![\"Sandi](\"http:\/\/wordpress.fau.edu\/lifelongexchange\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2016\/03\/sandi_page.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBy Sandi Page, LLS Jupiter Marketing Committee Member<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our FAU LLS Jupiter Lifelong Exchange Blog will be closed for the months of June and July for the summer break.\u00a0 We will start posting again the first week of August.\u00a0 As this is the last post for two months, I wanted it to be an extra-special gift to all our readers: \u00a0a list comprised of reviews from some of our LLS Jupiter family about books, films or music that they love and hope that you will enjoy, too.<\/p>\n But, first, I would like to express my deep appreciation to the LLS students, staff and professors who so kindly answer my calls for contributions to my group blog posts.\u00a0 I know I have thanked you privately but I would like to publicly express my gratitude for the time and effort you put into sending me such exquisitely written pieces to include in my posts.\u00a0 Your generosity in sharing your stories……oh, your stories!……..touch me more than you can know for, as they say, in the end, all we really have are our stories.\u00a0 I have discovered such remarkable writing talent amongst all of you and such rich life experiences and to be able to share that with our blog readers brings me such joy. Now, read on to discover our Critic’s Corner choices of books, documentaries, and music for your summer vacation!\u00a0 See you in August!<\/p>\n LITERATURE<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Dr. Robert Watson, LLS Instructor \u00a0<\/strong>I recently reread George Orwell’s classic book Animal Farm<\/em>. I suspect we all read it in high school and\/or college, as it used to be required reading. Because, as a professor, I am always around college students, I know that many\u00a0schools fail to\u00a0require students to read the classics. It is always dismaying, for instance, to mention one of the “great books” during a lecture and look out at all the blank faces. When this happens, I always ask for a show of hands of who has read the book. Fewer and fewer hands are raised these days.<\/p>\n But, happily,\u00a0my\u00a0daughter came home from school a few days ago with a paperback copy of Animal Farm<\/em>, telling me that her 7th grade class was reading it. Her brother had read it a few years ago when he was in middle school and had both thoroughly enjoyed it and “got the message.”\u00a0One of the things we do in the Watson house is that, when the kids come home with an assigned book,\u00a0either my wife or I read the book with them. We have done this with them since kindergarten and have not only found that\u00a0it can be an important bonding opportunity and a way for our kids to ask\u00a0deeper questions about the book, but also it has demonstrated to our son and daughter that reading matters. I think this has helped nurture in them a passion for the written word.<\/p>\n Case in point: I was pleased to discover a few years ago that my son’s English teacher allowed the students to select a few books to read as part of the class assignment. I was even more pleased when my son selected Moby Dick<\/em>, To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em>, and Lord of the Flies<\/em>. In the intervening years, his English teachers have repeated the policy of allowing students to pick their readings and, to my delight,\u00a0he has brought home such wonderful works as\u00a01984<\/em>,\u00a0Night<\/em>, The Great Gatsby<\/em>, Death of a Salesman<\/em>, and others.<\/p>\n Our “policy” of reading along with the kids has allowed me to rediscover these timeless classics through my children. To that end, I am encouraging all of you to read Animal Farm <\/em>or another one of the classics with your grandchildren this summer. One young person at a time, we all can help to keep these classics in the forefront of our children’s and grandchildren’s education. Plus, it is a very short book — an afternoon read, ideal for those lazy days of summer (my guess is that it must be one of the shortest of the great books). It is a great way to spend time with them and it never hurts to revisit some of the classics from time to time.<\/p>\n This is certainly the case with Animal Farm, <\/em>which is chock full of lessons on the dangers of the corrupting ability of political power, the flaws of communism and capitalism, the power of propaganda to subdue and dupe the masses, and, of course,\u00a0human nature. <\/em>The book was written at the close of the Second World War and has the added benefit of providing readers today with a history lesson.