t.baldwin: a variety of content

Roasted Corn Soup

2009-02-14T12:42:00.000-08:00

It was the British voice of Nigella Lawson which coaxed me into a preparing a corn soup. We had just received our first big snow, and I was on my way home from work, maneuvering my car through the slush, and listening to NPR. Already starving, I imagined the taste of a velvety soup. Hers sounded healthy, but in my midday soup dream, I was dumping in the cream, stirring slowly until white, radial streaks appeared, offset by the deep yellow soup. I swerved to miss a squirrel family, then returned to ladeling my soup into a bowl. And then there were toppings. Oh, the toppings. Piled high over my soup were layers of cold sour cream, crisp scallions, pepperjack cheese, and crunchy tortilla strips. Forget the soup, I wanted nachos. But in the end, the soup won out. After all, if I've learned one thing so far in my life, it's that when a British voice tells you to do something, you do it.

WARNING: The following recipe may contain multiple toppings. Strict compliance with all topping guidelines is absolutely critical. There are to be no exceptions.

Roasted Corn Soup
makes 1 huge serving

2 lbs frozen corn
4 tbsp butter
1 sweet onion, finely chopped
chicken stock, a few quarts
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
5 oz pepperjack cheese, grated
4 scallions, minced
1 cup half and half
2 gallons sour cream
corn tortilla chips
salt/pepper

Thaw corn under hot water. After shaking off the excess water, add the corn kernals with a pinch of salt to a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Work in one layer batches so the corn has plenty of room to roast. Let them burn slightly, giving them a stir every few minutes.
Meanwhile, cook the onion in butter over low heat until translucent. Remember to add some salt to help pull out the moisture of the onions.
Add the jalapeno and about 3/4 of the corn to the onions along with the chicken stock and bring to a boil. If you don't add enough, you can always add more later if you need it, but if you add too much, you'll have to wait for the soup to reduce.
Using a blender (or hand blender) puree the soup. At this point, you can strain the soup through a sieve or leave the corn "pulp" for a more rustic soup.
Dump in most of the cheese and scallions, reserving a small portion as toppings.
Remove from heat for a little bit before adding the half and half.
Here, you might let the soup sit on low heat for half an hour or so. Flavors in soup don't come together instantly, and the longer the soup sits, the better it tastes.
Just before serving the soup, taste for seasoning. Add salt and pepper if needed. Sometimes the smallest squirt of lemon juice can keep a soup from tasting flat.
Finally, and this is crucial, you will need to add the toppings to each bowl.

Things to do differently...

Next time, I think I should roast the jalapeno along with the corn.
I think I might try a more strongly-flavored cheese, like asiago.
Half and half is a cop out. I'm going with cream from now on.
The 2 gallons of sour cream goes fast.

Things to keep the same...

Roasting the crap out of that corn. The sweetness of the corn starts to caramelize, and it's pretty much amazing.
Adding that squirt of lemon juice really brightened up the flavor.
The cold sour cream was a great contrast to the hot soup.
The corn tortilla chips added some nice, crunchy texture to the soup.
The scallions gave each bite a crisp freshness.

So, as I sit here now, the snow has melted, the slush is gone, and that squirrel family is probably roadkill. The sun is out, and the world seems to have rebalanced. Yet far, far away, across thousands of miles of ocean, the proverbial butterfly flaps its wings, and Nigella Lawson issues her culinary edicts.

-Taylor

The Internet, the Economy, & John Hagee.

2008-12-10T20:53:00.000-08:00

Warning: This has nothing to do with anything.

As I left the Coffee Ethic tonight, a song I heard there stuck in my head. A tune so catchy that it would not stop its nagging replay until I discovered what it was. I pulled out my iPhone to search some keywords online. After a few minutes, and to my horror, I discovered that the Edge Network was down, rendering my iPhone internetless. I became genuinely annoyed that I would have to endure a 10 minute drive home before I could begin my song sleuthing. I pay a premium every month to have this convenience at my fingertips at all times. And it occurred to me what those before me would have done without the endless search capabilities of Google. Such a song would disappear from their mind after awhile, and no matter their unquenchable urge to hear it again, that experience would lie in Fate’s hands, or perhaps a barista's named Fate. Now, I can get online and listen to it a hundred times every few days and become so disgusted with it that I delete from my library the song I paid $0.99 for. And with a dollar coming out of someone’s pocket every time someone strains to meet their need for convenience, I wonder how our economy could be doing so poorly right now. All I know, is that if it has anything to do with oil, John Hagee has something to say about it. Which reminds me of last Sunday morning when I sat transfixed in front of the television as his weekly Doomsday message was broadcast across the nation. The xenophobia literally condensed into beads and oozed from my television screen. And in between the ethnocentric rhetoric and the sound of my own dry heaving, I wondered how a “ministry” whose message is so tainted with political bias could possibly retain a nonprofit status.

David Foster Wallace

2008-09-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

I was listening to NPR today and was drawn into an interview with author David Foster Wallace. He was describing his youth in playing tennis and the mindset of athletes compared to his own. Plagued with doubts about his ability, he was never able to perform on the courts.

He went on to talk about life and the emptiness of material things. He was engaging and interesting. Seemingly upbeat and somewhat positive, he offered the occasional chuckle to punctuate his weighty insight. What a valuable mind, thoughtful and provoking.

The segment ended with a note that it had been cut from a 1996 interview with the author and that last Friday night he had taken his own life.

He speaks... about summer.

2008-09-11T06:42:00.000-07:00

So, the posts are starting to come a little less frequently, I know. School has me busy again. There are a few preliminary things that take up my free time right now, but once those are out of the way, I think my schedule will become a little more natural, and I'll be able to devote more time to writing. In the few minutes I have right now to get a post out, I'll summarize a little about this summer.

To start, this was probably one of the best summers so far. It was extremely productive and rewarding. I learned a lot about discipline and willpower. My goal-setting allowed me to focus my time and energy into work that achieved things not for the present, but for the future. There's a value in hard work that is hard to see for the less mature. I think that I'm coming out of that "less mature" stage, albeit slowly at times.

If I were to name two important things that I learned from this summer, I might list them below. And in fact, I did:

1. If you can cultivate a motivation, a focus, and a plan, you really can accomplish things you used to just sit around and wish for. In just a few short months, you can take a few classes, complete a few massive research projects, go to Chile, build a piano studio, and maybe read a few books on the side.

Consequently...

2. Time is valuable. Once it is gone, it is gone. You'll never get it back. And any benefit you might have reaped from focus and hard work during that time is lost, as well.

-Taylor

The Iceberg Theory

2008-09-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

A poem by Gerald Locklin.

all the food critics hate iceberg lettuce.
you'd think romaine was descended from
orpheus's laurel wreath,
you'd think raw spinach had all the nutritional
benefits attributed to it by popeye,
not to mention aesthetic subtleties worthy of
verlaine and debussy.
they'll even salivate over chopped red cabbage
just to disparage poor old mr. iceberg lettuce.

I guess the problem is
it's just too common for them.
it doesn't matter that it tastes good,
has a satisfying crunchy texture,
holds its freshness,
and has crevices for the dressing,
whereas the darker, leafier varieties
are often bitter, gritty, and flat.
it just isn't different enough, and
it's too goddamn american.

of course a critic has to criticize:
a critic has to have something to say.
perhaps that's why literary critics
purport to find interesting
so much contemporary poetry
that just bores the shit out of me.

at any rate, I really enjoy a salad
with plenty of chunky iceberg lettuce,
the more the merrier,
drenched in an italian or roquefort dressing.
and the poems I enjoy are those I don't have
to pretend that I'm enjoying.

I Lied...

2008-08-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

This video was too hilarious to pass up.

-Taylor Baldwin

Olympic Montage

2008-08-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

This might normally be the type of thing that I post on my Tumblog, as it lends itself more to scrapbooking content, but I when I saw this short Olympic montage broadcast on NBC several days ago, I knew this was something I needed to find online and share. Now, some crappy computer speakers coupled with the terrible image quality leave this video with much to be desired, but I think you can get the point. And I promise, more substantive posts from now on.

-Taylor Baldwin

Business on the Deck

2008-08-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

This morning, I sat on my deck, feet propped up against the railing, the low rumble of the highway wafting over the pool-goers as they crossed the hot black asphalt, and I conducted business. No longer am I consigned to that dark corner of Hell every Friday and Saturday night that is restaurant work. Instead, I'm organizing my teaching schedules. Yes, I'm on my way to becoming a self-employed man.

Almost two months ago, I awoke from some eerie dream where I had lost my job as a server and on the cusp of an expense hike in the rent area of my budget. It was a sober reminder of the thin ice on which I was already treading. The restaurant wasn't doing well, and all of us servers were allaying the uneasy notion that we might have to find other jobs. As I sat down to think about this problem, I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to work for other people anymore. If I worked for myself, I could set my own prices, work fewer hours, and make more money. So I started planning my piano studio.

Well, this past weekend I reached my goal of 9 students. This surpasses any money I would have made at the restaurant. It seemed like such a daunting task at first, but I made some great contacts and continually reminded people that I was teaching. This brought in enough referrals, and now I'm set on a more financially, if not emotionally (restaurant business is tough), secure path. Now my entire week's obligations (teaching lessons, teaching classes, taking classes, homework, and about 18 hours of practice) amounts to about 35 hours per week. All the while I'm making much more than I use to make in a 40-hour, full-time job.

Well, it's warming up, and that pool looks tempting from here. I think I might run down there for a bit.

-Taylor

Oh, and that restaurant? It closed.

One More Poem

2008-08-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

Summer Storm
Dana Gioia

We stood on the rented patio
While the party went on inside.
You knew the groom from college.
I was a friend of the bride.

We hugged the brownstone wall behind us
To keep our dress clothes dry
And watched the sudden summer storm
Floodlit against the sky.

The rain was like a waterfall
Of brilliant beaded light,
Cool and silent as the stars
The storm hid from the night.

To my surprise, you took my arm-
A gesture you didn't explain-
And we spoke in whispers, as if we two
Might imitate the rain.

Then suddenly the storm receded
As swiftly as it came.
The doors behind us opened up.
The hostess called your name.

