Edward Piercy

Posts tagged with "Music"

STICKY POST

P.M.P.I. Theme Music

Tuesday, 20. June 2006, 01:54:38

To play the music, click on George or Glenn's picture.

(Please be patient. It will take a minute to connect with your media player.)

George Friedrich Handel
Suite in D minor HWV 447
Courante
Artist: Keith Jarrett
Format (MP3) / Timing (02:31)
Light and dark combined.

J.S. Bach
Partita in G Major BWV 829
Praeambulum
Artist: Glenn Gould
Format (MP3) / Timing (01:47)

Now playing in a galaxy near you...

Didn't know where to put this map, so I'm putting it here.

15 comments

For Veterans Day

Tuesday, 10. November 2009, 21:19:00

In Memory, Music

Frederic Chopin
Nocturne Op. 9 No. 1
Artist: Ivan Moravek
Format (MP3) / Timing (05:43)

For our service men and women on Veterans Day.

(click on the photo to listen to the track)

5 comments

The Hands of the Queen

Friday, 6. November 2009, 04:47:17

Valentina Lisitsa, Music

The hands of Valentina Lisitsa.

6 comments

A Billion Years Away

Wednesday, 4. November 2009, 15:45:23

Music, Astronomy, The Four Seasons

I’m not normally given to writing song lyrics, but back in
the 80s I came up with the words for a punk rock song. Here’s
the song:

“Write One Song”

by

Edward Piercy

Write one song and play it to death
Write one song and play it to death
Write one song and play it to death
Write one song and play it to death

Write one song
Play it to death
Write one song
Play it to death

Write one song and play it to death
Write one song and play it to death
Write one song and play it to death
Write one song and play it to death

Write one song
Play it to death
Write one song
Play it to death

Following upon the success (in my own mind) of that song,
I wrote another one:

“Write Two Songs”

by

Edward Piercy

Write two songs and play ’em to death
Write two songs and play ’em to death
Write two songs and play ’em to death
Write two songs and play ’em to death

Write two songs
Play ’em to death
Write two songs
Play ’em to death

Etc. etc etc. I think you get the idea.

I never did write a third punk song for some reason. Though
I’m pretty sure that I could.

Also back in the 80s I wrote a song called “Heart Parasol.”
I wrote it while visiting my sister and brother-in-law at
their house near Grissom AFB in Indiana. My brother-in-law,
John, ended up setting the words to music. And eventually,
recently, he recorded it. You can listen to the song on
John’s MySpace page if you care to.

I don’t remember the lyrics to that one. So I can’t put them
down here. I do remember vaguely what my life was like back
then, what I was thinking and feeling. Lots of ancient Roman
history. Lots of beer. Xanax. Echo and the Bunnymen. And of
course the seemingly ever-present depression over some girl
or another.

It seems like so long ago. But of course it wasn’t. It always
gets me when people meet and one will say “Gee, it’s been a
long time.” And the other person will respond “Yes, it has
been. Too long” or something to that effect.

But it hasn’t been a long time. A billion years, now that’s a
long time. All our time is but the blink of a star’s eye.

The Corona Borealis super cluster of galaxies, located
approximately 1 billion light years away from us.

30 comments

Shark, Octopus, Pop Star

Tuesday, 8. September 2009, 19:53:14

Music, Movies

Giant Octopus grabs hold of a submarine.

The other night I stretched out on the couch and turned on the Sci-Fi
Channel on television and watched Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus (2009).
The set-up is typical for this type of movie: Something really stupid
we humans do awakens a couple of havoc-wreaking sea creatures from
far back in geologic time -- a giant shark and a giant octopus. The
shark is about the size of an aircraft carrier and the octopus is as
big as Mt. Ranier. Oh and I should say too that the two were/are deadly
enemies. Before you know it all hell breaks loose, as hell always seems
to do. The giant shark eats the Golden Gate Bridge and a U.S. Navy missile
cruiser; meanwhile, the giant octopus takes out an off-shore oil rig and
a passenger plane and a few whales. The Japanese and U.S. governments of
course don't want the public to find out about the shark and the octopus
and starting a panic. So they keep everything a secret and send the Navy
in to try and kill the shark and the octopus.

One of the first to get wise to what is happening is a marine biologist
named Emma. Together with an Irish biologist and a Japanese scientist
they discover what is going on. The governments don't want them causing
any problems of course. But when they are unsuccessful at destroying
the creatures they pretty much forcibly recruit Emma and the others to
help them. The scientists are saddened that such a great research
opportunity will be lost. But eventually even they realize that the two
gigantic creatures aren't exactly fitting into the contemporary
ecosystem and will have to be put down. They come up with a plan to
lure the two creatures together, upon which the shark and octopus fight
a mighty battle against each other and are destroyed. And then the
world can get back to normal. Unfortunately.

Pretty much from the get-go it occurred to me that the actress who played
Emma looked very familiar. But I couldn't figure out where I had seen
her before. So I got onto Internet Movie Database and found out her
name was Deborah Gibson. Well that wasn't much help really, so I dug a
little deeper (it's nice being able to do this stuff on the Blackberry
while watching television) and discovered that Deborah Gibson was in
fact Debbie Gibson -- the famous 80s pop star. If you are too young to
remember her, Gibson was sort of the progenitor of teen singers like
Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus.

Since the 80s Gibson has continued to put out the occasional album and
has made a few movies besides Shark vs. Octopus. She also did an 8-page
photo spread for Playboy back in 2005 at the age of 34. So if there's
anybody out there who lusted after Debbie back in the 80s but was nervous
about the Jail Bait Mind Police as you tossed and turned in bed, it's
okay to lust after her now. Seriously, it really is. It's okay.

