A CD review - “Uniko” – Kronos Quartet – Kimmo Pohjonen – Samuh Kosminen

“I have been a big fan of the Kronos Quartet for several decades now. But I must say when I first thought about the idea of String Quartet with Accordion, Samples and Programming I was not too sure about what the results were going to be. Knowing how adventurous Kronos has always been, I put my headphones on with eager ears and an open mind.

I have been immensely surprised to find myself really enjoying this album. I mean to the point of it being one of my favorite Kronos Quartet pieces. The accordion fits in like it has always been the fifth member that should have always been there. The tonal quality of the reeds seems to blend with the strings almost as if it were a string instrument itself. The bellows breathe right along side the fleshiness of the bows creating a rich and unique sound that even in the most dissonant sections can be quite soothing on the ears.

The pieces ebb and flow between dense and scattered particles of repetitive patterns and sampled vocals in hushed moaning. Synthesizer flurries and the sound of studio tapes running out create a feeling of technological breakdown. But the music never looses its beating heart. A very human longing slices through the cold modernist moments as the beautiful strings surround and embrace with gorgeous melodies and the fantastic interplay that not many other groups in any genre have ever been capable of.

Kimmo Pohjonen’s accordion plays aggressively and vibrantly throughout the piece showing his immense virtuosity on the instrument. His writing along with Samuh Kosminen is deeply moving and gorgeously orchestrated for this particular instrumentation. It never seems like there is a string quartet with an accordion stuck in there just because that’s the instrument the composer happens to play. This music is urgent. This music is lush and vibrant.

I loved listening to this CD for the first time. I can only imagine how much my appreciation will grow as I continue to hear and discover new things inside its mysteries over time. “Uniko” is a fantastic piece of music that should be listened to by anyone who is interested in hearing how an untraditional pairing of instruments just might be able to become a new tradition.

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abadpoem

Oh vertigo, oh vertigo
Why won’t you go away?
You drop into town
And spin me ‘round
Most every single day
I’d stay away from solid food
As if that would stop your twirl
Sitting here and breathing air
I think I’m going to hurl
Lay in bed and take my meds
Nothing seems to work
I once was nice, just ask my wife
But now I act like such a jerk
Doctor checked me
Still wants to test me
MRI’s and EEG’s
Injection here
Some more pills there
Cure is worse than the disease
At drop of hat
My handle’s flown
This rollercoaster bumpy
It’s just a fact
Wish weren’t true
I’m too good at being grumpy
Oh nausea, sweet nausea
Why have you come to stay?
I’m on my knees
Please hear my pleas
You’re driving me insane
I choke and cough
Hot tea and broth
Nothing makes you leave
Every step I take
Every move I make
I hunch over and heave
No memory left of feeling good
No calm refresh-ed remains
Stiff muscled hands
Legs unbalanced stand
So tired of all these pains
Read affirmations positive
Transcendental meditation
Here comes another side effect
Try a different medication
Cry foul at this unjustly deal
Throw my flag down on this play
Yet it could be worse sometimes me thinks
I could be gone already
Suck it up dive right back in
Dirt rubbed on back in the game
Breathe in breathe out
Breathe in breathe out
Tomorrows another day

-me

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arant

Too many vampires. Enough with the zombies already. We’ve had it up to here with werewolves and ghosts and other living dead. Come on now is anyone really scared by this played out shit anymore? It’s all fantasy and campfire stories trying to keep the kids from wandering off too far from the village at night. Only difference between now and three hundred years ago is our campfires aren’t in the wilderness. They’re all Megaplexes and flat screen TVs.

Sometimes I wonder what it must have been like back then. The world was flat and everything that went bump in the night was a major cause for alarm. Today we think we know everything. We’ve explored everything from the tip of Mt. Everest to the floor of the Marianas Trench in the Pacific. We’ve created artificial sunlight to illuminate what’s beneath the bed and hidden in the back of our closets late at night.

Nothing frightens us for real anymore so we make up even more terrifying tales to watch in movies and television programs in order that we can still be afraid. We have an innate and primitive need to be scared. Dracula alone wont cut it anymore, so we’ve made entire armies of indestructible killing machines that come back from the future to destroy all of mankind. Frankenstein’s monster doesn’t phase us at all so instead we look far into the future to find aliens who have sulfuric acid for blood and gestate their young inside of human stomachs killing them when they hatch from their fleshy, blood spattered hosts.

