In the name of...

Today marks one week and one day since the morning, when a strange silence woke me up. "What is this," I asked myself, "How can it be, that my street is empty at a time when usually it is teeming with people? What are all these low-flying helicopters doing above my head?" It seems as though we were just before the bombing." Then I think more and I remember...the Pope has arrived to the city.
Pope brings hope, they say. Great. I really didn't want to discuss about money, why the quality of positive human feelings (which elicit from admiration of the Pope and his presence among people) are unapproachably more valuable than material sacrifices required by his four-day visit. But come on, all has its limits! Portugal is in severe economic crisis (soon after Greece), threatened by financial meltdown. However, a clever government declared a national holiday everywhere, where the Holy Father pleased to step and give away his hope and compassion. If I'm not mistaken, in practice this meant at least two new festive days. You can imagine what does one day of inertion mean for the state economy, especially if it is in such dire straits ... No, no, this is something one sober individual can't understand.
I respect all catholic believers and I know that in their system of belief Pope represents someone who is closest to one, whom they aim to - to God (although, if I may, in this striving they all too often forget that the latter doesn't sit on the clouds, but they themselves are part of Him and therefore very much responsible for their actions), yet ...
The reality of today doens't speak in favor of Portugal. Let's say that the pope brought endless hope and love, that he brought together all the believers (ie the vast majority of the Portuguese) for four days - marked by the highest human values. Wonderful job! But what about the day after his departure? I haven't noticed any particular optimism, great hope, any refined human virtues, and even less a recrutial of the (poor) state economy. No, the streets were with same melody again and they hosted the same people and the same concerns (only one day older).
Why? Because; True human virtues can not be learned in such partial way (when the Pope comes, in the time of Christmas and at Easter...), conquest of them requires continous self-preoccupancy and finding your own truth (based on your own experiences and feelings). Then the hope (as well trust) comes by itself, it grows out from the vision that we can have control over our lives and creating, that the quality of our life depends mainly on ourselves and on what we think, what we do and how much are we in tune with our wishes and that, to which we devote our time, effort, our love and our life.

Let's go to demonstrations!

The day before yesterday was a sad day for the history of higher education system in Slovenia. The mass of students (about 10,000 of them) ended their tumultuous demonstrations infront of the Parliament, in rather wretched way ...

I quote from the daily Slovenian newspaper Dnevnik (20. 5. 2010):
"...The facade of Parliament is bruised, almost all the windows smashed, broken glass of the front door. Angry crowd of student demonstrators who protested yesterday "to improve the social status of students and pupils" threw in the building everything they could lay in their hands first; eggs, toilet paper, bottles, beer cans and bottles, the granite blocks. Each time the glass was broken, the loud whistling and cries of "Yes" could be heard from a huge mass of young people. There was even one "Molotov", which flew towards Parliament and burned some bushes and a part of the facade. The protesters were finally surrounded by one hundred police officers (from special units), but this didn't stop them as well. They continued with pelting; first with stones, then with rocks and eggs, and finally with the bottles. "At least we've hurt one!" said proudly one hazy protester..."

It would be nice to have an insight into the statistics of how many of those students who participated on turbulent wednesday demonstrations, had actually experienced studying outside their native country for a longer period of time. I'm pretty sure that there weren't so many, since it would otherwise be clearly affirmed, how fierce and hard are the conditions for students abroad or. on the contrary - how privileged they are, in many areas of socio-cultural life, students in Slovenia. This insight would probably cause much grief to them, forwhy they would have to admit in evidence that they have made a big mistake; that they had to destroy a work of art in order to express the black-and-white belief of a crowd, a work of art, that has nothing to do with violence and destruction (even if the politics do) and on the contrary symbolizes their roots and embodies the highest humanistic values. Finally, that they have dishonoured an institution, which (despite all the controversial laws, which were and are still to come) raised up the possibility of quality education and worthy life in a country, where they had been born.

Why the hell this shoes?!

I guess it is illegal to make anti-advertisment for shoes, so I will try to avoid photographic material. Though, there are plenty of shoes to see - shoes, that have nothing to do with aesthetics.

I have always been attracted to detail. That doesn't change here, in Porto, where I've come across one funny "General Shoesy Surprise."
Sometimes the sun is very strong, and that diffuse light before the spring-shower forces me to look towards the ground and find a moment of peace for my eyes. But look, the devil, then I see all those shoes ...
Then I see young people wearing this multi-beloved sneakers that are a bit wider and higher, so they can stuck their trousers inside. And then there are those, how do we call them?, yellow and hairy half-cowboy ones (which, I thought, died out decades ago), then there are ALLSTAR shoes (which are legendary, but they don't go so well together with the black trousers or linseed skirt, which you have bought in Zara), and of course, then there are Nike sneakers of all types or even ordinary sport slippers, which we used to wear in lessons of physical education - comfortable but ugly as hell... Well, ofcourse you can find people that doens't hurt the eye too much, although they have maybe inherited the foot-wear habits from their grandfathers.
Nevertheless, these shoes are not the worse thing. Worse then the shoes is a combination of shoes and clothing, why shoes (which are somehow more old-fashioned or infantile) almost never blend with the dress, the materials and colors which currently dominate the global ready-made fashion (by the way, also worthy of consideration). Of course, men are generally slightly less aesthetic then women, but that is mostly the guilt of global clothing industry, which offers to women ten times greater selection of clothes. However, I have to admit that woman are surprising me more in negative then in positive direction as well. In my opinion the most aesthetically arranged and most consistent with their clothing is older population who has maintained and preserved that good measure from old days.

