Reducing, reusing, and recycling is a passion for me. I've always really wanted that car in Back to the Future with the Mr. Fusion engine into which you could throw your half-finished can of Coke and banana peels.
San Francisco recycles 60% of its garbage already. Is it any surprise that the city has figured out how to recycle doggie poopoo as well?
Friday, February 24, 2006
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Bulldogs in Baghdad
I wonder who masterminded this?
Officials say Iraq internship poster is a prank
I don't suppose it was inspired by the emails regarding Bulldogs in Brussels.
In other news: The Love Parade lives! But I'll be in Gdansk, Poland for the World Carillon Federation Congress. Of all weekends to pick, the first time I'm in Europe to join in the fun!
Officials say Iraq internship poster is a prank
I don't suppose it was inspired by the emails regarding Bulldogs in Brussels.
In other news: The Love Parade lives! But I'll be in Gdansk, Poland for the World Carillon Federation Congress. Of all weekends to pick, the first time I'm in Europe to join in the fun!
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
wi-fi
San Fran has the biggest municipal Wi-Fi network in the country, the 35-square-mile free MetroFi in the south San Francisco bay area. And Chicago is jealous.
Now if only Wi-Fi was available in a single cafe in Belgium!
Now if only Wi-Fi was available in a single cafe in Belgium!
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Les Carillons de Flandre
Arriving in the town square of Mechelen, Belgium in September 2005, I was greeted by a plaque entitled “Les Carillons de Flandre”—a poem by Victor Hugo about the instrument so ubiquitous in the Low Countries. Standing by restaurants called Onder Den Toren and De Carillon, the plaque reassured me that I had entered a culture in which the carillon resounds through everyday life.
Within this city of 80,000 people stands the world’s first carillon school, the Royal Carillon School “Jef Denyn”. It offers a “Practical Diploma” and the final “Laureate’s Diploma.” Three American students are pursuing the typically seven-year Laureate’s Diploma in one year: Tom Lee and myself (recent Yale Guild alumni) and John Bordley (Sewanee). Each week, we take lessons in carillon performance, composition, and campanology. For composition, students write a set of variations and an original piece, both of which they perform for their final exam recital. A thirty-page thesis on a historical, cultural, or technical aspect of campanology is written with individual guidance. Basic musicianship courses in choir and piano are also mandatory.
Students must perform a short midterm exam in December and a final exam recital of about 45 minutes in June. Because European carillons call for different repertoire than those in North America, foreign students may find themselves immersed in a repertoire quite separate and challenging from what they have played before. In perhaps no other musical discipline is accessibility to historical instruments so open—playing centuries-old carillons is easy to arrange.
The student association Campana organizes several outings to carillons, museums, and foundries, but overall student interaction is limited to the school day as most people commute, including a high number of foreign students. Students usually take classes two days per week and are otherwise free to practice, research, and travel. Travel is irresistible—it is affordable, and utterly different cultures are just hours away.
Mechelen is a small but culturally rich city in which everyday conveniences are within walking distance and cycling is often preferred to driving. Brussels and Antwerp are fifteen minutes away by train and well worth getting to know. The Flemish government offers free Dutch language courses, and city life is rich with cultural festivals and early music concerts, as well as Belgium’s famed cuisine. You may soon find your wallet slimming as your waistline expands from heavy intake of chocolate, waffles, fries, and Belgian beer. And you will gradually adjust to a slower pace of life in which savoring a meal with company for several hours and closing stores promptly after work and on Sundays is more important than reaping profits. Nevertheless, Belgium enjoys one of the highest standards of living in the world.
The Royal Carillon School is in an exciting time of transition, finalizing joint programs with the Netherlands Carillon Institute (Boudewijn Zwart) and the Dutch Carillon School in the Netherlands and the International Carillon Institute (Tim Hurd) in New Zealand. By the end of the year, an accredited bachelor’s degree in carillon will be jointly available with a partner conservatory.
For more information, attend the education panel at the 2006 GCNA Congress and keep your eyes on the Royal Carillon School’s website. I am translating it into English, and for my thesis, cataloging and building an online multimedia version of the school’s Carillon Museum: www.beiaardschool.be.
Within this city of 80,000 people stands the world’s first carillon school, the Royal Carillon School “Jef Denyn”. It offers a “Practical Diploma” and the final “Laureate’s Diploma.” Three American students are pursuing the typically seven-year Laureate’s Diploma in one year: Tom Lee and myself (recent Yale Guild alumni) and John Bordley (Sewanee). Each week, we take lessons in carillon performance, composition, and campanology. For composition, students write a set of variations and an original piece, both of which they perform for their final exam recital. A thirty-page thesis on a historical, cultural, or technical aspect of campanology is written with individual guidance. Basic musicianship courses in choir and piano are also mandatory.Students must perform a short midterm exam in December and a final exam recital of about 45 minutes in June. Because European carillons call for different repertoire than those in North America, foreign students may find themselves immersed in a repertoire quite separate and challenging from what they have played before. In perhaps no other musical discipline is accessibility to historical instruments so open—playing centuries-old carillons is easy to arrange.
