This morning I discovered that the Adobe PDF plug in on Chrome allows one to flip the page. This enabled me to look at a full score sideways. Helpful. I listened to the entire first movement of Vaughan William’s Symphony No. 5 following the score.

I have been thinking about Vaughan Williams a lot for some reason. I enjoy listening to his music. It does remind me of movie music but I still like it a lot. In fact he did write film scores. For example his Seventh Symphony (Antartica) was actually composed for a movie. It’s one of my favorite even though I know it’s use of an “ahhhing’ soprano is pretty hokey.

When I like something musically, I usually wonder how it works and if or how that contributes to my attraction. Studying a score can be helpful as well as actually playing through the piece (if possible).

The way Vaughan Williams moves through keys and comes up with simple but ravishing (to me anyway) musical ideas fascinates me.

I can’t quite figure out why the score to his Fifth symphony is sitting online. It was copyrighted in 1946 and re-engraved and corrected in 1969. But I’m not complaining. Once again the magic of the interwebs allows this eccentric quick access to stuff.

When I went back to get the link just now, I noticed it says that it’s only Public Domain in Canada (weird). For some reason it still allowed me to download it and then opened it up in a Chrome tab.

My early class canceled yesterday (the teacher was sick). Although this allowed me to not have to rush over to the Farmers Market before 8:30, it kind of threw my day off kilter. My first class at 11 AM didn’t go very well from my point of view. I wasn’t happy with my improvs. I wondered if it was related to spending time composing the day before. Probably not, but I don’t really know how this stuff works for me.

I redeemed myself in my own eyes at my 2 PM class with decent improvisations.

I was laying in bed thinking this morning about an AGO questionnaire I filled out online yesterday. It asked about the AGO certification exams and whether one had taken any of them. A separate question asked if one held any of the subsequent credentials one receives if one passes.

I have taken the AAGO exam twice I believe. The first time I didn’t have passing scores. The second time I did but ironically failed one little section which disqualified from the certificate. The irony is that it was a modulation that completely did meet the approval of one judge who gave me no credit which lowered the combined score below 75% or whatever failing was.

And I think that improvisation is one of my strengths.

But I hesitate to do much bragging. I think of an organist I knew in Detroit. He was very unskilled. I’m not sure he could read bass clef since he seemed to chord everything. He was, of course, an active church musician.

When I resigned my post in Trenton, he auditioned. I sat in on his interview. He told the committee that he wasn’t that great a player, but he played a mean service.

It was one of his strengths.

P.S. As I was proofing this blog entry this morning, I realized that it and my daily email to my absent wife fill a need I have for conversation. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be a character in one of those post apocalyptic novels where only one person survives. I read one once where the survivor was also a pianist and realized that his rendition of Beethoven piano sonatas was now the current definitive one since it was the only one. I read one once where the survivor was also a pianist and realized that his rendition of Beethoven piano sonatas was now the current definitive one since it was the only one.Silly. But likewise I found myself thinking I must remember that even when no one is there to read my emails or blogs they are still fulfilling my own need for substantive conversation.

Cheers!

Yesterday was the first time I actually looked forward to and enjoyed my daily organ practice since getting back from China. I returned to continuing to rehearse the big Mendelssohn sonata movement I learned and performed before. I added some Bach trio sonata practice and several variations of the Sei Gregrüsset variations by Bach.

I performed the latter  a zillion years ago in undergraduate school and have always liked them.

I think that spending time composing yesterday put me in a good space and I was relaxed and energized for the rest of the day.

I also practiced some upcoming Vaughan Williams organ stuff I will play Sunday. This put me in the mood for Vaughan Williams and I came home and exercised to two of his symphonies.

I am enjoying Roz Chasts’s Can’t We Talk about Something more Pleasant? 

“Taking care of my father didn’t bring out the best of me,” she writes. I keep laughing out loud and relating to her grappling with the death of her elderly parents.

I finished the other two comic books, One! Hundred! Demons! by Lynda Barry and The Graveyard Book volume 1 by Neil Gaiman.

Barry was fun. The graphic novel rendition of Gaiman left me thinking I should either read the original regular book or see if the library has volume 2.

Shit. I see the old clock the wall is telling me to get moving. Gotta skate.

In Book, Panetta Recounts Frustration With Obama – NYTimes.com

I am surprised the press is giving Panetta a pass and treating him like a wise  person. I remember his aggressive policies and being relieved when he stepped down.

Our Understanding of Giraffes Does Not Measure Up – NYTimes.com

Wow. I never understood that Giraffes were so unique and interesting.

Protest Organizers Claim Progress for Hong Kong – NYTimes.com

I hope that something comes of this demonstration and at the same time I am relieved that there has not been a massacre of civilians.

New Image of the Hong Kong Protests: ‘Umbrella Man’ – NYTimes.com

I am thinking this morning of how very private and intimate the act of composing is for me. I have developed rules for myself over the years about this area of my life. I do not share very much about it especially when something is in process. I have found that if I do so, it can sabotage it. Of course it’s all my own doing. But still I have to find what works for me no matter how pathological it looks objectively.

