Today is the fortieth anniversary of Eileen’s and my wedding.
We are not much for celebrating these sort of things too lavishly.
We are planning a modest lunch together at one of our favorite local restaurants. It is a milepost however. Hard to believe that something that is so easy and pleasant for me (and hopefully Eileen) has lasted so long.
As I am wont to say, I’m lucky.
I pulled out my guitar this morning once again. I downloaded a tuner on my phone and brought it better in tune. I still haven’t replaced the rest of the strings on it yet. It’s an odd feeling to revive this skill. My guitar playing is entirely self taught with a nod to some classical technique. But I haven’t picked it up probably since I was in my fifties.
I do like the sound of it and enjoyed playing through some simple classical dances this morning. If I continue on, I will probably try to play a bit every day to get my callouses back. I did pick up a good edition of Bach’s lute music for guitar. I will have to look that up and see how difficult it is. Probably out of my reach for a while.
My guitar playing helps me understand the unconventional way music has been the passion of my life. I’ve never really had much ambition other than doing it well. It is a personal satisfaction for me which breeds a bit of impatience with all of what I see as nonsense around music, classical and popular.
No matter. The Mozart mechanical organ piece I have been working on for next weekend is coming along well. Yesterday I only practiced slowly. I am tempted to do that for the rest of this week in preparation. Recently I did this with the infamous Widor toccata in preparation for using it at Easter. I only practiced it slowly and with staccato.
I then played it well. I think the staccato has something to do with this. The Mozart has a lot of staccato in it and I am doing the slow practice in a similar way to the way I prepared the Widor. I think it will work.
I seem to have misplaced the music for the processional for this wedding. I think I may have left it at Hope church where I interviewed the couple. I have ordered a new copy of it. It is from a collection by David Johnson and is his own composition (Processional in Eb major). Hope College owns a copy. Tomorrow when the library opens I will go check it out. I was panicked there for a while. I found a page of the piece online and pulled it down and put it on my tablet. I could fake it from that. But will most likely get a copy of the entire piece by tomorrow.
Snyder, Legislature putting Michigan on path of intolerance and regression | MLive
Some very conservative state legislators introduced some offensive law and managed to get it passed. It’s so difficult for me to understand this upside down way of looking at things…. that somehow by treating people we disagree with as we treat everyone else we are breaking the rules of our own religion. What a religion! What a country!
Meanwhile the Chopstick Brothers keep the hits coming.
Letter From Azerbaijan Jail: Khadija Ismayilova Speaks Out – NYTimes.com
Letters from prison from human rights people are always impressive. It pays to watch the letter column in the NYT.
No Justice for Canada’s First Peoples – NYTimes.com
More historical evidence of religious and societal intolerance.
Women Respond to Nobel Laureate’s ‘Trouble With Girls’ – NYTimes.com
Sad to see this guy so brilliant in one way so stuck in ignorance in another.
Sort of an antidote to the silliness of the Chopstick Brothers. I do like Alabama Shakes.
Library of Congress Chief Retires Under Fire – NYTimes.com
Another librarian in the news. This guy seems a bit dogmatic and might need to retire.
Increasingly Frequent Call on Baltic Sea: ‘The Russian Navy Is Back’ – NYTimes.co
Keeping my eye on how things are progressing world wide politically.
Paul Bacon, 91, Whose Book Jackets Drew Readers and Admirers, Is Dead – NYTimes.com
Book and record cover design fascinates me.
From Caitlyn Jenner to a Brooklyn High School – NYTimes.com
Young brave people.
Why I’m finally convinced it’s time to stop saying “you guys” – Vox
I’ve been thinking about sexism and language since the inception of the magazine, Ms. I don’t think this person makes a convincing argument. She doesn’t even mention the origin of the word (Guy Fawkes I believe).
Hermann Zapf, 96, Dies; Designer Whose Letters Are Found Everywhere – NYT
I also find font design pretty interesting.
It seems crazy to me that you would get those crazy comments from scientists, of all people – referring to the article about The Trouble with Girls. You’d think the one people who understand that women’s brains are NOT inferior to men’s would be scientists (I’m mostly referring to some of the bits right at the end of the article)
It does, indeed, seem crazy to me as well.