30/9 – 6/10/24 – Music, Impulse & Shipwreck

Welcome to Monday’s News on the March – The week that was in my digital world.

The Real Reason Why Music Is Getting Worse
Video presentation at Rick Beato

Richard John Beato is an American YouTube personality, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, and educator. Since the early 1980s, he has worked variously as a musician, songwriter, audio engineer, and record producer; he has lectured on music at universities.

In this episode, Rick Beato discuss the crisis in music in two acts: Act I – Music is too Easy to Make Act II – Music is too Easy to Consume …and their cumulative negative effect.

Impulse
Short Poem at House of Heart

I’ve been following the blog House of Heart for years, where the author crafts hypnotic, beautifully worded short poems, often capturing the enchanting allure of nature. We also share a mutual love for the music of Leonard Cohen. Recently, one of her poems titled Impulse truly captivated me, and when I asked if I could share it here, she graciously agreed.

Impulse

The sky is weeping,

a roll and clash of thunder.

Beneath the trees

the tall grass is tear drenched.

Silence,

a stifling blanket of

isolation and a madness

that is not my enemy but

exposes everything for

what it is.

Restless, 

I ache to escape

the solitude

before melancholy claims

this ruinous summer.

Let me stretch

like some beguiling feline,

carnivorous, 

succumbing to the

impulse to pounce.

Photography (above inset) by Dennis Wayne
“The heart of another is a dark forest no matter how close it has been to one’s own”

The Fierce Battle over the ‘Holy Grail’ of Shipwrecks
News article at BBC News

(Image inset) A section of Spanish galleon San José, which sank off the Caribbean coast of Colombia in 1708.
This article concerns my adopted home country Colombia and the Caribbean Coast where my family and I have taken vacations, so naturally I was fascinated to read what it entailed:

It has been hailed as the most valuable shipwreck in the world.

A Spanish galleon, the San José, was sunk by the British off the coast of Colombia more than 300 years ago. It had a cargo of gold, silver and emeralds worth billions of dollars.

But years after it was discovered, a debate still rages over who owns that treasure and what should be done with the wreck.

The Colombian and Spanish states have staked a claim to it, as have a US salvage company and indigenous groups in South America. There have been court battles in Colombia and the US, and the case is now before the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague.

The Colombian government says it wants to raise the remains of the vessel and put it in a museum. Treasure hunters point to the commercial value of the cargo, which could be as much as $18bn (£13.bn).

But archaeologists say the wreck – and thousands like it scattered across the world – should be left where it is. Maritime historians remind us that the San José is a graveyard and should be respected as such: around 600 people drowned when the ship went down...(Read the entire article here).