I watched you merge into the group,
Aloof and yet polite.
We didn't speak another word
Except to say goodnight.

Why does that evening's memory
Return with this night's storm-
A party twenty years ago,
Its disappointments warm?

There are so many might have beens,
What ifs that won't stay buried,
Other cities, other jobs,
Strangers we might have married.

And memory insists on pining
For places it never went,
As if life would be happier
Just by being different.

What Saturdays Are For

2008-08-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

A poem that reminds me.

Leisure
W.H. Davies

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

When Scheduling Is Counterproductive

2008-08-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

As most of you probably know, I'm a pretty big fan of schedules and really just organization in general. Many of my posts have raved on the benefits of the power of a focus and some clearly defined goals. But scheduling has a dark side, too. Scheduling itself can become a distraction from actually completing your goals. This might not be a problem for most people, but for me, the mathematical process of breaking down a goal into workable and easily executed sections is quite enjoyable - indeed, it is generally the most enjoyable part of my day.

The problem with reaching our goals, however, has far more to do than mathematical processes. If simply coming up with a good plan were all that was required to reach our goals, I think we'd all have reached our goals (which quite honestly, sounds like a boring life). The truth is that there is a human component to it all. And I've found that scheduling and planning can easily become the excuse to not executing our goals. Now, I'm not a proponent of just jumping into things without planning or thinking them through, but sometimes, you just have to take advantage of that motivation when it hits you, lest you be consigned to some cold corner of a coffee shop endlessly mapping out your unreachable destinies.

-Taylor

Social Norms vs. Market Norms

2008-08-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

I was reading Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational the other day and found his discussion of social and market norms to be very interesting. He introduces the topic in a short video on his blog. I'll just be making a few comments on the topic.

Social norms are those norms which govern our social relationships. They operate in our social exchanges that take place all the time. A friend has invited you over for dinner as a favor. You ask for help in moving a couch into your new apartment. These things are simple favors, and most people have no problem doing them for others. These favors establish a respect in other people, good feelings in the volunteer, and the simple give and take of social relationships that generally show the mutual kinship we have with friends and family.

There also exist market norms. These are the norms upon which work relationships are established - generally with monetary trade. You go to work and exchange your effort for money every hour. You go to the grocery store and agree to trade your money for a certain product.

The two norms don't operate at the same time, however. Here's an example. There was a certain Israeli daycare center that decided to test the effects of these social and market norms. They used the problem of tardy parents as the center of their experiment. Occasionally parents would arrive a few minutes late to pick up their children, and to offset this, they daycare instituted a fee for those who were late to pick up their children. The fee had the opposite effect, however, and the rate of parental tardiness rose dramatically. Suddenly, parents were thinking, "I only have to pay a little bit extra so I can finish this tennis game or some of these errands before picking up my kid." Parents didn't need to feel badly for showing up late because their payment of the fee alleviated that guilt. The social norm that previously told parents that they ought to arrive on time was replaced with a market norm, allowing a monetary value to be placed on their tardiness. Even when the daycare removed the fee, the rate of tardiness remained at the elevated level, the social norms having already been replaced by market norms.

Ariely gives another good example: If I asked for your help in changing a tire, you would probably agree to help. But if I offered you a dollar in exchange for changing the tire, you'd probably refuse, thinking that one buck is hardly worth the work of changing a tire. If there is anything that we can learn from this, it's that in social situations, it's best to not introduce market norms. You probably shouldn't mention the price of gifts given to friends and family, nor should you insist on paying for gifts or favors given to you. And we'd probably be best advised to avoid the temptation of laziness in opting for monetary presents, when we really ought to put some thought into it and just purchase an actual gift.

-Taylor

50th Blog Post

2008-08-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

Well, today's post marks an important one for me (not that it's necessarily exciting for anyone else reading this). Today is my 50th blog post on this site, and for me it represents a milestone. I decided almost four months ago to start blogging again, this time with a little more serious intent and at regular intervals.

The discipline of writing three times a week, even when I didn't feel like it, really pushed me into a creativity that, many times, just didn't come unless I just started writing. Most of history's greatest composers were not necessarily prodigies. In fact, being a prodigy of a composer is something that could be attributed to perhaps less than only half a dozen. The overarching truth to the careers of all great composers, however, is that every composer improved from their early years. And this was only because they approached their craft with a daily and continuous production. They made a discipline of composing music even when they felt no particular inspiration. It is my belief (which is certainly not unfounded) that inborn talent plays only a small role in success. It is discipline and hard work that really makes the difference.

-Taylor

Chilled Berry Soup With Honey & Basil

2008-08-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

I picked up some soup ideas from an NPR article on cold summer soups the other day and decided to go ahead and try out the berry soup. As the article points out, this soup is a light and refreshing addition to a warm summer evening. Sipping this soup on the deck the other night might be one of the highlights of the season so far. I made a few alterations to the recipe. The addition of basil actually works well with the honey and vanilla. It actually gives the soup a sort of flowery flavor, which I really enjoy. The soup is extremely easy to make, as well, taking all of 5 minutes. It's also affordable and healthy, coming in at around a buck and less than 200 calories per serving.

Makes 4 servings.

3 cups fresh or frozen berries (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, or raspberries)
1 cup unsweetened cranberry juice
1 cup yogurt (I prefer whole milk)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. honey (or to taste)
juice from 1/2 lemon
basil (for garnish)

Blend the berries and cranberry juice in a blender. You might need to add a little bit of warm water to get it thin enough to strain. Strain this mixture through a sieve to remove the seeds. Pour the strained liquid back into the blender with the rest of the ingredients: yogurt, vanilla, honey, and lemon. You can add the honey slowly until you achieve the sweetness you want. Just chill in the refrigerator for a few hours, or if you used frozen berries, the soup is generally cold enough to go ahead and eat. I like garnishing with basil, yogurt, and blueberries with a drizzle of honey on top.

-Taylor

The Importance of Focus

2008-08-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

I was thinking today, and somewhat ironically as you'll see, about the importance of focus. I was at Starbucks this morning working on some scheduling before I went to practice piano, and random to-do items kept popping into my head. "Don't forget to pick up shifts at work; don't forget to go grocery shopping; you need to start working on your Beethoven piano sonata project." All the while, I was trying to complete my scheduling for the day, but all I could think about were all the things I needed to do, and the stress continued to mount.

Until, I realized that I have time set aside to think about these things later. I'll remember to pick up shifts at work. I go through my finances every few days and am reminded about it. I'll remember to go grocery shopping, and I have scheduled times already to work on my Beethoven project. There's no need to let these thoughts consume me now when I have already consigned them to other times in my schedule. Now the irony in all of this is, of course, that thoughts of focus kept distracting me from completing my scheduling. But I was thankful for the intrusion, however. For it was by this one thought that all the others went away.

-Taylor

Fiction

2008-08-04T08:50:00.000-07:00

I bought a book today. It's not that this is, in and of itself, some sort of novelty; I read books quite a bit nowadays. It is that I bought The Tempest by William Shakespeare which is sort of surprising. I am more of a nonfiction person myself, rarely venturing from the cold grasp of lifeless facts. (Quite candidly, nonfiction is anything but cold and lifeless and whose author possesses almost a greater task to creatively order and explain those things which have already happened.) I don't really know anything about The Tempest. I know there is a Beethoven piano sonata which bears the title as its nickname.

It was yesterday, while at lunch with my mom that she reminded me of the other type of book. Having just finished Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera, she encouraged me to take it for a read. I flipped through a few pages of it and opted instead for the Elizabethan play, but it was her suggestion that reminded me of those other worlds - stories which encapsulate the reader in alternate times and places, and which oftentimes poetically illustrate those concepts laid out in nonfiction.

I think fiction can teach you just as much as nonfiction. Characters and stories share with you experiences that you don't typically get from nonfiction writing. So tonight, I'm excited to lay down before bed and start working on this book. I'm thinking it'll take some time to digest and understand. And like most foods, I think that's a sign of good nutritive value.

-Taylor

Goals, Schedules, and the Like

2008-08-02T13:21:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm done with summer classes, I can finally start to relax a bit. The welcomed break is really less a break and more a chance to refocus. As I review my ever-expanding list of goals, I find that it takes a good amount of time to even go through them, thinking on each one. As I go through and evaluate my progress, I keep coming to the conclusion that I need to find a good way to think about these goals and how I can accomplish them.

One of the ways I've been forming these lists into more concise and digestible nuggets, is by organizing them by categories. I've been finding that many of these categories overlap with each other. So far these are the groups I have come up with: Exercise, Nutrition, Financial, Career, Piano, Education, Reading/Writing. It's easy to see how many of these overlap. Exercise and Nutrition obviously overlap; Nutrition and Financial goals overlap when you start planning around food costs; Financial and Career overlap; Career and Piano overlap for me; Piano and Education overlap in that applied piano lessons are a large part of my degree; and Education and Reading/Writing obviously overlap.

The other way in which I have been able to change my thinking concerning these goals in order to make sure I accomplish them is by scheduling. This kind of goes along with the post I wrote about thinking ahead. By scheduling, I can think ahead through my day, through my week, planning ahead to make sure things happen. To make sure I'm taking the small steps everyday in order to complete the larger journey that are most of these goals. This surprisingly takes many, many hours to complete - about 45 minutes per category.

For the Exercise category, I schedule my workouts for the week - not only when they will take place, but what I will be doing in each workout to accomplish my overall set of goals. For Nutrition, I research food options that are healthy and affordable that I can prepare fairly easily, or in advance, for the week. This typically includes thinking ahead and setting a mindset in certain situations. For example, when I get to my serving job, it's hard for me not to grab a bit of the loaf of bread that somehow always mysteriously appears in the server station. So I have to think ahead and make my decision now to not graze on bread for the whole shift, instead of waiting until I'm hungry to make that decision.

I'll cover the other categories in my next post. But in case you haven't discovered the power of scheduling your goals, try it. Setting goals and achieving them is great for your overall well-being.

-Taylor

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Blog Post...

2008-07-30T11:19:00.000-07:00

I know I said that today would come a goal review, but in the midst of finishing papers and moving to a new apartment, I honestly did not have time for such a task - perhaps an indication that a review is in good order. Nevertheless, as I was cleaning my last apartment and getting ready for the final walk through, I had a few thoughts about my former home.

