Stream the Chris Potter quartet Live at the Village Vanguard
Haven't finished listening but Chris' Potter's jazz suite Sirens is starting out strong, with a modal vampy thing going, Trane and bop influences and some blues cries in Potter's soloing, but not too...
View ArticleNagel's Mind and Cosmos, Objective Value, Delong and Blackburn
I have trouble understanding why critics of Thomas Nagel's Mind and Cosmos are coming down so hard on his belief that value statements---particularly ethical ones, can (some of them, at any rate) be...
View ArticleJazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
Two nights ago, I heard the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, at the Lensic Performance Center in Santa Fe. Excellent concert. Trying to reconstruct the setlist will be tricky. It...
View ArticleThree Nebbiolos and a Barbera
Over the past couple of months I've had four remarkable red wines from the Piedmont region of Italy. The Langhe---the region 30 or so miles south and southeast of Turin, whose hills, dotted with old...
View ArticleGerald Finley sings Donne set by Adams
My attention was drawn to Canadian-born baritone Gerald Finley by hearing (on CBC radio while visiting Kitchener-Waterloo for the Quantum Landscape conference at PI) his rendition of the aria "Batter...
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Bayesian reasoning from XKCD
In statistics: In everyday life: Copyright XKCD, used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.
View ArticleSome interesting reading: 6/20/2013
Amartya Sen on Indian and Chinese economic growth Billy Joel interviewed in the New York Times magazine. At least check out the photos!
View ArticleReadings: Titta Ruffo, "My Parabola" / Video "Credo in un Dio crudel"
I recently read the autobiography of Titta Ruffo, an operatic baritone who was one of the greatest singers of all time. Fascinating reading, very evocative of the atmosphere of Italy in the late 19th...
View ArticleEssential listening: the Guarneri play Janácek
On a 1998 Philips CD, number 456 574-2, the Guarneri quartet plays both of Leoš Janácek's string quartets: the 1923 "Kreutzer Sonata" and the 1928 "Intimate Letters". This is wonderful music, tonal...
View ArticleEssential listening: Alicia de Larrocha plays Granados
Alicia de Larrocha plays Enrique Granados' piano music on RCA Red Seal (BMG) CD 09026-6814-2. Music and performance are perfection. Can't imagine it done better. Truly essential listening. The...
View ArticleCatchy and free... St. Etienne "Lose That Girl"
This post is just to point out that you can download a free mp3 of St. Etienne's catchy "Lose That Girl" from Sub Pop here. (The link is under "Listen", 2nd column from the left.) I am not familiar...
View ArticleTerredora di Paola Irpinia Falanghina 2012
Figured I should get a few quick comments out on some wines while still timely... here's the first The 2012 Irpinia (DOC) Falanghina (grape) from Terredora di Paolo, $15 at Susan's Fine Wines and...
View ArticleTrader Joe's Wine Roundup 7/1/2013
No, the Wine Roundup is not some event Trader Joe's sponsors out in its Wild West locations like Santa Fe, it's just me rounding up some empties I wanted to post about before chucking them. Chateau...
View ArticleThomas Mapfumo--- Los Alamos 2012, Festivo 2013 (video)
Last summer Zimbabwean musician Thomas Mapfumo (currently in exile as a critic of the Mugabe government) played one of the free outdoor Gordon's Concerts in Los Alamos, next to Ashley Pond. The...
View ArticleRorem on Bizet... and Gedda and Vanzo in "Je crois entendre encore"
Reading Ned Rorem's essay on Bizet's Carmen, I can understand how he can say, even while admitting that Carmen is a "chef d'oeuvre", that it "does not make my mouth water. (No offense, neither does...
View ArticleA question about measurement in Bohmian quantum mechanics
I was disturbed by aspects of Craig Callender's post "Nothing to see here," on the uncertainty principle, in the New York Times' online philosophy blog "The Stone," and I'm pondering a response, which...
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Bohm on measurement in Bohmian quantum theory
Prompted, as described in the previous post, by Craig Callender's post on the uncertainty principle, I've gone back to David Bohm's original series of two papers "A suggested interpretation of the...
View ArticleThe Marriage of Figaro, Santa Fe 2013
The 2013 opera season at Santa Fe ended last night (well, two nights ago as this is posted) with a performance of Offenbach's comic operetta The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein. I went to all five operas,...
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Question about Susskind's presentation of Bekenstein's black hole entropy...
I'm partway through viewing Leonard Susskind's excellent not-too-technical talk "Inside Black Holes" given at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UC Santa Barbara on August 25. Thanks to...
View ArticleAnswer to question about Bekenstein BH entropy derivation
I had a look at Jacob Bekenstein's 1973 Physical Review D paper "Black holes and entropy" for the answer to my question about Susskind's presentation of the Bekenstein derivation of the formula stating...
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