Category Archives: Digressions

My bro keeps sending me this video clip from the Chappelle’s Show where comedian David Chappelle shows how the Bush Administration would present the War in Iraq if Bush were in fact Black. If you’re not American, you probably won’t get it, but trust me, it is pretty funny.

On Saturday evening in Paris, I was walking towards the St. Paul metro station on Rue de Rivoli and came across a church (whose name I do not know). Along the church’s façade hung a big white banner proclaiming that “L’amour a vaincu la mort“. My limited French tells me that “love has conquered death”. But, I couldn’t quite figure out the logic.

I recognize the precept that through the love of God and the sacfrice of His Son, believers can achieve eternal life. What has me confused is my understanding that believers must first die in order to have eternal life. It reminds me of my favorite line from Peter Tosh’s “Equal Rights“, “everybody wants to go up to heaven, but none of them want to die.” So if death is a prerequisite for ascension, then why would we want love to be so cruel as to impede eternal life? And am I the only one who noticed that the Christian wedding vows are only binding “until death do us part”? Someone needs to get their story straight. Otherwise with love conquering death, we are in for a very long marriage and no retirement.

Maybe it was the Bee Gees who said it best, “Nobody gets too much heaven no more . . . nobody gets too much love anymore, it’s as high as a mountain and harder to climb.”

Here goes my second test at combining music with images. The song is “Saturday Sun” by Nick Drake, one of my bro’s favorites. The photos come from trips I made a few years back to Formentera, Fuerteventura, Paris, and also includes ones from home (Bethany Beach, Georgetown, and Potomac). I know, I should stick to writing.

Note: Based on James’ feedback, I made some alterations to the video and even added in photos from Marrakech and Asturias. Sorry, but I didn’t have time to work on the fading.

This morning (it is a holiday in Madrid) I have been playing around with images and sound and made this test video. It includes some of my favorite paintings by Egon Schiele, John Singer Sargent and others (many of which you will recognize from this Grave Error). For the background music I put one of my favorite songs, “Enta Habibi” by the Yuri Honing Trio from their album Orient Express. Because of the song’s obvious Arabic flavor (I am not sure if it is Fairuz singing), of course, there are more repetitions of Sargent’s paintings than of the others.

I know I should probably be thinking more about WiFi everywhere, but sometimes I just can’t resist getting involved in apparently irrelevant philosophical discussions. And this occurred while reading Martin’s blog this morning about what makes us like music. According to Waya, we are attracted to music based on its association to something from our past. A different opinion was given by a 13 year old as being the reaction to certain hormonal stimuli. Although this is essentially a psychological versus physiological debate (or even nature vs. nurture), both are good answers and actually quite compatible. Believe it or not, the reasons why we are attracted to any given art form (and the variations thereof) and simply being attracted to anything in general is something that I often think about. Here are my impressions: Continue reading →

After the rain in Madrid, I arrived in Paris, and, despite the rumors and forecasts for rain, it was sunny and hot. As a matter of fact it was more of a Summer in Paris than an April in Paris, at least as the weather was concerned. I was fortunate to have Waya lend me her wonderful pad, and what a wonderful apartment! Two of the world’s top classical pianists live in her same building, and I awoke on Sunday morning to a live private rehearsal of one of my favorite Beethoven pieces. The day couldn’t have started off better. Continue reading →

I have only been to Paris twice before. The first time was in April 2004. I was there all by myself, and it rained non stop. Of course, I had no umbrella and got wet while I paraded up and down the streets of the city of lights all by my lonesome. So much for the romantic “April in Paris”! The second time I went to Paris was for my friend Waya’s birthday in January 2006. It didn’t rain but it was winter, and the trip only made me realize how non self-actualized I was because I knew nothing about clouds, didn’t speak French, and couldn’t play the piano.

I still can’t do any of those things either, if you were wondering. As my brother would say, “care factor real low”, “you must have mistaken me for somebody who cares,” or simply, “did I ask?”

Now it is my chance to have my revenge. But it appears that the last few days of April will be raining in Paris. Maybe I will be lucky this time and have weather that feels like the summer in Paris of the past two weeks. Although it may seem that I am really obsessing these days about the weather, I am just trying to make the point that come rain or shine, I don’t really mind.

Ever since I was in Marrakech, I have been rather fascinated by Morocco and its culture. So, far I have learned a few things about the Berber people (like Zizou) and some typical Moroccan Arabic expressions, like layla saida, sabahou al khair, and boussa. But what I really enjoy is just saying “berber” and pronouncing it “bereber”.

After a week a perfect sunny weather, lovely paseos, and eating outdoors, the clouds finally came and broke, and “oh what a break for me”! For the past three nights, I’ve been having trouble sleeping. According to the news reports, the atmospheric pressure drastically changed in Madrid, thus, altering sleep patterns. I had assumed it was a new outbreak of pollen-related allergies. Now it seems that the previous sunny days are turning into rainy weather, at least through Sunday.

On Saturday, I am off to Paris where it has been in 80ºF (around 28ºC) for the past two weeks. That’s what Spain’s weather is supposed to be like. Don’t they say that Spain has “everything under the sun”? Well, it looks to me like everything under the sun is in Paris these days. With my luck, the tides will turn again, and it will rain in Paris on my parade. And if it does, who cares, I will just whistle my favorite Louis Armstrong/Ella Fitzgerald duet from Irving Berlin’s Top Hat: Continue reading →