Rhapsody in Blue -- Jodie DeSalvo

A high point for us this year was on Friday, July 11, 2014 when we heard Jodie DeSalvo play Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue at the Birch Creek Performance Center in Egg Harbor, WI. In addition to wearing a rhapsodic "Blue" evening dress for the occasion, Ms. DeSalvo attack the piece with an athletic and emotional performance not to be forgotten (we were sitting stage-left, behind Ms. DeSalvo in the wings--an unusual and interesting vantage point for the performance).

What made me recall the performance was the Diane Rehm show this morning on Public Radio  which featured an interview with jazz musician Herbie Hancock. He has a new biography out titled Possibilities. In the biography, Hancock recounts having been asked to play Rhapsody in Blue with the L. A. Philharmonic. Since the Rhapsody is a classical piece with a jazz foundation, Hancock was a natural choice (paired with the young classical pianist Lang Lang, you can see their performance on YouTube here). Hancock's response to being asked was "Are you joking...I haven't played classical music since I was 20!"

There are lots of other great details about Herbie Hancock's life in the biography and I've included Chapter One below. The excerpt echoed a quote from Miles Davis (1926-1991) which sums up what it means to play and listen to Jazz: "If you hit a wrong note, it's the next note you play that determines if it's good or bad."

To all my readers, have a great New Year's celebration tonight and may your 2015 have as many highlights as my 2014 did!

Possibilities by Herbie Hancock

Scott Walker Holiday Gift Gaffe

MADISON, WI. This holiday season, Governor Scott Walker is spreading holiday cheer by sending out Usinger's Famous Sausage boxes, a Germanic Wisconsin tradition. A little surprising was the gift boxes sent to Wisconsin Public Sector Unions (two boxes to the Police and Fire Unions), given that the governor has done everything he can to destroy the unions. The boxes sent to unions had the following personal message:

Ich sende meinen weiner, sie wieder zu geben. Homosexuell Saisongrüße.

Now, Governor Walker has made a number of public gaffes before (here) and this isn't a real big one. Walker nor anyone on his staff understand any German and he may have been pranked again by the Buffalo Beast. 

In a news conference, Walker commented "Well, obviously someone was asleep on my staff. Maybe they should have caught the 'Gay Season Greetings' but no one is going to jail for this. Have a Happy Holiday, everyone."

Hey, Apple! Another Moronic Upgrade! Really?

I have this old iPad. It has stopped playing very well with newer apps and does crazy things when the apps start interfering with each other. When this happens, the Apple Store Genius suggested I just restore the factory settings, try to move on slowly by reinstalling apps and try to figure out which app it doesn't like. Oh, great. I have nothing better to do than figure that out (isn't that Apple's Job since they control all the apps?), so the iPod sits on my desk largely unused.

Then, I read an article in Slate (here) suggesting that a new app (Duet Display), about to be released, could be used to turn your iPad into a second monitor. Since I need more monitor real estate, that sounded like a good use for the old iPad. So, I decided to clean it up and get it ready for Duet Display by restoring the factory settings, upgrading the operating system and wiping out all the old apps and data.

After the iPad was restored (I did this from my Mac) and after I swiped the "Get Started" screen, I was greeting with the window above which is either in Danish or Swedish (Google translate couldn't make up its mind). So, OK, I was able to figure out how to configure my Wi Fi but after that nothing made sense and Google translate wasn't helping. 

My next step was to go searching on the Internet for "How to change the iPad Language setting" and this took a bit of time and a few dead ends, but eventually I found instructions (here). The instructions say it's for iOS 6 or earlier (I'm at iOS 8) but the fix worked. Go to Settings > General >  and locate the fifth group of settings, which contains three options (that you can't read) and tap the last option. This takes you to a screen that allows you to select a language you can read. Then you have to go through the entire "Get Started" process again but at least this time you understand what you are doing. All this jerking around probably took me two hours.

This is really crazy! Apple desperately needs someone like Steve Jobs to throw the offending tablet on the floor, fire the software engineers that wrote the Restore program (they were probably Danish or Swedish) and scream at people till everyone wakes up. 

The programming solution is very simple. Ask what language you prefer before going through the "Getting Started" process. Any of my students could program this for you, like that last moronic iPhone upgrade (here).

Hey, Apple! Read this: Dumm Updates sind verboten!