Favorites (I)

In the comments to my last post, welcoming him back, Tommyg writes:

By the way I noticed in your profile under favorite music that you had AC/DC and Sinatra back to back! LOVE THAT!

That's one of the things I like about Tommyg, he gets it. So many people figure that if you like AC/DC you can like, say, Aerosmith, but you can't like, say, Beethoven.

WRONG.

I love Beethoven, especially the Ninth Symphony, especially the fourth movement, especially the part where the deep-voiced guy breaks into the German...a translation for ya:

Joy, beautiful spark of the gods,
Daughter of Elysium,
We enter fire imbibed,
Heavenly, thy sanctuary.

Be embraced, Millions!
This kiss for all the world!
Brothers!, above the starry canopy
A loving father must dwell.

I also love the music of the Rolling Stones, especially the album Some Girls, especially this song, especially this live version of this song at that moment, the best live version, given the circumstances, that will ever be:

Rolling Stones - When the whip comes down

Why? For the reason everyone loves certain art; it is sympathy...

Tommyg is BACK!

Great news. If I recall, his previous blog was "Chess and Music" but he deleted it in one of those spurs of the moment. Now he's got The Prodigal Pawn up, especially analyzing games--his own and others:

I will concentrate mostly on analysis of games (mine and others) and on reviews of books and/or software. I will from time to time post about improvement concepts as I see them. I don't want to beat the improvement thing to death as I am only just improving and have no hardcore evidence as to what does or does not work. Be that as it may, I am an opinionated person, so I will share those opinions once in awhile. :)

Nice job here analyzing a Thompson-Morphy game.

Welcome back, Tommyg!

Calling Chessvine's Colonel Crockett

(For those readers less familiar with United States history, Davy Crockett is a famous figure of the American frontier. He was also a Congressman, but we won't hold that against him).



Nowadays Col. Crockett runs an excellent chess news and opinion blog, chessvine.com. Yes kids, it's true, he secretly escaped from The Alamo and pursued a number of careers, sub rosa, before becoming a leading light of the online chess world.

Did I mention that he wrote a very flattering post about my piece on the Caro-Kann? That has, of course, nothing to do with this post; just coincidence, I'm sure. Then, in "What is Robert Pearson Doing Right?" he explains why this little blog is "well-placed search engine optimized." The funny thing is, it turns out I was optimizing without knowing it! Bloggers, I highly recommend you take the Colonel's recommendations seriously if you want to increase traffic.

Right now, if you Google "Robert Pearson" guess what the very top result is? This blog, beating out various artists, writers and diplomats who share that distinguished name. Is Google really, really smart, or really, really stupid? I guess I truly am optimized!

And by the way, why are you still here reading my drivel?

Hie thee over to Chessvine.com...cool as the other side of the pillow.