Hopefully yesterday was my last exhausted Thursday for a while since ballet classes are over. It wasn’t a bad day. I met with Rhonda and Jen as scheduled. These are pleasant relaxed meetings for me. Nothing like work or stress.  I asked Rhonda for suggestions for music to purchase with my remaining music allowance of 2015. We also talked about improvising an interlude to a hymn and my postlude this Sunday. These are great meetings for me. I like having a colleague to bounce stuff off as well as talk about improvisation.

When I asked Jen if she thought it was okay to use some of my remaining organ music allowance to pay for my second round of jacks for the harpsichord, she said that the church would simply pay for them since I have used the harpsichord there previously and presumably will use the harpsichord there in the future.

This is generous of her. I think it pays to air my dirty laundry on Facebooger because Jen said she was trying to figure out a way to pay me for the jacks (a weird Christmas present?). She completely understood what I had done and sympathized.

Speaking of Facebooger, I failed to restrain from confronting some hate and ignorance of my extended family yesterday. We are living a new time of hate and fear in the USA right now (Thank you politicians). It becomes more difficult to ignore misinformation and misunderstandings.

Step-by-Step: How to Roast a Perfect Prime Rib Using the Reverse Sear Method |

Bookmarked for my favorite carnivore, Eileen.

With ‘Meet the Composer,’ Nadia Sirota Illuminates New Music – The New York Times

I subscribed to the podcast but frustratingly the one about Nico Muhly has not been released. Muhly is a composer that Rhonda mentioned to me. He is someone I have followed and thought about but did not know he had done organ music. Cool.

Yesterday I seem to be feeling burn out. I know. I know. It was the last day of ballet (at least for a while) so I should feel relieved, but that didn’t exactly happen.

On the upside my new copy of the Oxford Classic edition of Finnegans Wake finally arrived in the mail. The main reason I want this edition is so that I can pin point exactly references to it. There is a standardized pagination and even a standardization of citing line by line from this edition.  Very helpful.

I am reading the introduction in this edition and it’s the first time I have seen in print (that I recall) a reference to Lewis Carroll as the originator of the portmanteau creation of words that both and subsequently James Joyce use.

It’s always seemed pretty obvious to me that Carroll was the inspiration for this aspect of Joyce’s writing in his final work.

 Maybe it was so obvious that other commentators haven’t seen the need to mention it. 

As usual I am exhausted on a Thursday. I have a full day of meeting with people but that shouldn’t be stressful. If all goes as planned I will meet with Rhonda and talk about improv with her, then meet with Rev Jen and then with my violinist, Amy. Dawn’s having some physical problems with her hand right now and is taking a hiatus from trio.

Still no indication from the dance department if they are going to employ me next term or not. I heard a report on the radio yesterday about how adjuncts make up half of college profs these days and they get seriously jerked around, underpaid and over scheduled. I guess ballet accompanists are even further down this rung.

Eileen keeps telling me to just forget it and go on with my life. This is the plan but it has been hard to live through this period of not knowing what’s going on in people’s minds.

What Bill O’Reilly Gets Wrong About Ronald Reagan – The New York Times

I love it when people like George Schulz (former Secretary of State under Reagan) write articles. You know they have a vested interested, but they also have had more direct experience of what is sometimes being talked about.

100 Notable Books of 2015 – The New York Times

I look forward to this annual list.

Ethan Hawke: By the Book – The New York Times

Best answer to the interview question: What’s your favorite fairy tale?

I klike the fairy tales about superficial celebrities who, through living a long time and doing no hard work at all gain powerful insights and great depth of knowledge. Ethan Hawke

A Carved Stone Block Upends Assumptions About Ancient Judaism – The New York Times

Wow. This stuff fascinates me.