15 Year old American composer joins Russian Masters Tchaikovsky and Glazunov at The Ferguson Library: The Lumina String Quartet shines

Members of the Lumina String Quartet at Ferguson Library

Scott Feiner in conversation at the Ferguson Library 

Chamber Concert

This past Wednesday evening's concert by the acclaimed Lumina String Quartet at the Ferguson Library had  a number of highlights--each of which is a testament that music can give you a sense of pleasure.

The performance began with Alexander Glazunov's (1865-1936) Oriental Reverie for Clarinet and String Quartet. Though the music is melancholic , the central addition of the clarinet, does liven up the tempo and engages the listener.  As the concert program notes "the language of both Tchaikovsky {a great influence on Glazunov} and Glazunov works is highly emotional, personal and direct..."

Scott Feiner a 15 year- old precocious composer introduced the  "World Premiere" of his Ozark Dance for String Quartet.  In Scott's own words "the music has a folk dance quality, sometimes bluegrass, and sometimes Irish folk music. Both styles owe a lot to the squealing of fiddles."  He continues , "What I wanted was to tame and polish that squeal."

I found Scott's piece both entertaining, captivating and refreshing, particularly due to the virtuosity of the Lumina string players. Judging from the applause after each of the four pieces, the audience concurred with me.

The evening rounded off with Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) String Quartet  #1 in D Major Op. 11 (1871, Moscow). This is the epitome of the fine melodic quality of a chamber music piece.

In 1871, Moscow was infatuated with Italian opera music. Tchaikovsky felt some was good and some not so good. So, he wanted to introduce the intimacy of  chamber music with pieces by Glinka, Liszt and Schumann.

The First String Quartet was written for a concert featuring Tchaikovsky's own compositions. The music is beautiful, haunting and captivating. Andante Cantabile, the second of four movements, features unforgettable melodies. It is based on a folk song heard by the composer on the Ukrainian family estate of his sister, Alexandra.

Daniel Silva's latest book The Fallen Angel is a winner

Chalk up another winner for Daniel Silva.

The characters we have grown accustomed to from his other books are all here. Gabriel Allon, famed art restorer, his beautiful wife Chiara, Ari Shomron, Gabriel's mentor, Uzi Navot, Monsignor Luigi Donati , private secretary to the Pope, Eli Lavon....

It's only by luck that I am able to pen this report.  My position was number 7 on a library hold list and I thought I would have to wait 8 weeks to get my hands on a copy. While at the Ferguson library, I espied a rare copy on the 7 day express rack; I then grabbed it and devoured it in 2 days.

From the moment  the novel begins-- with the discovery of the mangled body of  a Vatican curator thrown to her death beneath Michaelangelo's awesome dome-- to its conclusion deep under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem-- the novel is a non-stop rush of adrenaline.

Gabriel is swept into a plot where he discovers the dead woman had uncovered a dangerous secret involving stolen antiquities used to fund a jihadist organization set up to foment cataclysmic global unrest and terror.

Enjoy the novel and know that it debuts this weekend #1 on the New York Times,  Wall Street Journal and Puslishers Weekly best seller lists.

For more information, visit Silva's website.

Why I enjoyed reading I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59. Part II

This is Part II of my blog on this book. For Part I, click here. 

Alright, most of us are clueless about esoteric computer language and the workings of a search engine behemoth such as Google. Yet, it is highly probable you will enjoy this book, nonetheless.

Let me give you an example.

If you were to randomly open the book to Chapter 11 (entitled Liftoff), you are in for a delightful surprise. Here we learn that in the Spring of 2000, Google has just completed an unpublicized deal to be the search engine for Yahoo. The employees were kept in the dark.

This situation was akin to David negotiating a deal with Goliath despite huge differences in size.

 True, Google was servicing eight million searches a day which would leap to nine million two weeks later.

However, Yahoo the search portal (featuring links to dozens of topics ranging from sports, politics, international news to fashion) had about 50 million unique visitors per month.

Google, on the other hand, had only about 3 million unique visitors.

Many, many problems were faced by Google and all can be boiled down to speed, capacity and results. All had to be met simultaneously to meet a deadline of July 4th, some three months away.

Speed problems would be caused by a dramatic increase in the online traffic due to queries from Yahoo. Here, Google would have to decrease the latency, or the average delay in returning results over any given hour.

Storage capacity was going to be strained. The founders set an arbitrary goal of indexing/storing 1 billion URL's--a herculean task. This would require increasing storage capacity by many times.

 But, with so much new information being indexed daily, how could you assure the searcher that he or she is getting current information as opposed to data that is weeks old?

So results had to be not only fast, but also contain the latest information. The software for pulling together information on a specific topic is called a crawler.  Google's engineers had to design crawlers that could process huge amounts of data quickly. In addition, the crawlers would have to do their work, not just monthly, but several times a week. So, that if you were looking for the latest references to 'global warming,' you could rely on the results.

Many other problems arose such as linking data from three different server farms (discussed in Part I)  located all over the county.

How successful was Google in dealing with these problems?

I leave it to the reader to determine whether Google was able to meet the contract promises made to Yahoo when indeed July 4th rolled around.

You won't be disappointed!

An enjoyable read: I'm feeling Lucky. The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59

This is a must read book!

This book started off slow for me, perhaps because of my unfamiliarity with the geek terminology. However, as I continued reading, my interest was heightened.

The book begins with the author Doug Edwards joining a start up company called Google as its 59th employee and ends with his departure just after the company has gone public.

