UVM Lane Series: Evren Ozel

We saw Evren Ozel perform at the UVM Lane Series on Friday.  The Lane Series has a tradition of bringing in Van Cliburn finalists, and we've made a tradition of going to those events.

Ozel's program began with three Scarlatti Sonatas (Sonata in G Major, K. 427, Sonata in C Minor, K. 11, Sonata in C Major, K. 159), then moved on to Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major, op. 109, and went into intermission with Bartok's Out of Doors, Sz. 81, BB 89.

After intermission, Ozel played Fauré's Nocturne No. 4 in E-flat Major, op. 36 and finished with Schumann's Carnaval, op. 9.  Aside from the Beethoven, I wasn't familiar with much of the program, and it's always interesting to be introduced to new favorites.  :-)

Ozel demonstrated extraordinary fluidity and musicality, making difficult passages seem trivial.  We placed ourselves on the left side of the stage, so that we could see the smooth and effortless movement of his hands.  He was charming and down to earth in his discussion of the pieces, with a genuine enthusiasm and love for music and music history.  And *fun*.  

He was very practical in the encore, not waiting very long before coming back out onstage.  He played Brahm's Hungarian Dance Number 5, as arranged by György Cziffra.  Then he was gracious enough to play a *second* encore, joking he'd "only keep us for one more", and finished with Leopold Godowsky's transcription of Le Cygne from Saint-Saëns's Carnival of the Animals, noting that it was, perhaps, "a little disrespectful to the cello" to play it on the piano. 

All in all a wonderful night!  To "replay" it when I like, here's a playlist with the program from that night.  (note: Spotify didn't have all of the pieces performed by Evren Ozel)

Spotify Wrapped 2023

 Wrapped: 45k minutes played, 4.6k songs, 1.6k artists.

I don't think the top songs are useful, because I often play one of the autogenerated daily playlists, and Spotify tends to get stuck on a couple songs from each artist.  It is useful to see that my "top artist" represents less than 2% of my listening time.  Erasure is likely my "top artist" because I went through their oeuvre and then Spotify included them on lots of autogenerated playlists.

I'd be interested in stats specifically on songs and artists I explicitly asked for.

Japanese chillhop was apparently one of my most listened to genres bc I've been experimenting with it for work.  I think Spotify generously applies multiple genres to music. I played some lo fi and then it autogenerated playlists for me. It looks like "lo fi" and "chillhop" might be the same thing, though I like the idea of a distinct genre that's less repetitive.

(ed. note: post originally shared with friends on FB, reposted here in 2025 and backdated to 11/29/2023)

Piano Music: Beatrice Rana

I had the great pleasure of seeing Beatrice Rana perform last night as part of the Lane Series Piano Consortium's efforts to bring the Van Cliburn medalists to Vermont.  The tickets were a birthday present, and so there was the added irony of going to see a professional who was half my age.

The program was comprised of three pieces I was not familiar with:

1. J.S. Bach's Partita No. 1 in B-flat Major, BWV 825.  The Allmusic description isn't bad; I would add that gigue feels like a composer's joke, with the left hand bouncing back and forth over the right in an ever-shrinking arc, until the left is stretched out over the right as they play simultaneously.  This is the sort of thing that is most fun to watch live.
2. Robert Schumann's Symphonic Etudes, op. 13.  This provided a good bridge between the Bach and Prokofiev. 
3. Sergei Prokofiev's Sonata No. 6 in A Major, op. 83 [there was a typo in the program; this is actually op. 82, and Sonata No. 7 is op. 83].  Together, these three pieces showcased Rana's range, from the clockwork precision of Bach to the controlled chaos of Prokofiev, ending with thunder as Rana literally lifted herself off the piano bench with the force of her final notes. 

The other highlight of the night was in the director's introductory remarks, which she kept mercifully brief, while also mentioning all the important donors and plugging next week's Valentine's Day performance, which would allow you to "Score major points with your sweetheart or a complete stranger."  That received a well-deserved chuckle from the audience.