This morning I woke from a dream about composing. In it I was showing a work in progress to two people: one young man and one tall thin professorial type man. I had just shown them a sketch for a piece. It was the melody only and was modal. I had words in mind and godhelpme I think it was a religious piece of some sort.

As I prodded the young man for feedback he kept asking me if I was sure I wanted a high schooler to give me reaction. I could see that both he and the professor had questions about the work in progress. I began asking them about specific flaws they might be seeing in the work.

Then I woke up and remembered that I had attempted to set some time aside today to do a little composing.

When I was a younger man, I remember spending long days alone in a cottage in northern Michigan working on compositions. This was before Finale and I remember taping pages and pages of works in progress on the cottage walls. It helped me think about the music.

Yesterday there was a very odd moment in the funeral. We were singing the closing hymn which was “When Peace Like a River.” I wasn’t sure how familiar this particular hymn was going to be to this particular congregation gathered to mourn. It comes from the Ira Sankey American hymn tradition which is to say it’s evangelical and slightly sappy.

I remember my own father leading congregations in this hymn.

It is found in the Church of God hymnal of my youth.

It was printed in the bulletin so I didn’t give too long of an introduction. I began it with a conservative solid tempo. About halfway through the first verse I heard a loud twangy voice singing at its own tempo. At first it seemed to rush through, then it held end notes very very long. I was at loss at what to do and the congregation was certainly unsure of how to proceed.

I admit to a certain amount of perverse amusement which I hope did not show on my face even though few people look back at the organist.

I spent the rest of the hymn negotiating with the loud voice and trying to shepherd the congregation through the hymn which they were for the most part attempting to sing despite the crazy man.

Gradually the loud twangy voice sort of fell into my tempo and ceased holding the ends of phrases way too long.

Another day in the life of this church musician, I guess.

Law Without History? by John Paul Stevens | The New York Review of Books

I have bookmarked this to read. John Paul Stevens is a retired associate Supreme Court Justice.

Chobani and Dov Seidman Wrestle Over Use of ‘How’ Trademark – NYTimes.com

It always amuses me when people try to claim ownership of meaning.

‘The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher,’ by Hilary Mantel – NYTimes.com

This book review inspires me to try this author.

Charles M. Blow’s ‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones’ – NYTimes.com

I have been a fan of Blow ever since he appeared on the NYT Op ed page. I will probably read his new book of which this is an excellent review by the Nation’s Patricia Williams.

For the first time I used the harpsichord stop on my electric piano in public to play baroque harpsichord music yesterday at the Blessing of the Animals. None of the animals seemed to mind. It was mostly dogs of course. I sometimes think of the character in Olaf Stapledon’s Sirius. Sirius was a super intelligent dog. His hearing was keen. He despised human music as being too clunky. Dogs can hear much better than humans and it does occur to me to wonder how music sounds to them.

I played well at church. I thought I especially did well on the lengthy introduction to the Mendelssohn anthem we did. Mendelssohn wrote some lovely voices into the running piano accompaniment and I managed to play them like little melodies talking back and forth to each other.

I made an excellent stir fry for lunch after church. I think it helped to throw in some rice noodles and garlic chili sauce. Yum.

I put up some more pics on Facebook yesterday of the China trip.

It really was a fun trip.

Maybe I’ll put up more pics some other time. I have zillions of them.

Who Are ‘We the People’? – NYTimes.com

Leftist political commentary that I totally agree with.

9 African Animations for Children you should look for – AfroMumAfroMum

Jeremy put this link up on Facebook. I might check one or two of these out. Might be good for my California grandkids (Hi David!) or the Edgington kids (Hi Rhonda!)

I have been practicing my Greek pronunciation with my new CDs that go along with my texts. While I mostly nailed the pronunciation from reading the guides in the texts, there were a few things I wasn’t doing right so it has been helpful.

This process reminded me a bit of working out the ornaments in Rameau. I had used the chart that he made and was reproduced in my book to make sure I was doing them the way he intended. However after listening to Blandine Rannou play some of the pieces I am working on I realized that I had not quite understood one of the ornaments.

A curved slash before a note can mean two things. If the note is approached from below it is a "port de voice." However if the preceding note is higher, the note used should not be a lower auxiliary note but a higher one. This ornament is called a "coulé." I learned this ornament as a "coulé de tierce" from my teacher Ray Ferguson, but it was never notated the way Rameau does.

Funny how these two processes seem similar to me. In fact doing ornaments in baroque music reminds me of working towards correct pronunciation in a foreign or classical language. It seems to happen in the same part of my brain and in the same way.

I checked out another graphic novel type book yesterday at the library.

Can’t we talk about something more PLEASANT ? a Memoir by Roz Chast came out recently and I have had my eye on it. It’s about the death of her elderly parents.

Passing through the Graphic Novel section I noticed it. This means I now have three graphic whatchacallits (they’re not all novels… comic books?) sitting in my to-read column.

The other two were birthday gifts.

One! Hundred! Demons! by Lynda Barry.

A gift from my friend Rhonda Edgington. Thank you, Rhonda!

