Bel Canto - Anna Moffo

Since I wrote about classical singing in a recent post, one of the most beautiful voice in the classical repretoire is that of Anna Motto. Her recording of Rachmaninov's Vocalise is an exemplary bel canto.

A PayPal Phish Mail

Some idiot tried to spoof me today with a phony PayPal account verification notice. I tracked him back to his ISP and notified PayPal. PayPal is now investigating the incident.

On This Presidents Day

The liberals (mostly white intelligensia) of this country, namely the main stream media, Democrats, and academia, will unfailingly vilify these two "dead old white men" every year on this day. I, for one, won't let them dominate this day with their diatribe on these two presidents.

I want to note on this day how the characters of these two great Americans were evident in their words. Below are excerpts of words written and spoken by both Presidents Washington and Lincoln, respectively, at an opposite juncture of their public life.

In the letter to the governors of 13 states, George Washington expressing his retirement from the command of the Continental Army and public life, herein is Washington's final paragraph contains the words of his benediction:

I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation.

On his departure to Washington DC to assume the first term of his presidency, Abraham Lincoln said farewell to his hometown folks on 11 February, 1861. He spoke these famous, heartfelt words as he boarded a special presidential train at the Great Western Railroad station at Springfield, Illinois. Unknown to him then, Lincoln would see this depot for the last time. Fate led him into the bloodiest chapter of the American history where many thousands died, including Lincoln himself.

My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.

If it weren't for this two God revered men, there wouldn't be a United States as we know, love, and be proud of today. This-country-is-always-at-fault elitists should immigrate to Canada or to the EU and take the UN with them. There, they can break bread with the Islamic radicals and sing "We Are the World" with the socialistic technocrats.

Others have been thankful and blessd these United States. We Americans should bless God for all that He has done for this country.

Diamond Is Not a Girl's Best Friend

This is a follow-up to my January blog regarding Diamond the Underdog. I hope this is the last entry on this pup.

Thus far in February, there is no sight nor sound of Diamond. It appears Natalie, has had enough of this canine as well. This high-engergy pup and a lesser seen Great Dane have now been dispatched back to the adoption center.

Sorry to say I have not had the occasion to deploy the training method I'd devised for Diamond. Now we are back to the Three-Dog Night with Max, Bear, and Cody.

Which Church to Go

A collegiate age friend of my is in the process of moving from one state to another and he will be looking for a new church home. He has been told God has a special church for him, and by attending this or that church is wrong. I wrote the following letter to him on 1 February, 2005.

Dear Texas:

Any Christ centered church is okay to attend. Over the years I have lived in several cities: I have attended Baptist, Prebytarian, and Covenant chuches. Because they "felt" right and I had a part in these church.

But let me share with you this thought:

It is not so much what the church can do for you, but what you can do for God and His church.

The great ends of God's church (doesn't matter which denomination) are:

1. to proclaim the gospel for the salvation of mankind
2. to shelter, nurture, and spiritually fellowship with the childrens of God
3. to maintain divine worship
4. to preserve the truth
5. to promote social righteousness, and
6. to exhibit the Kingdom of Heaven to the world

Keep these guidelines in mind as you worship and participate in your church. God does not appoint or demand you and I to attend a "physical" church of this one or that one.

Churches should have small groups or fellowships for different ages. It's important for you to find a college-career fellowship in your church. University town churches have very exciting young adult groups for nurturing, fellowship, and worshiping together...

Prelude to the Afternoon of Furniture Music

Dear Hythlodaeus:

When Brahms, the last bastion of the Romantic composers died in 1897, the twentieth century ushered in the neo-classicists. There is no more periods or style of composition. If anything, it's every composer for himself. So then, it's neither here or there between Satie and Debussy.

When push comes to shove, I admnit I am more of a Satie enthusiast than Debussy.

I listen to Satie and Debussy pieces, among others, when:
1) I am reading in the wee hours of the morning
2) I am writing in the wee hours of the morning
3) I am dozing off on a lazy summer afternoon, and when
4) I am flitting about indoor on a dark and stormy day

If you'd like Deodato's jazz arrangement of Claude's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun," drop me a note.

I'll also send you Charlotte Church's vocals on Satie's Gymnopedie No. 1. By the way, she will turn 19 on 21 February. Her recordings do not appeal to me for three reasons. Most important, her voice has yet to mature. It sounds thin and shrill. This deficit is evident in her phrasing and breathing techniques. And finally, she wants to do both classical and pop vocals at the same time. This youthful ambition dilutes her attention and focus toward perfecting the proper classical singing fundamentals. But then, others like her recordings. Perhaps you do also.

On the side-bar, click on Satie's link and listen on-line to 17 of his furniture music of sorts. At the site, open the playlist and click on any track you like to listen. There are also Repeat and Random play options.

It Had to Be a First

Call it what you will. Late winter rain or pre-spring shower. Either way, it was a wet day in California. Today was also a day set aside for a family dinner.

The 90 plus mile trek to San Francisco on a stormy day was remarkably uneventful. It got interesting after meeting up with Brother Sam and the rest of the clan at mother's place. Mother lives in a nice neighborhood in the Richmond District.

