Showing posts with label zen mind. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zen mind. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Healing Sights and Sounds of Japan 1 (HD)
Nature at it's best. Spiritual and zen-like sights and sounds. This video was recorded on a cold and snowy winter afternoon in Iwate prefecture in the Tohoku region of northern Japan near Ishidoriya and Hanamaki.
Monday, July 13, 2009
July 11
"Every morning when I pick up the horn, I'm a beginner."
Armando Ghitalla
In 1979, Ghitalla came to WVU for a masterclass. I remember playing the Hindemith Trumpet Sonata for him in the afternoon. That night we had a party for him at my teacher's house. Everyone was afraid to talk with him. He was on one side of the room and all the students were on the other side. I sat down on the sofa and started telling him that I was was leaving WVU soon and going to Boston to study at Berklee (down the street from the Boston Symphony Hall). He was extremely warm and kind. I asked him for some advice and he quoted the statement above.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
June 29
Reading
Was taking a look (again) at "Zen in the Art of Archery" today. This is probably the most important book I've ever read relating to playing my instrument. I recommend this book to anyone in the arts. As I read this book, I just substitute the word trumpet every time Herrigel uses archery.
Art
Wassily Kandinsky
I'm a HUGE fan of Kandinsky's work. I started reading this book of Kandinsky's today. This is a follow-up to his first book, "Concerning the Spiritual in Art." In these two books, he outlines the dynamics involved in his painting regarding texture, time, and even drawing parallels between color and musical pitches and the emotional effects.
Music
Chet Baker Interview
In college I really got into a deep Chet "thing." Probably lasted from 1980 to 1983 when I had moved to Washington, D.C. I was never into the stuff Chet did in the early years. I was very attracted to his playing just before he died. He spent all that time in Europe after having new teeth put in. I thought his playing in the later years had really changed. To my ears, his sound had become darker and more soulful. He was always a person that had a good balance of space in his melodic lines. I think in the later years, he had really mastered the use of space. His improvisations really remind me of a painting. His use of space along with the harmonic color and his vocabulary was very much like a painter.
Chet Playing Cherokee in Antwerp
I included this video cause it's nice to hear Chet "fly." A lot of people would be surprised to hear him playing like this on Cherokee. A lot of people only associate Chet with My Funny Valentine and other moody ballads. That's something I like about his playing. He could play as fast as anyone but, he wasn't the kind of player that felt a need to have to show you that all the time. Maybe cause he had reached such a level of maturity and detachment, he didn't have to be "up in your face."
I remember reading something pianist Hal Galper mentioned in the liner notes of a recording I was listening to a lot in the early 80's. Galper was talking about his time working with Chet in Europe. Galper talked about how Chet was a master at not playing too much.
Performance at OPCM
Poetry Reading: Ted Kooser
Stevie Wonder wrote this tune for Michael Jackson
I Can't Help It (Live)
Edward Elgar
I started looking into Elgar's life and music today. Here is a rare clip of him conducting his own incredibly famous "Pomp and Circumstance."
k
Was taking a look (again) at "Zen in the Art of Archery" today. This is probably the most important book I've ever read relating to playing my instrument. I recommend this book to anyone in the arts. As I read this book, I just substitute the word trumpet every time Herrigel uses archery.
"What is to be done? How does skill become "spiritual," and how does sovereign control of technique turn into master swordplay? Only, so we are informed, by the pupil's becoming purposeless and egoless. He must be taught to be detached not only from his opponent but from himself. He must pass through the stage he is still at and leave it behind him for good, even at the risk of irretrievable failure. Does this sound as nonsensical as the demand that the archer should hit without taking aim, that he should completely lose sight of the goal and his intention to hit it? It is worth remembering, however, that the master swordmanship, whose essence Takuan describes has vindicated itself in a thousand contests."