The Graveyard Book: Volume 1 a Graphic Novel Adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s book by the same name. It’s signed by Gaiman!

This was a gift from daughter Sarah. Thank you, Sarah!

I find it interesting that two people thought I needed a graphic novel/whatchamacallit for my birthday.

This afternoon is the annual “Blessing of the Animals.”

I haul my electric piano over to church so that I can play for it in the church yard outside. I hadn’t double checked my equipment until this morning.

It turns out that the amplifier is still working and I found a cord that doesn’t seem to have a short in it. I guess I’m good to go. I haven’t checked my battery set up but can easily run electricity from the church.

To test it, I used the harpsichord setting and played some Rameau. I have this evil notion of using that setting this afternoon and playing baroque keyboard music for the Animal service.

I guess my standards are shit. It doesn’t help to have Wendy Carlos in your ears.

I remember playing a gig for a local high school teacher who objected to the sound of my electric piano. It reminded him of the Blues Brother’s lounge band sound, Murph and the Magictones.

Ahem. I have actually spent some time performing in lounges and bars. Shows to go you I guess.

Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin de… by francemusique

This is the video that sparked my recent return to the music of Rameau. I like the way this woman plays.

I was pleased to find my copy of Rameau’s Treatise on Harmony sitting on my shelves.

Rameau was a very interesting dude who lived at the time of Bach, Handel, and Scarlatti. I think of him as the theorist who moved music theory toward the way it was taught for the next 200 years or so.

Bach tended to think intervallically more than chordally. Rameau used the idea of a fundamental bass tone instead of thinking primarily in intervals from the actual lowest note. If this sounds like gobbledy gook to you, suffice it to say that thinking of chords by their chordal name such as C major chord no matter what note of the triad is in the bass has its origins in the thinking of Rameau and some of his contemporaries.

Nevertheless, his music is pretty neat and I have been enjoying the fuck out of it.

As I’ve been checking the OED and Groves Music Dictionary online I notice that both resources have done an update in September. This updating is one of the things I like about accessing these excellent resources online. The other is the ease with which one can negotiate a multi-volume reference work.

I notice that I’m getting a few more hits per day than usual on my blog lately. It’s hovering near 40 a day. It’s more usual to be 30 and under. Not sure what that means.

Karl Miller obituary | Books | The Guardian

This guy looks to be very interesting. I pulled several names of writers from his obit to check out as well as checking out his own work.

In Hong Kong « LRB blog

Karl Miller (above obit) was the editor of the London Review of Books. I was pleased to see that I already had it bookmarked. This article is by some one from China who visited Hong Kong this week.

Banksy Mural Satirizing Racism Is Erased After Complaint – NYTimes.com

Fuck Art. We can’t allow our bigotry to be displayed on the walls of our small minded little town for all to see.

Why Some Monarch Butterflies Are Marathoners – NYTimes.com

Genetic evidence that North American Monarchs are the older species.

It has occurred to me that this period of solitude might be a good time to do some composing. Today at 6PM Hope college begins its fall break. It resumes on Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday might be good composing days. Unfortunately I do have a funeral on Monday afternoon. But if I do my weekly church work on Monday that would free up the entire day on Tuesday for some composing.

It’s funny because I’m not doing much composing these days. Neither am I playing guitar or banjo. I don’t feel that I have abandoned these endeavors just that they are dormant. Improvising so much at ballet does provide me with a healthy outlet for my creative thinking.

I am beginning to see my relationship to music as almost subversive in its counter notion to what most people see as music and the activities of musicians. I see music as an almost artisan activity. That is, a craft that is the result of continued practice and care.

Most people I rub shoulders with don’t seem to see my craft much less get it.

As I age this becomes more and more okay with me. If I am allowed to sit in a room (a ballet classroom or a church) and do my craft it is very satisfying to me. Add on to that hours of playing and re hearsing by myself and I begin to feel like a lucky subversive. Yesterday I spent hours with Rameau at the piano. It has been liberating to me to attack my harpsichord repertoire at my clunky old piano. I miss my harpsichord but there is no immediate possibility of getting it back in working order.

But mostly I miss the music.

In the introduction to my edition of Rameau, the editors discuss the terrible editions of the 19th century that were mostly for performance on piano. They then outline their own editorial approach of restoring the first published edition which was supervised by Rameau himself. They even go so far as to retain his idiosyncratic ornaments urging the performer to take the time to learn them.

You can see some of them above. The Pincé (pahn say) and the Port de voix (pore duh vwah) are the first two above. The weirdest one is the Suspension which actually delays the note a bit. Rameau has thought carefully about how the performer should approach his music and if one studies them these all marks make a lot of musical sense.

Anyway the editors of the edition then go on to say that there is no reason not to perform Rameau’s harpsichord music on the piano as long as one performs them stylistically.

I combine this admonition with Glenn Gould’s assertion that not only can baroque keyboard music be performed on the piano but that the piano is the best keyboard instrument for counterpoint and other baroque attributes.

This frees me up to and gives me access to much music I love and have studied.

