Why do you think that they think that you are distasteful? They are a Christ oriented college aren’t they? Oh, maybe it’s the outward appearance that prejudices their seeming distasteful attitude towards you. I would not worry about them, it is not worth your time nor your worry. You have more important things to achieve.

For what it’s worth, I think it’s a bit deeper than my personal appearance. I have been living here since 1987. When I arrived I reached out to many local musicians including the choir director and organ teacher at Hope. I generally hit brick walls of prejudice (against Catholics if you can believe it). And the quality of the local music was not great particularly both in the college and the churches. Since then the college has improved. But ironically I find myself on different philosophical grounds than many college musicians and I think this includes much of the staff at Hope.

This is a quick synopsis of a complex situation which includes the fact that the current organ prof at Hope, Hew Lewis, who by the way is an outstanding performer who was born in Wales and educated at U of M, is someone I knew in Detroit. I think it would be fair to say that he and my teacher the late Ray Ferguson were at odds at Wayne State U.

Thanks for your encouraging words. I am struggling just a tiny bit with an old guy’s pathetic need for respect. I realize it and am trying to deal with it. One of the ways I am dealing with it is to realize what good collegiate support I do have from people like my friend Nick Palmer in Grand Rapids and the two fine string players I have rehearsing with: Amy Piersma and Dawn Van Ark.

As to the college being Christ oriented, my experience is that people who are “Christ oriented” are just people and have all the foibles and strengths of any group of people. But that’s just how it has seemed to me in my life.

Reminds me of the Musical written by Terry Quinn (O’Quinn now)(Also, plays the old guy on the TV show LOST, ABC Tuesdays final season)Just a little promo although I hardly ever watch the show) This was a production at CMU that I designed and tech directed,Terry wrote and directed, and Jeff Daniels was the Lead. The musical was “Orchestrina” and oh by the way Susan was the costume designer. The play centered around a music box with a variety of drinking songs and of course a love story. The lead and writer went on to do great theatrical things. Solid stuff. I recorded it in studio. I will dig out a copy and send it to you.

cool.

Did you change the width of your website page?

I think I fixed this. Sometimes when I put a large picture in, it increases the column width automatically to compensate and I don’t always notice. Thanks.

hi dad..
i thought i would add this link:
http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html
as you can see, its a ted talk.. i think one of us linked it into facebook recently, either that or i meandered to it on my own, but she mentions how, during a time of famine (i cannot recall where or how long ago), the rulers of this place invented dice and dice games, and one day the people would eat. the next day they would play games to distract them from their hunger.. and this went on for a very long time.

sorry again about the money problems. the shits kinda hitting the fan over here at the moment.. with mattresses, car problems, council tax, and expensive winter heating bills all coming in at the same time. I’m applying to local supermarkets and shops this week in an appropriate, humble response. Sorry that i’m still impacting on your finances as well.. one day it will not be so. blah.

love you!
x

My money problems are not your fault!!!! Just got back from playing at my Mom’s assisted living facility. Was a big hit. Always good for the old ego, I guess. I don’t recall the ted talk. hope you and Matthew are well…. love from the Dad

Oh, jeez.

I didn’t realize that it blocks you from downloading them — it’s just a “feature” of the wordpress theme I’m using. I also can’t figure out how to get the copyright sign to stop appearing when you scroll over the image on the post. Grrr… You’ll notice the “creative commons” license at the bottom of each page: no commercial use, share-alike.

I’ll see if I can break the theme today. 🙂

Love you.

No big deal. I wonder if there is a way to release copy and url links once someone has asked for permission. I thought that was sort of what Creative Commons Copyright be. Or at least asking for attribution.

Hey! No, nothing fancy like that. I fixed my site so you can download the images. And no copyright stuff appears anywhere. All creative commons — which is a polite request for attribution, prohibits commercial use, and asks you to share the image with the same requests for attribution/non-commercial use. (Blah blah blah.)