After Shark vs. Octopus I started watching Spring Break Shark Attack (2005).
But by that time I was on my third movie in a row where sharks go around
eating people, having seen one the night before that also, and was kind of
tired of it. So I turned off the television and went to bed.

Deborah "Debbie" Gibson.

37 comments

Long Live the Queen

Thursday, 3. September 2009, 17:10:26

Valentina Lisitsa, Music

Valentina Lisitsa.

It almost always happens. A concert virtuoso enters into the bright
lights and achieves fame as a performer. They travel the world and
play to great applause and receive the praise of the public -- some,
like Franz Liszt, achieving an almost fanatical following. But then,
eventually, someone else comes along. Someone usually younger; and
someone just a little bit better. As the pianist Abbe Vogler once said
of Beethoven, "The man is not a man, but a devil. He will play will
play us all to death." At this point the older virtuoso doesn't disappear.
They simply get pushed to the back a little and are talked about as
being "one of the greats." But their time is essentially over. They are
somehow of the greats of the past, not the present. The spotlights focus
on a new face.

Over the past decade I've considered Evgeny Kissin to be the world's
greatest pianist. Some might disagree. But I would bet that if you
would take a poll among critics and listeners that Kissin would come
in with more votes than anyone else.

Recently I ran into a new pianist -- Valentina Lisitsa. She isn't very
well known yet. But in my opinion Lisitsa is better than Kissin. And
you don't know how strange it is to write the phrase "better than
Kissin." Nevertheless I think it is true.

The King is dead. Long live the Queen.

And, I must be living right; Fate is kind. Valentina will be coming
here to Spokane next February. I already have my ticket, ordered and
paid for this morning. Fourth row, center. Only massive heart failure
or the blizzard of the century will keep me from this concert -- and
I'm not even sure about the blizzard, I might even be able to make my
way through that one. I will sit and soak it up. And, like the ladies
of old used to do with Franz Liszt, I might just swoon a bit.

Valentina in her home studio -- one of
four Bosendorfer concert grands.

19 comments

Chopin: Colors and Voices

Tuesday, 1. September 2009, 18:03:03

Music

(Just click on the colors above to play the video.)

I ran across this by accident last night and
thought it was pretty cool.

32 comments

La Place de la Concorde

Saturday, 22. August 2009, 21:28:27

Music, Culture

La Place de la Concorde, with
the Luxor Obelisk.

La Place de la Concorde is a large square lying just to the west of Les
Tuileries. It was created in 1755 and has an octagonal shape that
originally (for some strange reason) was surrounded by moats. Then
known as the Place Louis XV, it was the site of an equestrian statue of
the king.

During the French Revolution the name of the square was changed to La
Place de la Revolution. During the Reign of Terror a guillotine was
placed in the square and it became the original site of state executions.
The guillotine was later moved down closer to Les Tuileries. It was said
that the square eventually became soaked in so much blood that cattle
refused to pass over it.

A few years later, during the period of The Directorate, the name of
the square was changed again to Place de la Concorde -- perhaps in the
hope that sanity had at last been regained and that things had settled
down. There were of few more name changes over the years, but eventually
it simply was known as the Place de la Concorde.

During the Second Republic and the reign of Louis-Philippe, La Place
acquired two Italianate style fountains designed by Jacques-Ignace
Hittorff. They date from 1838.

Facing the square to the north are the French Naval Ministry, and in a
matching building the Hotel de Crillon -- where Marie Antoinette played
cards and the Nazis made their headquarters in World War II. Just down
the street and also to the north is the famous Church de la Madeleine.
To the west is the Champs-Elysees and (eventually) the Arc de Triomphe.
To the south lies the Ponte de la Concord and the river Seine. Thus La
Place could offer the newbie tourist a good directional base from which
to explore the city. Although I certainly wouldn't be staying at the
Hotel de Crillon, which is one of those "if you have to ask how much
you can't afford it" type of places.

Lobby of the Hotel Crillon.

Shortly before his military expedition to Egypt in 1798, Napoleon's
mistress Josephine is reputed to have told him "If you go to Thebes,
do send me a little obelisk." Which I think has to rank among the most
naive statements in history. Nevertheless in 1829 France did acquire
two obelisks from Karnak as a gift of the Ottoman ruler. One of the
obelisks was transported to France and in 1836 was placed in La Place
de la Concord. Only one of the two granted obelisks ever made it to
France given the huge technical undertaking involved. The second one
remained at Karnak and was ceded back to Egypt in the 1990s. As for
Josephine, she did not live to see her "little obelisk" reach France
(d. 1814).

The Karnak obelisk is from the reign of Rameses II (Dynasty XIX,
1279-1213 according to the new Egyptian "low" chronology). It is 75
feet tall and weights 280 tons. The triangular cap on the obelisk was
was lost across the millenia, and so the French replaced it with a
gold-plated capstone of similar style. The original base with its
depiction of baboons (a reference to the Book of the Dead) was left in
Egypt, and was replaced by the French with a new base depicting the
logistics of erecting the giant stone.

And thus the obelisk stands today, roughly 3200 years later, in La
Place de la Concorde.

Well my feet are tired (or I guess I should say my fingertips are
tired), and with this I conclude my virtual freebie vacation of Paris
and the 18th century. I certainly did learn a few new things. And
though I will never see Paris, I know that it would be a city that I
would love.

The second, twin obelisk at Karnak (Luxor).

Philip Glass, Prelude from Akhnaten.

"Open are the double doors of the horizon,
Unlocked are its bolts."

(Just click on the pic to play the video on youTube.)