There was some kind of emotional attachment to that old, rickety building. It's not that I didn't mind the scent of marijuana pervading the air, or the toilet so bashful to flush it would never relinquish any of its crap to the septic tank without a "gentle" coaxing from our plunger twice a day. We got over the fact that the plastic wall of our shower was installed upside down, leaving the shelves with a nice, downward-sloping 45-degree angle. Nevermind that our heating had two settings, Seventh-Circle-of-Hell and Off, and our localized A/C was rarely able to cool anything beyond a small 5-foot perimeter in the corner of our kitchen. And we got used to the fact that the people below us were chronic chain smokers who must have enjoyed making us feel like we were living in Joan Rivers' left lung. Occasionally even a bit of poop water would splash on our clothing for the second or third time in a week, and we'd naturally grow weary of living there.

But there were still memories from our 7-month stay. Good ones, actually. The place had character, windows in every room, the feel of downtown. Not just the "there's-another-drunken-fight-in-the-parking-lot-at-3-am-because-some-guy's-baby-momma-won't-let-him-stay-out-with-his-friends-to-get-trashed" feel. There honestly, is a sort of sense of community there. When you pass the barista you know from the local coffee shop or that guy who just bought a mo-ped because gas is so expensive or that server who always brings you your drinks at the local lounge, you feel like you belong to something bigger. You are a part of thriving culture that relies on its relational connections to survive, not on the main-stream media that are hit radio stations and MTV. It's a culture that values the artistic expression of ideas.

I will miss that character, and I hope to stay connected to that downtown culture. Maybe someday I will move back there to reconnect with character. Even if it's at the expense of convenience.

-Taylor

Back in the Swing

2008-07-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

There's always some sort of period of readjustment that takes place when you come back from a vacation. In one sense, you've lost momentum that you have to make up for. In another sense though, you could have used the time to revitalize somewhat. I hope this week I can get back on track with some momentum.

As far as blogging, I think I'll do a few "update" things this week. I'm definitely in need of a goal review, which will come out on Wednesday. And I think Friday, I might present some of my findings from a big research project I've been working on the past few months.

Besides blogging, however, this week is a little scattered. I don't have classes that are meeting, so there is little in my schedule that is fixed around which I usually structure my day. That's not to say there isn't plenty to do. I have to finish my research project, which really just entails editing and forming a presentation from the paper. And I have to move into a new apartment today and tomorrow.

Anyone wanting to view some photos from my trip to Chile can look at my two Facebook albums. They should be configured so that anyone (with or without a Facebook account) can view the albums. The first album covers my visits to Santiago, Valparaiso, and Viña del Mar. The second album finishes up Viña and continues on through Puerto Varas and finally to Chiloe.

-Taylor Baldwin

Home Again...

2008-07-23T12:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back from Chile today. The whole experience was absolutely amazing. Nature is somehow much more untouched and pristine there. Life teems everywhere. Plants grow out of plants which grow out of the bark of trees. Everyday evidence of what makes its home in the ocean comes in on the small fishing ships. And nothing is wasted. The heads and feet of pigs are readied and sold in the display cases at the local super grocery conglomerates. They are used to make soups. The intestines are typically dried and sold by street vendors. The huge sea plants that wash ashore are similarly dried and eaten as snacks, their saltiness coming directly from the sea water they grow in.

The people and their way of life is also quite remarkable. Rising every few hours to put more wood in the stove that heats the house. Gathering in large groups at dinner tables with all kinds of food and fellowship. The people are extremely generous and kind. No one pours their own wine without first refilling everyone else's at the table. All these things really made me love the place. Still, for all that love, I really did miss home. Now let me rest a bit, and I will post more soon.

-Taylor

Valparaiso & Viña del Mar

2008-07-18T18:50:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I visited Valparaiso and Viña del Mar, two coastal cities about an hour and a half from Santiago. These cities were incredibly gorgeous and perfectly complimentary. Valpo (Valparaiso's more common nickname) is the old city. Art and culture are plastered on the winding walls that twist and turn up the mountains, creating a great maze of streets and developments, all built one on top of the other, and all looking out over the Pacific Ocean. The city is fairly large for Chile, but has a very quaint feeling to it. As in all the cities, dogs roam the streets, and friendly people bid you to come into their "rincones" to see what they have to sell. We had children run up to us and plainly ask "¿De qué pais son?" - "What country are you from?" We'd respond, "De los estados unidos, ¿y tú?", and they'd giggle and say "¡De Chile, claro!" before running away.

Viña is a different city. Separated by only a few kilometers and a 90-cent subway ride, you wouldn't expect such a contrast. Casinos and modern hotels line the beaches; English is displayed on the signs of the local Blockbuster and McDonald's. The dogs are still there, though fewer of them (we are told that when several dignitaries, including President Bush, visited awhile back, the government rounded them up and sent them to be put to sleep), but the streets are always clean. The beach is gorgeous but is not for swimming. Some of the largest waves in the world crash against the jagged rocks that lie on either side of most of the public beaches, creating a deep bass the shakes the ground and resonates in your chest. It isn't the charming Valpo, but it is definitely beautiful how these two cities come together, making up for what the other lacks.

-Taylor

The Unexpected

2008-07-17T14:13:00.000-07:00

If I've learned one thing on my trip to Chile so far, it's that the unexpected always happens, and you can either let it affect you in a good way or a bad way. I think I've found that if you embrace it, whatever it is, you can find the good in it and enjoy life for exciting and unexpected things that happen.

We arrived in Osorno this morning on a 10-hour, over-night bus ride from Santiago. Lost and freezing, we wandered the streets at 8 o'clock this morning. There were a few things we needed to accomplish and soon. First, we needed to find a place to stay. It needed to be cheap, and we had to be able to leave our stuff there for awhile. Second, we needed to figure out how to get to Antillanca, the volcano we would be using for snowboarding. And third, we needed to get some food in our stomachs. I had been throwing up for the past few days and eating little, so now that I was feeling better, I needed to get some nutrition to make up for what I lost and energy for the snowboarding to come.

Thankfully, we found a place to stay fairly quickly. The nice old babushka let us leave our stuff there and even use her personal room to change into snowboarding gear. We paid her 14,000 pesos for a double and promised to return that evening after snowboarding. Next, we searched for a bus to take us to Antillanca. The best we could find was a bus that would take us as far as Aguas Calientes, the hot springs near the volcano. From there, we were told we could catch another bus to the base of the volcano.

We rode for about an hour and half, drifting in and out of consciousness. I'd wake up one moment to see the bus packed full, people crowding the aisles, drifting off again, and waking up to mostly empty seats. We cut around mountains, peered down into valleys full of water, and across the lakes to see waterfalls crashing across the rocks in the distance, falling what seemed like hundreds and hundreds of feet. We finally arrived, exited the bus, and asked around about how to make it up to the base of the volcano.

Everyone was confused by our question. Finally, someone explained that buses don't go to Antillanca. You have to have your own car or hitchhike with someone. We wandered the national park near Aguas Calientes, literally just a few miles from Argentina, thinking of what we could possibly do. With no cars passing through the area, however, we had to lay our hopes of snowboarding to rest for the day. What we found instead though, was a great meal at the restaurant near the hot springs, a beautiful hike through the forest, and a much-needed siesta back at the hostel when we returned.

We embraced the unexpected, looked to the positive, and now refuse to imagine it happening any other way. The unexpected in life is exciting and beautiful.

-Taylor

Chile

2008-07-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

Cell-phone-less I enter the airport and check my bag. The stress lately has me worried about almost everything, and even now I can't help but think, what if this bag never makes it to Santiago?

But I'm letting go. In a sense, I'm forced to think about it. As the plane cuts through the clouds, and the landscape below unfolds in patterns, we are all letting go of the earth for a brief moment. Making our way amongst and in-between the towered, cottoned plumes, held suspended in the sky, I catch glimpses of detail in them when light hits a darkened crevice and scatters.

The wine is wearing off for now. It was about 2 hours ago that I finished a glass of the '97 vintage red blend from California. We came across it while hunting for a California Cabernet to gift my host family. I think it's a nice gift. Who doesn't like wine? It's luscious and rich. It's not immediately gratifying, but with patience its complexities are understood, appreciated, and supremely admired. Once opened it begins transforming itself - into so many things - flavors of herbs, spices, fruits or nuts. But perhaps its greatest trait is that it can transform the most adamantly stressed into a near-sighted epicurean. Perhaps on this trip, a little wine will serve to remind me that all of this is about letting go.

-Taylor

Amy Tan on Creativity

2008-07-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

Well, it wouldn't be a theme week without a video from TED.com to cap it off. This one features the prominent author Amy Tan. She talks about her childhood and creativity, but some of the most insightful parts of her lecture come when she shares from her travels to the East.

-Taylor

Travel Blogs

2008-07-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

I read recently that one of the writers for Lonely Planet faked the book about Colombia. He said he didn't have the money to travel there, so he used his girlfriend who was from Colombia to write most of the content of the book.

Lately, I've been doing my travel research on blogs, and I've been finding that these are veritable goldmines of first-hand information. Many of these travel sites are focused on one thing: the bottom line. They are willing to send the cliché America tourist to the cliché tourist spots, where the prices are all jacked up, while the rest of world lies in relative obscurity, undiscovered by the typical traveler. Many personal blogs, however, are devoted to their authors' personal discoveries while traveling. I have been finding many of these personal travel blogs to be extremely interesting and helpful, as well.

The following are some travel blogs I enjoy reading:

http://www.gadling.com/
http://www.planeteye.com/
http://thetravelersnotebook.com/
http://realtravel.com/

This last one is really interesting in that it lists traveler's trips with journal entries and photography. One of the coolest ones features 80-some stops as the travelers hugged the entire coast of South America.

-Taylor

"If you make it a priority. . ."

2008-07-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

I was a jazz pianist at local fine dining restaurant about 5 years ago when a wealthy couple slipped me a business card and asked me to sit with them while I took my break. They introduced themselves as the Wecksteins. The man was the president of J.Q. Hammons Companies, and his wife had her own business. They apparently liked my music and had previously sat near me at the bar while I was on my breaks. Over the next few months they would show up to the restaurant and ask me to sit with them. I heard stories of their travels around the world. A little younger and a little more shameless, I would ask questions like "What's the most you ever spent on a dinner tab?", and I think they, having worked hard to earn their wealth and power, kind of enjoyed answering the question: "$1000 for two at restaurant on the water in Hong Kong."

