10 Unique Transport Modes Around the World

28 Mar 2012 - Roy Napitupulu
Sailing on an ancient junk boat in Vietnam, riding a rickshaw in Japan or seeing the pyramids on camels – there are thousands of strange and oddly intriguing forms of transportation around the world. Inspired by my hero Charley Boorman who travelled from Ireland to Sydney using 112 modes of transport on TV series ‘By Any Means’, I’m piecing a post together on the 10 most unique transportation means.

1. Bamboo Train, Cambodia

Between Battambang and Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, you’ll find this interesting train, cobbled together with a wooden frame, bamboo planking, an upright engine and reused military tank wheels. As basic it looks, it can haul passengers and cargo from one city to the next. Known as ‘norry’ in Khmer, it uses the spur lines, which means when a real train comes puffing, get ready to jump off your ride!

3078954403_3323e2ee7f_b

 

2. Tuktuk, India

These motorized three-wheelers are used all over Asia – originally from Thailand, they then spread to Laos, Cambodia, Pakistan and India. Although Bangkok is the pioneer in the tuktuk industry, it’s India where traffic-swerving drivers and chaotic road conditions make it a thrilling ride. Whether you are in Bangalore or New Delhi, hop on for some fun. A tuktuk can usually accommodation two persons and a suitcase. It’s the best way to get from the city to most India hotels.

Tuktuks in India

 

3. Junk Boat, Hongkong

Along Hongkong’s Victoria Harbour, the nation’s signature junk boats float against a backdrop of skyscraping offices and Hong Kong hotels. These Chinese sailboats date from ancient times, specifically the Han Dynasty. Today, they are converted into sunset boats and booze cruises for tourists and locals seeking a breathe of fresh air. If you’re on holidays in Asia, don’t miss out this traditional junk ride.

Hongkong junk boat

 

4. Elephant Trekking, Thailand

Before Phuket was developed into a tourist hub, wild elephants used to roam its dense forests and rolling hills. Today, their numbers are dwindling. Instead of lounging by the beach or staying in Phuket hotels all day, travelers can explore the area inland on elephant tours.
These elephant trekking tours offer a much-needed lift to the tourism industry, and generate the funds to assure the survival of thousands of elephants in a dignified manner. Phuket holidays can encompass fun under the sun and unconventional way of seeing Asia.

 

5. Zorb, New Zealand

The zorb is the sport of rolling down a hill inside a giant inflatable ball, cushioned by a thick layer of air. New Zealand first brought us bungee-jumping, white-water raftin, skydiving and now this! There’s a range of rides to choose from – from wet to dry, individual to multi-person or zigzag rides. As the kiwis call it, globe riding sure is an interesting way to find your way round New Zealand.

New Zealand adventure

 

6. Dog Sleds, Norway

There aren’t many places where you can do this. In Northern Norway, close to the Arctic Circle, you can embark on dog-sledding trips that bring you through gorgeous winter landscapes. Every participant will lead your own team of four or six dogs, and swish across scenic routes. Many trips are organized in the Saltfjellet – Svartisen national park and Jotunheimen National Park, where overnight stays in wooden lodges can be included.

Dogsledding in Norway

 

7. Totora Boat, Peru

On the floating islands of Lake Titicaca, the Uros tribes weave their homes and transportation with reeds – or totora in their tribal language – found in the lake. Built to resemble the shape of a dragon, it is said that the boats were used to ward off evil in ancient Inca times. These incredibly light but resistant boats sail out swiftly on the calm lake, making transport for the locals easy and convenient.

A totora boat

 

8. Chicken Bus, Guatemala

Guatemala’s public buses are nicknamed the ‘chicken buses’ for the hectic and tight conditions where  passengers are crammed into these old U.S. school buses alongside chicken and goats. For the intrepid travelers seeking a little adventure, it’s quite an interesting way to get under the skin of the country. Some chicken buses are decked out in neon signs or voodoo posters, but all pose the same thrill. Be warned – petty crimes have been reported on these buses.

A chicken bus in Antigua

 

9. Felucca, Egypt

These traditional Egyptian sailboats have remained, over the centuries, the primary transportation of the Nile River in Egypt. Its ancient form still graces the river as it has done since the time of the Pharaohs.
These days, both locals and foreigners enjoy a relaxing ride on the felucca, basking under the sun or catching the sunset. Travelers can also take a multi-day felucca ride from Luxor to Aswan and back.

 

10. Camel back, Jordan

Riding on a camelback through the red-rose deserts of Wadi Rum is one of the highlights of Jordan. Since ancient times, camels have always been the one of the most useful transport tools in the Jordanian history. Travelers can go on a 3-day camel safari trip that includes camping with Bedouins and exploring archaeological sites.

A bedouin on his camel in Wadi Rum

There are many more quirky modes of transport that I’ve missed in this piece, stay tuned for more next week. Meanwhile, share with us your experience below:  Have you tried any of these transportations? Are there any other transport mode that you’ve been on?

Category: 1 komentar

Ten Incredible Mariah Carey Performances

- Roy Napitupulu
Mariah Carey is one of the most gifted and influential R&B singers of her generation. Though she's best known for her multi-octave range and full-blast style, she is actually a versatile performer with total command over her incredible voice. In a career spanning over two decades, Carey has sold more than 200 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Carey gained her eighteenth number one single in the United States, more than any other solo artist. she is the third best-selling female artist in the United States Click through to watch some of Carey's finest performances, from the early days of her career up to the recent past. As the R&B diva celebrates her 42nd birthday, watch her sing 'Honey,' 'Vision of Love' and more..