<\/p>\n We all remember that it is a story about the animals of Manor Farm who succeed in rising up against their drunk, oppressive farmer (Jones). The animals create their “Seven Commandments” and promote equality among all farm animals, reminding one another that they are all equal and that two-legged creatures are their enemies. The various types of animals (just as in Pink Floyd’s classic album of the same title) – pigs, dogs, sheep, horses – all have a role to play on the farm and represent such figures as Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and so on. Orwell writes in such a way that even middle school children can easily pick up on the symbolism and meaning of the tragic events in the book.<\/p>\n Of course, the worker’s revolution goes terribly wrong and the pigs end up behaving just like human dictators. Through propaganda, however, they continue to justify their growing oppressive tendencies and keep the animals dumb and content. The pigs become that which they despised and even end up walking on – gasp! – two legs. Orwell famously ends the book with the adage that “all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”<\/p>\n Sadly, amid all the oppressive autocratic and totalitarian dictatorships around the world and\u00a0the recent resurgence of xenophobia, jingoism, and nativism here at home,\u00a0the book remains relevant. But let me end this review on a lighter note… As I write this essay, just last night I found my son standing upstairs in our family library looking at the books. He asked me if it was alright if he borrowed two more of my books for the summer. He was holding Kurt Vonnegut’s Galapagos <\/em>and Carl Sagan’s Cosmos<\/em>. I am still grinning!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dr. Matt Klauza, LLS Instructor In 2004, a friend of mine bought me a copy of Primo Levi’s The Periodic Table<\/em> (1975).\u00a0 It was a gift for helping her design the curriculum for a course in Holocaust literature.\u00a0 I had read some of Levi\u2019s work before; for some time, I had taught his Survival in Auschwitz<\/em> (originally published in Italian as Se questo \u00e8 un uomo<\/em>, or If This Is a Man<\/em>).\u00a0 However, I had never read The Periodic Table<\/em>.\u00a0 When I did, I couldn\u2019t put it down.\u00a0 This book is a series of 21 autobiographical short stories by Levi, a Jewish chemist from Turin, Italy, who was imprisoned in Auschwitz and was spared his life because of his expertise in his profession.\u00a0 Each story in the book is named after a different element (hydrogen, zinc, iron); furthermore, in his own beautiful way, Levi incorporates the nature of each element into each respective story.\u00a0 This structure is only part of his brilliance.\u00a0 Each of the stories serves as a window into the magnificent mind of Levi himself.<\/p>\n One of my all-time favorite books is Margaret Atwood\u2019s The Handmaid\u2019s Tale <\/em>(1985).\u00a0 Set in a future United States, the novel immerses the reader into the life of a woman named Offred.\u00a0 Due to radiation from an on-going war\u2014among other things\u2014very few men and women can conceive, so women who can <\/em>do so are forced to become \u201chandmaids,\u201d women who serve as surrogate partners for high-powered leaders in hopes they can produce babies for these leaders\u2019 wives.\u00a0 As handmaid Offred\u2019s own compelling story unfolds, in the background we learn much about the new government, the means it uses to control its people, and the methods it employed to turn the U.S. as we know it now into a patriarchal, totalitarian state.\u00a0 I first read this novel in college in 1997, I read it again in 2002, and I just finished rereading it this week.\u00a0 With each re-reading, the book has become increasingly relevant about the role of government, women\u2019s rights, and the passivity of the average citizen.\u00a0 But politics is only the backdrop. The real story reads like a gorgeous conversation with Offred and an insight into her mind in troublesome times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dr. Kurt F. Stone, LLS Instructor It\u2019s a shame that Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951), the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature, isn\u2019t read much anymore. \u00a0Although neither a world-class stylist like Fitzgerald nor as powerfully unique as Faulkner, Lewis was something more: an American storyteller who created humorous, acid-tipped satire sans\u00a0sentimentality.<\/p>\n Lewis\u2019\u00a0first\u00a0mature novel,\u00a0The Job<\/em>,\u00a0is\u00a0the story of\u00a0Una\u00a0Golden, a strong-willed\u00a0young woman forced by circumstance\u00a0to succeed\u00a0in\u00a0a\u00a0male-dominated\u00a0world.\u00a0\u201cGoldie\u201d\u00a0dedicates herself to\u00a0standing on her own two feet\u00a0while balancing romance and marriage.\u00a0Day in, day out, \u201cGoldie\u201d brings home \u201c\u2026the palsying weariness of the day\u2019s drudgery\u201d until she finally succeeds . . . sort of.<\/p>\n The Job<\/em>\u00a0is likely the\u00a0first feminist novel. That it was written by a man says a lot about Sinclair Lewis. Read it and see why Lewis became America\u2019s first Nobel Laureate.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dr. Ronald Feinman, LLS Instructor It covers the life of Barack Obama, the 44th President, from his upbringing as a young black man attending an almost all-white elite private school in Honolulu, Hawaii, while being raised almost exclusively by his white grandparents; then, on to his college years in California and New York; then, his time as a community organizer, working in some of the roughest neighborhoods of Chicago; to his years at the top of his Harvard Law School class; and then, his return to Chicago, and his entrance into the rough and tumble of Chicago politics; and on to the U.S. Senate, becoming a national political figure and doing the impossible—becoming the first African American political figure to be elected President.<\/p>\n Obama’s years in the U.S. Senate from 2005-2008 are covered, and his dramatic speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, when Obama was only a state Senator from Illinois, running for\u00a0the U.S. Senate, and suddenly becoming a national figure.\u00a0 Obama’s family life and personal relationships are also examined.<\/p>\n This massive biography should be a Pulitzer Prize winner for Biography, which Garrow has already won for his study of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Richard Ren\u00e9 Silvin, LLS Instructor American Empress <\/em>begins with Mrs. Post\u2019s health-conscious father, C.W. Post (1854-1914) creating an alternative to coffee in the late 1890s. He named the drink Postum and, once his idea became commonly accepted, he invented the breakfast cereal Grape Nuts.<\/p>\n Marjorie (1887-1973) was the apple of his eye and, as a child, learned every aspect of the business. Upon her father\u2019s death, she managed to gain control of the Post Cereal Company, but given the times, she was unable to hold a senior executive position in the company she then owned.<\/p>\n Years later, Mrs. Post understood the importance of frozen foods when, quite by accident, her yacht\u2019s chef bought some \u201cfrosted foods\u201d from someone experimenting with the strange concept. The man\u2019s name was Clarence Birdseye (1886-1956). With the acquisition of his nascent company, Mrs. Post created General Foods in 1929 and went on to acquire many commonly used food staples such as Jell-O, Maxwell House and Hellman\u2019s Mayonnaise.<\/p>\n Marjorie had four husbands and three children. Since she believed strongly in \u201cgiving back,\u201d Mrs. Post became one of the most revered philanthropists of the twentieth century. She is best known for her famous art collections and for building her Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago, now President Trump\u2019s winter home and private club.<\/p>\n Ironically, Mrs. Post\u2019s dream was for her Florida estate to become a winter residence for American Presidents.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dr. Benito Rakower, LLS Instructor In 1832, the French writer Balzac had the idea of capturing the totality of France in a sequence of novels. \u00a0The\u00a0unifying\u00a0inspiration for this project was to have\u00a0the same\u00a0characters re-appear in subsequent novels,\u00a0but in different situations\u00a0with\u00a0their importance changed, enlarged, or diminished. Readers were\u00a0fascinated\u00a0by\u00a0the \u201cswirl\u201d of events and by the realization that no human life can be portrayed in a single novel.