Pati's Moment in Time

The Glass Effect

2012-02-10T12:26:00.000-05:00

We all know the rap against Philip Glass, who turned 75 on Jan. 31: His music all sounds the same. It’s repetitious to the point of tedium, and beyond. He’s “less craftsman than musical trucker, tirelessly eating up the road,” as Justin Davidson would have it in New York magazine.

All of this is true to varying degrees, and I learned long ago that you can’t dismiss someone’s opinion as “wrong.” But you can argue against such simplifications as “wrong-headed,” and that’s what I plan to do.

Though nowadays he’s hardly the “minimalist” that he was accused of being when he started off in the 70s, Glass will always be most famous for those endlessly repeating arpeggios that entered the public consciousness at large via Godfrey Reggio’s 1982 film Koyaanisqatsi. And while this remains one of the most perfect marriages of music and film on a purely elemental level that I can think of, the music also works just as well on its own: You can let your mind drift along to those alternately pacific and juddering sounds, losing yourself as you would in the best ambient music.

But Glass is hardly just that. Consider “Religion” from Reggio’s 2002 followup, Naqoyqotsi; abetted by Yo-Yo Ma’s mournful cello, Glass has moved on from the electronic burbling to a more mature, “classical” sound that’s as emotive as anything he’s done.

And that’s the key to Glass’ best work: Emotion. Much as I admire Glass’ contemporary Steve Reich, I only occasionally feel the punch to my emotional gut that I do with Glass. Those arpeggios that Glass has repeatedly touched upon can elicit a number of feelings, from sorrow to pulse-pounding excitement to, occasionally, a sense of humor, through speed, variation, and context.

One of my favorite Glass works is his score for Paul Schrader’s 1985 Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. Here he essentially sets up his usual tonal scheme, but plays around with it in a variety of ways, moving from straight orchestral to keyboard-based to bringing in electric guitar for what can only be described as a rhythm that’s jaunty — not a word most short-sighted critics would use to describe Glass — that’s ceaselessly fascinating.

If it’s the movie work that’s made him most familiar to mass audiences, it’s his classical compositions that of course made his name in the first place. Whether it’s the fabled “Portrait Trilogy” of operas — Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha, and Akhnaten – his symphonies, or his solo piano work, Glass has tirelessly worked to produce some of the most evocatively singular sounds in modern classical music. And as for accusations of simplicity or laziness, take a tip from Kronos Quartet founder David Harrington, who recently answered those charges in the Village Voice with, “They should try to do it sometime. Philip’s music requires the utmost clarity of interpretation and sounds and intonation and rhythm of any music I can think of. He creates momentum and mood and a kind of texture through the use of repetition.”

It doesn’t all work, of course; anyone whose discography numbers into the dozens is bound to come a cropper now and then. His collaboration with sitar master Ravi Shankar, Passages, is an idea that works better on paper than it does aurally, and his attempts to orchestrate David Bowie and Brian Eno’s Low just sort of lies there, limp and uninvolving.

But the old boy is still out there working; the 2009 opera Kepler has passages of great beauty, and by most accounts his recent Ninth Symphony is a success (I haven’t had the chance to hear it yet). Casual listeners should probably get themselves a guide to navigate his herculean output — but there’s plenty of room to just dive in anywhere and let it roll over you.

By now whether or not the average person knows the name of American composer Phillip Glass they have certainly heard his music. Either directly, as music in film or in a concert of modern composers, or indirectly — in all the Philip Glass-like scores that so many movies utilize these days. From my personal perspective, there are other “minimalist” composers that I think should be getting a lot more visibility but, for whatever reason, Philip Glass has become the, for lack of a better term, poster-boy for minimalism. Still, I am always ready to defend Glass from his detractors. If you really sit down and listen to the music you will find that it is masterful work.

Glass celebrated his 75th birthday last week with the American premiere of his Ninth Symphony at Carnegie Hall. A piece that was actually released digitally on the morning of his birthday by iTunes. Yes, a bit gimmicky, perhaps. But also, a celebration of a great artist reaching two milestones at once. I have yet to hear the Symphony No. 9, but I am looking forward to downloading it soon. Before hearing it, I’m sure it will sound much like the rest of Glass’ body of work — all of which features short, repetitive phrases, gradual harmonic shifts that are the result of over-laying sometimes dissonant themes, and his idiosyncratic chromaticism.

Here’s the thing about Philip Glass (and maybe a lot of the minimalists in general) — their’s is a music that is sometimes difficult to love. Minimalism comes out of a somewhat strange overall period in classical music. As the 20th Century progressed — and popular music and vinyl records became more and more… well… popular — that which we laymen consider “Classical” began to wane in popularity with younger generations. I think, up until that point, there was really this idea of folk music, which was a regional or sometimes national pasttime, and classical music(ie, orchestral, symphonic, chamber music. opera, art songs, etc). With each generation there was a change in the kind of Classical music they appreciated but there was never such a huge shift as, in the early and mid 20th century, we began to see the emergence of new instruments and new instrumentation that began to have a more broad appeal.

As we get to the mid-century, “classical” begins to become more and more rarified and abstract and esoteric. Fewer people (though not as few as now) are attending concerts of new music by younger composers. Some folks get a little popularity — Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Copland, even Ives — but nothing really captures everyone’s attention. The decades continue and we get expansive amelodic works, we get 12-tone music, we get serialism, and the it goes on. And, to be clear, these are all movements that are worth looking at, but were all growing more and more rarified and abstract and esoteric.

What sets minimalism apart is that it just happened to spring from a very specific esoteric movement: New Yorks Downtown scene. A scene that while esoteric is so culturally resonant that even 3o and 40 years later there was (is) a concept of “Downtown musicians” versus, say, regular old musicians. Glass comes out of that nascent movement in the 1960s. And so there is a cultural accessibility there because it seems very quintessentially “cool” but the music is actually being made by several young, starving, brilliant composers who are really writing and composing for one another and the downtown critics and hipsters (for yet another lack of a better term).

If you’re a layperson trying to jump into the minimalism of that era, you may find it an impossible challenge unless you like being constantly confused. Much of that early music is brilliant but those young minimalists — Lamont Young, Terry Riley, and Steve Reich — were really still inventing this new musical language. Now, in 2012, here is Philip Glass at 75 with some 40 years of work to look at. Sure the early stuff can seem pretty complicated, but listen to the progression over the years. Observe how his music begins to develop fluency and agility. As the decades go by Glass’ music goes from seeming to state “this is new. this is new. this is new” to stating “this is new. this is beauty. this is humanity.”

Which is, of course, the goal of all art. Right?

To sum up, the situation is usually reversed for composers. They tend to start their careers making music that would be considered conventional and accessible in the age in which they live and, if they are truly innovative, they grow to be more different, more strange, and more complex. Yes, usually, you need to start at the early stuff and work your way up to their later pieces in order to understand what you hear. With Glass, it is queerly opposite that. With Glass, a person is more like to find his later works more fluent, more accessible, and more “conventional.” Listen to something like 1979′s SatyaGraha – this first Glass Opera I ever heard — and you cannot deny the brilliant musicality and the graceful drama of the piece. Or even 2010′s Waiting For The Barbarians, same thing. If you use those as launching pads into Glass’ work, you’ll probably have a much easier time with something like 1+1 or Music In Fifths.

Also, it will be very easy to see why we celebrate the artist in his 75th. Why we welcome the new 9th Symphony. And why we hope he has may hale and productive years left in him. The more he lives, the more he works, the more we hear: the more we understand

Images

2012-02-01T22:34:00.000-05:00

Chant: “(Advocatam) Llibre Vermell de Montserrat”

2012-01-31T19:18:00.001-05:00

George Eliot on new music

2012-01-30T21:07:00.002-05:00

"Those who are familiar with the history of music during the last forty or fifty years, should be aware that the reception of new music by the majority of musical critics, is not at all a criterion of its ultimate success. A man of high standing, both as a composer and executant, told a friend of mine, that when a symphony of Beethoven's was first played at the Philharmonic, there was a general titter among the musicians in the orchestra, of whom he was one, at the idea of sitting seriously to execute such music! And as a proof that professed musicians are sometimes equally unfortunate in their predictions about music which begins by winning the ear of the public, he candidly avowed that when Rossini's music was first fascinating the world of opera-goers, he had joined in pronouncing it a mere passing fashion, that tickled only by its novelty. Not indeed that the contempt of musicians and the lash of critics is a pledge of future triumph: St. Paul five times received forty stripes save one, but so did many a malefactor; and unsuccessful composers before they take consolation from the poohpoohing or 'damnation' of good music, must remember how much bad music has had the same fate, from the time when Jean Jacques' oratorio set the teeth of all hearers on edge."

— "Liszt, Wagner, and Weimar," 1855

INUKSUIT by John Luther Adams

2011-12-31T11:54:00.001-05:00

On February 20, 2011, the Park Avenue Armory's inaugural Tune-In Festival concluded with an historic performance of John Luther Adams' epic composition for large percussion ensemble, "Inuksuit." As he described it during the pre-performance discussion, he conceived the work originally for outdoor performance, using an ensemble as large as 100 musicians. This first indoor performance, of 78 musicians, exploited the vast space of the Armory (along with its attached formal rooms), while encouraging open wandering by the unseated audience.

Filmed and edited by H. Paul Moon / Zen Violence Films |http://www.zenviolence.com

Canine Perspectives: Jonathan Harvey

2011-11-21T22:20:00.001-05:00

BirdConcerto with Pianosong was recorded at the Warsaw Autumn Festival on 19September 2009,
by Polskie Radio.
Sound Projection EWA GUZIOLEK-TUBELEWICZ
Editors JONATHAN HARVEY, IAN DEARDEN for Sound Intermedia

Other Presences and Ricercare una melodia for oboe and for cello were recordedin Hall One, Kings Place on 3 October 2009, by BBC Radio 3.
Producer PETER MEANWELL
Digital editing IAN DEARDEN for Sound Intermedia

Mastering RICK CAMPION
Executive Producer for NMC COLIN MATTHEWS
Cover image & graphic design FRANCOIS HALL

Bird Concerto with Pianosong (P) 2011 Polskie Radio
Ricercare una Melodia for oboe, Ricercare una Melodia forcello, and Other Presences (P) 2011 BBC.
© 2011 NMC Recordings Ltd

Personal Note: Abby the lab listens to this very attentively, I wonder if she wonders. .