Vision of Love. Carey rocketed to fame with "Vision of Love," the first single from her debut album, in 1990. Looking back on this clip from her first appearance on Saturday Night Live, it's easy to see why she was basically an overnight success – she sings the tune with serene confidence, as if she's already been a star for years.



Can't Let Go. Carey's performance of the ballad "Can't Let Go" on this episode of Soul Train from 1991 is so flawless that many viewers probably assumed she was lip-synching. Check out the back-up singers as she gets started – you can sense their fear of messing up in the presence of a singer of her caliber.



Emotions. By the time Carey took the stage at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards, she had risen to the ranks of one of the best-selling musicians in the business. That swagger comes through in her performance of "Emotions," one of her most jubilant early hits.



I'll Be There. Carey is arguably one of the few singers to top a vocal performance by Michael Jackson. Her rendition of the Jackson 5 ballad "I'll Be There" from her MTV Unplugged special is smooth, elegant and big-hearted.


Dreamlover. Carey's upbeat tunes in the early Nineties were an ideal showcase for a bright, optimistic quality in her voice. Though she can belt the hell out of a ballad, her voice resonates more deeply when she's conveying giddy infatuation, as in this rendition of "Dreamlover" from the Arsenio Hall Show in 1993.



Fantasy. Carey was an arena-packing star by the mid-Nineties. In this clip from her 1996 Daydream World Tour, the singer delivers an impeccable vocal performance while serving as the center of an elaborate production featuring dancers and an enormous stage.



Honey. "Honey" marks the start of a new direction for Carey, with the singer wholeheartedly embracing the luxurious sound of late-Nineties mainstream hip-hop and moving away from vocal bombast. She's still showing off her incredible range but producing a lighter, softer sound.



Heartbreaker. Carey successfully integrated hip-hop into her music by the late Nineties. In this performance of "Heartbreaker" at the European Music Awards in 1999, the singer effortlessly stays at the center of the song despite guest turns by the highly charismatic Missy Elliott and Da Brat.



We Belong Together. Carey's career flagged through much of the early 2000s, but she made her big comeback with "We Belong Together," a killer single that showcased a new variation on her hip-hop-inflected R&B phrasing. This performance from Late Night with David Letterman starts off fairly mellow but climaxes with a mind-blowing sustained high note.



Touch My Body. Mariah Carey in this performance of "Touch My Body" on German television in 2008 is a world away from the woman who broke into pop culture in the early Nineties. Whereas she was once demure and sang like a gospel powerhouse, the modern Mariah is slick and chill. Of course, the smoothness is spiked with a bit of aggression, as she sings in this song "I will hunt you down" with a sly wink.

Category: 0 komentar

Top albums of last 10 years

21 Mar 2012 - Roy Napitupulu
Adele's 21 tops the 8 million mark in U.S. sales this week. After just a little more than a year (55 weeks, to be precise), it's already the fourth best-selling album of the last 10 years, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Only Norah Jones' Come Away With Me, Eminem's The Eminem Show and Usher's Confessions have sold more copies in the last 10 years.

Adele and Jones both appeal to an "upper-demo", adult contemporary audience, though Adele has also broken through to a young, singles-buying demographic with three #1 hits on the Hot 100. (By contrast, Jones' highest-charting single to date, "Don't Know Why," peaked at #30.)

A total of 25 albums have sold 5 million or more copies in the last 10 years. Four artists have reached that plateau with two albums in this period: Eminem, 50 Cent, Taylor Swift and Josh Groban. (Groban, somewhat surprisingly, is the only artist with two albums among the 20 best-sellers of the last 10 years. His 2003 studio album Closer is the 16th best-selling album of the last 10 years. His 2007 holiday album Noel is the 19th best-seller for this period.)

Nielsen SoundScan has tracked sales for Billboard since 1991. It maintains a running list of the 200 best-selling albums in its history, but that list is dominated by albums from the 1990s and early 2000s, when overall sales were much more robust than they are today. Phenomenal hits like 21 were much more common back then. It's almost unfair to compare albums from that era to albums from the last decade. So I extracted this list, of the best-selling albums of the last 10 years, from Nielsen SoundScan's larger list. Now we're comparing apples to apples.

Here are all albums that have sold 5 million or more copies in the last 10 years. The sales tally is the number of albums the album has sold from the week ending March 10, 2002 to the week ending March 11, 2012. I cap each entry by showing the month of the album's release and the album's current rank on Nielsen SoundScan's running list of the top 200 best-selling albums since 1991.

1. Norah Jones, Come Away With Me, 10,797,000. Top 200 rank: #11.
2. Eminem, The Eminem Show, 10,049,000. Top 200 rank: #18.
3. Usher, Confessions, 9,968,000. Top 200 rank: #19.
4. Adele, 21, 8,090,000. Top 200 rank: #39.
5. 50 Cent, Get Rich Or Die Tryin', 8,086,000. Top 200 rank: #41.
6. Evanescence, Fallen, 7,619,000. Top 200 rank: #51.
7. Nickelback, All The Right Reasons, 7,582,000. Top 200 rank: #53.
8. Carrie Underwood, Some Hearts, 7,177,000. Top 200 rank: #62.
9. Avril Lavigne, Let Go, 6,782,000. Top 200 rank: #71.
10. Taylor Swift, Fearless, 6,514,000. Top 200 rank: #76.
11. Nelly, Nellyville, 6,488,000. Top 200 rank: #78.
12. Kelly Clarkson, Breakaway, 6,219,000. Top 200 rank: #85.
13. Green Day, American Idiot, 6,056,000. Top 200 rank: #93.
14. Dixie Chicks, Home, 6,041,000. Top 200 rank: #94.
15. Mariah Carey, The Emancipation Of Mimi, 5,964,000. Top 200 rank: #101.
16. Josh Groban, Closer, 5,960,000. Top 200 rank: #102.
17. Linkin Park, Meteora, 5,913,000. Top 200 rank: #103.
18. OutKast, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, 5,702,000. Top 200 rank: #110.
19. Josh Groban, Noel, 5,446,000. Top 200 rank: #127.
20. Shania Twain, Up!, 5,409,000. Top 200 rank: #129.
21. 50 Cent, The Massacre, 5,286,000. Top 200 rank: #136.
22. Eminem, Encore, 5,282,000. Top 200 rank: #137.
23. Rascal Flatts, Feels Like Today, 5,230,000. Top 200 rank: #140.
24. Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift, 5,175,000. Top 200 rank: #143.
25. Guns N' Roses, Greatest Hits, 5,161,000. Top 200 rank: #144.

Want me to keep going? These albums didn't quite sell 5 million copies in the past 10 years, but they came close: Rascal Flatt's Me And My Gang (4,918,000); Daughtry's Daughtry (4,873,000); High School Musical (4,867,000, the best-selling soundtrack of the last 10 years); 8 Mile (4,854,000, the best-selling movie soundtrack of the last 10 years); Beyonce's Dangerously In Love (4,825,000); Coldplay's A Rush Of Blood To The Head (4,822,000); Maroon 5's Songs About Jane (4,808,000); Elvis Presley's Elv1s: 30 #1 Hits (4,805,000); Michael Jackson's Number Ones (4,753,000); Alicia Keys' Diary Of Alicia Keys (4,650,000); Norah Jones' Feels Like Home (4,629,000) and Gretchen Wilson's Here For The Party (4,594,000).

If you're curious to know how many copies key "catalog" albums have sold in the last 10 years, here you go: Michael Jackson's Thriller (4,546,000), Bob Marley & the Wailers' Legend (4,194,000); the Beatles' 1 (3,924,000); Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon (3,743,000); Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band's Greatest Hits (3,623,000); Journey's Greatest Hits (3,309,000); Creedence Clearwater Revival's Chronicle (The 20 Greatest Hits) (2,868,000); Queen's Greatest Hits (2,624,000); Abba's Gold - Greatest Hits (2,497,000) and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Greatest Hits (2,455,000). 
Category: 1 komentar

11 Easy Ways to Uncomplicate Your Life

20 Mar 2012 - Roy Napitupulu
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
Leonardo Da Vinci
Life is actually pretty simple, but we insist on making it complicated.  Here are a few easy ways to uncomplicate it:
  1. Learn from the past, and then get the heck out of there! – Past mistakes should teach you to create a wonderful future; not cause you to be afraid of it.  Don’t carry your mistakes around with you.  Instead, place them under your feet and use them as stepping stones.  Never regret.  If it’s good, it’s wonderful.  If it’s bad, it’s experience.  Success is not about where you are standing at any given point in time; it’s about how much you’ve learned and how far you’ve come to get there. 
  2. Focus on what’s truly important.  – Identify what’s most important to you.  Eliminate as much as you possibly can of everything else.  No wasted time, no fluff, no regrets.
  3. Focus on being productive, not being busy. – Don’t just get things done; get the right things done.  Results are always more important than the time it takes to achieve them.  Stop and ask yourself if what you’re working on is worth the effort.  Is it bringing you in the same direction as your goals?  Don’t get caught up in odd jobs, even those that seem urgent, unless they are also important.
  4. Give what you want to receive. – You get the best out of others, and every situation, when you give the best of yourself.  Start practicing the golden rule.  If you want love, give love.  If you want friends, be friendly.  If you want money, provide value.  It works.  It really is this simple.
  5. Stop trying to be everything to everyone. – Don’t try to be friends with everyone.  Cultivate closer relationships with fewer people.  Start focusing on being everything to someone.  Helping or pleasing everyone is impossible.  But making one person smile can change the world.  Maybe not the whole world, but their world.  So narrow your focus and be yourself.
  6. Do what you know in your heart is right. – Stop doing immoral things simply because you can.  Start being honest with yourself and everyone else.  Don’t cheat.  Be faithful.  Be kind.  Do the right thing!  It is a less complicated way to live.  Integrity is the essence of everything successful.  When you break the rules of integrity you invite serious complications into your life.  Keep life simple and enjoyable by doing what you know in your heart is right.
  7. Organize your space. – Start clearing clutter.  Get rid of stuff you don’t use and then organize what’s left.  Keeping both your living and working areas organized is crucial.  If you have a cluttered space, it can be distracting and stressful.  A clear space is like a blank canvas, available to be used to create something great.
  8. Be efficient. – Stop being inefficient simply because you’ve always done it that way.  If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.  Many times we live with unplanned, complex systems in our lives simply because we haven’t given them much thought.  Instead, streamline your life by finding better ways of handling common tasks.  Focus on one system at a time (your cleaning system, your errands system, your paperwork system, your email system, etc.) and try to make it simplified, efficient, and logical.  Then, once you have it perfected, stick to it.
  9. Let things be less than perfect. – Smile every chance you get; not because life has been easy, perfect, or exactly as you had anticipated, but because you choose to be happy and grateful for all the good things you do have, and all the problems I know you don’t have.  You must accept the fact that life is not perfect, that people are not perfect, and that you are not perfect.  And that’s okay, because the real world doesn’t reward perfection.  It rewards people who get GOOD things done.  And the only way to get GOOD things done is to be imperfect 99% of the time.
  10. Let go of needless drama and those who create it. – Never create unnecessary drama, and don’t surround yourself with those who do.  Choose friends who you are proud to know, people you admire, who love and respect you – people who make your day a little brighter simply by being in it.  Don’t walk away from negative people, RUN!  Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you.
  11. Forget what everyone else thinks and wants for you. – One of the greatest freedoms is simply not caring what everyone else thinks of you.  Sometimes you need to step outside, get some air, and remind yourself of who you are and what you want to be.  The best thing you can do is follow your heart.  Take risks.  Don’t just accept the safe and easy choices because you’re afraid of what others will think, or afraid of what might happen.  If you do, nothing will ever happen.  Don’t let small minds convince you that your dreams are too big.  They aren’t.
Category: 0 komentar