I would literally sit there, enthralled at the stories of their experiences. Finally, one night as they wrapped up their meal and I was to return to playing, I said, "I hope one day I'll be as privileged to travel the world like you do." And the lady discerning the subtle defeatism in my attitude leaned in and grabbed my attention with her eyes. "You can do anything you want," she said, "if you make it a priority. It doesn't matter how much money you have. It'll always have somewhere else to go if you don't set it aside for the things you want. There are rich people who can't spend the money to get to Hong Kong because they won't. But you will go there if you make it a priority."

-Taylor

Mini-retirements

2008-07-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

Chances are, if you are reading this blog, I know you, and you are already acquainted with the concept of mini-retirements. The recent popularity of author Tim Ferris' book The 4-Hour Workweek has brought the idea of mini-retirements to the masses. In his blog, he actually continues to write quite frequently on the topic as well.

The idea behind the mini-retirement is that the typical plan of working hard through 40-some-odd years to only then be followed by a relatively long vacation seems little backwards. First, to save your retirement for a time when the rest is generally accompanied by a certain amount of restlessness, sending you right back to work of some kind, or when you are too old to enjoy many of the things you would have liked to do when you were younger, all seems a waste. Ferris' idea is that we should take mini-retirements throughout our lives, where over the course of a few months or even years, we change the scenery, even the work, and recharge our batteries for new eras in life.

Some other interesting perks to the mini-retirement concept include that many times it ends up being cheaper to rent an apartment and buy food for a few months in another country than if you were to retain a residence in the your own country. Ferris includes blog posts that talk about getting much of this travel for free by simply volunteering for humanitarian organizations. The experiences alone can give you great new ideas and expanded knowledge leading to new goals and all this in addition to the character growth from volunteering. Consider this guy's post on the topic.

I also decided on this topic as it makes for a nice introduction to this week's theme: Travel.

-Taylor

William McDonough and Cradle-to-Cradle Design

2008-07-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

I suppose I'll do another bonus post this Saturday. Again, this video comes from TED.com and is one of the most interesting and exciting talks I've heard on the site. So in keeping with the environmentalist theme, here is William McDonough surmising on what it will take to create a greener future.

-Taylor

Wall-E and the Message of Consumption

2008-07-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

Pixar's new movie Wall-E is funny, cute, and entertaining, but the undercurrent of social commentary is anything but subtle. Growing ecological concerns have made this a prime time for the release of such of movie. And movie-goers have likely seen the theme elsewhere, as A.O. Scott points out in his New York Times review of the movie.

As the earth heats up, the vanishing of humanity has become something of a hot topic, a preoccupation shared by directors like Steven Spielberg (“A.I.”), Francis Lawrence (“I Am Legend”), M. Night Shyamalan (“The Happening”) and Werner Herzog. In his recent documentary “Encounters at the End of the World” Mr. Herzog muses that “the human presence on this planet is not really sustainable,” a sentiment that is voiced, almost verbatim, in the second half of “Wall-E.” When the whimsical techies at Pixar and a moody German auteur are sending out the same message, it may be time to pay attention.

The idea of consumption is actually made to be so ridiculous that it might at times seem difficult to see ourselves in that mirror. There are instances when evidence of the past consumerist societies and their incredibly large shopping centers flash across the scene. The apparent all-encompassing retailer of the time also has its own website to go along with the plot.

And though its funny to watch and think of the ludicrous myopia of this fictional society, one can't help but see the similarities to our own consumerism. It kind of begs the question: how fictional is this depicted society? And will we take note of its subtle lessons?

-Taylor

Collapse

2008-07-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading this book by Jared Diamond. The book goes into such depths to make its point (which wasn't even clear to me until near the end) that I'm not sure I'll be able to hash out even a satisfactory overview here. I'll see what I can do, though.

Diamond takes us on a journey through past failed civilizations, explaining the circumstances surrounding their collapses. Approaching this book, I was expecting there to be some kind of correlation between cultural traditions and the onset of collapse. I had, after all, heard stories that Rome's fall was preceded by and due in large part to a moral degradation of society. What I found instead was initially uninteresting, so I put down the book. For about 8 months (my disinterest, a symptom of my selfish ignorance).

I was going through my audiobooks this summer, trying to rationalize purchasing another, when I came across this yet unfinished book. So I promised I'd finish it before I allowed myself to buy another one. As the book details (and I mean details) the societal climate of these past civilizations, one quickly finds that they all have something in common. It's not the degradation of morals that unprops a society into utter collapse but the degredation of their respective ecosystems. The effects of deforestation, chemical contamination from mining, depletion of our ocean's seafood from overfishing, and irresponsible farming techniques all contributed to these society's downfalls.

Diamond ultimately lists eight factors that were a part of past failed societies and four more factors that might contribute to the weakening and collapse of present and future societies.

1. Deforestation and habitat destruction
2. Soil problems (erosion, salinization, soil fertility loss)
3. Water management problems
4. Overhunting
5. Overfishing
6. Effects of introduced species on native species
7. Human population growth
8. Increased per-capita impact of people

1. Human-caused climate change
2. Buildup of toxic chemicals in the environment
3. Energy shortages
4. Full human utilization of the Earth's photosynthetic capacity

I can unfortunately do for you little more than recommend the book or point you towards one of Diamond's articles in the New York Times. I can give this thought, however: Next time you find yourself in your local bookstore, pick up a copy and read the closing chapter. These growing concerns must be addressed. All one has to do is a simple thought experiment, considering what our society would be like with drastic food and energy shortages, to foresee the impact of a degrading ecosystem. These types of shortages contribute to the war-like conflicts we see throughout parts of Africa and the Middle East, not to mention China, India, and even Japan earlier in the last century (though they addressed their problems as is discussed in the book).

If nothing else, keeping in mind these factors and how our actions either create or support chain-like series of events that lead to them, we could probably do a lot of good just by making some small changes in our habits. In our society our mindset needs to change from the selfish ideals of consumption to that of stewardship and respect for our environment. We must focus on these factors now because even today evidence slowly mounts for a future collapse.

-Taylor

Thinking Ahead: Environmentalism

2008-06-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Continuing with this idea of weekly themes, I decided that I'd like to cover a few things on Environmentalism. Having just finished Jared Diamond's book Collapse, I have been inspired somewhat to put down a few words on the subject. In this first post, without getting into the controversial parts quite yet, let me just mention a few common-sense concepts.

To start, in our first-world society of bounty and convenience, it becomes increasingly difficult for us as members of this society to see how dependent we are on the earth. I think most of us are fooled into thinking that food comes from grocery stores and fuel from a pump, electricity through a power line and clean water from a pipe. But enter a third-world country and a self-sustaining fishing village and ask them where their resources come from. The answer wouldn't surprise most of us. It's the third world. Of course they rely on the earth - maybe more than we do?

And somewhere between the reality of there and here lies a disconnect. The truth is this: human beings are entirely dependent on the earth for their survival. And it being our most precious resource, is an asset that can produce the compounding returns we need to survive, but if we damage and destroy it, it becomes more than just a shame that we've lost our natural beauty. But our very survival comes into question. I'm not saying quite yet that we need to stop driving cars, burning fuel, or burying trash.

First, let's just agree on this one thing: Environmentalism is a concept that we as intelligent and responsible stewards of this earth must embrace now.

- Taylor

Benjamin Zander on Classical Music

2008-06-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

I found this video on classical music and thought I should post it as kind of a bonus or supplement to this week's music theme. It comes from one of my favorite websites for the spread of knowledge and ideas, TED.com. The speaker is Benjamin Zander, the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic. He is an excellent communicator and sort of follows in that same vein of work as Leonard Bernstein, educating the public on classical music. As a side note, I am not particularly fond of his playing of this prelude. It does, however, work for his purposes in this lecture.

-Taylor

Research Paper Topics

2008-06-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

In keeping with the music theme this week, I want to present a few of my topic proposals for a research project I'm doing with my grad work.

The Evolution of Modulatory Techniques through Mozart, Haydn, & Beethoven

The technique of traveling through tonal areas in music has been one that has undergone an evolution over time. This paper focuses on the short time span around the turn of the 19th century that concerns itself with the compositional years of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. These three composers form a sort of chain in through which various compositional techniques have been transferred. It is interesting to note through the harmonic analysis of various works throughout this period how these modulatory conventions contributed to the large-scale transition from the Classical to the Romantic periods.

The Culmination of Beethoven’s Compositional Style: The Late String Quartets

Beethoven’s music generally conjures up thoughts of its inter-period qualities that seem to, by and large, form the bridge from Classical to Romantic periods. Exhibiting characteristics of both periods, his works seem to emulate a sort of unfolding journey, the culmination of which comes in his final works, most notably his late string quartets. Here he expands the boundaries of form, harmony, and melody. A brief overview and discussion of these string quartets examines them in light of their various novel aspects as well as their role as the embodiment of Beethoven’s final compositional style.

The Seeds of Change: The Op. 10 Piano Sonatas

The three piano sonatas that form the set in Op. 10 are of particularly contrasting styles. The first exhibits the famous c minor mood, which imparts distinctive characteristics to many of Beethoven’s works, including his Fifth Symphony. The second sonata takes on a very whimsical character, playing with the formalities and harmonic conventions of the evolving sonata-allegro form. The last, in D Major, sort of displays Beethoven’s propensity to take small motives and expand them to form entire movements, indeed even entire symphonies and sonatas! It is in this set of sonatas, this precursor to the famous Op. 13, Pathétique, that we begin to see Beethoven as the mischievous, rule-scorning youth (and later, as the thoughtful and candid innovator) who sows the seeds of change for the coming era.

-Taylor

Beethoven Op. 14, No. 1 in E Major

2008-06-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

For whatever reason, this sonata has always had a certain allure for me. For one, it is fairly simple to sight-read and thus gets some attention when I am meandering through them at the piano. I also feel that the themes are just so singable and "catchy" as it were. The opening theme actually does appear in other works, most notably to me is the fugue in the final movement of Op. 110.

