Dec 19, 2013 · 4 minute read · Comments musicsingingLatin musicbolerosalsaSpanishPedro Almodóvar
La Lupe CDs I recently listened to a great program “La Lupe: queen of Latin soul” about the black Cuban singer La Lupe, who died in 1992 (born in 1936) well before I was even aware of her existence.
(I also then found information on a film about La Lupe).
First encounter I still remember the exact moment I first heard her electrifying singing, and remember looking her up to find more music sung by her.
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Dec 12, 2013 · 3 minute read · Comments psychology
Brain It is popular in some circles to obsess over so-called “left-brained” versus “left-brained” characteristics, or even people. There are whole books hyping up such a distinction, and even promoting one or the other.
Now, there actually is such a thing as lateralization of brain function. But the popular stereotypes go well beyond the scientific findings on brain structure and function (which are subjects of continuing research, of course).
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At the annual CMU psychology department holiday party this year, the featured entertainment is the pub quiz, which my office team has come in second place basically every year since its existence. (Although we never win, we believe that if we accumulate the standings over the years, we are clearly first: our consistent second place performance clearly beats the wild variance of any of the other teams’ performances.)
There was a movie trivia category that we did very well in. Given a graphic, we were to determine the film title represented by the graphic.
Well, one of the images had everyone confused and silent, except for me, it seemed:
Nov 25, 2013 · 2 minute read · Comments trumpetErin YanacekCarnegie Mellon UniversityPittsburgh
Erin Yanacek I attended a graduate trumpet recital by Erin Yanacek, in which she performed works of Robert Planel, Camille Saint-Saens, George Enescu, Franz Joseph Haydn, and Herbert L. Clarke.
(Update of 2014-07-28) Erin has posted a video of the Herbert L. Clarke work from her recital:
A little about Erin I first encountered Erin, without yet knowing who she was, from attending a CMU Baroque Ensemble Concert for the first time over a year ago.
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In my continuing coverage of the World Chess Championship between Anand and Carlsen, today I cover round ten, in which a draw gave 22-year-old Magnus Carlsen the FIDE World Chess Champion title. Congratulations to Carlsen, and thank you, Anand, for showing your fighting spirit by playing the Sicilian Defense today!
The night before the game, five hours before it started, I tweeted:
It came to me in a dream: Anand playing d4 in the next round, then going for an f3, e4 Pawn storm against Carlsen #FWCM2013
I have to admit to being proud of myself for having correctly predicted the opening that both players would willingly enter in today’s game! I had been thinking about this even before the match, but apparently Anand didn’t pull out his weapon until just now. Today, I explain my reasoning.
