Μαρία Κάλλας.

Sometimes,

there is no need to translate when a name has become world famous like the one of Maria Callas.

The time will shortly come for the completion of the 30 years without the most famous Greek opera singer worldwide and I just thought that the time has come for those that have perhaps forgotten Callas (or failed to listen to her carefully) to take a step back and revisit her divine voice again.

Towards this, I would like to offer an example which I consider to be characteristic (and my trully favorite) of Maria Callas and her spectacular voice.

Catalani: La Wally, Ebben? Ne Andro lontana.

Project Gutenberg

It is true,

for nothing replaces the hard copy, the touch and sensation of reading a book. An eBook may sound very cold to some, and to some extent it is.

But it is also important to congratulate, support, and often look at initiatiatives that go back some years ago such as Project Gutenberg that now numbers more that 18,000 free books which are available for download. Have a look, you might find something which will surprise you (and may I recommend here the Top 100 books and authors which are most downloaded); you will be surprised when you see what is on there.


Free eBooks - Project Gutenberg

Good Night and Good Luck.

It is without doubt, or fear, that the world should revolve around many of the latest developments that have marked time, and above all, one of its most elusive fabrics, the future.

For it is important, if not a duty of each and every one of us, to reflect upon the myriad of phenomena that are constantly being unfolded at a truly phenomenal pace. And too heavy a disappointment has been lingering within my mind lately as I see, with grief, the abismal way that people are reacting to their own slavery.

And I apologise for having burdened you with generalities. The time is 3.59am (roughly) so it is also time to turn more specific.

Somerset is a county in the United Kingdom where such slavery is currently taking place. Even worse, people submit to it in a voluntary fashion. The price that they have to pay now - and they do - in order to go into a night club and 'enjoy themselves' is to hand in their biometric data (fingerprint & face recognition). Apparently the club owners have convinced people that it is for their own good as different clubs may share a database between them; create trouble in one, you have difficulty in getting into another.

One would probably expect a different kind of reaction; never go into one of these clubs and force them to drop the system. But no; unavoidable stupidity will prevail and ignorance will always be bliss. People will just be willing to hand in their biometric data anywhere (supermarkets follow), night clubs, and so on. What sort of anomaly is this? What sort of perversity of innocent interactivity with technology? No matter what it may be?

And we know. Governments are going right at this. How many of you out there will be forced into being scanned?
And to succumb to the unreasonable impositions of governments is one sadness, but to willingly submit one's self into this madness, is quite another.

Everywhere I look I see little hope for this biometric evolution; despair surrounds my thoughts as ignorance at a political level is being enforced by ignorance at a social.

What little hope is left resides within those that will raise their voices together against this kind of ignorance.

For the rest,

Good Night and Good Luck.

The Reith Lectures ~ On the Philosophy of music

As a pianist, I have often wondered about the philosophy of music. It was not until I had to study Philosophy for the LSE PhD programme (thankfully all PhDs of the University of London have to go some sort of process like this) that I realised the immense background that can go into this.

One brisk London morning I logged on to the BBC website, only to uncover a truly fantastic series of lectures which I hadn't seen before.

The so-called, 'Reith Lectures'. The link is posted below.

In this year's lectures, the famous musician and conductor Daniel Barenboim give six fabulous lectures that truly encapsulate a philosophy about and around music that is phenomenal in its simplicity and Mr. Barenboim delivers his messages in pianoforte while taking ample time to absorb the silence before the strike.

BBC - Radio 4 - Reith Lectures

Harold Pinter - Nobel Lecture

Dear all,

It is worth taking 46 minutes out of your life to see one of the most powerful lectures delivered in the history of the Nobel Prizes.

Harold Pinter astonishes with his truly charismatic force in a lecture that cannot be easily put into words (despite the detailed transcript). See the video. This will definately be a lecture that you will not easily forget.

Harold Pinter - Nobel Lecture