Would you sell your cell?

November, 2011

We all have pet peeves about some things. Today, for me, it’s the ubiquitous cellular telephone, or as it’s commonly called, the “cell phone.”  I have even heard it referred to as “my cell.” For me, I grew up knowing a cell was either a term in reference to jail or a small unit of living matter. I always thought that when I came to the USA, English would be the only language that I had to master. Yet, with this age of the cellular telephone, there comes a new language that is at times… funny.

I’ve been upgrading my cell phone over the past few years, and now for a whole year, I have had an iPhone. The first time I heard about the iPhone, I immediately thought, “It’s an ‘eye phone’? Why is it not an ‘ear phone’?” It is with the purchase of this iPhone that I’ve had to learn about “apps,” which in “phone language” meant “applications.” (Great, yet another language I had to master!) It is also with this purchase that I came to realize that I couldn’t understand the obsession over the device or any idea about how it’s affecting the way we are behaving in private and in public.

For the last 20 years, I would drive to work to Beverly Hills or Bel-Air by way of Benedict Canyon or Beverly Glen, and I would notice that there are no phone booths along those routes. So, even though those are quick, convenient routes that link Beverly Hills with the San Fernando Valley, they lacked what I would need to call for help in case of a flat tire or my car breaking down. Yes, I know I have an iPhone, but what if it didn’t have any reception? What would I do then?

I do NOT like Blackberries, iPhones, tablets, laptops, cell phones and every other device that falls in between.  It would make my life better if these devices would all disappear, because it would mean an end to the annoyance I’ve come to experience frequently over these last few years.

For example, I love to go to the Walt Disney Concert Hall to see the Los Angeles Philharmonic perform. However, it is during almost every concert, despite the pleading and requesting from the loudspeakers to “turn off your electronic devices,” that there is always an inconsiderate person that forgot to turn off his/her device. Therefore, this is not only a distraction to the public, but also disrespect toward the musicians and composers.

In addition, I also come across inconsiderate people on their phones in the movie theatre.  Isn’t it absolutely rude and annoying to have a brightly lit screen in your face while you’re trying to watch a movie? I sure think so! Really, why do these people even bother going to see a movie anyway?

To further drive the point home, I have been monitoring and taking notes of changes stemming from cell phone usage over the past four years. It is during these past four years that I have noticed the gradual increase of groups of people talking on their phones and not to one another. You wouldn’t believe how often I witness this every night at the Peninsula Beverly Hills! For example, I arrived earlier than usual one evening, saw a group of twelve ladies finishing High Tea in the Living Room, and eleven of those ladies were on their phones. I’ve even gone to the restroom to wash my hands and witnessed a gentleman trying to use the facilities without letting go of his phone. I have witnessed families where the father and mother were using their iPads while the children were on their phones.  It’s constant exposure to what I see as an ugly ballet performed by thumbs on the keyboards of cell phones.

A couple of nights ago, a lady seating by herself was typing on her laptop, talking on her cell and those little thumbs were jumping on a Blackberry. Talk about multitasking. The waiter tried a few times to catch her eye but it didn’t work, she was living in a virtual world where most people today seem to navigate very comfortably.

My fiancée and I go to have coffee practically every day, and I find it kind of sad that usually we are the only people doing something that is practically rare in a coffee shop…we talk. Yesterday, there were nine people at the coffee place that we patronize, and ALL of them were on their electronic devices. There were four people in line, and ALL four were moving those thumbs at lightning speed. Today at my bank while I was waiting in line, there were four people behind me and one in front all looking at their phones.  I had to tap the lady’s shoulder in front of me, because she didn’t notice that the teller was ready for her. A few days ago at the Post Office, there were about twelve people in line, and ten of them were fixated with their phones. When we go to the movies, it is quite annoying seeing those lights come on and off quite often during the film. What are they checking out? Is it that hard to wait for the end of the movie to turn on your toy again? And of course, as soon as the movie ends, before the first credit rolls, you can see a sea of cell phone lights illuminate.

I witness quite often people crossing the street while texting. Are they nuts? I saw a couple sitting across from my piano some nights ago, and they were texting the entire time.  I finally asked them about it, and they told me that they were texting each other! What? Do people know how to have face-to-face conversations, anymore?

On a personal note, I have been playing tennis with my friend, Bob, for the last 28 years. We used to talk between games, but since his obsession with his iPhone, we don’t talk much anymore. He practically runs to check his phone with every change of court.  I’d have to estimate that he approximately checks his phone about a dozen times during our hour-long game.  I miss that we used to talk about politics, world affairs, life, etc. I can’t compete with the wonders that he finds on his cell phone.