I know that so many people are filling their ears with other musics these days. And what they listen to does interest me. But I luxuriate in the other musics in my life that I now think of as subversive, counter both to the popular culture and also in the academies (colleges) which have come and gone in my life.

I guess it’s okay to write about the death of my cousin Rick here now since his sister posted it on Facebook. She had previously messaged my brother and me about it.

Apparently Rick was living alone and didn’t show up for work this week. After a couple days they went looking for him and found him sitting dead in his apartment of an apparent heart attack. Rick is slightly younger than me. His father also died pretty young at the age of 57. Rick made it to 61 or so I guess. Both deaths were unexpected. Uncle Richard died in his sleep one night. I can only hope Rick’s death was okay if not peaceful for him.

I try to reach out to my extended family. I was friends with Rick on Facebook but that was about the extent of our connection at this time in our lives. His sister indicated he preferred to be a bit distant to family.

I remember him from my youth however. My family used to make regular pilgrimages to the street in South Charleston, West Virginia where my Mom’s entire family of origin lived. Central Avenue was a steep hill. Uncle Richard’s house was the highest on the hill. A few doors down from him was the home of his Mom and Dad (my Pop Jim and Grandmother Midkiff or Maummy as they all called her). Across from his Mom and Dad lived his sister Aunt Ella and her fam.

There was a view of the industrial valley from Uncle Richard’s house. I remember the strong stink of pollution that none of my cousins could smell since they were used to it. We sometimes drove through a little industrial town named Nitro (Nitroglycerin I always thought) to get there.

I remember specifically one summer that Rick and I spent hours together on his front porch with at least one guitar singing Peter, Paul and Mary songs. It was great fun. I can still hear him singing along on “Flora, (the Lily of the West).”

Sunday night I watched “Never Sorry” a documentary on the artist, Ai Weiwei. I quite enjoyed it. It’s on Netflix.

I especially liked his Tate Modern show of sunflower seeds.

Apparently he and many others made millions of these little ceramic seeds and spread them on the floor at the Tate. Very cool.

He released this video in May of last year. I’m not too impressed with the music, but at the end of the video it looks like his son shaves his head and he goes cross dressed.

I mention this because I understand that people are shaving their heads to show solidarity with the Honk Kong protesters.

I wondered if there was a connection. Probably not, but still I know that Ai Weiwei is hugely popular world wide.

Yesterday I managed to swap out my old Comcast modems for a single new unit. So far it seems to work okay.

I also spent a good portion of the day prepping for this evening’s first choir rehearsal of the season. I am wondering how my jetlag energy will hold up. I know I’m gradually getting my groove back, but unfortunately it’s my 63 year old type groove which is unpredictable to me in its consistency especially when I compare it to my unrealistic expectations

Ah well.

I think it’s going to be fine.

For China, Limited Tools to Quell Unrest in Hong Kong – NYTimes.com

Good synoptic over view with informative side bars. I put it on a friend’s Facebook feed after we talked yesterday and he had little idea of the history and what’s happening in Honk Kong.

Of course it could all change today and not in a good way. The first thing I did this morning was check news for what’s happening in Hong Kong. I couldn’t find anything on Google News, NPR  or BBC so I turned to twitter. Much better updates but of course not terribly reliable unless it links in to other stuff.

Toolmaking May Have Risen Independently – NYTimes.com

This kind of research always fascinates me.

Delayed Justice for the Navajos – NYTimes.com

The story of native americans is so disheartening. How does one do compensation for systematic genocide?

Yesterday Julie the ballet instructor asked me if it was much of a culture shock to return to Holland. I hadn’t thought much about it but reflected that in many ways it wasn’t. In Beijing I was a foreigner who couldn’t speak the language and didn’t know customs. Here in Holland I often also feel a bit like a foreigner. Julie smiled and said that she did as well.

I do feel at home in my house and with the music I love to learn and perform. Maybe it’s just being my age, but I feel like my tastes in music and books are getting more and more obscure and eccentric (out of touch?). I find myself losing interest in much popular music and at the same time finding that I feel energized by Bach, Brahms and other composers.

I still put on some loud rock or funk to exercise or clean house. And all of this music feels like a country where I am not a foreigner.

Interestingly enough as I write this my youngest daughter is swearing allegiance to the Queen of England as she successfully applies for citizenship there (Just got the text from her). While she still struggles sometimes with the cultural differences and misses the USA I do think she is largely at home in the U.K.

I was reading William F. Buckley Jr yesterday about Whittaker Chambers. I suppose I should synopsize the story of Chambers and Hiss. Chambers was a Communist in America. He eventually recanted. But having rubbed shoulders with many Americans who were Communist he was surprised to see Alger Hiss so prominent in the National Government. He denounces Hiss and a scandalous public dispute ensues.

I have read about this scandal on and off for years. Chambers fascinates me. He is a good writer I think. I admire his classic memoir, Witness, and have read it at least once. And after reading him and Hiss and others about the scandal in which he accused a high government official of being a Communist, I pretty much think that Chambers was telling the truth. A lot of good it did him. Hiss never admitted it, but the evidence that eventually came out is pretty damning.

Chambers also translated the children’s book Bambi.

Fun fact.

For a Worker With Little Time Between 3 Jobs, a Nap Has Fatal Consequences – 

Well written feature.

Turning a Book Tour Into a Literary Circus (and a Hot Ticket) – NYTimes.com

What caught my eye about this article is that musicians along the tour will be playing for free. Like Amanda Palmer did on her zillion dollar Kickstarter tour. I think musicians who eek out a living are less on people’s radar than ever. I constantly try to get people paid and I realize that the hundred bucks is important to them. Probably because it’s important to me. Hard not to see this as a class issue, but it may be simple ignorance about what it takes to be a performing musician.

Our Invisible Rich – NYTimes.com

Today’s political balance rests on a foundation of ignorance, in which the public has no idea what our society is really like.

I think this is probably true.

China’s Fruitless Repression of the Uighurs – NYTimes.com

And students in Hong Kong. I keep thinking of the comment a Romanian friend made to me in the 80s: “Don’t you know? All governments are jerks.”

Is There Room for Black People in the New Detroit? – Suzette Hackney – POLITIC

No.

The Secret Recordings of Carmen Segarra | This American Life

Good report,but at the end, Glass talks over a vocal piece. i think that’s odd.
The music is not identified in the transcript. “Poker Face?”

The Unrepentant Bootlegger – NYTimes.com

I still think this is a complex question. Interesting article and comments.

Why We Sit Back and Let Apps Do Our Chores – NYTimes.com

Some weird shit in this article. I question this sentence: “Technology has conditioned us to expect ease, efficiency and speed in almost everything we do.” My tech is often difficult to use, inefficient and slow. How about you?

Learning to Love Criticism – NYTimes.com

Although this article is gender based (about women) I thought it was helpful in thinking about myself and my reaction to criticism.

Kicking the Facebook Habit – NYTimes.com

Cool definition of Facebook: “Facebooking as a verb, a premeditated crime against spontaneity.” But I persist in checking it from time to time.

I need to do a quick “no thank you” blog this morning since I have to be at work in an hour. A “no thank you” blog is like a “no thank you helping” when someone offers you something you don’t want or don’t have time to eat.

Yesterday went well at work. I had nine singers and they did a fine job. After service a church leader made an odd suggestion that maybe our new pipe organ would be best served if the pipes pointed into the room and the choir and the player were behind them in the choir area. I tried to explain that some pipe organs do indeed have pipes behind the player that speak into the room but that they were more elaborate than the instrument we were purchasing. Also that I didn’t think it was a great idea to not have the sound behind the choir.

The parishioner was of course entirely well meaning and one likes to keep the communication lines open. It never fails that after an exhausting morning someone will approach me and I will have to draw on my draining reserves to be as non anxious as possible. This is not an accident according to St. Friedman. I hope I did okay. I know I did the best I could at staying non anxious and at the same time communicating.

I know I have lost my mind since last night I found myself looking up all the hymns we did yesterday in the Hymnal 1982 Companion. It occurred to me to do this since all the hymns were drawn from it yesterday.

I thought it was pretty interesting that the entry on “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” was written by Harry Eskew and Marion Hatchett. I have met both men. Eskew has written an important history of hymnody which I own (and he signed for me.). Cool.

Sarah is in a jet on her way back to England from China as I write this. I have been messaging back and forth with Eileen this morning. Morning is pretty good time to connect with people in China since it’s early evening there.

I’m gradually getting back into a groove here in Holland. Slept better last night, but my cold is getting worse. Body aches this morning. Or maybe my dissipating fatigue is allowing me to distinguish them from jetlag.

I bought some interesting mushrooms to stir fry on Friday. I am hoping I will have the energy and ambition to make myself a nice lunch after church today.

I have begun to return to practicing a bit though my energy is low. Spent some time with Brahms at the piano yesterday. That’s always fun. My prelude (Nettleton arr. by yours truly) is not as easy as I was hoping but I think I am ready to play it this morning. I kind of copped out for the postlude and scheduled a lovely dance from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (the “Irish Ho Hoane”).

Purchased some interesting books at the UUAW used book sale yesterday. I am reluctant to add to my collection of books since we have so many here in the house (thousands). But couldn’t resist a few.  Probably a good way to do it instead of the old way of coming home from any used book source with stacks of books.

Anyway, I found two books on China. A cookbook and a dictionary.

The cookbook was one of the Time Life series. I already own over a dozen of these and enjoy them both for reading and cooking. The China cookbook is fascinating because it was written in the late 60s. This means the contemporary context of writing it was Communist China which was not all that officially  sympathetic to traditional Chinese cooking.

Couldn’t resist an Oxford Dictionary. I do like that publisher and have been thinking about learning a bit more about Chinese characters.

Also fell for adding another bio of Glenn Gould to my Glenn Gould collection.

Finally, I also purchased a book by William F. Buckley. I have always admired him a bit despite his blind spots and reactionary conservatism. This looks like a good read.

Well, time to finish breakfast and get to church.

