Wendy Isaac Bergin's Blog: Podcast: Altitude Adjustment with Leon Davis, Jr., page 4
October 15, 2016
Scottish Surprise!
I was so pleased to discover The Piper's Story was included on the list for Read Scotland 2015:
A Scotland Reading Challenge - Books written by Scots, set in Scotland or about Scotland.
It also got a wonderful review by Scottish blogger Stephanie Jane, and she included it on her list of the 10 best books of 2015. Here's a link to her list:
http://stephjb.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12...
A Scotland Reading Challenge - Books written by Scots, set in Scotland or about Scotland.
It also got a wonderful review by Scottish blogger Stephanie Jane, and she included it on her list of the 10 best books of 2015. Here's a link to her list:
http://stephjb.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12...
May 17, 2016
Important Computer Facts Everyone Should Know
In the past twenty-eight hours, I’ve made two important computer discoveries. Yesterday, at 7:45 a.m., while I was saying my morning prayers, the telephone (a landline) rang. I could have let the answering machine take the call, but I picked up the receiver because I thought surely it would be a relative or friend calling at that hour.
It wasn’t.
In a voice direct from Calcutta, a man said, “Ma’am, I’m calling from Microsoft because your computer notified us that it has a virus that can destroy all your files. Please go to your computer and I will show you how to fix the problem.”
I did.
But he didn’t fix the problem, because he directed me to a website called Join.me, and urged me to click on START MEETING .
“First,” I said, “I don’t want to join anything, and secondly, what is this going to cost?”
He handed me over to his supervisor, a woman. “Nothing, if there is no problem,” she answered.
Hmmmm. He just told me there was a problem.
“Anyway,” said the supervisor, who had also spent her formative years on the banks of the Ganges, “it will only be $99.99 if there is a problem.” The money, she assured me, “is no big deal.”
“Well, I said, I’m just going to trust that there is no problem,” and I hung up the phone.
I called Microsoft and gave them the phone number with a 215 area code to ask if the people who called me were actually from their company. The customer service representative checked, and simply said, “Ma’am, Microsoft doesn’t call your home.”
I felt really good that I had avoided the scam.
This morning, the first thing that came up unasked for on my desktop computer screen was a notice from Microsoft asking if I wanted to download Microsoft 10. No I do not, so I dismissed it, as I have been dismissing that notice for months.
Why, you ask?
Here are eight reasons from John Navas at the following website:
https://www.quora.com/What-are-disadv...
Privacy: Windows 10 collects data on you, sends it to Microsoft, and there's no way to completely shut that off.
Bugs: Quality control has taken a back seat to rapid releases, so bugs are more common than earlier versions.
Compatibility: Windows XP and earlier Compatibility
Modes have been removed, and not all software and drivers work properly in Windows 10.
Control: Options to control updating have been removed from consumer versions.
OneDrive: Feature regression.
Media: Media Center and DVD Player have been removed.
Cost: Microsoft is being coy about the cost of Windows after the free Windows 10 upgrade "promotion". Subscriptions might be required.
So after checking my email and the weather forecast on the computer, I didn’t shut it down, but I left the room for about an hour.
When I returned around noontime, the computer was downloading Microsoft 10.
I don’t want Microsoft 10, and I don’t like coercion, so I tried to stop the download. Nothing worked until I finally unplugged the dratted machine.
I repeat: I don’t like coercion. I don’t like the fact that Microsoft 10 is lurking on my computer, waiting to insert itself whether I want it or not. Why is Microsoft forcing their so-called upgrade on me? I don’t think it’s to be helpful.
So, here are my two important computer discoveries, in case you’re wondering:
1) Microsoft doesn’t call your home.
2) They don’t have to; they’ve already invaded it.
It wasn’t.
In a voice direct from Calcutta, a man said, “Ma’am, I’m calling from Microsoft because your computer notified us that it has a virus that can destroy all your files. Please go to your computer and I will show you how to fix the problem.”
I did.
But he didn’t fix the problem, because he directed me to a website called Join.me, and urged me to click on START MEETING .
“First,” I said, “I don’t want to join anything, and secondly, what is this going to cost?”
He handed me over to his supervisor, a woman. “Nothing, if there is no problem,” she answered.
Hmmmm. He just told me there was a problem.
