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Tapas #6: Bass & Piano with Prelude Fantasia

Nice pompous title this week for my little piece of music.  Funny I was just listening to the fantastic "Benedictus" from Mozart's Mass in C Minor and this piece, um, suffers in comparison.  Mine is a lean-to fashioned out of two-by-fours and rough nails, while Mozart's piece is a cathedral.  But hey, that's one of the reason I like playing around with music -- it sharpens my appreciation and enjoyment for others' music -- not just Bach and Mozart, but AC/DC, the Red Hot Chile Peppers, the Buena Vista Social Club and everything else that sounds good to me.

On the other hand, I figure at least I'm making these myself and not pounding away at other people's compositions with far better technical skills but zero creativity.  It's the human, personal element that matters and not the polish.  A cliche but I don't care.  A bunch of bad $100 million movies and its the small indie film with the good plot and characters -- Little Miss Sunshine, say -- that lights up people's life.  A million slick corporate music videos and it's some high school kid from New Jersey sitting in front of his computer -- and capturing something essential about the exuberance and joy that music can bring us -- that becomes the second most-watched video of all time online.  And I listen to hours of finely honed classical recordings by professionals and yet there's still something about a Bach performance by a high school chorus (click on Domine Deus) that beats half of them with its humble magic.

I just love our country and how it's filled with crazy nuts doing crazy nutty things and not taking themselves too seriously.  God bless Gary Brolsma and all the people posting goofy spoken word poetry videos and goofy music and yelling about this and that opinion and all the rest.  That's what life's all about, man.  It's fun to be part of it.

Jay Stanley - Bass & Piano With Prelude Fantasia.mp3 (256k, 2:05, 3.9 megs)

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Tapas #5: Mile Ten

Here is a little piece that I made up last week. Made me think of the pleasures of a long run, so I named it "Mile Ten."

Download Mile Ten (MP3, 256k, 0:48, 1.5 megs,)

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9500 Americans choose a president

As a followup to my post on the circular & nonlinear nature of the election campaigns, I think we can now safely say that the Democratic primary has tipped.  Obama won the Democratic caucuses in Iowa by 8 percentage points.  If he had gotten 4 percent fewer, and Edwards 4 percent more, it would have been a tie.  Democratic turnout was reportedly about 239,000 in Iowa.  That means that just 9,500 voters made Obama the winner.  And now the money is sloshing his way.  And the pack journalists are mobbing in his direction.  And the voters are following. 

I'm a little amazed at all the hype over the Obama candidacy -- it's just so comletely devoid of any content.  It's a reflection of the poverty of our political public discourse.  As I said in my earlier take on the race, I just wish I had more assurance he was a real progressive.  On the other hand, if he is a progressive, then if he can get away with vague platitudes I'll gladly take whatever works politically.  Even though I think Edwards's populist message would be stronger in the general election.

In any case, for better or worse I do think Obama's now the Democratic nominee.  He's going to win New Hampshire tomorrow, and then South Carolina, and then comes what is practically a national primary on Super Tuesday, where most of what most of the voters will have heard about the candidates will be through the coverage of Iowa, NH, and SC. 

My current prediction for the winner of the GOP race is McCain.  I think he's the biggest threat to the Dems, and I would be happy to see Giuliani or Huckabee or Romney get the nomination because I think they're  more likely to lose, but I think even McCain will ultimately lose to Obama.