Fortunately, my guests at the hotel over the age of 45 talk to each other, request songs and they seem to enjoy my music. Before smartphones became all the rage, customers at the hotels I played for gave paid attention to my music. I am not simply playing the piano every night; I see myself as giving my audience a concert.  Night after night, I give my audience the very best of me, and their undivided attention shows me that they appreciate my playing for them.

Despite the fact that movie theaters and concert halls already have rules prohibiting cell phone usage, there’s still a lack of enforcement to ensure people follow those rules.  How about leaving the cell phones at the entrance of concert halls and movie theaters? I attended a concert in Las Vegas where the management requested the audience to leave their phones at the entrance, and retrieve it after the performance.  I did enjoy that concert.

According to statistics, teenagers’ texting while driving have caused mayhem and tragedies on our roads. And, to mention the problems that parents and their teenagers have come across with regards to “sexting.” My solution to the problems is to give teenagers cellular phones without the option of texting.  These phones DO exist.   I wish that Dr. Phil would suggest my solution on his show.

I guess I am not the only one annoyed by this modern trend, because some private clubs and NY restaurants are requesting no cell phones in some areas of their properties. Maybe there is hope for all of us that enjoy a nice conversation or a theater going experience uninterrupted by inconsiderate people. Many people today love to live in the virtual world, but I prefer the real world. Maybe it’s the death of silence. People today seem to be afraid of silence, because it would mean having to face their own thoughts and rethink their goals and reasons for being. For some people, that is probably a scary thought, so the numbing effect of cell phones and devices are the perfect “escape” and distraction. Last night I was playing a Nocturne by Chopin and during the 3 minutes that it lasted, the horrible (for me) sound of three cell phones were an unwelcome intrusion for most guests.

OK, it is off my chest. I welcome your comments.

Sincerely yours,

Antonio Castillo de la Gala

www.antoniocastillodelagala.com

The Letter

August, 2011

A few days ago, looking for some papers,  I found a letter that my mother wrote to me.  She had written it a few months after I had moved to the USA. It was a four page letter with loving thoughts that were characteristic of my mother. The letter not only triggered memories for me, but another thought came to mind. Does anyone write or receive letters anymore? An era of receiving letters ended with her passing.

People can find or get in touch with me in several ways: letter by mail, phone,  e-mail, fax, my website, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Linked-In, Twitter, Plaxo, hi-5, etc., just to name a few!  Practically every week I receive an “invitation” to join more social network sites.  Just the other day, for my own curiosity, I Googled my name,  and it resulted in over half a million entries… 507,000 to be exact!  I’m quite busy,  but I do my best to answer all the e-mails from my personal address and website. I also try to respond to all the kind and wonderful comments I received from my YouTube videos. Not a day goes by that I don’t have to respond to questions and comments from my sites. I tweet every day, and I try to write something fun or interesting on Facebook as often as possible. I have over 1,000 connections on Linked-In,  but I wonder if it’s  going to make a difference in my career as a pianist. Are we more or less connected with all the modern social networks available to us? To me, there was nothing more personal than getting a letter from my parents or a phone call from my family. Nowadays, the only letters that I get are from an elderly friend that I shall call Mrs. M.  She writes a few letters a year, and not only to me but to all her friends. She is going to be 91 in a few weeks,  so I guess she is one of the last ones from the bygone era of letter writing.

Although I miss receiving hand-written letters from friends and family by mail, I do appreciate the many great conveniences created by today’s technological advancements.  From my computer, I can assess the amount of people from all over the world who visit my website.  It’s just amazing to know that people from Hong Kong, Chile, Greece, Ukraine, Slovenia, Israel, India, Morocco, Hungary, China, Vietnam, Turkey, Bulgaria, Tunisia, Portugal, just to name a few, have visited my website. I receive comments about my videos from people all over the world. A few years ago, it would have been practically impossible for my music to reach people from around the globe. The Internet and social networking sites have been quite helpful to my career.  I’ve heard on the radio and have read about the financial world when experts in the field talk about keeping up with the global markets. If I don’t join that train, I’m going to be left alone at the station.

I spend approximately 2 hours every day on the computer managing my business. A few years ago, I used to spend that amount of time at my piano trying new pieces or playing my favorite music just for the pleasure of it.

