Miscellany

I have a bunch of things to write about:

I went golfing today for the first time in over a year. I played 9 holes at John Blumberg Golf Course. Here is my scorecard:

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Total
Par	5	3	3	4	4	5	3	4	3	34
Score	9	5	5	5	5	7	4	5	6	51

I also got a new digital camera yesterday as a grad/birthday/other gift. It is an Olympus Stylus 300, and it seems pretty cool.

Last, but not least, I have a new email account courtesy of the good folks at Google's GMail. My address is jdwiebe at gmail dot com. I haven't had much chance to use it yet, but I have already noticed a few neat features. The conversation view is a pretty cool idea, and the ability to create keyboard shortcuts is also nice. I will probably be using that address as my primary email account from now on.

email

I'm looking around for good email account options, as my University of Manitoba account will be expiring shortly. POP3/IMAP would be preferred over a webmail interface (no Hotmail or Yahoo, please!), although I am excited about Google's Gmail. Apparently, blogger users such as myself have a chance to get in on the beta-testing phase, and that chance supposedly increases in proportion to your blogging frequency. Hence, the relatively mindless post.

Any other (free) email account suggestions are welcome.

Sounds of music

I have had a diverse set of musical experiences in the past 5 days or so. First, Saturday night I attended a performance of Antonin Dvorak's Stabat Mater, by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Andrei Boreyko. Needless to say, it was quite good, especially the final movement.

Wednesday night was an experience of a different sort. It involved standing in line outside the doors of the Burton Cummings Theatre, waiting in line to pick up tickets to the Pixies concert that I would not be attending. Instead, I scalped them for a profit of 5 dollars. (Well, I didn't exactly scalp them, it's a long story; please don't come after me ticketmaster!)

Today I listened to the new Modest Mouse album, Good News For People Who Love Bad News. I was impressed. Perhaps sometime soon I will give a more detailed review.

Everybody into the pool

The NHL playoffs have begun, and like any good Canadian should, I have entered a playoff pool, with 8 other players. For the uninitiated, a playoff pool is where a group gets together to hold a draft of players on teams that are in the playoffs. Pool members accumulate points for every point scored by their 10 players.
Unfortunately, I was a late addition to the pool after 80 players had already been selected, so my team is weaker than it might have been. (On the bright side, I only had to pay half-price to get in).

So keep your eyes out for these 10 players over the next 2 months:
Boston: Michael Nylander
Colorado: Teemu Selanne
Dallas: Mike Modano, Brendan Morrow
Detroit: Henrik Zetterberg
Montreal: Saku Koivu
New Jersey: Jeff Friesen, Brian Rafalski
Philadelphia: Alexei Zhamnov
Vancouver: Henrik Sedin

I don't expect to win, but I think I will surprise some people.

More Radiohead

If you feel like you need something interesting to listen to, try this. You might recognize the tune; it's "Paranoid Android" from Radiohead's OK Computer. This rendition, though, is totally unique. It is a live version of the song, recorded by the University of Massachusetts Drumline (you know, those marching-band types that play at sporting events).

The band uses exclusively percussive instruments (no winds or brass) so the instrumentation takes some getting used to. It starts off sounding a bit like lounge/elevator music, but overall I think it is well done. This review is what brought the song to my attention.

(Happy?) Birthday

Today is my birthday. I will celebrate by going to class, then completing an assignment, then going to another class. I guess it could be worse.

Also, bonus marks to anyone who sees the (fairly obvious) connection between the two recordings I reviewed in the last two posts.

Christ Lag

I don't mean to make this a music review blog, but I'd like to share a bit about another recording that has caught my attention in the past few days. The songs are a bit older than the songs on the new Radiohead EP, almost 300 years older to be precise.

Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata, Christ lag in Todesbanden, happens to be not only one of Bach's finest cantatas, but also one of the most sublime pieces I have ever heard. It is an Easter Sunday cantata, and therefore is filled with intensity and gravity, as befits the occasion, that is not found in most other music. Also, the cantata is in a minor key, which I find to be generally more rewarding harmonically than major keys (this goes for classical and modern music).

Of course it's in German, so I really have no idea what is being said, but the music speaks for itself. I could also look at some translations.