Slept badly last night. After resisting the urge to sleep in the afternoon, I kept myself awake by exercising and watching some TV. By 11 PM, I thought I should fall asleep pretty easily. This did not happen. Ah well. After a restless night, Edison and the sunlight woke me up around 8:30.

It’s after 11 AM now. I have already been to the Farmers market and made a quick stop at the AAUW annual book sale. I just made my breakfast of stir fried veggies with egg and sesame seeds.

I did manage to get a bit of practice in yesterday. I have scheduled strategically easier pieces for tomorrow.

This afternoon I am planning to check on Mom, pick up her books and return them to the library and replace them with a new bunch.

After that I have to hit the church, post hymns and prep for tomorrow.

I am hoping I will feel a bit better tomorrow.

Watch Videos | The Roosevelts | PBS

I watched Jon Stewart’s Sept 15th show in which he interviewed Ken Burns about his documentary series on the Roosevelts. After that I decided to google it and sure enough there it was online. Just the ticket to keep me awake.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Miss America Pageant (HBO) – YouTube

Then I watched this. I can’t quite get into a rhythm of checking YouTube for the latest “Last Week Tonight.” I do think Oliver is on to something with his format.

Alastair Reid, a Restless Poet and Essayist, Is Dead at 88 – NYTimes.com

I am a relentless reader of obits. This one sent me scurrying to read poetry by the person  who died. Found a nice poem here.

Christopher Hogwood, Early-Music Devotee, Dies at 73 – NYTimes.com

Speaking of obits, this is a musician whose career I have followed.

Remarks by the President at U.N. Security Council Summit on Foreign Terrorist Fighters | The White House

David Brooks said that President Obama’s speech give last Wednesday was an example of him at his best. I read it. Didn’t quite get that.

Fostering National Identity but Not Nationalism – NYTimes.com

Good op ed piece on this topic.

Eric Holder’s Legacy – NYTimes.com

Sorry to see this guy go, at least on his civil rights record.

Uighur Scholar’s Life Sentence Is Seen as Reining in Debate on Minorities in China

Ilham Tohti, Uighur Scholar, on Life Under Scrutiny in China – NYTimes.com

Last week in China, my son-in-law Jeremy came home. When asked how his day went, he said bad and mentioned this case. What I didn’t get in the US reporting that Jeremy mentioned was that the usual sentence for this crime (which is trumped up) was five years.

How Gary Hart’s Downfall Forever Changed American Politics – NYTimes.com

I saw Hart when i was in Oxford a few years back. I think he could tell I recognized him, but I mercifully left him alone. I always admired his politics. This excerpt from Matt Bai’s new book sheds light on how we got into “gotcha” political coverage. I also learned that even though I followed Hart’s fall in 87 (88?), I still got many of the facts wrong. This article corrects some misconceptions that still prevail about the whole deal.

Women’s Rights Activist Executed by ISIS in Iraq – NYTimes.com

 At Least 50 Killed in Xinjiang Violence, Officials Say – NYTimes.com

Pakistani Guard Shoots Prisoner Convicted of Blasphemy – NYTimes.com

Madness around the world. Happy stuff.

Whew. Yesterday was literally a very long day for me. I got up around 5 AM on Thursday Sept 25 China time. That would would be 5 PM Wed Holland Michigan Time. My day ended at around 10 PM Thursday Holland Time which would have been 10 AM Friday China Time. By my reckoning I was going for about 30 hours straight. No wonder I’m a bit tired today.

I did nod off a few times on the airplane but not very much.

I woke up at 5 AM this morning (local time) but fell back asleep until about 9.

I enjoyed my China visit in many ways. Probably the best part was seeing fam especially the new member, Alexandra Daum Jenkins.

Of course it was excellent to see everyone else as well.

This next one is actually my favorite picture of the trip.

The first time Eileen held Alex. Boy had she looked forward to that!

Well that’s all for today folks. I have some serious resting to do.

Today is my last day in China. Yesterday we spent the morning at the Great Wall. The scenery was amazing. The cable car ride up and the tobbaggon slide down were also fun. We came back to Elizabeth’s apartment and hung out for a bit. Then after Jeremy came home from work, Elizabeth, Eileen, Sarah and I all went for a nice meal in a restaurant together. Great fun!

My flight doesn’t leave until this afternoon. I think we will probably invade Elizabeth’s and Jeremy’s apartment sometime this morning for some last minute face time with Elizabeth, Alex and Sarah. Jeremy has to work but will come back in time to shepherd me to the airport.

The flight is a long one, but I am braced and ready to get back to my routine. Somehow my smart phone can read my gmail despite the fact that Chine routinely blocks google sites. This morning I had an email from John Sheridan in New Jersey that he will be performing my Chorale Prelude on Nettleton this weekend. I have been carrying around this little piece with me in China in hopes that I might get a second or two at a keyboard to practice it. I’m also planning to use it this weekend. I’m planning it as a prelude, Mr. Sheridan mentions in his email he will be doing it as a postlude. I wonder if he is doing it with a larger registration. I hadn’t thought of that, but it should work.

