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book and art talk

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Finished The English Hymn: A Critical and Historical Study by J. R. Watson yesterday morning. This morning I optimistically began reading the collection of essays that is volume one of The Hymnal 1982 Companion. I consult regularly in this four volume work which I have owned since it was published and read many of the essays and entries in it. It would be good for me to read this volume straight through. Not sure I’ll continue, but it seemed the way to go this morning.

By the Book: Michael Chabon

In the Sunday NYT Book Review, Michael Chabon mentioned an author I have never heard of, Edward St. Aubyn.

I poked around on Amazon, library web sites and such. It looks like a good read. One of the reader reviews on Amazon said that it despite it being a “brutal read,” he/she continued to be sucked in. Read the first few pages and decided I would like to get a copy. An interlibrary loan request was denied. It’s $9.99 on kindle. That’s probably what I’ll end up doing, since the used copies are even more expensive.

In the meantime, I have added How Music Works by Byrne to my morning reading. I like his dry formal/informal voice which comes through nicely to me in his prose. It’s like having a conversation with a goofy educated experienced pop musician who exhibits both insight and naivete. I’m going for the insights.

This evening Eileen and I have been invited to have supper with our friends, Rhonda and Mark Edgington, Jon Woodward the author of this book of poetry and Oni Buchanan, the musician who will be accompanying him as he reads. They are performing a setting by composer, John Gibson. Rhonda knows Oni, I believe. They are both represented by Ariel Artists anyway.

Here’s a link to a page about the work with an embedded audio excerpt.

Nickel ornaments by David Barber of Flint, MI.

I received an email from my friends Dave Barber and Paul Wizynajtys, yesterday.

Paul on the left, Dave on the right. I love this picture.

These are two talented men whose friendship I have valued over the years and art I have long admired. I wish they would use the interwebs to sell their art. They fear copyright infringement or people just plain stealing their designs which are wonderful and unique.  They limit their marketing to personal appearances at art fairs and stocking their wares in art galleries. I think if they showed their wares online, they would make  a ton of money.

Anyway, the email said that Dave’s Halloween ornaments were currently available at Mackerel Sky Gallery in East Lansing.  Since the gallery had put the above image on their web site I assume that Dave has given his permission to so. I put up a link on Facebook and he thanked me in a comment.

Daughter Sarah (Hi Sarah) asked for more pictures and an online purchasing option. I would like that as well and would instantly buy something.

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Haven’t had time to include links recently. The list is long today as a result.

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Quentin Tarantino Tackles Old Dixie by Way of the Old West (by Way of Italy) – NYTimes.com

Haven’t read yet.

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O.J. Simpson, Racial Utopia and the Moment That Inspired My Novel – NYTimes.com

Michael Chabon essay from Sunday NYT Book Review. Bookmarked to read.

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University of Mississippi Commemorates Integration – NYTimes.com

Heard James Meridith on the radio about this. He and others have problems with this commemoration. It does seem questionable to commemorate something that was forced down the throat of a university ostensibly founded to perpetuate white supremacy.

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With Tattoos, Young Israelis Bear Holocaust Scars of Relatives – NYTimes.com

Fascinating story. Seems like fiction.

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Who Controls the Story? – NYTimes.com

Public Editor, Margaret Sullivan, takes on “quote approval.”

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How to Help Iran Build a Bomb – NYTimes.com

Attack it. That should calm things down.

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Kill the Indians, Then Copy Them – NYTimes.com

Fascinated when I looked up the word, “deracinated,” used in this article. It’s not “race” as in human race, it’s “race” as in “racine” French for root, hence the meaning is to uproot.

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What I Learned From Debate Prep – NYTimes.com

Fun little article by Mondale’s Debate prep partner who played Reagan in his debate prep.

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Poisoned Patriots of Ft. McClellan | Law Enforcement Today

Received an email from a friend of a friend who is affected by this. Her husband has long suffered from erratic behavior. Now he is in advanced alzheimers. It turns out his condition has been caused by exposure to toxic chemicals when he was in the service.

Here’s what I put up on Facebook.

This (is) happening now. I have copied parts of an email from someone who is desperately in need of this bill (HB NO: 2052 AKA The Fort McClellan Health Registry Act) to pass. Please act and pass on.

“The CHAIRMAN of this Congressional Committee is Rep. Jeff Miller, from the Pensacola/Fort Walton area in Florida. HIS PHONE NUMBER IN WASHINGTON: 202-225-4136

Congress will be in session next week from Oct. 1-5 before adjourning until after the Nov. election. I called this office the other day – a very friendly young woman named Noel answered the phone. My call took only moments.