<\/p>\n It is generally agreed that\u00a0Lost Illusions\u00a0<\/em>is the greatest of the 90 novels and novellas that comprise\u00a0La Com\u00e9die humaine. \u00a0<\/em>It recounts the adventures of Lucien Chardon, a handsome young\u00a0poet\u00a0from the provinces,\u00a0who goes to Paris to make his fortune. \u00a0No other writer could have done what Balzac did with this deceptively simple and\u00a0familiar\u00a0literary theme. As the na\u00efve Lucien explores the streets and quarters of Paris, he is consumed by a single ambition. \u00a0He wants to penetrate and conquer the highest tier of aristocratic French society. \u00a0He has only one connection, an attractive, wealthy, and well-connected older woman who accompanied\u00a0him to Paris\u00a0as lover or friend. \u00a0Their intimate relationship is presented with the\u00a0nonchalance\u00a0that only the French possess, and Balzac was its master.<\/p>\n In one bold flourish \u2013 too subtle to be called a stroke \u2013 Balzac has annihilated the presumptions and ideals of the French Revolution. \u00a0After all its destructive fury, the aristocratic hierarchy of France remains intact and controls every\u00a0aspect of social existence. \u00a0Not even Tolstoy had the intellectual audacity to recognize this sort of fact. <\/p>\n Gene Monahan, LLS Student Two of my recent reads have really impressed me with their stories of survival against horrific odds and the ultimate success of the two main characters. The first book, A Different Kind of Daughter,<\/em> is the story of a Pakistani girl who grew up wanting to play sports.\u00a0 In her Islamic society, girls were not allowed to play a sport or wear pants, for that matter.\u00a0 When the Taliban group came to her village, she was not even allowed to go outside and, for years, she played her sport of Squash against her bedroom walls.\u00a0 Fortunately, she had a very understanding father.\u00a0 Eventually, after she had searched for several years for a sponsor to rescue her, a man in Canada saw her request and arranged for her immigration to Canada where she became a world-class player.<\/p>\n The second book, Infidel<\/em>, is about a girl who grew up in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia in a very strict Muslim household.\u00a0 Everyday beatings by her mother were common and genital mutilation was practiced.\u00a0 She escaped an arranged marriage by her father and made her way to Holland where she learned the language and became an interpreter for the government.Because of the strong tribal practices of her family, she was constantly being searched for and is to this day.\u00a0 Now, she lives in the United States.\u00a0 This is an amazing story and gave me tremendous insight into the Islamic faith.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Barbara DePalma, LLS Student In today\u2019s climate of political division, it is heartwarming to read a true story of complete strangers risking everything to keep a near-dead fugitive alive.\u00a0 After Norwegian Jan Baalsrud\u2019s fellow fighters were killed or captured by the Nazis, Jan found himself alone in Arctic conditions with nothing but his clothes, one boot, and a pistol.<\/p>\n Constantly being pursued by Nazi soldiers, he did his best to keep moving through snow-covered mountains with no shelter to protect him.\u00a0 Suffering from frostbite and starvation, only his courage, bravery, and strong human endurance got him through.\u00a0 Along the way, he was helped by noble Norwegians who selflessly tried to help him.\u00a0 It is stunning to imagine the mental fortitude necessary to survive such an ordeal and how little we truly need to survive!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Francia Trosty, LLS Student The Other Einstein<\/em> is\u00a0the fictional, but carefully researched,\u00a0account of the life of an actual historical figure\u00a0who was Albert Einstein\u2019s first wife, Mileva\u00a0\u201cMitza\u201d\u00a0Mari\u0107.\u00a0In 1896,\u00a0she\u00a0was the only female studying physics at Z\u00fcrich\u00a0University and one of the first females to study science at\u00a0the\u00a0university level in all of Europe. She left home for more liberal Switzerland to\u00a0continue\u00a0those\u00a0studies and became a scientific genius in her own right. And yet, her renown today is considerably less than that of her physicist husband. There is much debate over the degree of Albert’s famed Theory of Relativity that was, in fact, his wife’s own work.<\/p>\n Recognizing Mitza\u2019s brilliance, Albert became infatuated with her and courted her relentlessly, despite the objection of his mother,\u00a0professing to her\u00a0a\u00a0future\u00a0life of professional as well as\u00a0loving\u00a0collaboration.\u00a0But that was not to be.\u00a0Despite\u00a0those promises, he failed to credit her in his papers, was a terrible father and an unloving,\u00a0philandering husband. In other words \u2013 not a nice Jewish boy!