“Anyway,” said the supervisor, who had also spent her formative years on the banks of the Ganges, “it will only be $99.99 if there is a problem.” The money, she assured me, “is no big deal.”
“Well, I said, I’m just going to trust that there is no problem,” and I hung up the phone.
I called Microsoft and gave them the phone number with a 215 area code to ask if the people who called me were actually from their company. The customer service representative checked, and simply said, “Ma’am, Microsoft doesn’t call your home.”
I felt really good that I had avoided the scam.
This morning, the first thing that came up unasked for on my desktop computer screen was a notice from Microsoft asking if I wanted to download Microsoft 10. No I do not, so I dismissed it, as I have been dismissing that notice for months.
Why, you ask?
Here are eight reasons from John Navas at the following website:
https://www.quora.com/What-are-disadv...
Privacy: Windows 10 collects data on you, sends it to Microsoft, and there's no way to completely shut that off.
Bugs: Quality control has taken a back seat to rapid releases, so bugs are more common than earlier versions.
Compatibility: Windows XP and earlier Compatibility
Modes have been removed, and not all software and drivers work properly in Windows 10.
Control: Options to control updating have been removed from consumer versions.
OneDrive: Feature regression.
Media: Media Center and DVD Player have been removed.
Cost: Microsoft is being coy about the cost of Windows after the free Windows 10 upgrade "promotion". Subscriptions might be required.
So after checking my email and the weather forecast on the computer, I didn’t shut it down, but I left the room for about an hour.
When I returned around noontime, the computer was downloading Microsoft 10.
I don’t want Microsoft 10, and I don’t like coercion, so I tried to stop the download. Nothing worked until I finally unplugged the dratted machine.
I repeat: I don’t like coercion. I don’t like the fact that Microsoft 10 is lurking on my computer, waiting to insert itself whether I want it or not. Why is Microsoft forcing their so-called upgrade on me? I don’t think it’s to be helpful.
So, here are my two important computer discoveries, in case you’re wondering:
1) Microsoft doesn’t call your home.
2) They don’t have to; they’ve already invaded it.
April 25, 2016
Katy Budget Books Signing
Come out to Katy Budget Books on Saturday, May 7, where I'll be signing copies of The Threshold of Eden (Staff Pick) and The Piper's Story from 2:00-4:00! I'm very excited about this event. If you haven't been there before, it's a great bookstore.
Here's a link with all the information:
http://www.katybooks.com/event/author...
Here's a link with all the information:
http://www.katybooks.com/event/author...
April 16, 2016
Orfeo ed Euridice at Opera in the Heights
It's an imaginative, well done production that got a well-deserved and wonderful review by D. L. Groover in the Houston Press. Check it out: http://www.houstonpress.com/arts/orfe...
The theme of the opera is very ancient and very true; it's about the power of music. This is also the theme of my first novel The Piper's Story.
Last performance tonight at 7:30. Don't miss it!
The theme of the opera is very ancient and very true; it's about the power of music. This is also the theme of my first novel The Piper's Story.
Last performance tonight at 7:30. Don't miss it!
January 18, 2016
Book Launch Party at Murder by the Book
If you are interested in the power of prayer, the Gulf oil spill, music, the city of New Orleans, spiritual and physical laws. . .well then. . . I'm going to discuss all of that as it applies to my novel The Threshold of Eden, answer questions, and sign books.
If you're in the Houston area on Saturday, January 30, please come out to a discussion and book signing party from 3:30-5:30 at one of Houston's best bookstores, Murder by the Book:
2342 Bissonnet St, Houston, TX 77005
(713) 524-8597
No hors d'oeuvres (against store policy), but plenty of white wine, sparkling water, and warmest camaradarie! Hope to see you there!
If you're in the Houston area on Saturday, January 30, please come out to a discussion and book signing party from 3:30-5:30 at one of Houston's best bookstores, Murder by the Book:
2342 Bissonnet St, Houston, TX 77005
(713) 524-8597
No hors d'oeuvres (against store policy), but plenty of white wine, sparkling water, and warmest camaradarie! Hope to see you there!
January 7, 2016
Book Signing for The Threshold of Eden
I am having a book signing on Monday, January 11 at 6:00 p.m. at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Brenham, in the parish hall. I'm going to talk about the book, answer questions, and then sign copies for those who wish. If you already have a copy of The Threshold of Eden, please bring it, and if not, there will be books there to purchase. I am donating 20% to the church. Come out, have some light refreshments, and enjoy!
