Discovering Dandelion Wine

Discovering Andrew Imbrie's Chamber Piece - Dandelion Wine

I first heard Andrew Imbrie’s music during a period of time when I was studying music composition with one of his students, David Del Tredici, who is a master composer in his own right. Early one Sunday morning, after staying up all night studying and composing at my desk, I took a break to soothe my senses. At the time, my musical explorations had evolved beyond music such as the Second Viennese School: Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Alban Berg; toward George Rochberg, Charles Wourinen, and the other abstract expressionist serial technique composers who were composing during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
 
It was my intention that early morning to hear George Rochberg’s earlier Piano Trio, the one he wrote in the mid-sixties. As I scanned the album cover, the words Dandelion Wine caught my eye. The phrase was familiar. Those words are the title of a short story by Ray Bradbury, a high school reading fancy of mine. Unable to resist, I listened to the musical piece Dandelion Wine instead of the Trio. It was short, a four minute cut on the record, by a composer whose music and whose name I had not noticed before. I thought it couldn’t waste much of my time, so why not.

My Nutritional Regimen

Nutritional Regimen Overview

My approach to food consumption is based upon nutritional criteria I’ve developed and established over an extended time period. I’ve developed my approach to nutrition based on researching various dietary concepts and health recommendations from highly credible and reputable sources, and from personal experiences over the course of decades.
 
There are multiple foundational principles within my nutritional regimen. One principle I adhere to is that only fresh foods should be eaten. The concept of food freshness, and the other principles described here, are each explained and further clarified in separate sections below. Another of my nutritional principles is to eat foods in a state as close as is reasonably possible to their living state, using only the least amount of processing and/or cooking reasonably necessary prior to their consumption. 

Perspectives on Political Platforms

Defining a personal political philosophy, grounded upon principle

America’s political landscape has become a fractured schism of oppositional beliefs that mostly divide the U.S. political landscape. Of course the two most well known American political fiefdoms are the all powerful Democratic and Republican parties. However, for quite some time it has seemed like the time has come to reject both their entrenched strangleholds on American political power. For quite some time it has become clear that the deeply established Democrat versus Republican paradigm clings irrationally on both sides both to: dysfunctional political views, and to tightly maintained political power structures; neither fiefdom is willing to place at political risk. It seems essential now for individuals to reject both their corrupted and illogical frameworks. In fact it seems like it is time to reject the established second tier political establishments as well. Although America’s political power structure seems entrenched beyond redemption, now more than ever, it is time for individuals to at least take a stand apart from the oligarchical cronyism that largely defines American politics.

Impolite Conversation

On the matter of certain topics some people consider taboo ...

What are the origins in social etiquette, of the notion that it is impolite to discuss politics, religion, and a host of other topics that often seem central to daily living in modern society, especially modern American society? It is often apparent in many social settings that people believe they shouldn’t discuss any of their personal opinions or beliefs publicly. One social arena where this phenomenon is strikingly apparent is among people who hold positions of corporate power, in companies both large and small. For quite some time, I’ve maintained a similar posture with regard to the content on this, my own, personal, public, web site, out of concern that one never knows when a potential employer might take offense at a given political view or philosophical belief, regardless of the nature of that belief. Like most people though, I believe steadfastly in my political and philosophical views, on social issues, on economic issues, on constitutional issues, and on the entire range of controversial subjects that impact everyone’s lives, our country, and our planet. Whether on public display, or cloistered privately, I know my perspectives remain what they are, informed by a lifetime of experiences, born of wisdom derived from both knowledge and epiphany.

Google Search Results

What is the cause of Google's Search Engine Kiss of Death?

When a web site like this, with the domain www.marilynperry.com that is by and about Marilyn Perry, is listed in the forty-fifth (45th) position in Google's search engine results in response to a search query on "marilyn perry", there is something seriously wrong with Google's esoteric search engine algorithm! None of the other search engines, like bing or yahoo, penalize this web site, www.marilyperry.com, in such an absurd manner. It seems difficult to try to blame something in the way the Drupal CMS software configures web pages, especially when the other search engines don't make the ridiculous miscalculation that the Google algorithm does. The software scientists at Google are doing something seriously wrong, even violating their own "don't be evil" motto, over thinking and gaming search results way too much, when their algorithm can't detect that a web site with the domain www.marilynperry.com, written by and about Marilyn Perry, doesn't deserve to be listed near the top of its search results for the query "marilyn perry".

This is the nerd age of humankind

The phrase, this is the nerd age of humankind, is actually a play upon a similar phrase spoken in voice-over during the opening of each episode, of some of the seasons, of the science fiction television series Babylon Five some years ago. Among what some people believe may be Babylon Five's  various faults, the series' writers really should have known to use the term humankind instead of mankind, to describe that fictional future era. Today though, whether some people realize it or not, humankind really is, still, at the dawn of an epic era of technological revolution, which despite being a few decades old, is only just beginning, and whose technological advancements seem likely to continue for quite some time to come.

Technological influences seem likely to dominate nearly every aspect of human life, for better and for worse, for good and for bad, but pervasively in any event, for the foreseeable future. Human societies all over planet earth, and people in every global culture, will be defined by the extent to which they have technical expertise, and by the extent to which they embrace technology, and its social, politcal, economic, cultural, and human, influences. As technology has throughout human history, technology provides one of the many types of metaphorical mirrors of both the state of humanity, and the manner in which we human beings perceive ourselves and the vast if not infinite universe that exists around us.

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