Spring

Spring is always a favorite time of year for me. Some of the flowers in my garden are blossoming. The weather is mild. What more can a person ask for?

Brahms

As some of you may know, I like classical music. But I was never much of a fan of Brahms. That's slowly changing. I've been listening to Sviatoslav Richter's live performance from 1951 of the Brahms Piano Concerto No.2 with Evgeny Mravinsky conducting the Leningrad Symphony. Very uplifting. There are some wrong notes here and there. But that doesn't take away from the power of the performance at all.

Many years ago, I had an LP with some Brahms solo piano works. There was one piece in particular that I found beautiful - Intermezzo No. 1 Op.117. The pianist was Wilhelm Kempff. I started listening to this recording again. Very nice.

2010

A sign that I'm getting old. I didn't even stay up to celebrate the arrival of the new year. Still, I wish all my friends a prosperous 2010.

Summer

Richter

One of my favorite musicians is Sviatoslav Richter, the great Russian pianist. Richter was more than just a brilliant performer. There was something profound about his playing. Nowadays people focus almost entirely on the performer. Richter, on the other hand, provided us with a direct link to the composer, giving us a glimpse of what Beethoven and others wanted to tell us. I feel Annie Fischer was the same type of pianist.

I have a number of Richter CD's including his famous live performance in Sofia of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition." I also love his interpretations of Beethoven, Schumann and Rachmaninoff.

There is a fascinating documentary about Richter. It's called "Richter, the Enigma." We learn a lot about his life. And of course, there are plenty of concert clips. Like all great musicians, Richter was very self-critical. He was not afraid to say when he had a bad performance. Worth watching.

Spring

More peony pics

Spring

Spring is back and the peonies are in bloom. What more can a person want?

September

I have not posted in awhile. Been busy at work. It's already September. This year has gone by quickly.

I recently purchased a DVD of an old Japanese movie titled Anjouke no Butokai. It's about an aristocratic family in Japan. After World War Two the family is forced to give up their home during the Allied occupation. The film is directed by Kozaburo Yoshimura and stars one of my favorite actresses, Setsuko Hara, best known for her roles in movies by Yasujiro Ozu. It's a Region 2 DVD, but I have a region-free DVD player. There are a number of other Region 2 movies that I would like to purchase, all from Japan.

P5Q Deluxe

I bought a new motherboard, the Asus P5Q Deluxe. I needed to replace my P5K Deluxe because the ethernet on the board stopped working following a power outage. The P5Q Deluxe has 16-phase power regulation. The VDroop on this board is very low, which is good. Also added a Western Digital 640GB drive and Vista Ultimate 64-bit. So far, so good. Had a problem with screen resolution until I discovered the DVI cable had gone bad. After replacing the cable, I now have full resolution. :)

Fires

For the past couple of weeks, hundreds of wildfires have been burning in California. More than half a million acres have burned. The smoke from these fires has been horrendous. 200,000 firefighters are on the lines. California owes them a deep debt of gratitude. The situation would be much worse, were it not for them.

Covered

The roofers finished installing the wood shakes and new gutters. It took them about a week. There were a couple of delays because they ran out of materials. Also, it was very hot, so they could work only in the mornings and early afternoon. Finished roof looks nice.

Roof

I'm finally having the wood shakes on my roof replaced. It took a crew of about 15 workers only a couple hours to remove the old shakes. The photo is a view from the garage with its new "skylight". Actually I like the view of the trees. But not very practical when it rains. ;)

Tomatoes

My tomato plants are doing nicely. Nothing like home-grown tomatoes. They taste so much better than the one you find in the grocery store.

More garden shots

Columbines

One of my favorite flowers.

Coral Charm

Another one of my peony plants has started to bloom. This peony is called Coral Charm. I've had it for a long time. I love the color. I took this photo in the morning with the sun shining on it.

Wait Is Over

I woke up this morning to find one of the flowers had opened on my tree peony. The petals will eventually white. This sight made my day.

Anticipation

My peonies will be in bloom soon. Always something to look forward to.

9600 GT

I bought a graphics card to go along with my new monitor. The PNY Verto 9600 GT was on sale. Seems like a nice card. Doesn't run too hot.

I've resisted the temptation to build another system for distributed computing. I'm trying to save money. I will likely do my next upgrade when Nehalem comes out, assuming of course there are no major bugs with the new platform.