Month: September 2005

I was checking out AOL Radio today and realized that it has all of the old Netscape Radio stations, including one of my very favorites, the 20th Century Classical Music station. I think of all the modern music radio resources on the internet, this is the one which most often plays music I find myself interested in, and often plays music I feel like I should know. It’s nice to come across this station again after so long and it’s a welcome change of listening pace. =)

Yesterday here in San Francisco was the second year they held Love Parade. This year seemed much bigger in all respects in comparison to last year, including more floats, bigger name DJ’s from around the world, and larger crowd. The parade route last last year went down the Embarcadero and ended up by SBC Park down by the water, while this year’s parade had a more prime route in my opinion, going down Market and ending up and taking over all of Civic Center.

Last year I only walked along with the parade from the beginning to the end of the parade route, which was a very nice time we had, as the weather then was absolutely gorgeous. This year, the weather was also beautiful, and besides walking and dancing along with the parade route I also went to the Cvic Center where the floats were all stationed along the perimeter. It was a bit more than overwhelming there, I have to say, to be amidst so many different sound sources. We went float to float, and as you got near to one it would be loud enough such that you could dance along and get into it, but when you went away from one you wouldn’t escape any sound really but put yourself amongst a number of different sound fields. Strangely disorienting after a while, not to be able to hear silence, the constant beat of one or another music, all in the context of Civic Center with City Hall right there in the background.

After a few hours of that, trying to dance and still deal with my backpack, hours and hours of sun light, and realizing it’s been a while since I went out dancing, we all called it a day and I walked back home. Amazing how quiet it was just immediately leaving Civic Center and moving onto Van Ness. I found myself walking back home, more than a bit tired, and feeling a distance between myself and the dance music growing, in more ways than one. I never did get to see the DJ’s I had wanted to see, but that’s alright. I still enjoy listening to dance music here and there, and still enjoy dancing, but life a bit quieter seems to suit me just nicely.

(I’m still looking forward to seeing LTJ Bukem on Thursday though, and compared to the information overload of Love Parade, it should be a nice relaxing time to just dance and enjoy the night away.)

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Today was the last day of two weeks of doing my civic duty serving on a jury. I found that serving on a jury was very interesting and seeing the legal process unfold gave me an appreciation how law works here in America. I also think the jury I served with did a fantastic job of being impartial and fair in weighing and considering all of the evidence.

Besides jury, I had been doing work for work in my hours after finishing with court each day, worked on editing the Csound Journal, and also spent time with family from out of town this past weekend. All in all it’s been quite an exhausting and busy two weeks. Somehow my personal life felt very much on pause until today, and although the experiences of the past two weeks have been very informative and experiences to remember, I’m glad now to be resuming life, catching up with the things that have fallen by the wayside, and once again focusing my thoughts back to music and living life.

This past Saturday, Lisa and I met up with our friend Nick to watch Wong Kar Wai’s 2046, which I think we were all pretty blown away. Visually the movie is just gorgeous, and the story was really fascinating. I think I appreciated very much how the story wasn’t so obvious, how it all really interweaved together between the many characters, and how there was room to explore the characters and the story with the imagination. I also really liked how there was such an attention to details, and how subtle many of them were, really enhancing aspects of the characters and story in a very elegantly done way. We all also liked the music and use of (and sometimes the non use of) sound.

All in all, a very beautiful and touching film. I’m looking forward to whenever next I’ll be able to see this film, as well as exploring Wong Kar Wai’s other films.

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