Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps/L'Oiseau de feu/Jeu de cartes/Petrouchka/Pulcinella

  • Posted by yanglu
  • on April 02, 2009 16:08
Here is just one quick example of this kind of disposition in action: Billmonk, which Constance posted about hereThe site promises to help you keep track of your obligations throughout your social network precisely (using any of a number of imaginable currencies)It is double-entry bookeeping for your friendships, and thereby prompts you to conceive of these obligations in exact termsThis is a perfect example of a code-based solution to a code-defined problem: People's moral obligations are essentially precise and monetary, and they therefore need a precise tool to manage them. 

(And this approach is not just applied externally; within software companies one frequently sees similar efforts to address organizational issues with precise and enumerated systems that can be, above all, measured.) Heather Kelly, one of the developers on a panel on Monday asked a great question about game development that she hoped researchers could help answer: Why does money trump everything? The answer lies in the remarkably good 'fit' between the market and code, and in the existence of a lot of well-trained people who can find ways to exploit it

I submit for your comments the idea that the reason many developers have a hard time finding anything of value not only from researchers, but often from their own players, is that they are, in effect, seeing a different world, all the timeAn optimistic disposition -- a faith, even -- in technology and code-based problem solving runs deep in the technology and software development community (see, for example, Gary Lee Downey's ethnography of CAD/CAM engineering, The Machine in Me), and it hampers developers' ability to recognize the range of content and community creation (very broadly defined) by users as well as the fruits of the well-established but different methodologies and concepts of researchers




Amazon.com

This is an excellent Stravinsky collection on all countsClaudio Abbado's recordings with the London Symphony Orchestra represent the high-water mark of his career, and DG captured the partnership in generally fine soundThis recording of the complete Pulcinella, with the songs included, set an entirely new standard for the work, and its excellence has worn very well in the couple of decades since its initial releaseThe performance of Jeu de Cartes (Card Game) also should win many new friends for this entertaining late workAs to the Big Three ballets, all of them were among the most recommendable versions when they first came out, and they still are--David Hurwitz