In the exposition, Beethoven introduces his key with a theme in E Major. A lyrical theme rises from the quiet and rhythmic plodding of harmonies, tapers off, and then scurries back down the keyboard. The melodies become lyrical again and make their way into a repeat. What is fairly typical of Mozart (and Beethoven does it here), but nonetheless interesting to me at least, is his method of modulation to the second tonal area. Instead of the expected repeat of the opening bars, Beethoven branches the melody off, alternating with the V of V of V (or technically the leading tone chord of V of V, an e-sharp fully-diminished seven). His cadence on an F-sharp Major chord becomes a half-cadence of the new key, which begins promptly in B Major.
The Development begins by working with the opening theme in f-sharp minor, the relative minor of the subdominant. The lyricism and drama is evident, and what was cut short by the scattering of the opening theme is allowed the cathartic decanting. As it moves through several tonal centers, it works its way back to the dominant for the recapitulation. Here, the mood is different, less reserved, bursting with energy, and articulated by the rising scalar accompaniment below. The transitional material becomes a brief foray into the subdominant, maintaining the tonal center as E Major at the outset of the second theme.
This piece really wears a lot of emotions on its sleeve, and that display really draws me in and leaves me singing its melodies. This recording is Grigory Sokolov's thoughtful performance of the first movement.

-Taylor Baldwin

Bartók and The Miraculous Mandarin

2008-06-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Though it hasn't been an endeavor of mine, I suppose occasional bouts of topical interest will come and group a week's posts under a particular theme. If last week was for mental health, let this one be for music. Today I post an excerpt from a program note I wrote on Béla Bartók's The Miraculous Mandarin.

In 1918, amid the shambles of postwar Hungary, Béla Bartók (1881-1945) began work on his pantomime A csodálatos mandarin (The Miraculous Mandarin). When both Sergei Dyagilev, the famous choreographer of Stravinky’s The Firebird and Petrouchka, and Ernő Dohnányi passed over Melchior Lengyel’s short story of murder, mystique, and passion, Bartók took it upon himself to compose a setting for the piece. In just eight months, Bartók had completed a short score sketch of the piece; its final orchestration was completed in 1924, and on November 27, 1926 the pantomime received its first performance in Cologne, Germany.

The graphic tale is told in one act and centers on the ruse of three thieves, who, using the sexual appeal of a young girl, lure passers-by into a room to be beaten and robbed. On this particular night, two penniless victims have left the thieves without a bounty, until an oriental mandarin is coaxed inside. A certain eeriness surrounds the man as his gaze remains fixed on the girl, but the thieves force her to continue with the plan in spite of her fright. The suspense builds through a sexually-charged dance until at last the thieves leap from their hiding to attack the man. When the mysterious figure doesn’t respond to the blows, the thieves, desperate to kill the man, drive him through with a sword and then hang him, but he remains alive and transfixed on the girl. When he is cut down, the girl, under great remorse, throws herself on the mandarin and gives herself to him. At last the mandarin is satisfied by love’s ecstasy, his wounds begin to bleed, and he dies.

The work, with its lurid and controversial subject matter, proved to be too much for a city already rife with political unrest. Even among a growing number of works displaying a wild expressionism with violence, sex, and psychological overtones, the work was, as Bartók had predicted, not well received. The headlines of the local Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger read “Uproar in the Cologne Opera House,” while the Kölnische Volkszeitung (The People’s Newspaper) denounced the conductor Eugen Szenkar as a “partisan of the young, radical trend in music, [… aimed] to drive back German romantic opera more and more.” Szenkar was summoned to the mayor’s office the following day and ordered to withdraw the remaining performances of the work. Over the following years, Bartók revised the work as an orchestral suite, resulting in a more palatable but, in his opinion, a less-satisfying version.

The work opens with the material of the original pantomime’s overture. John Mangum of the Los Angeles Philharmonic describes it as “a striking portrait of the unsettling dynamism and vigor of the seedier side of the modern urban landscape.” With violas representing the thieves’ restlessness and a seductive clarinet solo, the young girl’s explicit dance, Bartók seizes upon individual instrument qualities to pull the listener through the story. In a truly unique ensemble, he mixes the timbres of harp, celeste, piano and organ with colors of traditional orchestral instruments. Bartók’s innovative orchestration is evident throughout the work. At one point, the string players hit the wooden backs of the bows on their strings, resulting in a sort of click-clacking signifying the approach of the first victim. The rhythmic energy is constant and unrelenting, and though it persists for the larger part of 20 minutes, it never becomes excessive or monotonous. Indeed, an audience member at the first performance, if not prepared for the macabre and jarring content, might easily be overwhelmed by such a brash and unapologetic display of what many considered coarse obscenity.

-Taylor Baldwin

The Importance of Success on Mental Health

2008-06-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

In keeping with the theme of mental health this week, I'll go ahead and round out the trio of posts with another about the topic. I have seen this one in action quite a bit over the past several weeks. It might even be described as a sort of momentum. I'm talking about the importance of success on one's mental health. I think success can be this kind of momentum that is so helpful in pushing us on towards achieving even more success. A book I just finished awhile back (and have subsequently been quoting from for this series of posts) juxtaposes this concept with some biological evidence.

Even better for our spirits are activities that bring a sense of success. It's important that we set goals when we're going through periods of sadness [...].

That the experience of success becomes especially important when people are having a hard time can be explained by the functioning of the two halves of the prefrontal cortex, according to the neuropsychologist Richard Davidson. When we're sad, its left half, which both directs us towards goals and controls negative thoughts, is insufficiently active.

-The Science of Happiness, page 192

The Unexpected Pleasure at Everyday Experience

2008-06-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Through many years,
At great expense,
Journeying through
many countries,
I went to see high mountains,
I went to see oceans.
Only I had not seen
At my very doorstep,
The dew drop glistening
On the ear of the corn.

-Rabindranath Tagore, Bengali writer

I read this poem in a book, and it really illustrated for me a psychological concept that I had recently read about. This concept has to do with the natural expectation system and its relationship with how we experience pleasure.

A certain experience can bring about a sense of pleasure, but the intensity of stimulus required for each subsequent experience will be more and more in order to experience the same amount of pleasure, especially as those events are experienced closer together. If one goes long enough without the experience, it will have the same pleasurable effect with little or no change in the required intensity of stimulus. So, theoretically, one could have a number of experiences that create pleasure, but spread out over time so that the intensity of the stimulus can remain the same and still provide a similar pleasurable effect.

But,

It also seems to be the case that one can use his mind to focus on a stimulus that wasn't previously noticed. The novelty of a new environment is perhaps what provides us with a sense of pleasure when we take vacations, but what if we took the time to notice of our present environment, those things that fade into the background daily. It seems that as a kid, a small neighborhood could provide as much mystery and fun as an entire city might provide for an adult. In this sense, we really create our own pleasure by doing no more than looking a little closer than we did before.

-Taylor Baldwin

Depression Can Literally Kill the Brain

2008-06-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

I remember a conversation I had with a friend about a year ago. We were debating the merits of a theory I had. This was that if someone were to convince themselves of a reality different than that of the actual world, if it caused a sort-of happiness, the ends were justified by the means. Now, while I don't believe that today, for some glaring fallacies of logic found therein, the following quotation does underscore the importance of harnessing control of your thinking habits.

Of all the discoveries that recent research into depression has brought to light, this may be the most disturbing. Depression [...] affects the hardwiring of neurons. To what extent the damage can be undone is still unknown. In the process, the brain loses its adaptability [...]. Our ability to feel fades, and our judgment and concentration diminish. Tests have shown that depressed people are less able to solve even simple tasts, such as the sorting of playing cards. At the beginning of a depressive phase, the working memory is affected, and the stress hormones impede the brain's ability to think. [...] The brain sends stress hormones, which can cause harm to the neurons and do lasting damage to the brain. [...] In people who have suffered repeatedly from serious depressions, the space in the prefrontal cortex occupied by certain kinds of neurons is diminished by a third [...]. Other parts of the brain lose so much matter that they just shrivel up. This has been observed, for example, in the hippocampus, on which memory depends.

-Stefan Klein, The Science of Happiness, pg. 188

What Is History?

2008-06-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

I was recently given an assignment to read a certain article from the New Yorker for my Introduction to Music Research class. Just the Facts, Ma'am appeared in the magazine this year around March or April. It addresses the broad question, What is History? Though Jill Lepore doesn't really answer that question, she does pull ironically from a variety of sources in history to form what is sometimes called a "think piece."

In this article she mentions a quotation by William Godwin that really got me thinking:

He that knows only on what day the Bastille was taken and on what spot Louis XVI perished, knows nothing.

I began thinking about facts. The nitty-gritty minutia of events and their dates. History, indeed even unrecorded, must be full of millions of them. Are these things history? Or is history something more than that? Maybe it's out of these details that a deeper meaning rises. This deeper meaning, purpose, higher-level metaphor and analogy is the story of history. It's more than facts and seeks to explain something of the human condition.

-Taylor Baldwin

Goal Evaluation

2008-06-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

A little over a month ago, I posted some summer goals of mine that I had hoped to implement over the next few months. I thought it fitting maybe to review some of those and see how well I have kept up with them. I had formally written them out with a little more specificity over two posts, but here I'll just quickly review and give an update.

Ride My Bike
Yeah... Straight-up didn't do this one at all. To be fair, I don't own a bike. It would definitely be nice to take a few rides around some of the neighborhoods some morning, but to make it a regular thing seems impractical at this point. My schedule is getting busier and busier with my summer school courses, now two of them! My progress on the rest of these goals will do well to cover up this complete failure.

Beethoven Sonata Analysis
As I posted last week, I have completed a good number of these. I have been able to outline some phases and steps I need to take to reach my goal here. I've remained fairly motivated and slightly ahead of my plans to finish Phase I by the end of the summer. Today, I have 13 completed with another 6 partially completed.

Start Blogging on a Regular Basis
I think I've done fairly well on this one. Since I've started, I've kept up my three-blogs-a-week goal. The topics have changed quite a bit - really as my interest has waxed and waned in each subject. I have several drafts written that really just need to be edited or expanded before posting. All in all, I have done well here.

