Best Songs for Sons and Daughters on Father’s Day, part 4
Third place. Just the two of us… by Will Smith. The rather generic song, written by William Salter, was popularized by Washington Grover. Will Smith made it into a rap, and sang about a special bond between father and son. The sacred bond. In the video, Smith takes his son to work, which is a […]
Best Songs for Sons and Daughters on Father’s Day, part 3
Second place Cat Stevens composed and recorded Fathers and Sons before he changed his name to Yusuf Islam. It’s not time to make a changeJust relax, take it easyYou’re still young, that’s your faultThere’s so much you have to knowFind a girl, settle downIf you want, you can marry… The song had many performers, and […]
Best Songs for Sons and Daughters on Father’s Day, part 2
First place ex aequo I’m gonna be like you, dad… A folk rock classic. After his son, Josh, was born, Chapin wrote the music to his wife’s poem. The singer died a few years later in a car crash, and didn’t live long enough to witness the footprint of his song. But Cat’s in the […]
Best Songs for Sons and Daughters on Father’s Day
We have two sons and twin daughters. In our family, the Father’s Day is usually quite eventful, and I pride myself on being important to them. Recently, I realized how many songs there are recognizing the unique bond between the parents and their children. The sacred bond. I have known some of them for years, […]
The Best Polish Women Violinists
At the height of his career, Paganini was asked who was the best violin player of them all. “I don’t know who’s the best,” he answered with his natural modesty, “but the second-best is Karol Lipiński. There were many superb Polish violinists. Many of them were born when Poland was not on the maps of […]
What soccer and opera have in common
The year was 1994 and America was getting ready to host the FIFA World Soccer Cup. The United States Soccer Federation tried hard to popularize the sport, which dominates the rest of the world. The professional broadcasters wanted to use complicated statistics to enhance the appeal to the fans. Percentages, ratios, and indexes, the same […]
“Hotel California”, the Song I Love So Much
Probably one of the best songs from the 70s. Maybe one of the best. Here is one of its original performances. The main musical theme composed out of three notes. Just three notes! A brilliant guitar solo, in the opinion of many also one of the best. Humongous crowds listening to the band which played, […]
Why Cremona Became the Capital of the Singing Wooden Box
The centers of excellence. Athens, Florence, Hangzhou in China, Vienna, Silicon Valley in California. The spikes on progress in our civilization. And there is a smaller place, located on the left bank of river Po in Lombardy, in northern Italy. Cremona. The home of violin making. The craze started in the sixteenth century in the […]
Violin and the road to perfection
If you’ve ever listened to the second part of Paganini’s violin concerto #4… you know that a violin can be an angelic instrument. But after listening to Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns… you also know it can sound like a Devils fiddle. And after listening to Charlie Daniels band… now you are certain. The scale […]