We have come so many years away from the fear of a Nuclear Holocaust that it has completely slipped our collective mind. We Americans believe it’s our birthright to live in a world where we have no real fear. An occasional oil spill kills millions of fish and destroys a vital part of our country’s economy. Thousands of families are displaced and cities are completely destroyed by it. Three days later we’re worried about what some starlet of the moment is going to wear to the next award show and who’s going to be her date.

War has been going on for almost a decade and we have lost hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides. But it’s happening “over there somewhere” so we don’t have to think about it. As long as we have our cable TV and the Internet service is still working, there can’t be any real problems. Right?

Be afraid of the terrorists. Be afraid of people who don’t belong here. Be afraid of people who look different. Who believe in a different God. Who speak a different language and eat a different kind of food. “Trust me. I’m Patriotic! Can’t you see? I’m wearing my Flag Pin!”

So we tune in and listen to the hype we have been programmed to believe. We buy it wholesale. Hell, we buy it whether it’s on sale or not. We buy it as they keep bailing out the companies that spill the oil and prolong the wars. We buy it while they take more and more money away from our schools and healthcare. We buy it when they raise taxation and find more ways to eliminate representation.

They point over here at this “traitor” and that “anti-American” while hiding their gay lover in a locked closet or an airport bathroom stall. They scream about the evils of Marijuana while taking their spouses extra prescriptions of Valium and Percocet. Climbing high up to the mountaintop to preach about how much they worship the Constitution and adore the Founding Fathers while forcing teachers to give equal instruction time to Intelligent Design and attempting to pass laws justifying prayer in the schools.

We watch CNN broadcasts about the people uprising for freedom in Egypt and now much of the Middle East. All the while keeping ourselves in complete denial that the issues that the rebellions are all about over there are the very same things our government is attempting to slowly strip away from us over here. And we are letting them do it. As long as Starbucks and McDonalds stay open, we let them do it. As long as we can still watch the Real Housewives marathon, we let them do it. As long as Snookie is still getting drunk and touching the Situations Situation, we let them do it.

This used to be a country of possibility and potential. My greatest fear is that I have brought my children into the world at a time when that is coming to an end. I am part of the first generation in America’s history that is going to have it worse off than our parents did. College graduates can’t get jobs. Buying a house is near impossible for most of the population today. Selling one has become just as difficult. We are in the worst recession since the Great Depression, but we are not allowed to call it a Depression. That might make people scared.

We have access to the largest and fastest databases of information in the history of the world, and yet we have the worst quality of education of any modern nation. I don’t blame the teachers. I blame the system. Politicians continually say they want to improve our schools, and then turn around at the first chance they get and cut their budgets. They don’t tax the oil companies or the banks. They go after the schools. Why? Politicians have absolutely no vested interest in educating the public. The more educated the people are, the more difficult it is to fool them. Making it so Politicians can get away with less deception and misdirection.

I don’t want a government run healthcare system. I don’t think it will be efficient or necessarily responsible. But if Insurance companies actually provided coverage that they claimed so the enrollees were receiving the care that they paid for, we wouldn’t need Uncle Sam to step in. They don’t so we do. The concept of a free market economy is good. So was the concept of Communism. In theory they work perfectly and create a beautiful society where everyone thrives and can have a happy productive life. In the real world, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Need some examples? Look at Russia under Communism and look at America today.

The old phrase, “Those who have not learned their history are doomed to repeat it” seems to be applicable these days. Our culture not only ignores history, we refuse to acknowledge it at all. We allow our politicians to misquote and misrepresent history. They distort it and bend it to their own needs. They use quotes out of context and claim statements given by others to be their own when it suits them. They claim the people who created this nation to be of a specific faith and worship the same God that they do. When in fact the Founding Fathers were primarily Atheists who built this nation as a Plural society expressing the need to keep Church and State separate.

When will we as a nation recognize that we need to hold our representatives truly accountable to us? This government is meant to be Of the People, By the People and For the People. Not the major corporations with their lobbyists and greedy agendas. I’m not saying that we need to rise up in arms and shoot when we see the whites of their eyes, but there has to be a Revolution of Consciousness in this country at some point in the near future. We need to wake up from our video game comas and our texting dreams. It’s time to put down the remote and open up our eyes. For the majority of us, the status quo is not working. It may not have sharp fangs or bloody claws, but we definitely have much to be afraid of.

