Friday, 13th o April 2001
I've been listening to Performance Today, a classical music program from NPR, every day for the past two months. There's nothing that I've enjoyed more than my daily dose of classical music, commentary, and history. Today, Fred Child related an interesting footnote to one of Haydn's works. Haydn's newest piece was anticipated with great expectation. His publisher was taking pre-orders on the score while Haydn finished it up. That's where I began to think.
Imagine, no CD's, records, tapes, broadcasts. People (although probably only the wealthier class) actually got all excited about a new score coming out. They went out and bought the paper copy, brought it home, learned, practiced, and played it. That was pretty much the only method of reproduction that existed. If you wanted to hear a performance you'd have to go to one. You as a listener didn't control when and where the performances happened, so if you wanted music on demand, you had to play it.
Contrast this simpler form of music on demand to today's digital streaming, napster, cd's, Direct TV, DVD's etc. These days you have access to thousands of hours of music at the touch of a button, from anywhere, while you're jogging, driving, sitting, or studying. Where are we going? Obviously consumption of music has risen each year since CD's where introduced. Since Napster came along, CD sales have increased over 50%. I'm sure the average music collection of Americans has grown considerably as well, both in pirated and legal works.
I pondered all this while listening to music and enjoying myself. It was easy, I sat there and listened. Imagine how long it would have taken me to write Bach's Passion of Matthew? It's a lot easier to listen to it than to write it, or play it. Playing it would require me to study it, Bach, and other performances by Bach devoteés. I would probably have to learn other pieces by Bach first, study technique, history... wow. That's years of preparation, careful dissection, and practice. It is certainly easier to listen to it.
However, I do so wish that I had the time to learn to perform or write. One day, I keep saying, I will dedicate myself to learning an instrument. I'd like to be able to express myself in music. Sure it is infinitely more work than listening or consuming, but to create something... this is the joy of being human. I add maybe one or two pieces of music to the world, in my own little corner. Maybe just friends and family hear it. Maybe just Laura. Who knows, but it adds a little piece of sustenance to our hungry world. It maybe feeds someone's soul just a bit. No one artist can create the world's repertoire, just as no one can right all the wrongs of the world, feed every starving person, or save all the children. But if we all do a little, take a leap, give of ourselves a bit instead of consuming, eating, stuffing our faces with more and more and more every day, maybe then.
So music is big business there days. "What is going to sell?" the Sony execs ask. Creation is falling on fewer and fewer shoulders all the time. Orchestras around the country have been failing at an alarming rate. Pop music, never a bastion of creative integrity has gone from hiding pre-fabbed bands, keeping the secret that Milli Vanilli didn't actually, write, sing or produce their own songs, to just doing it right there on the TV for millions to see. Who cares if they have talent. They look good, they can dance... the corporate interests will take care of the slick packaging. Isn't it funny that there is more food in America than ever before, but more and more of it is being grown by fewer and fewer people. Is this how the disease, pesticides, and antibiotics have sneaked in? Is anybody at the wheel? Who's driving this bus?
It's all connected. You name it, our military power is being consolidated into fewer and fewer hands. Smart this and smart that. You only need one person these days to take out a city. Take our Government (please); far from the days of grass roots support and involvement, we get all of our information from CNN. Just serve it up steaming hot and we'll suck it down without even a second thought. Does it matter that it's not quality, that it doesn't demand back from you? No, I'd rather just sit here. No wonder America is the fattest country on the planet. Is it also why we're the hungriest as well?
And there I sat. Wasn't it a wonderful dream.
Thursday, 12th o April 2001
Well, we've been in Puerto Rico for almost 3 years now. I wonder if should change the title of this website to say, "What is Jim up to?" I first created it so that people (parents and friends) would know where I was. "Where" isn't as big a deal anymore. "What" is more interesting at least.
I've been consumed with work mostly. Business is going okay... we're running out of money, and things look grim. I believe the long term prospect is very good, but we have to pull off some miracles between now and then. Blah blah blah. Working hard, not doing much else, except...
Being obsessive about classical music. There's this great radio program called Performance Today on National Public Radio. In Puerto Rico, it's broadcast on a dinky little university radio transmitter. I could only pick it up in the car. It's a two hour program, and so I never quite got to listen to very much of it. I sometimes would pull up to an appointment and sit in the car for five or ten minutes while I finished the piece like savoring a nice slice of pie. You always hate to rush it.
It always nagged me, tugged on my self... not a waking moment passed without thinking of a way to hear all of Performance Today. Their commentary, music from around the world, and history lessons are so valuable that even missing a single day is devastating. How to get that program recorded, I pondered.
Okay, first things first. Reception is terrible at our house. I tried small antennas, stringing them around the house, contorting and balancing them trying to find a sweet spot. Sigh, no avail after a few days of fighting, the static still ruined my listening experience.
Meanwhile, I had set up a special program in Linux to record it digitally every day while I was out. At least I could record the program, but it still sounded crappy. Since it was in digital format, I tried cleaning out the pops and static with a little program. It worked, albeit not as well as I would have hoped. The "cleaned" signal was decidedly flatter than the original. No pops, but the experience of sitting in a concert hall just wasn't there. It still bugged me.
Bring in the big guns. I stomped off to Radio Shack one weekend to buy a rooftop antenna. I picked up a nice big one on clearance for 40 bucks. Not bad. Bought mounting hardware, wire, grounding kit etc., loaded it up and motored home. Since I am impatient, and I didn't have time to install it on the roof, I stood it up in the back yard, strung the coax cable through the window and connected it up. I asked Laura to listen in the computer room to see how the music sounded while I stood in the back yard holding this contraption over my head. "How's it sound now?"