FWIW I still can’t get the images to copy or download. When I right click, I can “save as” but only as an html or web page.

When I took the course for online certification (which is required to teach online courses), I was somewhat overwhelmed and frustrated by the use of communication technology to increase the communication process without some effort to understand the time required for this process. Advanced programming and new communication tools in the guise of convenience requires the individual to make better decisions as to the requirements of understanding the new tool and ultimately converting information to knowledge. This information and knowledge dilemma, I believe is some of the issue concerning the internet. Much of what passes as knowledge on the internet has by-passed traditional historic methods of qualification of information and as a result there is some question of validation of the information. This is the problem with intellectuals who were at one point were able to control this process. This creates an angst against this valuable tool, the internet. It is an area of further debate for the individual to assume more responsibility of the qualification of the information or to accept it as given. Creating an ability to assess this information is important for the individual to qualify it for knowledge. Whether the current politics will allow it to continue may actually be the reason that there are articles about controlling the internet.
I actually offer extra credit to individuals who write about the information vs. knowledge topic.

The first image I used to use about the internet was that it was like being at a huge cocktail party. Some brilliant people around worth listening to and conversing with…. others that need to be avoided and ignored.

Later I initially had a bit of a question about wiki-public community approach to knowledge. Then I realized that the reference tools I had learned to use in my field were shot through with well known errors. Hmmmm.

I like the idea emerging from Howard Rheingold’s work that we need to keep shifting the idea of literacy and awareness to fit our tools of communication and conversation…. He teaches a different kind of literacy:
Here’s a link to an article of his I like (you have to scroll down a bit) on Crap Detection:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/rheingold/index?blogid=108

This is the same guy that I read in an earlier journal entry of yours. Very Interesting. I had forwarded this on to Dr. Parkins, who still sends in an occasional letter to the editor at the Wall St. Journal. Tough to change old ways. I have been telling students about “crap detection” for along time. I just never called it that. I referred to it as validation of information. I think crap is a better name. Although John Crapper may have an objection to it.

Yeah. Validating information. I think of it as asking who made what I am looking at and what were their goals….. whether it’s a tv news show or a festschrift of scholarly articles. always helpful to me to think about.

On the other hand, I myself am full of crap… heh

Wagner dismissed Mendelssohn’s music, didn’t he? I think this is where the academic dismissal began. FWIW, I love his early works, the Italian symphony, practically all his choral music and various movements of his organ pieces (though these seem to me to be technically a little peculiar). For some reason, the Songs without Words don’t pull me in like these other pieces. OTOH, Beethoven wrote a large number of Bagatelles that received the same kinds of criticism and maybe occupy a similar place among his works that SWW does in M’s. I wonder if Posterity is offended when a composer writes something for someone else.

I admit I don’t know the Beethoven Bagatelles very well. Your comments about writing for someone else make me wonder about Schubert’s hundreds of dances and Bach’s Anna Magdalena book.

But maybe it’s your idea of being “pulled into” music that is pertinent. Formalizing one’s approach to music in the way that inevitably follows institutionalized thinking may make it difficult to consciously factor in the basic attractions we all have personally for one piece or style.

I can admire the skill a composer exhibits in formal structure, cleverness, or motivic development and still not be drawn to the music. I can be drawn to music that seems almost vapid (Arvo Part, Blues) in these respects. Not easy to articulate or defend these positions in 20th C. (note the century) formal discussions of music.

On the other hand the subjective aspects of music are something I find myself thinking about more and more. There is something of it in Ellington’s “If it sounds good, it is good.” Sound is the criteria yes but also our entire response to it, intellectually, emotionally, physically, psychologically….. Who knows?

Opera :>

I think you are right about composers’ hyper-critical self-critique and this weird loathing of yesterday’s ideas. I suspect others who create things are prone to the same thing. My teacher’s advice on what to do if you don’t like your own piece: finish it. I haven’t been very good at following it, heh.