July 27, 2021

I've been immersing myself in piano music playing with finding pleasure in pieces such as Butterfly by Grieg, La Diva De l.Empire and other pieces of Eric Satie, Schubert's Moments Musical and music of Jules Massanet. I had been concentrating more last month on Beethoven Sonatas including #30 which has a set of variations that are so beautiful. I also tackle from time to time some jazz a different experience that requires rhythm and ability to understand some dissonance. I also have been interested in some of the biographical information about these composers. The issues with hearing loss (Beethoven), alcoholism including Absinthe addiction Satie, and early death of Schubert due to syphilis bring me to see the genius and humanity of their lives. Getting wrapped up on the piano learning the notes and then putting together the tempo, rhythm, and  tonal emphasis has special pleasure for me though I'm not at all ready to perform these works for your pleasure. Too many hesitations and mistakes. The piece such as The Butterflies by Grieg and Le Coucou by by Claude Daquin mimic a butterfly or a chicken so well! 

We went to the visual show with music and narration of Vincent Van Gogh  at the Honolulu Convention Center our second time first was in Las Vegas a few months ago. An artist who led a very troubled emotional life but was focused on his art which was as ephemeral he knew that the canvas, paints and efforts he gave his art would fade over time. Now we have this show a rejuvenated Van Gogh. I read an article about our efforts to have art preserved in our museums and vaults so the ravages of time would not affect them. By so doing we  preserve the art but diminish our enjoyment of the viewing. with music we can attempt to create the sounds, melodies, and development of the piece anew with the score readily available to us to study and use. Recently in Greece authorities were able to find some recaptured stolen art including a Picasso and Mondrian.  The police found the stolen items in a ravine and the officers handling of these precious art objects was the subject of this article.  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/world/europe/greece-picasso-mondrian-stolen-art.html?searchResultPosition=1

So I'm both interested in recreating the music products of composers I value who are deceased and viewing the fading art that exists while enjoying the art that Rebecca creates from time to time and my own pictures of our adventures on the trail. The other day w a few of us tackled a more ambitious hike up a mountain of the north shore of Oahu going onto a saddle to another ridge and then steeply down to our starting point. Besides the adventure and beauty we viewed we shared some of our interests while stopping briefly on the way. I found out one of our hikers is interested in specialized clay pots from a particular part of Japan.  Cooking in these pots may impart some special flavor from the clay which may contain some of the remains of creatures now part of the lake bottom. Since he's learning how to cook for his wife her native dishes (she's Korean) he gave me some information so I can get Oyster sauce without MSG. While we had lunch I shared some about my learning about the Inquisition history of the expulsion of Sephardic Jews from Portugal when we visited Lisbon some years ago at a memorial erected by the government as an apology. Many of the people at that time were accused of being Jewish when they were not just so the accuser could get their property as a reward for turning them into the government to be executed. Spain recently institutes a procedure for descendants of expelled inquisition Sephardic Jews to apply for citizenship if they could prove their ancestry and pass a language and citizenship test. I came across a recent article about how now many people who applied now were denied this right of return without valid reasons seemingly. Some of these people were trying to escape to safer Spain. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/world/europe/many-of-spains-sephardic-jews-still-waiting-for-citizenship.html?searchResultPosition=1 One of our group then shared her life experiences in which she witnessed terrible atrocities and barely escaped with her life while living in Iran when the ayatollah returned and sanctioned massacres of people unless they converted to Islam. Stunned we were witness with her to these horrible experiences. So challenged we hiked with beautiful vistas on steep muddy overgrown trails, We had our lunch and then were able to be witnesses to horror and managed to get back to our cars in one piece satisfied. Afterwards we enjoyed eating tacos at a outlet. https://www.flickr.com/photos/leonardsjacobs/albums/72157603520494610 

I'm partway through a book The Enigma of Reason by Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber. Why do we do what we do, think and make conclusions about various issues, and explain to ourselves and others why we believe and act the way we do? So far in the book the authors suggest that the reasons have more to do with our social connections and group affiliations than with logic and cognition. To me I'm torn since I do understand very well that explanations of history and of actions that we all can see in recorded media in our daily news can have such disparate interpretations and understanding. The news media and many observers who experienced the events of January 6 insurrection at the capital characterize the reasons directly to President Trump, his rally that day, his attempts to invalidate our election results, his continual lying and manipulation of his office of the presidency for his own person aims to stay in power. Yet others view the same events as due to left wing socialist and communist agitators on the tear while the righteous republicans were just touring the capitol. The election to them was full of voter fraud which needs to be remedied by changing the voter laws of the states. 


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/us/jan-6-inquiry.html?referringSource=articleShare https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/july-26-2021 The effects of these changes disenfranchises many voters so the civil war which was some thought was decided so long ago remains in doubt. Well, if our reasons may be social and parochial so to differ means you may be ostracized or worse so you best hunker down. In the book, the authors mention the bystander effect. Have a person in a room who is told he is being administered a questionnaire as part of a psychological study.  While he or she is completing the questionnaire in the next room all of a sudden there's a commotion of noises portraying someone falling and grunting as if in a accident.  70% of the subjects go a see what they could do. Now place another person in the same experiment room also filling out the questionnaire. While the commotion occurs next door the other person appear unfazed and even comments that probably everything is O.K. Only 7% went to investigate. Kitty Genovese was brutally murdered in 1964 while many of her neighbors heard her screams and cries for help no one came to her aid. My friend told me that when her muslim attacker came to her house and had a knife to her throat she told him that 'he could kill her but if he did he would be murdered by her mentor who knew what was going on and had some power of retribution. Her would be executioner left her alone that day.  

Maybe for some the bystander effect and hunkering down will be their response. A Caucasian woman farm owner discovered documents of slaves her forebears had on the farm. She went to a support group  of Black farmers and asked them to help her find a way to somehow redress the horrors' of slavery of the past.  She continues the dialogue. Another plantation owner did this.  https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/magazine/building-the-first-slave-museum-in-america.html?searchResultPosition=1

To add to my list of information confusion this article should tickle your interest. On one hand the artricle mentions how a few very skilled propaganda artists can influence the masses i.e. vaccine efficacy with misinformation for their profit.  COVID science and government agencies and recommendations are also subject to scrutiny in this article so keep posted for more confusions! https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/opinion/covid-health-misinformation.html?searchResultPosition=1

Well, I do believe that I can look at information see some of the biases when obvious. Look more closely at the issues and make conclusions that are valid. Nevertheless, I'm increasingly aware that information can be generated to influence unsuspecting people to endorse views and buy products of little value through media manipulation, algorithms that pandor to our interests, and propaganda that influence the unsuspecting or ignorant. Hopefully those readers of mine are not included. 

Hiking Photographs

https://www.flickr.com/gp/leonardsjacobs/1442px


Leonard 



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