Sample a couple of pieces: http://www.nmcrec.co.uk/recording/bird-concerto-pianosong#1

When The Unexpected Happens . . . .

2011-10-30T00:38:00.001-04:00

Fist snow - Fall 2011, a photo by Pati's Moment in Time on Flickr.

Embracing the beauty of change

Megan Suttles - Constellation in a Room

2011-09-16T22:36:00.000-04:00

Megan Suttles Art

Currently on display at the Governors Island Art Fair

Through September 30th 2011

Stephen Woods - Art Works

2011-09-11T21:47:00.000-04:00

Untitled

Stephen's bubble prints are just amazing, I stumble into his exhibit room at the Governors Island Art Fair on the first weekend of September - I purposely descided to walk through the exhibit areas without a guide - allowing my eye to guide me - I had the pleasure of meeting Stephen then, he walked me through his installation and the prints and collages he had on display, this one stopped me on my tracks. Since then I had the honor of photographing Stephen's studio and the many different versions of these.

A very promising artist in NYC Stephen not only has created installations that tickled the imagination but these new print works are just amazing. I loved them.

For more information on Stephen's Art visit: ps1.org

And Stephen Woods dot com

©Pati-G 2011

In the Quietness of the Storm

2011-08-27T12:56:00.003-04:00

Photo by Alex Ross

I AWAKE - Live - Hawaii & Seattle May 2011 by I Awake

Neo ambient producer Thomas Huttenlocher crafts his way through astral soundscapes and parallell lives, blending styles and flavors in search of the very moment. His music often combines celestial emotions, tribal rhythms and an ever present sense of adventure. As one of the key figures in the swedish Ghostfriend-posse, he is sure to deliver dimensions of audioneural beauty into our world. Ghostfriend focuses on Dreamy Alternative music, as an oasis in our modern day and age. "We need our kith and kin to enter even deeper into this world to spiritualize our dimension with mere concious presence. The auspicious awakening of the species is unstoppable. We are so many wakened ones already, and lucidity is most wonderfully contagious. We are all about tuning in, not dropping out."

I Awake uses music to explore a world of organic materia and synthesized ghosts.
These are soundtracks for the urban Jedi and the modern knight.

http://www.myspace.com/iawake

Re: ECM

2011-08-18T21:17:00.001-04:00

Ricardo Villalobos: electronics

Max Loderbauer: electronics

Berlin-based DJs and composers Ricardo Villalobos and Max Loderbauer - two of the best-known names in contemporary electronica - share their admiration for music on ECM in a unique double-album of specially-created “sound-structures”. Their project “Re: ECM” will bring the label’s music to a new listenership. It is certain to be one of the most talked-about albums of the season. Using original ECM recordings as a starting point, Villalobos and Loderbauer create new music that bridges several worlds, including ECM’s world of space-conscious improvisation and composition and the worlds of ambient electronics and minimal techno. Source materials on “Re: ECM” include recordings of Christian Wallumrød, Alexander Knaifel, Louis Sclavis, John Abercrombie, Bennie Maupin, Arvo Pärt, Wolfert Brederode, Paul Giger and more - looped, sampled, remixed and reworked in evocative new treatments. Pleased with the duo’s creative response to his productions Manfred Eicher gave them carte blanche to carry on experimenting with the ECM titles of their choice. Eicher subsequently supervised the mastering of “Re: ECM” in Munich, completing a unique sonic experience.

Tracklist

DISC 1

01 Reblop (ECM 2118 Fabula Suite Lugano) 8:20

02 Recat (ECM 2005 The Zoo Is Far) 7:15

03 Resvete (ECM 1763 Svete Tikhiy) 11:40

04 Retimeless (ECM 1047 Timeless) 4:29

05 Reemergence (ECM 1312 Emergence) 9:49

06 Reblazhenstva (ECM 1957 Blazhenstva) 7:40

07 Reannounce (ECM 1954 L'imperfait des langues) 6:36

08 Recurrence (ECM 2004 Currents) 7:20

09 Requote (ECM 2118 Fabula Suite Lugano) 4:06

Total duration: 67:15

DISC 2

01 Replob (ECM 2118 Fabula Suite Lugano) 4:23

02 Reshadub (ECM 1681 Ignis) 10:41

03 Rebird (ECM 1921 Tati) 4:34

04 Retikhiy (ECM 1763 Svete Tikhiy) 6:27

05 Rekondakion (ECM 1655/56 Kanon Pokajanen) 6:28

06 Rensenada (ECM 1043 The Jewel In The Lotus) 10:42

07 Resole (ECM 1763 Svete Tikhiy) & (ECM 1731 Amicta Sole) 13:25

08 Redetach (ECM 2005 The Zoo Is Far) 10:40

Total duration: 67:20

Project

“Immersing oneself in the productions of ECM, one learns a lot about the optimum sound experience. We too have the paramount rule of making no compromises where sound is concerned.”- Ricardo Villalobos and Max Loderbauer.

“Re: ECM” presents sound-structures by Ricardo Villalobos and Max Loderbauer based on ECM recordings by Christian Wallumrød, Alexander Knaifel, John Abercrombie, Miroslav Vitous, Louis Sclavis, Wolfert Brederode, Paul Giger, Enrico Rava/Stefano Bollani/Paul Motian, Arvo Pärt and Bennie Maupin.

Developed and produced at Laika Studio in Berlin in the autumn of 2009, this double album is the outcome of a long engagement with the label’s music on the part of Ricardo Villalobos. The Chilean-born electronic music producer and DJ, a long-time follower of Manfred Eicher’s jazz and new music productions, began experimenting several years ago with the integration of ECM titles into the flow of his DJ-sets in the clubs.

“It started with Arvo Pärt’s ‘Tabula Rasa’ and went on with music of Alexander Knaifel and others”, he recalls. Watching the dancers on the club floor, Villalobos concluded that “if one combines the functionality of reduced electronic structures with the living textures of ECM productions, it ignites new passions on a subliminal level….The most important thing is to harmonize these two worlds, without them aspiring to mutually deactivate each other, to keep both – the organic and the electronic – in balance.”

A curious coincidence

2011-08-16T22:42:00.001-04:00

I was enjoying a croissant egg sandwich and mug of Stumptown coffee at Open City, on 24th and Calvert — Planing to stop by Red Onion Records on my way down to Dupont Circle to have a look at the new selection of records they just received — when the unmistakable sounds of a descending chromatic bass line filled the air, courtesy of Astor Piazzolla on the PA. I made a mental note to look for a video to post on my blog. When I got to my computer, I found an e-mail from my friend Levchev, suggesting that I post a Yo-Yo Ma video of Piazzolla's "Libertango." There are other Piazzolla pieces of the lamento type. Above is a furious live version of his "Michelangelo," live in Brazil in 1985, in which you hear both ascending and descending chromatic patterns. (At 0:30 you almost hear a quotation from the Scherzo of Dvořák's New World.) Ljova has a lovely lamento of his own: "Szeki."

Verses of the day

2011-08-16T22:29:00.000-04:00

Now days are dragon-ridden, the nightmare
Rides upon sleep: a drunken soldiery
Can leave the mother, murdered at her door,
To crawl in her own blood, and go scot-free;
The night can sweat with terror as before
We pieced our thoughts into philosophy,
And planned to bring the world under a rule,
Who are but weasels fighting in a hole.

— Yeats, "Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen"

Progressive Rock documentary Romantic Warriors to air on PBS

2011-08-10T12:58:00.000-04:00

Progressive Rock documentary Romantic Warriors is set to air on PBS throughout the USA. The documentary focuses on a number of different groups throughout the world including Phideaux from the USA, Karmakanic from Sweden, Qui from Japan, Cabezas de Cera from Mexico and many more. To see the broadcast schedule and to check when it airs in your city. Get more info on the film here.

©Pati-G 2011

The White Turtle Under the Waterfall

2011-07-26T22:38:00.002-04:00

The Water Project, a photo by Pati's Moment in Time on Flickr.

The waterfall on South Mountain hits the rocks,
tosses back its foam with terrifying thunder,
blotting out even face-to-face talk.

Collapsing water and bouncing foam soak blue moss,
old moss so thick
it drowns the summer grass.

Animals are hunched.
Birds fly but don't sing
yet a white turtle plays on the pool's sand floor
under riotous spray,
sliding about with the torrents.

The people of the land are benevolent.
Not angling or net fishing
The white turtle lives out its life, naturally.

Pati-G 2011

A Postcard From Within

2011-06-03T11:07:00.000-04:00

The Empowered Audience

2011-05-09T17:40:00.000-04:00

What do audiences and funders have in common?

Michael Kaiser's latest entry on HuffPo explores the changes in corporate funding habits over the years -- the journey from corporate good will toward the arts to corporate visibility through the arts.

The change, however, is a slippery slope, he says:

“How do we create visibility without bastardizing our art? Every arts organization must have clear rules on what is acceptable and what is not when it comes to providing visibility for potential corporate sponsors”.

The same slippery slope applies to the trend toward empowering audiences. Performances are no longer singly focused on drawing audiences into a venue. Presenters, producers, directors and artists are looking for ways to empower audiences. In a way, we're enacting a similar "in-kind" artistic experience contribution from ticket buyers.

And the same question lingers: How do we do this without bastardizing our art? What is acceptable in presenting both an art and an art experience for patrons? What happens when patrons become co-collaborators, co-curators and co-artists?