A minor moving project

We pulled everything off the shelves in the (family?) room and pushed the shelves a little closer to the wall.  We no longer needed the extra space behind the shelves because we were moving the TV & stereo equipment to another location.  They were being moved because we needed to move the couch and chair in order to make room for...

... the "new" piano.  It's a very well maintained 1976 Yamaha GH 1.  The previous owners' kids are grown up, and now ours will learn on it.  Yay!

And then we suddenly had room for *more* books once the TV was moved! 

Mix tapes for the 21st century, part 2

Grooveshark wins for now; here's the "Confessions of a Sock Monkey" playlist and here is the accompanying story.  I might have liked to have the Sinead O'Connor version of "Why don't you do right?", the Peggy Lee version of "You'd be so nice to come home to" and especially the Rosey Grier version of "It's all right to cry", but close enough.  

So far I'm fairly impressed with Grooveshark's selection, but their interface feels a bit clownish with the noisy ads.  


I also hate their search engine; it throws up a lot of chaff when searching for a track, and does things like rank "Where the Hood At" and "Ride Wit Me" as more relevant to a search for "You'd be so nice to come home to" than several versions of the actual search term.  This means I almost always need to click the "See all" button.  All in all, not nearly as satisfying a user experience as putting together the mflow "Confessions of a Sock Money" playlist, even if mflow came up a few tracks short.  Mflow's search field to "Quickly add tracks to this playlist" especially kicks the ass of anything Grooveshark had to offer.  

So, I want mflow's interface and Grooveshark's database.

Mix tapes for the 21st century

Been playing with some Chrome apps.  A friend recommend We Are Hunted, but while I like the idea of having a "radio" that plays through new music, I had to keep stopping what I was doing to skip to the next song, and at the end of the day, I had about 4 songs marked that I kinda sorta liked.  So I went hunting through the music section of the Chrome apps store, and Mflow was highly recommended. 

The search isn't bad; it starts showing results as you type and separates the results into artists, albums, users, and tags (sadly, not tracks here, though if you do search by a particular song name, the search results do show a tracks section).  The track listings also helpfully show which album the track is pulled from, which is important when you want the version of "Pressure" from the Nylon Curtain and not the one on the Greatest Hits album.


I'm having fun with this, because I can check out holes in our music collection, and confirm things like:

• we're good to go with Prolonging the Magic and don't need any other Cake albums
• we're good with just the first two Cranberries albums
• same with Ben Folds Five's second and third albums and can skip his solo career, though I might be convinced that we need "Rockin' the Suburbs"

Sure, previewing music online isn't new, but my prior experience with places like last.fm gave me the impression that most places just gave you clips, and while you can hear full tracks youtube, it's less convenient to listen to whole albums (and I'm still a bit of a sucker for albums).


What I'm not entirely satisfied with on mflow is the selection.  It occurred to me that creating and sharing mflow playlists would be a good replacement for mix tapes; however, until they have more Shelleyan Orphan, that won't work for us. 

So what other services are out there?  Here's another situation where Wikipedia is really helpful, with a list of online music databases, and in particular the streaming services.  Of these, I need to check out Grooveshark, and maybe I'll check last.fm again, but the rest seem like they won't suit my needs.  The one that allows me to share "Confessions of a Sock Monkey" as a cloud mixtape soonest wins.


...of course, there's also Mixcloud, which would allow me to put in my own audio -- very helpful when the mix includes a sample from Mahler's 5th, or if I want to read the script as part of the mix.  I'll have to look into that, too.

Audiosurf album "review" : Violator (1990) Depeche Mode

The 80's and my secondary schooling have come to an end, and Depeche Mode in specializing in 4-6 minute, medium traffic tracks.  There are no "great" rides here, but Waiting for the Night, Blue Dress, Clean, and Enjoy the Silence (in that order) are good for practice when you're new to Pointman Elite.

1. World in My Eyes -- Time 4:26 -- Traffic 233
   The only song that cracks 200 traffic on the album, it starts off herky-jerky on that initial uphill run, then suddenly the blocks seem to come out of nowhere and you're fighting the track rather than riding it, and there are little fits and starts throughout.  Mildly exhausting and unsatisfying for a song that is otherwise fun outside Audiosurf.
   
