Song of the day

Posted on March 6, 2008 by pgold

I’d like to think that if Sir Paul had had classical music training the end result would have been something like Billy Joel. I fell in love with Billy Joel’s music almost from the moment I first heard it. His work is very eclectic but he writes what he feels and you listen to his music and you know it.In interviews, Billy has stated that he was heavily influenced by The Beatles. You can see this in both earlier and later work, although his earlier work seems to show The Beatles influence more. Songs like “The Ballad of Billy the Kid” and “Captain Jack” and of course the entire Nylon Curtain album I think really show The Beatles coming through. Particularly the Abby Road album. But if there is one song that I think is the most influenced by The Beatles it has to be “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant.” This song almost sounds as if it could have been on Abbey Road. Listen to the medley of “You Never Give Me Your Money,” “Golden Slumbers” and “Carry that Weight” and then listen to the Scenes and you will see that Scenes is constructed in much the same way. Two seemingly separate pieces of music strung together to make one coherent whole. That, I believe shows the genius of both The Beatles and Billy Joel.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGqgZgdkzoc]

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Thunder in Winter?

Posted on March 5, 2008 by pgold

or: We interrupt this blog for a small rant

Early this morning at about 4 am, Avi came into our room and crawled into our bed. This does not happen too often anymore and usually we wither don’t even know because we stay asleep, or we just let him come in the bed, roll over and go back to sleep. This morning was one of those times when I woke up. It seems that around this time there were some major thunderclaps in our area.

Thunder in winter? Say it ain’t so! Whats going on here? Until this winter I cannot recall any thunder in the winter. Apparently, thunder needs a warm area in order to form. The cold ground and snow usually make it almost impossible. According to wikipedia, there are approximately three reported instances of thunder snowstorms each year and they usually are around the Great Lakes.

So what is up?

The powers that be in the united states seem to want to, at best, ignore climate change, and at worse deny its existence. I think that the evidence is quite hard to ignore or deny, but our politicians (with some exception) seem to do just that. I realize that “An Inconvenient Truth” is alarmist and shows worse case scenarios, but even with more conservative estimates, our planet is warming and if we do not make major changes right here, right now, there will be terrible consequences in the future.

Obviously we all can do our part. Change to fluorescent bulbs, recycle better, stop using petroleum products in our home etc. Did you know that most dish detergents are petroleum based? Clearly it is impossible to stop all petroleum use, but we can slow it down. If every American family switched to cfl bulbs, we could reduce carbon dioxide by more than 90 billion pounds.

Unfortunately, while this helps, and will push the inevitable farther into the future, it is up to us as responsible people to make sure our government is doing the right thing. We all know that science has eradicated smallpox and people generally do not get polio anymore. Why not fix global warming? I have no doubt in my mind, that science can do almost anything, given the proper time and funding. What we need is leaders who understand that what they do today will truly impact the future. When it is time to vote in November, I hope that most Americans will keep this in mind.

This has been a short rant. We now return you to regularly scheduled blog.

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Song of the day

Posted on March 5, 2008 by pgold

My musical interests are all across the board. While I am obsessed with anything Beatles, and I love most rock and pop music, I also have a love of classical music. This morning I was listening the one of my favorite pieces “The Four Seasons” by Antonio Vivaldi. This piece is perhaps the most popular pieces of Baroque music, and is notable for basically defining the modern solo concerto (a solo instrument with accompanying orchestra).”The Four Seasons” is actually a set of four separate violin concertos, each being named for a different season. Listen to them and even without any accompanying notes you can tell which concerto is which season.

There have been to many recordings of “The Four Seasons” to mention, and many of them very good. My current favorite (and one of the best) is a recording done by Itzhak Perlman accompanied by the Israel Philharmonic orchestra and conducted by Zubin Mehta. While my preference is for the third concerto, titled Autumn, here are videos of the three movements of the fourth concerto, Winter.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBq4ov5Y_84]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dggfA9Vo64U]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8DzsScxhBE]

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Little Super Tuesday

Posted on March 4, 2008 by pgold

So today our fellow Americans in Texas and Ohio may very well decide who will be the next Democratic candidate to run for President. I must admit that when I did vote last month I was unsure who I was going to vote for right up until I went into the booth.I am a democrat. I vote democrat and I shudder to think of four more years of republicans in the white house. Looking at Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, it seems to me that they are basically the same thing. Their platforms are similar and their voting record is similar. Either one would probably be a fine president. What I think we should look at, then, is which one of them will be better suited to beat McCain in November.

I am not sure what the answer to that question is. Clinton certainly plays the experience card a lot, and she certainly has more than Obama. Will that allow her to win? Maybe. But one thing that I think is interesting. Clinton was trailing in the polls in New Hampshire back in January but when the voting was over, she won. Through the use of exit polling it was shown that she got more votes from women than had been anticipated. I think this is significant in that when people enter the voting booths in November, many women will pull the lever on her name because she is a woman. Will that be enough to get her elected? I don’t know. But it is probable that the presidential election will be as close as the last two presidential elections. Just a few thousand votes can easily make the difference.

I don’t know what today’s outcome will be, but either way, I hope that we will be able to bring another democrat to the white house next year.

