Virginia Breeze

beethovens-symphony-no-9-scherzo

So I have finally taken the plunge (in a very small way) into the area of blogs and music by adding this short bit from Beethoven to a post. It was really very easy to do. And I have no idea what the ramifications of doing it are so please let me know. If you know.

Wordpress 2.5 has this little deal they have added to the Write Post area. It makes it simple to upload music files. And then the Windows Media Player pops out and starts playing as well as making color and movement out of sound.

It would be nice to have some really GOOD color and movement made out of sound. I will have to look around this morning and see what is out there. I am sure there is quite a bit FOR a price.

We shall see. Does the WMP pop out when you click on the link to Ludwig above? Please let me know. I am very curious about all of this. I have some things that are very good and you don’t hear them every day. In fact you don’t ever hear them and I would like to share them.

NOT share them in terms of sharing the file. We are just going to share the SOUND here. Please don’t try to download any files. But I know you wouldn’t. Here is something else that I used to love to listen to all the time. It starts off slowly but really goes to some amazing places as things progress.

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Alright. That seemed to work well. It’s in a WMA format. And this next one is the third portion of the same symphony by Gorecki if you are still with me. It’s a bit longer but even more amazing than the second part. And I will do this one in WMA loss less. Maybe there is a difference.

Well it takes forever. Or maybe never. I got tired of waiting. So scratch that one. I have the movements backwards. Sorry. Here is the one that can take one to the moon if one lets it.

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Just plain old WMA works much better. WMA Pro is the other option. We will have to see about that one later. But this is enough for now. It’s something new for this blog in any case and I hope it will gather a positive response.

BTW this music was featured in the movie Fearless with Jeff Bridges , Rosie Perez and the ever lovely Isabella Rossellini.

It is a fine movie made more wonderful by parts of this symphony.

Your mind may be telling you that you have things to do as you listen to it. Mine does. But I was able to relax and let the music gradually take control. It rewards towards the end with some inspiring passages .

Fearless
Adapted by screenwriter Rafael Yglesias from his own novel, Fearless explores the complex struggle back to mental health of post-traumatic stress disorder victim Max Klein (Jeff Bridges). One of few survivors of a fatal plane crash, Klein remains calm and assists other survivors out of the burning debris, earning praise as a hero by the media. After stoically departing the tragedy without a word to emergency officials, Max returns home with detached feelings towards his wife (Isabella Rossellini) and son, along with a bizarre, seemingly authentic belief that he is now impervious to harm. Bill Perlman (John Turturro), a psychiatrist for the airline, fails to reach Max about his newfound fearlessness, but asks for his help in aiding Carla (Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee Rosie Perez), a fellow crash survivor filled with grief and guilt over the loss of her baby. In one of his earlier roles, Benicio del Toro plays a small part as Carla’s boyfriend. ~ Lisa Kropiewnicki, All Movie Guide

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If you would like to see another rendition of this work with a video that carries a deeply spiritual message go here. But I warn you it is not easy to watch.

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Good Evening. My name is David and I am a Themaholic. I can’t turn down a theme. It speaks to me and I surrender.

It doesn’t matter that I have pledged my allegiance to Sadish and his wonderful templates. Nothing matters except getting the next theme fix.

I keep telling myself “This time it will be different”.

Maybe it will. Or maybe I will wake up tomorrow morning full of regret and guilt because I traded Sadish and his great theme in for THIS.

But I don’t think so and besides the night is still young.

There’s lots of time left to install more plugins and see how they work. I don’t want to think about tomorrow.

When it’s still tonight.

Do you change themes very often?  Do you feel that people who change themes often are hampering their blogging efforts?

I couple of days ago I was writing about my discomfort when taking photos downtown. I said:

I’m very self conscious in situations like that and expect to be arrested at any moment. “What law did I break officer?”

“You were not in your car and you were taking photos of Mr. Robert Lee up there on his horse.”

Can I plead guilty and pay a fine or must I go to jail?

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So what did I do Sunday morning? I went downtown before dawn and parked my car next to the Federal Reserve Building. Then I got out and went to a nearby bridge to take some photos of the James River. Here’s a photo of the bridge.

I was there for about 45 seconds when I felt something in back of me. Turning around I discovered a police car pulled up behind my lonely looking Honda Accord.

It was definitely parked in a place where it should not have been. The Federal Reserve is a very powerful institution. Perhaps one of the most powerful in the world. And it doesn’t want your guide and blogging buddy underfoot.

The policeman was very nice and I didn’t have to go to jail. He did advise me that I should not take any photos of the Federal Reserve Building . And he probably could have taken my camera if he had wanted to do it.

The thing is that all this stuff is right in the same walking area. Tredegar Iron Works, Belle Isle and Brown’s Island are all within a short walking distance along the James River. This nice piece of artwork is practically underneath the Federal Reserve Buidling.

I don’t know what they are building in back of this guy. But if it is going to be part of the “You know what” then it is going to be very difficult to take his picture in the future.

Here is a slideshow of some of the photos I took on this morning

http://picasaweb.google.com/Davidsaidit/BelleIsleAndSurroundings

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More Richmond City Photos

http://davidnotes.com/2008/01/30/crowded-sky/

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I saw recently that gold was way up and the stock market was sliding a bit. I don’t actually go and look at the numbers but if I hear something in passing it registers. There was a time when I followed all of this stuff but it’s an anxiety producing activity and who needs those?

Especially when it is time to relax and enjoy life. I want to enjoy my semi-retirement as they say. And you can’t do that if you worry too much about the value of the money. That’s right. I said the VALUE of the money. Because what you have stashed away can be worth a lot or it can be worth nothing if the government decides to allow inflation to solve some of its problems.

History is full of such instances of course. And it looked for awhile like we were going to be added to the pile. But RR was president at the time and he said “Read my lips!”. Oh wait. That was the other guy. RR said we are going to whip inflation and so we had a pretty bad recession. But inflation never went away completely. It still eats away at the value of our savings. It’s just a question of how much and how fast.

So I don’t worry about it. I worry about things that are small enough to put in a cage like an alligator or a chimpanzee. There was a picture in the news recently of an alligator with the arm of his trainer or his vet in his mouth. It was the most astounding photo. And I didn’t put it in Virginia Breeze because I have good taste sometimes.
But I’m sure Captain Hook Jr. understands what I am talking about after his experience. Let’s worry about crossing the street without getting hit. This morning I was up before the crack of dawn down on Monument Ave taking pictures to show you. There was little traffic and I walked around a bit. I’m very self conscious in situations like that and expect to be arrested at any moment. “What law did I break officer?”

“You were not in your car and you were taking photos of Mr. Robert Lee up there on his horse.”

Can I plead guilty and pay a fine or must I go to jail?

Anyway, it was going well until I arrived at the wonderful monument to Arthur Ashe. After taking some photos I started to get back into my car. The door was open and one leg was hanging out there while I tried to coordinate all my moving parts and the camera.

When suddenly this old beat up van whizzed by within a foot from my foot. And I thought “Why did he do that?” There was two lanes and plenty of room. There is a stop light right there and everyone had a chance to watch me work.

A fascinating occupation while sitting at a light I might add. But not for somebody apparently.

If I don’t come back from one of my little forays downtown I want everyone to leave comments so I will have something to do while I rest in my hospital bed.

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