This Crazy! How The Internet Is Killing The Planet.

15 Mar 2012 - Roy Napitupulu
The Internet can be a hazardous place to mingle around, and it’s apparent people are taking all the precautions they can to protect themselves and their children. However, personal safety isn’t the only concern when it comes to the Internet. There are far more areas where the Internet is causing some serious physical harm, maybe not directly, but to the environment and indirectly to us. When everything is about how “green” something is, it is not hard to understand that someone analyzed the Internet in that way.

Even though I have personally never thought about the Internet in that sense, it is striking to see someone take pretty much everything into consideration and reflect upon its effect on the environment. The result? Well, let’s just say that I am more than surprised we haven’t caught this before. After all, everything else is heavily scrutinized and thoroughly checked in order to optimize its “green” capacity, so why shouldn’t this?

WordStream sponsored an infographic in honor of Earth Day 2011 that is quite mesmerizing if you ask me. It brings all of the different aspects together and bundles them up into an understandable format. I have always been a fan of great infographics that give you that extra perspective (one of the reasons that Bit Rebels came to be), and this one certainly fits the bill. I am not only amazed by the statistics, but I am astounded that Google alone produces over 260,000 Kg CO2 every month. That’s enough to power a regular sized freezer for over 5,400 years.

And to go further into the analysis, the process it takes to power Google is 3,900,000 kWh. That’s enough to power and run 5,000,000 loads of laundry. Those are indeed staggering numbers, and if put together with Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, I am sure we would marvel about the enormous numbers being presented to us. Don’t get me wrong, the services I am sure produce more than enough income for several millions of people to pay for this kind of environmental consumption. However, the numbers don’t lie, and it would also be interesting to see what exactly the effect of all this CO2 is doing to our planet. If anyone has an example, please feel free to present it to us. I am dying to know.


Thanks to @RichardDarrel.
Category: 0 komentar

Most Popular Female Singers in 2011

13 Mar 2012 - Roy Napitupulu

10. Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj Top 10 Most Popular Female Singers in 2011
Nicki Minaj is an amazing rapper and a songwriter plus singer, Nicki Minaj started her career in 2004 and released her first mix tape in 2007 and later next year she came out with the albums like Sucka Free and Beam Me Up Scotty. The woman signed a deal with Lil Wayne to Young Money entertainment in 2009. She has most of the singles in the top 100 Billboard, as she had 9 of them in the top 100 Billboard with her songs like Your Love. Now days her songs like Super Bass is among the super duper hot songs in the UK Top 40 chart.


9. Beyonce

Beyonce1 Top 10 Most Popular Female Singers in 2011
Beyonce Knowles is also an amazing American actress, singer and a fashion designer. She started her career in 1997 with a girl group called Destiny’s child as the lead singer and in 2003 she released her own solo album which was a huge success and then in 2005 and 2006 she released other albums and some of the songs were on Number one in Billboard 200. Then in 2008 her songs like Single Ladies were again a huge hit. Now in 2011 she just released the album Run the World (girls) which is also an amazing album with a lot of huge hit numbers like best Thing I never had and many other.


8. Shakira

Shakira Top 10 Most Popular Female Singers in 2011
Shakira started her career in 1990 and is an amazing singer, songwriter, dancer and philanthropist. She used to sing and belly dance at school and in 1995 she released her first solo album which brought her great fame and then in 1998 she released another album which sold 7 million copies throughout the world. In 2002 she released another album and her song Whenever Wherever was a huge hit, then her song Hips Don’t Lie and the FIFA song Waka Waka was among the hits. The songs like She Wolf and Rabiosa are no doubt THE BEST!


7. Kesha

kesha Top 10 Most Popular Female Singers in 2011
Kesha is also a very talented singer plus songwriter and she also raps well, she started her career in 2005 by signing to Dr. Like’s record label then in 2009 she had her first single hit called Right Round and Tik Tok which were huge success and now her songs like We R Who We R are no doubt among the Billboard 100.


6. Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift1 Top 10 Most Popular Female Singers in 2011
Taylor Swift is a talented American singer plus songwriter, musician and an actress who started her career in 2006 with her debut single called “Tim McGraw” and in 2008 she again released her second album called Fearless and it did let her win four Grammy Awards. In 2010 she again released her new album called Speak Now which sold more than 1,047,000 copies in just one week. In such a short span of time she earned so much fame and made millions and trillions of fans.


