soprano jeni bern

Amy (wife) and I began watching Daniel Deronda, a 2002 BBC production based somewhat on the George Eliot novel.

I liked the singer featured during the title credits, so I did a search to find out who it was. According to PBS online:

"Title and end credits music:
Act II: 'Cavatina' from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro). This piece was recorded for Daniel Deronda featuring singer Jenny Burn."

So I checked around online for a Jenny Burn. Nothing. After a bit more searching, I found the problem. Whoever wrote the movie credits could not have spelled her name any more incorrectly if they had tried. Her actual name is Jeni Bern, not Jenny Burn.

Although the sample pieces on her website are not functioning properly yet, I found a youtube sample from the Deronda movie. Something about her voice is untamed? and beautifully haunting to me. Amy is often a better judge in such matters, and was not as enthralled - she is more inclined toward perfection in voice and difficult to impress.

dissolve update

OK, so I have worked a couple of afternoons on the ring design. It is not going even close to what I expected. (Oddly enough, I have not listened to the cd while working on the ring - not sure why.) There is a strong discordant effect so far, it does not seem to belong to itself. The project was developed in a hypnagogic (un)reality - it is the coalesced substance of dreams. I am trying to avoid the impulse to 'wake it up', shifting it into an aesthetic conscientiousness.

I might be getting this one right.

dissolve

In 1998 Robert Rich released a collection of tracks entitled 'Seven Veils'. Here is a sample of the cd - the entire cd is this good - if you like it, do yourself a favor and purchase it. It ages very well. This cd is, in my opinion, one of the most profound and innovative collections in popular 'ethereal' music. I have to admit to not having heard all of R. Rich's music and collaborations, but compared to the other work I have heard, this cd has a different energy and sound - unique from anything I have ever heard. This cd is on a shortlist of medicines that can pull me in a creating space when all else fails. I have always wanted to do a work specifically themed to this soundtrack. As with all my favorite influences, I have yet to feel up to the project. I now think that I am ready to do a 'project-sketch' of the music. The attempt will be a ring entitled dissolve. Hopefully, a test for a more ambitious project in the future. Either that, or another lesson in the dangers of poking inspiration with a stick. We will see...

untitled

we were born before the wind
v morrison

lisa gerard

This voice is on a tiny list of undeniably beautiful things on this planet.
It can, at any given moment, or affectation, pierce my soul to it's will.

excuses

When I begin to think that any artistic inadequacies are due to a lack of proper work equipment, I play this to myself. I then take out the two most broken pieces of equipment I can find, (one usually being myself), and get to work.

lost cd, rach 3rd - m argerich

oh where are you my lost friend? under what hoarded mass are you hiding? please, please come back.

there is a point at about 3:34, and again more fully at 3:44, where m. seems to relax and realize that she has just made something very wonderful

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2010/08/15 update: found cd. wahoo!

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we're going to be friends

here we are, no one else
we walked to school all by ourselves
there's dirt on our uniforms
from chasing all the ants and worms
we clean up and now it's time to learn

from we're going to be friends
by the white stripes

rain

it feels like it's raining all over the world

video of the day

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Today's video, 'Pirosbetüs Napok', (roughly translated 'Important Day'), is by an early 1980s rock band from Hungary that called themselves 'Trabant'. Forgive the quality of the video (adds to the mood, methinks), as 1980's Hungarian New Wave videos are as rare as... well... 1980's Hungarian New Wave videos.

Notably, Víg Mihály on guitars went on to collaborate with film director Bela Tarr.