Philly Boy Scouts: A good group or discriminatory?

I read with interest a story this week that a national conference of the Boy Scouts of America took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and that the host council, the Cradle of Liberty Council, has defied the national organization and has included sexual orientation in its definition of non-discrimination. This means that the council has forbidden barring a boy or a leader from joining the Scout organization because that boy or leader is gay, contradicting the national organization's forbidding of gays from joining the Scouts.

This is a good sign. This means there is one place where Scouting is a good organization for a boy to belong to. Scouting has many virtues, namely, introducing boys to survival skills and an appreciation for nature and the environment while helping them develop a set of values for life. However, I cannot recommend most Scout troops for boys, because the national organization chooses to discriminate against gays and atheists. However, the Philadelphia scouts do not discriminate against gays. So is this a good organization for a boy to belong to?

I would like to think so but I am not sure. The problem is that I have found no evidence that the Philly Boy Scouts has barred discrimination against a boy or a leader because he does not believe in a God. It may be that a boy or leader must profess belief in God before joining a Philadelphia area Boy Scout organization. If that is the case, they are better than the national organization but they have gone only halfway.

In fact, in this case, they are discriminating in a second-order sense. They are discriminating against atheists and agnostics and in favor of gays. Two groups of people have an issue with the Boy Scouts: gay people and atheists and agnostics. The Philadelphia council apparently has decided to discriminate in favor of gays over atheists and agnostics, and so I can't recommend them either.

I hope I am wrong and that the Philadelphia Boy Scouts have barred discrimination based on a belief in a God as well.

Victory in the "War" against Terror

A major victory in the effort (sometimes mistakenly called a "war") against terrorism occurred today, 2003 May 31. A notorious terrorist who has planted bombs in a gay bar, an abortion clinic and the Atlanta 1996 Olympics has been captured. Eric Rudolph was found unexpectedly near a store in the extreme western tip of North Carolina. From what I have heard about Eric Rudolph, he is a Christian terrorist, the same as Osama bin Laden is an Islamic one. Like Osama, he has targeted institutions that don't fit his narrow version of religion. I am hoping that extra efforts to combat terrorists in general since Planeattack have helped capture this terrorist. I believe he has had help escaping authorities over the years, probably from some right-wing extremist group. The leaders of this group should be hunted down and captured just like those of Al Qaeda. And it shows that not all notorious terrorists are Muslim or Al Qaeda. We have some in this country.

Mercury: Chopin's Posthumous Etude in A-flat Major

This Etude sounds more like a Prelude, as it is a short composition with a simple melodic line. What is interesting about it is its 3 over 2 rhythm. The treble is a fast 3/4 waltz or 6/8 piece. The bass is an ordinary 4-beat rhythm. Chopin has put these two together and they sound fine. It reminds me of the planet Mercury, which does a 3/2 dance around the Sun with its rotational system, so I call this Etude "Mercury". Douglas Hofstadter mentions the prelude in his book Metamagical Themas, as an example of the type of music Chopin composed. I find the piece fascinating with its 3/2 rhythm and have put it in Cakewalk with a bell-like treble and a string bass. The melodic and bass lines are interesting as they resemble sine waves: they go down and then up and then down again in a wave pattern. It is not a very well known etude, as it was published after Chopin's death. Its main idea appears in some form in some of the Preludes of Opus 28. It is an interesting one to play and hear.

Epic: Chopin's Prelude in D Minor

And finally we come to the end. Chopin's Prelude Opus 28, Number 24, in D minor. This one is full of theatrics, with a roaring bass that is incessant throughout the piece, long runs across the keyboard, and a final threesome bang of the low D on the piano that is a fitting conclusion to the opus. It is like a long story that keeps going on and on, with plots and acts, and so I call it Epic. The piece is dramatic and is a pleasure to play, even though it is one of the more difficult pieces to play. When I was a child I was in awe of those who could play a piece like this. But I have found that it is actually easier to play than the preludes in E-flat, B-flat minor, or F-sharp minor. Outside of the bass, the runs, and the sparkling thirds at the climax, there is just the one-note melody. The bass is a bit of a stretch, and playing those twelfths over and over again can get your left hand tired quickly. The runs need some practice but I was surprised that I could do one of them rather well right now. The thirds are the part that would get me. I have always had a problem playing thirds.

This piece has an interesting chordal progression which allows it to be expanded into a really impressive epic. It starts in the key of D minor, then goes to F, then C7, and then F. It then transitions through an E7-flatted 9 to A minor, and then the entire piece starts all over again, down a fifth in A minor. It goes through the same types of transitions, from E minor to G major and then to the relative major, in this case C. Through the same type of chord progression it goes into E minor. At this point it takes an abrupt turn into C minor. But up to now we have a chord progression that goes one notch sharpward from D minor to A minor to E minor. My idea is to continue this right on, through B minor, F-sharp minor, C-sharp minor and so forth around the circle of fifths until I get back to D minor again. I tried this once (I since have lost it) in Cakewalk and it does sound impressive - you have to keep adjusting between fifths and fourths to avoid having it descend into the lowest notes of the piano. Getting back to the original piece, the transition from D-flat major to D-flat augmented to D minor is interesting and perverse - the usual sequence goes through D diminished instead. The descending thirds is rather unexpected in the climatic buildup and reminds me of leaves falling from a tree. And of course there is the final descent and the three low D tolls at the end, signaling the end of the piece and of Opus 28. And so that ends this sequence of reviews as well.