5. Britney Spears

Britney Spears Top 10 Most Popular Female Singers in 2011
Britney Spears is one of the best female singers of the world, she started her career in 1992 and released her first album in 1997 and in 1999 another album called Baby One More Time. Her tracks like Baby One More Time and Oops! I Did It Again were huge hits and in 2001 and 2003 she released her single numbers like “Toxic, Everytime and Me against the Music. And up till now she has been singing quite a large number of hits including the songs like Gimme More, Piece of Me, Womanizer, Hold it Against Me and till the end of the world.


4. Rihanna

Rihanna Top 10 Most Popular Female Singers in 2011
Rihanna is a talented young singer, songwriter and philanthropist, she started her career in 200 and presently she is working hard in her music career. Her songs like SOS, Pon de Replay, Umbrella, Take a Bow, Disturbia, Don Stop the Music were huge success and were nominated for the Grammy Awards and won the Ran/sung Collaboration for the song Umbrella with Jay-Z. Her songs like Russian roulette, Rude Boy, What’s My Name, S&M, Only Girl and California king Bed are topping almost all the lists.


3. Katy Perry

Katy Perry Top 10 Most Popular Female Singers in 2011
Katy Perry is one of the best singers in the world, she started her career in 2001 and released her first album in 2001 and later she recorded another album which was released in 2004 and 2005. In 2007 she released another internet single called “Ur So Gay” and then in 2008 her single “I Kissed a Girl”. Her songs like Teenage Dream, California Gurls, Firework, E.T, and Last Friday Night are among the Billboard Hot 100.


2. Adele

adele Top 10 Most Popular Female Singers in 2011
Adele is an English Singer who started her career in 2006 and in just a short span of time she won many Grammy Awards for the best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Her best numbers include Someone Like you, Rolling in the Deep and Make you feel my love. She has such a magical voice that totally takes your breath away. You can also see her top ten songs in our list.


1. Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga Top 10 Most Popular Female Singers in 2011
Lady Gaga is now the first most powerful woman of the world after Oprah Winfrey and her powerfulness is her talent and hard work with which she makes amazing songs that totally move you! She started her career in 2005 and in 2008 she released her singles like Poker Face and Just Dance. Then later in 2009 she released another album of hers which contained the songs like Bad Romance, Telephone, Alejandro and now her album in 2011 contains the songs like Born this way, Judas, The Edge of Glory which are super duper hits and are topping the UK Top 40 charts.
Category: 0 komentar

Most Influential Classical Composers

- Roy Napitupulu
Classical music is one of the great loves of my life and I have spent many years studying it. Someone on another list suggested that I do an influential classical composers list and, while I was not sure I could pull it off, I think I have. One thing is for sure – this list is going to upset some people – but I believe my selections are all correct. I have not been able to order these composers by importance, as there is no objective way to do this, instead I have ordered them chronologically.

15. Saint Hildegard Von Bingen 1098 – 1179
Not only was Hildegard Von Bingen considered the mother of opera (because of her Ordo Virtutum) and music, she was a polymath (a person with advanced and broad knowledge – this is like a genius, except a genius usually has mastery of one, not many, subjects). Hildegard was a German abbess, artist, author, counselor, linguist, naturalist, scientist, philosopher, physician, herbalist, poet, activist, visionary and composer. She wrote theological, botanical and medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, poems and the first surviving morality play, while supervising brilliant miniature illuminations. Her music, of course, influenced the vocal music of the renascence and opera from that period forward. If I were forced to pick a single greatest influence on classical music, I would be very tempted to choose this genius Nun. Though not officially canonized, she is generally regarded to be a saint, and her feast day is on September 17.

14. Guillaume Dufay 1397 – 1474
Dufay was a Franco-Flemish composer and music the orist of the early Renaissance. As the central figure in the Burgundian School, he was the most famous and influential composer in Europe, in the mid-15th century. He was one of the last composers to make use of medieval techniques such as isorhythm, but one of the first to use the harmonies, phrasing and expressive melodies characteristic of the early Renaissance. During the 15th century, Dufay was universally regarded as the greatest composer of the time, and that belief has largely persisted to the present day. 

13. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina 1525? – 1594
The above piece, the Kyrie from Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli, is believed to have been composed for the Council of Trent (which opened today – December 13 – in 1545) in order to convince the Cardinals, Bishops and Pope not to reject polyphonic music for use in Church. The council not only did not reject it, it embraced it so fully that, alongside Gregorian Chant, sacred polyphony is the official music for the Roman Catholic Mass. This was further confirmed again, as recently as the 1960s in the Second Vatican Council. Palestrina is regarded as the master of Polyphony, and his music was regarded as the greatest written, even for many years after his death. His music was never surpassed in this style.

12. Antonio Vivaldi 1678 – 1741
Vivaldi is considered one of the composers who brought Baroque music (with its typical contrast among heavy sonorities) to evolve into a classical style. Johann Sebastian Bach was deeply influenced by Vivaldi’s concertos and arias.

11. George Frideric Handel 1685 – 1759
Drawing on the techniques of the great composers of the Italian Baroque, as well as the music of Henry Purcell, Handel deeply influenced, in his turn, many composers who came after him, including Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, and his works helped lead the transition from the Baroque to the Classical era.

10. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach 1714 – 1788
Through the latter half of the 18th century, the reputation of CPE Bach was outstanding. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart said of him, “He is the father, we are the children.” The best part of Joseph Haydn’s training was derived from a study of his work. Ludwig van Beethoven expressed, for his genius, the most cordial admiration and regard. This position he owes mainly to his keyboard sonatas, which mark an important epoch in the history of musical form.
9. Franz Joseph Haydn 1732 – 1809
Haydn is often referred to as the father of the symphony, and the father of the string quartet. In the clip above, we hear the 4th movement of the Kaiser String Quarter (Op.76 No.3). A life-long resident of Austria, Haydn spent most of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family on their remote estate. Isolated from other composers and trends in music until the later part of his long life, he was, as he put it, “forced to become original”.

8. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756 – 1791
Mozart’s output of over 600 compositions includes works widely acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic and choral music. Mozart is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, and many of his works are part of the standard concert repertoire. In this clip, we see Sumi Jo singing the Queen of the Night aria.

7. Giuseppe Verdi 1813 – 1901
Verdi was one of the most influential composers of Italian opera in the 19th century, and went well beyond the work of Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini. His works are frequently performed in opera houses throughout the world and transcend the boundaries of the genre. Although his work was sometimes criticized as catering to the tastes of the common folk, using a generally diatonic rather than a chromatic musical idiom, and having a tendency towards melodrama, Verdi’s masterworks dominate the standard repertoire a century and a half after their composition.
6. Richard Wagner 1813 – 1883
Wagner’s compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their contrapuntal texture, rich chromaticism, harmonies and orchestration, and elaborate use of leitmotifs: musical themes associated with specific characters, locales or plot elements. Wagner pioneered advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, which greatly influenced the development of European classical music.

5. Gustav Mahler 1860 – 1911
While he was a late Romantic period composer (one of the most important, in fact), Mahler had an enormous influence on the burgeoning Second Viennese School of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern. In addition, he had a later influence on Britten, Copland and Shostakovich. He also influenced other great composers in a different kind of way – by their desire to reject him. Stravinsky called him “malheur” instead of “Mahler” – both words sound similar but “malheur” means “misfortune”, and Vaughan-Williams called him a “tolerable imitation of a composer”. Mahler also exerted his influence over Richard Strauss, Kurt Weill, Leonard Bernstein and Alfred Schnittke.

4. Igor Stravinsky 1882 – 1971
When it was first performed, the Rite of Spring caused a riot in the opera house. The clip above is the first 10 minutes and, while I can not verify for sure, it may be Stravinsky conducting, himself (Stravinsky always conducted this piece slower than others and this recording is definitely slow in parts). I strongly advise you to watch the whole clip, as it is a faithful reproduction of the original performance of the ballet using Najinsky’s choreography. Remember – before this ballet, people were used to tutus and “pretty” music like Swan Lake.


3. Edgard Varese 1883 – 1965
Varese’s use of new instruments and electronic resources led to his being known as the “Father of Electronic Music”, while Henry Miller described him as “The stratospheric Colossus of Sound”. Composers who have claimed, or can be demonstrated to have been influenced by Varese include Harrison Birtwistle, Pierre Boulez, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Roberto Gerhard, Luigi Nono, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis, Frank Zappa and William Grant Still. The piece I have chosen to show you above is called “Ionisation” and it is the piece of music that inspired Frank Zappa to write.


2. Nadia Boulanger 1887 – 1979
Unfortunately I could not find a clip of her music, so I have selected one by her sister Lili – it is “Clairières dans le ciel”: Nr. 7 “Nous nous aimerons tant”. Lili was Nadia’s first student, and she became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome, in 1913. Nadia Boulanger can easily be said to be the most influential composer of the 20th century – not directly through her own writing, but through her influence as a teacher. To name just a few: George Antheil, Burt Bacharach, Leonard Bernstein, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, John Eliot Gardiner, George Gershwin, Philip Glass, Gian Carlo Menotti, Virgil Thomson,

1. John Cage 1912 – 1992
The above piece is Sonata V for prepared piano. A prepared piano is when certain objects such as erasers and screws are inserted in to the strings of the piano making it a more percussive sounding instrument. As you can see in the clip, a much richer variety of sounds becomes possible with this technique. Cage is probably most famous for his piece 4’33″ in which the instrumentalists perform in total silence – the point being to illustrate that there is beautiful music in the sounds of life around us.
Category: 0 komentar

Top 8 Renaissance Composers

- Roy Napitupulu
 The Renaissance Period was a vibrant time when knowledge and fine arts flourished. Generally classified between 1400 and 1600, these two-hundred years mark an incredible transformation and advancement in music notation and composition. If it weren't for these Top 8 Renaissance composers, whose ground-shaking, mold-breaking musical ideas opened a flood gate of musical curiosity, the world of classical music we know today could be drastically different.

1. Thomas Tallis (1510-1585)

Thomas Tallis, an English composer, flourished as a church musician, and is considered one of the church's best early composers. Tallis served under four English Monarchs and was treated very well. Queen Elisabeth granted him and his pupil, William Boyd, exclusive rights to use England's printing press to publish music; a first of its time. Although Tallis composed many styles of music, the majority of it is arranged for choir as Latin motets and English anthems.

 

2. Josquin Des Prez (1440-1521)

Widely recognized by just his first name, Josquin Des Prez was Europe's most sought after musician during his lifetime. His popularity, no doubt, was a result of combining many contemporary styles of music, his originality, and his ability to unveil the meaning and emotions of a text through music. Much of Josquin's music survives today, with his masses and chansons being the most popular.