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Raspberry Glazed

Spent most of last night throwing up. For the last two years or so it’s happened about once a month. My blood sugar spikes or the vertigo kicks in and… well I won’t bother you with the gory details. Last night was completely my fault though. I can’t blame the M.S. for this one. I simply ate too much rice. I love rice. I could eat rice all day, every day. Unfortunately my body doesn’t agree with my taste buds.

I don’t drink anymore. I don’t do any drugs other than what my doctors prescribe to me. I don’t party or anything like that. The only vice I have is that I love food. Well, being a diabetic is really a bummer for a “foodie” like me. I love chocolate. Can’t have it. I love rice. Can’t have it. I love corn. Can’t have it. I love foods that taste good. For the most part, can’t have it. Seeing a pattern develop here?

Keep in mind the fact that I can’t and shouldn’t have certain foods does not mean that I don’t have them. For the most part I am pretty good about it. Well… that was a lie. I suck at it. If offered the choice between a burger or a salad, I’m gonna go for the burger. If there is a cookie sitting around and no one else has claimed it, “C is for Cookie! That’s good enough for me!” Picture me covered in blue fur with the bugged out plastic eyes and everything.

I try to be good to myself. I honestly do. It drives Melissa insane! I love her so much and appreciate everything she does to help me. But I turn into such a whiny little prick when she asks me to watch what I am eating. I see myself doing it and I try to stop, but I just keep shoveling that crap right into my pie hole.

I know that losing weight and eating right won’t cure my M.S. But it will make things better for sure. I will feel better, have improved mobility and probably look better too. It will also make things easier on my heart. So as of right now (and I KNOW that I will regret this later!) I am making myself accountable for taking better care of myself.

Most of this blog will still be a place where I can bitch and moan about all the crap I love to bitch and moan about. But I am going to start posting about things that I am doing to take better care of myself. Whether it’s taking the dog for a good long walk or skipping the burger and eating that salad. It might be turning on the exercise channel and doing some yoga or just grabbing Melissa and dancing around the living room to a couple of songs.

I don’t want to box myself in to a specific picture of what it’s going to look like. I think that’s why I have always failed at losing weight and getting healthy. I put too many stupid restrictions on what I am going to be doing. If I surprise myself and make it fresh and fun it might just work.

It’ll be better for Melissa and the kids too. Hopefully fewer nights of hanging outside the bathroom door making sure she doesn’t have to take me to the hospital. Maybe some more energy to play with the boys and get into good enough shape that I can help coach little league or at least walk up the stairs without feeling like I’m going to die!

I’m sure that I will slip up and try to take this all back. There’s a Dunkin’ Donuts on every other corner out here. Every time we pass one I feel like Homer Simpson with my mouth open, drool sliding down my chin and moaning “Raspberry Glazed!” (Which I actually do say out loud from time to time) I can’t say that I won’t have a donut on occasion, but my goal is to make it much less frequent.

I need to respect the phrase, “Everything In Moderation”. Up until this point in my life I haven’t heeded that wisdom. It’s time I started acting like a grown up and take charge of my own decision making when it comes to food. I was able to quit smoking. I stopped drinking easily enough. I know that I have to eat to live. I just have to stop living to eat.

Who wants to place bets to see how long it takes me to start complaining?

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The Urgency of the Immediate: "American Portraits" CD Review

Paarvo Jarvi and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
“American Portraits”


1. Streetscape – Charles Coleman

I feel like I’m in New York City listening to this. It has moments of Bernstein and glimpses of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue” without plagiarizing Coleman’s much better known influences. While I don’t hear many melodies that I will be humming to myself on my next trip to the Big Apple, the music is indeed challenging and hauntingly beautiful. It’s not necessarily a piece that I would recommend to the casual orchestra listener. I do however find myself enjoying it and I think it is a piece that I will come back to revisit again.

2. Fanfare Ritmico – Jennifer Higdon

The recording quality of this piece is wonderful. The dynamics really shine through. From the thunderous percussion at the opening down to the subtle piano and woodwinds a few minutes in. Every instrument has its place in the mix and shines through clean and crisp. The music itself is a bit disjointed for my tastes. While there is definitely a tremendous amount of energy and life to the music, there is nothing here that rings through on an emotional level.

3. Slalom – Carter Pann

Starting out with a direct an uninhibited nod to Beethoven, this piece quickly changes pace and sends you flying down the mountainside soaring between the trees as its name describes. I have only been skiing a few times, but the rush of adrenaline and speed is definitely captured here. Closing my eyes I easily pictured beautiful snow capped peaks and clear blue skies. Rushing past trees and chasing friends downhill to be the first one in line for a cup of hot cocoa. I especially enjoy the solo piano about four minutes in. It’s a beautiful moment in an exciting and thrilling piece.

4. Halcyon Sun – Jonathan Bailey Holland

Sunrise. Light grows from the deep black of night into a hazy purple. Hints of orange and red creep in until suddenly and blinding yellow explodes over the horizon lighting the world. A calm breeze sways through the trees stirring the birds and other animals from their peaceful nights sleep. The lush strings combined with climactic and sometimes dissonant horns paint lovely tonal brush strokes on this canvas. Holland has written a wonderful piece perfectly suited to be set as your morning wake up music in the morning.

5. Deep Woods – Charles Coleman

The orchestration in this piece is gorgeous. It makes full use of all the tools that the orchestra brings to hand. It sets a mood that could be interpreted by some as being lost in the deep woods. I however have not been in this particular forest. Unfortunately nothing else about this work strikes me as remarkable. Frankly it had me on edge wanting to press the skip button to move on to the next piece.


6. Network – Kevin Puts

Struggling to keep pace in a culture dominated by the urgency of the immediate. Everything we do now at the start of the second decade in the 21st century is dominated by this premise. Whether the news is about civil war breaking out in Egypt or the state of Kim Kardashian’s love life, we hear about it as it is happening. Everything is networked and joined together by the technological fiber optic neurosystem we have created for ourselves. We suckle at its virtual teat both at work and at home. We sit online at our desks and in our cars. Laptops and tablets keep us informed as well as misinformed. Our cell phones are occasionally used as telephones, but more often than not they exist as newspapers, magazines, cameras and video games.

The energy and frenetic psychosis of our never ending streamed twenty-four hour a-day information drives “Network”. Once again I got the feeling of being crammed in an over packed subway car or city bus trying to get a signal so that I could call the office and tell them I was running late. There is never enough time in the day to absorb everything coming through our constantly growing network of information. Just a longing for some peace and tranquility somewhere that has gotten lost in our collective quest for more.

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Overall listening to this collection of “American Portraits” was enlightening. The talent and creativity of these composers is undeniable. But it left me feeling a bit sad. Where has the melody gone in American life? Is everything so frantic and unstable that we have no room left to sing? What is it with so many modern American composers? Is it against the rules to enjoy melody?

If people wonder why most city's symphonic programs are full of Mozart and Beethoven and other "stodgy old" music it's because people want to hear melodies. Something that is pleasing to the soul and ear at the same time. I'm all for experimentation and evoking moods but it seems that somewhere after Steve Reich and Philip Glass too many American composers decided that odd chord progressions and intricate rhythms were adequate substitutes for melody.

Melody should be the FIRST thing on a composers mind if you ask me. Why is the melody so important? Ask the next person you see to sing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and see what they do. Then ask them to sing anything by John Adams or Philip Glass. Don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of those composers and of modern orchestral music. Arvo Part is part of my regular listening experience. But alas, he is Estonian and not American. Somewhere out there we will hopefully find an American that can sing for all of us and bring out the modern 21st century melodies we need to truly find our voice.

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365

As of January 30, 2011 I have been in Rhode Island for a full year. It certainly doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. I certainly don’t think I’m a New Englander yet. I’ve had the chowder and the stuffies. I’ve watched a Patriots game on TV (still a Bears fan though!). I like the Red Sox more than the Yankees. Still, I keep expecting to wake up in my bed in California feeling the warm Santa Ana’s blowing the brown smog across the hazy sky. But alas, it is not to be.

We came out here with high hopes that things might be easier on Melissa and the kids while we try to figure out how to find some kind of cure for my M.S. Some things have been a little bit easier, but others have not really swung our way. It’s a much smaller community out here, and the schools have been wonderful. Back in Culver City we had more second graders than the entire student body of their entire school here. And while that’s great for educational purposes, it’s been harder for the kids to make friends.

We’re living in a picturesque neighborhood in a beautiful house that we would never have been able to get in L.A. But the state is much smaller with a miniscule job market translating to smaller salaries. So the struggle to pay bills is almost just as difficult as it used to be. Stress has unfortunately still been pretty high on that level.

