I am waking up to a better cup of coffee. A year or so ago, I watched a video of a doctor talking about lowering her own blood pressure by switching the manner in which she made her coffee: from French press (which I had long used and adored) to more conventional filtered drip method. So I when I spied a nice used Krups drip coffee maker at a local thrift shop, I bought it and began making my coffee with it.
Now it has been a while and the manner in which I make my coffee does not seem to make a difference in my blood pressure.
A few days ago I went to pour coffee from my drip coffee maker and it seemed to be empty. I peered into the basket and noticed it was holding the coffee. The thing was blocked. So I wiggled the filter and it began to drip properly. I poured a cup and it was very strong. I loved it. It reminded me how I missed decent coffee.
So this morning, I decided to go back to the old method. Mmmmm. Much better.
A recent article in the Guardian (link) mentioned David Brooks fondness for Anthony Trollope. The article told how Brooks recently gave a talk to the New York Anthony Trollope society about the book, The American Senator.
![](http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/4dde620eccd1d58837010000/david-brooks.jpg)
I have read a shit load of Trollope. He was prolific. But haven’t read this one. I downloaded a free copy to my netbook and began reading it.
I am enjoying the Kindle interface. It highlights quite nicely. And I can add notes. Plus last night I was reading and thought that the word, “squire,” had been misprinted as “quire.” I found an option that allowed me to report an error. I did so and noticed that doing this also resulted in the error being corrected in my copy. Very satisfying.
I played the Debussy pretty well at the wedding yesterday.
![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_0A1UVWJjhsI/TQMYInOsk0I/AAAAAAAAALo/yPLkEt-LPcQ/s1600/Claude+Debussy+Portrait+Discussion+of+Arabesque+No_1+v01.jpg)
It was fun doing the dynamics correctly.
In both pieces I played, soft predominates.
Soft. Very soft. And very very soft. I managed to get the huge Steinway grand to whisper a bit. Very satisfying. I swear the crowd got a bit less noisy, but I could have been making it up. Or it might have been simply because the time of the wedding was drawing near.
![hopeskinner hopeskinner](http://jupiterjenkins.com/blog2/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/hopeskinner.jpg)
I have to admit it was fun playing a decent organ and piano.
![00732(5) Here you can see both the organ and piano I played yesterday.](http://jupiterjenkins.com/blog2/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/007325.jpg)
It’s too bad I’m sort of on the outs with the organ prof there. It would be fun to play his wonderful instruments once in a while.
So one more choir Sunday. I end the season still enjoying working with this crew. But I am tired and need a break. This morning I will lug my little Marshall amp over to church.
I promised the guitar player he could plug in when I asked him to come and play. He is coming today to help me with my “Van Morrison” version of Veni Sancte Spiritus.”
![](http://static.rhap.com/img/356x237/2/8/7/7/707782_356x237.jpg)
I mostly invited this person to play recorder on the Irish sounding anthem we are singing today, “O Come and Dwell with Me” by Arlen Clarke. That will be a nice way to end the season.