I’ll go back and read my mother’s letter one more time or perhaps a few more times. It is not only a reminder of life with my parents were alive physically speaking, as they are very much alive in my heart, but also a reminder of what I perceive as being more gentle, less hurry, slower times. When I was a little boy, the mailman would arrive with one or more letters, and it gave me a nice sense of excitement. Every day I receive lots of junk mail, bills, and tons of solicitations for donations but never a letter, unless it’s from Mrs. M. Many years ago, when I moved to the USA, I began supporting a few charities that were close to my heart. As the years went by, I have added more charities to my list, because the requests for monetary help from new charities are daily and never ending. Most of those “letters” with the ubiquitous presence of a sad looking child or elderly person on the cover have created a Pavlovian effect in my psyche prompting me to send a check. I guess they know what they’re doing.  It reminds me of when I’m at the mall having an ice blended coffee, and I see one of the food retailers giving away samples of their product. By some sort of unexplainable reason, one teenager tries a sample, and a few seconds later every teen in the mall is there finishing up the samples faster than you can say “free food”. How does that happen? How do they tell all the other teens in the mall about the free samples? If you have an answer, please let me know.

I hope that some of you have had the pleasure of getting a letter in the mail from a loved one. There is something unique about hand writing a letter, affixing a stamp, and sending thoughts to someone dear to you. If you don’t get a letter this year, then write a letter to yourself. You won’t have to deal with a rejection.

I welcome your comments,

Sincerely yours,

Antonio Castillo de la Gala

www.antoniocastillodelagala.com

Fatherhood.
June, 2011.

Just a couple of days ago, I was thrilled and excited to attend my son’s Swearing-In Ceremony to the State Bar of California. While waiting for the ceremony to begin, my mind started recollecting the many joys of being a father.
I remembered his first graduation from Kindergarten, and subsequent graduations from elementary and high school. In the U.S., it is a bit confusing for me with all those names, but I never missed any of those important occasions in his life. After he graduated from Pepperdine University in 2000 with a BA in Advertising and a minor in Intercultural Studies, I thought then that it would be his last school function that I would be attending. In between, he participated in many summer and Christmas concerts/plays, and I volunteered to play piano for them. The experience of performing and being on stage with my son was wonderful. Those were incredible and fun times.

Growing up, he had aspirations of becoming a veterinarian. He adores animals, and animals relate to him in an uncanny and gentle way. I remember how thrilled he was when I took him to Sea World in San Diego. I had a friend who worked there, and my son was invited into their office where he surprised the marine biologists with his knowledge of the different types of whales that he was describing on a big poster on the wall. (He was also very knowledgeable about dinosaurs and other animals.) Afterwards, he was invited to enter the penguin exhibit to pet the penguins while I watched him from the outside. He was so happy; it was priceless.

Because of my love for tennis, I introduced the sport to him at a young age, and he became very good at it. I never missed a tournament or any of his matches. I took him to tennis camps and plenty of private lessons. He even took a few lessons from Alex Olmedo, a 1959 Wimbledon Champion, at The Beverly Hills Hotel. For a while, he thought about becoming a professional tennis player while going to school. We used to play together quite often, until he became too good for me to handle. He is still much, much better than me, and I practically play every day!

I was surprised when he told me that he wanted to be an attorney, because that career was never on the radar of our conversations. I realize now that law is his passion. I used to tell him, “Find a job that you love and then it won’t feel like a job, and you’ll be a happy man.”

While waiting for the ceremony to begin, my mind went to so many special places and occasions that we have shared throughout the years. Too many to mention here; it would require probably a book to enumerate them, but a few are now present in my mind. We both love baseball, so I used to take him to see the Dodgers quite often. A highlight of those days was our first and only World Series game at Dodger Stadium in 1988. We had amazing front row seats where you practically could touch the players! The seats were compliments of a guest of the Beverly Hills Hotel (where I was performing those days) who had heard me say how much I would have loved to take my boy to the game, but it was sold out and I would not have been able to afford the tickets. The incredibly generous guest paid $1000 dollars for those amazing seats! We watched the Dodgers beat the Oakland Athletics in a great game.

A true rarity in baseball is to watch a perfect game. In the modern era, out of the millions of games played, I understand that there have only been 18 perfect games. We were at Dodger Stadium on July 28, 1991 and we had the tremendous thrill of watching Dennis Martinez throw a perfect game against the Dodgers. That was a game to remember forever.

