Casals and Bach’s Cello Suites About a week ago I got interested in Bach’s cello suites. I started with Rostropovich’s EMI 1995 recording. The sound was beautiful, but the music was bland, entirely not what I expected from Bach as interpreted by Glenn Gould on piano and Jascha Heifetz on violin. Then I listened to Yo Yo Ma, Pablo Casals, and Pierre Fournier. That’s when I discovered Casals for myself. […]
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“The Nature of Order: The Phenomenon of Life” by Christopher Alexander
Living Centers Centers arise in space and each center has life to a certain degree. It is not inherent in the center by itself, but is a function of the whole configuration in which the center occurs. The life of one center is increased or decreased according to the position and intensity of other nearby centers. The centers are the fundamental elements of the wholeness. Fundamental Properties of Life The […]
Read more“The Homecoming” by Harold Pinter
When asked what his favorite play was, Harold Pinter would always say it was the Homecoming. “I like the shape of it. It has a kind of authority which I enjoy”. The scene is set in a family house. The family consists of a butcher (father), a boxer (brother), a pimp (brother) and a chauffeur (uncle). The eldest son, a professor of philosophy, comes home for a visit with his […]
Read more“The Nature of Order: The Luminous Ground” by Christopher Alexander
From the Ground Up A mind-boggling work. I don’t know of any other works that provide a more coherent and meaningful worldview framework in which questions about matter, space, beauty, inspiration, value and even life itself are answered, or at least can be discussed. Ever the architect-builder, Alexander dug deep to reach the Ground on which he was able to build a framework that bridges the gaps between science, art, […]
Read more“Celebration and The Room” by Harold Pinter
The first (The Room) and the last (Celebration) plays that Harold Pinter wrote. Never a dull moment in them. Celebration is a “savage farce”, as Pinter himself put it. The scene is set in an upscale restaurant, where a middle-aged couple celebrates their wedding anniversary. The dialogues are revealing at times, hilarious at others, engaging throughout. The Room, on the other hand, is somewhat subdued. The scene is set in […]
Read more“Ashes to Ashes” by Harold Pinter
I first read about Ashes to Ashes in Harold Pinter’s Nobel lecture “Art, Truth and Politics“, in which Pinter revealed the origin of the play, an image. “Ashes to Ashes, on the other hand, seems to me to be taking place under water. A drowning woman, her hand reaching up through the waves, dropping down out of sight, reaching for others, but finding nobody there, either above or under the […]
Read more“A Place of My Own” by Michael Pollan
A librarian lady recommended this book to me, saying “He is a good writer. If you like Christopher Alexander’s books, you’ll like this”. She was right. This book is a delightful read, packed with humor and thoughtfulness. Pollan tells the story of how he built a writing hut from the ground up with the help of an architect and a carpenter, weaving into the account the history of architecture, the […]
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