we find a subversive, the amygdala kicks in, and it makes you want to run and scream. like the 20th time you heard that brittany -- britney spears song. >> you talked about going from a more intuitive style to more analytical, conscious. was that intuitive on its own? could you flesh that out a little bit? >> i think that was a bit of necessity. i was asked to put together a collection of my transcriptions in 1990. it was the first time that i had to sit down and transcribe all my music. until then, i had done it in my head. i learned things so fundamental that i did not know i was doing. sometimes i did not realize that there were extra beats, i would change the meter for two bars.

in that process, i learned a lot. also, of teaching. when you start to teach, you have to think about what you're doing so you can explain it to somebody else in a meaningful way. i think it was that process of having to write and transcribe music that made me aware that you can analyze something, to benefit, but one needs to be careful that the analytical side does not wipe out the initial impulse to write music. >> there is that famous story where a music ecologist told john lennon that he ended a song in an alien cadence, and he says, i did? this program is provided by the commonwealth club in forum. tonight we are presenting music.

i am here with alex degrassi, a grammy award winning guitarist. we will continue with audience questions. >> you mentioned in your book, and right now, music has a pulse. i wonder what you think or know happens in the brain when music is disjointed, bad. how about classical music? >> one of the things -- whether you know it or not, whether you are a musician or not -- your brain is trying to predict what is or to come next, just like in speech. if i was going to say, the pizza was too hot to sleep, your brain is surprised because it had a prediction of what was going to come. a skillful physician will break it up harmonically, totally, or rhythmically, and when it

becomes hard to predict, it becomes a game. what is your feeling about that? you do a lot of rhythmic changes. >> one of the things that i do a fair amount of -- maybe the question is asking, for example -- you have a piece of music, there is a rhythmic feel, maybe there is a break, a cadence, maybe it is played differently for a certain period. there is still a flow, as a musician, that you're looking for, to convey. sometimes it seems abstract. i would imagine the brain is also starting to calculate what that flow is. if i am playing along going -- 1, 2, 3, 4 -- >> the brain has to recalibrate. >> the brain is trying to figure it out.

>> it is just like in gauging the audience. when i lower my voice like this, i am engaging you because you have to work harder to see what is going on. composers have a variety of tricks in the tool box, and that is one of them. >> thank you. i would like to acknowledge this book, thank you for doing the research, putting into written form. the chapter that deals with anticipation, which you have been talking about, reflects a particularly western approach. the eastern, buddhist -- a different approach, the genre of music that i have been involved, developing some brain wave research with that -- seems to solicit other kinds of responses. have you looked at other types of music that gets into these spaces between the tones, opens

up that quantum field aspect? >> the question about other music is an interesting one. one thing i can say about music of other cultures, each of us is exquisitely attuned to the conventions and rules of our own culture, such that we can hear a chord sequence, we can pretty much nail down what the motion is intended to be. but if i put on chinese opera, indigenous music of the ural mountains, i will probably not have a clue about it, and they will not have much of a clue about our music. things that we take for granted. major accord being happy, minor chords being said. it is the same as language. we understand the ones we are exposed to. there is a critical period during the first 12 years of life, one needs to be acculturated to those types of music.

there are people in the field -- stay tuned -- we will have news about them soon. >> my question is how our brain remembers music. is it processed differently, stored differently than other types of memories? i ask that because, i can remember songs that i sang in second grade but i cannot remember my teacher's name, my friends. >> a lot of that have that experience. women go to old age homes, some of the last member is preserved in the elderly, even with alzheimer's, other decay, they remember songs from their childhood when they cannot even remember their spouse's name, what year it is. music has thiese musically reinforcing views. in a good piece of music, you have the elements of rhythm,

pitch, harmony, meter, articulation, timbre, all working together, so that you may not remember every note, but the ones you do remember inform the missing ones. it becomes a pattern of multiple queues. that is one thing. the other thing we found interesting from girl imaging studies -- narrow imaging studies is when you are remembering a piece of music, it activates almost identical circuits as when you are hearing it. so much so when you compare the bring activation of someone in imagining music, remembering, to someone listening, it is virtually indistinguishable by looking at the brain scan. i wonder -- and brings up the question, how did it would you say your musical imagery is? when you imagine music, is it like a little tape playing in your head? >> yes, it is.

