Category: Events

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Fingers on Fire

Invited weeks ago, I attended a piano recital by fiancé reminder for Julian Lawrence Gargiulo; and Italian-born classically trained pianist living in New York. When I think of recitals, I go back to the days of elementary school, when the C-Pod would be hallowed out and filled with rows of chairs for supportive parents to come and watch their kids perform on the riser stage. I had pursued the drums so there wasn’t much I could do as a solo artist in the drumming field except annoy the neighbors with my off beat rhythms.

This show was more personal, located at the Yamaha Hall or better known as the Piano Salon in mid-town, a comfortable venue for about 100+ listeners, professionally designed to sound more like Carnegie Hall than an apartment flat. Much like a recital, the audience had close friends, friends of friends, admires of Julian, his work and even his mother. This was the CD release party for his latest of 5 professional recordings.

I’m a fan of most music live; I’ve even been to my share of some country concerts so this wasn’t something I’d be adverse to. Electronic music has it’s roots in classical composition and art as a deep form of expression in sound and rhythm without the necessity of vocals or time constraints tied to the majority of contemporary music. Julian has a solid understanding of the music he’s playing with the charisma of a true performer for people – engaging directly his audience between tunes.

Yes that was me closing my eyes in the 5th row, but only to shut down one of my senses to concentrate on the story of the music. I fully enjoyed the show, and would recommend anyone that’s into classical to check him out. The full program from the recital is below.

Solo Piano Recital – Fire in Music Program:

Manuel de Falla: Ritual Fire Dance
Felix Mendelssohn: Capriccio No. 1 Opus 33
Claude Debussy: Feux d’artifice
Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne in C-Sharp MInor
Alexandre Scriabin: Vers la flamme
— INTERMISSION —
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata No. 23 Opus 57 in F Minor ‘Appassionata’
-Allegro assai
-Andante con moto – attacca
-Allegro, ma non troppo – Presto

When I open my eyes I must sigh, for what I see is contrary to my religion, and I must despise the world which does not know that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.
— Ludwig van Beethoven, quoted by Bettina von Arnin, letter to Goethe, 1810

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Dragons in Flushing

This weekend we went to check out the annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in Flushing NY. The festival is significant in China, celebrated by a day of narrow boat races shaped like dragons. Competing teams row their boats in sync with a furious rhythm pounded out by on-board drummers. The dragon-boat races symbolize the frantic attempts to rescue Qu Yuan.

Qu Yuan is said to have committed suicide by drowning himself in a river. Qu Yuan was a minister in the kingdom of Chu situated in present-day Hunan and Hubei provinces during the Warring States period (475 – 221 BC). He was upright, loyal and highly esteemed for his wise counsel that had brought peace and prosperity to the kingdom.

Many of the teams are locally sponsored and seem to celebrate the day with music food, drink, crafts, games (quite a few gambling tents) and the rest of the locals hanging out around the river for the day. It hazy and humid but not too hot. The event was quite expansive in the park but was not as populous as I thought it might have been; quite possibly because there was so much land. I enjoyed both the Chinese (noodles, dumplings, satay) and non-Chinese food (corn and shaved ice).

On the way back, I noticed many volunteers canvasing the crowd for Obama “working for the Asian American and Pacific Islander community”. I can already tell if there’s this much initiative to hit all cultural backgrounds and events like this, then Obama is throwing the net out to all corners and will have a huge turn out in November next year.

Some pics from the event:

A few more from the gallery

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iPhone crazies!

A few days ago (26th) I walked by my local SOHO Apple Store and saw people lined up around the corner down to the post office. I had heard that the new iPhone was coming out but I didn’t know it was then… well it wasn’t. It was actually today on the 28th, two days later. So these people spent two days out in front of the store to be the first to lay down hundreds on the new iPhone:

Here’s a shot from the inside of the police controlled seen during the opening: