Category Archives: Reviews

music stave

The Organ Transplant That Never Happened

So what is a lifelong lover of music to do to proselytize for their passion?

Sometimes having a passion for something is not enough to win over others. I was reminded of this when a friend and fellow music lover recently sent along a link describing a Japanese Kissa, which is a bar serving coffee or drinks where the  main attraction is a first-class audio system playing jazz or classical music. The recordings are usually from a library curated by the owner. And the vibe is to focus on listening rather than socializing.

The idea is wonderful, and reminded me that my first year at Colorado State University where a room in the student center room was set up with the same goal. The space had comfortable couches, a reasonably good stereo system, acoustical separation from the rest of the building, and a free jukebox selector from which anyone could select a range of mostly classical recordings. The point was to quietly listen and read in a space much nicer than any dorm space. Granted, a visitor tended to hear Beethoven’s Fifth too many times; it was the only classical music some students recognized. But for some of us the atmosphere beat the beer halls on College Avenue that we visited too often.

    Listening Room at the University of the South

So what is a lifelong musicophile to do to proselytize to others for this kind of space? Since I became a friend of the Chairperson of the Music Department at my campus, it was only a matter of time until I was advocating for the same kind of room in a new addition to our own student center. I correctly sensed that I needed a professional ally with the credentials to make the pitch. My busy and productive colleague seemed to be the perfect ally. But this lover of opera and musicals was not interested, and began to avoid me. (To be fair, faculty in the performing arts get lots of off-the wall requests.) I also had no other easy pathway to influence campus building plans: a fact that is usually true for the faculty that will have to spend time dealing with the results. A humanities professor trying to persuade a college architect is a David and Goliath kind of thing. I should have enlisted a phalanx of performance majors to make some noise. In the end I never got close to getting our own version of a Kissa. Other campuses have probably been luckier.

I also made a second unsuccessful campaign that also fizzled, but had the right language.  Put simply, I thought we should push for an organ transplant. Many campuses are fortunate to have one of the most complex but also rewarding musical instruments within their performance spaces. The King of Instruments is enormously complex and expensive to maintain. Most contain several thousand parts. Their compensation is that an organ may be the ultimate tools for creating acoustic music. As it happens, many strapped churches are willing to give up their instruments in favor of synths and 50-dollar guitars. There is even a clearing house listing organs ready to be donated and hauled away.

The pipe organ is forever tied to church music and musty hymns. But pipe organs in the hands of a master are awesome. There is even a tradition in English and a few American universities to recruit “organ scholars,” some destined to be future choir directors. In addition, exotic pipe organs in concert spaces are now often considered essential. The repertoire is vast, and can include music such as the score from Christopher Nolan’s film Interstellar (2014), which was mostly created by Hans Zimmer on an pipe organ in London. The music soars, with segments of it going viral on  YouTube and TikTok. British organist Anna Lapwood even has groupies growing out of collaborations with Zimmer and Banobo. 

Could I again enlist my wary music colleagues to the cause of an organ transplant for our new concert hall? I naively thought so. The wonderful circular 320-seat space in the Mayo Concert Hall at TCNJ would be perfect for a smaller baroque organ. It could be an acoustical asset set in the gallery at the rear and above the stage. Chamber groups often perform Bach or Handel on these instruments. We just needed to tap into the database of abandoned instruments to find the right one. I envisioned being part of a committee to help arrange a transfer and find the donors needed to pay for installing it.

You probably know where this is going. I was greeted with more stares by the busy music faculty, as if I had just proposed a ukulele major. They were also investing their energies in securing several new concert grand pianos. Those were expensive enough, and a sign the faculty might lock the doors if I showed up again in the Music Building conference room.

I had probably seen too many Andy Hardy movies (“I have an Idea! Let’s put on a show!”).  It was too much to believe I had a chance at saving some unloved instrument rotting away in a church. Then again, I taught Theories of Persuasion to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of students over 47 years. Didn’t I have the power to make it happen? But professors often make the mistake of taking their subjects seriously.  And, at best, my attempts were half-hearted.

There’s a lesson in this. We often think it is enough to say what we want, as if our ideas were nuggets of gold free for the taking. But that is a fatal overestimation. What we count as our special insight may be dismissed by others as completely hairbrained. Persuasion benefits from having a target who is already halfway there. Then, the goal is to activate what may be latent but pre-existing interest. I just needed to take the time to find those folks.

red concave bar 1

I’m Not Exactly Sure Who is Managing My Computer

Every time I boot my machine it sounds like a gremlin is busy hiding things out of sight.

Writers take pleasure in the fact that they are in charge. Creating one’s own words is a cherished right for those of us who still care. But now the ubiquitous personal computer appears to have become a true collective enterprise jointly managed by Microsoft, Google, a very fussy Adobe. I’m there too when I’m allowed. After everyone is done inspecting and changing “my” software, I weigh in from time to time to see what changes have been done.  Not long ago my computer was scrubbed  for a day of anything connected to Google. Whose idea was that?

It is an old topic to complain about wayward computers. So it’s my turn. Perhaps Elon Musk will want to take a shot at this old HP home computer and make it self-driving. Will it be days or weeks until my disk drive tells me to take a hike and let A.I. manage my digital life?

short black line

 

At start up my hard drive sounds like what you might hear outside a house when kids inside discover that their parents are home.

Every time I boot my machine it sounds like it is extremely busy hiding things out of sight. At start up my hard drive sounds like what you might hear outside a house when kids inside discover that their parents are home. Most mornings the digital furniture always seems to be hastily reassembled, with Microsoft trying to find a more spacious location to hang out as the jilted browser-in-waiting.

Like kids everywhere, most of those who have claims on my computer occasionally go on a break. “Not responding” is like the reaction I used to get from our 13 year old. Now I get it much more frequently when I’m engaged in routine reading or editing.  My computer and I wait together while misplaced pixels are located and put back where they belong.

I pay for another service to guard the ramparts, boldly going nowhere fast to report back every week that I’ve not been invaded. But I still get those ominous “Your Computer is Locked” screen while a monotone voice of a woman tells me I will need to call her if I want it fixed. Some cretins have figured out this malware in an effort to blackmail us. But so far, I’ve managed to escape this frozen state by starving the machine of power and hanging cloves of garlic on the screen.

If you use Apple products the heavy hand of control is also present. Apple has a gentle way of reminding users that their music and software is really their stuff. They at least acknowledge that you have some rights. But they work hard to keep alien Androids at bay. Sooner or later the Geek Squad will have to pay an emergency visit to put me and “my” quarreling software into rehab.

Finally, and more to the point, I worry that software “help” on various tasks can lapse into A.I. mush that looks passable as someone’s efforts. On my Word top-of-screen ribbon “Ghostwriter Autopilot” sits ready to relieve me of my complete authorship of an item. Their preferred phrase is that the tool will “accelerate content development.” A.I. Images like the visual one at the top of this piece are on thing.  But words in my name are a no go.

And who can miss the new Apple ads promising that even an office deadbeat can generate enough A.I. stuff to look productive? The humor in these advertisements is far less inviting than the unintended message that their software can conceal incompetence. For once, Apple should try straightforward and earnest advertising. They would look just as cool if their messages suggested that their users were supremely capable.