The cantata is divided into 8 movements. Here's a quick summary:

• Sinfonia - In any cantata, the Sinfonia is typically a short, instrumental piece to introduce the work. This Sinfonia is in a minor-key and is full of rich harmonies in the strings.


• Chorus (verse 1): Christ lag in Todesbanden - The opening chorus in the style of a vocal fugue. Pure genius.


• Duet (verse 2, soprano, alto): Den Tod niemand zwingen kunnt - Soprano/alto duet, with minimal accompaniment, but rich, salient, harmonies. Listening to it I think I've played this before.


• Aria (verse 3, tenor): Jesus Christus, Gottes Sohn - A tenor aria, the upper strings really get to go to town on this one.


• Chorus (verse 4): Es war ein wunderlicher Krieg - Another polyphonic chorus, like the first.


• Aria (verse 5, bass): Hier ist das rechte Osterlamm - This is the bass aria. Bach, the trickster, ends the minor piece on a major chord. What a nut!


• Duet (verse 7, soprano, tenor): So feiern wir das hohe Lied - Soprano/tenor duet. It's short, but the soloists get a bit of a workout.


• Chorus (verse 8): Wir essen und leben wohl - This is the closing chorus of the cantata. I suppose it is more of a chorale (kind of a like a hymn you might sing in church: everyone sings the same rhythms in 4-part harmony). Again, it ends on a major chord.

It may not sound like much from the description, but listening to it might change your mind. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a good set of recordings online. If you email me, I can send you eight 56kbps mp3s (~7.5MB total). [Yes, I am obsessed with Bach!]

Com Lag

I heard some new Radiohead today. New, you ask? (As the last full-length album was Hail to the Thief in 2003).

What I heard was a recently-released (in Japan) EP called Com Lag. That link has all the details you should need. There are no new songs per se on the disc, but there were several that were new to me.

So here is the breakdown:

01 2+2=5 (Live at Earls Court, London, 26/11/03) - This is a live version of the song by the same name we all know and love from Hail.
02 remyxomatosis (cristian vogel RMX) - Remix (cleverly titled!) of Myxamatosis, again from Hail.
03 i will (1st mix at ocean way aka l.a. version) - This song appears on a Hail in a very similar form.
04 paperbag writer - This was the first 'new' one for me. Probably the strangest, possibly the best track on the EP. It is from the There There single.
05 i am a wicked child - Another 'new' one. It's from the Go to Sleep single, and it is pretty good. The lyrics are pretty interesting.
06 i am citizen insane - New to me, and also from Go to Sleep, this is a slow, electronic-instrumental piece, and it is pretty nice.
07 skttrbrain (four tet RMX) - We all know Scatterbrain from Hail and this remix funks up the percussion a little bit (there are some nice wind chimes too!). Apparently, though, those loud static bursts aren't intentional.
08 gagging order - Again, from the Go to Sleep single, this is an acoustic number, and reminds me strongly of another Radiohead song, but I can't quite place which one.
09 fog (again) (live) - A live version of the song that first appears on Knives Out. I had heard it before, of course. Although I had never paid close enough attention before to notice that the song is about alligators and sewers.
10 where bluebirds fly - A final 'new' one. It's a spooky little techno number with no lyrics, just a bit of moaning and groaning. "Used as the band's intro music for their 2002 and 2003 live shows."

So overall, there are 4 songs from Hail to the Thief (a live version and three remixes), another live song, and 5 tracks from the collection of singles released around Hail to the Thief.

Running time 36:20; if you're a Radiohead fan, you'll like it. You might be wondering how I came to have a Japanese EP when I clearly do not live in Japan, but you can use your imagination.

Intermennist

One interesting development in my life in the past 3 weeks or so is that I have been accepted as a trainee in the Intermenno program. This means that I will be living in the Netherlands for a year, beginning in August. I'm looking forward to it, although I think that learning to speak dutch will be a bit of a challenge.

One interesting fact about the Netherlands is that 'Wiebe' (my surname, in case you didn't know) is a common first name (for males) and is a Dutch equivalent of 'William' (see here). So Jonathan David William I shall be.

I don't know which part of the country I will be living in yet, although I should find out in a matter of weeks.