Exercise
My exercise program, I feel, is one of the biggest achievements I've made this summer. It is increasingly difficult, as I get older and busier, to make time for working out. But I'm happy to report that I'm now beginning my 4th week of having worked out 5 times a week. This includes lifting weights and running every weekday. This has not been easy, but it's been very rewarding to keep it up.

Out of the House by 9am
And finally, what has now become a little maxim of my mornings. I have done very well with this one as well. A few times it has been 9:30 before I made it through the door, but the purpose of this rule has really been achieved. I was fed up with wasting my time watching TV or doing whatever and especially tired of wasting my mornings, which are, as I have felt for a very long time, the best part of the day. With the new schedule I began on Monday, I have been getting up around 7:30 or 7:45 and getting to the gym around 8:30. This is all before I start class at 10:30. So, with summer school now in session, I'm really forced to get up quite early now, but it really isn't a struggle for me anymore to have my head hit the pillow before 12:30am.

Overall, I have to say, not too shabby. I feel like I've been accomplishing those things that I wanted to when I set out to map a course for this summer. It's also pertinent to point out that summer is really only about a third over at this point. Not only is there time for me to implement goals I haven't really given much attention to, but I also have time to write up other plans for goals this summer. And when I do, you can be certain that I'll end up posting about them here.

-Taylor

Farmer's Market

2008-06-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

I went to the local farmer's market this morning. Was a little disappointed in the lack of variety. One stand sold herbs, another a smattering of vegetables, the rest inedible plants. It was about 10:30, so most of the fruits probably went rather quickly. I was impressed by two stands that sold free range meat and eggs, however. I'll probably be stopping by there again at some point. I'm expecting the fruit season for this area to come around in a few weeks. Maybe by then it won't be so far-fetched to expect a supply from a stand or two by 10:30.

As I was making my soup this afternoon from the onions and herbs I purchased, I thought about the growing trend of buying locally-grown and organic foods. An article a few days ago in the New York Times talks about the trend and the new 100-mile diet where one feasts only on those products produced within a 100-mile radius. The average person really ends up consuming more fruits and vegetables this way, which might be why the health benefits touted by the diet's die-hard supporters rely more on the fresh-produce "side-effects" and less on the mantra of "locally-grown". If nothing else, the principle of energy-conservation is certainly heeded. The closer the produce is to the consumer, the less fuel needed to transport it, and the greener our future becomes.

-Taylor

The Morning

2008-06-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

There is something promising about a morning.

The world restarts, rebirths and tells you to do the same.
The dew covers the grass - dripping as though the earth just stepped from the shower.
Clean and un-muddled by events of the day.
The air is fresh; the cars have not come to pollute it yet.
The breeze is that deep morning breath that the earth takes. The cool air rushing through its nose to prod it on.
The blues of the sky fade into brighter whites, and hope sits embodied just below the horizon.

Yesterday doesn't matter. All that is ahead is potential. Today's possibilities are new and exciting.
Dry off with the earth and heed its pitch:
The promise of second chances.

-Taylor

The Phase Outline for the Beethoven Piano Sonata Analysis Project

2008-06-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

I thought it might be a good idea to track for you my progress, though it also provides a great benefit to myself. By doing this I can let you in on how the progress is coming along as well as provide some accountability and motivation to actually complete the project (not to mention the benefits of writing out an actual plan of action and keeping in mind how far you've come and how far you have to go).

I figured I should go ahead and detail what I have planned so far in respect to the first few phases.

Phase I consists of doing a sort of introduction to the the first movement of each sonata, listening through it, noticing various formal and harmonic aspects, reading material on the sonata, writing a summary, and preparing a formal diagram. So far I have fully completed 10 of 32 sonatas in Phase I, another 7 are partially completed, leaving 15 that have yet to receive any completion. All in all, I'm about half of the way through Phase I.

Phase II will consist of doing a detailed harmonic analysis on actual paper copy and creating diagrams of the more general tonal areas and interesting harmonic aspects of the first movement. I have completed one of these. These are, understandably, the most time-consuming. Though the one I did complete was a fairly modest and straight-forward movement, it still took me three to four hours to write out the harmonic analysis. Needless to say, this phase will take the most discipline to complete.

Phase III will continue by focusing on the final movement of each sonata. This will be fairly similar to Phase I but with the final movement as the subject. I will listen through, identify harmonic and formal aspects, read associated materials, write a summary of the movement, and prepare diagrams of the formal analysis.

Having said all that, I have to confess that I do feel like I've made fairly decent progress; however, Phase I still has a way to go. And once I've reached this milestone, there will be still be much more before I start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

-Taylor

Beethoven Op. 10, No. 2 in F Major

2008-06-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

Previously, I talked about the sonatas of Op. 10 in a sort of summary, and now I'd like to go into a little more depth with one of them. This is the second of the Op. 10 set. There are a few figures that illustrate in the music some of the aspects I am pointing out. In my next post, I'll go over a little more concerning my overall strategy to completing this project. But now for Op. 10, No. 2...

This sonata is fairly interesting. It contains a good bit of irony and subtle humor. After only 12 measures in F, Beethoven begins to transition to the second tonal area, C major, and he is there by measure 18.
He remains there until the end of the exposition at measure 66. During his stay in C, he leads the listener through the minor mode as well and also to believe he might even switch keys before the exposition’s end.

What become particularly interesting are his transitions through tonal areas throughout the movement. For his transition to the second tonal area of C major, he goes by way of an E major chord, the dominant of the relative minor of C major, a minor. This comes from a common practice during Mozart’s and Haydn’s time where the development section would oftentimes end on the relative minor. After some time it seemed fit to simply end the section on the V of the relative minor. However, by the time Beethoven composes Op. 10, this is not really consider "of the fashion" anymore. But Beethoven utilizes this harmonic progression in a different environment. Before it had only been common at the end of development sections, not, like Beethoven does here, in transitions within the exposition.

The final cadence of the exposition is simply a I-V-I stripped to just octaves. As Beethoven often likes to do, he uses this bare-bones form of basic harmony and develops it. Much of the development section consists of the development of this I-V-I progression in different keys.

The transition to the exposition is equally as interesting as the return to the recapitulation. Beethoven begins in the wrong key: D Major. He plays through the first theme and transition. At the transition he stops and isolates a small melodic fragment out of its harmonic context. Using a technique he learned from Haydn, he repeats this isolated fragment until the listener forgets where he was. Now, reharmonizing it, Beethoven makes the smooth transition to F where he starts the second half of the opening theme again.
With no need for the transition, he leaves out the material altogether and starts immediately in the second thematic section. Beethoven ends the movement as the exposition ended; there is a complete absence of a coda.

-Taylor Baldwin

Looking Ahead (Part II)

2008-05-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is a continuation from a post I began several days ago.

I had discovered the concept of thinking ahead and was now noticing that multiple areas of my life to which I could apply the concept. My problem in all these areas was that I was waiting until the time in which I was to complete my task before I even began to think about how to go about completing it.

So, I came up with a plan.

What if I set aside time every day to outline some goals and to-do items for the following day. Would I save time if I made a schedule of all that I wanted to get done and then get into the specifics of each item? For example, what if I mapped out my day as follows:

7:30 - Get up and eat breakfast, get ready for the day.
8:30 - Reading and Writing.
9:30 - Piano Practice
10:30 - Gym
11:30 - Shower & Eat Lunch
12:30 - Work on Beethoven Analysis
3:00 - Get ready for work at 3:30

Wouldn't that do a great deal to help me accomplish a number of goals? - writing everyday, completing a certain number of books, practicing piano, getting in shape, working my way through analyzing the Beethoven Piano Sonatas.

What if I went further, and outlined goals for the time I've set aside, such as that which follows:

Writing - Finish two blog posts on topics A & B
Reading - Make it through 1 or 2 chapters of Book A
Piano Practice - Work just left hand of the Exposition and Recapitulation sections of Piece A
Gym - Do 3 sets of exercises A, B, C, & D.
Lunch - Prepare chicken (set out now to thaw)
Analysis - Analyze and write briefly about Beethoven Sonata A

Now, by going into each part of my day with a plan, I don't have to waste time deciding what I should do. But I've already thought ahead and am ready to complete the task by the time I am called upon to do it. To some this sounds incredibly detailed and petty. But when I got to college and began studying piano more seriously, I discovered that the progress was slow and steady. I couldn't cram for piano performances, but pieces needed time to mature and become polished. I was simply forced to become disciplined and methodical in order to accomplish my goals.

I truly believe that this is simply part of maturity. In things like preparing pieces for performance and writing books and analysis, gratification is delayed, and unless you prepare and plan for the slow and steady journey, you'll never achieve those large-scale things you dream of.

The problem is not that we can't achieve what we want. The problem lies within us. Will we discipline ourselves to responsibility in order to do those things we've set as our lives' goals?

-Taylor

Looking Ahead (Part I)

2008-05-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Lately, I have been noticing a new concept that I have been living by though it has only just come to a conscious level in the past year or so. It's the concept of focusing ahead, keeping your eyes up and anticipating the future.

I kind of explored this idea through different outlets over the past few years, most recently with a trip to Colorado in which I learned, albeit poorly, to snowboard. Expecting a fairly steep learning curve, I decided to do all I could in preparation before actually arriving at the base of the mountain. One thing I read, which came to be very important to me, was the discipline of keeping your eyes up and on where you were going, not, as many beginners do, at your feet.

The more I did this, the more I progressed, and the more I thought about the general applications of this concept. And as I pondered it, I began to realize that I had been putting this concept into effect in many aspects of my life without necessarily making conscious note of it. When I worked at the local Borders Bookstore, closing the Cafe in the evenings, I would have to set my focus on what was to be completed by closing time. At a restaurant where I served, I would have to think ahead, anticipating guests needs and what I could get done along the way instead of meeting each immediate need, one at a time. In music, when sight-reading, I learned to force myself to look several measures ahead, taking in as much information as possible and giving my brain time to decode it by the time it came for me to play the notes in tempo. And in my performances on the piano, I was always endeavoring to keep a broader scope of the piece as I made my way through it, interpreting it and expressing an overall, polished effect.