   
   
   
2. Sweetest Perfection -- Time 4:43 -- Traffic 190
   Not as interesting a song, but it's a better ride than World in My Eyes.  It's smoother; there's still enough traffic to keep you on your toes, but not a lot of traffic on the final downhill run so you're not overwhelmed.
   
   
   
   
3. Personal Jesus -- Time 4:56 -- Traffic 162
   Very surprised at first that is an uphill track; I'd always thought of it as having a driving beat, and it does, but it's very deliberate and not fast.  There's almost too much time at the end; I kept thinking the song was about to come to a close, but no, we're reaching out to touch faith again.
   
   
   
   
4. Halo -- Time 4:30 -- Traffic 155
   I ran through this track 5 times and still don't have a good read on it.  Twice I didn't clean finish because the uphill part at the end came before I expected it and had leftover yellow and red blocks because that uphill bit is too short to have any yellows or reds.  Twice I finished clean but didn't score very many points along the way.  I don't remember enjoying the song along the way on any run -- I was too focused on the track, which is weird, because it's not high traffic or downhill.
   
   
   
   
5. Waiting for the Night -- Time 6:07 -- Traffic 75
   Slow, uphill, and sparse, this is an exercise in patience and planning, and perfect for practicing, especially when you first try out Pointman, and especially on Elite.  There's time to place blocks just how you like, and you can practice getting chain bonuses and 21-block matches.  Fun for "cerebral" players.
   
   
   
   
6. Enjoy the Silence -- Time 6:12 -- Traffic 171
   A good downhill practice track because it has has uphill runs at the beginning, allowing you to get set up before the downhill run, and at the end, allowing you to correct any mistakes and finish clean.  Good luck getting into the top 10, because it's popular.  Worse, most people in the top 10 seem to be playing some version other than the album track, and I can't tell whether that's just because that's the version most people get off iTunes or that version is advantaged over the album track in some way.
   
   
   
   
7. Policy of Truth -- Time 4:55 -- Traffic 199
   A bit too herky-jerky to be really fun.
   
   
   
   
8. Blue Dress -- Time 5:42 -- Traffic 119
   Another good practice song like Waiting for the Night.  It's nice and slow and low traffic and there's absolutely acres of time at the end.
   
   
   
   
9. Clean -- Time 5:28 -- Traffic 147
   I tend not to look at the overall map and just go by the song, and always think this one is closer to ending than it really is -- I'd start to wrap up blocks for a clean finish, and suddenly a whole 'nother set is coming my way.
   
   
   
   

Audiosurf album "review" : The Queen is Dead

You don't need me to tell you that this is a great album; see the links to the reviews from the Wikipedia page for The Queen is Dead.  It's also tons of fun to ride on Audiosurf; "Never Had No One Ever" was the only unsatisfying ride.

1. The Queen Is Dead -- Time 6:24 -- Traffic 144
   It's all downhill after that short climb at the beginning, but the ride is fairly smooth, the traffic isn't too bad, and there are several mini-slowdowns, so it's not too harsh a run for those of us who were alive when the album was originally released.
   
   
   
   
2. Frankly, Mr. Shankly -- Time 2:19 -- Traffic 176
   Uphill followed by a bumpy stretch that goes slightly downhill. I have to admit that I didn't notice the bumps as much as in other songs, perhaps because Morrissey's voice smooths the bumps a bit, and none of them are sharp stops that can trip you up (we'll get to plenty of those with Prince and They Might Be Giants).  I played this one a few times because it's short, and I didn't finish clean at first... I wasn't paying attention to the end of the song coming up and was left with a couple reds.
   
   
   
   
3. I Know It's Over -- Time 5:49 -- Traffic 130.
   Gradual uphill (with mini-downhill run) to a sharp peak followed by downhill run.  There's little enough traffic that you still have the reaction time to pick up blocks while your soul is gently torn into little strips and tossed in the air like so much confetti.
   
