Music and Culture

I love Rock Band. Some might even say that I'm obsessed with pretending to be a guitarist or drummer and "playing" those little plastic instruments. Even so, I love it, and part of the reason is the continued stream of extra songs that have been released. While not all have been to my taste, enough have been that I've had plenty of interesting new songs to "play" over the past six months.

Some of these new songs set my brain a-pondering. Last week the game released in Europe, primarily in the UK, France, and Germany. To give music fans overseas some localized flavor, they added 9 songs to the core game, some English, some German, and some French. To even things up across the pond, all 9 songs were released for download here in America.

Now I suppose I'm at a bit of an advantage, I've traveled a lot. I've seen music TV in France, Germany, and Japan. I've been exposed, primarily through my sister, to a wide variety of international music, and I've come to appreciate and even love bands that don't share my mother tongue.

So I was thrilled to see the release of one of my favorite songs, Hier Kommt Alex by German punk rockers Die Toten Hosen, for play on Rock Band. However, my joy was dampened when I was reading comments on Youtube (not exactly the location of American Intelligentsia I'll admit) decrying the release of non English language songs as a 'waste'.

It got me thinking about how American Pop-Culture has literally taken over the world, but with rare exceptions (Anime and Manga), the world's pop-culture rarely makes so much as a dent over here. Certainly we see this effect in the area of film too, where we see successful foreign films remade, rather than simply released into theaters. It is as if we cannot accept foreign actors, or indeed, foreign singers, when really a good dose of the new and different could provide quite the shot in the arm for both the film industry and the rapidly flagging music industry.

That brings another point the fore, the availability of foreign music. You'd think, in the age of the internet, that one could easily acquire any imported bit of music that one would wish, but that is manifestly not so. On the rare occasion that Amazon stocks import discs, they are invariably quite expensive and as for i-tunes, good luck! One of the recently released Rock Band tracks caught my ear, and I went onto i-tunes to see bout downloading it, and while I did find two of the band's albums, which is more than I can say for Die Toten Hosen, the studio version of the song I wanted as missing in action, as was their entire first album. Indeed, the controversial metal outfit Rammstein, who probably have seen the most state-side success of any German act, has a mere two of their five studio albums available for download on i-tunes.

At a time when illegal downloading is enemy number one to the record labels it would seem to make sense to make music as available as possible, but I guess as we see by the You-tube comments, there simply is no money in it. Alas.

Simon Winchester

I am an avowed fan of the non-fiction author Simon Winchester, having quite favorably reviewed two of his books on this very blog. (Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded and The Map that Changed the World) I have also read and enjoyed his book on the San Francisco Earthquake, The Crack at the Edge of the World and one of his two works on the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, The Professor and the Madman. Winchester is a true lover of knowledge, his books are impeccably researched, and he loves to share the fruits of that research with the reader. He litters his books with little nuggets and asides, so that a book nominally about geology could include bits and pieces about history, food, biology, economics, personalities, or any other little tidbit he turned up in his research.

Being an avowed fan of his work, I was very lucky indeed to have been browsing at The Tattered Cover today during lunch. For those not familiar with Denver, The Tattered Cover is our premier independent bookstore and often hosts book readings and signings. In my lunch time sojourn I learned that not only did Winchester have a new book out, The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom , but he was to give a presentation about the book, and sign copies this very evening.

I have of course recently come from the event, and I have to say that Mr. Winchester is just as learned and personable in the flesh as he is on the page. His presentation shared much with his writing, as no tangent was was left untrod, and he peppered his look at the long and varied life of Cambridge professor Joseph Needham with dozens of excellent anecdotes. I have my signed copy just waiting to be devoured, so I suppose I'm lucky that the weekend is nigh. I suppose I will have to review it here after I am done!

Brunelleschi's Dome

There is a genre of books that I call "short and sweet nonfiction." Rather than the 1,000 page exhaustive look at a subject, these little tomes take a subject and dissect it in nice, easily readable couple hundred pages. One excellent example of this style is Longitude by Dava Sobel, which I recall favorably reviewing some time ago.

The latest of these that I have had the pleasure reading is Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King. This 167 page look at how Fillipo Brunelleschi created the vast dome of the cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence is excellent.

I've always known that The Duomo was a famous building, and indeed it's hard to find a photo of Florence that doesn't include the iconic dome towering over the city. What I didn't know was that it remains the largest masonry dome in the world. Even domes built later, like St. Peter's in the Vatican, or even the U.S. Capital building, are not as large as Brunelleschi's effort.