Very satisfying to get an email like that. Another organist surprised me a while back by letting me know she was going to use this same piece. I think it must be functional and free. Nothing wrong with that. I do think of doing some more composing now and then. When people play my work, it makes me think that my compositions may have some appeal to others.

I mostly compose and improvise for the sheer fun and personal satisfaction I get from it. As Zappa says sarcastically, “No Commercial Potential.” He also has a bit where a promoter promises him he could make his band as successful as The Turtles. The lead singer from the Turtles actually joined the band and was involved in the performance of that piece which culminated in the Mothers doing a cover of the Turtles’ big hit “I Can’t See Me Loving Nobody but You.” I always admired that.

Well it’s been fun to be in China. Lovely to meet my new baby granddaughter Alex and see my daughters and Jeremy. I will miss Eileen for the next three weeks she remains here, but I hope she continues to relish her role as Grandma to Alex the way she has been.

I will probably put up more pics after I return to the USA since it’s a bit easier and i wil have more time to do so. I have a new internet modem waiting for me unopened from Comcast which might make my wifi work a bit better at home.

In the meantime I loaded my Kindle with articles from the New York Times for the flight. Between them and my bio of Mao and the book on the Forbidden City and sundry other books on my Kindle I think I will have plenty to occupy my time on the flights home.

Up, up and away.

Another offline entry today. Yesterday was a long day in central Beijing. We took the subway to Tienanmen Square. It was thrilling to me to think that this famous area so long closed to Westerners was now a sort of gigantic tourist attraction.

The scale of the places we visited yesterday was mind boggling. It struck me in retrospect that the Tienanmen Square functioned as a sort of Communist Forbidden City serving as the place Mao announced the beginning of the Communist Republic to routine huge displays of military might to the world and other spectacles.

There were young military garbed men everywhwere. Many were standing at attention and staring straight ahead like Beefeaters from England. But their attention seemed to be easily distracted by a pretty girl asking a question or just exchanging glances as groups of tourists both Chinese and foreign passed by them.

We spent most of the day walking in the maze of the Forbidden City. Sarah’s sense of direction and interest led us. She did get confused at points and finally broke out a compass app on her phone to help her figure out where we were in the massive structure of buildings and courtyards.

It rained gently the entire day. This led to many charming parts of the tour for us. The presence of so many tourists armed with multi-colored umbrellas in vast spaces lent a surreal beauty to an already impressive background. More than once I found myself listening to the quiet echo on the stone ground and walls as we moved from place to place.

We managed to arrive at the building which housed an incredible number of mechanical clocks in time to see three of them demonstrated. That was cool.

The Forbidden City closed around five and we joined throngs of people trying to get out of the place. We ended up on the outside of the wall walking and walking trying to find Beijing again to hail a cab.

We walked several blocks away from the Forbidden City to avoid taxis that charged exorbitant rates. When we finally managed to get a cab driver’s attention two young men came out of nowhere and attempted to take the cab from us. The driver locked his door on them and yelled at them through the window.

Sarah was still appalled at the cab driver’s price and hesitated. He wanted 100 RMB which is about 18 dollars US but much more than our cab ride from the airport to our hotel room (30 RMB). We quickly decided it was worth it and jumped in.

One of the reasons the driver gave for his price was that we were moving in rush hour traffic in the rain. Funny how he could communicate this with very little English. Of course we only had a few words from a Mandarin book of phrases to help us, but Sarah did well and we arrived back near our hotel.

Due to the rain, the hutong was flooded at its entrance. Sarah volunteered to go back to our rooms and grab what we needed before going on to Elizabeth’s and Jeremy’s apartment.. This was mostly dirty laundry to wash.

We had a take out meal with Elizabeth and Jeremy and then managed to get lost on the way home trying to find another way to our rooms through the endless hutong alleys in the night. I was surprised that my GPS App worked on my phone.

We finally arrived at the same flooded area to find that the water had significantly receded and trudged home after a long satisfying day.

Working off line again. Internet access and mobile phones are kind of problem. In our hotel room, we have difficulty getting signal. Plus it changes from weak to non-existent. The first night when another helpful patron gave me the password, he commented that it was “rubbish,” one of my Anglicized daughter Sarah’s favorite expressions.

Also, Eileen and I aren’t exactly power users of our phones. Jeremy helpfully switched in some local sim cards for us, but the options on our phones flip around in bewildering ways due to rebooting. Eileen only yesterday figured out that her cellular network was turned off on her phone. So we are babes in the woods in more ways than language and culture.

I have been putting up few pics daily on Facebook. Showing people (“friends” in Facebook nomenclature) pictures of your vacations as it is happening feels terminally narcissistic but I’m pretty sure a few (family mostly) are interested.

The Art Museum was a bit of a bust. The main exhibit which would have been very interesting to see was closed. “Depicting the Chinese Dream” is still in the process of being installed. According to the pamphlet it opens today. Oh well.

We did see “The Art Class of Ludwigs.” According to the pamphlet, Peter and Iriena Ludwig are “world class art collectors” from Germany . Donated back in ’96, “This is the first time for China to have a vast collection of Western Art.” There were no Engish translations of any information about the art so it was kind of cool to just walk around and look at art that dated from the 70s to the 90s.

