Hypotheses Part 3

The professional desk jockeys among my readers have probably all considered the toll that lifestyle takes on their bodies. Standing desks are growing as a solution to the slouching and inactivity. This often works great, but does introduce fatiguing stress to one's joints. Others take to sitting on exercise balls. Studies indicate that these ball chairs don't actually improve posture or provide extra exercise. My personal experience corroborates this. I think I've hit on a good compromise, and it's a pretty old idea.

Guido

Let me tell you about a great guy named Guido. He invented a language that greatly lowered the barrier for new students to enter into his art. It was very difficult to learn a script in the old languages either because the syntax was so arcane or because you really needed someone to fill in missing details every time. Guido's language was intuitive and readable, and it made it possible to reproduce results with minimal training. And now, around a millennium later, it's hard to imagine music without the ubiquitous staff that Guido d'Arezzo first invented.

Does Not Compute

Let's talk about language. How amazing is it that using sounds or symbols, we can implant in another person's mind an entirely new state? We can describe a place that person has never seen, we can construct a belief that person has never considered, we can convey an emotion that person has never felt.

But not without errors in transmission. Remember the game, "telephone"? Why can't language be more precise? Let me try to explain this in an unconventional way and see what it means for programming languages.

Nobels

You know what's cooler than winning a Nobel Prize? Winning two Nobel Prizes. How many people have done this since the first award in 1901? Four. Would you believe that the first was a woman?

Hypotheses Part 2

Fancy bars these days like to serve their cocktails with a single big chunk of ice. Less surface area means slower cooling means less dilution of your expensive elixir over time. I don't buy it.

Hypotheses Part 1

I'm going to try again to focus on short-form publishing here. I'm starting yet another series of posts called "Hypotheses". I am well known as having random ideas float through my head. Some of these are ideas about how some part of existence works. I'll share some with you in this series.

Preconceptions Part 2

It's over. Four trips to Lincoln Center over the space of a week, and more hours of serious drama and music than I can count with my fingers and toes. (My toes aren't very nimble, so for the purposes of counting, I effectively have four toes.) The live experience is definitely more rewarding than even the Live in HD shows where the connection is asymmetric. In the opera house, the performers give me their best, and I return my undivided attention and gratitude (in the form of applause). They certainly earned it these four evenings. After viewing it in person, I can say that this is a wonderful production. It is not perfect. No production of Wagner is ever close to perfect. But the embattled Lepage is actually the least of the production's problems.

Preconceptions Part 1

Tonight begins my first Ring cycle at the opera house. I've seen the Otto Schenk production on DVD, and the Live in HD performances of the Robert Lepage production in the theaters. I thought them both fantastic productions. The former was much beloved by New York's operavores. The latter has been universally panned. It is that latter production that I will be seeing live.

Criticisms mostly center around the set, dubbed "the machine". Robert Lepage is responsible for the Cirque du Soleil show, Kà, in Las Vegas, and he brings his high-tech artistry here. The machine is a dynamic backdrop consisting of 24 independently rotatable planks that can turn from a simple flat screen to stair steps to the trees of the forest and more. The machine has been called loud, distracting, alienating, shallow. My impressions from the theaters were rather opposite. I found the use of the machine highly creative and visually stunning. I thought it in keeping with Wagner's ideal of the unified gesamtkunstwerk.

But I am well aware that the experience at the hall can differ significantly, so I won't yet criticize the critics. For now, my opinions are as follows:

The Otto Schenk production is about as traditional a staging as you'll find. This is not a bad thing. Compare to productions out of LA, SF, Valencia, or the Mecca for ring-heads: Bayreuth (pronounced bye-royt). There are so many subtexts that one could project onto the Ring that many argue the most enduring productions are the ones that do not confine the interpretation in any way. A post-industrial American setting is novel, but it restricts the message. By keeping the setting in an ambiguous time and allowing the gods godliness, the opera is free to communicate in whatever ways the viewer/listener is receptive. Schenk's sets and costumes are stirring, the music and singing superb. I love this production as well as anyone else.

My viewing of the Gelb production seemed just as traditional. We are still talking about gods and heroes. In some ways I gather that it is even truer to the text. Some of Wagner's stage directions have been ignored for technical reasons, but Gelb manages to adhere (sometimes to ironic complaints of adding unnecessary details). The costumes and singing are just as breathtaking. For my non-opera-going friends, the Lepage production is the one I would introduce first.

I am being intentionally vague since I'm trying to keep an open mind. The rest of my impressions will have to come later. For now, my feelings toward the new production are very positive. I will let you know in a couple weeks whether the criticisms deserve merit or are merely meretricious.

Amazing Engineering - Episode 1

As an experimental physicist, I spent more time engineering than doing science. As a result, I've come to greatly appreciate sophisticated or clever works of engineering. Sometimes you read about accomplishments that don't seem possible. I'm starting a series on these sorts of feats.

A Little Night-Food Music

For the unaware, the title is a reference to Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Everyone knows the tune. Also for the unaware, "night-food" refers to the food you eat at dinner. So you see, the title is clever and not at all contrived because this post is about music to go along with dinner.

Concert Etiquette

The concert hall is a unique place. I can think of no other place in which the attention of so many people is so singularly focused. Be it the opera, ballet, symphony, or chamber recital, the attention points to the stage. And because the rests, the silence, in music is as important as the notes (just ask John Cage), that attention remains unbroken through the performance. This leads to what may seem a stifling atmosphere to many -- full of obscure and antiquated rules and traditions. In actuality, there is only one rule, and it exists for good reason. That rule is: do not disturb.

Renaissance

I don't think I have to remind my readers what renaissance means, but that is what is going on here.