"Bad."
"Okay, now?"
"Better."
"Better-fine, or better still bad."
"I don't know, what do you consider good enough?"
I fiddled a bit more
"Oh, stop there, it sounds the best."
Groan. There I was with this thing high above my head contorted, leaning trying to avoid the trees. I placed it down best I could pointed it roughly in the same direction as before and went inside to hear for myself.
"Hey that sounds pretty good. I'll leave it like that for a while."
Saturday, 20th o January 2001
Inauguration day 1993
Inauguration brought back some memories of 1993...
*******flash back flash back flash back******
Inauguration day- Washington D.C. is bustling with activity. 500,000 people cram the streets along the parade route hoping with all hope to get a glimpse of the new president on his way from the Capitol after the official swearing-in. Enter Jim and friend Jim, dressed in class B uniforms, sporting their lieutenant bars, looking good and official, although mostly good. "Think this is a good place to see the President, Jim? " Jim M said, settling into a good vantage point near the parade's start.
"Yeah, but the parade's two hours away, and besides we didn't come here to see him drive away in a bulletproof motorcade. Think we could get through the police line?" We exchanged sly glances, while eyeing each other's uniforms. "We're part of the inaugural committee, right?"
 Up the stairs to the podium |
"And uh, let me introduce you to my wife, Morgan Fairchild." Suffice it to say we decided to bluff our way through the police barricade, where hundreds of people with priceless tickets obtained through contributions to the campaign, were anxiously waiting to see the new president. Confidently striding up to the first police officer we saw, we said with thinly veiled vagueness, "We were sent here by the Aberdeen Proving Ground Inaugural Committee, where do we go?" Of course he had been told no such thing, but how was he to know all the details of the day. He asked us who our point of contact was, and without skipping a beat Jim M came up with, "Mr. Stevens." He then went on to explain Mr. Stevens' position in the Dept. of Defense and our subsequent authorization to attend the inauguration. I even believed him. The policeman passed us off to a policewoman, to whom we shoveled the same excrement.
 Dr. Ruth - "Yes, I vould love to have my peecture taken with two such handsome men!!" |
 Just minutes after the President's Address, there we are. |
After the president left the stand, and the crowd started to clear out, that little devil that had gotten the best of us so far came to bear heavily on our collective shoulder. "Let's try to get up on the podium." This time the police did not even blink as two uniformed personnel walked past. They were too busy trying to stop all the other civilians from getting close to the celebrities and dignitaries. We stood at the podium and surveyed our conquered domain (snicker snicker). "Hey, look it's Dr. Ruth!"
"Where?" I exclaimed in disbelief, "Quit kidding around." I had missed this five foot little sex therapist among the senators and government officials. "Dr. Ruth, Dr. Ruth!" I exclaimed, "I saw you on Quantum Leap last night. You were great."
"Oh thank you. Yes, do you know I was inside his body! " Her wrinkled face and mirthful eyes lit up with sincere appreciation at the comment. Both Jim and I stood beside her and Ex-senator Hubard (ousted in the check writing scandal) snapped the picture.
 And the three bears lived happily ever after |
In the end we stayed and spoke with aids and campaign workers, learning about what people had done for their candidate and what they thought about the new president. They in turn asked us about our thoughts on the military and about gays in the military (a hot topic always). The people I spoke with were well mannered, open-minded, and easy to talk to. It was a day that was a good time on all accounts.
"So Jim, what committee are we going to be on next?"
"Hey we're part of the Ball Committee, right?"
Friday, 19th o January 2001
Took the day off today to hang out with Olaia. She's a real treat. We went and ate pizza for lunch, then browsed clothes (didn't find any cute outfits for her, but I got some new jeans). Then she dragged me into the audio-visual department, took me by the arm and directed me emphatically over the DVD section. "Daddy!" she exclaimed, "Pokemon!!" What a smartie!! She knows what she likes. Next we headed over the commissary to do food shopping. She's in her "What's this?" phase, and I obliged her by trying to tell her what everything was. "That's dog food, Olaia. That's curry powder. That's a toilet brush."
"Toilet brush?" she repeated.
"Yes, toilet brush," I confirmed.
"Oh."
Olaia loves grapes. She calls them uvas (grapes in Spanish), so I got her some red seedless grapes which I placed in the cart. I turned my back for a second and her little hand was stuffing a handful into her mouth. I tried to scold her, but she smiled at me and waited to see if I would laugh... She won the stare-down and I cracked up. She kept this up throughout the store and everyone who saw it busted out laughing.
We came back and she helped me clean the refrigerator, car seats, and set roach traps. But I'll leave that tale for another day, my friends *G*.
Thursday, 18th o January 2001
This little website is turning into a real Jim Portal isn't it? If anybody out there is interested in a personal site just like this one, let me know and I'll set it up. You can automatically generate the photo pages, links (from your Netscape or IE bookmarks) and of course the news portion is automatically driven as well. In addition, I've got a theme system that controls the whole look so that it's consistent across all the areas.
Anyway *G* only reason I'm talking about all this is that it's all I've been working on, programming, and Altamente.com stuff. Could appear on Letterman as "Stupid Linux Tricks". There are so many cool things you can do with Linux. There are so many tools and programs that come with every standard distribution. You can do anything.