Edwards had been in charge of online product development at the San Jose Mercury News; he "saw newspapers as the first draft of history" and "grew tired of the struggles that went with dragging an old business into a new age." It was a stable job, with guaranteed income from a 150-year old media group; yet, he felt the pull of nearby Silicon Valley. 

He was offered a job at Yahoo and turned it down because of a poor salary.

He then does some research on Google and discovered that two of the largest west coast  venture capital firms invested $25 Million. So, after an interview that included quirky questions by one of the founders, he is hired by Google as online brand manager--meaning he's the guy in charge of the companies web page(s).  He has turned 41 and took a $25,000 cut in salary-despite the fact he has a mortgage to pay and another baby on the way. 

Once there he discovers the 'self invented' culture he is joining. Desks consisted of wooden doors lain across metal workhorses. There is unlimited food available in the on site cafe, doctors are on staff, many are the wild drinking parties and for his workspace "cables draped from the ceiling above an uncarpeted concrete floor in a wide-open space interrupted only by cement  pillars..."

Work titles mean nothing. Everybody is expected to help where ever and whenever needed. One of his early tasks involves spending a Saturday joining other clueless marketing, office staff and finance people at the Google data center aka a server farm. He describes the premises as an "extremely well-kept zoo, with chain-link walls draped from floor to ceiling creating rows of large fenced cages vanishing somewhere in the far, dark reaches of the Matrix." 

He joins an ops team made up of engineers to aid in maintaining the 1500 servers Google paid for hosting. He knows nothing, but just follows the commands of his team leaders. 

Edwards quickly learns that the founders Sergei Brin and Larry Page have a strong bias against spending money on traditional advertising.  Brin says he'd rather spend marketing money to innoculate 

Chechin refugees against cholera. 

End of Part I (to be continued).

Ferguson Library shows movie about Vladimir Vysotsky noted Russian singer, songwwriter and actor

He was perhaps the most famous Russian singer and songwriter of the 1960's and 1970's. (He has been referred to as the Bob Dylan of the Soviet era.)

And the biopic "Thank You for Being Alive" just released in December 2011 has quickly become the highest grossing Russian film of the year, grossing $21.3 million in just 10 days.

The film- based on real events- details Vysotsky's journey to perform a concert in Uzbekistan. The singer is depicted as constantly on drugs and he is being pursued by the KGB eager to apprehend him because of his political stance.

A Frame of Vysotsky from "Thank You

for Being Alive" 

The film was shown in Russian with no subtitles.

Sincere thanks to the Russian gentleman from New York who sat behind me at Ferguson and quietly translated the dialog with a short commentary.

Stamford Downtown is Rich in New Deal Paintings by James Daugherty

New Deal Art Mural (1934) by James Daugherty

at the Jeremy Richard Library at UConn Stamford 

"School Activities" shown above  and "New England Tradition"  shown below are two of seven murals painted by James Daugherty (1887-1974) for the octagonal  music room at Stamford High School. The mural was commissioned under the New Deal's Public Work of Art program and was completed in four months in 1934. 

"New England Tradition" mural by Daugherty hangs 

in the stairwell at the Ferguson Library 

The murals were retrieved in 1970 from a trash container where they had been dumped as part of a renovation.  At this time they had been cut into 30 sections. Hiram Hoelzer a New York art conservator restored six of them over a 16 year period and the city of Stamford bought them back in 2003 with major funding from the the Ruth W. Brown Foundation, the City of Stamford and the State of Connecticut 

A free brochure prepared by Ferguson Library states that "Daugherty conceived the Stamford panels to show a progression of history, using people from many ethnic groups taking part in education, sports, industry, science and the arts. Daugherty used local teachers and students as models."

Daugherty's works hang in the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, Yale University and Smithsonian. 

Federer Performs Magic and Takes his Seventh Wimbledon Title

Roger Federer at the 2009
Wimbledon Championships

It was hailed as the 'dream final.'

First, Murray was the first English player to reach the final since 1938--that's 74 years ago--when Bunny Austin lost to Don Budge in three sets. The score was 6-0, 6-1, 6-3.

The last Britisher to land the coveted trophy was Fred Perry who in 1936 beat Gottfried von Cramm 6-0, 6-0, 6-1.

Federer had not won a Grand Slam since the 2010 Australian Open when he defeated Andy Murray in three sets.

But the Grand Slam victory eluded Murray for the 4th time in his career.

Murray opened the match taking the first set 6-4, but then proceeded to lose the next three sets at 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.

Federer played superb tennis. His serve was crisp and sharp and his ground strokes were formidable.

The momentum shifted in Federer's favor right after a sudden rain shower when the score was 1-1 in the third set with Federer up 40 love.

The roof was closed making this the first final played in the enclosed center court facility.

When play resumed Federer raised his game to a much higher level; he is undoubtedly one of the best indoor players as he has no distractions from the sun, wind or clouds.

The turning point was reached at 2-3 with Murray serving in the third set. The sixth game went to 10 deuces and six break points when Federer finally prevailed. Murray, who started off with a 40 love lead, fell on the grass three times.

Congratulations Roger on your 17th Grand Slam victory and regaining the number one world ranking.

Andy Murray, a quarter finalist at 

the 2009 French Championships

And even more important was the formidable courage, guts and fortitude displayed by Andy Murray.

It must be remembered that Andy's coach Ivan Lendel suffered four Grand Slam finals losses before winning his first Grand Slam.

Hang in there, Andy.
Image source (1) 
Image source (2)