November 23, 2015
If You Liked The Piper's Story. . .
Well, it took longer than I thought, but the paperback edition of The Threshold of Eden is published. It will be available shortly to download on Kindle and Nook as well. Here's the link to the Amazon posting:
http://www.amazon.com/Threshold-Eden-...
http://www.amazon.com/Threshold-Eden-...
July 28, 2015
The Threshold of Eden
Here's a description of my new novel, THE THRESHOLD OF EDEN, forthcoming this summer:
In the beginning, man was driven out of Eden; in the end, he shall be restored in a transformation both unexpected and sudden: in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. . .
Uprooted from his native Brooklyn, yearning for independence from his overbearing father and relief from his obsessive thoughts, young concert pianist Joshua Brightman finds unlikely friends in his New Orleans neighbors, matriarch and gifted healer Annie Faris and her granddaughter, precocious twelve-year-old bookworm Sam. While Sam grieves over the recent loss of her father, Annie struggles to heal Sam’s terminally ill mother. In their search for health and peace, Joshua, Annie, and Sam learn what barriers exist between death and life, between disease and healing, and the price they must pay to overcome them. Their stories play out against the backdrop of an Eden lost, a wounded, post-oil-spill Louisiana, and the ongoing struggle for survival of her people, wildlife, and those mysterious, mystical marshes.
Coming soon!
In the beginning, man was driven out of Eden; in the end, he shall be restored in a transformation both unexpected and sudden: in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. . .
Uprooted from his native Brooklyn, yearning for independence from his overbearing father and relief from his obsessive thoughts, young concert pianist Joshua Brightman finds unlikely friends in his New Orleans neighbors, matriarch and gifted healer Annie Faris and her granddaughter, precocious twelve-year-old bookworm Sam. While Sam grieves over the recent loss of her father, Annie struggles to heal Sam’s terminally ill mother. In their search for health and peace, Joshua, Annie, and Sam learn what barriers exist between death and life, between disease and healing, and the price they must pay to overcome them. Their stories play out against the backdrop of an Eden lost, a wounded, post-oil-spill Louisiana, and the ongoing struggle for survival of her people, wildlife, and those mysterious, mystical marshes.
Coming soon!
June 7, 2015
Summer Music Festival 2015
The 2015 Summer Music Festival at Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Charles, LA is up and running! Concerts are each Tuesday in June at 7:30, admission $10. The Church is on the national register of historic buildings, 715 Kirkman, Lake Charles, LA 70601
Summer Music Festival 2015
June 2 – Music for a Summer Evening
Enjoy an evening of Mozart, Britten, and Dohnányi, virtuosic music for oboe and string trio, played by four virtuosos from the Houston Symphony, principal oboist Jonathan Fischer, violinist Sophia Silivos, violist Joan Derhovsepian, and cellist Christopher French. The oboe quartets by Mozart and Benjamin Britten showcase two highly contrasting styles. Mozart’s three-movement work, written for the Munich virtuoso Friedrich Ramm, is lyrical, lilting, and very concerto-like in the way the oboe is always prominently featured. On the other hand, Britten’s Phantasy, a single movement work with sharply contrasting sections, is challenging to all the performers. Hungarian composer Ernö Dohnányi’s Serenade in C Major for String Trio harkens back to the 18th-century serenade, but in a modern idiom. It begins with a march, and moves from slow melancholy sections to passages of highly intense, nervous energy. It’s going to be exciting!
June 9 – Music for Times and the End of Time
To be human is to wonder about our present mortality and our hope of immortality. Join Soprano Annamarie Zmolek, Tenor Patrick Perez, and Pianist Nicholas Bergin for a thought-provoking evening of evocative music by Benjamin Britten, Robert Schumann, and American composer Samuel Barber. This program, based on some of the most beautiful poems and prose ever written, begins with Britten’s song cycle for tenor and piano, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne. The settings of Batter my heart three person’d God, At the round earth’s imagined corners, Death be not proud, and others, are by turns dramatic, intense, tender, and moving, as the poet reflects on themes of mortal life and the timelessness of God. The Four Duets by Robert Schumann return us to everyday times with poems about dancing, flowers and stars, romantic love, and a child’s lullaby. The program ends with Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, for soprano and piano. The prose poem, taken from James Agee’s prologue to A Death in the Family, is a lyrical, nostalgic, and highly affecting portrait of summer evenings in the South, told through the eyes of a child, “It has become that time of evening. . .”
