I'm Living in my iPhone Now
Jim sees how this new life in cyberspace is all
coming together—even for him.
I have to tell you about this online experience I had today. When the iPhone
first came out, I had to have it. Stephen and I have now been living with our
two iPhones now since August, 2007. My laptop is still faster, but except for
finances, web publishing and graphics, I do everything on my iPhone. I've
dropped it over a hundred times; it still works perfectly, even the face is
still unscratched.Today, we were down
to one vehicle, and with Stephen's hip so bad, I ferried him to the physical
therapist this afternoon at Barnes Rehab. So there I am sitting in the waiting
room for an hour. Am I bored? NO! I get a chance to read more in the Edmund
Morris biography of Beethoven. In my pocket. On the iPhone. See, I
read on the Google News iPhone section I created that instead of buying Amazon's
new wireless reading device, The Kindle
2, for $359, I can download the Kindle software to my iPhone FOR
FREE!! So I did that, and browsed around on Amazon until I found and bought the
Beethoven bio for under $10 (and cheaper than the hardcover or softcover
version).
I have rededicated myself to relearning some Beethoven sonatas, which I have
long dearly loved, and right now I am working on the Bb sonata Opus 22. Not to
digress too far, you can listen to it on YouTube if you want. So I thought
reading a Beethoven biography would be rather inspiring. But I hadn't done much
if any reading on a hand-held device, so this was kind of an iffy move. You can
see to the left what the screen for reading looks like. Unfortunately, the
iPhone capture that I used produced a very blurred image, but on my iPhone
screen, the words appear crystal clear and are easy to read. You can bookmark
and return to any point in the book. You can go to the Table of Contents. There
are five text sizes from very small to very large.
Ok, so I am reading along in Chapter
One of the Beethoven bio about Ludwig's early and teenaged life, and I come
along to this particular episode in his life. Joseph II, "the people's Emperor"
died on February 24, 1790. This was when Beethoven was 19 and just after he had
become his drunken and washed-up father, Johann's keeper. The Electorate went
into deep mourning. There was a call form an appropriate memorial to express
public grief. "A local poet, Severin Averdonk, produced thirty-five lines of
hastily written text. Before the month was out, the society announced its
surprise choice as composer: a court musician still in his teens, with no
experience whatsoever in articulating public grief." Morris surmises that
Ludwig's friends, his teacher, Neefe, and Count Waldstein, had leaned on
Beethoven's main patron, Max Franz (also brother of Joseph II), to award him
this important opportunity.Continuing
to read the chapter, I find this
quote"Nearly a century was to pass
before Johannes Brahms discovered that Ludwig had in fact produced a massive,
forty-minute work for five soloists, full chorus, and an orchestra of strings,
double woodwind, and horns. The evidence was the original handwritten score,
complete down to the last double bar, and so individual in style as to tax the
resources of any classically trained performers of the period. … The
music of the Joseph II Cantata is (again to quote Brahms) "beautiful and noble"
in its pathos, "sublime" in its imaginative reach, and almost "violent" in the
intensity of its emotions."I continue
to read "It begins with a held, hollow
C on low strings that has no beat and no harmony. Neither loud nor particualry
soft, it is an
Erdenton,
an earth note, the cantata's center of gravity. One somehow knows that whatever
sounds come next will not have the hopeful glow of C major. Sure, enough, the
string unison gives way to an equally prolonged wind chord in C minor
…"I'm thinking, "Wouldn't it be
nice to hear this movement as I am reading this book. If only I were home now, I
would look for this work on iTunes." Then. "But wait, I have iTunes store right
here on the iPhone. Stephen's hour appointment has only begun 15 minutes ago.
"But I would need a wireless connection." I check, and sure enough, the Rehab
Center has a wireless network that lets guests on, no charge.
So now I'm in the iTunes store on my iPhone looking for the music. I find an
album by the Corydon Orchestra and Singers, featuring the gorgeous voice of
Janice Watson. The album contains the entire work, plus another work by
Beethoven, Cantata on the Accession of Emperor Leopold II. I decide to download
the whole album for $9.99, since if I bought the six separate arias from the
Cantata, I would already have spent close to six bucks, at $.99 a track. I log
on to my account and begin to download this album. Heidi Clark doesn't know it
but she is buying this for me as a birthday present, since I now cash in the
rest of my gift card from her to get
it.And now, wonder of wonders, I am
able to continue to read Morris' description of Beethoven's Joseph II just while
listening to that very work through my earbuds. All right there in public
waiting for Stephen to finish his appointment. Do you see what I mean? I am
really living in my iPhone now!
Posted: Mon - March 9, 2009 at 11:44 PM Of Course It's Boring, Idiot Tech Dreck Previous Next Feedback |
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Published On: Mar 18, 2009 10:50 AM
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