Grappelli, who has been classically educated, was sometimes stunned when, during a musical discussion, Reinhardt would turn to him and ask, “A scale? What is a scale?”

De la biografía ( incompleta ) de Django en Down Beat Mag.

Un excelente articulo del LA Times sobre la devaluación del dollar y sus efectos alrededor del mundo: Day of the dollar: a global Connection.

Nos dice la entrada de Wikipedia sobre Chavela Vargas que de joven, cuando escribio esta canción, Chavela Vestía como un hombre, fumaba tabaco, bebía mucho, llevaba pistola y era reconocida por su característico poncho rojo.. También y contextualizando, wikipedia nos cuenta que La llorona es el personaje legendario más famoso de México… Se trata de una mujer que ha perdido a su hijo y lo busca en vano, turbando con su llanto a los que la oyen. y sin embargo, solo alcanza el primer verso para saber que no es de esto de lo que trata la canción.

Con las manos entrelazadas como rezando, Chavela canta, susurra y suspira. Interpreta la canción como si recién la hubiera escrito, cada palabra cargando el peso de las emociones que la hicieron letra. Y el final, ese final tan abrupto, que nos deja la sensación de que por esos frágiles 6 minutos, Chavela no viera a una audiencia delante suyo, sino a quien más de 50 años atrás inspiro esta maravilla de canción.

In Japan, the distinction between craft and art is blurred at most, possibly nonexistent. Japanese theories of art (and craft) often involve principles of harmony and balance.

Why I Program In Ruby (And Maybe Why You Shouldn’t)

No soy muy fanático de Ruby (la verdad es que nunca le preste mucha atención), y en mi lista de lenguajes a aprender esta bastante abajo de Python, Prolog y Erlang, pero me gusto la frase.

Mathematical Structures, useful or not, are invented and developed within a problem context, and derive their meaning from that context. Sometimes we want one plus one to equal zero (as in so called ‘mod 2′ arithmetic) and on the surface of a sphere the angles of a triangle add up to more than 180 degrees. These are not “facts” per se; everything is relative and relational.

A proof, that is, a mathematical argument, is a work of fiction, a poem. Its goal is to satisfy. A beautiful proof should explain, and it should explain clearly, deeply, and elegantly. A well-written, well-crafted argument should feel like a splash of cool water, and be a beacon of light — It should refresh the spirit and illuminate the mind. And it should be charming.

Even the traditional way in which definitions are presented is a lie. In an effort to create an illusion of “clarity” before embarking on the typical cascade of propositions and theorems, a set of definitions are provided so that statements and their proofs can be made as succint as possible. On the surface this seems fairly innocuous; why not make some abbreviations so that things can be said more economically? The problem is that definitions matter. They come from aesthetic decisions about what distinctions you as an artist consider important. And they are problem-generated. To make a definition is to highlight and call attention to a feature or structural property.

There is such breathtaking depth and heartbreaking beauty in this ancient art form. How ironic that people dismiss mathematics as the antithesis of creativity. They are missing out on an art form older than any book, more profound than any poem, and more abstract than any abstract.

De http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_03_08.html.

via reddit.