June 16 – The Turning of the Year
It’s a journey! Soprano Laurie Robertson and Organist/Pianist Sigurd Øgaard will perform music familiar, colorful, comic and profound, beginning with Halloween and Bach’s spooky Toccata and Fugue in D Minor to the Thanksgiving feast of Bernstein’s scrumptious Four Recipes for Voice and Piano, to Christmas music from Bach’s Magnificat, and the Valentine of Grieg’s Melodies of the Heart, to joyous Easter music of Dubois and Grieg’s summer dances arranged for organ. Laurie is a featured soloist on the Gothic label CD Praise the Spirit, a recording of the sacred music of David Ashley White and currently a staff singer at Christ Church Cathedral and a member of the Houston Chamber Choir. Sigurd, a native of Norway, is currently the Associate Minister for Music and Organist at Christ Church Cathedral, Organist and Accompanist for Bach Society Houston, as well as instructor of improvisation and hymn playing at the University of Houston. He has performed extensively in America, England, Norway, and the Netherlands.
June 23 – Of Dreamers, Dancers, and Patriots
The Summer Music Festival Orchestra, comprised of professional string players conducted by Wendy Isaac Bergin, will perform a program of English and German orchestral suites, with a smattering of early American music. Don Quixote rides again in Telemann’s Burlesque of Cervantes’ famous tale of the dreaming, chivalrous knight. Telemann’s Suite graphically describes Don Quixote’s jousting with windmills, his pining for Dulcinea, his comic sidekick Sancho Panza, and even the galloping horse and trotting donkey. The program begins and ends with suites by English composers Peter Warlock and Gustav Holst, both based on dance music. Warlock’s Capriol Suite harkens back to Renaissance dances, including a basse-dance, a pavane, a branles, and a raucous, dissonant sword dance. Holst’s St. Paul’s Suite includes a jig and a swirling combination of a two well-known folksongs, Greensleeves and the Dargason. And in a foretaste of Independence Day, there will be samples of the simple, original, but highly pleasing music of William Billings, friend of John Adams and Paul Revere. It’s going to be an adventure!
Summer Music Festival 2015
June 2 – Music for a Summer Evening
Enjoy an evening of Mozart, Britten, and Dohnányi, virtuosic music for oboe and string trio, played by four virtuosos from the Houston Symphony, principal oboist Jonathan Fischer, violinist Sophia Silivos, violist Joan Derhovsepian, and cellist Christopher French. The oboe quartets by Mozart and Benjamin Britten showcase two highly contrasting styles. Mozart’s three-movement work, written for the Munich virtuoso Friedrich Ramm, is lyrical, lilting, and very concerto-like in the way the oboe is always prominently featured. On the other hand, Britten’s Phantasy, a single movement work with sharply contrasting sections, is challenging to all the performers. Hungarian composer Ernö Dohnányi’s Serenade in C Major for String Trio harkens back to the 18th-century serenade, but in a modern idiom. It begins with a march, and moves from slow melancholy sections to passages of highly intense, nervous energy. It’s going to be exciting!
June 9 – Music for Times and the End of Time
To be human is to wonder about our present mortality and our hope of immortality. Join Soprano Annamarie Zmolek, Tenor Patrick Perez, and Pianist Nicholas Bergin for a thought-provoking evening of evocative music by Benjamin Britten, Robert Schumann, and American composer Samuel Barber. This program, based on some of the most beautiful poems and prose ever written, begins with Britten’s song cycle for tenor and piano, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne. The settings of Batter my heart three person’d God, At the round earth’s imagined corners, Death be not proud, and others, are by turns dramatic, intense, tender, and moving, as the poet reflects on themes of mortal life and the timelessness of God. The Four Duets by Robert Schumann return us to everyday times with poems about dancing, flowers and stars, romantic love, and a child’s lullaby. The program ends with Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, for soprano and piano. The prose poem, taken from James Agee’s prologue to A Death in the Family, is a lyrical, nostalgic, and highly affecting portrait of summer evenings in the South, told through the eyes of a child, “It has become that time of evening. . .”
