Music in the Spotlight Series

Francisco Tàrrega

Hello Francisco... it is nice to meet you. In the many genres and styles of music that have come and gone there are many classical composers that are famous today. Really it is amazing when you look that musical pieces are found everywhere. Cartoons and in particular Warner brother helped etched certain pieces of classical music into the American psyche, for example, .

A Corny Concerto (1943)

However even more eternally present in the cultural psyche, a tune that will be written on the pages of history with a very large indelible ink marker... is this one.

Do you recognize it? Yep it is the Nokia tune heard in buses trains, sidewalks, company meetings the world over. However.... lesser known is the song from which this musical phrase is taken. It is called the "Gran Vals" by Francisco Tàrrega. And is beautiful...

Simile Web Based Timeline

Hey kids, it's time for "Interesting and Usefull Webapps" corner.

Todays Web App

Simile Timeline

Somebody over at MIT has some great ideas. This is a really great and simple to learn web based timeline API that organizes and displays events along a timeline. It is really quite flexible. I am quickly getting the hang of using it. Take a look at one of their live examples. It is a comparitive timeline. ... Pretty cool if you ask me.

Religious Timeline

An Introduction to Watches

Well gang it’s anther wonderful day for appreciating the wonderful gifts that our creator has given to us. The human mind, the human creativity is capable of so many amazing things that are only the beginning of what we are really capable of. If humans in an imperfect state are able to achieve elegant and beautiful creations and inventions, just imagine what we will be capable of when we are perfect!.
Well this is a series dedicated to a new interest of mine, Swiss watches and how the work. Due to my line of work, I have had to read and familiarize myself with varying aspects of watches. The little I have seen so far is fascinating. Fascinating enough to make me want to get into a little matchmaking and repair as a hobby. So this post is intended to be an introduction to wristwatches in general.

Wristwatches generally come in three different categories:

Mechanical - These are wristwatches that use a mechanical system to run the watch. They involve a spring that is wound by hand and a system of gears that regulate the unwinding in such a way to tell time.

Automatic - These are wristwatches that are very similar to mechanical but they are not wound by hand they have an automatic winding system that usually takes advantage of the natural movement of the hand to wind the main spring.

Quartz - These watches are regulated by a pizioelectric quartz crystal and mostly (not always) don’t rely on a system of moving parts to tell the time.

As far as accuracy goes the quartz watch wins. They mechanical watch is accurate to 2-3 seconds per day. The quartz watch on the other hand is accurate to a much higher degree. However as the watch making community goes they say that having a mechanical watch is not about accuracy but about the art and beauty of the timepiece.

Does Anyone Have the Time?

Wrist watches, Coo Coo Clocks, Hourglasses, sundials, mechanical watches, automatic watches, quartz. Recently I have become engrossed at the complexity and sheer engineering genius of the Swiss made mechanical watch. This has begun to show me how many different types of watches there really are. No only are there many different designs used, they are very intricate and each one a marvel of human engineering.
Watches generally come in a number of different types. The by far most widely diffused type of watch is the Quartz watch that uses a piezoelectric quartz crystal to keep the time. However before this technology was invented, man has invented many different ways of keeping time. In the following series I will examine interesting aspects and the evolution of the mechanical wind wristwatch and how it works. It is interesting to note that all watches or timepieces have always depended on one authority to tell the time. The universes clock. The universe that we live in was created with such beauty and order that we could set our clocks by it… in fact we do.

The Same Old Story

Well, as the world turns, the sun rises and sets on the same attitudes that have always existed for thousands of years. Unity is always just out of reach of human rulers. If you have been following world news, recently in Italy the Prime Minister passed a decree deporting all Romanians that have committed felonies. While this is logical, the xenophobic tendencies of the Italian people are being egged on by increasing incidences of violence etc caused by immigrants.
For example, since Romania has entered the European Union there has been a massive influx of Romanians in Italy, and along with it an increase of delinquency. However now the "discomfort" of having an increase in immigration is in an increasing number of cases turning into racism and prejudice.
It all started with the murder of a Italian woman last week for which a Romanian youth is accused. From then there have been incidences of aggression on Romanians. Friday a group of masked Italians beat up three Romanians. Yesterday in Turin an Italian man fired, from his apartment balcony upon a parked car with a Romanian man in the driver’s seat. Two shots fired, no one hurt but when he was asked why he did it, he responded that his girlfriend had a heated argument with a Romanian woman in a club a few hours before and in his indignation for Romanians he fired upon the man in the car.