Brother Sam: We are going to a new seafood restaurant for dinner this time.
Moi: We are not going to our favorite restaurant overat Sunset?
(The Sunset District is on the other side of the Golden Gate Park)

Brother Sam: This new place is just a few blocks away on Balboa & 4th Avenue.
Moi: You going to drive?

Brother Sam: You are. You let us off at the restaurant and park back here at the house.
Moi: ?

Brother Sam: Parking spaces are next to impossible around that area. Besides, it's not that far a walk from here. ('Here' refers to mother's place at 7th Avenue).

It took a few minutes of driving time from mommie dearest to the Shelter Cove Restaurant. After depositing the clan, I drove back to mother's place and parked the car in the driveway. Then I walked the 0.7 mile back to the restaurant. It took about 10 minutes. Good thing it stopped raining during this interesting excerise. The brisk walk was good for the appetite though.

After a sumptuous sea food dinner, I walked 'home' to pick up the car and drove back to the restaurant and ferried the clan back.

Driving and walking 2.8 and 1.4 miles roundtrip, respectively, to the same dinner was the strangest outing ever for me. It had to be a first in a dining experience.

The Classical 88

A friend and I exchanged email about classical pianists this evening. How refreshing. We talked about the nocturnes of John Field and Frédéric Chopin. We even touched on Schumann's "Scene from Childhood."

Once More, With Feeling

Doing all sorts of testings and resetting among the computers and getting them to behave consistently, I am beginning to feel like Yul Brenner. Brenner played a tempermental orchestral conductor in the 1960 film "Once More, With Feeling."

As of this update, every computer is now in sync with the same internet connectivity output. All of them are NOW ACCESSING Yahoo and Hotmail. Other sites, too, are coming up correctly.

What's happened and how things are back to normal with these internet connections are a mystery.

I don't know how far my euphoria with this latest fix, if one can call it that, will last. Maybe I should have my head shaved like Yul, so I don't have hair to pull on when my systems go bonkers next time.

Back to Square One

Everything internet is back to the "weird" state again.

Yahoo is not working. MSN note working. It seems more sites are being affected by something. This non-connectivety looks "random." Then again, it might not.

My laptop has been reserved as a backup system. It's seldom used. Therefore, the possibility of it getting a malware in recent dates is nil. Yet it behaves the same as the other two affected desktop systems when it goes wireless.

Plan B - an iPAQ WLAN will connect to all sites.

Plan C - a separate ISP dial-up on the laptop will connect to all sites.

This Is Getting Interestinger and Interestinger

To paraphrase Alice, so to speak...

As of this moment, Yahoo just returned to normalcy. All Yahoo sites are now working on the two PCs and laptop. Perhaps it's "cure" had something to do with my call to my DSL tech support. By the way, I did ping Yahoo while talking to those tech guys. No packets were dropped.

As for Hotmail-MSN, the ping went nowhere. It timed out.

The Game is Afoot, Shawn

So far, my deep scanning the PCs for viruses using Trend Micro and yields nothing. Spyware scanning also comes up blank. And yet, all of the systems are not accessing the Yahoo nor MSN-Hotmail pages. Some other websites, such as Amazon, the images are not loading and yet the navigations work fine.

My talking to my DSL provider went nowhere. They "insisted" my system(s) were infected with spyware or malware.

The hunt goes on...

Small Wonder

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." -- Hamlet (Act I, Scene iv)

And I must add MSN and Yahoo to the rotten state of things.

For some reason, all of my home desktop lost connections to MSN and Yahoo servers three days ago. I still cannot get to the services at either of these two providers. My search on the net revealed I wasn't the only one who lost email services, among other things, with MSN and Yahoo.

My wireless handheld iPAQ is the only system that could connect to either of these internet providers. It is the small wonder that could. What irony.

春 Spring - Chinese New Year

Punxsutawney Phil's shadow notwithstanding, 9 February is the Chinese Year. The year of the Rooster. The new year marks the beginning of Spring. To all my Chinese friends, "A Happy New Year!"

Les parapluies de Cherbourg

The Love Scene from 'Les parapulies de Cherbourg'

If you'd like to have the following three three Michel Legrand compositions, email me. Restrictions applied.

1. OST Les parapluies de Cherbourg - Je Ne Pourrai Jamais Vivere Sans Toi

2. Michel Legrand Piano Trio - Je Ne Pourrai Jamais Vivere Sans Toi

3. Tony Bennett - Watch What Happens

Lt. Col. Tate with Col. Ali

Here are three recent pictures of Lt. Col. Tate from our department serving in Iraq. She had pictures taken with the media celebrities Geraldo Rivera (Fox) and Dan Rather (CBS). The third photo, she and an Iraqi Air Force Col. Ali,her counterpart. He gave our colonel a rappa (head dress) as a gift.

The colonel's sister sent her a keyboard. She plays for Sunday morning service. With no days off, long hours, and mortars falling like raindrops, church worship has been specially soothing and strengthening for the colonel.

Lt. Col. Tate with Dan Rather

Lt. Col. Tate with Geraldo Rivera