The other playback-worthy track of this set is a little ditty called “Clown”, the most buzzed-about song of this album. Allegedly, this is a veiled attack against Eminem, the talented yet obnoxious Great White Hope of Hip-Hop whom MC may/may not have dated for a time.  This is not a great performance from Carey, marred by a flurry of catty, soft-spoken lyrics that don’t quite pack a satisfying punch. Unfortunately, the only joy derived from this song is in scanning the liner notes in search of clues about the alleged Mariah-Eminem affair.  With the exception of these two tracks Charmbracelet simply doesn’t contain as many gems as her other records. Fans know that this is Mariah’s Cathartic Album and that alone is reason enough to appreciate it for what it is. Who’d dare begrudge an artist the space to unburden her heart and soul on record? Charmbracelet was an important release for Carey but it’s an album that, Godblessit, I’m willing to part with.

In an age of instant stardom and rampant selective memory,  Mariah Carey’s Charmbracelet served as little reminder of her glory days and offered little reason for her continued relevancy in the music industry. She was no longer the monster hit-maker that she was only a few years before. People like Beyonce were ascending the pop music Everest. Shows like American Idol were cranking out Mariah Carey wannabes, all jockeying for her spot and possessed of two things that Carey no longer had: an instant and ravenous fan base and an easily exploitable naivete about the music business.  Carey was still a Grammy winner and a multi-platinum artist but the 90s had just ended and she had reached yet another crossroads. She needed to reclaim her top spot at all costs. Or perhaps she didn’t. But Carey has become notorious for her work ethic and her desire to please.  So she regrouped.

2005 saw the release of The Emancipation of Mimi, a return to form that featured all-star guests,  great songs and, of course, The Voice. Talk of Carey’s diminished vocal range was beginning to emerge and Mimi largely dispels such talk (among fans, at least–music critics, in keeping with a decade-long pastime of Mariah bashing, were less convinced). This album boasts collaborations with rapper/producer/mogul Jermaine Dupri, the tracks that, in my opinion, are the best of the album. The first single, “It’s Like That” features a springy 808 and piano-assisted groove, simple lyrics and au courant (for 2005, anyway) pop culture references in which the “purple is taking [her]higher” and she’s the lotion to lackluster ashy “chickens”.  It’s a fun, lighthearted song followed by the plaintive piano driven (and JD-produced) “We Belong Together,” which features one of Carey’s strongest vocals up to that point. As is the fashion nowadays, Carey’s vocals are augmented by Auto-Tune and filters, lending to the belief that MC’s pipes ain’t what they used to be. Either way, this is one of Mariah Carey’s strongest showings in years. She ably teams up with the Neptunes, en vogue hitmakers in ‘05, for a few contemporary cuts but mostly hues closer to her Pop&B pedigree. This was the album that saw the return of Mariah Carey and, for me, is a keeper.

Ever the prolific and productive recording artist, Carey is now gearing up to release a new album, Memoirs of An Imperfect Angel. The first single “Obsessed” is another entry into the Eminem-Response Record sub-genre of pop music–actually this is a small subgenre as most of Em’s targets are beleaguered teeny-boppers who are, inexplicably, scared shitless of a near-40-year old still rapping about his prescription drug addictions, bad childhood and unfortunate love life…but I digress. “Obsessed” is  a frothy sort of non-song designed for massive radio play, video countdown over-saturation and rampant downloading. She hits back at Eminem, again allegedly, by calling him “delusional” and proclaiming that “you’re a mom and pop/ I’m a corporation.”  So far, I’m less-than-excited about the new album but I’m pretty sure that I’ll buy it anyway. This is Mariah Carey, after all.

My ambivalence about the upcoming Memoirs mirrors my similar feelings about Carey’s post-Mimi exercise, E=MC2 in 2008. Her lead single was a chirpy, fluffy number called “Touch My Body,” a come-hither coo that beseeches a lover to, you know, touch her body. The low point of the song comes with her imploring her suitor to not post their “flick on YouTube”.  I should have taken my initial disdain for this track as an indicator of what to expect from the this album–and should have stayed far away.  This track, unfortunately, exemplifies everything that’s gone askew with Carey’s career. While I can appreciate the drive to stay current, “Touch My Body” and every other record on E=MC2 are trying too hard to appeal to the teenyboppers and twentysomethings that she no longer is one of –the kids more likely to buy a Rihanna CD (or, rather, to download her album) than they are to dig into a Mariah record. Many of Mariah’s original fans tuned out when she shed her marriage to Tommy Mottola…and her clothes. So maybe there is a certain savvy and wisdom in courting a new generation of fans. But the main ingredient of her 90s Wonder Years has gone AWOL as the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close–her powerful voice.

