danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

I confess that I do not know very much about the technical aspects of figure skating.  I cannot distinguish an axel from a salchow, or a toe loop from a lutz.  But I know what falling down looks like when I see it, and almost every pair skating in the finals last night fell down at some point, either in a jump or a throw. Don’t get me wrong, I couldn’t do better.  But I’m not in the Olympics; they are.

I suppose that advances in the sport make every skater feel like he or she needs to do the hardest trick.  I admit is is impressive to watch when it’s done well.  But when it isn’t done well it looks like a disaster.  Yet, teams that fall or only double jumps that ought to be triples still win medals and teams that appear to do everything right wind up way down the score card.  That’s the part I really do not understand.

I don’t dispute that the gold- and silver-winning teams from last night’s pair skate skated exceedingly well.  But the third-place German team–who looked great the night before–fell all over themselves.  On the other hand, the team I liked, who didn’t fall at all, weren’t even in the top five.

I suppose someone who knows a lot about figure skating will say that it comes down to artistic presentation, or complex technical elements.  Again, I may be missing some fancy foot movements, or not realizing that a backwards lift is much more difficult than a forwards lift.  But no one can miss the falling down.

That said, there was some good music last night.  My favorite pair, Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett, skated to Scheherazade, which was a fine complement to the Firebird they chose the night before.  But, later in the program, another team skated to Scheherazade, and not as well, I thought.  Another team skated to Rachmaninoff.  I was most pleased last night, though, that someone chose to skate to Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite.  That’s one of my favorite pieces of American music.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the figure skating.

Filed under: Current Events, Music, Sports on February 16th, 2010 | No Comments »

The pairs figure skating began this evening, and the first American team that skated was Caydee Denney and Jeremy Barrett.  Most figure skaters wear terrible outfits, and, while theirs were flamboyant, they weren’t awful.  In fact, his shirt had a phoenix figure on the back, and her leotard was red, like she was a firebird herself.  Before they began skating I said, “they had better skate to The Firebird“.  The music began, and, indeed, it was Stravinsky’s Firebird.  The announcers didn’t point out the connection, but if I were a judge I would give them extra points for that.

UPDATE: I found the great picture on the left at this website.  If that goes down, there is another.  It’s number ten of the twelve pictures in this gallery.

UPDATE: Later in the program, two Russian skaters, Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov, performed wearing outfits with bird designs in sequins – his white, hers black.  Before they began I wondered what other bird-themed music they could skate to.  It turned out to be, appropriately enough, “Le cygne” from Saint-Saëns’ Le carnaval des animaux!

Filed under: Current Events, Music, Sports on February 14th, 2010 | No Comments »

Instances of genuine serendipity are rare.  Perhaps once or twice in life do we experience some unexpected and profound bit of material gain.  Out of nowhere, someone will offer you a gift, and it will be exactly what you wanted, but could never have come about on your own.  That just happened to me.

I listen to a lot of music, and for years I have dreamed of owning a genuinely deluxe pair of loudspeakers.  Many such speakers exist, but none of the affordable ones sound as good as the JBL bookshelf speakers I already own.  Those JBLs are the ideal size to fit in any room, but are simply too small to offer deep bass.  If you have ever been to a concert with a full orchestra (at least a hundred players) performing nineteenth- or early twentieth century repertoire, you know that the frequency range is as large as the dynamic range.  High violin pianissimi one instant make way the next for low brass and basses that shake your ribcage.  Obviously, nobody would listen to music at home at volume levels you find in the concert hall.  But my dream has been to own the sort of loudspeakers that can reproduce the full spectrum of sound the human ear can discern.  Those sort of speakers, alas, are hilariously unaffordable.

In a remarkably serendipitous way, I have become the proud owner of a pair of vintage AR-3a loudspeakers.  The 3a was the top-of-the-line speaker made by Acoustic Research of Cambridge, Massachusetts until the mid- to late 1970s.  In 1969, the year my speakers were built, the AR-3a cost over $500 a pair – a huge sum of money.  Expensive speakers like these were purchased primarily by studios, wealthy audiophiles, and professional musicians.  In fact, contemporary AR advertising demonstrates that their flagship loudspeaker was marketed largely to classical music fans.  In ad after ad, the 3a is shown in the listening rooms of the world’s most prominent conductors: Karl Böhm, Erich Leinsdorf, Seiji Ozawa, and Herbert von Karajan.    In a 1972 catalog, they make a point of mentioning that Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau–my favorite musician–listens to his own recordings on AR-3a loudspeakers!

How did I come to own such wonderful speakers?  I cannot say in this public forum, but it was pure luck.   The best way I can describe it is this: Imagine the physical thing that you want the most.  Then, imagine that somebody just gives it to you for nothing.  Then, imagine that they didn’t just give you that thing, but the very best version of that thing.  I could not be happier about it.

In another post, I’ll write about restoring these speakers, tell you what they look like, and how they sound.

Filed under: Music, Technology on February 13th, 2010 | 3 Comments »

The death this morning of Georgian athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili on the luge track is a sad start for the Olympic Games beginning today in Vancouver.  It is always tragic when men are cut down in the prime of youth.  Nothing can diminish the sense of loss for his family and his country.  But I cannot help but respect the dignity and glory that belongs to those who die doing something they love.

Filed under: Current Events, Sports on February 12th, 2010 | No Comments »

This website now looks better than ever thanks to Steve.  He fixed many small glitches with the code that had been bothering me since I switched to this new theme.  Now, for instance, when you select a previous month from the archive menu in the column on the right, you can see entire posts displayed.  Previously, the posts were abbreviated, disguising the presence of pictures or links.  Also, he put in an “edit” link at the bottom of posts, which, although invisible to you, is extremely handy to me.  And, he added the name of my site to the banner at the top of the page.

So, thanks, Steve.

Filed under: Friends, Website on February 9th, 2010 | 2 Comments »