Not only did Fillipo build the largest dome the world has ever seen, he built it in a most unorthodox way, without the supporting wooden centering that had long been used in cathedral construction. He used a multitude of breakthroughs to achieve this, including new construction techniques, and a multitude of radical machines that made everything about the building of the cathedral revolutionary. Indeed, so successful where his hoist and crane designs, and his rules against the masons drinking wine during their lunch, that only one man died during the 16 year construction of the dome. For any major construction project, even today, that is amazing. After all, 112 people died during the building of Hoover Dam!

Anybody interested in history, art, architecture, cathedrals, or the Renaissance will devour Brunelleschi's Dome. I loved the book, and it has made me very excited for my upcoming excursion to Italy, as I will get to see (and photograph) the whole massive dome for myself!

Rockies 4 Cardinals 3, or "Why you don't leave in the 6th Inning"

I have not been to a baseball game in years. Many years. So, when I won tickets to a Colorado Rockies game at work, I was pretty thrilled. It was about time for me to check out a professional sports game again, and free is such an agreeable price. I got to head over to Coors Field with the my three other lucky co-workers, and my first rude awakening were the seats. I knew that the semi-mythical cheap seats "rock pile" existed, but had never had the pleasure of sitting in these literal nose bleed seats.

I've been thinking about getting my glasses replaced, and after squinting at the tiny players, I really do believe it is time. I had to strain to make out what the score was! Of course, since the score was a solid 3-0 against the home team, it was kind of nice that I couldn't see the scoreboard very clearly.



While the company was pleasant, the group of screaming and yelling 6-year olds above us less so. My ears were ringing worse than a rock concert! I'll admit I was a bit shocked at their behavior, and this is coming from a person who taught English to a couple of really crazy kids. The children were running around, yelling, shouting, jumping up and down, and generally being very loud, and super obnoxious. We just couldn't believe that the chaperons made no attempt to quite these kids down, or to discipline them in the slightest.

With the Rockies stinking up the diamond, and the kids stinking up the stands, we made our exit around the end of the 6th inning. I came home, fully expecting to blog about another pathetic loss at Coors Field only to check the score and see a miraculous comeback with four runs scored in the eighth inning.

Oops.

Well, at least the night wasn't a total wash, I did get a nice panorama of the stadium, and while we were walking around downtown, my little group saw the coolest Jeep, painted up like the jeeps in Jurassic Park!

Golden Gate State Park

As the days (slowly) get warmer, my excursions to the trails that snake around the Rocky Mountains are becoming more frequent. A recent Sunday journey to Golden Gate State Park was a perfect expedition, as the park is both close to Denver and lies at a relatively low altitude. The upper peaks are still under a fair amount of snow, and we want to go hiking, not snowshoeing.



Ironically we were on the same trail that my father and I tackled some weeks back when it was still covered in over a foot of snow. Much of that is gone, though the shady patches still bore the mark of winter. We even encountered a group of melted out snow caves about half way up the trail. While it may seem counterintuitive, a snow cave really is the best place to spend the night outside during the winter.



At the end of the trail is Frazer Meadow, the location of an old homestead from the late 1800's. The ruins of Mr. Frazer's cabin and barn are complemented by a plaque detailing a bit about his life, and his unfortunate death in an accident involving a wagon load of logs and his head.



Speaking of heads, while hiking up the trail we caught a glimpse of a hawk skedaddling out of our way, and sure enough right by the trail was the remains of his lunch. A flicker was lying in some trees surrounded by his own feathers, and missing his noggin! On our way back down after our own repast we discovered at the crime scene that the body was missing. The hawk had come back for the rest of his meal. Certainly an interesting encounter, not something you would see in Downtown Denver! But I'll admit, I can't wait until the higher elevations become available...

Europe!

One of the perks of working at a travel company is the chance to travel, and my first such chance is coming up this July. The bosses are sending me on a tour to get a first hand glimpse at how our educational tours run. I'll get the opportunity to experience England, Ireland and Wales with a group of American High School Students. I'm pretty excited, both because this will be my first trip back to Europe in over three and a half years and because I'll get to revisit Ireland, which was my first ever overseas destination. It's been eight years since I first set foot on Non-North American Soil, and that trip changed my life. This trip gives me the chance to relive it, and hopefully the chance to help a few high-schoolers experience the best parts of international travel for themselves.

After the tour is over, I'm taking some time off of work and heading to Italy. Being that the tour is to countries I have already visited, I figured that I should take this opportunity and visit a place that I have never been to. I'll fly into Rome, and then work my way north, through Florence and then to Venice. Just typing the names of such storied cities gives me a thrill, July cannot come fast enough. Of course, planning a trip is almost (almost!) more fun than taking it, and I'm sure the next couple of months will fly by.

Another great part about this will be the opportunity for me to unleash my Nikon over in Europe. While I do have some very nice photos from past trips across the pond, I don't have any digital pictures. Also, I have learned so much about photography over the last few years, that I imagine I can return with some amazing shots.

