Three Days of the Camellia

Perhaps Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway would appreciate this Camellia's effort toward stardom.

Home Garden Pictures (iPhone 5s Camera)

Renata Scotto's Birthday

Renata Scotto
Operatic soprano and director
born 24 February 1934
The MP3 below expired on 03-01-2014.
Click here to play the current selection.

Renata Scotto (1988)
- Un bel di from 'Madama Butterfly'
(Puccini)

Signs of Spring 2014

Presidents Day 2014

A painting on a friend's family room wall.
Something Democrats might not like to see. Too Bad.

YouTube Blocks My Valentine Day Video

YouTube has effectively globally blocked my latest posted Valentine video because of copyright infringement. My owning the Hyperion CD -recordings of some Henry Purcell's works-matters not to them.

This is the first shot across the bow to say I couldn't do what I have been doing. Therefore, the Valentine Day YouTube, "If Music Is the Food of Love", is deleted from YouTube.

I probably won't be posting music videos to YouTube with music CD made and released by Hyperion.


- a L'envoi iPad 3 post
Zaggfolio augmented

See The Mountains Kiss High Heaven

"See the mountains kiss high heaven
   And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
   If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth
   And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What is all this sweet work worth
   If thou kiss not me?"
  - from "Love's Philosophy", Percy Bysshe Shelley

Schubert's Birthday Anniversary, 2014

Yesterday, 31 January, was Franz Schubert's birthday. His came at the heel of Mozart's birthday which was on 27 January. The latter cast a long shadow on those classical composers following his lead. Mozart, being one of three immortals of the classical music world (JS Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven), I decided to postpone Schubert's birthday anniversary music one more day until today, 1 February.

As a special treat to Schubert's fan, I posted a MP3 of Melachrino's Schubert's 'Serenade'. Its orchestration is sandwiched in between 'Serenade in Blue'; a very popular 20th century piece.

If you are using an iOS device such as the iPad or iPhone, when the QuickTime player screen opens and covers the link and its background picture, just pinch-in the player to see the post.

Click on the lick below and enjoy the music.

Franz Peter Schubert
Austrian-born Classical Music Composer
(31 January 1797 – 19 November 19 1828)

This MP3 post has expired.
Click here to play the current selection.

George Melachrino and His Orchestra (1961)
- Serenade in Blue and Schubert Serenade (Warren & Schubert)

Chinese New Year, 31 January 2014

Year of the Horse

Mozart's Birthday Anniversary

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791)
The MP3 below expired on 02-01-2014.
Click here to play the current selection.

Mantovani and His Orchestra (1955)
- Minuet from Divertimento in D, K.334 (Mozart)

Preparing for the End of Windows XP Support

For those of us who are still using the Windows XP platform, the days are numbered. This time it is for real. Come April, Microsoft will no longer provide supports and monthly security updates to this dated desktop/laptop operating system. This is fine by me. By and large, I am leaving much of the weighty computers tethered to the AC outlets and all things Windows PC.

Over the last few years, I have been amassing all variants of the Apple iOS devices. With one or more in each of iPod, iPhone, and iPad. With the exception of old iPods, all other iOS devices I have are retina display systems installed with iOS 7. The newest addition to my collection is the iPad Mini with Retina display.

All home-computing and Internet access can now be done on the iOS devices 98% of the time.

These devices are tasked to:

1. manage files - creating, renaming, moving, deleting files and folders. Zipping and unzipping (including .rar) files with password protection.

2. launch internal URL schemes - for essential app actions by function or app category.

3. serve as WebDav servers - on the home network. One of the 60 Gb iPods is designated as a primary WebDav servers.

4. by-pass iTunes syncing - books and music can be loaded directly into the iOS gadgets from the cloud. Correspondingly, files can be deleted on the devices with swipes.

5. accessing the cloud - for storing, viewing, sharing, and editing common productivity app extensions created using, say, free Microsoft Office 2010 suite, or the Apple Numbers and Pages that came with iPhone 5s and the mini iPad-Retina . Media files can now be streamed, shared, or downloaded to one or more iOS devices concurrently. PDF can be annotated, highlighted, and shared as well. Desktop iTunes syncing one device at a time is no longer needed or required.

Not quite as the fate befallen the Maytag Man, the XP systems are still being used to do three things, though not exclusively:

1) iTunes app backups (for faster restoration if the need should arise), and profile management,

2) in-depth account updates -as still are required by some firms to do on the computer- for profile, payment methods, labeling and filters management, and

3) tax preparation with deductions


Strategically, I am migrating away from the stodgy Microsoft products to Apple-ware. Windows operating systems of any sorts are not in plan. What has been accomplished thus far with the Apple mobile devices sets the stage for the second phase of the plan - Macs.


- a L'envoi iPad 3 post
Zaggfolio augmented