I interrupted my morning routine this morning. After feeding the cat, taking my BP (slightly lower) and weighing (also a bit lower), cleaning the kitchen, and making coffee, I managed to get to church around 7 AM and practice on the Pasi. I went through hymns and spent a good deal of time on Sunday’s anthem. Eileen called from China during this period slightly worried since I wasn’t on any of the online chats we use. We chatted for a bit. She is doing great. Yesterday I think not having her around contributed to a bout of melancholy (which didn’t last long). We hung up. Then I began thinking about my prelude and postlude. I decided to change them to pieces a bit more organistic. For the prelude I am now planning to use Gerald Near’s lovely setting of Westminster Abbey (our opening hymn), for the postlude i found a charming little piece on Middlebury (Come away to the skies) by Russell Schulz-Widmar. So I’m kicking off my first organ prelude and postlude with pieces based on the adjacent hymnody by two American Episcopalian composers. Not a bad way to go.

Martin arrived around 9. He told me had reached out to Huw Lewis at Hope and received a nice response and a promise to drop by today or tomorrow. I thanked him profusely. He knows that I would like to connect the organ department at Hope to Grace Church and that this is not easy with the present players (myself and Huw).  I refrained from gossiping about Huw. I only told Martin that I had known him for a long time and that I didn’t think he liked me very much. Martin said that I was indeed a different sort of organ guy. Coming from him this is a high compliment.

I’m blogging and eating breakfast at home. Finding out about President Trump’s firing of the FBI director, James Comey,  was a rude way to wake up this morning. It’s so hard to tell what’s going on. A commenter on a NYT report (KM of San Fransico) put it this way

Conservatives have been conducting a slow motion “coup d’etat” over the past 30 years. Gerrymandering. Voter suppression. Judicial manipulation. Propaganda programs to misinform and confuse large swaths of the voting public. The removal of Comey in the midst of of crucial investigation of the President and his enablers is one more step towards the inevitable: the perversion and ultimate destruction of democracy in the US leading to permanent conservative control of the country.

For contrast I listened to a little Fox news radio this morning on my tablet. They were yelling about Hillary’s emails.

I’ve also been thinking about greed. Marcus the organ builder pointed out how greed seems to be driving so much in the USA. I think he’s right especially about the players like Koch. I started reading Dark Money by Jane Mayer. We are, indeed, in a very dark time in our country and perilously close to turning our backs on democracy, if this hasn’t already happened.

Happy stuff.

I chatted with Martin yesterday for a while. His politics are very similar to mine. He couldn’t understand how so many Americans are disconnected from politics and don’t bother to vote. He said in Austria it was so expected that everyone voted that he thought it was a law (it isn’t). I want to remember and ask him what his sources for news are.

10 tracks that dominated the first ever Music On Festival – Blog – Mixmag

I’ve only made it through the first couple of the embedded videos. So far I’m finding the music not interesting.

Robert Bozeman videos

This is a link I found in my AGO mag. If you scroll down you can see interviews with Roberta Gary, someone I respect. I’m also intrigued by Bozeman’s doctoral project, Gesture, Movement, and the Keyboard Performer: A Somatic Approach to Learning, Practicing, and Performing. 

The Gary interview was part of the project. And according to Bozeman’s notes to his interview with her in the mag, the complete project is online, but I haven’t found it yet on his web site. Still I am planning on listening to the full interview.

Alexander – Blachly // Faculty // Department of Music // University of Notre Dame

This dude is someone Martin mentioned to me. I guess he has stayed at Blachly’s house for one reason or another. He said the Blachly house is full of interesting instruments. Blachly directs Pomerium. Here’s a lovely taste. I like the paintings.