The questions become increasing important in a digital world where participation is one click away.

I am eager to know how performing artists are navigating and discussing funder and audience shifts.

How are you adjusting to funding challenges and audience participation?

One of the biggest questions I have been asking my fellow artists is what role does the ‘artist manager’ have in their day to day; are they becoming irrelevant, invisible and un-involved?

Funding your art (especially in music) is so dependent on your audience, they buy your music, and they buy the tickets to your performance and in my case, become collaborators, promoters and motivators, why not then take advantage of your fan base, connect and network with them. . . This is just something to think about.

Pati-G

The Record That Changed My Life

2011-04-15T11:20:00.001-04:00

Eberhard Weber: The Colours Of Chloë (ECM 1042)

Eberhard Weber
The Colours of Chloë

Eberhard Weber bass, cello, ocarina
Rainer Brüninghaus piano, synthesizer
Peter Giger drums, percussion
Ralf Hübner drums
Ack van Rooyen fluegelhorn
Cellos of the Südfunk Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart
Recorded December 1973 at Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg
Engineers: K. Rapp and M. Wieland
Produced by Manfred Eicher

Listening to an Eberhard Weber album, one can always count on an immersive experience. This is especially true in his first as frontman. From its enigmatic title and charming cover to its fine musicianship and well-conceived instrumentation,The Colours of Chloë remains an ECM classic and may just be the perfect introductory album for those looking to know why the label was so influential even in its infancy. In a span of 4 compositions and 10 times as many minutes Weber produces a veritable mélange of flavors, textures, and, of course, colors. On that note, “More Colours” gives us just that as Weber’s bass cuts a slow swath of orchestral goodness. The title track features an ethereal synth that swirls into a resplendent piano solo from longtime Weber collaborator Rainer Brüninghaus. “An Evening With Vincent van Ritz” draws from the same palette as the first track, but soon breaks into a run with some inspired drumming and a stellar fluegelhorn solo by Ack van Rooyen, while “No Motion Picture” reprises the spacy feel of the title track and shows Weber at his most profound. Not to be forgotten, Brüninghaus also has some breathing room here and provides some of the more transcendent moments in this all-too-brief journey.

Although a glance at the cover art or lineup may not exactly cry “Jazz!” Weber knows where he and his instrument stand. The music is firmly rooted in the genre’s orthodox structural standby: i.e., a solid thematic framework with plenty of room for improvisation along the way. While compositionally astute, Weber’s greatest strength is his “eye” for sound. His feel for blending instruments is highly idiosyncratic and backed by an obvious passion for music-making. His distinctive combination of bass, piano, percussion, horns, and strings is such that no one instrument or group is ever dominant for too long. Each musician is only as good as his altruism toward the ensemble as a whole. That being said, one cannot help but marvel at Weber’s signature sound at the heart of it all, or at his uncanny playing that walks the line between affirmation and mourning. This album is not to be missed.

Pati-G

Eric Whitacre - Sleep (Virtual Choir 2011)

2011-04-07T23:29:00.000-04:00

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir - 'Lux Aurumque'

2011-04-06T17:00:00.000-04:00

Transcending space and time - recording and performing a true innovation in music.

Playing it UNsafe Composer Journeys: Henry Threadgill Part 1

2011-04-04T22:23:00.002-04:00

Henry Threadgill discusses his piece 'No Gates, No White Trenches, Butterfly

Meet, Javier Moreno Sanchez - Improvisational Jazz

2011-03-29T12:32:00.001-04:00

By: Pati Gaitan

Watching Javier Moreno perform for the first time was an unexpected but most pleasant surprise. He has a style that is very hard to ignore; his body language, facial expression and raw passion draw you in and usher you to the world of sound that emanates from his bass even when he is performing as a sideman.

I came to Cornelia’s Café that night to attend the Gerald Cleaver Uncle June’s ‘Be it as I See It’ CD Launch party. The performance was just amazing. (I will write about this piece of music in a future post) Moreno was playing the bass that night; his solos were so captivating, it was virtually impossible to take my eyes off of him. As I found out later, Moreno started playing the bass relatively late in life (he was 22 when he first picked up the upright bass), though he is an incredibly serious composer. It turns out, Moreno has played with some remarkable people like George Garzone, Gerald Cleaver, Rez Abbasy, Tony Moreno, Joe Morris, and Jerry Gonzalez.

Moreno will be releasing his first solo album this spring, the simply and aptly named Brisa. Javier had a very humble beginning, and with no formal music training before he was 20 he has had to work very hard to get to where he is now. His career has taken him through varieties of music genres — from rock/psychedelic to flamenco — but on Jazz, he’s winnowed away the extras, working many of his complex compositions to their marrow and playing them as a leader for the first time. It’s a beautiful, moving record, and, curious about the propulsion behind its origins, I sat with Moreno to find out more.

So, we connected one day in late February by skype, I was sitting at a desk by a window on a Monday afternoon, my laptop on and a cup of tea on hand. He was somewhere in Bolivia on tour.

When did you first play the Bass?

I started playing music on an electric bass when I was 16, and bought my acoustic bass when I was 22 (He now plays a 15 year old Rumano Nagi Bela Bass).

When did you decide to do an album of your own?
I decided to make a solo album almost three years ago, when I first moved to NY on a scholarship. Somehow, is something that I wanted to do to complete my stay in New York. At that time, I thought I would be staying in NYC for a period of two years. I have now the opportunity to stay here for a bit longer.

Why did you choose improvisational Jazz?

I have liked to improvise ever since I picked up the electric bass. I had a psychedelic rock band, and we were improvising the entire repertoire. It was a lot of fun, but no one in the band had a serious musical education. Soon after that, I started to have more interest in jazz, so I just had to trust my intuition and adapt to different concepts, learning the “formal” rules.

Do logistics dictate much of how you think about music?
Not really, I like to follow my heart when I perform, not my mind.

What does it feel like to perform your own music?
Having the opportunity to play whatever I want with the people I want, creating long improvisational suites in every performance, gives me a wonderful feeling of freedom.

What compels you to make music?
The need for sublimation, the need to be in touch with myself (in practice and composition), and the need to be in touch and interact with my fellow musicians. I need to be calm and to believe in what I am doing at that moment. Minds should be free of egos and contamination. The most difficult thing to achieve in music is a perfect state of mind.

What’s exciting to you about music now?
Probably the fact that you don’t have to strictly decide what style to play. Especially in NY, now there is a very open concept in terms of “Style”, you can find a lot of different people playing in different situations and different kinds of musical settings.

In my musical world with my compositions, the most exciting thing is that I can mix extremes: melody with atonality, piano with forte, fast and very slow...

What’s exciting to you about the group of people who collaborated with you on this album?
It is exciting that every performance can be a totally different world; my fellow musicians really can change the repertoire every time we play, creating almost a new piece of music.

Javier Moreno’s new album ‘Brisa’ is now available on presale.

To learn more about Javier Moreno visit: http://javiermorenojazz.com/

To listen to tracks of his new album visit: http://www.myspace.com/JavierMorenosanchez

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KIZUNA - A Prayer for Japan by Valerio Berruti & Ryuichi Sakamoto

2011-03-17T21:42:00.000-04:00

Universe's Soundtrack | Video on TED.com

2011-03-16T10:16:00.001-04:00

The universe has a soundtrack -- a sonic composition that records some of the most dramatic events in outer space. (Black holes, for instance, bang on spacetime like a drum.) An accessible and mind-expanding soundwalk through the universe.

Janna Levin is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard College of Columbia University. Her scientific research concerns the early universe, chaos and black holes. Her second book – a novel, A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines – won the PEN/Bingham Fellowship for Writers and was a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway award for "a distinguished book of first fiction." She is the author of the popular science book, How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space.

The Coherent and The Convincing (Understanding the Composer)

2011-02-26T15:56:00.002-05:00

I will write this statement as many times as possible in this blog: “I am a music consumer, being part of an audience is one of the most interesting activities I can engage myself in”. I love music and as a music lover it is important to me to know at least the basic principles of music composition, specially on large works of music – not so much that I could compose, even if I had the inspiration, but to know enough, so that the perception of the music I am contemplating is not a haphazard activity but an intellectual achievement, second only to that of the original composer.

Every genuine work of art in whatever medium, stone, color, word or tone, must exhibit unity of general effect with variety of detail. That is, the material must hold together, be coherent and convincing so that the audience takes part of the artist’s logical design. And yet, with this coherence, there must always be stimulating and refreshing variety; for a too constant insistence produces intolerable monotony.

In no art more than music is this dual standard (coherence and conviction) of greater importance and in no art more difficult to attain. For the raw material of music, feeling rhythms and waves of sound, are in their very nature most incoherent. Here we are not dealing with concrete, tangible and definite material which is available for all the other arts, but with something intangible and illusive that stirs emotions and affects mood and perception.

©Pati-G 2011

Listen to This. . . . . . Ryuichi Kakamoto - Rain (live)

2011-02-25T09:40:00.001-05:00

Contemplating with my sense of hearing, I stop and take in every note, every movement on the piano keys - is dreaming while awake.

Pati-G

Listen to This. . . . Steve Reich: Mallet Quartet (Full recording)

2011-02-20T12:44:00.003-05:00

When we move forward in the process of becoming the appreciator of music we want to be, we must take the next step which is the recognition of the chief motive or motives of a composition, and develop the power to follow them in their organic growth.

The ability to follow the growth of a particular piece is particularly necessary in modern music: for frequently all four movements of a composition are based upon a motive which keeps appearing and changing - often in altered form and in relationships which imply a dramatic or suggestive meaning.

When I first listened to this piece, I found it lovely - on second listen I realized its complexity; when I saw it performed live - I was moved, emotionally engaged to every note and every note became a feeling.

Under Close Observation: Listening and Understanding

2011-01-30T12:39:00.002-05:00

The Gathering of the Tribes 067
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

So far from what I have observed, it is evident that our approach to the subject of listening and understanding music is to be from an intellectual side. Music, to be sure, is an emotional art and so appeals to our emotions but these will take care of themselves.