Zen in the Art of Archery - Eugen Herrigel, pg 72
Art
Wassily Kandinsky
I'm a HUGE fan of Kandinsky's work. I started reading this book of Kandinsky's today. This is a follow-up to his first book, "Concerning the Spiritual in Art." In these two books, he outlines the dynamics involved in his painting regarding texture, time, and even drawing parallels between color and musical pitches and the emotional effects.
"Composition V" 1911 - Wassily Kandinsky
Music
Chet Baker Interview
In college I really got into a deep Chet "thing." Probably lasted from 1980 to 1983 when I had moved to Washington, D.C. I was never into the stuff Chet did in the early years. I was very attracted to his playing just before he died. He spent all that time in Europe after having new teeth put in. I thought his playing in the later years had really changed. To my ears, his sound had become darker and more soulful. He was always a person that had a good balance of space in his melodic lines. I think in the later years, he had really mastered the use of space. His improvisations really remind me of a painting. His use of space along with the harmonic color and his vocabulary was very much like a painter.
Chet Playing Cherokee in Antwerp
I included this video cause it's nice to hear Chet "fly." A lot of people would be surprised to hear him playing like this on Cherokee. A lot of people only associate Chet with My Funny Valentine and other moody ballads. That's something I like about his playing. He could play as fast as anyone but, he wasn't the kind of player that felt a need to have to show you that all the time. Maybe cause he had reached such a level of maturity and detachment, he didn't have to be "up in your face."
I remember reading something pianist Hal Galper mentioned in the liner notes of a recording I was listening to a lot in the early 80's. Galper was talking about his time working with Chet in Europe. Galper talked about how Chet was a master at not playing too much.
"Chet always knew how to leave the audience wanting more."
Hal Galper
Performance at OPCM
Free Rein, a performance at OPCM on April 3, 2009 from mxxx palmer on Vimeo.
Poetry Reading: Ted Kooser
Stevie Wonder wrote this tune for Michael Jackson
I Can't Help It (Live)
Edward Elgar
I started looking into Elgar's life and music today. Here is a rare clip of him conducting his own incredibly famous "Pomp and Circumstance."
k
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
June 19
" A student visited a Zen master to ask him about Zen. As is the custom, the master served tea. He poured the student's cup to the brim, and then kept on pouring. The student looked on with astonishment as the tea overflowed and finally he said, "The cup is full. No more will go in." The master stopped pouring, looked at the student, smiled, and said, "Like the cup, you are full of your own ideas, opinions, and speculations. How can I teach you until you empty your cup?"
Tom Wujec, "PUMPING IONS" pg 217
June 16
Zen Mind, Beginners' Mind - Suzuki
Started thinking about this book again last week. During that time, I was getting ahead on this blog and started entering words and/or phrases of things I might want to include in the near future and saving them as drafts. I listened to a LENSWORK podcast and read the Yoga Journal newsletter this morning and was surprised to find that both had mentioned Suzuki's "Zen Mind, Beginners' Mind." Then I opened this draft I'd been saving and I had "Zen Mind, Beginners Mind - Sukuki entered into today's blog. Wow, talking about serendipity!
Food
Blueberry/banana juice
Made a new juice this morning. Really getting into blueberries this week!
Interviews
Sonny Rollins Interview
Musician Sonny Rollins from Texas Monthly Talks on Vimeo.
Sonny Rollins' Videos
Newsletters
MAC/LIFE Newsletter
YOGA NEWSLETTER
NASA Science Newsletter for June 15, 2009
With NASA poised to launch the world's most famous treadmill (COLBERT) to the International Space Station, an astronaut describes what it's like to run in space where sweat floats and there is no gravity to hold your feet to the ground.
Grid
http://www.aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf
Listening
http://www.lenswork.com/podcast/LW0535%20-%20Examining%20Our%20Habits.mp3
http://www.lenswork.com/podcast/LW0536%20-%20Repeat%20After%20Me%20-%20Spotting%20is%20Fun.mp3
United Nations TV
Water powered car
Websites
Marco Mancini's Magnet Jazz
Live at Time and Style
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