3. Pierre de La Rue (1460-1518)

Pierre de La Rue wrote many styles of music, almost as much as Josquin. La Rue's repertoire consists entirely of vocal music. His style of voicing shows that he preferred low voices, often composing C's and B flats below the bass clef. His most popular work, the Requiem, and one of the earliest surviving Requiem masses, emphasizes the lower voices. As well as low voicing, various rhythmic patterns and long, flowing melodies are main characteristics of La Rue's music.



4. Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

Linking the Renaissance to the Baroque, Claudio Monteverdi's revolutionary music included the first dramatic opera, Orfeo. Much of Monteverdi's early years were spent composing madrigals; nine books in total. These books clearly mark the change in thinking and compositional style between the two periods. Book 8, Ottavo Libro, includes what many consider to be the perfected form of the madrigal, Madrigali dei guerrieri ed amorosi.


5. William Byrd (1543-1623)

William Byrd is perhaps the greatest English composer of all time. With hundreds of individual compositions, Byrd seemingly mastered every style of music that existed during his lifetime, outshining Orlando de Lassus and Giovanni Palestrina. Apart from his choral works, Byrd is considered by many to be the first "genius" of the keyboard. Many of his piano works can be found in "My Ladye Nevells Book" and the "Parthenia."

 

6. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1526-1594)

With over hundreds of published works, Italian composer, Palestrina was the most famous representative of the Roman School of musical composition, and greatly influenced the development of music in the Roman Catholic Church. Because its voicing is extremely well balanced and beautifully harmonized, Palestrina's polyphonic music is smooth, pure, and transparent in sound.



7. Orlando de Lassus (1530-1594)

Orlando de Lassus was also known for his smooth polyphonic style. His beautiful motets combined the rich northern style of polyphony, the superb French style text-setting, and the expressive Italian melody. With over 2,000 written works for all styles of music, including all Latin, French, English, and German vocal genres, Lassus easily remains one of Europe's most versatile composers.



8. Giovanni Gabrieli (1553-1612)

Giovanni Gabrieli also bridges the Renaissance to the Baroque and is most known for his mastery in the style of the Venetian School. Gabrieli preferred composing sacred works, and using the unusual layout of the San Marco Church, he was able to create stunning musical effects. Unlike those before him, Gabrieli meticulously created and planned the use of antiphone (a choir or group of instruments first heard on the left, followed by a response from another group of musicians on the right).


Category: 1 komentar

Most Creative Bookshelves Designs

12 Mar 2012 - Roy Napitupulu

And here is a beautiful collection with the Best bookshelfs that i found until now.
Clipboard01 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
The Equation Bookshelf is designed by Marcos Breder and is a simple idea of to divide things in priority order. As you can see the design is quite unique, stylish and original. You can put together the books that you need immediately or more important between (parentheses) or maybe a photo, or something important for you to be the focal point of this bookselhf. Set others between [square brackets] and {braces}.


lenga1 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
The Folding Bookshelves is something really innovative in the bookshelves business, and I really like the idea. It’s very practical because you can arrange the books in an interesting way, as you can see from these pictures. The shelves are made of tough and steady cherry wood, but they possess the lightness of rice paper: they can be laid down, stood up, turned 90 degrees, used horizontally or vertically.


quad bookcase 1 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
This multi-sized shelves design called the Quad Bookcase can store your CDs, DVDs, folders and books all in one clever product. For even more storage space, separate units can be joined together. Asymmetry in perfect balance!


spell shelf 1 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
Designer Da-Eun Song had an interesting idea when he designed this shelf that spells out shelf. This shelf has an very original and modern design. You can’t store to much stuff on this shelf, but is a great way to decorate a wall, and put inside only the books and objects your really like.


creative furniture designs 05 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
Now this design might look cool for the eye, but I don’t think you can stay to relaxed in that space, I’d rather stay in a comfortable chair. The “Shelves with a Bench” was designed by Stanislav Katz, a designer from Latvia.


shelves big21 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
As you can see from this picture a whole wall was used for this interesting bookcase, and the final result is a quite interesting bookcase, at least from my perspective.


storyline 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
Storyline Shelf is designed by Frederik Roijé and is an excellent solution to store your books in a modern way. Sound finds a physical identity in the beautifully crafted Storyline bookshelf. By first processing a word into soundwaves, the physical shape is then mirrored in powder-coated steel, using an explicit folding technique. Appropriately enough, the word that inspired this lovely piece was “bliss”


FlexiTube 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
Designed by Doris Kisskalt the FlexiTube is mobile and can be changed into a transparent room partitioner. This fantastic tub rolls and fits into any corner and changes into a sculpture of a shelf. The various elements get support through their velvety surface. Inside each tube is a shelf for storage which serves as a visual horizontal line. FlexiTube is available in two different sizes and can be combined in any number either lying side by side or on top of each other. Chocks will support your FlexiTube sculpture in case that you want to set it up without the support of a wall.


opus shelving 1 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
This quasi-hexagonal pattern bookcase ( Opus Shelving by Sean Yoo’s ) is made with “expanded polypropylene”- same material used for the car bumper and motorcycle helmet. It is very light but very strong, can be used indoor or outdoor and 100% recyclable. It wasn’t designed specifically to be used as a book case. I’ve seen some people use it for storing wine bottles, children’s toys, CD’s, DVD’s, records, and even an occasional book or two.


