Come Along with Me

At Slate today, Jan Swafford explores the differences between playing Beethoven on today's pianos compared to the ones that Ludwig van used to write his music. It's a great read, if you feel like reading about why ancient pianos were way better (well, maybe not better. Different.) than modern pieces.

In the article, there are clips of pianists of both eras playing two of Beethoven's compositions - the second is his piano sonata No. 23, and the first is the Moonlight Sonata.

Isn't the Moonlight Sonata the one that turns you into an omnivorous mammal under the bright, shining light of the moon? I think so.

Winter Olympics 2010

Since the Winter Olympics are starting tonight in Vancouver, I have collected some things regarding the festivities.

Slate has put together a good Olympics preview page including:

a cool quiz of 10 various national anthems - with hints, which are (for me) essential.

an economist predicting medal counts

If there was an official Winter Olympics crush of MtD, it would be Sasha Cohen...but apparently wikipedia tells me that she blew it in the qualifying free skate and is a second injury alternate. Lame.

Anthemic Variations

Last Thursday, Craig Calcaterra at Circling the Bases linked to an article complaining about renditions of the National Anthem. I don't get too worked up about people doing it a little differently - I think we all have bigger things to worry about.

Watching Carrie Underwood sing the song before the Super Bowl, I was reminded of the post. I had no problem with her version of the song, but...holy cow, that last note was bad. Anyway, in Calcaterra's post there was a link to this video:

Seriously? The guy's career essentially ended because of that? Wow.

Here are some other classic versions of the Star Spangled Banner, both good and bad:

Marvin Gaye

Maurice Cheeks

Roseanne

Carl Lewis

the Grateful Dead

Mapping the Beatles

I was directed to a pretty interesting collection of graphic design today. Michael Deal has an assortment of graphs related to the Beatles - their songs by author, their songs' keys, their work schedule, and their self-references. It's an ongoing project, but I highly suggest stopping by.


On a separate note, who has been reading from Novgorod, Russia? Sort of random...