Listening to Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

It's been forever since I last blogged. I'm all settled in, and classes started last week. I'm living in a three-roomed double (four rooms if you count the bathroom) with my roomie Matt. It's a really nice setup, but we're still unsure what we want to do with the common room, since we have all our furniture in our respective bedrooms. Matt joked about getting a kiddie pool and a garden hose and having our own hot tub in the common room. Any suggestions? Anyway, here's a pciture of my room that my friend/slave Jerome took.

I just came back from buying a history textbook that is ridiculously overpriced. It's a pretty small soft-covered book that has fewer than 700 pages but costs over $70. Plus, it just means extra reading for me. :-p THe book publishing industry should learn something from the RIAA. I mean one of the main reasons Kazaa is so successful is because CD prices are so high. I mean if they were half as much as they cost now, I probably wouldn't download anything off Kazaa. Many critics of the RIAA blame the success of P2P filesharing on the RIAA. and the critics certainly have reason to say that. I think the publishing industry should get a message from all this. With all the developments in electronic paper (or whatever it's called) technology, it won't be long before books/newspapers are digitized, and such digitization can lead to massive piracy as well. I mean they don't see it as a problem now, since books are still the dominant medium, but I'm sure the RIAA also overlooked MP3s in the same manner.

I was talking with Keira on AIM yesterday, and we started talking about her younger sister. One thing that really struck me was how much a person doesn't appreciate something until it's passed. FOr example, Linnea has a habit of imitating those around her in many ways, and it seems that behavior is very bothersome to others. I mean my brother used to do the same thing, but that's also something you really must appreciate. Once they grow up and be themselves, heck, you can bet they won't imitate you anymore; they won't even listen to most of the stuff you tell them. *sigh* Well, I should go do some history and econ reading...... :(

Listening to Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 'From the New World'

I was listening to my "new" used Brahms 4 record yesterday, and it hit me how much records/tapes/CDs really changed music. For example, reading the description on the cover of the LP, it seems like people in Brahms times erally got a lot more out of one listening of his piece than can most people today. Now I don't know if I'm fairly representing the eras, but it seems when I go in to watch a performance of a piece I've never heard, I don't worry about catching every detail, because I know I can easily purchase the CD if I like hte piece. That's not to say I fall asleep during the performance; I still pay attention adn think about the structure and stuff, but it just doesn't seem like I can get as much out of it and understand as much of it as people in the olden days. Waht's more amazing is Mozart. I mean, hell, when he was a kid, he went to a performance of some supposedly really complex orchestral piece whose music was forbidden to the public, and Mozart memorized the whole piece, wrote it down at home, then went back to the second and last performance and made corrections there. THe officials caught him on his way out with his manuscript score and thought he was trying to steal one. They compared his manuscript with the real score and basically concluded he was a beast. Then again, comparing anyone's musical abilities to Mozart is a bit unfair comparison, so I'll let that rest.

One good thing I got out of the recordings is I now know my LP player does work. It just doesn't work very well when connected to my receiver/speakers, because hte LP player itself is a stereo and has no "audio out" port, so I'm connecting it to the receiver by its own speaker port, then the receiver had bass boost on, so that reallly messed up the sound quality. Anyway, you can bet that I'll be brinigng the the LP/stereo back to Dartmouth this week. It's unfortunate it generates a lot of static, otherwise, I'd even hook my computer up to it.

Listening to Gil Shaham playing Vivaldi's Violin Concerto in f minor 'Winter' from The Four Seasons.

I was listening to the Four Seasons downstairs earlier today, and in the middle of 'Summer,' my neighbor started hacking away at trees with a chainsaw. THe contrast between the thundering third movement of Summer and the chain saw was very amusing. Winter was even more so, as the storm in the first movement faded in and out in alternating with the chain saw sound. Gil Shaham's being a wonderful violin player and my stereo's being on full blast really enhanced the experience. Unfortunately, a lot of that sound quality is lost through mp3 compression and playback through these not-so-powerful speakers. BRB...

Listening to Itzhak Perlman playing Rieding's Violin Concerto in b minor.

I had an interesting thought while biking today. Do modern society and modern technology really deliver to us more free time and happiness? I mean the example I thought of was transportation, for example. You drive to work everyday to save time and for convenience. However, does it really save time? I mean by driving your car, you still need time to stay in good health, meaning you end up having to spend time exercising and keeping your body fit. You're not naturally regulating yourself anymore. In the long run, did you really save time by driving to work and exercising at another time, over just biking to work and having some extra time during the weekends. Driving to work also causes problems associated with car accidents (the chances are probably a lot lower if everyone bikes), car breakdowns, congestion, fuel, and pollution (a big long-term problem). I say this, but I'm still a bit of a hypocrit by getting a ride from my dad to work everyday. However, it is making hte most out of an unsavable situation, as it's nearly impossible to convince my father to start riding his bike to work everyday, so I might as well hop on his car to work.

Listening to nothing. (Hey, it's early in the morning, and I'm about to leave for work soon)

I posted my page dedicated to my family's trip to Yellowstone. I was rushing last night to get it up and running, hence my absence from blogging, but rest assured, I'll be blogging/commenting again tonight. Anyway, the page is found on http://www.dartmouth.edu/~moliluo/ under "Pictures" and in the "Yellowstone trip" section. Note that the page is still under construction. I don't know when I'll be able to get the film-based photos up.