In 1984, the XXIII Olympiads came to Los Angeles. I had played at a couple of functions for a bank, and they gave me some tickets, so my son and I were able to attend our first Olympic games. We were also at the Closing Ceremony on August 12th. This was another page in a wonderful mental book of memories. When the games returned to the USA in 1996 in Atlanta, I wanted to take my son but I couldn’t afford it. Playing the piano gave me plenty of satisfaction and joy, but not a lot of money. But Fate smiled upon us, because I had heard about a contest on a local radio station. Guess what? Yes, I won and I took my son to see the Games in Atlanta.

Since childhood, I enjoyed challenging his mind with problems of logic or as some people call it, lateral thinking. My father did the same with me. With time, my son enjoyed those games, and he became better than me. I always thought that my love of books, classical music and mental games would help to develop his intelligence and his abilities to think outside the box. I taught him how to play chess, and he became very good at it. I took him to the swimming pool when he was a toddler; in no time, he swam better than me. Maybe all those mental challenging games were a small contributor to his intellectual capacities. He is a member of American Mensa.

Since he was a little boy, I took him to many concerts at the Music Center. We saw the Los Angeles Philharmonic quite often and attended many Broadway shows. We had the pleasure to see Luciano Pavarotti live at the Hollywood Bowl; it was another unforgettable evening. I was always trying to provide him with as many tools as possible, so he could have a better life. My father used to tell me, “You are the architect of your own destiny.” I shared the same words to my son when he was small.

As I watched him being sworn in to the U.S. District Court, Central District of California and the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, I was very, very proud of him. His wife Brianna was and is a great help and cheerleader of his efforts, and maybe my influence and conversations while he was growing up were a tiny contribution to his development as a man, but he should take full credit for his efforts and determination. He studied countless hours, got up every day for school, and went through the grueling task of taking the bar. He determined his own destiny and again, all the credit goes to him.

I am very proud of my son! He surpassed me in practically everything that I thought him: tennis, swimming, logical thinking, etc. Well, the only little edge I have left against him is that I can still beat him in chess, but I have the feeling that that won’t last for long. As I am approaching the final stretch of my life, he is just starting the most exciting years of his, so he is becoming better and stronger in every possible way. The Swearing-In ceremony was perhaps the last school function that I will attend for my son, but I’m hoping for many more celebrations of our lives.

There is no other father more proud of his son than me.

Sincerely yours,

Antonio Castillo de la Gala

Why am I going to Blog? I think is a legitimate question on a time when everybody and their mother is connected and broadcasting through their Blog, Tweet, Facebook, etc. My reasons are simple; I want to talk about my American Experience.

I was born and raised in Veracruz, Mexico. After I graduated from the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City as a Concert Pianist, I moved to the United States. The cultural, political, social and economical differences are very interesting to me. One of my first goals in this country was to have a complete (or as much as possible) control of the language. I believe that in order to become part of the fabric of a nation,  to understand the idiosyncrasy, the humor, the social structure and in other words, be part of a complete integrated life of a country, you have to be able to read, communicate and interact in their native language.

My mother language was, obviously, Spanish.  At the Conservatory, I studied French and German. Because of my work as a pianist for opera singers, opera companies and voice teachers at the Conservator, and in private practice, Italian became very familiar to me. I think it is a close “cousin” to Spanish. English became the last language that I learned. Today, I’m comfortable communicating in Spanish, English and French. I have basic knowledge of German, Italian and Japanese. There is a moment when you study a language and everything just “clicks.”  That moment happened to me when I saw shows and concerts by Robin Williams, Don Rickles and Bill Cosby.  When I saw Woody Allen films, they made sense and were very funny.  Johnny Carson was a staple of my television favorite shows, and everything was clear.  I didn’t have to first translate in my head and then laugh about it. At that moment, I knew I had arrived at the promise land of understanding a language. Reading between the lines and understanding the political humor was achieved after countless newspapers, magazines, and books, one my great passions in life.  Mr. Webster’s Dictionary was my constant companion.

I hope that my blogs will be sometime funny, provocative, and interesting. I believe I’m a personification of the American Dream.  Whether you’re listening  to my piano,  reading  my Blogs, Twitter, or my sometimes silly comments on Facebook,  I hope that I will not bore you.  In his wonderful and witty definition of a bore, Oscar Wilde wrote,  “A man who is never unintentionally rude.” I’ll try very hard never be that man.

This is my introduction to you. I welcome your comments.

Sincerely yours,
Antonio Castillo de la Gala
www.antoniocastillodelagala.com