Welcome to the INNER EYE: World Streets Public 24/7 Fine Arts Collection.

17/05/2020

RADIO WOLFGANG: THEME AND VARIATIONS

BROOKLYN PIANIST FLIPS BACH UPSIDE-DOWN
By Anthony Tommasini, May 15, 2020 New York Times

In March, the jazz pianist and composer Dan Tepfer found himself confined to his apartment in Brooklyn with all his bookings canceled for the foreseeable future, like musicians everywhere. So he decided to work seriously on an idea he had long been toying with.

Mr. Tepfer, 38, who also excels in classical music and has an undergraduate degree in astrophysics as well as sophisticated technology skills, wrote a computer program. He recorded himself playing Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations, beautifully, on a Yamaha Disklavier, a full grand piano with a high-tech player piano function; his program then played back each variation, but flipped.

LISTEN HERE: https://youtu.be/zxvKggshgLs

Let me explain. The plucky title Mr. Tepfer chose for his bold experiment, “ ,” suggests that this project is some kind of gimmick. Not at all. The process of turning music “upside-down” has a long historical precedent: It’s the technique of inversion in counterpoint.

Without getting too theoretical, counterpoint refers to music written in multiple parts, or lines, that overlap and intertwine. Sometimes Bach — as well as other counterpoint masters — played around with inversions of lines. For example, a melodic strand where the notes basically ascend in a specific pattern would be turned upside-down, so that the altered line basically descends — a mirror-like reflection.

CONTINUES AS: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/arts/music/dan-tepfer-bach.html

23/01/2020

ORDERING PIZZA in 2020

CALLER: Is this Gordon's Pizza?

GOOGLE:
No sir, it's Google Pizza.

CALLER:
I must have dialed a wrong number. Sorry.

GOOGLE:
No sir, Google bought Gordon’s Pizza last month.

CALLER:
OK. I would like to order a pizza.

GOOGLE:
Do you want your usual, sir?

CALLER:
My usual? You know me?

GOOGLE:
According to our caller ID data sheet, the last 12 times you called you ordered an extra-large pizza with three cheeses, sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms and meatballs on a thick crust.

CALLER:
OK! That’s what I want ...

GOOGLE:
May I suggest that this time you order a pizza with ricotta, arugula, sun-dried tomatoes and olives on a whole wheat gluten-free thin crust?

CALLER:
What? I detest vegetable!

GOOGLE:
Your cholesterol is not good, sir.

CALLER:
How the hell do you know!

GOOGLE:
Well, we cross-referenced your home phone number with your medical records. We have the result of your blood tests for the last 7 years.

CALLER:
Okay, but I do not want your rotten vegetable pizza! I already take medication for my cholesterol.

GOOGLE: Excuse me sir, but you have not taken your medication regularly. According to our database, you purchased only a box of 30 cholesterol tablets once, at Drug RX Network, 4 months ago.

CALLER:
I bought more from another drugstore.

GOOGLE:
That doesn’t show on your credit card statement.

CALLER:
I paid in cash.

GOOGLE:
But you did not withdraw enough cash according to your bank statement.

CALLER:
I have other sources of cash.

GOOGLE: That doesn’t show on your last tax return unless you bought them using an undeclared income source, which is against the
law.

CALLER:
WHAT THE HELL!

GOOGLE:
I'm sorry, sir, we use such information only with the sole intention
of helping you.

CALLER:
Enough already! I'm sick to death of Google, Facebook, Twitter,
WhatsApp and all the others. I'm going to an island without internet, cable TV, where there is no cell phone service and no one to watch me or spy on me.

GOOGLE:
I understand sir, but you need to renew your passport first. It
expired 6 weeks ago...

# # #

With kind thanks to Dr. Robert Bjork of UCLA’s Department of Psychology

26/09/2019

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE NORWEGIAN NOBEL PRIZE COMMITTEE IN SUPPORT OF DONALD TRUMP

("In which I put a heavy move on the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of my president." See below for important details.)

President Trump speaks with Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad of Iraq during a meeting with victims of religious persecution worldwide in the Oval Office at the White House on July 17, 2019 in Washington. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Dear haters and losers in Norway,

I am writing to offer my heaviest and strongest possible recommendation that Mr. Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States and the most popular president ever of real Americans, be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize next month. I have observed President Trump closely for several years.

Because he is an increasingly constant presence on America’s airwaves, there are days when I feel as though I am constantly bathed in his beautiful presence. As a professor with degrees from highly respected institutions, I know I have a very above average brain. Based on my brain after watching lots of Fox News, I strongly assert that President Trump — America’s favorite president — has the wealth, power and ambition that merits your totally rigged and way-too-left-wing prize.

Earlier this week, when a Pakistani journalist told Trump, “If you can solve this outstanding issue of Kashmir, very likely and definitely you’ll be deserving a Nobel Prize,” Trump replied, “I think I’m going to get a Nobel Prize for a lot of things, if they gave it out fairly, which they don’t.” My smart and handsome president is right! Your system is rigged, but that is okay. Trump’s case for the Nobel is so strong that even you Nordic nitwits should be able to figure it out.