   
   
   
4. Never Had No One Ever -- Time 3:37 -- Traffic 133.
   Weeeeird.  When I first played this, it was a bumpy downhill ride for the first 2/3, then bumpy and roughly level.  When I re-ripped the album because tracks 9 and 10 weren't playing correctly, the pattern changed.  That's file corruption for you!  This is the only song on the album that I don't really like.  The lyrics are comparatively boring and repetitive, and it serves only the purpose of being a cracker to clear the palate before you're hit with Cemetry Gates.
   
   
   
   
5. Cemetry Gates -- Time 2:41 -- Traffic 242.
   A downhill run that's tough to play Pointman on.  I've read that as traffic goes > 200, Pusher beats Pointman, and my very limited experience seems to bear that out; however, I enjoy playing Pointman much more than Pusher, so I'm sticking with the Point.  I love this song.
   
   
   
   
6. Bigmouth Strikes Again -- Time 3:14 -- Traffic 318
   Downhill, super-high traffic, this run is absolutely terrifying on Pointman.  I spent a lot more time than usual riding in the shoulder, waiting for little breaks in the blocks to swoop in and drop blocks.  I think I see how the Pusher player works on runs like this: you sit in the middle and simply move blocks to one side or the other, or let them fall in the center.
   
   
   
   
7. The Boy with the Thorn in His Side -- Time 3:17 -- Traffic 252
   Another downhill run, but after "Bigmouth", this one doesn't feel too scary.
   
   
   
   
8. Vicar in a Tutu -- Time 2:22 -- Traffic 256
   Ack.  Another downhill run, and for some reason this one feels more brutal than the Boy with the Thorn in His Side. Part of it is that the end is still a steep downhill, rather than a slight uphill as in the previous three songs, so there's little time to catch an extra block and finish clean as you hit the end.
   
   
   
   
9. There is a Light that Never Goes Out -- Time 4:03 -- Traffic 216
   Another downhill run, but not as directly downhill, with a little less traffic overall and petering out nicely at the end so you can recover from any blockages you might have incurred earlier in the run.  Unfortunately, no chance at the high score, or even the top three.  Those are really impressive rides.
   
   
   
   
10. Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others -- Time 3:14 -- Traffic 244
    The album finishes with one last mostly downhill run.  It's less steep than The Queen is Dead, with most of the elevation change occurring before you're halfway through the song, but there's a lot more traffic.
    
    
    
    

Audiosurf album "review" : What's Going On

Marvin Gaye's What's Going On is a tremendous album to listen to that seems to have been overlooked by the really good Audiosurfers, probably because the tracks are mostly uphill and less "difficult". That just means there's lots of opportunity for a third-tier player like me to top the high score lists.

1. What's Going On. This track goes uphill and is then levels out, with some bumps along the way. Not a terribly interesting visually, but a great song.
2. What's Happening Brother. Uphill climb followed by a gradual bumpy downhill. Pretty busy (traffic 200). None of the good audiosurfers have played this song, so I'm top dog.
3. Flyin' High (In the Friendly Sky). A small normal-ish curve followed by a level-but-bumpy section followed by a loooong uphill to end the song.
4. Save the Children. Traffic 155 - mostly uphill with a little dip before the final ascent. A little confusing at the end because this is one of the songs that leads right into the next, so the track break is a little artificial. Gonna have this problem with the Abbey Road album, too.
5. God is Love. Straight downhill, traffic 255, but apparently I'm the only person in the world to play this song. This is what happens in an iTunes culture. Nobody has albums any more. This song also runs right into the next.
6. Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology). Traffic 181. Shaped like Flyin' High, but smoother and with a shorter level spot. It took my three runs, but I got the top spot -- where the heck are the good surfers? I would have thought that they'd all be out for this one.
7. Right On. 7:30, smooth, uphill, relatively low traffic of 170. Only one person has played it on elite, but I have no shot at beating their score... maybe I do? After three plays, I managed to claw over 300,000 and within striking distance of Murky's 318K. 22 minutes is more time than I wanted to spend on this.
8. Wholy Holy. No one else has played Elite on this, so I let Connor play it.
9. Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler). Traffic 111. Uphill, but only steep at the beginning and end.