rolling shelf2 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
The Rolling Shelf has one end made from individual pieces of wood held together by fabric. This new flexible hinge allows you to really create some unique shelving options that are aesthetically interesting. The Rolling Shelf is designed by Catherine Greene.


magnetique 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
Magnetique Shelf is designed by Nils Holger Moormann and is a shelf consisting of sheet steel and boxes made of FU(birch plywood). The sheet steel can be mounted onto the wall in a horizontal or vertical way. The backside of the boxes consists of a special, extra strong foil magnet which sticks to the wall attachment in any way you like.Depending on number, size and arrangement of the boxes, there is a new shelf everytime you change it. Magnetique is any cupboard you want it to be.


invisible 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
Sticklebook is an innovative design solution to book storage that creates the illusion of a line of books hanging unsupported on the wall. An alternative to a regular bookshelf, it comprises an aluminium bracket and combed strip that grips the cover and pages of paperback books. It is totally secure and fall-proof. Comes with screws included in nice gift package. It’s an interesting method to store your books and also to make your friends say for a moment : “WTF ?!”.


big bookworm8005 3 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
This interesting idea to store books, magazines, and DVDs is called by his creator BookWorm. Designed by Ron Arad, the bookworm is made from plastic which can be shaped into any form desired. each upright can support 20 pounds, and it is suggested that the bookworm be mounted in a curved design to increase capacity. This idea can be also very useful for small places, where a bookcase is way to large. In conclusion the Bookworm is a great product that also can make your home more spacious.


1297 4685 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
The Cave is a shelving unit with integrated nook for reading, for those who want to grab a book and start reading right away. I can say that this idea is ideal for small places, because the nook for reading can save the space used by a chair. A bookcase CAVE provides a private reading space within its form. As a seat hight is just above the floor, CAVE gives a feeling of hiding from others standing around it. Books can be stored on both sides. Therefore, CAVE can also functions as a partition of a room.


prove shelves 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
Prove Shelves are designed by a german company named Creosa. The prove shelves can be used to display your books, cds, etc in a really interesting way. The storing space is limited but enought to store the most important things.


d mension shelf 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
The Italian studio Icon Design Studio has just presented D-mension, its new system of modular racks created by Nicola Zanetti. This new shelving system is made out of steel and aluminium. The units, shaped like lower-case d’s, can be arranged in a staggered, abstract, or symmetrical formation based on the user’s personal taste. I think that this shelving system is a great example of modern piece of furniture.


brace case 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
The Brace Case is designed by Ward Huting, and is a shelving unit that uses taut cables to house books, magazines and other flat objects at various angles. The modular system enables the owner to decide how to install the cables. This might be an interesting approach to storing stuff, but it doesn’t looks to stable. The Brace Case is fully customizable according to individual room requirement and cable length. The Case is clamped between the floor and the ceiling, and can therefore be tailor-made to any room. Finnaly the price depends on the specific design and the amount of brace cables.


bookcase elipse 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
The Ellipse Bookcase has a really beautiful design, that will definitely enhance the beauty of any room. The ellipse bookcase is made up of hard tough elm tree wood and layers of wood veneer. The shelves are covered with unrolled bamboo. Unfortunately if you have a lot of books this bookcase is not for you, this bookcase is for someone who cares more about how things look like, and is not so interested in the books that are on the shelves.


43370 skateboard shelf 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
Skateboard shelf is a piece of furniture that every skateboard lover would tell your that is awesome. I know that because last month I’ve meet someone who is in love with skateboarding, and he fall in love with this piece of furniture. Perfect for students and kids, it provides substantial storage space for books, display and even skateboard paraphernalia.


010408 books 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
The Ceiling Bookshelf is a great idea to store your books if your space is limited. As you can see a place that 99,9% of people don’t use can be used in a very practical way to store your books, and save a lot of space in any room. The ceiling bookshelf is an idea that can be applied quite easy. However, in order to get a book, you have to use a chair. Finnaly let’s hope that the ceiling bookshelf will not reserve us unpleasant and unexpected surprises, like a book falling from the ceiling.


lovely rita 1 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
Lovely Rita is an unusual bookshelf. At at a first glance just arranging books on this bookshelf could be a real adventure. Lovely Rita can live as a single shelf or be repeated endlessly by combining additional units, becoming a bookcase of the desired length. Thanks to its special shape, it allows two different figures to be designed on the wall, according to the direction of fixing.


glass shelf 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
Tonelli is an Italian furniture company that is specialized in glass. An interesting product from them are these glass shelves, thant are caracterized by clean lines and a modern transparent design. The glass shelves have different sizes allowing you to make all kind of combinations, from storing books, dvds, souvenirs, etc. The glass shelves are designed by Giovanni Tommaso Garattoni and he named his creation Mondovisione.If you want more products from glass they have almost everything you can imagine from vetrines to vanities, and glass is always in style.


vintage bookcase in modern form 3 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
Vintage Shelf is an original shelf created by Jaren Goh Design for Munkii. A reminiscence of the classic design, embodied within a modern contemporary form. It brings back the classic design and fits it seamlessly into the modern homes of today. A unison of the past and the present.
 
 
hanging bookself 30 of the Most Creative Bookshelves Designs
Hanging Bookself is an innovative storage design for your books from unal&boler studio. Something that Ididn’t saw before. This system can’t replace a whole bookcase, but two of three systems of storage like this could be fun to hang somewhere in your home.
Category: 1 komentar
Langganan: Postingan (Atom)