The student association Campana organizes several outings to carillons, museums, and foundries, but overall student interaction is limited to the school day as most people commute, including a high number of foreign students. Students usually take classes two days per week and are otherwise free to practice, research, and travel. Travel is irresistible—it is affordable, and utterly different cultures are just hours away.
Mechelen is a small but culturally rich city in which everyday conveniences are within walking distance and cycling is often preferred to driving. Brussels and Antwerp are fifteen minutes away by train and well worth getting to know. The Flemish government offers free Dutch language courses, and city life is rich with cultural festivals and early music concerts, as well as Belgium’s famed cuisine. You may soon find your wallet slimming as your waistline expands from heavy intake of chocolate, waffles, fries, and Belgian beer. And you will gradually adjust to a slower pace of life in which savoring a meal with company for several hours and closing stores promptly after work and on Sundays is more important than reaping profits. Nevertheless, Belgium enjoys one of the highest standards of living in the world.
The Royal Carillon School is in an exciting time of transition, finalizing joint programs with the Netherlands Carillon Institute (Boudewijn Zwart) and the Dutch Carillon School in the Netherlands and the International Carillon Institute (Tim Hurd) in New Zealand. By the end of the year, an accredited bachelor’s degree in carillon will be jointly available with a partner conservatory.
For more information, attend the education panel at the 2006 GCNA Congress and keep your eyes on the Royal Carillon School’s website. I am translating it into English, and for my thesis, cataloging and building an online multimedia version of the school’s Carillon Museum: www.beiaardschool.be.
biking news
- Launch of the Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Wiki!
- [New York] City Rebuffed in Trying to Bar [Critical] Mass Bike Rides
- Horses and bikes may not be vehicles for long [in Aberdeen, South Dakota]
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
cruel and unusual
CNN.com headline reads "Lethal injection must change before execution: Mix of drugs may be cruel and unusual punishment".
It's disgusting, the absurdity of fighting over such petty details when the death penalty itself is cruel and unusual punishment.
Apparently an apartment complex just off the ring in Mechelen was a holding place for Jews during WWII. There is, in fact, a Mechelen Museum of Deportation and Resistance in the city and, preserved nearby in Willebroek, Breendonk Fort National Memorial, a former concentration camp.
It's disgusting, the absurdity of fighting over such petty details when the death penalty itself is cruel and unusual punishment.
Apparently an apartment complex just off the ring in Mechelen was a holding place for Jews during WWII. There is, in fact, a Mechelen Museum of Deportation and Resistance in the city and, preserved nearby in Willebroek, Breendonk Fort National Memorial, a former concentration camp.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
i am my lifelong idol!
Your results: You are Captain Jean-Luc Picard, a lover of Shakespeare and other fine literature. You have a decisive mind and a firm hand in dealing with others.
Star Trek Personality Quiz
What disturbs me is that my runner-up identity is Deanna Troi, my least favorite character, right in line with Jean Grey in the X-Men for being a useless wimp whose existence is solely to serve as eye candy. "Oh Riker/Cyclops, help me!" or "Oh, I sense... too many emotions... can't take it anymore..." What an embarrassment to womankind.
Star Trek Personality QuizWhat disturbs me is that my runner-up identity is Deanna Troi, my least favorite character, right in line with Jean Grey in the X-Men for being a useless wimp whose existence is solely to serve as eye candy. "Oh Riker/Cyclops, help me!" or "Oh, I sense... too many emotions... can't take it anymore..." What an embarrassment to womankind.
| Jean-Luc Picard | 70% | |
| Deanna Troi | 60% | |
| James T. Kirk | 50% | |
| Will Riker | 50% | |
| Chekov | 50% | |
| Geordi LaForge | 45% | |
| Beverly Crusher | 45% | |
| Uhura | 45% | |
| Spock | 39% | |
| Worf | 35% | |
| Mr. Scott | 30% | |
| Mr. Sulu | 30% | |
| Leonard McCoy | 30% | |
| Data | 29% | |
| An Expendable Character (Redshirt) | 25% |
Monday, February 13, 2006
ohhh the irony...
Shout-out to old man Yale-dropout Cheney for cementing the world's impression of Americans as rifle-toting, card-carrying NRA members. Bush Learned Within Three Hours That Cheney Shot Hunter, but the American public didn't learn it from the White House.
At least some good humor has come of the event. Jon Stewart interviewed a fake "firearms mishap analyst" who told him, "The vice president is standing by his decision to shoot Harry Whittington. According to the best intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the bush."
And when Bill Gates appeared at a computer security conference in California, he quipped, "I'm really glad to be here. My other invitation was to go quail hunting with Dick Cheney."Loading...
At least some good humor has come of the event. Jon Stewart interviewed a fake "firearms mishap analyst" who told him, "The vice president is standing by his decision to shoot Harry Whittington. According to the best intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the bush."
And when Bill Gates appeared at a computer security conference in California, he quipped, "I'm really glad to be here. My other invitation was to go quail hunting with Dick Cheney."Loading...
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
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