You can just say that you know that Congressman Miller is the CHAIRMAN of the Veterans Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives, and that you want to URGE him to pass House Bill NO: 2052 – AKA The Fort McClellan Health Registry Act – because you know someone whose life has been destroyed by toxic chemical exposure at Fort McClellan.

I’m contacting everyone I can think of – I figure that if Mr. Miller’s office is deluged with calls about this that he will take notice!

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Why Obamacare is a Conservative’s Dream – NYTimes.com

Language has been raped. What is called “conservative” is radical,  what is called “middle of the road” in on the right, what is called left is in the center. Good grief. Now let’s talk about actual ideas.

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Sacrifice, Three Muffled Syllables – NYTimes.com

Unpopular political idea, but solid.

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Away From Cities, a Life Laced With Violence for Syrians – NYTimes.com

Fire Sweeps Through Aleppo’s 17th-Century Souk – NYTimes.com

Reporting from Syria improves. What a mess.

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boy anachronism

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Recording of me practicing yesterday’s prelude.

Listening to the Dresden Dolls do “Girl Anachronism” yesterday I realized “anachronism” was also an apt description of myself.

The OED definition no. 2 says an anachronism is

anachronism

“Out of harmony with the present.” That’s me alright. My ideas about music, learning, history seem pretty out of step.

But I do like Amanda Palmer. Her song, “Girl Anachronism,” appealed to me the first time I heard a recording of it.

Recently she raised over a million dollars on Kickstarter. Pertinent links:

Amanda Palmer’s Million-Dollar Music Project and Kickstarter’s Accountability Problem

Amanda Palmer: The new RECORD, ART BOOK, and TOUR by Amanda Palmer » all you ever wanted to know about all this kickstarter money & where it’s going. — Kickstarter

I found this a bit troubling. I have since read what she has to say about it (doing an expensive project well) and understand a bit more. I do like these tunes:

I think “The Killing Type” is a marvelous piece. Both music and video.

I think the following performance of her song, “The Bed,” is excellent if a bit hokey (the song is a story and musically reminds me of Andrew Lloyd Weber, no mean feat, but he’s not my favorite composer). But I love the sound in the video. It reminds me of analogue recordings of my youth (e.g. the strings in Eleanor Rigby). I love the simplicity of using a sheet as she does and the setting which is intimate and surreal.

She recently put out a call for local musicians to play on her tour when she arrives at their city. For free. I get that it could be an opportunity for a local dude to play with Amanda Fucking Palmer (as she refers to herself). But I find this troubling but it might be more of my own “boy anachronism” stuff.

The very idea of what “music” is has changed certainly in the populist arena.  “Music” now seems to be about a very large ephemeral experience which includes personality, story, emotional strength, entertainment to name just a few. Where I feel out of touch is that I’m interested in music mostly for how it sounds and how satisfying it is to make those sounds physically. When people talk about “music” they seem to mean what’s on their computers, phones and mp3 players.

I have been out of touch, I think for most of my life. I was attracted to the Beatles, Bach and Paul Simon because I thought the sounds were intriguing and satisfying. Later to some extent I identified my own subjectivity in my attraction, but I never quite got that music was a business and much larger enterprise than the sounds themselves.

Then I hit my first music college. I was a bit of a rebel I guess. Certainly again out of touch. I met several fine pedagogues but mostly the teachers were either angry  or distant. And they did damage. I was damaged but not near as badly as other students by the teachers myopic arrogance. One of my fellow composition students attempted suicide. I believe it was largely about academic pressure. I watched teachers ridicule students, seduce students, affect airs of superiority (often when they weren’t all that superior), and generally turn people away from music.

Yikes.

I dropped out of my composition program (due to leaving my first wife, not out of disgust with it or anything) and returned to school years later to study organ.

I was on the phone with a bride recently.

It is during conversations like this when I realize how out of touch I am. I hear brides and grooms talk about not using “churchy” music. Instead they want music that is lively and interesting. I of course think that a lot of the music I do at church fits that description. But I certainly get that the church is a strange land for many people. They don’t suspect that what they are looking for is also what a church community might be look for.

The ideal of a community that has a sense of authenticity is a distant one in the USA at this point. These are missing in our society at large, of course, so institutions will have a tendency to mirror that.

In the meantime I make my community out of sounds I guess. Through them I reach other minds, living and dead, and deep emotions as well as playfulness and simple enjoyment.

That’s quite a bit.