So if this concept had been applied to these other areas, increasing my efficiency and productivity, could I apply this to my life and to my schedule? I had plenty of things in which I could be more disciplined and efficient. When I sit down to do homework, many times I become distracted and meander without accomplishing much. Or the days where I walk in and out of the gym, accomplishing very little in the span of an hour and a half. What about the times when, unmotivated, I sit in the practice room simply attempting to fill my practice time instead of actually making use of it. Or when I got home between classes to eat something quickly, only to find that all my options where either unhealthy or too time-intensive to prepare.

My problem in all these areas was that I was waiting until the time in which I was to complete my task before I even began to think about how to go about completing it.

So, I came up with a plan...

(To be continued.)

-Taylor

Beethoven's Op. 10

2008-05-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

I just finished an overview on Beethoven's 3 Piano Sonatas in Opus 10. I figured I could use some sort of update on how I'm doing and how the whole Beethoven Piano Sonata project is evolving.

As it turns out, the 32 published sonatas make for quite the mountain of research. I'm almost at 40 pages single spaced in just research on these sonatas. I've almost made it to the halfway point, however, of what I'll call Phase I.

Phase I really just consists of completing a somewhat shallow overview of the first movements of all 32 sonatas. In this overview I look at how the movement conforms to Sonata-Allegro form (if at all) and examine tonal areas and the general harmonic movement from key to key especially within the development sections and the transitions to the secondary thematic material of the exposition and the recapitulation.

Beethoven's Opus 10 really provides an interesting and diverse set of pieces. The first sonata of Op. 10 is the C minor. It follows the typical "C minor mood" that Beethoven is known for in his other works of the same key (Symphony No. 5, Sonata "Pathetique", etc.). The themes are strikingly diverse from C minor to the secondary tonal area of E-flat Major. I find the transition here extremely interesting. Using tertiary movement, which is, as I am discovering, a very popular transitional method for Beethoven, he moves from C minor to A-flat major to F minor to D-flat Major to B-flat major which becomes the dominant of the secondary tonal area, E-flat major. The transition material is then re-harmonized slightly in the recap in order to stay in the same key of C, but alternating between the major and minor modes.

Op. 10, No. 2 is just as interesting. Simplistic and comic, it is quite the shift of mood from the C minor. Though it is fairly straight forward as far as Sonata-Allegro form goes (and even somewhat of a throwback for this particular time period), it is anything but trite or immature. In fact, the obvious compositional techniques are somewhat cliche for the time, to the point that it seems that Beethoven might be making fun of himself. The initial key is visited for only a brief moment before it moves to the transition to the secondary tonal area. This is done with a specific key movement technique that is really considered antiquated for the time, and it comes across as comic. I will delve into all of this with much more depth in a later post.

Op. 10, No. 3 is quite possibly the most complex and interesting in that the majority of the movement is derived from just a small motive from the first four notes. Beethoven also uses yet another varied method for the tonal transition to the secondary tonal area in the exposition, this time by using a completely new theme in a completely new key which moves us from the tonic of D major to the dominant A major. Adding one of the lengthiest codas of the first seven sonatas, Beethoven saves the subdominant tonal area for the end of the piece, something he only does a few times in his sonatas.

-Taylor

The Fallacy of Principles Above People

2008-05-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

I was speaking with a friend the other day who was concerned about Christian culture and its affect on us to shroud who we are in secrecy, afraid that others might see us fall short of the standard. As we worked it out in conversation, I began to see a common thread running through the mentalities of many Christians, and that is the concept of "Principles Above People". The enduring Christian tradition is so deeply rooted in our Christian culture that in order to ensure its survival, we must not allow anyone to desecrate our holy Christian law. These rules, some Christians call them principles or standards, have been so elevated as to now have nothing to do with the purpose behind them: people.

When Jesus speaks in the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5, he is clear. Using several examples from the Mosaic law, Jesus points at the legalists' short-sightedness. Seeing only as far as the rules themselves, they were content to hate one another, as long as they didn't commit murder, tell lies and break promises, as long as they weren't breaking lawful oaths, or commit adultery in the heart, degrading with the mind, as long as they were kept physically pure. Pushing the external displays of piety aside, Jesus points to the purpose of it all: It's about the heart. What good is your physical purity if your intent has degraded marital union in your heart? Or if you keep the technical rules of a lawful oath, but intentionally mislead another? Do you think that you are holy by holding in a display of your hatred towards another? The truth is as Paul says in Romans 3. No one can live up to the law. No one can stand to principles. And so we hide behind masks, concealing ourselves though we commune with our very own family, brothers and sisters in Jesus.

But there is something more important than our principles. Yes, even more important than the topics of drugs, alcohol, extramarital sex, abortion, and gay marriage. Behind these issues are people. The very people who Jesus came to save. Not, I might add, the pious principle-clingers who thought they were well. One of them comes to Jesus in Luke 18. He is very wealthy and young, proudly stating that he has kept all the principles. Unimpressed Jesus says to him, why don't you go take your money and give it to people.

-Taylor

New Beginnings

2008-05-21T07:28:00.000-07:00

Today I was thinking of a few people in my life who have impressed me by some big decisions they're making. My sister, Kelsey, and my friend, Liz, will be leaving the country for some months to live elsewhere, Kelsey to Scotland for school in the Fall, and Liz to Chile to teach English in a week or so. I was thinking about how brave, yet rewarding it will be to take those risks. I wrote this in my notebook a few nights ago:

Liz left today. Headed to Tulsa, then to Chile. To her dream - her brave dream.
Would I ever leave this town, I might come close to a dream. But not here. The grass isn't green enough.
And Kelsey. Going to Scotland.
How brave.
What could I experience if I weren't so afraid? or lazy?
Every step is much too short. Small bites. Manageable, so I feel safe. And always slightly disappointed, I console myself - "It's temporary. Just a step on my way."
- "But someday. Right. right?"
When will I take the step that makes me fight for balance? - The bite that's too much to chew? I would, though slightly disappointed, console myself - "What an experience, though... I'll be alright. I'll be fine."

-Taylor

Tonal Movement through Development Sections

2008-05-19T08:43:00.000-07:00

This was a topic that I came into by way of a lecture I heard in my undergrad by Dr. Steven Lubin. He had written a dissertation on the topic of how composers moved through tonal centers in the development sections of First-Movement Form of the Classical Era. He viewed the possibilities of keys as kind of a landscape, upon which the themes set out on their journey before arriving home in the recapitulation sections.
He began by drawing up a small diagram demonstrating a key (in this case, C) and its closely related keys. On either side of C (no flats and no sharps) are the two keys immediately next to it in the circle of Fifths - F (one flat) and G (one sharp). Above and below C are listed the tonic minor (c minor) and the relative minor (a minor). And above and below F and G are their respective tonic and relative minors. From here keys can be continually added on either side along with their respective tonic and relative minor keys. Finally, those keys can begin to repeat vertically as well in a sort of pattern.
Using this method, Dr. Lubin created a 3-Dimensional sort of globe upon which one could visually map-out the progression through tonal centers. I have, as an example, mapped out the tonal progression through the development section of Beethoven's Piano Sonata in E-Flat Major, Op. 31, No. 3. So here, we have Beethoven beginning in E-flat and immediately progressing through c minor, to C Major, to F Major, through b-flat minor and E-flat Major, going a little to far to A-flat Major before returning to the home key of E-flat.

This is exciting in that it gives me a way to do some visual analysis on these Beethoven Piano Sonatas.

-Taylor

The Hebbian Learning Rule

2008-05-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

While reading The Science of Happiness by Stefan Klein, Ph.D., I came across a passage that I quoted in this post some time ago. I'll go ahead and re-quote that here.

Even if we're feeling huge anger or fear, it's to our advantage to bring our emotions under control. When we [do this], there's a two-fold effect on the brain. For one, we're less likely to react negatively to start with, because the connection between the stimulus and the emotional response to it is weakened. Second, we strengthen the ability to restrain such emotions, should they be released after all. ... Conscious control of the emotions has to be practiced. (p. 59)

This got me thinking a little bit about the application of visualization to this principle. I wonder if this emotional response could be practiced before we are called upon to cope in the moment. Would envisioning scenarios and practicing a response in either role-play or entirely within the imagination have a similar effect to actually experiencing a situation in which you'll actually need to employ self-control to prevent the further strengthening of the bond between stimulus and emotional response?

-Taylor Baldwin

Two Cheese and Bacon Clafoutis

2008-05-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

Decided to try to make a savory clafoutis this morning. It worked out quite nicely. Clafoutis was originally a French dessert made with cherries. Over time it has become a dessert made with all kinds of fruit. I first learned of clafoutis from this article by Mark Bittman of the New York Times. I decided that clafoutis were so simple, cheap, and somewhat healthy, I had to use it in a savory application. Since it is essentially a pancake batter poured over fruit, why not a savory breakfast application. This recipe makes for just one serving and includes cheese, bacon, and no sugar.

1 egg
6 Tbsp half & half
2 Tbsp ricotta cheese
1/4 cup flour
salt/pepper
1 strip bacon
1/4 cup grated cheese
1 Tbsp chives

Adding them one at a time, whisk together the first three ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Next you'll want to slowly add the sifted flour and stop whisking once it's just incorporated - sifted and slowly so it doesn't clump up and just once incorporated so the batter doesn't stiffen. Add a pinch of pepper and salt (the bacon and cheese will also add some salt).
In a gratin dish or souffle dish (really any heavy-bottomed, oven-safe dish will work), spray some Pam and roll some flour around inside until it is all coated, then knock the the dish upside down against something to get any loose flour out. In the bottom of the gratin dish, evenly distribute cheese, bacon, and chives. Next, pour the batter slowly over the cheese, bacon, and chives, and bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes, or until set. It will be a fairly custard-y mixture, so you don't want it dry.

This thing is so good and so easy to make. This thing couldn't be more than a $1.50 to put together. If you want to get it even healthier, just do less cheese and cut the half & half with some milk. But if you have an hour to spare on Saturday morning, like I did today, it'll be well worth the time.

-Taylor Baldwin

The Mythological Effects of Venting

2008-05-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

Over the last several years large-scale, organized pillow fights have been breaking out in cities around the globe - most notably those on World Pillow Fight Day. These events are obviously held in the spirit of good fun, but what about the commonly-held belief that venting aggression or other emotions brings about a sort of catharsis from such emotions? Is venting a healthy response to festering emotions?

