42nd Street Pan Flutist

Apparently someone didn't get the memo!

(as seen this past weekend by me in the 42nd Street subway)

In case you were wondering...

Ouch! Sorry pan flautists!

I got this in an email awhile back via ks and thought it was pretty funny. Though really, I think it would have been funnier, and more apt speaking as a composer who is hated by many alto sax players, if the flow chart referred to alto flute instead of pan flute!

While most would be wise to follow this chart's advise, here is one person who can safely rebel:

2009

Photo: John Javellana/Reuters

2009. The Year of the Visionary:

The numerology for 2009 begins with the Master Number 11/2 (2+0+0+9=11 or 2). It's the first 11 year to occur since 1910! Marked by change powered by visionary and humanitarian ideals, the 11/2 Universal Year will crackle with energy. And as long as people remember to occasionally interrupt the flow of inspiration and innovation to actually get things done, 2009 should be a very successful year!

Any time a Master Number is prominent, energies are magnified. And 2009 promises to be momentous, not just for you personally (see details below), but for everyone in the world who lives by the modern calendar.

History lesson
The Apollo 11 mission, which landed the first men on the moon, is a great example of the power of 11/2's visionary focus. Across the globe more people than ever before gathered in front of televisions to share that first step onto the familiar face of the moon, and to see the first whole images of our beautiful planet suspended in space. The whole world was uplifted and changed that day.

This year should be particularly eventful for those of us affected by US President Elect Barak Obama and Vice President Elect Joe Biden who both have 11/2 as their Destiny/Life Path/Power number and take the Oath of Office on a 2 day, January 20, 2009.

Your year
If you want to know what's in store for you this year, just calculate your Destiny/Power/Life Path number by adding together your birth day, month and year until you have either a single digit or the Master Number 11 or 22. For example, for President Elect Obama, born on August 4, 1961, add 8+4+1+9+6+1 = 29 = 2 + 9 = 11/2. It's interesting to note that the influence of 11/2 derived from 29, as in Obama's case, adds leadership ability to 11's defining visionary capacities.

If you're a:

1 - This year should be very entertaining! There will be plenty of exciting and innovative ideas to fuel your busy entrepreneurial nature. If the 11/2 energy occasionally slips into 2's indecisiveness and passivity, when the vision loses focus, you'll get everyone back on track.

2 - The power of this year's master number vibration could make this one of the most important years of your life, and one that could awaken your own inner visionary activist. You're just the person to be sure everyone's getting what they need from the vision.

3 - The visionary and artistic possibilities of 11/2 appeal to you strongly, and your flair for communications and presentation make you a critical member of any team wanting to make an 11/2 vision a reality. And your sense of fun will help keep it light.

4 - You may occasionally worry if people are having too much fun imagining a better future to actually get anything done, but that's the very reason you're so important to the process! Someone has to remind the idea folks of practical realities and keep everyone on task.

5 - Be careful not to get so busy firing terrific ideas back and forth that you forget to actually do something about them! Your job is to inspire others to use this 11/2 year to take the chances that really promise far-reaching rewards.

6 - Your commitment to balance, social responsibility and healing will be fired up this year, and your reliability and tenacity in getting the job done will assure plenty of rewards for both you and the causes that are dear to your heart.

7 - Don't let your passion for contemplation keep you from joining the visionary party this year! You have a lot of insights and innovations to contribute. Just be sure to wrap up each mental journey with an action plan - and then get someone to do it!

8 - This year's big ideas are in need of your drive, ambition and practical efficiency to bring the visions into form. You have the knowledge, connections and skill which are needed to harvest the bright futures that will sprout this year.

9 - You won't have to look far this year to find partners to help you actualize your humanitarian and artistic dreams. There is practically an inexhaustible supply of energy and possibility available all around you -if you've been waiting, now's the time!