After all, why do I care? But I do. I always care about everything and I can not pretend that I don't see. And I have special affinity for nice shoes ... I'm sorry, I am just about to make a horrible generalization again, but it's is obvious: Portuguese general "Foot-wear Taste" (if not a general taste for dressing) is worse than I was accustomed to. When you look at a being in those shoes, in that outfit ... No. Things just don't go together. It's not the best.

Long live exceptions, long live the children with their fairytale-shoes! :)

Memorizing of music

That damn memorizing.
It is true that each artist has its own specificity and that we are all distinguished already by our predispositions (which, even if they are not the best, can be developed to unimaginable extent), but there is something what glorifies memorizing in its undeserved throne. Perhaps teachers, the time constraints, learning plans, etc.
In any case, memorizing is the last (and least important) thing to be worried about. It represents a logical result of a long, productive work on music and not a separate process of learning notes by hearth. Clearly there are musical works harder for the head (polyphony, dodecaphony etc..) and it is good that there are ways, which help to learn them (e.g., registration of numbers, fingerings, learning of harmonic structure, learning the piece from the end toward the beginning, recognizing motivic structure...). Nevertheles, we must not forget what is the most important thing for a musician: to (re)create music. That means to see what lies behind the notes, that means to detect emotional-poetic content, that means to create our own vision of musical piece and finally design all musical thoughts in slightest detail, dressing them in the sound that they require. Next step is: to call into exsistence our musical ideas, i.e. how to use our body to produce certain sounds (being placed in musical context). In all of this work there are three tipes of criteria for evaluating our own work and performance: how does our body look like while we play (body gestures have to be natural and consistent with the musical content), how do we feel (our body has to be relaxed or better not more tensed then it's necessary), and finally what we hear (the sound and musical flow that we produce is the same as our musical vision, internal hearing). These are the things we must be careful about when playing an instrument (when we practise, as well when we play in the concert). And now let's thing. Concentrating on all this, can we have other things on our mind? For example, which note is the following and if we are lucky to reach the end of the piece ... Not! We can not have. Considering that at the same time we are thinking in advance about the musical content, in the same time creating a proper thought, which will create respondent movements (for a desired sound), that in the same time we have to be careful on how we feel, how do we look like and how everything sounds, we reach to the conclusion that there isn't any space left for other (unimportant) thoughts. Why then so many disturbing thoughts sneak into practising of a musician? Why isn't he, even after so much time, able to play the piece from the start to the end without undue stopping? Is it the bad memory, which is guilty for that? No! Practising. Practising, which is not concentrated. Why is practising not sober-minded? Because a musician is not achieving desired results. That is why he is not enthusiastic, that's why the other thoughts come on his mind. It could be that he doens't have clear vision of music, that he doesn't know what to do with the music text, perhaps he doesn't know how to materialize music ideas (i.e. he is not aware of how to create a movement of the hand that will produce the desired sound result). If the musician, by contrast, practices productively - reaching the music, he can't get sleepy, and his thoughts can't go elsewhere, why he is too excited about the outcome, which he has created, about the sound and the ideas that are now hearable and have achieved their purpose.
The main problem therefore lies not in the memory capacity of the individual, but in his understanding of music and way of practising - that should always inspire good feelings (finally, don't we make music because it makes us incredibly happy?).
To sum up, memory isn't of a great importance for a musical reproduction (anyone can play with the score if he wants). Beeing sure in the musical content (in what's behind the music notes) and in the way of embodying the musical content in sound, brings true self-confidence in musician. And then he forgets that memorizing exsists at all...

Which feet are Portuguese?

As the question of this publication, its content may be absurd as well. Anyway, something tells me that my social discoveries of the "West" (eventhough very personal), shouldn't be kept just for myself.