As a wise man once said: "I can't even make this stuff up..."

Music in the Spotlight

The name, Andy McKee, described as a "new stylist" guitarist and that, he is. Just listen to his song "Drifting" and you will understand what they are talking about. A guitarist learned on a completly different genre of music, Metallica, Dreamtheater, etc, but who has now broken into the acustic arena with an impressive array of original compositions. Every now and then a new acustic guitarist comes out and is able to touch that chord in all of us.

Drifting - here

Africa by Toto cover - here

Back In The Saddle Again...!

Hey all. Well I am connected again to the rest of the world. I have an internet connection again. Coming soon:

• Picture album updates
• Recent experiences
• General stuff that isn't of much consequence.

Stay tuned!

Italian Tour Series : Piazza San Carlo

The Renaissance Influence
The Renaissance. In Italian "Rinascimento" or "Rebirth" in English. This is the term that is used to describe the cultural explosion that took place primarily in Italy, and then the rest of Europe that marked the end of the Middle Ages. It is roughly the time span between the 14th and 16th century. Although being founded in 28 C.E by the Romans, Turin was the first capital of Italy and was one of the centers of the renaissance movement.
To start our tour of the city we will start (of course) my absolute favorite place in all the city. Piazza San Carlo. During the renaissance it was very much the fad to gather in an open piazza or plaza. If you notice, there are very few American cities or English cites that still maintain large open spaces. Space is simply too precious waste. However in Europe the plaza was used as a gathering point for religious, political or democratic purposes. The American and English colonies had the Town Hall, Europeans had the plaza. Piazza San Carlo served this purpose for years it was used as the political seat of the city. One of the first noticeable things that you would see entering into this plaza is the large statue of Emanuele Filiberto re-sheathing his sword an act signifying victory. In fact this statue is a monument to his victory in the battle of San Quintino. It is a very beautiful plaza, the architechture and layout of the cobblestone that paves the plaza utilizes larges swooping curves that are very easy to follow with the eye. Being completely restored after the bombardment by the Americans in the second world war the buildings seems almost new.

The Twin Churches
At one end of the plaza there is an interesting feature. The two churches San Carlo and San Cristina stand as two sentinels watching the street that leads on towards the southwestern side of the city. There were both built in 1639, then restored in 1715.











Let's Get a Drink
When the Cafè came into vogue around the 1800's Piazza San Carlo was the first to house these locales. The two oldest, Caffè San Carlo (1828) and Caffè Torino, are still existing today and are situated under the plaza's picturesque porticoes. Tourists can drink a great espresso outside in the plaza while enjoying this great plaza in the heart of Turin.

Tour of an Italian City

I have lived in northwestern Italy for about 2 years now in a very cool baroque city called Turin. It is a very awesome little place to visit situated right in the middle of the Piemonte Province. I personally think it is one of Italy's secret cities. It is not really on the route of most visits to Italy for most tourists however it is definitely worth a stop over to see. In the following series I will write a post about a different place in Turin and explain a little about the history about the city where I live. So if you have never been to Italy and would like to, stay tuned and I hope to give a little taste!

Link Roundup...

• Damn Interesting Reading
• Top 300 Freeware
• Beautiful High-Resolution Desktop Wallpaper
• The Best Internet Browser EVER
• Great Place to Start in The Linux World
• Great Productivity Tips
• Great Life Tips and Tricks
• Free Online Education
• Online Photography Course
• Great Personal Financial Advice