Ordinarily what I’m going to write about today I wouldn’t consider within the confines of this blog. That is to say, in this particular blog I mostly restrict myself to writing about music, my travels as they relate to music, and musical events. But when I ended my nearly 35-year tenure as Organist of the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, the staff asked me what I wanted as a going-away gift, and I decided that I wanted an Apple TV. You may remember that when Carl Crosier retired as Cantor, he got an Apple iPad. I’m also writing this piece especially for our friend, Betsy McCreary, widow of long-time St. Andrew’s Cathedral and Iolani School choral director and organist, John McCreary, who asked what I was doing with myself these days.
All of this came about when I was preparing a presentation for last summer’s regional convention in Bakersfield, CA, on the topic “Teaching little fingers to play the organ.” I had transferred my presentation to my iPad and asked my son if he had any ideas on how I could present it to a group of about 30 people. He suggested that I get an Apple TV, which would “mirror” what I saw on the iPad to a larger screen — either using a video projector or on a large-screen TV — all connected wirelessly using the Apple TV as a network device. I would be free to walk about, carrying my iPad while I gave my presentation. As it turned out, I nearly had a disaster because I neglected to bring the remote control for the device, which I found out the hard way, is unique for each box. See my post on how I resolved the problem here.
So often my husband says, “There’s nothing good on TV!” and we end up just turning it off. It was only about two months ago that I remembered that there were all sorts of entertainment channels which we could stream through the Apple TV. So in the last few weeks we have spent many hours watching movies and TV shows through the Apple TV. So instead of practicing the organ, I have been watching the complete seasons of “The West Wing” and “Downton Abbey,” my particular favorites. It’s my guilty pleasure!
Last night, we took former student Joey Fala to dinner, and afterwards, he showed us his portfolio online. We used the iPad wirelessly connected to the Apple TV to connect to the internet and see examples of his architectural work (which you can view at josephfala.com) In case you think his study of architecture and music are mutually exclusive, you ought to read this statement on his website:
Perhaps the most fascinating facet of architecture is its affinity to music as an orchestrator of an evocative emotional exchange. In a society oppressed by economical mechanics, a rarity emerges from within the foremost inclinations of the discipline to capture the human spirit and soul, a phenomenon occurring only at the fleeting personal intimacy between the designer and tactile craft…
Eighteenth century writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe conceived the infamously problematic notion that “Architecture is frozen music”. If the profoundness of music lies rather in its emotionally arousing dynamism, our perception of architecture cannot be reduced to a subjucated solidification, but rather incited and complexified through the propagation of human spirituality in the same way music is commissioned to embody and excite the inert notations off of the page, to a state of hyper-psychological transcendence.
With the iPad and Apple TV, Joey also showed us pictures of the food he has prepared in his Troy, NY apartment, and we were blown away by his artistic food preparation and culinary skills! In case you want to see the whole gallery of photos, you can visit his Facebook page. I especially liked this comment: happy to announce that our heat is back up and running. guests will no longer be dining at 50 and below.