11 - This year is so supercharged for 11's that you really need to develop a metaphorical grounding wire for all that electricity. Whether it's a practical person, a meditation, or physical activity, make regular use of that grounding so the rest of us can benefit from your supercharged visions.

22 - What the world needs now are plenty of 22's, the perfect practical, powerful and accomplished actualizers for the year's magical innovations. Even the most unlikely 22's can demonstrate the important skill of leaping into the unknown and landing on your feet.

The challenge for 2009 and the following years will be to assure that real results grow from the influences and your vision of your Master Number.

Taken entirely from CaliforniaPsychics.com.

(My number, as it happens, is 8. Not my favorite number- I prefer 3 or 7 or 11. But I like this forecast for '09 and look forward to making my visions into reality!)

Bottomless Picture of the Day: Orange Mocha Frappuccinos!

I'm not one for political commentary, but I do love Zoolander. So when this image, titled "Sarah who?...we got this!" appeared in my inbox courtesy of my sister, after laughing my ass off, I felt obliged to share.

Enjoy!

No Pants Subway Ride

Today is No Pants Subway Ride day!!!

Organized by Improv Everywhere, this NYC based group frequently "causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places" - over 70 missions to date!

The No Pants Subway Ride is exactly as it sounds. Volunteers meet, board assigned trains, then on cue take off their pants and continue to ride the next couple of trains sans pants. When asked about the bizarre before, they respond with "I was getting a bit uncomfortable" or "Yes, I am a bit cold," or my favorite "I guess I forgot my pants this morning."

Only in New York? Not at all! You can be pantless in Boston, DC, Portland, San Fran, Chicago, Adelaide (Australia), and Toronto!

If you are NYC local, they start at 3:00 today and will be pantless on the 6 train running from the Brooklyn Bridge up to 125th, back down to Union Station.

What to volunteer? Check out their website and the rules first!

Guess the Manor House Girls aren't the only ones who enjoy hanging out sans pants.

Time to finally get that star tattoo...

Which Power Ring would come to you?

You have the ability to instill great love in others.Welcome to the Star Sapphire Corps. Your mission will be explained in detail following your teleportation to sector 1416 and training by the head of our corps, the Zamarons.
Take this quiz!








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Thanks for the link, Ragnell.

Pachelbel Rant

(Thanks, Red!)

Music of the Late Night

Came across this on The New York Toimes and wanted to share it too...

Why I <3 Ethan Iverson

Obviously, Ethan is a phenomenal pianist and The Bad Plus has been rocking my world since I randomly picked These Are The Vistas up off a shelf in Borders back in early 2004. These days I'm equally entertained, and often enlightened, by their blog, Do The Math.

To date, their most recent post, written by Ethan, is having me love him (and the band by association) even more. I'll give you a tease: Dr. Who, and Buffy.

Now to be honest, I've never actually watched Dr. Who, though I am a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Joss Whedon fan. But that doesn't matter as I am completely in awe of anyone (Ethan) who can compose such a LONG correlation between two fictional characters and then post it for the entire internet world to see. Usually, I keep such geek-outs to a quiet closeted whisper with a small, like-minded audience. In addition, Ethan mentioned reading the Whedon penned Buffy: Season 8 comic that I too am collecting!

Ethan, I <3 you like I <3 Joss!

60 Second Rule?

Turns out we have more than the standard 5 seconds to eat our dropped food off the floor!

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Dropping a piece of food on the floor and then picking it up and dining on
it is a germaphobe's nightmare.

Streptococcus. Staphylococcus. E. coli. Oh, my!

But how bad is it?A college professor and her students have challenged the
prevailing wisdom of the so-called 5-second rule, which for generations has
governed how long little morsels can remain on floors uncontaminated.

The window, the Connecticut team has concluded, is really 30 seconds.

...

"The students wanted two different types of food sources: a wet source and
one that was a dry food source, to test any differences," [Anne Bernhard,
assistant professor of biology at Connecticut College in New London] said. "You
would think that a wet food source would be more likely to attract bacteria very
quickly."