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Song of the day

Posted on March 4, 2008 by pgold

Although I am obsessed with The Beatles, I do like other music. Quite a lot actually. My eclectic tastes range from classical music to cabaret and Broadway to classic rock. Today’s song is from The Boss (for those of you too young to know, that means Bruce Springsteen). Being from New Jersey it was almost impossible to grow up without a love of Springsteen and I vividly remember seeing him at Giant Stadium for the Born in the USA Tour. What a show! I am a bit more partial to his earlier music that his latter, but it is all good.

Yesterday I found myself listening to the live boxed set (which is on my ipod). The first song on that set is “Thunder Road.” This song is consistently ranked high by Springsteen fans and is usually on top 100 lists. It is a beautiful song and I love the version on the Live set (I always prefer live music). Here is a link to a good version on youtube.

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Yesterday was a great day

Posted on March 3, 2008 by pgold

Yesterday was a great day. As will be seen here over time, my eldest son, Avi, has been diagnosed recently with ADHD and ODD. Among other things, he has great trouble not getting his way and (relevant to this post) he get very upset when he looses a game. He is seven and the past 18 months have been particularly difficult for us. He is now taking Adderall and so far it seems to be helping. The medicine is for the ADHD, but allows him to focus more and in that way also helps with the ODD.

Anyway, Avi started the Cub Scouts this year as a tiger scout. This month our pack (and then our district) held the annual pinewood derby. Avi and I built his car and he came in 1st for his den at our pack derby (ok, there were only three in the den, so we knew he would get a plaque, but we did not know he would get 1st).

So yesterday was the district derby. The top three for each den from each pack in our district would race. So Avi was now in a race with 26 other 1st graders. Each car races 6 times. Avi came is 2nd for one race, 4th for 4 races and last for one race. So normally, we would expect a total temper tantrum from Avi because he lost, but surprise, surprise, he was totally fine with it. He said he wanted to make a faster car next year. This from a boy who on Saturday threw the Uno card deck across the room when he lost. I don’t know if it was the medication, or his learning good sportsmanship, but it was a great day!

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Song of the day

Posted on March 3, 2008 by pgold

The song of the day today is Piggies by the Beatles. I don’t think that George every wrote a bad song for the Beatles, although this is probably one of the lesser remembered ones. The song was written as a social commentary on class but unfortunately, due to Charles Manson it is often seen as some sort of anti-police song. I think what gets me most in the song is the beautiful Harpsichord and strings. The harpsichord is used most unusually in this song, playing a blues riff amongst others and the music is very fun. Here is two versions of the song. First is the original recording on the album “The Beatles” and the second one is a live performance by George in 1992.

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song of the day

Posted on February 29, 2008 by pgold

I may not be the biggest music enthusiast, but over the past few years, music has become a more important part of my life, both in terms of my listening to my favorite music, and through mkm and my introducing music to our kids. So my goal is to pick a song of the day each day I write. I may not, but I will try and in some cases I will explain why I chose what I did, and other times, just enjoy the music.

Today’s song of the day is, “Because” by The Beatles. Now, before I continue, it has to be stated that I am somewhat obsessed with The Beatles. I love just about everything about them and their music, so the song of the day may, quite often, be a Beatles tune.

I have a playlist on my ipod of my top 118 Beatles songs, and I was listening today on my commute to the city. The playlist is basically in chronological order and this morning I was listening to “Abby Road,” and “Because” came on. This beautiful song, written by John Lennon is so simple in both music and lyrics and it shows The Beatles singing talent. It is a 3 part harmony that is overdubbed three times to create nine voices. Enjoy!

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In the Beginning…

Posted on February 29, 2008 by pgold

With apologies to Dr. Laura (for my blog name) and to God (for the title of this post), I start down the path of blogging. I suppose I just figured that I have some things to say and that maybe someone will listen. We’ll see. In the meantime, I will introduce myself a bit, and over time, I hope people get to know me and my family.

First off, my blog name. I thought long and hard about this (well, ok, maybe only 15 minutes, but it was hard thinking). Ultimately, this will be a blog about my family and my life, and the center of those things is clearly my children. Now, I apologize again to Dr. Laura (who I find offensive, btw) but what better way to describe my life then in terms of my kids’ family.

Mykidsmom (mkm) and I were married on September 10, 1995. We had some difficulties having children at first (including one miscarriage) and we went to a fertility specialist. After a few months of Clomid we did two cycles of my injecting mkm with fertility drugs, and presto, mkm was pregnant. On December 10, 2000, Avi Benjamin was born. Avi was a fun baby (although he did not sleep through the night until he was about 5) and we quickly learned how to become three instead of two. About a year later, mkm tells me one night “if I didn’t know better, I’d say I was pregnant.” Assuming we would need fertility drugs again, we never worried about this. Well, one pregnancy test later, and presto, mkm was pregnant again. On July 26, 2002 Noam Micha was born. Noam was a happy baby and luckily for us, slept through the night MUCH earlier than Avi. Finally on September 9, 2005, Shayna Rina was born as a wonderful 10th anniversary present. Shayna is the happiest child you will ever see.

So that is my family. Seems nice! As I blog along you will learn why I put up that subtitle.

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Hello world!

Posted on November 23, 2005 by pgold

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

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