Right now I’m sitting thinking of giving James Stewart, the mind behind Integral House, a call.
“Hello James,” I’ll say, “I’ve got a question about twin primes*, here, and I’m a bit out of my depth.”
“Might I ask which two?” he’ll maybe say, and I will reply, “Well, 149 and 151, actually. But they could be any two. I just need to know what to call them in relation to each other – senior/junior; elder/younger; good/evil; or what? And I want to know if there’s a name for a number, 150 in this case, that’s sandwiched between twin primes.”
I would obviously have to explain that my sudden interest in math is because this issue of the magazine (June 2010) is number 149, and the first issue of the new season will be number 151. And that sometime in between, The WholeNote will actually turn fifteen. (That’s ten issues a year. Count ‘em.)
But I don’t think I will call Dr. James Drewry Stewart today. All I’m doing today is trying to come up with a cute angle for this one story that is still delaying the departure of issue number 149 for the printer. I will save my phonecall for a much more interesting story waiting to be written, about the man behind Integral House, which is rapidly becoming one of the more interesting power points on the Southern Ontario’s musical landscape.
I was at Integral House a couple of years back, for a house concert launching that summer’s Toronto Summer Music Academy and Festival. But Vanessa Goymour, Manager of Jeunesses Musicales (Ontario), whose organization shares our enclave on the 5th floor of 720 Bathurst Street, was there just last week, for an event in support of Moshe Hammer’s “The Hammer Band” launched in 2006. “From violence to violins” is The Hammer Band motto, and they exist to do just that, providing instruments and instruction to youth who might not have access to either.
“First thing to get straight when you do talk to James Stewart” Vanessa advised, “is it’s INtegral House, not InTEGral House. I made that mistake. It’s mathematical, I guess. But there’s a great musical story there, too.”
Indeed. But, as I said, it’s a story for another day. Right now the story is twins. Issue 149, the elder twin, looks much like its older siblings – after fourteen years and ten months of doing this, we’ve got some things figured out!
But I have a sneaking suspicion that by September, when 151, the younger twin, issues forth, more than a few things are going to be a bit different around here! (After all, we’ll have turned fifteen in the meanwhile, and we all know how different from fourteen fifteen can be.)
I won’t jinx things, though, by predicting. Don’t have time, anyway. Getting this magazine (twins and all) to bed is my prime imperative.
David Perlman, publisher
publisher@thewholenote.com
*Twin primes: A twin prime is a prime number that differs from another prime number by two. Some examples of twin prime pairs are (3, 5), (5, 7), (11, 13), (17, 19), (29, 31), (41, 43), and, skipping a few, (149,151). —Wikipedia
