NEW YORK — Where Oedipus once tormented us, it is now Narcissus. Pathologies linked to authority and domination have ceded to
the limitless angst of self-contemplation.
The old question — “What am I allowed to do?” — has given way
to the equally scary “What am I capable of doing?”
Alain Ehrenberg, a French author and psychologist
, speaks of the “privatization of human existence.”
In its place have come a frenzied individualism,
solipsistic screen-gazing,
the disembodied pleasures of social networking
and the à-la-carte life as defined by 600 TV channels and a gazillion blogs.
Feelings of anxiety and inadequacy grow
in the lonely chamber of
self-absorption and projection.
These trends are common to all globalized
modern democracies,
ranging from those that prize individualism,
like the United States,
to those, like France, where social solidarity
is a paramount value.
Ehrenberg’s new book, “La Société du Malaise”
(“The Malaise Society”)
is full of insights into the impact of narcissistic neurosis.
America could use more of that kind of experience.
As it is, everyone’s shrieking their lonesome anger,
burrowing deeper into stress, gazing at their
own images — and generating paralysis.
-Are you a human being or a robot?
Roger Cohen in the 2-22-10 NY Times hits on what Otto Kernberg wrote so well about thirty years ago (pathological narcissism) which has become a central feature of American life.
Everyone locked into his own privacy, unable to feel the existence of the other.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUAPf_ccobc
holding the instrument between both hands
and either pushing in or pulling out the instrument while simultaneously pressing one or more
buttons with the fingers.
of instruments rather than the accordion family, although both are free reed instruments.
In the concertina family the direction of
button movement is parallel with the direction
of bellows movement, whereas in the accordion
family
the direction of button or key movement
is perpendicular to the bellows movement.
Unlike the piano accordion, the bandoneón
does not have keys as per a piano,
but has buttons on both sides
. Additionally the notes produced
on push and pull are different (bisonoric).
This means that each keyboard has actually
two layouts: one for the opening notes,
and one for the closing notes.
Since the right and left hand layouts
are also different,
this adds up to four different keyboard
layouts
that must be learned
in order to play the instrument.
However, there is the advantage
that the notes tend to progress from
the bass clef on the left hand to above
the treble clef on the right.
To make matters even more confusing,
there are bandoneóns that are monosonoric
(same note on push and pull).
These variants are more compatible
with a chromatic tuning structure.
None of these keyboard layouts
is structured to facilitate playing scale
passages of notes. Instead the structure
is designed to aid the playing of chords,
which makes sense when one
considers the origin of the instrument
and its intended purpose.
For a beginning player,
certain runs and musical forms
can be difficult, but to an experienced player
they come quite naturally.
drawings by marguerita
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