and it works the other way, from the point of view from the composer, trying to compose something. i might be sitting on an airplane and i will remember some experience. let's say running with anticipation, or something you saw. maybe you saw something spectacular, an illusion of light or something, and it creates an image. i will try to read something done quickly because i am trying to capture one that is. and of course, that stuff is very fleeting. the other thing, musicians who played the guitar, something with your fingers, they feel as if they are remembering in their fingers. oftentimes, you play a passage

and you cannot think your way through it. your fingers have to play the way through it. muscle memory. from a scientific standpoint, if i were to scoop your brain out of your head, your fingers would not remember, but there is a motor cortex that remembers the sequence. there is a whole field that studies the sequence, how one movement is remembered in a succession of a sequence. >> the process of creating, trying to start creating music is not that different for me that it is remembering music. it is revoking some kind of image or movement. -- evoking some kind of image or movement. >> can i ask, i am a musician, do you have any advice -- often have trouble losing -- moving

away from my everyday and getting into music. do you have any recommendations on how to speed up that context switching? >> i am assuming that as a professional musician, he doesn't have to do with complicated problems. >> you would not want me doing that. believe me. >> still, you have the context switch of being creative, non creative. >> that is true. sometimes you need something to wipe the slate clean. it could be taking a walk. these days, disconnecting. i have a studio. when i go there, is a place to work, i did not need to take my cell phone out there. having a physical location you can go to -- this is where i do this -- even just a quarter of your room. >> from a cognitive

neuroscience standpoint, if you dedicate a place, if you are religious about it -- or clock 30 i am going to spend an hour -- 4:30 i'm going to spend an hour here or there. that contextual aspect helps. inform is now wrapping up all of our events by asking our speakers, ourselves included, the following question. alex, what is your 60-second the idea to change the world? >> i think everybody should listen to music from other cultures. even daniel has said that, you know, we need to have that in printing when we are young to understand balinese monkey chants or something to put it

into context. i travel a lot. i just came back from asia. i was given a lot of career in music, a lot of ethnic music -- a lot of korean music. even though you may not have a cultural context, if you give it a little bit of a chance, it is an opportunity to open up your mind a little bit. when you do that, it may on sub -- some subconscious level give you a better understanding of why people are the way they are in different parts of the world and who they are. i think we should all be listening to each other's music and all try to play a little bit of music or sing. i think it is -- yeah. 60 seconds there? [applause] >> and you, daniel, what is your 60-second idea? >> as an educator and teacher, i

think my 60-second idea to change the world is better education. if we could teach the next generation of kids to be critical thinkers, just not accept what they are told but to decide for themselves, to give them the tools to make informed decisions about what is right and what is not, about what has been established and what is just here say, what really has a grounding in fact versus rumor, i think the world would be a much safer, more peaceful, and more prosperous place. [applause] >> let's get a big, final round of applause for this nice, informed foray into neuroscience and music with myself, daniel levinson, and the great guitarist and composer, alex degrassi. now, this meeting of in forum

and the commonwealth club is adjourned. [applause] >> at the san francisco recreation and parks department we offer good quality day care of your child will love, including outdoor adventures, aquatics, and programs for children on the optimism -- autism

>> good morning, everyone. i'm tailor stafford, president and ceo of pier 39 and on behalf of our grateful water front family, it is my privilege to extend a sincere thank you to the port of san francisco for all that you have done, and continue to do to build the best water front in north america. pause plause [ applause ] >> from at&t, home from the world champion san francisco giants to the building, to the new exporatorium, and new cruise ship terminal to pier 39 and all of the restaurant and businesss in between, we are all proud to wish you, the port of san francisco a happy, 150th

