Random thoughts about many interests and people, with a realization of the blessings of life. I try to follow my mother's advice, don't discuss politics or religion.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Edinboro Sports Dome 3
Here are a couple of pictures of the Edinboro Sports Dome from different angles. The second picture shows the attached building, that will, I assume, be used as an entrance. Click on the photos to see a larger version that gives a better idea of the magnitude of this dome.
As an Athletic Center, the dome will be used for track, soccer, lacrosse, football, and other sports. Some of us hope tennis will be one of the sports able to use the dome. In addition, campus events such as Graduation will be held in this heated and air-conditioned structure. The dome's usefulness will probably makeup for this dreary looking white elephant,er, dome.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Clarinetist to Perform for Obama's Inauguration
The clarinet world is abuzz about the selection of Anthony McGill to play at Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration. McGill is principal clarinetist for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. McGill’s relative lack of name recognition has some clarinetists wondering why he was chosen for this honor. An African-American, McGill will be part of a quartet made up of Itzhak Perlman, an Israeli-American and internationally recognized violinist; Yo-Yo Ma, a Chinese-American who is one of the world’s most renowned cellists; and Gabriela Montero a gifted pianist who was born in Caracas, Venezuela. The composer and arranger for the work that will be performed by this unique quartet is John Williams, perhaps America’s greatest living composer. McGill is in excellent company.
Diversity seems to be one of the hallmarks of this quartet, aside from the obvious musical gifts of each individual. Perlman is Jewish and disabled, Yo-Yo Ma is a Chinese-American, Montero is a Latin American woman, and McGill is a black man. John Williams has not only written two symphonies and a cello concerto for Yo-Yo Ma, he has written the music for popular films from Star Wars to Harry Potter, and he conducted America’s orchestra, the Boston Pops. A better example of the diversity of the United States could hardly be found in a classical quartet of such talent.
Just as the musicians are diverse, the instrumentation of violin, cello, piano, and clarinet is unusual for a quartet. However, instrumentalists and instruments should meld together in harmonious accord. McGill, an accomplished chamber musician, has performed in concert with Yo-Yo Ma. Montero is not only an accomplished interpreter of classic compositions, she is also highly regarded for her skills as an improviser. These two relatively unknown, but highly acclaimed, musicians will perform with the renowned Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma to create a musicians dream team playing an original work by a great American composer.
The quartets appearance will follow the Oath of Office administered to Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden, Jr. and precede the Oath of Office administered to President-elect Barack H. Obama.
If there is a political statement in all of this it is that 21st century America is ready in all of it’s diversity to create and appreciate unique music for a new era.
Diversity seems to be one of the hallmarks of this quartet, aside from the obvious musical gifts of each individual. Perlman is Jewish and disabled, Yo-Yo Ma is a Chinese-American, Montero is a Latin American woman, and McGill is a black man. John Williams has not only written two symphonies and a cello concerto for Yo-Yo Ma, he has written the music for popular films from Star Wars to Harry Potter, and he conducted America’s orchestra, the Boston Pops. A better example of the diversity of the United States could hardly be found in a classical quartet of such talent.
Just as the musicians are diverse, the instrumentation of violin, cello, piano, and clarinet is unusual for a quartet. However, instrumentalists and instruments should meld together in harmonious accord. McGill, an accomplished chamber musician, has performed in concert with Yo-Yo Ma. Montero is not only an accomplished interpreter of classic compositions, she is also highly regarded for her skills as an improviser. These two relatively unknown, but highly acclaimed, musicians will perform with the renowned Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma to create a musicians dream team playing an original work by a great American composer.
The quartets appearance will follow the Oath of Office administered to Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden, Jr. and precede the Oath of Office administered to President-elect Barack H. Obama.
If there is a political statement in all of this it is that 21st century America is ready in all of it’s diversity to create and appreciate unique music for a new era.
Edinboro Sports Dome 2
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The Edinboro University Sports Dome is now up. This picture shows the dome nearly inflated. No other structure has changed the campus view as dramatically. Notice, for instance, that McComb Fieldhouse is not visible.
The Edinboro University Sports Dome is now up. This picture shows the dome nearly inflated. No other structure has changed the campus view as dramatically. Notice, for instance, that McComb Fieldhouse is not visible.Thursday, December 11, 2008
Edinboro Sports Dome
The Edinboro University Dome, an athletic complex, is in the final stage of construction and the first stage of positioning the inflatable dome.
Broadway Billboard
As an old drama teacher, I couldn't resist using the Broadway Billboard and our Nutcracker to make a holiday greeting.