2 months and counting...

Trains Redux

Here we have a selection from the Colorado Railroad Museum that have bee tweaked a little bit more. Gone are simple saturation or contrast adjustments, these images are demonstrably different. The black and white conversion especially enhances the old trains, or in this case, an old snowplow.



I really like this one, I desaturated most of the other colors, leaving just enough blue to faintly color the sky and the logo.



This example of 1800's advertising was just too 'good' to pass up!





Another selective desaturation, I enjoy setting of the bright red of the caboose.



This one doesn't seem very modified, but I actually cropped it rather severely. Won't be able to print it at 18 x 20, but the composition is much better this way.

Is nothing sacred?

"Seven Samurai" will start shooting in the fourth quarter for release in 2009. The cast will feature American, European and Asian stars, and a director is in advanced talks with TWC.

I understand that American's dislike watching subtitled movies. And I understand that classic movie remakes are a Hollywood cash cow. It seem to me, though, that some movies are beyond that. Nobody can remake Citizen Kane, or Casablanca, and NOBODY can remake a Kurosawa movie. While Seven Samurai has been re-imagined and mined for inspiration dozens of time, it has avoided a direct remake so far. It looks like that has changed...

Colorado Railroad Museum

Nestled between North and South Table Mountains west of Denver is the Colorado Railroad Museum. With a collection of dozens of examples of locomotives and rolling stock, it offers a record of Colorado's rich railroading history. It is also a magnet for young boys. We have a photo of me from a very, very long time ago running through a narrow-gauge caboose with a truly amazing grin.



It had been quite a while since I had last visited the museum, so on a lazy Sunday afternoon, my sister and I decided to drop in on the relics. I must say, the place seemed quite a bit smaller than it was all those years ago.



I had a great time strolling down memory lane, and the bright colors made for a fun few hours of photographs. My poor sister had less of a great time, though she certainly enjoyed herself, waiting for an ex-train obsessed currently photography obsessed sibling probably wasn't what she had expected.



I'll admit, I'm pretty happy with a lot of the shots I got, though my capture of the Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog train could have been better. You can't really see that the whole locomotive was built at an angle to allow it to stay even while crawling up the steep tracks on Pike's Peak.



It seems that every day I learn something new, either about my two year old camera or some of the software I use to post-process. I'll admit, especially now that I have Lightroom, I do a lot more post work that I have in the past. While I still work hard to get a great shot right out of the camera, the tools that I have, especially when I shoot in RAW format, are just too compelling to pass up. Almost all of the shots have seem a little bit of manipulation, though I have a few coming later in the week that have seen a lot more...

The Paintmines- Changed

I've been having a lot of fun lately with black and white conversions in Lightroom. The power and control over the image is really unprecedented, but I guess that goes with digital manipulation in general.





I decided to also go a little crazy with some of my manipulation, taking the otherworldly rock formations... and making them look literally otherworldly!

The Paintmines

Luckily for me some warm and sunny weather on Saturday perfectly coincided with a burning desire to get out and about and "do something." I had been pondering an excursion to the Paint Mines park, east of Colorado Springs. The trip ended up being about a 100 mile drive, which wasn't so bad, but was a lot further than I had anticipated.



Friday afternoon I had mentioned my ideas to a coworker of mine who hadn't been hiking in a while and who was pretty interested in the journey as she hadn't been anywhere near Colorado Springs before.



Despite a few missteps on the way, we eventually pulled into the park. The parking lot was less than interesting, and the flat, unending plains had me wondering just why I had dragged poor Cristian all the way out to this desolate section of Colorado.



Luckily, a few minutes on the trail brought us to the spectacular geology that gave the area its name. The brightly colored and strangely contoured layers of clay have seen use by humans for thousands of years. Early hunter gathers used the clay from these beds to make pots.



The shapes that wind and water have crafted here look otherworldly and utterly unlike a lot of Colorado geology. Even the material is different. Being so far out on the plains, the rocks that we usually see, like the fountain formation of Roxborough and the Garden of the Gods or the rugged granite of Pikes Peak, are buried beneath thousands of feet of sediment and tens of millions of years of geologic history.



I had a lot of fun cleaning up these pictures in Lightroom, which I continue to find new uses for as I uncover more of its photo fixing powers. I also had some fun setting a few of the sliders to "max" and created a couple of truly otherworldy pictures that I'll share later in the week.

Around the Fire

Late in March my co-worker Todd invited the office over to his house for a home-cooked medley of Thai dishes. Never one to turn down good food, I instantly accepted.



Interestingly enough, while the games and food were certainly hits, the true centerpiece of the evening was the fire he had set up in a grate in the backyard. We don't often get the chance to sit around a fire very often, and all the city dwellers took to it with abandon!