Each food item was dropped in triplicate for specific intervals that ranged
from 5 seconds to 5 minutes.

"We did this experiment in the main dining area, and about 2,000 students
traffic through that area," [student Nicole Moin] said Wednesday. "So you'd
think there would be a multitude of bacteria on the floor."

In the first set of tests, moist apple slices were dropped.

And what researchers saw after 5 seconds were pristine morsels. Not until
the 1-minute interval did they find bacteria developing on the apple slices. It
took 5 minutes for organisms to colonize a Skittle.

The conclusion, Bernhard said, is that instead of a 5-second rule for moist
foods that have fallen, the standard should be 30 seconds: As long as you eat a
moist food within 30 seconds of its fall, you're very likely to be in a zone of
safety.

For dry, less porous foods, she added, you might be safe even if you allow
them to stay on the floor for 1 minute.

For the full story, go here.

Monk for the Masses

Some of you have no doubt seen this already, but for those of you who haven't, it's hilarious! It takes about 4 minutes to view, so if you haven't the time, skip ahead to here.

Enjoy!

A Promise Is...

*sigh*... a promise.

ACN recently told me that she's been doing some pencilling. I promised to put up a drawing of mine, if she put up a drawing of hers. Well, she called my bluff and put up a beautiful drawing of Glenn Gould. Go see it, it's good!

Mine, sadly, is not as much. But a promise is a promise, so here I give you, from 1997, (note the torn corner and the Yucca Valley Plumbing stationary!), my interpretation of a John Byrne Wonder Woman:

Beethoven’s Imperial March

Tonight I had a student inform me that Beethoven could have written John William’s Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme) in his sleep. This insightful 5th grader explained that the Imperial March had all the "emotion and feeling of Beethoven’s later works." If Beethoven himself didn’t write it (in his sleep) he most certainly would have approved of it.

As my clarinet student fumbled his way through my hasty transcription, trying to master both the dotted eighths and expression of the “powerful,” “evil,” and “march-like” qualities, no doubt envisioning formations of storm troopers awaiting his command, I was reminded of a similar lecture once received on the brilliance of Darth’s ominous motif.

Anyone that has ever caffeinated through Ed Green’s Film Scoring class at the Manhattan School of Music knows the lecture I refer to. While I will save discussion of the finer points of that class for a forum less public and as easily accessible as the internet, I will share, in a most simplistic form, the one point that stuck with me. Green’s praise lay in that the minor theme continually and repeatedly returned to the tonic, forcing “one” “one” “one” upon the listener, thereby musically reinforcing the totalitarian dictatorship of an evil and selfish egocentricity as one as poor Anakin.

And oh yeah, evil will never triumph over good.

These interpretations were for me, the highlights of that class, and I say that without the sarcasm many might assume.

Regardless, an encouraging thought process for a 10 year old.

Somedays you just really need those directions!

"Drink" by Jennifer Galatioto, used with permission

©Jennifer Galatioto www.galafoto.net

A Good Laugh

As I write this I am high off of my first (well, second now) cup of coffee in forever!

Most people think that marathon runners are crazy. I say the truly crazy ones are the ones who willing purchase pictures of themselves during the marathon. Oh yes, there is this of-the-devil company called MarathonFoto who profits from the documentation of runners' misery and vulnerability in their attempts to cross the finish line. These mean, mean people are staggered stealthily throughout the race course and snap photo after photo of you as you blindly stagger by. Then they charge an obscene amount of money for the purchase of these incriminating pictures. Seriously, I don't know how these people sleep at night!

For a good laugh, go here and check out the look of agony on my face as I plowed through that humbling experience known as the London Marathon.

Saint Ralph

This movie is hilarious. Especially if you grew up catholic and are a runner.

It has nothing to do with music, though musicians may find it inspiring.

Go check it out!