People often ask me: "What is your opinion about the Portuguese?" Please, not this question again! At this point two things crash into each other. Knowing that each individual is unique and irreplacable and that because of this we can't make so banal genaralizations, and on the other hand the fact, justified by the simple everyday life - that however, there are cultural patterns that have conglutinated inside human personalities and are now seen as some sort of common social ways of behavior and practise.
Portugal has long been in the claws of dictatorship, long has been pushed outward to the edge of the ocean, that is why Europe's influence here has not reached such a power, as for example in more centrally positioned European countries. Turbulent history, from its see-adventures, physical distance and isolation through to the impact of Roman Catholic Church, has certainly left a deep mark in treatment of human relations, ways of behaviour, etc..
If two years ago I had beed asked what do I think of Portuguese, I would have droped the idea of comparison with the Balkan or Mediterranean nations; the people who say what they feel, the people who give all what they can to the others, which are temperamental, simple, direct. Well, today I do not think like that anymore.
Not because almost everybody pays a drink for himself, because the immediacy and temperament reveal, more than anywhere else, during the collective spactation of footbal match(I am already shaking from this terrible generalization, but otherwise it doesn't go) but more than all this, because of one collective pattern that surprises me so much and which I still can not figure out completely: "Duality and discreetness of personality" - how the Portuguese warmth and openness is so obviously shown outwards, but not inwards. In other words, how they can be so warm outside, but so unready to share their intimacy? Let me explain by example that it is very obvious.
When friends meet, they usually exchange a lot of nice words and make effort that their conversation (with the lightweight issues) runs in the direction that will create good feelings. If this is a male-female acquaintance or female-female one, mandatory sign of greeting (no exceptions) is a kiss (or two kisses - on each cheek one). When it comes to men's ties, ofcourse kisses are expected to be replaced with handling. Thus, at first glance this country appears to be smelling of love and compassion. But the smell soon fades, when we notice the other side, which co-creates the state of duality - a sort of shabbiness or precaution in sharing intimacy. To pursue a practical example; the friends, of which i have spoken before, want to maintain friendly conversation and a smile on the face even when it is necessary to approach things differently. For example, when a friend is to be noted of things that he does bad, when we want to speak out important things, which we feel bad about, etc.. In such cases, the moments of grace and kindness just make the job harder, since important issue (finding) requires a degree of seriousness (even inevitability) in order to achieve its purpose. Here, one can not find this seriousness too often. Even family ties (those, which I had the opportunity to meet) all too often host this very dualism and seem to be losing some of the depth and intimacy. The intimacy (touching the love life, sexuality, perception of the world, etc..) is even more limited speech within the relationships between parents and children. Even a warm hug is often replaced by conventional two kisses or handshake. Thus even a cold-blooded Slovenian (if he is not really too Slovenian) could feel like a photo negative of the Portuguese here - colder outwards (apparently), and more direct when it comes to human relationships .
How was this dualism created? Why are so many people afraid to face eye to eye? They can not deal with reaction? They are taught that the reaction should be always good, that they should always attract a smile? Don't they know that the immediacy is the shortest path to happiness for both individuals? Why this enormous "Caution"? Can the reasons be dangerous history of conquerors, terrifying dictatorship, the church with its lessons of humility and sinfulness, politics, (un)culture of media? Who knows. Probably a little bit of everything ...

Ultimately, however, I must not forget that the Portugal is the place, where I found people that have grown closest to my heart. So, once more, I am back, where I started, with the absurd question about the feet ...:)





p.s.: There is no Portuguese feet in the picture, there are two Slovenian and one German. But it's true that (not long ago) all three were wading in the big Portuguese see. :)

Can internet, as a social environment for collective music creation, assure superior products of classical music?

Few days ago I listened to the lecture of a young university professor and researcher in the field, which aims to use modern technology to experience new ways of musical (re)production. Among other things, the idea of Internet as a social environment for collective music creation was presented. In other word, idea presents people from different parts of the world, who joined via internet, in order to create a musical event. Such experiments have consisted of people gathering into virtual orchestras, jazz bands, etc.. In order to succed in creation of a new music experience, the latter used the best internet connections and the latest audio and video devices (managed by the experts). One of the main problems being raised, was the problem of latency (audio delay), especially acute in intercontinental connections (cca. 90 ms). In practice this means, that the sound generated by the musicians in Russia arrives in Chile, with a 90 millisecond of delay, which is for professional music group extremely disturbing if not unacceptable. However, ways to overcome the latency are being developed succesfully and represent good reference for the future.
There is something else what leaves doubts in me. Is it possible to create a superior musical product, although musicians are physically separated, depending on devices which may have errors or. even though the music is digitized (as a consequence of Internet transmission)? In order to meet world-class musical achievements in classical music, it is extremely important to achieve a physical, mental, if you want spiritual-energetic integration of musicians at a given moment in a given location (with a given public), since their final interpretation depends on the latter. Link via Internet clearly disables connection mentioned above; thinking simply - in the other side of the Atlantic musicians breathe another air, there is night there and here sun is in the zenith, silence in the local studio is different than here etc. Infact, everything in the given moment is different. And yet there is another problem. Basic atom of musical art is the sound and the latter is because of digitization at least slightly changed (it looses some important quality). Clearly, for superb musical performances, which are reaching for the smallest nuances in sound, this is inadmissible.
Concluding, in terms of classical music, it is clear that the Internet will not be able to become a virtual stage for recreation of classical works (except in the case of electronic classical music). However, such projects have an extremely important social-musical note (although yet very expensive) - integration of people from around the world, getting to know and learning from foreign musical cultures that we would not be able to meet otherwise, etc..