anniversary. today, project such as the new warriors arena establish the port as a world class destination, due for large part to the vision of mayor ed lee and monique moyer and as well as the dedication of the port commissioners and staff. it is now my pleasure to introduce honorable ed lee, mayor of san francisco. [ applause ] >> good morning, everybody. happy birthday. i just want to make sure that you know that if you combine the ages of myself, or president chiu, and monique moyer we might get to 150 years, maybe. but i'm down here to have fun, today, get out of city hall, go

to bubba gumps and make sure that i spend it with other people who love to have fun like our port commission and hers directors and the staff and the rec and parks here and i know that the fire chiefs had to lessen her fun time and go to a three alarm fire and thank you to her for being vigilant for the city. and we would rec and park they have discovered yet another great partner to find water front open space that we can all enjoy, both in terms of getting our public to understand our bond program better, but also to create new spaces. so thank you, phil for being here as well. our port commissioners extend not to present but to past for commissioners and he knows that and i saw mike and others, because it takes generations of people to create things along the water front. it is incredibly expensive to restore a lot of our piers and

monique is the first person to know that intimately and historically but we do have persons and entities that want to continue this fabulous water front experience and to make investments, where there is jefferson street, brandon wharf and pier, 30, 32 and the exporatorium this wonderful opportunity. i want to thank, past and present port commissioners, and i see them here now. that they have earned the title of being the greatest stewarts of our water front and so thank you for your ongoing effort to do this. [ applause ] >> and the work incredibly well with the other agencies. i know that because this is pier 39 and one of the most

iconic travel destinations, i understand that is why, john martin was here, because while he flies airplanes he is part of an incredible transportation center and we all know that and we all share in that wonderful experience with being clearly, the best nation for so many, millions of people, every day. and as we do this, we reinvent and reinvest and find other reasons for people to enjoy themselves here. and those projects like the exporatorium and like the bay lights and renewed effort to create more water-base theds transportation to compliment the bridges that we build. we will create more bridges on the international level for our city. so, all of that in the context of a great anniversary, 150 years, there is going to be throughout this year, more stories to be told about what this 150 years means to our

city, because, there is a lot of generations of people who came to this city, many, many years, built communities, built their small business and their livelihood and hopes and helped us to establish the fisherman's wharf and help us to establish all of the maritime that they have created life times of reasons of why people want to continue visiting our city and we need to acknowledge all of that history. and all of it has not been easy, there have been difficult things and we have had fights over what is proper, and what is not proper, but we have always had in our sites in all of these different struggles, the success of our city, the golden gate bridge and the hope that it brings to many generations of immigrants that is what our city is built on and the honor that we have with all of our labor partners who also jimmy herman and the

cruise ship terminal that they are honoring and built it through years of generations of struggle but also great celebrations that we have. and so this is wonderful year, and 150 years of history. let's learn it all and continue to appreciating, but let's look forward to the next 150 years, because we are building the infrastructure to do that. we are laying the foundation to do that. we are creating partnerships among the agencies, but also public, private partnership to create it, because i will tell you that someone who is going to invest, $250,000 to $200 million on the piers it is an incredible to the faith that they have in the city and it is about investing confidence and why we exist in such a great wonderful city and so thank you monique and the port commission and to all of your wonderful partners and staff for working so hard with the entities like

pier 39 and others who will continue to invest in the confidence here and along the water front and thank you to the labor and all of your partners thank you to all of the other agents for being here, happy 150th anniversary, to our great city. >> thank you, we wish to continue your success. also, here with us today is the president of the board of supervisors, and the supervisor from our very own district three, david chiu. [ applause ] >> thank you, tailor. mr. mayor, if it is okay, could you and i just declare it a city holiday today so we don't have to go back to work and hang out here on pier 39? >> i want to thank all of you who are the incredible diversity of the community that is the port. the community that our water front peers and our wharfs. this is the story of our city.

