The road to the utmost beauty and enchantment

The last time I went to the cinema with my family, I had an argument with my kids because, although the film was technically impeccable, I said that it lacked ambiguity. The kids loved the film and were shocked when I started with my "yes, the film was good but...".
 
In fact, that argument allowed me to realize that, in great part, the sense of unfulfillment I get after seeing a movie at the cinema comes from the lack of ambiguity of most current cinema (blockbusters movies, mainly). Hollywood, are you listening? You don't have to explain the whole movie to the public! The intriguing sense of mystery that comes from ambiguity has its own charm and can leave a sweet, enduring, mesmerizing impression (I saw "2001 a Space Odyssey" for the n'th time recently). Ambiguity can be more important than the consistency of the story!

Ok, that happened a few weeks ago. Today, I saw a 2h20m video with Leonard Bernstein talking about "The Delights and Dangers of Ambiguity". My first impression was: "Bernstein! Ambiguity! 2 hours! Wow!" (my second probably was: "He talks! And what a great communicator/teacher/player he is!"; Third: "Liebestod! Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune!"). The video is remarkable for many reasons and leaves important hints to better understand the paths towards beauty and emotion.  The magnificent rendition of Liebestod, maybe the most beautiful piece of music ever written, with its long and difficult progression to the climax, here with the superimposed image of the emotion of Bernstein, dancing and feeling the music, is priceless.  It starts at 1:16:20 in the video, but do not miss the discussion that starts at 59:45.

(I mentioned Liebestod before in this blog. This blog needs to have a valid link to it, because I do not trust my memory enough. Oh,and sorry for my bad english...)

New Song

Memories

Remembering...

... Carlos Paredes. Today would be his 89th aniversary.

Liebestod

"Liebestod". Don't forget this word. If music makes you send chills down your spine, listen to it again. And again.

Joy

This blog is all about freedom.

A word for 2014

"Bullshitics".

New Song Version

Other versions: here and here.

New Song Version

Art and Life (2)

May be what I should ask is:

Is art:
1) a weed (e.g., corn), anytime from the beginning to the end of its life, or
2) a pop corn, finished, ready to be consumed?

Art and Life

After my first album, TRA, the next thing closest to an album will probably be EFIL (I guess). I do not know many things about this would-or-could-be-2nd-album, but I will keep you posted.

Right now I am listening to a diskette with some improvisations I made a few years ago and my urge is to publish everything as is, with lots of mistakes, terrible quality, and so on. And why not? Technology allows it.




So why not?




We see life "as is". The simplest living being is pure art, "as is". Imperfect or perfect, adjusted or not to its environment. Does art need to survive time? Does art need to be "perfect"? Does it need to be "perfect" because it needs to be performed and leave a good impression on the public? Does art need to be "performed"? Or can it just "be"?

(Yet another improvisation, this text. It just appeared in the keyboard. Let's see if I will be ashamed of it tomorrow...)




Life (and art?) just happens.

Christmas in

Yes, Christmas in.

This blogger is the hugely-immensely-super-cali-fragili-etcetera proud winner of the "Best Ambient Techno" category of the Great Sufjan Song Xmas Xchange. Don't know what this contest was? Read about it in the Wall Street Jornal (and don't forget to watch the video - meet Alec Duffy, the winner, and be amused and amazed at the incredible tale of  Sufjan's extremely exclusive song "A lonely man in Winter"!).


"Christmas in a hurry" was the original song I submitted to the contest. Later, I introduced some drums ("Christmas in a hurry, with drums"). Then "Christmas in the blinking lights" and "Christmas in the searching space" popped in my keyboard. The creation process continues, endlessly...

If only I knew more about mixing... (mental note for 2014: learn!)

New Version

Titan's Kiss (2013)
(originally appeared in TRA)

One year ago

One year ago, aweing at the passing of time, I started to publish the "TRA" album, one song per day (freely available in Soundclick and Google Play).
Time passes and things change. In this blog songs have birthdays, hence birthday parties. Sometimes I will give them a candle moment, eventually with some time-shift because time is strange, and we'll see how they get old. Or younger. Time is strange.

Yes!!! This blog has goals!!!

And probably one of them is to provide a cosy shelter for all those lonesome wanderers that serendipitously find this place. Come in, sit by the fire, not too close, and be well.

"Sanctus"

I'm onto it and feeling beatified and beautyfied.

Halloween

Juice is murder.

New song

Happy Halloween!!

Making history

The owner of this blog is proud to announce that starting from today, this blog is now part of a network. It has joined efforts with the prestigious "One Year Blog" that started operating in January 3, 2013 (one post, 18 visualizations, some of them are mine).

This will introduce a new dynamic in this blog, with some hot new features, as you shall see in the near future.

This blog is suffering from a severe case of time shift, so Happy Halloween.