Category: The Arts

I was attending the R/Finance conference in Chicago when I had the opportunity to visit the Art Institute of Chicago. Aside from recreating every scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, I really liked seeing Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks in person.

Drift diving is where the diver finds an area with a strong current and plans to ride the current over the course of the dive rather than fight against it. This video uses a combination of drift diving and free diving to give some perspective on the size and power of the ocean relative to a human.

It baffles me why we don’t have more of this style of jazz which is simplistic enough to be musically accessible to everyone but substantial in chord structure and style. This is not the same as smooth jazz or elevator music. Raconte Moi is beautiful but Ces Petits Riens is my favorite.

A good samba is light and floats through the air without losing its rhythmic grounding. While the video is fine, I have to admit that I loved this song before the video and I don’t think it added much to the song.

I visited the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston the other day. For non-art fans, John Singer Sargent was a great American portrait painter. This is one of my favorite paintings although I am sure his other work is more appreciated.

 

Guillaume Nery is a French freediver who is filmed by his partner, Julie Gautier in this video of Dean’s Blue Hole.

I’m taking a brief break from everything this afternoon and finally getting around to recording some of the music I wrote when I was younger. This is part of a piece I envisioned as a psalm but never got around to writing the lyrics. More to come as I get around to learning the capabilities of my software and can record the rest of the piece.

I love the way Somi’s voice just floats above an incredibly complex but not heavy rhythm section. There is no excessive ornamentation or unnecessary vocal acrobatics. I also like the choice to ground the video in the modern world rather than some surreal nature scene or environment that would signify “otherness”.