It helped that it was a mid-March evening, and quickly became rather chilly once the sun had set. But I'll admit that I think that there is something more than mere continence to the fire's popularity. Something about the cheery snap and warm glow of a camp fire just makes people comfortable, and encourages us to gather around and share tales deep into the night!







On a more technical note, I had some fun varying the shutter speed with the flames. I really like the freeze frame better, as that offers a glimpse of the flames that we don't often see, but the longer exposure makes it seem more like a hungry beast than a pleasant little backyard campfire.

Around Town

Lately the weather has been in the middle of that strange mix between winter and spring. Drizzly days of cold rain are interspersed with days of glorious sun and slushy snow.



I really can't wait till Summer.

But with the general improvement of the weather, I have been trying to get out and about more. Even if it's just a walk around Washington Park, getting my lazy arse out of my apartment is always for the better.



And of course, taking any opportunity to get an interesting photo, though I'll admit that of late I haven't been feeling terribly inspired, I'm hoping that as the days get longer I'll get some nice sunset shots as I get off of work, at 7:30. We shall see.

Speaking of inspired, Nikon has been refreshing their camera body lines lately, and I DID just receive a bonus...

Workin' hard or hardly workin?

Most days, I enjoy my job. Usually this is not something that can be said about manning a phone bank. However, I really enjoy talking about travel all day long. From sharing my own stories about places I've visited to answering more technical questions (just what is the weight limit on a Ryan-Air flight? How do you go about updating your passport when you get married?) to just listening to super excited 14 year olds, sometimes I'm surprised they pay me to do this!

Of course sometimes its not so rosy. I can handle angry people, that's no problem. I can explain policy, pick apart a bill, or calm a worried parent. The people I have trouble with are the ones who have no relation to reality. Take the last call I had tonight. We managed to get somebody a place on a tour that left for Europe in a little over 12 hours. Yeah, you read that right, a little over 12 hours. Considering most people who travel with my company plan over a year in advance, this sort of thing practically defines the term "bending the rules." So we made a huge exception, and what does this lady do? She uses a 2 year old price quote to haggle. She wanted it to be cheaper. As if! Has she seen what happened to the dollar vs the euro over the past two years?

Really the hardest part of this job is talking to all the people who are so excited to be traveling, while I sit here stuck in Denver! It doesn't help that I keep having Japan Flashbacks which just make me want to belly up to a yakitori joint and order a draft Asahi...

Rock Band Really Can Teach You Music

http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30001

Follow this link for videos of a gentleman who is using the Rock Band video game to play the drums. And no, not the little plastic drums that come with the game but THE DRUMS. It really is pretty cool how close the games "Expert" drum tracks come to the real thing. Now if only I knew somebody with a drum kit..

St. Patricks Week

St. Patricks Day came early for me, as my second favorite Irish-Punk band, The Dropkick Murphy's, were in town a little while back. My friend Patrick and I went to the show and were blown away by the energy on stage. While I would still say that Flogging Molly put on a better show back in December, Dropkick was also amazing.

In other Irish related news, the Rev. Ian Paisley stepped down from his post as First Minister in Northern Ireland. For those who don't know, Paisley was, and still is, a rather reprehensible man. A champion of the Unionist cause, the venom he spewed about reunification, and Catholics in general is legendary. His trademark was saying "No!" No to compromise, no to civil rights for Catholics, and no to anything he didn't agree with. Few can be said to have been so hateful, and yet still manage a long and successful career in politics.

Sun and Snow

Spring is certainly inching its way into Colorado, and a couple of weeks ago we had the first really warm day since last fall. Dad and I, and most of Denver, took that as an opportunity to spend some time outside. While a lot of places close to town were jammed with hikers, bikers, horse back riders, and fisherman, we found a nice open space park that was just a little further away.



There was still some old snow on the ground but the clear blue sky and toasty temperatures were enough of a motivation to hike up the side of the hills. Being that it was our first hike of the season, we didn't make it much more than a couple of miles, but that was enough for us. Longer hikes up taller mountains await in our future, but for now this was perfect!



I've also been spending some more time with Lightroom, and in this case I've been playing around with the grayscale manipulation. The amount of control you have over black and white photographs in Lightroom is truly amazing, I really am loving this program.



The next day was a complete reversal of our sunny Saturday. Sunday was cold, snowy, and rather miserable. So of course my dad invited me to go hiking again, and of course I said yes! While it was pretty chilly, and while hiking through a foot of fresh snow was difficult, we really did have a fantastic time. Part of the reason people go into the wilderness is to be alone, to be away from the city and all the people. Being the first people up a trail after a snow storm is the definition of alone. We broke the trail through the virgin snow. With the softly falling snow, it seemed as if we were utterly alone. In a good way. Though, once we got home it was nice to warm up!