Pianists

A friend shared the link about a pianist who caused quite a 'stir' at a recent concert at the Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/arts/music/yuja-wang-and-kirill-gerstein-lead-a-new-piano-generation.html

By coincidence I just recently read a NYTimes article on the same pianist, Yuja Wang, and tragically how classical pianists are now "Virtuosos (correction: plural should be 'Virtuosi') Becoming a Dime a Dozen", http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/arts/music/yuja-wang-and-kirill-gerstein-lead-a-new-piano-generation.html

I’m not at all surprised at Yuja Wang's outfit. It’s the shock value (Stupid!)! Even classical pianists now have to update to ‘Twitter age’ standards and do ANYthing to attract/seduce the audience, sell tickets and get engagements in order to survive… I still recall the excellent pianist Jundi Li (,  who won the Int'l Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland, at age 24 (the youngest winner in the history of the competition)! Sadly he is too ‘straight’(=decent) and professional and doesn’t ‘prostitute’ himself (sorry for the strong word for lack of a better ‘metaphor’) like Lang Lang, the 'ultimate melodrama'; therefore dropped by Deutsche Grammophon! Many people were disgusted but guess – this is the 22^nd century ‘state of the arts’?! Read my identical sentiments in an excellent Wall St. Journal article, 'Why Yundi Li Got Cut', http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122790914204065299.html

Guess I have a lot to thank for … that my daughter is not a performing pianist and has and loves her current exciting job! Today's floral photo is an arrangement I just made for the 2011 Kirkland Art Center's (http://www.kirklandartscenter.org/) Annual Members Show in Kirkland, WA.

Have been away for a while - shame on me! My only excuse is the big wedding I had to do flowers for Sunday, 8/7. Not only did I have to make 7 bouquets/boutonnieres, 17 reception centerpieces, plus the wedding ceremony arbor and seating, but TRANSPORT all of this 2.5 hours north of Seattle to the venue! It made it all worthwhile when I received ravings about my flowers and this from the bride: "Thank you for your amazing flowers that made my wedding a total success! The photographer wants your name!" Below are a few photos I took; photography is another passion. The wedding theme was Irish so the bridal bouquet was green tea roses with soft optic grass. Always looking for unusual flowers, I used onion blooms for the outdoor aisles.

A Chinese Investment lesson!

Scary! Read this in the 7/24/2011 NYTimes Sunday Business section: "From China to Wall Street: The Side-Door Shuffle", about how 'enterprises' in China get into the Nasdaq through the back door and bankrupt US entities who still think anything listed on Wall Street from China must be 'HOT'! http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/business/global/reverse-mergers-give-chinese-firms-a-side-door-to-wall-st.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=from%20china%20to%20wall%20street:%20the%20side-door%20shuffle&st=Search They're 'hot' all right - as in 'DIShonest HOT'! I've known better to make sure my brokers don't invest any of my hardearned savings in any Chinese enterprises!



Oscar Celebrating July 4th



Correct English

Another reason I've wanted to start a blog is to demonstrate correct English - spelling and use of words. The English language has sadly deteriorated and been bastardized, even by The New York Times, my favorite paper. One of my pet peeves is the use of 'reason' in a sentence. The word 'reason' already includes 'why', so to have 'the reason why' in a sentence is incorrect!!! "The reason why I blog is to show correct English." is wrong! The correct sentence should read, "The reason why I blog is to show correct English." One of the best books written on the English language is by the NBC newsman, Edwin Newman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Newman) who said the word "reason" already includes "why" so there is NO need for 'why' (superfluous)! An enthusiastic grammarian, Newman wrote four books on language, my favorite of which is, Strictly Speaking, Will America Be the Death of English? (1984)

DON'T sign up with Verizon!

No wonder verizon is behind att, and worst - in CUSTOMER SERVICE!!! I switched to verizon from att several years ago and may switch BACK now! I JUST added int'l feature to my phone 3 days ago because I needed to make int'l calls but had to change the account owner to my spouse this morning so verizon CANCELED our int'l feature WITHOUT INFORMING US - the CUSTOMER!!! I found out when i needed to make an urgent int'l call and was told by a 'recording' I had no such feature! After calling customer service i was told i had to wait for ONE MONTH prior to adding the intl feature (again!) because our account is now considered a 'NEW' account! We had to go through HELL to get our account add BACK the intl feature!!!