Not with my "Just add one" philosophy. There are more. I have decided to add two more Preludes, because of their interest to me. One is a posthumous prelude in G-sharp Major. All right, it is in A flat. I was trying to avoid duplicating a key, which is impossible now since all keys have been covered. The other is the one I mentioned earlier in connection with Number 15, "Mercury", also in A-flat, an intriguing piece with triple time in the treble and duple time. Also, tonight, I noticed that there is a number 25 and a 26 in Opus 28, and I would like to find out more about them. They seem like afterthoughts. So this series is to be continued...

Chipmunk Chases Squirrels

Recently we upgraded and stocked two bird feeders in our back yard and threw corn cobs out into the yard. This has caused a wild party in our back yard. All kinds of birds arrive to get the food. These include titmice, chickadees, cardinals, robins (who usually don't go for feeders), flickers, red-bellied woodpeckers, blue jays, and even a couple of crows. But the biggest ruckus was kicked up by eight squirrels going after the corn and bird food. We intended them to eat the corn. They do so. They also cart the corn cobs around and we found a squirrel with a cob out in the street two houses down the road! They also fight with each other, chasing each other all over the place. But the most impressive sight I saw was a little chipmunk, so much smaller than the squirrels, appearing from nowhere and scampering around fast. He scared all the squirrels away when he did that! It was comical to see all those squirrels run away. Appearances can cause fear reactions, it seems. Once I saw a rubber ball chase one of our cats. The cat was chasing it when it hit a wall and bounced back. After it did that, the cat ran away from the ball. So surprise may be the element in Chipmunk David chasing all those Squirrel Goliaths away.

First Anniversary

I almost did not notice. At the middle of this month, I completed my first year of keeping a weblog entitled Blogtrek. I noticed it evolve as I kept contributing to it for the past year. I was made aware of blogs from a friend at church who kept one. I found the idea of keeping some sort of journal online intriguing so I went with it. At first I put in a lot of blogs about how the day went and things I thought about ("Fireflies", for instance). Then it evolved into more political talk, such as my commentary on PETA's protest at Victoria's Secret's show. As of late I have been putting in more personal stuff in, culminating in my review of Chopin's Opus 28 Preludes. Today's by the way is "Floating", Opus 28, Number 23, in F major. I found that it takes time to compose these blogs, and it does make my thoughts about things, such as what I will do after I retire, sharper. So I now continue into my second year of Blogtrek, blogging where no one has blogged before…

Floating: Chopin's Prelude in F Major

Have you, as a child, blown bubbles and watch them float away? or perhaps you launched a paper airplane and watched it soar in the air currents, or maybe a balloon or a bunch of balloons? Don't you wish you could float away for an afternoon? That is what Chopin's Prelude Opus 28, Number 23 reminds me of. Its up and down strains remind me of floating around. The music is fairly organized - an F section, and then one in C, then one in F again, then to the sub-dominant in B-flat and back to F again. But it still gives me the impression of disordered drifting, as it continues to soar. Each section is about a fifth higher than the previous until the prelude is twinkling the highest keys of the keyboard. Then it drifts down like a balloon that has burst or hit a downdraft back into the middle of the keyboard. What happens next is really interesting. Chopin closes with an F arpeggio in both hands first together up, then treble up-bass down, and right at the turn point Chopin throws in an out-of-key E-flat. That colors the entire ending. It feels incomplete, as an F7 chord wants to resolve to B-flat, yet this continues right up into an F. But it does fit in with the floating nature of the piece, and one might consider this to be another blue note that Chopin has thrown into his music, an elusive out-of-chord note reminiscent of his Posthumous Prelude in A-flat, with a B-Flat in the final A-flat ending. As far as playing it, it is not too hard, although it feels awkward with the fingers overlapping the thumb on the descending notes. A good song for a lazy spring day.

Flood

One thing I have been noting is the increase in the number of cloudy and rainy days we have had. This past month have had two or three spells of it and not much sunshine. The sun finally came out today, on Memorial Day. That's the day that the pool is supposed to open in my development - officially anyway, with a kickoff party. But there was no party today. Rainy after rainy day has saturated our water table. Last night, a thunderstorm came and it simply poured and poured here, a solid wall of water. When I got up in the morning I had found that 3.75 inches of rain had fallen overnight, and further, I had recorded 0.83 inches the previous day for a total of 4.58 inches. This caused massive flooding in our development. The creek rose up about 6 to 8 feet, swamping the little park that our development has. Further, the water came over the level of the swimming pool, putting dirty water into the pool and damaging some of the buildings. I went over there today and they tell me the pool will be closed for a week. I suppose they have to pump it out, clean it out, and then fill it with fresh water and chlorinate it. I don't know what they would do about the damage to the buildings - about 6 inches of water there. In any case, if someone tells me if we have a drought now, I will show them our development with its flooded park and swimming pool. It's OK to sprinkle our lawns now, except for one thing. The lawns clearly don't need any sprinking.

Tumult: Chopin's Prelude in G Minor

UNFAIR! NO MORE WAR! XYZ COMPANY UNFAIR TO UNION WORKERS! DUMP THE HUMP! USA GO HOME! Can you feel it? This is the prelude of the protest movement, of social unrest and of demonstrations. Another Chopin piece that resembles this prelude is his Revolutionary Etude. Yes, Chopin's Prelude in G minor, Opus 28, number 22, is the tumultuous one, hence my name for it. Its tempestuous phrases build up to a climax similar to that of Prelude 18's, then it fades away, as though the energy of the protestors was suddenly zapped. This prelude differs from Prelude 18 (in F minor) in that 18's phrases seem like isolated fits, while 22's is more continuous, incessant, and demanding. It is this incessant pounding in the middle that reminds me of a protest movement, especially one that turns into a melee or a revolution. The piece jumps octaves all over the place, making this one a hard one to master, although with some practice I found that I could do it. But it is a good one for a protest group to play before going out into the streets.