We all have a reasonable supply of emotion and practically no one is entirely deficient in the capacity for being moved by music. We can, however, sharpen our wits and strengthen our musical memories; for it is obvious that if we cannot recognize a theme or remember it whenever it appears, often in an amplified or even subtly disguised form, we are in no condition to follow and appreciate the logical growth and development of the themes themselves which, in a work of music, are just as real beings as the "dramatis personae" in a play.

The would-be appreciator should early recognize the fact that listening to music is by no means passive, a means of light amusement or to pass the time, but demands cooperation of an active nature. Whether or not we have the emotional capacity of a creator of music may remain an open question; but by systematic mental application we can, as we listen to it, get from the music that sense which the composer meant to convey. Music—more than the other arts—demands, to use a happy expression of D.G. Mason, (New York Times 1905 MODERN MUSIC.; Mr. D.G. Mason's Study of the Com- posers from Grieg to Brahms.) that we "mentally organize our sensations and ideas"; for the language of music has no such fixed grammar as verbal modes of expression, and the message, even when received, is suggestive rather than definite. In this way only can the composition be recreated in our imaginations.

For acquiring this habit of mind, this alertness and concentration, the start, as always, is more than half the battle. Schumann's good advice to young composers may be transferred to the listener: "Be sure that you invent a thoroughly vital theme; the rest will grow of itself from this." Likewise in listening to music, one should be sure to grasp the opening theme, the fundamental motive, in order to follow it intelligently and to enjoy its subsequent growth into the complete work.

Partially quoting - Project Gutenberg's Music: An Art and a Language, by Walter Raymond Spalding
First Published March 29, 1909

Night Walk

2011-01-27T11:15:00.001-05:00

Night Walk
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

Winter in the city

The Grammar of Music

2011-01-24T23:15:00.002-05:00

i.e., its methods of structure and of presentation, has been worked out through centuries of free experimentation on the part of some of the best minds in the world, and thus any great musical composition is an intellectual achievement of high rank. Behind the sensuous factors, sound and rhythm, lies always the personal message of the composer, and if we are to grasp this and to make it our own, we must go with him or her hand in hand so that the music actually lives again in our minds and imaginations. The practical inference from this dual nature of the art we are considering is clear; everyone can derive a large amount of genuine pleasure and even spiritual exaltation, can feel under the influence of a strong tonic force, merely by putting ourselves in contact with music, by opening our ears and drinking in the sounds and rhythms in their marvelous variety. The all-sufficient reason for the lack of a complete appreciation of music is that so many people stop at this point, i.e.for them music is a sensuous art and nothing more. Wagner himself, in fact, is on record in a letter to Liszt as saying, in regard to the appreciation of his operas: "I require nothing from the public but healthy senses and a human heart." Although this may be particularly true of opera, which is a composite form of art, making so varied an appeal to the participant that everyone can get something from its picture of life—historical, legendary, even fictitious—as well as from the actors, the costumes and the story, the statement is certainly not applicable to what is called absolute music, where music is disassociated from the guiding help of words, and expressed by the media of orchestra, string quartet, pianoforte, and various ensemble groups. For in addition to its sensuous appeal, music is a language used as a means of personal expression; sometimes in the nature of an intimate soliloquy, but far more often as a direct means of communication between the mind and soul of the composer and of the listener. To say that we understand the message expressed in this language just because we happen to like beautiful sounds and stimulating rhythms is surely to be our own dupes. We might as well say that because we enjoy hearing Italians or Frenchmen speak their own beautiful languages we are understanding what they say. The question, therefore, facing us: how shall we learn this mysterious language so as readily to understand it? And the answer is equally inevitable: by learning something of the material of which it is composed, and above all, the fundamental principles of its structure.

In attempting to carry out this simple direction, however, we are confronted by another of the peculiar characteristics of music. Music, in distinction from the static, concrete and imitative arts, is always in motion, and to follow it requires an intensity of concentration and an accuracy of memory which can be acquired, but for which, like most good things, we have to work at it. We all know the adage that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and that any work of art must be recreated in the imagination of the the one contemplating it. The difficulty of this process of recreation, as applied to music, is that we have, derived from our ordinary daily experiences, so little to help us. Anyone can begin, at least, to understand a work of architecture; it must have doors and windows, and should conform to practical ideas of structure. In like manner, a painting, either a portrait or a landscape, must show some correspondence with nature herself, and so we have definite standards to help our imagination. But music has worked out its own laws which are those of pure fancy, having little to do with other forms of thought; and unless we know something of the constructive principles, instead of recreating the work before us, we are simply lost—"drowned in a sea of sound"—often rudely shaken up by the rhythms, but far from understanding what the music is really saying. As the well-known critic, Santayana, wittily said, "To most people music is a drowsy revery relieved by nervous thrills." . . . .

Music: an Art and a Language

2010-12-29T23:46:00.000-05:00

A 1919 Thought by Walter Raymond Spalding (Music Educator)

Music has no definition, we can rejoice in this. We know the factors of which music is composed, rhythm and sound; and we can trace the historic steps by which methods of presentation and of style have been so perfected that by means of this twofold material the emotions and aspirations of humanity may be expressed and permanently recorded. We realize, and with our senses can appreciate, the moving power of music; but to define, in the usual sense of the term definition, what music really is, will be forever impossible. The fact indeed that music - like love, electricity and other elemental forces - cannot be defined is its special glory. It is a peculiar, mysterious power, quite in a class by itself, although with certain aspects which it shares with the other arts. The writings of all the great poets, such as Milton, Shakespeare, Browning and Whitman, about in eloquent tributes to the power and influence of music, but it is noticeable that no one attempts to define it. The mystery of music must be approached with reverence and music must be loved for itself with perfect sincerity.

Some insight, however, may be gained into the nature of music by a clear recognition of what it is not, and by a comparison with the more definite and familiar arts. Music consists of the intangible and elusive factors of rhythm and sound; in this way differing fundamentally from the concrete static arts such as architecture, sculpture and painting. Furthermore, instrumental music, i.e., music freed from a dependence on words, is not an exact language like prose and poetry. It speaks to our feelings and imaginations, as it were by suggestion; reaching for this very reason depths of our being quiet beyond the power of mere words. No one can define rhythm except by saying that rhythm, in the sens of motion, is the fundamental fact in the universe and in all life, both physical and human. Everything in the heavens above and in the earth beneath is in ceaseless motion and change; nothing remains the same for two consecutive seconds. Even the component parts of material -- such as stone and wood, which we ordinarily speak of as concrete and stationary -- are whirling about with ceaseless energy, and often in perfect rhythm. Thus we see how natural and vital is the art of music, for it is inseparably connected with life itself.

As for the other factor, sound is one of the most elemental and mysterious of all physical phenomena. When the air is set in motion by the vibration of certain bodies of wood, metal and other materials, we know that sound waves, striking upon the tympanum of the ear, penetrate to the brain and imagination. Sound is a reciprocal phenomenon; for, even if there were systematic activity of vibrating bodies, there could be no sound without some one to hear it. Good musicians are known for their power of keen and discriminating hearing; and the ear, as Saint-Saens says, is the sole avenue of approach to the musical sense. the first ambition for one who would appreciate music should be to cultivate this power of hearing. It is quite possible to be stone-deaf outwardly and yet hear most beautiful sound withing the brain. This was approximately the case with Beethoven after his thirteen birthday. On the other hand, many people have a perfect outward apparatus for hearing but nothing is registered withing, which is very sad.

Conbarieu, the French aesthetician, defines music as "the art of thinking in tones". There is food for thought in this statement, but it seams to leave out one very important factor -- namely, the emotional. Every great musical composition reveals a carefully planned and perfect balance between the emotional and intellectual elements. And yet the basic impulse for the creation of music is an emotional one; and, of all the arts, music makes the most direct appeal to the emotions and to those shadowy, but real portions of our being called the imagination and the soul. Emotion is as indispensable to music as love to the heart. Just as there can be no really great art without passion, so we can not imagine music without all the emotions of mankind: their loves, joys, sorrows, hatreds, ideals and subtle fancies. Music, in fact, is a presentation of emotional experience, fashioned and controlled by an overruling intellectual power.

We can now foresee, though at first dimly, what is to be our line of approach to this mystery. One of the peculiar characteristics of music is that it is both the most natural and least artificial of the arts, and as well the most complicated and subtle. On the one hand it is the most natural and direct, because the materials of which it is composed are, sound and rhythm -- make an instinctive appeal to every normally equipped human being. Every one like to listen to beautiful sounds merely for their sensuous effect, just as everyone likes to look at the blue sky, the green grass and the changing hues of a sunset; so the rhythm of music, akin to the human heart-beat and to the ceaseless change and motion, which is the basic fact in all life, appeals at one to our own physical vitality. This fact may be observed at a symphony concert where many people are wagging their heads, beating time with their hands or even tapping on the floor with their feet; a habit which shows a rudimentary love of music but which for obvious reasons is not to be commended. On the other hand, music is the most complicated of all the arts from the nature of its constituent parts -- intangible, evanescent sounds and rhythms -- and structure by which these factors are used as means of personal communication. this grammar of music i.e., its methods of structure and of presentation, has been worked out through centuries of free experimentation on the part of some of the best minds in the world, and thus any great musical composition is an intellectual achievement of high rank. Behind the sensuous factors, sound and rhythm, lies always the personal message of the composer, and if we are to grasp this and to make it our own, we must go within him hand in hand so that the music actually lives again in our minds and imaginations. The practical inference from this dual nature of the art we are considering is clear; everyone can derive a large amount of genuine pleasure and even spiritual exaltation, can feel himself under the influence of a strong tonic force, merely by putting himself in contact with music, by opening his mind and heart and drink in the sounds and rhythms in their marvelous variety. . . ..