<\/p>\n This\u00a0book\u00a0brings to mind the question of how many women in history have made invisible contributions to their husband\u2019s renown. Did\u00a0Sonya\u00a0Tolstoy,\u00a0acting as\u00a0her husband\u2019s\u00a0secretary, proofreader and financial\u00a0manager make\u00a0any\u00a0significant\u00a0edits when she painfully re-wrote War and Peace <\/em>three times by hand?<\/p>\n I fell in love with\u00a0Mitza\u00a0and felt her pain as she fought for her equality in the face of adversity but, sadly, lost.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>FILM – DOCUMENTARY<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Katie Muldoon, LLS Instructor Because many of us have heard about WWII most of our lives from family or films, we think we know a lot about it.\u00a0Think again. \u00a0Netflix has put together a three-part series that showcases breathtaking, eye-opening,\u00a0spellbinding\u00a0footage\u00a0shot from five of the most revered directors\u00a0of\u00a0that era and beyond.\u00a0\u00a0Already very successful,\u00a0Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, George Stevens, and William Wyler each\u00a0put their careers on hold and enlisted\u00a0in the armed forces, filming\u00a0with soldiers in\u00a0action\u00a0as it\u00a0took\u00a0place.\u00a0One survived a\u00a0landing\u00a0with the soldiers on D-Day;\u00a0one\u00a0lost his hearing in one ear and became partially deaf in the other from going on\u00a0multiple bombing runs\u00a0(this latter one gave me chills, as my dad piloted one of these B-17 tin boxes, being\u00a0shot down 3 times).\u00a0Their intent: to create\u00a0films\u00a0that\u00a0acted as powerful motivators\u00a0to\u00a0encourage\u00a0both\u00a0support and enlistment,\u00a0thereby using\u00a0films as marketing tools.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s\u00a0filmmakers, such as\u00a0Steven\u00a0Spielberg\u00a0and\u00a0Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro and others help us understand the background behind\u00a0what these brave men did and what\u00a0the time away cost them in lost careers. The third part in the series includes films as the American soldiers first discover Dachau, shattering images that are only more powerful all these years later.<\/p>\n Five Came Back<\/em>\u00a0balances\u00a0real life horrors with the joys of survival\u00a0enhanced by thrilling welcomes all over France. \u00a0It\u2019s the real thing and should be seen by everyone who wants to understand what war really is.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n MUSIC<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Paul Newton, LLS Student <\/p>\n Kimberly Bowman, LLS Staff <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1679,"featured_media":867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.fau.edu\/lifelongexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.fau.edu\/lifelongexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.fau.edu\/lifelongexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.fau.edu\/lifelongexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1679"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.fau.edu\/lifelongexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.fau.edu\/lifelongexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":959,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.fau.edu\/lifelongexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions\/959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.fau.edu\/lifelongexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.fau.edu\/lifelongexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.fau.edu\/lifelongexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.fau.edu\/lifelongexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nKami Barrett-Batchelder also wants to thank the LLS professors and staff who answer her requests for individual blog posts by sending such informative and timely articles. We are both grateful to all of you for helping to enrich our lives and our readers’ lives.
\nWe have all come to know each other so well through these posts and our LLS community is the better for it.
\nAnd you, dear readers!\u00a0 Where would we, and this blog be, without your interest?\u00a0 Thank you for reading, thank you for commenting, whether on the blog itself, or in emails to us.\u00a0 Your encouragement and appreciation give us even more energy and desire to make the LLS Jupiter Lifelong Exchange blog the best blog it can be to serve our LLS community.