President Trump’s offers to be a peacemaker in the troubled parts of the world speak for themselves. Indeed, this letter was inspired by Trump’s multiple offers to mediate the Kashmir crisis between India and Pakistan, despite India’s repeated rejection of that offer. According to the Times of India, “absent New Delhi accepting his role, [Trump] suggested the two countries come together themselves and ‘do something that’s really smart.’” That is perfect, beautiful advice — a true peacemaker delegates the peacemaking to the combatants! In this age of participation trophies, isn’t the fact that Trump wants to negotiate a peace deal worthy of its own award? He hates war almost as much as he hates hurricanes, and those strong feelings cannot be denied.

Trump can’t stop talking about the Nobel Peace Prize
President Trump often mentions the Nobel Peace Prize at campaign rallies, White House events and interviews. (John Farrell/The Washington Post)

And it is not just in South Asia where President Trump is interested in peace. He has repeatedly talked about his aim to create a beautiful Middle East peace deal. It is so important to him that he appointed his son-in-law Jared Kushner, his most trusted subordinate, to work on that peace deal. And that deal is so important to Jared Kushner that he has delegated that task to the only person who makes Jared Kushner look experienced in the Middle East by comparison. If you were tough and smart, you would just award Trump the Nobel now in anticipation of all of this working out so perfectly.

Trump has made a more personal investment in securing peace on the Korean Peninsula, and I think the results speak for themselves. The president has brilliantly leveraged his real estate acumen to cajole Kim Jong Un into giving up his nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs in return for developing beach resorts. Okay, so none of that has happened yet, but Kim Jong Un has written Trump so many beautiful letters — far more than that phony Barack Obama ever received. If you can award the 44th president the Nobel Peace Prize just for being elected, surely you can do the same for the 45th president!

President Trump should be awarded the Nobel not just for the areas where he has made almost-any-minute-now peace, but places where peace will need to be made. The problems in Venezuela are very serious because President Nicolás Maduro has been so tough and strong in the face of crippling economic sanctions. The tensions in the Persian Gulf are near an all-time high: the ongoing war in Yemen, the Gulf Cooperation Council embargo of Qatar and the suspected Iranian attack on Saudi Arabian oil fields have put the region on edge. If you award the Nobel to Trump, you will send a powerful signal to other actors in these regions that they have reacted badly to the president’s heavy moves.

I know that some fake people have nominated Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, but I am not one of them! As a social science professor, I meet the Nobel’s listed criteria for nominating someone.

And let me stress at this point that there is absolutely no quid pro quo between myself and the president to boost his ego with this nomination. That would be an absurd and very false allegation, typical of the fake news which is the enemy of the people. (As someone who writes for the Amazon Washington Post, I know all too well about this.)

Even if there were a quid pro quo — say, I am appointed U.S. ambassador to Norway in return for writing this letter — what difference does it make?! This kind of thing happens all the time! You don’t think other powerful people have thrown their nominators a bone? So even though there is absolutely no quid pro quo — I hate Norway! — if there were a quid pro quo, it would be no big deal.

I hope you stupid Europeans can read good English and accept this nomination and act fast and tough to award President Trump the Nobel. Also, it might make him less cranky.

Be smart!

Sincerely,

Professor Daniel Drezner
Possible future U.S. ambassador to Norway

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a regular contributor to PostEverything.

Credit with thanks for the admiring author and the ever vigilent Washington Post for the original and full article with photos and video:

In which I put a heavy move on the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of my president.

21/08/2019

WORLD WIDE COMPETITION: PLEASE TELL US WHAT THIS IS (supposed to be)

Respond here or to [email protected]

SUMPTUOUS PRIZES TO BE DISTRIBUTED TO WINNERS BY OUR ILLUSTRIOUS CHAIR

Clue: kninLDneplemmUUihcs

16/07/2019

This pretty much explains itself.

13/07/2019

Calvin And Hobbes on nature

08/03/2019

SLOUCHING TO BETHLEHEM
[As the planet gyres and burns around us.]
______________________

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand . . .
______________________

* Do you recognize these opening lines? (In the event there is a quite neat commentary on this at http://bit.ly/2NPb5T7. )
And . . .

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

05/03/2019

IISUE #93 OF CARFREE TIMES

- now available at: http://www.carfree.com/cft/i093.html

PHOTO ESSAY: CLIMATE STRIKE NL 2019

I joined an energetic group of mostly school-age kids at the 7 February 2019 climate strike held in the Hague, the capital of the Netherlands. The "strike" part means that they cut classes in order to attend to business they believe to be more important than studying. Far more people attended than had been expected, and the trains were mobbed. I promoted the carfree solution on the platforms until I was finally able to squeeze onto a train. The weather cooperated most agreeably, although this is arguably not good news.

This was a very good-natured crowd, and, as far as I am aware, there were no incidents. There will be more of these actions, if the "go back to school and study - we have this under control" emissions from government ministers are any indication. Like nearly all other governments, the Dutch government has not yet discovered that it is not actually doing everything it can. Greta Thunberg has energized and activated a whole generation, all by herself. Well done, Greta!

Source: Joel Crawford

Carfree Times, March 2019. A newsletter summarizing current events of interest to the sustainability and carfree cities movements.

01/03/2019

INVISIBILITIES: Just because you can’t see them (or prefer not to) doesn’t mean they are not there.

In a city, as in life, we normally register only what we set out to look for. The anomalies, the absences, the troubling, somehow escape our attention. But when it comes to transport, everywhere th…