Si Loin

2010-12-06T13:29:00.003-05:00

Si loin mon rêve,

Si loin s'élève,

Dans les mers glacées,

De mes souvenirs glacés,

Par delà les obsctacles,

J'entrevois le miracle,

Si lion --- mon rêve

Si lion --- s'élève

---Palabras que puedieron haber nacido en mi mente.

Pati-G

Yo Soy

2010-12-05T22:39:00.002-05:00

Un cielo cada dia, cada noche. . .

Concavas manos cazadoras de la fe de un instante por el mar.

Mas yo, pequena, escapo, dia tras dia,

moche tras noche,

como mariposa . . .

PatiG

Words - ©July2005

Music - Highest of the Arts

2010-12-01T10:01:00.000-05:00

A Quiet Conversation with the Music Critic

It must be lovely to really know music and appreciate it with knowledge. . . . My taste, compared to some and others, has always been a bit philistine. But I sat eating my heart out at your lecture because I couldn't enjoy what I would have enjoyed in those delightful days when I first "discovered" the beautiful sound of key of G.

Your remarks about music seem to lead back to my old idea about a face always being a true index of character: for in that case if you imagined from the music of the soul either of Pärt or of this mysterious fille aux cheveux de lin one would be bound to imagine the face too - not of course exactly, but in the general tone. what type of person is this woman of whom Debussy has been writing? As to the other suggestions the old composers like Schubert or Beethoven, I imagine that, while modern music expresses both feeling, thought and imagination, they expressed pure feeling. And you know all day sitting at work, eating, walking etc., I have hundreds of feelings that can't (as you say) be put into words. And that is why I think that in a sense, music is the highest of the arts, because it really begins where the others leave off.

Thoughts and words being sent out to the void - Pati-G

All I Need To Say Is

2010-11-27T15:18:00.001-05:00

All I Need To Say
Originally uploaded by Boy_Wonder

In My Heart

2010-11-25T12:16:00.000-05:00

There is Music:

By Thomas Tiddler
All Rights Reserved

The Recital

2010-11-24T20:19:00.001-05:00

The Recital
Originally uploaded by Boy_Wonder

I just stumbled into the magnificent world of Boy_Wonder's 365 Project:

For "The Teleidoscope's" Week #2 theme: Music

Music is such a broad theme, it can reveal itself in so many images, so many emotions and routes that it was difficult to settle on just one idea but I'm happy with what I came up with :) I'm so impressed and inspired by all the submission into The Teleidoscope so far, I feel quite lucky to be involed with such a talented group of artists.

It's still strange for me not to take a photo a day, even working on this photo felt weird since I worked on it over the course of 3 days, I'm still in the mode of "photograph/process/post/sleep/repeat". I think that I will most likely do another 365 but I'm still giving myself some time before jumping in again!

Uploaded by Boy_Wonder on 8 Nov 10, 2.02PM EST.

The De-evolution of Music

2010-11-10T18:31:00.000-05:00

I have been searching for an understanding of what I thought is a very highly intellectual concept in music, Minimal Music. I am coming from the consumer side of the music spectrum, and I have a voracious appetite for everything that is different and goes against trends and social concepts. Is a matter of principel for me not to be put in a genre (social or any label) box but to have a playlist as diverse as the world we live in.

As I set on a quest to acquire this understanding and hopefully a collection of recordings by both pioneers of the Minimal Movement and today's innovators of sound and space - I leave you with these two video clips I found inspiring:

Processing

2010-11-01T16:37:00.002-04:00

NGA Oct 31, 2010-1-3
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

I spent hours at the NGA this past weekend. I think I took over a thousand photographs - I realized after shooting for three hours straight that my hands were trembling from fatigue - Yes, I got carried away, but my eyes were adoring everything I saw and my mind was adoring the sound from my ipod - "Moving" by Tony Grey. What a fantastic combination of sound and sight.

www.tonygrey.com

Highsnobiety Project

2010-10-26T16:53:00.002-04:00

Highsnobiety TV: Stroke Urban Art Fair Berlin 2010 from Highsnobiety on Vimeo.

Color That Heals

2010-10-02T20:03:00.002-04:00

The Art of Choor Boogie http://www.chorboogie.com/

Graffiti on Market Street

2010-10-02T19:55:00.001-04:00

Graffiti on Market Street
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

Decal

Swami Russell

2010-09-07T16:49:00.001-04:00

Swami Russell
Originally uploaded by Dustin Diaz

"When words become inadequate"

Photographed by Dustin Diaz

Tonight at the Kennedy Center

2010-09-02T15:27:00.001-04:00

Tonight at the Kennedy Center
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

The Kennedy Center by the Light of my iPhone

Dragon - A NASA Shot

2010-08-31T17:31:00.001-04:00

Collection: STS-131 Gallery

Title: STS-131 Discovery Launch

Creator: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Description: Contrails are seen as workers leave the Launch Control Center after the launch of the space shuttle Discovery and the start of the STS-131 mission at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on Monday April 5, 2010. Discovery is carrying a multi-purpose logistics module filled with science racks for the laboratories aboard the station. The mission has three planned spacewalks, with work to include replacing an ammonia tank assembly, retrieving a Japanese experiment from the station's exterior, and switching out a rate gyro assembly on the station's truss structure. Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Date: 04/05/2010
Source: www.archive.org/details/201004050003HQ
Identifier: 201004050003HQ.jpg

SOURCE: nasaimages.org/luna/servlet/detail/NVA2~79~79~80987~136168

Visit www.nasaimages.org for the most comprehensive compilation of NASA stills, film and video, created in partnership with Internet Archive.

I See Art

2010-08-26T11:30:00.000-04:00

Quito, Ecuador

Aperture - Part 1

2010-08-07T01:23:00.000-04:00

Time is with us and affects us in much more intimate, personal ways -- and photography has proved to be the medium of choice in capturing such moments and metaphors. This is my subject.

William Henry Fox Talbot, the inventor of positive/negative photography, wrote beautifully in 1839 about the medium he invented and its astonishing ability to fix shadows: "The most transitory of things, a shadow, the proverbial emblem of all that is fleeting and momentary, may be fettered by the spells of our 'natural magic', and may be fixed for ever in the position which it seemed only destined for a single instant to occupy." Talbot's fascination with transience has been explored by many of his photographic heirs.

From the beginning of photography, the inventors saw the new medium as having a major role in preserving works of art and architecture. Carefully printed, washed, and gold-toned, the albumen-silver photographs gave the ancient drawings and architecture new, vivid and prolonged life, as well as broader exposure. Printing is sometimes romantically termed "an art preservative of all the arts": photography can be described in the same way.

The appearance of timepieces of all kinds in Western societies, and the way photography has captured them - from Big Ben rising above the Palace of Westminster to make London tick in 1867, (shown above) to Josef Koudelka's ominous wristwatch hanging above Wencestas Suare at the time of Prague '68 (shown bellow).

A related theme is the photography of everyday life. Photography has existed for most of its 160-odd years outside the academy and it has been used for lowly but essential tasks - none more ardently nor more prolifically practiced than the snapshot. Photography became the medium with which generations sought to measure and mark the important moments of common life.

Two of the remarkable, fecund themes here are water and light - how they appear again and again in images of time. One does not need to be a Heraclitean philosopher to find these images poignant in relation to time - its passing, endless flowing and paradoxical promise of eternal inspiration.

. . . a demonstration was planned for twelve noon one day during that August. Apparently the people were frightened of reprisals by the Russians. . . . The wristwatch says 12:20 and the streets were empty.

-Bill Brandt,

I Awake feat. Krister Linder - Inferno

2010-07-28T11:52:00.001-04:00

. . . . This is perhaps one of the most listened piece of music in my library. Krister Linder's vocals rise as if coming from the very center of the earth. Reposting - in memory of the beautiful marsh lands of the golf of mexico that will never be the way they were.

To Music

2010-07-23T12:09:00.001-04:00

The Gathering of the Tribes 164
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

'In the beginning, in a time before the time we measure,
there was a sound; a note that wove itself into everything.
And ever since, all that is born or dies is music.

That same note rings now as in the beginning.'

~ Ole Paus, 'In the Beginning", from Garman

Jaco

2010-07-16T16:09:00.003-04:00

A Book by Bill Milkowski

Heartbreaking, but written with so much admiration and respect for this remarkable man - The fact that Jaco was loved and respected by his peers says a lot of Jaco Pastorius's character.

Here you have a man with a huge soul, who was brave enough to try something new and revolutionary, significantly changing the sound and creating technics never before seen in the industry; just that, makes this man more than a legend and his death more than a tragedy.

Pati-G

[Street scene, Naples, Italy] (LOC)

2010-07-02T12:34:00.001-04:00

[Street scene, Naples, Italy] (LOC)
Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

Color Processing at the turn of the 20th Century - I can only hope to achieve this level style and composition on my digitals.

Self Expressions

2010-05-09T12:45:00.000-04:00

Lights at NGA-27
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

I am a huge fan of Philip Glass' music; I get lost in the mayhem of “Einstein on the Beach” which I was so lucky to find at a vinyl record shop in DC (Red Onion Records). Glass' music has been defined as “solid state, minimalist, classical trance” - perplexed melodies composed in an pseudo rhythmic pace that has a very creative effect on me; I am able to process thought clear and concise when his music is playing in the background.

Having people with the same affinity for music (no matter what genre, metal, trash metal, acid jazz, broken jazz) around me has become an unintentional fact that sustains me and makes me happy . My most dearest friends share their love of music with me this is the common bond that transcends culture, language and race; music acts as a bonding agent between cultures. This was most evident at the Minimal Music Festival I attended in Amsterdam in April; there, performing, was Buganda Music Ensemble lead by A lbert Bisaso Ssempeke Their ancient wood marimba tones that looped over and over had a place amongst Eric Satie, Brian Eno and of course Philip Glass' brilliant compositions. Which brings me to my point, we are all people of one race, the human race we have more things in common than we would like to admit, there is no segregation in music (please prove me wrong).