We’ve finally hit upon the most troubling aspect of her 2000s output. I’ll preface this part of my posting with a nod to the fact that voices change with age: they peak in the mid 30s and lose range from then on. That is the unfortunate rub of making divadom your stock and trade. No one can be an octave-scaling goddess forever. Whitney Houston can’t do it. Aretha Franklin of today doesn’t hold a candle to the Aretha of the 60s through the 80s. I witnessed a performance by Etta James on Austin City Limits in which she didn’t even attempt to scale the heights of her classic “Tell Mama”. Voices change. That, of course, is not my growing frustration with Mariah Carey. She’s written very popular and memorable songs but she’s been accused of a certain vapidity. She’s been harangued for show boating at the expense of true soul. This becomes a problem if you are a singer known more for the sizzle instead of the steak. What happens when the sizzle starts to die down?

As much as I love Mariah Carey, she came to prominence on the heels of her spectacular voice…and little else. In her defense, of course, when you’ve got a one-in-a-million voice like hers you don’t need much else.  You don’t need much else but it’s nice to have for a rainy day. Carey’s still got a gorgeous voice when she’s using it to full effect but she hasn’t really been doing that for the past few years. Does she choose to play it safe? To coo to expensive, diverting beats, content to coast along with the diminished standards of today’s pop music? Has she truly lost The Voice? Who am I to say? E=MC2 typifies this problem with reliance upon Auto-Tune (again) on the T-Pain-featuring “Migrate,” a dumb song but one of the only ones from this album that I managed to enjoy. The other song I like is “Bye Bye”, a sweet ode to lost loved ones that, in my opinion, is hampered by its self-referential tone (“you never got a chance to see how good I done/ you never got to see me back at number one”).  But the other tracks strike the ear as so much pandering to the trends of the today’s fickle pop market. “Cruise Control” is a clunky reggae-ish mid tempo joint featuring a Bob Marley scion and Carey’s distracting attempt at Jamaican patois. “I’m That Chick” is amusing in that she, apparently, “do’z it naturally/hypnotize like Biggie,” a proclamation that rings as the least natural lyric of this entire album.

Mariah Carey is endlessly fascinating in that she will always be Mariah Carey, the most successful female recording artist of all time. She no longer has anything to prove to anyone–not her fans, not the industry, not the critics. She may not even have anything to prove to herself anymore. Perhaps that is the conceit that drives her albums these days. Gone are the days of sweeping ballads, big curly hair and concealed cleavage. We’ve got the Mariah Carey that Mariah’s always wanted to be–free to dress like a 14 year-old girl, free to release the hip-hop-tinged songs that she’s always wanted to, rich enough to not be pressured by financial gain when it comes to her music.  She’s apparently happily married and has everything she’s ever wanted. While fans like me wouldn’t mind her recording a standards album, she just wants to have fun.  Who wins, though? Is it wrong to expect a certain standard of Mariah or should we, as fans, just be happy to go along on her journey? This is a question I ask myself whenever I listen to E=MC2 and become irritated. Perhaps I should stash this record for posterity but somehow I don’t think it was created for me.

Charmbracelet: Cash It

The Emancipation of Mimi: Stash It

E=MC2: Cash It

Tracks Worth Saving: “Migrate”, “Bye Bye”

Wie heute zu lesen war , gibt es Berichte darüber, dass EMC und Cisco ein gemeinsames Joint-Venture gründen wollen:

“Ziel des geplanten Joint-Ventures sei es, die Entwicklungen im Bereich RZ-Automatisierung und Cloud-Computing zu vereinheitlichen.”

Wie computerzeitung.de heute vermeldete, ist einer der Gründungsväter von EMC, Richard Egan, am Freitag auf tragische Weise ums Leben gekommen.

“Richard Egan war einer der Pioniere der heutigen IT-Welt. 1979 gründete er zusammen mit Roger Marino EMC, das inzwischen führende Storage-Unternehmen. EMC beschäftigt heute über 40.000 Mitarbeiter weltweit und setze im letzten Geschäftsjahr 15 Milliarden Dollar um.”