As I write this looking out of my window at the beautiful layer of pristine frozen white covering the ground I wonder why I am complaining so much. Am I just ungrateful? Am I being a spoiled little brat? After all, the dog seems happy napping on the floor just outside the doorway and I’ve got the speakers blasting out some good tunes. What’s my real problem?

Rhode Island really is beautiful. The countryside is covered with more trees than I have ever seen in my life. The sky is a clear blue with no hint of the brown smog I grew up with. The air actually tastes good when I breathe. All the people that we’ve met so far have been really nice and genuinely friendly. Though they do all complain about living here, when we say we moved here from California they get a look on their face that says, “Are you fucking kidding me? What the hell did you come here for?” Occasionally they even say it out loud too. Actually, they say it pretty much every time.

I’m tired of being depressed all the time. I’m tired of being grumpy and pissed off at my limitations. I didn’t used to be like this. I’m not saying I was the happiest guy in the world. I was never one to put on a fake smile and run out into the world shouting, “Here I am!” But ever since my diagnoses there has been a weighted shadow over me that I can’t seem to lift out of my way.

I have brief moments of clarity when I can see through some of the bullshit in my head and I snap out of it. Then I fall down, or have to type with just my left hand for a couple of days and I crawl right back under the blanket. I can have a great morning and take the dog for a short walk, then come home and everything is so blurry it’s like I’m looking through melted and warped glasses. I have to sit down and close my eyes until they decide to focus again. Which sometimes can take until the next day.

Enough is enough already right? Is it too much to ask for some normal normalcy?

Unfortunately it seems that happiness is elusive. In almost all cultures it is close to impossible. We are taught from an early age that we need all of these things to be happy. We have to be popular. We have to be attractive. We have to be thin. We have to wear the right clothes. We have to listen to the right music. We have to be like the people on TV and in the movies. We have to have the Jennifer Anniston haircut or the Brad Pitt six-pack. We have to fit securely inside the mold whatever society we live in provides for us.

Even religion makes it tough. The Jews had to suffer to escape the Pharaoh and wander through the desert for thirty years in order to find their home and build some sort of happiness. Jesus had to withstand whippings, beatings and eventually be nailed to a cross until he died so that he could be reborn. Siddhartha went through decades of starvation and self-imposed physical torture until he would eventually become the Buddha. Apparently there is no path to happiness that doesn’t first travel through suffering.

By no means am I comparing myself to Moses, Jesus or the Buddha. But there better be some sort of enlightenment heading my way or man am I gonna be pissed off. Not a very “enlightened” attitude I know! It comes and it goes.

Let me get back to our first anniversary in Rhode Island though. It has been an adventure and a struggle. It has been beautiful and wonderful experience too. While there are times I miss all of my family and friends back on the west coast, there are also times when I really love it here. The winter weather has helped me feel somewhat better physically which helps the head a little too.

I don’t know what the next year holds in store, but I wouldn’t have known that back in L.A. either. Hopefully we’ll make some new friends and get a chance to visit with some old ones too. I’m going to keep working on my hands and play drums a little bit every day. I’ll play guitar too. I’ll throw the ball around with the kids as much as I can. I’m sure I’ll fall down and drop sticks and fumble catches. Glasses will break and I’ll type left handed. I’ll keep on.

Melissa and I were watching a show on TV the other night. This stubbornly closed minded man was in India visiting with a Guru of extremely high regard. The Baba took this man into the Ganges and dipped him in the water three times with a blessing each submersion. The Baba had a gorgeous high-pitched laugh filled with such plentiful joy. Nothing was held back. There was no reservation in expressing any of his happiness and glee.

By the end of their visit, the stubborn man had not opened up to any of the experience at all. He complained about the coldness of the water and would not allow himself to change or really hear what the Baba had been trying to teach him. It was sad actually. I was only watching this on television and got more out of it than the stubborn man who was actually there.

The thing that struck me the most was something the Baba said when the stubborn man was leaving. He walked him to the gate, they bowed to each other and the Baba said, “Please love yourself.” It wasn’t so much the words as the way he spoke them. He really meant it. What a powerful blessing. Please love yourself.

Maybe that’s the start. Please Love Yourself. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Yet it’s the easiest thing in the world. I think that’s going to be my new “Peace out” or “Later bro”. No more “Take it easy” and “Have a good one”. And while I say it too all of you and really mean it, I’m saying to myself too.

Please Love Yourself.

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