Used a flirkr toy
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Death: Being and Not Being
Mozart wrote the Requiem (at least the part he was able to complete) on his deathbed. He died young, but his life's work has remained ageless. Even the rumors surrounding his death remain vibrant. Mozart has achieved a type of immortality, yet his corporal body and essential self is no more. He met our inevitable end.
Religion has offered hope to many in the form of an afterlife. At a recent Memorial Service I attended, the speaker depicted the type of heaven I'd appreciate. In his Heaven we return to our most beautiful state and no longer suffer pain, crippling, or any other malady, and we will be greeted by our most beloved ones who have already passed on to Heavenly life. The reward for our earthly suffering and good works will be eternal bliss.
Faith and belief are critical to heavenly reward. Yet, in our day of evangelical extremism, factious Christianity, Islamic jihad, and irrational defense of god's will, it is difficult to have faith and belief in the God(s) of World Religions, after all, He seems at war with himself.
If God wants us all to be saved, why would He create diverse major religions with further divisive sub categories, with each claiming to be the one true religion? The claim that God acts in mysterious ways is not good enough.
Furthermore, why create an afterlife pictured much as we know material existence, but honed to a paradise unrealized on earth? Heaven is hope that the irrational suffering humans undergo will be erased, and that eternity will be joyful. Death becomes desirable.
Existentialism, following the irrationality of the Second World War, held a view that god, for all practical purposes, was dead. Hope of life beyond this worldly sphere also died.
What is the truth? Is there life after death? If so, what is it like? The ancient depictions of Heaven no longer ring with truth or self-evidence. The modern depiction of a self created Hell on Earth, is self-evident, but contains little hope or an imaginative, yet realistic, depiction of afterlife. Modernity leaves us with Being and Non-Being.
Shakespeare's Hamlet contemplated Being or Not Being, and gave us rational fear of death, “What dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil?” While worms crawl about our skull, our soul may be caught in an eternal nightmare. This is an undesirable death.
Well, we can say with certainty that our body will decay and become part of the earth and, thereby, continue within the framework of this vast, unknown universal body called the cosmos, to live. That great lives and souls such as Mozart and Shakespeare will continue to live in the hearts and minds of people as long as our civilization exists. That we, for good or ill, will be remembered by our friends and family, and, hopefully, some of the best of our nature will nurture our children and be passed on to their children, and their children's children. Our body's will rot, but our lives do impact the future. Neither desirable nor undesirable, Death is inevitable.
Religion has offered hope to many in the form of an afterlife. At a recent Memorial Service I attended, the speaker depicted the type of heaven I'd appreciate. In his Heaven we return to our most beautiful state and no longer suffer pain, crippling, or any other malady, and we will be greeted by our most beloved ones who have already passed on to Heavenly life. The reward for our earthly suffering and good works will be eternal bliss.
Faith and belief are critical to heavenly reward. Yet, in our day of evangelical extremism, factious Christianity, Islamic jihad, and irrational defense of god's will, it is difficult to have faith and belief in the God(s) of World Religions, after all, He seems at war with himself.
If God wants us all to be saved, why would He create diverse major religions with further divisive sub categories, with each claiming to be the one true religion? The claim that God acts in mysterious ways is not good enough.
Furthermore, why create an afterlife pictured much as we know material existence, but honed to a paradise unrealized on earth? Heaven is hope that the irrational suffering humans undergo will be erased, and that eternity will be joyful. Death becomes desirable.
Existentialism, following the irrationality of the Second World War, held a view that god, for all practical purposes, was dead. Hope of life beyond this worldly sphere also died.
What is the truth? Is there life after death? If so, what is it like? The ancient depictions of Heaven no longer ring with truth or self-evidence. The modern depiction of a self created Hell on Earth, is self-evident, but contains little hope or an imaginative, yet realistic, depiction of afterlife. Modernity leaves us with Being and Non-Being.
Shakespeare's Hamlet contemplated Being or Not Being, and gave us rational fear of death, “What dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil?” While worms crawl about our skull, our soul may be caught in an eternal nightmare. This is an undesirable death.
Well, we can say with certainty that our body will decay and become part of the earth and, thereby, continue within the framework of this vast, unknown universal body called the cosmos, to live. That great lives and souls such as Mozart and Shakespeare will continue to live in the hearts and minds of people as long as our civilization exists. That we, for good or ill, will be remembered by our friends and family, and, hopefully, some of the best of our nature will nurture our children and be passed on to their children, and their children's children. Our body's will rot, but our lives do impact the future. Neither desirable nor undesirable, Death is inevitable.
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