\nOnce again, a heartfelt thank you to all of you.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Animal Farm<\/em>, by George Orwell<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The Periodic Table<\/em>, by Primo Levi;
\nThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em>, by Margaret Atwood<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The\u00a0Job, <\/em>by Sinclair Lewis\u00a0(1917)<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The book to read this summer is David J. Garrow\u2019s Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama<\/em> (Harper Collins, 2017) —1084 pages of text, 272 pages of Notes, 35 pages of Bibliography,\u00a068-page Index.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>American Empress: The Life and Times of Marjorie Merriweather Post, <\/em>by Nancy Rubin (1995)<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Lost Illusions,\u00a0<\/em>by Balzac<\/p>\n
\nTo exist in Paris was to have a place in its social structure. That place was defined by one\u2019s clothes, the store in which one bought gloves and cravat, the fit and length of one\u2019s jacket. The opera was the capital of French society. \u00a0It was there that you were noticed and where any\u00a0faux pas\u00a0<\/em>[a French concept] could ruin any chance for social advancement.
\nBalzac hated poetry with a passion. \u00a0He recognized its\u00a0evasive egotism. \u00a0With enormous skill and energy, Balzac had the ability of describing every detail of waking life with a\u00a0vitality\u00a0that accomplished in prose what only Shakespeare was able to achieve in poetry. \u00a0Balzac had the ability of making the most sordid aspects of human character intoxicating to read. \u00a0Most impressive is Balzac\u2019s gusto and\u00a0his\u00a0vast tolerance for human frailty.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>A Different Kind of Daughter,<\/em> by Debbie Alsdorf;
\nInfidel, <\/em>by Ayaan Hirsi Ali<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>We Die Alone:\u00a0 A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance,
\n<\/em>by David Howarth & Stephen E. Ambrose<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The Other Einstein<\/em>, by\u00a0Marie\u00a0Benedict<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Five Came Back \u2013 <\/em>film documentary (based on the book Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War,<\/em> by journalist Mark Harris).\u00a0 Directed by Laurent Bouzereau, Narrated by Meryl Streep.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I recently stumbled upon something\u00a0very valuable to me that I would like to share with my fellow students.\u00a0 My “review” is on a group of musicians rather than a specific CD.\u00a0 Probably very few, if any, of my fellow students have ever heard of one of\u00a0Steven Wilson<\/a>‘s groups such as\u00a0Porcupine Tree<\/a>.\u00a0 What I love about their songs is that there is often a nice melody, interesting lyrics and some strong heavy parts.\u00a0 I think that Wilson is very special and consistently puts out great “progressive rock” songs with high quality musicians, some with a video story (e.g., Drive Home).\u00a0 I especially enjoy the live recordings.\u00a0 If you like\u00a0Pink Floyd<\/a>, early Genesis, Renaissance, The Moody Blues, etc., music, then you just may enjoy Stephen Wilson’s music.\u00a0 It is easy and free to check this out.\u00a0 Just go to YouTube on your computer and type “Porcupine Tree<\/a>, Dark Matter live version” into the search box.\u00a0 You will then be given options for other songs to pick from on the right side. \u00a0 These songs just may bring some joy into your life like they did mine.\u00a0 Wilson’s songs are not short, bright or cheery, but a bit on the darker side so you may also find that you hate them.\u00a0\u00a0I would love to get comments back on what you thought of any of Wilson’s songs.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Just recently, a good friend introduced me to the music of a wonderful Latin music artist. I have since been rediscovering some of the music that I was introduced to as a young girl growing up in culturally diverse South Florida. This has also rekindled my love for the music of my culture \u2013 represented by countries across South and Central America, the Caribbean and Europe. Summer seems the most perfect time of year to relish the sounds of Son Cubano, or even Spanish Flamenco. Most recently, I have been enjoying the music of the\u00a0Buena Vista Social Club<\/a>, with some of my favorites being\u00a0“Chan Chan”<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0“Candela,”<\/a>\u00a0which epitomize the rhythms of Cuban Son. Songs like\u00a0“Hasta la Raiz”<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0“Para que Sufrir,”<\/a>\u00a0by Mexican singer\u00a0Natalia Lafourcade<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0“Mi Primo Juan”<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Chambao<\/a>, a group hailing from M\u00e1laga, Spain known for their modern flamenco, have made their way onto my play list as well. The sounds of Latin music are those that bind me to my youth, my family and the tradition of Latin culture that moves across countries and musical genres. I invite you to take a listen, and hope you enjoy it.<\/p>\n