This is the postlude. I videoed it for the heck of it. I like the melody it’s based on and Farlee manages to come up with some pretty interesting stuff for an organ setting of it.

I just emailed the church secretary the following about the composer of the prelude:

Noel DaCosta (1929-2002) Although of Jamaican parentage, Noel DaCosta, was born in Lagos, Nigeria. He later moved to Jamaica where he lived until age 11, at which time he came to the US. He pursued his musical education at Queen College (City University of New York) and at Columbia University. While still in graduate school at Columbia, DaCosta was the recipient of the Seidl Fellowship in Music Composition. He later studied with Luigi Dallapiccola in Florence under a Fulbright Scholarship. In his latter years, Da Costa served as Professor of Music Emeritus at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University where he taught from 1970 until shortly before his death.

I lifted it whole cloth from a Pipe Dreams online article on African American Composers.

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Mexican Doctor’s Baths for Corpses Reinvigorate Cold Cases – NYTimes.com

NCIS technology in real life. Remember Juarez? Where people (mostly young women) are being slaughtered by criminals. Over 8,000 bodies await this dude. I like his careful avoidance of getting involved in the criminal proceedings. I think he likes being alive.

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The ‘Eyeball to Eyeball’ Myth and the Cuban Missile Crisis’s Legacy – NYTimes.com

This version of history more believable.

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Woman Must Relinquish Kafka Papers, Judge Says – NYTimes.com

More Kafka stuff to come. Excellent.

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Here is a sentence I liked enough to record (I’m reading a library copy).

“The human race sleepwalked to oblivion thinking only about the corporate logo on its shroud.”

Regarding the current presidential debacle, I mean election, at one point a prominent TV announcer and product spokesperson joins with the ex-ad man to develop both a weird existential product and lifestyle/politics campaign. Very cool.

They consciously and surreally discuss their work and decide it’s the “new politics.”

“The new politics is going to be a little like pro rugby. Try it out on your next consumer shot. Don’t change your style, but now and then surprise them. Show an authoritarian edge, be openly critical of them. Make a sudden emotional appeal. Show your flaws. then demand loyalty. Insist on faith and emotional commitment, without exactly telling them what they’re supposed to believe in.”

This could easily be a talking head on the tube speaking of the opposing party candidates in the USA.

Ballard published this book in 2006. It was his last. The writing is uneven. Excellent in place and then suddenly quirky and confusing.

It is an interesting book to have in your hands and then watch the devastating spectacle of American presidential campaign in 2012.

I had a very busy day yesterday but I did find time to choose music for the following Sunday.

I thought I should balance out my recent baroque and contemporary (okay sort of contemporary) choices with a romantic Sunday. Also I wasn’t looking for big projects. I landed on a charming little canon by Robert Shuman.

I will register it a bit louder than the editor suggests here and use it as the postlude.

For the prelude I will do the first 2 sections from Mendelssohn’s Sonata V.

I am also thinking of an insane little project. In Messiaen’s Nativity suite for organ each movement has at least one scriptural reference.I think it would be interesting to look these up in the Three Year Lectionary we use at church. The music itself would be appropriate outside the Xmas season as well as during. Last year I played a couple. I think his music is beautiful.