We all are developing or have developed a style, a taste for life and lifestyle and we tend to gravitate to people with similar lifestyles and tastes (except me). We hold these choices as our fundamental right to life, happiness and self expression; yes, self expression – we have a statement to make, we have only one life to make it and now is a good time to start :-).

I am so lucky I found “Purpose” earlier in life, I can not tell you that my “Purpose” today is the same as it was when I was 17 but nonetheless is a driving force in my life.

Perhaps, I may suggest that, the purpose of life is to forward it by being something, having it make a difference that our unique selves were present. The existentialist says “to be is to do.” Fully functioning persons realize that it is in the productive act itself in which the power and significance of being “individual” is present.

We are all involved in a type of progressive evolution, this is most evident in my music collection. It is only through us, through our uniqueness and production that we, humanity, can become involved in the ethics of growth. The basis of this growth is a belief in action. In some way, each of us has something to offer, some contribution to make to the productive process. Too many of us see ourselves as useless and worthless – and certainly without the ability to offer anything to our world. We choose to be followers rather than leaders. We become conformists rather than have the courage to be ourselves and create newness through our self expression. With this attitude we lose ourselves and in turn the world experiences the lost of us.

“Whatever immortality there is, is assured by a continual participation in the productive process”

It is what we do, rather than what we feel, or say we do, that reflects who and what we truly are. Everything “we do” makes a statement as to our purpose. Because of us, things have become more. Something has been left to significance because “we are”.

I am not saying that we can only find significance by winning Nobel Prices or engaging in world-shaking policies, life-saving exploits or artistic triumphs. It does mean doing the thing which is uniquely ours to do, whatever that may be, and doing it well. We need not be a Satie, Glass, Dali, Jefferson or King in order to give to the world.

Anything that leads to good, to joy, to understanding, to acceptance is significant. It is this knowledge of one's ability to contribute to a universal, continual and infinite productivity, that adds special meaning to our lives and the courage of our mortality.

© August 2009
Pati-G
Patricia Gaitan
Washington, DC

Compelling, complex, gripping and genuinely disturbing

2010-03-11T11:38:00.006-05:00

THE RED RIDING TRILOGY is a breathtaking, neo-noir epic based on horrific, factual events and adapted for the screen by Tony Grisoni (FEAR AND LAOTHING IN LAS VEGAS, TIDELAND) from David Peace's series of groundbreaking novels. The Red Riding Trilogy follows controversial stories revolving around the manhunt for the brutal Yorkshire Ripper. After a failed attempt to crack Fleet Street, a cynical journalist returns to his homeland of Yorkshire and finds himself assigned to report on the case of a local girl who has gone missing. But after her bizarrely mutilated body is discovered, he is thrown into a sleaze infested, nightmarish world of corruption. As the killer's identity remains a mystery, savage events spiral out of control, spanning generations and leading to a shocking climax.

Directly quoting the Los Angeles Times: "The powerfully disturbing "Red Riding" trilogy will haunt you waking and sleeping, night and day. If you survive the watching of it, that is, which is no easy thing.

It's not the five-hours-plus length of this trio of devastatingly bleak modern British noir films that's daunting. Far from it. Strongly made by three different directors with three different crews but using scripts from the same writer and the same cast for its recurring characters, these films are put together with so much ability and skill that the time simply melts away.

Rather, the hard paradox of this project is that what makes these merciless films at times almost unbearable to watch also makes them frankly impossible to get out of your mind. Not only do they create a gritty, compelling world thick with the fetid air of venality, corruption and desperation, but they also periodically traffic in ghastly and horrific torture, sometimes shown, sometimes merely described, but always circling back to a series of sadistic, soul-destroying murders of women and little girls.

All this and more comes from a quartet of intense, chaotic novels by David Peace ("fictions torn from facts that illuminate the truth," he says) that in turn were inspired by events surrounding northern England's real-life Yorkshire Ripper murders.

While each book was initially supposed to get its own film, budget cuts at British TV giant Channel 4 meant that only three could be made. Each novel is named after a year, but when the film title comes up on-screen, the phrase "In the Year of Our Lord" is added, as if to ironically remind us that we are entering a world where godly behavior is going to be difficult to find.

Though the search for murderers is the engine of Tony Grisoni's driving scripts, that's not what the "Red Riding" films are about. With the meaning or even exactly what's happening in specific moments often intentionally unclear, these are unsettling, multi-layered investigations of character and society, described by the screenwriter as akin to "Dickens on bad acid." In this thoroughly corrupt society, no one is pure enough to cast the first stone, but the drive to end unspeakable evil is still a powerful one, even if it runs through fatally compromised individuals.

These intensely atmospheric pieces are set in Leeds and embedded root and branch in what the films present as the brutal culture of the North of England, where accents are hard to decipher, where the cold -- spiritual as well as physical -- gets in your bones and where the motto of the police is "This is the North, where we do what we want." The "Red Riding" title comes from the Ridings, a trio of administrative areas in Yorkshire, with the addition of red likely calling attention to the violence of the murders and the allusion to the fairy tale, reminding us that young girls were involved.

The first part, "1974," directed by Julian Jarrold, follows cocky and ambitious young Yorkshire Post crime reporter Eddie Dunford (Andrew Garfield) as he starts to suspect that the torture deaths of little girls over several years could be linked. His investigations lead him to surly chief detective Billy "The Badger" Molloy (Warren Clarke), powerful developer John Dawson ( Sean Bean), local vicar Martin Laws (Peter Mullan), mysterious rent boy BJ (Robert Sheehan) and the beautiful, haunted young widow Paula Garland (Rebecca Hall). But no good will come of it, no good at all.

Directed by James Marsh, the second part, "1980," involves a second series of murders, the ghastly Ripper attacks on women. The Home Office, worried about the pace of the Yorkshire Police investigation, sends in a key operative from Manchester, Peter Hunter (Paddy Considine), to try to figure out what's going on. He comes up against a resentful, resistant police culture, typified by the sadistic detective Bob Craven ( Sean Harris). "How deep does the rot go?" Hunter wonders. "Who stops it?"

Attempting to answer that question, the third part, Anand Tucker's "1983," follows two characters, solicitor John Piggott (Mark Addy) and top cop Maurice Jobson (David Morrissey), as they both are compelled against their better judgment and even their self-interest to staunch the flood of corruption, to attempt to get to the source of evil that always seems just out of reach.

Though there are differences in visual and directorial style in the three parts, on a first viewing at least they seem all of a piece, more united by themes, scripts and actors than divided by individual flourishes. The acting is exceptionally convincing and adds an air of verisimilitude. It's remarkable to find out that Hall, almost unrecognizable as a North Country Marilyn Monroe type, came directly from Woody Allen's fluffy "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" to this, which must have been the most mind-bending of transitions.

Though the sadism and torture laced throughout the "Red Riding" trilogy is only fitfully present, when it does arrive it is graphic and upsetting enough to make watching this exceptionally well-made series very much a devil's bargain. You take the risk and hope the price you pay is worth it. Which, given the agonizing subject matter, is perhaps just as it should be."

I was breathless at the end of the last film and almost incapable to move . . . such was the effect they had on me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Riding

"Death" (Lynched Figure circa 1934) by Isamu Noguchi

2009-12-08T22:02:00.003-05:00

As I moved slowly through the Isamu Noguchi Museum/Garden, I tried to connect and capture the vision of what the artist is reveling through his work. I moved through the gallery, camera on hand overwhelmed by a sense of spirituality very seldom found - and then I came upon Noguchi's "Death" (Lynched Figure circa 1934).

A disturbing piece of sculpture, yet poignant in the manner in which the figure is displayed. My first impression was that this is not the form of a man who has died, but is approaching the finality of death as evidence by the twisted contortions of his body.

It is as if a photograph had been taken at this man's hanging, and at the exact moment the bucket was kicked out from under him, his image was frozen in time. With his arms, legs, and feet point inward, you can sense the intensity of his suffering.

The cold reality of this image is enhanced by Noguchi's use of an actual rope. This sole figure, suspended in time, struggles for one more breath as his body writhes in pain. Finally, there is nothing left but a misshapen effigy.

As I stood in front of it, I could almost visualize the swaying motion of his body. But it is not the figure that is moving. It was my perception of motion that allowed me to experience the illusion.

The rudiments of the sculpture exhibited by Noguchi are a wooden scaffold placed horizontally at the top. The rope that hangs from it is simply looped around the man's neck. There are four vertical poles attached to an X-shaped base. The structure itself is rectangular in shape.

The feet are swept upward in a yoga-like position, making the knees jut out past two front poles on both sides of the sculpture. His arms turn inward and cause his right elbow and left hand to protrude past the front poles. Noguchi ingeniously took part of this figure out of confinement and placed him in your space. This makes you aware of the torment that lies within.

Noguchi sculpted according to his understanding of people and the world around him. Although some of his works are abstract in nature, they capture the essence of the human condition.

Noguchi's "death" is a profound statement about this human condition; man's inhumanity to man. All of the ugliness and degradation of the human spirit is carved out of metal and wood. The more you look at it, the more you want to cut the rope of injustice.

There is a quote from an unknown author that fully captures the Noguchi experience: "We do not see things as they are, but as we are."

1944

2009-12-04T15:54:00.001-05:00

Chicago, Illinois. In the waiting room of the Union Station (LOC)
Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

Chicago, Illinois. In the waiting room of the Union Station (LOC)

Delano, Jack, photographer.

Chicago, Illinois. In the waiting room of the Union Station

1943 Jan.

1 negative : nitrate ; 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches or smaller.

Notes:
Title and other information from caption card.
Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944.

Subjects:
United States--Illinois--Cook County--Chicago.

Format: Nitrate negatives.

Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.

Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Part Of: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection (Library of Congress)

More information about the FSA/OWI Collection is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.fsaowi

Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8d24901

St Patrics by Albert

2009-12-01T14:52:00.001-05:00

St Patrics by Albert
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

The artist on the bridge. I ran into two artists selling their paintings on the Brooklyn Bridge on Sunday, I bought this from one of them for $10.00 His name is simply Albert-GJ - The original is currently being framed this is a scanned copy - that I want to share with you. You may not agree with me but I think he is a very good painter :-) Thank you Albert.

...When the child was a child, it didn’t know that it was a child, everything was soulful, and all souls were one.

2009-11-22T09:28:00.001-05:00

http://www.wim-wenders.com/movies/movies_spec/wingsofdesire/wingsofdesire.htm

Wings of Desire is a 1987 film by the German director Wim Wenders. Its original German title isDer Himmel über Berlin, which can be translated as The Sky (or Heaven) over Berlin. Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry partially inspired the movie; Wenders claimed angels seemed to dwell in Rilke's poetry. The director also employed Peter Handke, who wrote much of the dialogue, the poetic narrations, and the film's recurring poem "Song of Childhood." The film was followed by a sequel, Faraway, So Close!

Method
The movie was made with a minimal script; it is a mood piece exploring people, the city, and a concept: a longing for and love of life, existence, reality. Peter Falk wasn't meant to be a sketch artist until Wenders discovered Falk's talent. Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander were cast because they were old friends, who had known each other for decades. Solveig Dommartin was Wenders' actress girlfriend; although the circus part required extensive and risky acrobatics, she was able to learn the trapeze and rope moves in only eight weeks, and did all the work herself, with no stunt doubles.
[edit]Cinematography
The movie, shot by cinematographer Henri Alekan at the age of 77, who had famously worked on Jean Cocteau's La Belle et la Bête, shows the angels' monochromatic point of view and switches to color to show human beings' point of view. During filming Alekan used a unique, very old and fragile silk stocking that belonged to his grandmother as a filter for the monochromatic sequences.
The shift from monochrome to color, to distinguish the angels' reality from the mortals', was first used in A Matter of Life and Death by Powell & Pressburger in 1946.

The new market and bourse, Amsterdam, Holland

2009-11-20T15:02:00.001-05:00

[The new market and bourse, Amsterdam, Holland] (LOC)
Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

This photograph was taken between ca. 1890 and ca.1900

A Photomechanical Print: Photochrom, color

Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

One Life

2009-11-01T16:21:00.001-05:00

One Life
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

If there is a theme with which I am particularly concerned, it is the contemporary failure of love. I don't mean romantic love or sexual passion, but the love which is the specific and particular recognition of one human being by another - the response by eye and voice and touch of two solitudes. The democracy of universal vulnerability.

by Isabella Gardner

Photograph by Pati-G

The Wounded by Love Agreement

2009-10-30T14:47:00.001-04:00

The Wounded by Love Agreement

Posted using ShareThis

Sunday Glory

2009-10-25T20:31:00.001-04:00

Sunday Glory
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

I just love walking to Adams Morgan on Sundays - this was taken over the bridge on Calvert Street this afternoon, the first line of a poem I wish I would have written come to mind:

To be in love, however briefly,
Is to be truly wonderfully alive.
Never to have loved is to leave the map of your soul,
Uncharted, unexplored.

©Pati Gaitán 2009
All Rights Reserved

Jetty

2009-10-25T01:38:00.001-04:00

Jetty
Originally uploaded by Pic@

Minimal Interpretation

Tombelaine

2009-10-24T23:21:00.001-04:00

Tombelaine
Originally uploaded by maxhomand

Minimal Photography by Max Homand

Silence

2009-10-22T00:16:00.001-04:00

Silence, washes over everything, it approaches slowly as the sun far beyond the horizon waves its lasting rays to another day. In silence I contemplate the dark shadows of the night, slowly making their entrance in the great ballroom of earth and I so mortal, fragile to the idea of life, waiting for the great revelation of everlasting life; I stand in silence, waiting for that which is . . . . a hope, a dream, you and I in this vast universe of life, so grandiose and so small . . . . . it is here that I stand, it is here that I hope in silence.

Pati-G

©October 2008

From Pati's Moment in Time

Peace - Love - Equality

2009-10-11T23:00:00.001-04:00

Sitting over words

very late I have heard a kind of whispered sighing

not far

like a night wind in pines or like the sea in the dark

the echo of everything that has ever

been spoken

still spinning its one syllable

between the earth and silence. . . . .

Pati-G

Moon Rising.

2009-09-30T19:02:00.001-04:00

Moon Rising.
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

The Rijksmuseum

2009-09-19T00:00:00.001-04:00

The Rijksmuseum
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

Selected by Schmap to be included in their Amsterdam Guide :-)

Pati-G

The clouds

2009-09-18T19:50:00.001-04:00

The clouds
Originally uploaded by Wolfgang Staudt

Ostend is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the largest on the Belgian coast.

Photograph by Wolfgang Staudt.

Hollywoodland

2009-09-03T13:39:00.001-04:00

Hollywoodland
Originally uploaded by Sbaros

under fire

UN Security Officer Deployed on Peace Mural Security Detail

2009-08-28T14:14:00.001-04:00

UN Security Officer Deployed on Peace Mural Security Detail
Originally uploaded by United Nations Photo

United Nations Security Officers provide security near the mural of Peace during the inauguration ceremony of the art piece commissioned by a Swiss artist, designer and sculptor.

8/Jun/2009. Geneva, Switzerland.
UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferre. www.unmultimedia.org/photo/

Street Art in focus...

2009-08-27T14:04:00.004-04:00

Street Art in focus...
Originally uploaded by carf

c215 enthusiastically shares his artistic point of view with Marcus during preparations for the recent photo exhibition in Bergen.

The exhibition was one of three exhibitions organized by CARF in Norway in connection with our recent cultural exchange there.

The internationally renowned street artist, Frenchman, Christian Guémy (c215), also contributed to our cultural exchange event with his own one-man show of incredible stencil street art, of which he is undoubtedly the finest practioner of today. His works for this special charity show depicted some of CARF's kids in Brazil, including Roney.

Marcus recognizes a great street artist when he meets one, having invited the now famously elusive Banksy to Norway almost a decade ago and commisioning several of his artworks at the time, before the artist became an art-world phenomenon as one of the world's most expensive and sought after street artists today.

Chor Boogie's Art

2009-08-16T08:53:00.003-04:00

Chor Boogie's Art
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

Visions. . . . The transforming power of Art in all its forms.

Chor Boogie's Bio

Chor Boogie's Creative Process

Little Steps

2009-08-15T21:42:00.001-04:00

Washington Metro Images
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

Images that make you think. . . . to experience life beyond the real and the expected and move into the unreal and unexpected can be frightening – Today, I took a step from the safe into the unsafe and learned to trust myself, my gut feeling, my intuition and came out the other side, stronger, confident and unafraid to live life to the fullest.

My thought for today

August 15, 2009
© Pati Gaitan 2009
All Rights Reserved

Who Could It Be

2009-08-08T11:16:00.001-04:00

Who could be the moon
be the breeze,
Who could be the sun

Who could be the twilight
the time still
the very moment
of your heart

who could be part
of the quiet prayer
that solitary word
you send out to the void

Who would be the moon
be the breeze
who would be the sun. . . .

Pati-G

© 2009 Pati Gaitán
All Rights Reserved

Photographing Life

2009-06-12T10:47:00.001-04:00

Reflections
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

As unconventional as you may think my photography is - I feel that there is beauty in simplicity. My life's philosophy shows through these and developing my own style and presentation is a lot of fun - I am glad I don't make a living out of this :-)

I am going to be processing my last two strips from my Yashika this weekend - I will try to develop those to resemble digital film. . . . that should be fun and I hope it works.

Pati-G
©2009 Pati Gaitán

Ethiopia

2009-05-11T08:58:00.001-04:00

Ethiopia
Originally uploaded by babasteve

Not yet forgotten . . . . .

2009-05-09T23:38:00.002-04:00

In the darkness of my world there was a lily

there was a lily in the darkness of my world

there was a lily

in the darkness of my world there was a lily

Never should I forget this

in the life of my fatigued retinas

Never should I forget that in the darkness of my world

there was a lily

there was a lily in the darkness of my world

in the darkness of my world there was a lily.

This poem is like a joke and we are inclined, first to smile, yet a moment of thought suffices to restore a serius meaning to such an encounter. It is enought to live truly intensely our meeting with a thing to preserve it forever in our memory.

May 2, 2009

2009-05-02T14:13:00.008-04:00

I am seating at Starbucks in Woodley Park, the window stall provides a good view of the passer-byers - so here I am, 9:30 a.m. and the Zoo traffic is just starting; I am thinking that I should just leave now before the crowds come in, then out of nowhere (or the sky) appears a duck, who tries to fly through the window right in front of me and onto my face! Rumpled, the duck falls to the ground, stopped by the glass on the window and it wobbles away. . . . I, on the other hand, am shaken by the bird's unfortunate navigation and I am reminded of a story I read not long ago; is about a flock of ducks who met their demise on a very rainy night, in a very small town near Frederick MD. With the street lights shining off the rain-slick hot mix, Main Street must have looked like a placid, fish-filled stream, more inviting than the Potomac River had ever been. The first two ducks came in for a water landing, quacking like mad, and broke their necks on impact. Then the main flock came up over the trees, their tiny bird brains unable to figure out why their compatriots looked so odd in the water. The result had been known ever after as the "The Hot Mix Duck Massacre".

The luckiest birds tumbled head over heels, shook their bills in confusion, and flapped off, but a half-dozen others became dinner for quick thinking observers. The rest suffered all manner of injuries. Townsfolk came out. A strange roundup of the wounded ensured. People herded limping, stunned ducks into boxes, captured them under blankets, even shooed them into cars. A caravan had arrived at the one veterinarian clinic in town. . . . so there, that is the story of the "Hot Mix Duck Massacre".

