A Long Hiatus

My first post in a really long time, during which a lot has transpired!

In June of last year, I made my first trip to Bonnaroo, which was held at Manchester, Tennessee. Then in September, I made my first trip to The Burning Man at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. Both turned out to be very interesting experiences, far removed as they were from everything one gets to see while being part of the mainstream in a place like the Bay Area. The things that stood out for me at these events were the sheer creativity, imaginativeness and an all round sense of tolerance and inclusiveness among those that showed up. For the curious, The Burning Man Image Gallery has a very good collection of photographs taken by various people over the years. I’d love to go back to Bonnaroo and The Burning Man some time.

In November, I took time off from work to spend a week by myself in the Santa Barbara wine country. I stayed in Solvang, a small Danish town north of Santa Barbara. Looking back, I realize that a week of vacation is a long time if you don’t plan ahead, paradoxical as it may sound. I hadn’t even made a hotel reservation, literally “stopping by” with only my Casio Keyboard and enough clothes to last a week.

It was refreshing to befriend the locals and discover from them which places to go to or which wineries to visit; often, they even accompanied me to show me around. I was surprised to discover that Solvang was at the heart of the Wild West, evident in the way some restaurants and pubs still display the cowboy culture. Coexisting with the ranches and the horses, though, are some of the finest wineries in all of California. My taste in wine has gone up a couple of notches after tasting the wines of the Santa Ynez Valley and the adjoining areas. While there, I also visited Los Olivos, a charming community north of Solvang, renowned as much for its art galleries as for its wineries. I don’t have the kind of money to afford most of what was on sale but I bought what was within my means and merely appreciated the rest.

My poor prose cannot capture most of what I experienced (as couldn’t my camera either), so I’ll be content with just saying that the trip would always remain memorable to me in more than a few ways.

Then in late November last year, I auditioned for CAPMT, the California Association of Professional Music Teachers, and passed, following which I was invited to play at the Northern Festival recital in Danville this January. I played Bach’s Prelude in C Minor.

During this time I’ve also been composing a little bit, and although I’ve written down some of it, I haven’t recorded anything yet. I’m currently preparing for my piano evaluations due in May. Later in June, it will be two years since I began taking lessons and I’m quite happy that I’ve already started playing Level 6 solos. But I can’t wait to get to Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy and more of Bach in the coming years, and composing more of my own stuff.

And on that note, I’d like to sign off. A much belated Happy New Year to everyone!

My first Haiku

I recently discovered Haiku, a form of Japanese poetry, while reading The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality and have, since, been fascinated by the concept of expressing a momentary experience in poetic form, as simply and minimally as possible, while remaining faithful to the original essence of the experience. In this respect, I think Haiku is to poetry what Impressionism might be to painting. As an example, here’s one that I found in the above book that very succinctly expresses the joy of living in the present:

I am cutting wood,

I am drawing water,

It’s so wonderful!

Last evening, I met up with two friends I hadn’t seen in a couple years. We hung out at the beach until very late in the night, drinking an exquisite Glenlivet, while sitting around a bonfire, amidst the calming sounds of waves crashing onto the shore. (As an aside, it’s amazing how, sometimes, utter chaos, such as that constituted by waves, can actually lead to something that is at once random and beautiful!)

On our way back, we stopped by what seemed like a reservoir. It seemed like a very profound place and time — perhaps the pleasant Glenlivet buzz had something to do with it! So, while my friends were taking pictures, I stood out on the edge of the water, soaking in the beautiful view that was formed in the night. Despite all that I apparently found lacking up until that time, that moment, strangely, felt very comforting!

I have tried to express the experience of all that was around me in that moment in the following haiku, my first one. I’m not sure if it can technically qualify to be a haiku but it, nonetheless, expresses what I had felt:

The rays’ gleeful dance on water in the moonlit night,

The crickets’ chirping, the wind’s gentle caress;

Nature’s sweet embrace is so comforting!

Sadly, as with everything else, that moment, too, passed! And here I am, writing about it as one would about a distant memory at best!

Camouflage Masters and The Inner Fish

This very nice article in the NY Times (requires free registration, though!) on research by Dr. Roger Hanlon to understand and push the abilities of cephalopods — cuttlefish, octopus and squid — to camouflage themselves against predators. From the article:

Dr. Hanlon has watched octopuses perform what he calls the Moving Rock Trick. They assume the shape of a rock and move in plain sight across the sea floor. But they move no faster than the ripples of light around them, so they never seem to move.

And this:

Evidently, they have to hide even in darkness from dolphins and other predators.

Also:

Cuttlefish can also use camouflage to deceive other cuttlefish, Dr. Hanlon and his colleagues have found. A male cuttlefish will typically guard several females from other challengers. He does not often have physical fights. It is enough for him to put on a powerful visual display.

But if another male disguises its skin to look female, he can sneak up to the guarded female and mate. The sneaky male’s disguise may be so good that the other male may try to guard him as part of his harem.

Finally, here’s what is funny about the whole thing:

Experiments in Dr. Hanlon’s lab have shown that they are color blind. They see a world without color, but their skin changes rapidly to any hue in the rainbow. How is that possible?

Highly recommended!!

 

Another article in the NY Times, this time a book review of “Your Inner Fish” by Neil Shubin. One of the things the book apparently talks about is how many of the human physical traits have first evolved in fish, which by itself is not all that surprising. What is really fascinating, though, is this:

Our inner fish extends beyond physicality. New research reveals that many fish display a wide range of surprisingly sophisticated social behaviors, pursuing interpersonal, interfishal relationships that seem almost embarrassingly familiar.

“Fish have some of the most complex social systems known,” Michael Taborsky, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Bern in Switzerland, said. “You see fish helping each other. You see cooperation and forms of reciprocity.”

Dr. Taborsky and his colleagues have studied the social lives of African cichlids, colorful freshwater fish from Lake Tanganyika. The cichlids live in relatively large groups of 10 or so individuals, a dominant breeding pair and a retinue of adult and adolescent helpers. The helpers share in all duties, Dr. Taborsky said. They defend territory, they help keep the nests tidy and they clean, fan and oxygenate the breeding pair’s eggs. When the eggs hatch into larvae, the helpers take up the babies in their mouths for cleaning — all the while forgoing their own breeding efforts.

Significantly, the helper fish are often unrelated to the royal pair over whose spawn they so officiously fawn. What’s in it for the helpers? “We call it pay to stay,” Dr. Taborsky said. “Helpers are allowed to stay in the territory and gain security and protection against predators. But they have to pay rent, so to speak, or they risk being expelled.”

In laboratory experiments, the researchers have shown that when subordinate cichlids are temporarily prevented from performing their duties, the fish compensate at the first chance by ostentatiously redoubling displays of helpful behaviors.

Haven’t we all had the urge to display such ostentatious behavior, more so as children and less so later on, to make ourselves more acceptable to others? I hope to get my hands on this book sometime!!