Audiosurf album "review" : ABBA Gold

It's first alphabetically in our collection, so it'll be first here. Right now I'm playing Pointman Elite, which means I suck on all downhill runs with traffic > 200. ABBA is also very popular, so little hope of reaching the top any high score lists here.

Overall, my favorites were Dancing Queen, Knowing Me Knowing You, Lay All Your Love on Me, and Waterloo. Take a Chance on Me and the ones like S.O.S. were also good runs, but I think my opinions on Dancing Queen and Take a Chance on Me are biased because I particularly like those songs. Individual comments follow:

1. Dancing Queen. Downhill, traffic 237, mega-popular. I do manage to crack the top 11 (for now) with 173,074.
2. Knowing Me, Knowing You. Wavy, mostly downhill, traffic 170. Less popular, but GeoLuz and gerontious are way out of my league. Still managed 3rd (every once in a while I can top AVengerROcks, but I'm probably more in the same skill class with FrenchLady101)
3. Take a Chance on Me. Overall no incline or decline, but bumpy, traffic 212. I managed 10th, but I think I flubbed the run a little.
4. Mamma Mia. Missed a clean finish, out of top 10. I never did like this song.
5. Lay All Your Love on Me. Maybe there's something to liking the song, though it certainly helped that this was uphill. Great run, I'm 4th on the list.
6. Super Trouper. Another uphill track, and I had a good run despite changing the lyrics to "Pooper Scooper" in my head. Don't know if I'll make it through the whole album; I'd forgotten how marginal some of these hits were.
7. I Have a Dream. A downhill but mostly gentle ride with relatively low traffic (147).
8. The Winner Takes it All. It starts as a bell curve, but pulls up short for a final incline before the final downhill run.
9. Money, Money, Money. Didn't finish clean and yet ended up in the top ten. I could probably even get into the top five, but I really dislike this song.
10. S.O.S. Mostly downhill with a few pauses between each run. I actually should be able to beat gerontious's score on this one, but the effort wouldn't be worth momentarily being on top.
11. Chiquitita. Ack. This is one where there's no chance of catching gerontious, but I missed the clean finish and could have placed higher on the chart.
12. Fernando. Sort of like the S.O.S. run with larger uphill pauses between each downhill run. Another one where the very top players are out of reach, but third is actually achievable.
13. Voulez Vous. Another downhill run, more like Knowing Me, Knowing You than Dancing Queen. It's getting to the point where, going in to any song, I know that by Clean Finishing I'll end up with roughly double the value of the gold medal score.
14. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight). Mostly uphill with a few mini-valleys. Bumpy, jarring. Not much fun.
15. Does Your Mother Know. No overall incline or decline with a couple of small valleys, until a final downhill run at the end. Bumpy, jarring, not much fun.
16. One of Us. An initial uphill and then overall level, but bumpy, first place is within striking distance. Not an inspiring run, except for placing 2nd, 20,000 points shy of gerontious.
17. The Name of the Game. The half of an S-curve after the inflection point. Too many starts and stops for my taste.
18. Thank You for the Music. Shaped roughly like S.O.S. and Fernando.
19. Waterloo. Downhill run, traffic of 187, no chance of beating gerontious, so I'm just trying to crack 100,000... and... woo-hoo! 108,702, good for 5th place, and most importantly, top Pointman score in the Elite column (uh, scant hundreds ahead of the next player, but Tirulii has some awesome scores on other songs, so I'll take it)

Audiosurf

My BIL gave us Audiosurf for Christmas 2008. Well, technically he gave it to Sarah, but Connor and I are the ones who play it. Here's the game:

1. You give it any mp3** to analyze.
2. It creates a track based on the analysis of the song.
3. You ride the track along to the song, picking up various-colored blocks to score points.
4. At the end, your total gets compared to every other person IN THE WORLD who rode this song, and hopefully you land on the high scoreboard.

There are a number of different "personas" you can play, from Pointman (pick up blocks and stack them in groups of 3 or more, different block colors are worth different amounts) to Mono (avoid grey blocks and pick up single-colored blocks), and three different "levels" (Casual, Pro, and Expert) at which you can play, with a high-score board for each.

It's a bargain at ten bucks.

** or whatever other formats audiosurf supports