Watch out for low flying ducks you never know if they will end up on your face :-)

Uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time on 2 May 09, 11.55AM EDT.

Tilt Shift Metro

2009-04-30T22:48:00.002-04:00

Tilt Shift Metro
Originally uploaded by Maulon!

Time Lapse in Santiago de Chile

J.J. Abrams on the Magic of Mystery

2009-04-21T14:20:00.001-04:00

J.J. Abrams on the Magic of Mystery

Posted using ShareThis

Love and its many definitions

2009-02-16T10:30:00.001-05:00

Love (2 of 2)
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Sonet 116

Inside every boy there lives a man...

2009-01-15T21:20:00.001-05:00

Inside every boy there lives a man...
Originally uploaded by carf

But not every man lives. . . . .

Music

2008-11-28T00:14:00.001-05:00

In our novels, it is music, among all the arts, that isolates the individual from the society of his contemporaries, makes him aware of his separateness and, finally, provides significance to his life regardless of his social or even personal loyalties. It is the one measure of survival which never fails. . . . .

Holding History Hostage or Being Held Hostage by History

2008-10-17T15:21:00.002-04:00

In many parts of the world, is ever possible not to live a hostage to history. They are all possessed and tormented by it (their history); it simply takes the logic and humanity out of their souls and gives them a heroic stupidity that leads them to adopt and embrace philosophies that on the long run hamper the progress of humanity. . . .

Just a thought!

Pati G

TheMFA _ The Difference it Makes (Superpitcher remix)

2008-08-16T00:11:00.001-04:00

Euronews - Interview - Amin Maalouf

2008-06-18T15:31:00.001-04:00

Amin Maalouf was born in Beirut, Lebanon, as a Catholic Arab. His father, Ruchdi Maalouf, was a writer, teacher, and journalist. Odette, his mother, was from a Maronite Christian family. Maalouf attended French Jesuit schools in Beirut and after studying sociology and economics, he continued the long family tradition and became a journalist.

At the age of 22, Maalouf started to work for the leading Beirut daily an-Nahar and travelled in India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Yemen, and Algeria, often covering wars and other conflicts. In 1975, frightened by Muslim and PLO strength, Christian militias attacked Muslims, which led to civil war. The horrors of war entered Maalouf's own homeland and in 1977 he emigrated with his wife and three children to Paris, where they have lived ever since.

In The Nick Of Time

2008-06-04T18:01:00.000-04:00

This is Northern Italy - as the city prepares for EU voting - The Caption on the poster with the American Indian wearing the feather head dress reads "they faced imigration and now they live in reservations"

Read the full article on: http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displayStory.cfm?story_id=11436623

Spinning Hope

2008-05-26T10:34:00.002-04:00

Like the spider, there are those of us who refuse to stop spinning, even when it would appear to be far more sophisticated to be with out hope. Our hope, thought perhaps frail, can still be spun with optimism, curiosity, wonder, love and the sincere desire to share a trip to the stars. Our goal is worth the struggle, for in this case the star to which we aspire is full humanity for all.

I feel strongly that in the continual striving for actualization of every living thing lies our only hope. This is the unique challenge of this blog and the sole purpose of my writing.

Pati G
Inspired by
Dr Leo Buscaglia

Bella

2008-05-19T22:06:00.001-04:00

On Blue Light
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

Levely one,
with a nest of copper entangled
on your head, a nest
the color of dark honey
where my heart burns and rests,
lovely one.

Bella,
con un nido de cobre enmarañado
en tu cabeza, un nido
color de miel sombría
donde mi corazón arde y reposa,
bella.

©Pati Gaitán 2008
All rights Reserved

I exist!

2008-05-09T21:42:00.001-04:00

I exist!
Originally uploaded by carf

I exist!

“The great art of life is the sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain.” - Lord Byron

Note:
Claudiney is one among 15.000 lost children still roaming the streets of São Paulo.

It is in deepest regret and sadness that I inform you of Roney's cold-blooded murder on the early morning hours of January 16th. May he find peace wherever his journey has taken him.......

Pati's Note:

please consider contributing to this most noble cause. . .

http://www.carfweb.net/changemakers.html

The Quest to Save The Children

2008-05-09T21:15:00.002-04:00

I’m gonna miss you, brother............
Originally uploaded by carf

One person. . . . . two lives

I’m a little lost for words today......., but somehow I need to let off some steam.

My expectations for this year were many and optimistic......, they also included Roney and Claudiney, two of the street kids I have followed up closely during these last few years and who at the beginning of this month had been sent to a drug recuperation centre by court order from the local children’s judge.

I’m still trying to figure out why................???

After speaking to them both over the phone a few days after their involuntary internment, I realized that my trip to the coast to catch a short week of holiday together with some of our neediest kids was not going to be a comfortable one considering that both boys probably needed a lot of extra attention following this rather unexpected decision (my trip was planned to include Roney and Claudiney, but due to the court order of internment they were unable to come along).

Last week on my arrival back home, the local Department of Homicides called me and asked if we had registered any missing children the last couple of days. They needed to identify two young boys who had been found beaten and strangled not far from the small holding where I lived for the first decade of my work recuperating street children. My most uncomfortable memories from that decade were all the dead bodies I had experienced (32 in all) along the dirt track leading up to our home, which seemed to be a historically popular dumping ground since the days of the military dictatorship and obviously continued to be so for whoever felt they had the right to take the law into their own hands.
As I had an extremely busy agenda for the next few days I suggested to the police that they visit a few strategic places with some photos of the victims to see if someone would recognize them.

Offering little thought at all that the victims could possibly be Roney or Claudiney due to them having been interned, on Sunday I went to pay them the visit I had promised before having left for the coast, only to discover that the boys had already done a runaway. I hadn’t really expected them to stay there for long, which seemed pretty clear from the phone conversation I had with them a week earlier, all the more reason for me to visit them as soon as I arrived back home.

Today, the police called again to tell me they had finally identified the two dead kids, but were now trying to find a third missing child who seemed to have escaped the killer’s cold-blooded actions. Roney unfortunately had not; he and another street kid, Júlio César, were the two victims!

There are many things I find so very hard to accept in my work with underprivileged kids in this country. In the first place, I find it hard to accept that street children exist at all in the 21st.Century, especially in a society that is among the world's top 10 economies. Then I find it hard to digest everything that follows as a consequence of this negligence, this indifference, which sometimes makes me feel so sad and today, so sick! I really can’t find the right words to express my anger and my frustrations..........

I once quoted Albert Einstein under one of Roney’s many special portraits in my Flickr photo stream. I think I’ll do so again:
“The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”

Uploaded by carf on 24 Jan 08, 6.21PM EDT.

VIII

2008-05-03T20:16:00.001-04:00

Botanical Wonders
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

And look - a thousand blossoms with the day
Woke and a thousand scatter'd into clay:
and this first summer month that brings the rose
shall take Jamshyd and Kaikobad away. . .

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Thoughts of Mortality

2008-04-25T09:55:00.006-04:00

I have been pondering in the last three years since I left the church, about what I believed or was thought to believe regarding mortality - I grew up knowing that humanity is immortal that we transcend from one life form to another - that we continue to live in either heaven (if you do what you are asked) or hell (if you do not). I have always wanted to belong - to my family, the church and somehow both have rejected me; which leaves me to think that. . my place is the placeless, a trace of the traceless. . . . neither body or soul. . . . I am here today and gone tomorrow; this is the bottom line.

I have lived a full life - experienced in one lifetime a multitude of lifetimes and I know there is still so much more to learn, to experience, places to see, people to meet - I am here today holding on to dear life to what matters, my children, my friends. . . the people who have proven through all my lifetimes to be here for me.

Regrets, yes I have so many, but non paralyzing; they are more learning experiences that have shaped who I am now, I have nothing and hold on to nothing other than the people who are close and near to my heart - everything else . . . . isn't.

This is a voice from my heart to yours. . . .

Bridges of San Francisco

2008-04-17T12:10:00.001-04:00

Bridges of San Francisco
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

The view from a hill . . . .

In Bloom 3

2008-04-05T15:57:00.001-04:00

In Bloom 3
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

You don’t want to be overwhelmed by
the delicious taste of this nectar?
Then smell it, bring it close to your lips
Then let it go. . .

You want to conserve the sweet memory
Of this love?
Then let us intensely love today,
And tomorrow let us part and say good bye for ever!

©PatiG 2008
all rights reserved

Beauty Loves Neglected Places

2008-03-22T22:48:00.000-04:00

Beauty is frequently concealed behind the dull decade of routine. Only when you stop to look will you come upon your own beauty and the beauty that surrounds you. In the neglected crevices and corners of your evaded soul, you will find the treasure that you have always sought elsewhere; your own beauty.

©Pati Gaitán 2008
All rights Reserved

Today I Say

2008-03-22T16:44:00.001-04:00

My Favorit Building in DC Take 2
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

I walked the streets of my city, my monument city, with me my camera, my thoughts. . . and here I took a moment to contemplate the beauty of what makes me happy. . . I am here and it is now that matters. . . .

skagen-north-point

2008-01-01T12:45:00.001-05:00

skagen-north-point
Originally uploaded by Pati's Moment in Time

A solitary walk on the beach on my last weekend in Denmark - this is where all love stories end how very appropriate :) to end a love story facing the endless ocean, you can't help but wonder how wonderful life is and how much we have to experience yet . . . this thought makes me smile - today on the first day of 2008.

Hope is such a wonderful thing.

©Pati Gaitán 2007
All rights Reserved

Guitarra G - G CLUB PRESENTS BANDA SONORA

2007-12-24T09:58:00.001-05:00

Somewhere I have never traveled

2007-12-16T00:29:00.000-05:00

gladly beyond any experience, your eyes have their silence

in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me

or which I can not touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will enclose me

though I have closed myself as fingers,

you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens

(touching skilfully, mysteriously) the first rose. . . .