June 16 – The Turning of the Year
It’s a journey! Soprano Laurie Robertson and Organist/Pianist Sigurd Øgaard will perform music familiar, colorful, comic and profound, beginning with Halloween and Bach’s spooky Toccata and Fugue in D Minor to the Thanksgiving feast of Bernstein’s scrumptious Four Recipes for Voice and Piano, to Christmas music from Bach’s Magnificat, and the Valentine of Grieg’s Melodies of the Heart, to joyous Easter music of Dubois and Grieg’s summer dances arranged for organ. Laurie is a featured soloist on the Gothic label CD Praise the Spirit, a recording of the sacred music of David Ashley White and currently a staff singer at Christ Church Cathedral and a member of the Houston Chamber Choir. Sigurd, a native of Norway, is currently the Associate Minister for Music and Organist at Christ Church Cathedral, Organist and Accompanist for Bach Society Houston, as well as instructor of improvisation and hymn playing at the University of Houston. He has performed extensively in America, England, Norway, and the Netherlands.
June 23 – Of Dreamers, Dancers, and Patriots
The Summer Music Festival Orchestra, comprised of professional string players conducted by Wendy Isaac Bergin, will perform a program of English and German orchestral suites, with a smattering of early American music. Don Quixote rides again in Telemann’s Burlesque of Cervantes’ famous tale of the dreaming, chivalrous knight. Telemann’s Suite graphically describes Don Quixote’s jousting with windmills, his pining for Dulcinea, his comic sidekick Sancho Panza, and even the galloping horse and trotting donkey. The program begins and ends with suites by English composers Peter Warlock and Gustav Holst, both based on dance music. Warlock’s Capriol Suite harkens back to Renaissance dances, including a basse-dance, a pavane, a branles, and a raucous, dissonant sword dance. Holst’s St. Paul’s Suite includes a jig and a swirling combination of a two well-known folksongs, Greensleeves and the Dargason. And in a foretaste of Independence Day, there will be samples of the simple, original, but highly pleasing music of William Billings, friend of John Adams and Paul Revere. It’s going to be an adventure!
February 22, 2015
Intrusion and Invitation
Political systems, middle managers, and supernatural beings operate either by intrusion or invitation. Intrusion is fear-based; lies and coercion are its hallmarks. Fascism, for example, seeks to control and regulate every facet of life, with death being the reward for dissent. This type of political system (or management strategy) always fails; the question is how much damage will it do while extant? The answer can astonish. The Nazi Third Reich lasted only twelve years, but sixty million or more died because of it.
Invitation is rooted in love and teneted in truth, allowing freedom. A constitutional republic (what America once was) seeks life, liberty and happiness for its people; it is governed by just laws which protect its citizens’ freedoms. Since free will is allowed, there is room for discussion and dissent.
Intrusion and invitation also exist in the realm of the supernatural. Demonic possession and diabolical oppression are real. The Prince of Lies and his minions seek to take possession, to overthrow; they may do it seductively or cunningly, but they do not ask permission.
On the other hand, the Lord invites us to a feast: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
"Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." ~Isaiah 55:1-2
There is death and there is life, separate paths. These are my thoughts on the first Sunday in Lent, the forty days preceding Easter, corresponding to the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness, fasting and tempted of the Devil.
Invitation is rooted in love and teneted in truth, allowing freedom. A constitutional republic (what America once was) seeks life, liberty and happiness for its people; it is governed by just laws which protect its citizens’ freedoms. Since free will is allowed, there is room for discussion and dissent.
Intrusion and invitation also exist in the realm of the supernatural. Demonic possession and diabolical oppression are real. The Prince of Lies and his minions seek to take possession, to overthrow; they may do it seductively or cunningly, but they do not ask permission.
On the other hand, the Lord invites us to a feast: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
"Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." ~Isaiah 55:1-2
There is death and there is life, separate paths. These are my thoughts on the first Sunday in Lent, the forty days preceding Easter, corresponding to the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness, fasting and tempted of the Devil.
Podcast: Altitude Adjustment with Leon Davis, Jr.
I will be a guest on Leon Davis Jr.'s podcast Altitude Adjustment. The podcast will air live on Saturday, June 26 at 2:00 p.m. Central time. We will be discussing my novel Lessons in the Wild, as well
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