Hello 2007!

Maybe this time around I'll be better and more regular at blogging. There has been too much on my mind this time of the year - mostly noise, all the wonderful and not so wonderful things that have happened to me or were in the news in 2006. Some things stand out:

1. Discovering Pablo Neruda: I had heard of Neruda since my grad school years in Amherst/Northampton, MA, late 1990's. But I was never familiar with his works. Fast forward to July 2006, a great artiste left us for a shinier place. I had missed the BSO's November 2005 program where she sang the Boston premiere of "Neruda Songs" because of the complexities of teaching and Thanksgiving. Regretting it now. In mid July I heard snippets of her singing these very songs on an NPR tribute to her life. Brilliant - but I could find no commercial recording of it all summer. Early morning, December 30, 2006 I heard - in mid-sleep - program about her again and, again, they played snippets of the Neruda Songs. Later the same morning as I was about to leave Newbury Comics, I decided to check if the store carried anything by her. Surprise: they had 1 copy of this, on sale. I bought it and listened to it in my office that same afternoon. Barely 30 minutes long, but 30 minutes of absolute transcendence, passion and humanity that I've never heard in music before. I became curious about Neruda: Neruda is actually a pseudonym derived from the Czech writer/poet Jan Neruda (who I just learnt about this year). He won the Nobel prize in 1971 - the year I was born -, was ostracized for his socialist views by the Chilean conservatives and military dictatorship under Pinochet, who happened to have died this year. Stop. All these coincidences - is someone trying to tell me something those last few days of 2006?
   
   CANTO XCII
   Amor mío, si muero y tú no mueres,
   no demos al dolor más territorio:
   amor mío, si mueres y no muero,
   no hay extensión como la que vivimos.
   Polvo en el trigo, arena en las arenas
   el tiempo, el agua errante, el viento vago
   nos llevó como grano navegante.
   Pudimos no encontrarnos en el tiempo.
   Esta pradera en que nos encontramos,
   oh pequeño infinito! devolvemos.
   Pero este amor, amor, no ha terminado,
   y así como no tuvo nacimiento
   no tiene muerte, es como un largo río,
   sólo cambia de tierras y de labios.
   
   


2. more to come
   

first post - testing

At last, my very first crack at this blog thing. They say that there is nothing really new under the sun. I wonder where this will all lead? Right this moment, Rach Sym 3 mvt 2 is playing in my headphones - so distractingly beautiful. Everybody's left the office hours ago. I wonder how this all looks live.