In his book, The Science of Happiness, Stefan Klein doesn't seem to think so. Klein argues that emotion reactions establish themselves in the brain using the Hebbian Learning Rule.

Even if we're feeling huge anger or fear, it's to our advantage to bring our emotions under control. When we [do this], there's a two-fold effect on the brain. For one, we're less likely to react negatively to start with, because the connection between the stimulus and the emotional response to it is weakened. Second, we strengthen the ability to restrain such emotions, should they be released after all. ... Conscious control of the emotions has to be practiced. (p. 59)

This study, by Brad J. Bushman also seems to indicate that Catharsis theory really has no empirical foundation. Three groups were used to measure various responses to anger: Rumination (subjects spent time focusing on the person who made them angry), Distraction (subjects spent time distracting themselves from the person who made them angry), and the Control group (subjects waited in silence, doing nothing). Subjects in each group were also allowed to punch a punching bag for as long as they liked (venting).

They found that subjects who ruminated on the object of their anger actually showed increased levels of anger, while those who were distracted from the object of their anger, showed a decrease in anger. Also interesting is that those who were distracted from the object of their anger, but allowed to punch a punching bag while focusing on becoming physically fit, (distraction with venting) also showed an increase of anger. This seems to indicate that the mere act of aggressive behavior (punching the punching bag) increases anger without respect to the mental focus of the subject (be it on the object of anger or simply the goal of becoming physically fit).

-Taylor

Fajita Bean Soup

2008-05-07T17:00:00.000-07:00

Made up a soup this afternoon that turned out to be fairly healthy and tasty. (And easy on the wallet.)

butter
1 or 2 package(s) of frozen peppers and onions thawed
1 or 2 can(s) of red beans
1 packet of fajita seasoning
4 or 5 cups of water
hot sauce, salt, pepper to taste
1/4 - 1/2 pint of half and half

Saute onions and peppers in butter on med heat 5 minutes.
Add beans and fajita seasoning, cook for a few minutes.
Add 4 or 5 cups of water and simmer for 30 minutes.
Check seasonings.
Take off heat and finish with half and half.

Seriously, this stuff is amazing. It's fairly cheap and healthy and makes at least 4 servings.

The Formation of Behavioral Patterns & The Importance of Self-Control

2008-05-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

I was reading this paper and found it particularly interesting in that it reminded me of my old step-dad and his anger issues (which he always received counseling for from the local church's pastoral staff).

Here's a short paragraph from page 2:

Cognitive neoassociation theory posits that aggressive thoughts are linked together in memory, thereby forming an associative network. Once an aggressive thought is processed or stimulated, activation spreads out along the network links and primes or activates associated thoughts as well. Not only are associated aggressive thoughts linked together in memory but thoughts are also linked along the same sort of associative lines to emotional reactions and action tendencies. Thus, the activation of aggressive thoughts can engender a complex of associations consisting of aggressive ideas, emotions related to violence, and the impetus for aggressive actions.

Wow. So, the fact that Steve's actions and emotions went unchecked to certain stimuli, his behavior became nearly uncontrollable, permeating his first two marriages and no doubt his current marriage as well. So, what I'm saying is that "giving it to God" might not have been exactly what he needed to hear in those counseling sessions.

It's too bad that he didn't receive the help he needed.

Makes me wonder, what behaviors am I priming myself to become compulsory? If as we become older, we lose more self-control in the sense that our actions are increasingly governed by the behavioral precedents we have set, then who am I setting myself up to be in 10 years?

God, that's unnerving,

Taylor

Arvo Pärt & His Music (Part II)

2008-04-29T14:36:00.000-07:00

Tintinnabulation

In my understanding, tintinnabulation, a method of composition devised by Arvo Pärt, is a method of composing a sort of counterpoint by which one voice sings or plays a melody, usually in stepwise motion, while the other voice or voices maintain the harmonies by simply outlining the chords.
Several Pärt pieces utilize this method. I believe it is most easily heard in his Magnificat, a 4-part choral piece in which a single voice, usually in a lower register, sings the melody, while the other parts outline the harmonies, singing only those pitches found in the chord. This results in a continuous stream of dissonances and resolutions, many of which are minor seconds, perhaps the most dissonant intervals. The Magnificat's opening displays a similar effect with two voices singing in unison before one branches off to sing a melody that sort of encircles the droned pitch.

Dissonance

This leads me to another musical thread that seems to be extremely common in the music of Arvo Pärt: Dissonance. In his online paper, Music, Emotion and the Brain states,, Geetanjali Vaidya states, "It was found that the varying degrees of dissonance caused increased activity in the paralimbic regions of the brain, which are associated with emotional processes." This seems to support the already natural feeling of emotion expressed through dissonance. Music known for its dissonance and resolution, like Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, seems to elicit a certain emotional response that is even felt physically in the body. Arvo Pärt takes advantage of this psychological connection and includes a wide variety of dissonance in all of his music, some of which ends the piece and is never resolved.

-Taylor Baldwin

Arvo Pärt & His Music (Part I)

2008-04-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

The Estonian composer Arvo Pärt writes music that seems to reflect some ominous depth within the soul. Each phrase is fraught with emotion, like brief, desperate outbursts; it's almost like overhearing someone pleading through angst.

Contributing to these feelings are the various compositional techniques that he employs in his works. Dissonance, drones, and the lesser-known tintinnabulation, a technique which Pärt himself developed, all come together to create this sense of connection with the human condition.

I will write further about these compositional techniques as seen in his music later. But for now, acquaint yourself with Arvo Pärt and his music, if you haven't already. The Silouans Song is a nice start. Also, the orchestral-choral Berliner Messe (which I have not found an online recording to) and the choral Magnificat (which has several less-than-exemplary recordings online) are both also good options.

To be continued...

-Taylor Baldwin

Beethoven Sonata Analysis

2008-04-28T13:04:00.000-07:00

This YouTube video gives a good example of some melodic analysis of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 1 in F-minor. The analysis here is a melodic/thematic analysis and is extremely brief, only covering the very first few seconds of the Exposition. The analysis I plan on presenting here will consist largely of Form Analysis and Harmonic Analysis. Hopefully, the video piques your interest.

-Taylor

Summer Goals, continued.

2008-04-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

Excercise

Now this is something that I do, but not regularly enough. I have been doing fairly well over the past several years, but a few months ago I injured my joints on snowboarding trip and fell out of the habit of working out. Now that summer is peeking through the clouds with some degree of consistency, I know that before long we will be in swimming season. I would like to work up to where I was before, lifting and running several times a week. Only now, I have created a set of goals specific to particular exercises. Perhaps, I will share those later. Accountability on this one comes courtesy Aaron Girdner and Tim Fraticelli.

Out of the House by 9am

There wasn't really a shorter title that I could come up with for this one. But this goal has in mind the basic principle of "Early to bed, early to rise..." I'm confident that if I can get a start on my day, I can get some sort of momentum going. This rule will really force me to get out of the house and on with the tasks at hand, whatever they are. It may be the gym, studying at a coffee house, practicing piano, or riding my bike. I've already been working on this one for a little while now, and I'm finding that it works.

Now, with all these goals I have to remember to focus on one thing at a time. I need to allow myself to make some sort of schedule and stick to it for a few weeks before adding in the next component or goal. Here's to the summer and what lies therein. And here's to looking back in a few years thankful that I had laid the groundwork for my future successes.

-Taylor

Summer Goals

2008-04-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

Here are a few items I have decided to work towards this summer. Most of these goals have at their core, the purpose of increasing my productivity and really moving toward some larger goals that I have.

Ride My Bike

This being my first summer living downtown, I'd like to take advantage of the area and ride my bike around of some of the surrounding neighborhoods. These older neighborhoods are in a large way undergoing a massive renovation as older occupants move out and younger tenants come in. Many of these houses have already been purchased by wealthy families and renovated into detailed and ornate works of art. The canopied streets come courtesy of large, venerable trees. This stress-reliever will contribute to my overall contentment and relaxation, which hopefully keeps me more productive.

Beethoven Sonata Analysis

In my area of art, the final product is often lost. The interpretation of a piece may be recorded, but as an art, the performer is limited in his creativity. What final product can come from the hours of study at the piano that may be preserved forever? The perfect interpretation really comes from the mind and is never fully realized as sound, for no performance ever comes out entirely as planned. Because of this, it seems befitting to put myself to work on some sort of music research. I'm not completely certain of what the future holds for the great amount of effort I would put into this analysis (there are 32 sonatas, most with 3 or 4 movements), but I am confident that this is the first step towards the creation of something that might be more concrete (i.e. essays or articles). I've already finished a loose outline of the first half of the sonatas, so there should be some content to post here soon.

Start Blogging on a Regular Basis

I have been blogging on and off for the past several years. It is one of the few things that brings me a lot of consistent satisfaction. Even the idea of amalgamating in text the thoughts and ideas of my life over time contributes to the feeling of creating something more concrete. Maybe the practice of writing will serve as an investment for the future, where I hope to eventually write something with significant length.

To be continued...

-Taylor

RIP Ramen

2008-04-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

Ramen,

It's been a wonderful few weeks, but I'm slowly realizing that perhaps you don't really have a place in my diet anymore.

Don't get me wrong. It's not because I'm not poor. And it's not because I don't enjoy the 700 calorie days or the $10/month grocery budget. It's just. Well. There's nothing in you. Except salt. And some carbs, I guess. My body is sending me messages that seem to indicate that it thinks it's about to die.

So, with today's grocery run, I took the first step away from you and towards a better future. A future in which protein and flavor play more prominent roles. Yes, I can hear you saying, "カップル時間食糧を毎日にすることを楽しみなさい."

* But I don't care. I may have to make sacrifices, but that's part of being an adult.

There is a place for you in my heart. Always.

And I still have like 3 packs of you left, so I mean... we'll hang out still.

Love,
Taylor

*Roughly translated, "Enjoy making food for a couple hours everyday."

The Beginning

2007-06-17T13:48:00.001-07:00

“ Allow myself to introduce... myself.

— Austin Powers