our port has really defined our past as i think that we all know, the first 49ers came right here to this spot to build this city, during world war ii, our military ships were recommissioned, right here from our port. we know that our friends from labor as the mayor said, built our city, starting here with this water fort and this is the story of our city and we also know that the water front in the port defines who we are and it is amazing in 2013, if you just walk along the water front in my district, you will start at the fisherman's wharf street scape improvements and to the cruise ship terminal that we just cut the ribbon for and you walk down to the terminals and the ports where america's cup will entertain a million, international visitors within a few months. walk down a couple more blocks to piers 15, 17, where we are

going to see a half a million kids come to go all the way down to what we know that will be the next site of the warrior's arena and down to the ballpark and the water phone and the port is our city's present and it is our city story. but we also know that this is a story that is going to continue and one of the things that we love in pier 39. if you come here any day you will see the boys and girls playing with their parents who will come back a few years later as teenagers and young adults. and young men and women, flirting on the peers, dating each other, who will come back a few years later for their honeymoon, who will come back a few years later with their kids. and so, the cycle of the story of our city continues and that i know that in 50 years when we are celebrating the 200th birthday of this blai, when monique's grand daughter and ed

lee's great grandson, are helping to run this city, they will look back on to the city leaders today, who are represented by all of you. and say, you know, in 2013, our city forefathers or city foremothers thought it appropriate to invest in our port and make sure that we are building a 21st century port to last, happy birthday. thank you. >> i think that we all look forward to that moyer lee, administration. and finally, our good friend and dynamic leader, the executive director of the port of san francisco, monique moyer. [ applause ] >> thank you. >> okay, so raise your hands, how many of you would like to be me today? i am so humble and honored, what a great fortune to land my term right on the 150th year because the one thing that i will tell you about being 150 years old if you realize that

your time is really short and insignificant, and if i were to dare to count how many port directors there have been before and how many there will be after it will become more of a second time, but, i get to be here with all of you and so many of you who have been here at this water front for decades, all of you from fisherman's wharf thank you for coming today, because of you it is our water front that has evolved ahead of everywhere else in the world this is a perfect place to celebrate. because here we have a little bit of something of everything, in fisherman's wharf. it has been part of the port since its inception that is how we ate, and how we did commerce and how we paid for the fish we ate with gold but nonetheless we subsifted on fish and the agriculture that was born around the bay and san francisco to feed the miners who were farmers and to create a new economy for san francisco and haven't we brilliantly and

completely made new economies and so many knew that we have to name the latest new economy of the economy of invention and creativity and isn't that what we were doing in the gold rush and so it was stunning to be here with all of you who have made this possible. in 1900, the community worked with us to move up here in this area of a water front, and more of a lagoon area where we could congregate better and save the area where fisherman's wharf had been for the commerce that was needed to sustain our city. as the most of the logistics changed and as the needs changed as a community it was fisherman's wharf that helped us to envision what could be the future. in almost 50 years ago, the discussions began, how to enlifen our water front and how to keep it a working water front as we have here with all of us, as visitors, as those folks who are enjoying the great suit that they have to offer and the wonderful open space and also the working

ferries that are helping to transport us around the bay and are here for us in times of emergency and celebration and so that is bha we stand for in san francisco, and this is a terrific place for us to celebrate, and i could not be more honored to be here with all of you, to celebrate those generations that went before us. and as mayor lee, and president chiu said so eloquently, those generations that will come after us, it is a tremendous honor, and i thank you for being here to share in that honor and please happy birthday, to all of you, and to the board of san francisco. [ applause ] thank you, monique. >> and now the moment that we have all been waiting for. the birthday cake. >> i would like the speakers to gather on the cake and lead us all to sing happy birthday to the board of san francisco. ♪

[ applause ] . >> golden gate parks largest body of water ska great labor for scrolling and picnicking and both miking which can both be rented at the boat house and the lakewood design for leisure boatings and carriages and a treasure trove passing hunting ton water falls two bridges

connect the strawberry island and inclient to the hills the highest upon the in golden gate park and more than free hundred feet and you can catch glimpses will from the city at the top of a romantic look out and for >> san francisco is home to some of the most innovative companies of the 21st century. this pioneering and forward looking spirit is alive in san francisco government as well. the new headquarters of the san francisco public utilities commission at a5 25 golden gate avenue is more than just a 13-story building and office ablation. instead, city leaders,