The other display was “Tracing the Past – Painting the Future.” in order to celebrate the 170th birthday of Wu Changshuao the museum had put up a selection of traditional calligraphy like paitings of birds and flowers starting with Wu’s work. It was excellent stuff but there were no benches to sit down on except the ones in front of a video presentation about the exhibit. Again no Englsh translations but I did sit for a while and enjoyed watching the video.

Sight seeing gives me time with Eileen and Sarah which I quite enjoy. And it gives our hosts a break. Having this much family around after a birth has it’s plusses and minuses. One of my goals as a dad (and father-in-law) is to do no harm which is not as easy as it sounds.

Today we head off for the Forbidden Palace (which keeps rattling around in my addled pop culture brain as theFortress of Solitude). Eileen and I lay in bed this morning reading up on it, she on her Lonely Planet guide on her Kindle fire, I on a copied Wikipedia page on my Kindle.

As I’m writing this, Eileen informed me that Gmail is not blocked when used from our phones. I did not know that. Facebook and Google are blocked with browsers but apparently one can still do email (and upload pics to the same) with one’s smart phone. Man, we really are babes in the woods.

Yesterday, Elizabeth join Jeremy, Sarah and me in a taxi ride to the Vegetarian Buffet Restaurant near a Buddhist temple and the Confucius temple. Eileen was very happy to stay home with Alex.

Most dishes were labeled in Chinese and English. We had a version of the above dish (green beans and sichuan pepper) from takeout a day earlier. The takeout was much better.

But the choices were many, so it was fun to taste so many different dishes, all vegetarian.

Afterwards, Jeremy and Elizabeth walked Sarah and me to the Confucius temple then they took a taxi home. Elizabeth is pacing herself after giving birth, plus she’s breastfeeding and needed to get back for a feeding.

It was pretty thrilling for me since Confucius has been on my radar since my teens (centuries ago).

I think maybe it was Ezra Pound that probably introduced me to Confucius in any serious way.

I have since learned that he not might be the most reliable way to access this stuff,

but I still have a lot of Pound’s translations rattling around in my head as well as subsequent translations of some of the same poems. I own both books pictured above.

The monuments were all clearly marked. The English was quite helpful. There were weird monuments from the 18th century commemorating putting down riots. They were big slabs and many of them had these turtles at the base. They reminded me of Gaudi turtles I saw in Barcelona.

The largest building was full of musical instruments. Pictured below is a jade gongs.

Up From Pain – NYTimes.com

So the way I’m reading the NYT in China is downloading articles to my Kindle when I’m near a decent Wifi. This works out well but I can’t always tell exactly which article I’m reading since I just read them in the order they occur on my Kindle.

Also, the plug in doesn’t always identify the author. In the case of this article, it took me a while to realize that one of my favorite columnists was talking openly about his sexuality and its relationship to his abuse as a kid.

It’s a good read. I was telling Elizabeth J. that his fluid approach to sexuality makes a lot of sense to me.

The Vain and the Desperate – NYTimes.com

Bruni talks about our political leadership and a new book about Gary Hart and the erosion of political journalism as a contributing factor. The book is excerpted in Sunday’s NYT. I’ve already downloaded it to my Kindle. I say Gary Hart in Oxford a few years back. I didn’t speak to him out of respect for his privacy but before he went down in flames I related to his political stances.

Alicia Keys Asks: Why Are We Here? – NYTimes.com

Using the power of celebrity for good causes. Laudable.

Our Saturday in Beijing began with a walk to the market. The streets are really little alleys for the most part. On either side people have stuff laid out to sell. Food, trinkets, clothes, you name it. The market was an immense roof over innumerable little stands.

There were sections selling everything one could of think of. Wares were stacked on tables and on the ground. Sarah negotiated a purchase of some slippers despite her own dread of haggling.

Sarah and Eileen helped me buy a hat and a grapefruit. Of course we over paid for all of this due to our own ignorance of the language and money. But still we were quite proud of ourselves.

Sarah and I wandered around together later while Eileen stayed with Alex and Elizabeth and Jeremy was off gallivanting on his scooter.

We walked entirely around a nearby little lake (Houhai Lake) which butts up against a drum and bell tower. We had a nice talk about family systems and generally caught up with each other. This conversation alone was worth the plane ride for me. It was great fun. There were many people out walking and doing just what we were doing: chatting and enjoying the scenery.  Some were fishing, a few swimming. There were boats shaped like ducks presumably in honor of the little duck preserve in the lake.

I was unsurprisingly exhausted after this three mile walk. Jeremy and Elizabeth went out that evening and once again purchased an excellent feast of take away of the local cuisine. Our meals are turning into another highlight of this trip for me.

And of course Alex the new grand daughter is the star of the event.

It’s Friday afternoon (6:30 PM) back in the States and it’s Saturday morning (6:30 AM) here in China. This is possibly one of the most confusing parts of orienting myself. This means that although it’s Saturday morning, the New York Times for Saturday is not available yet. It seems to become available around 5 AM New York Time (5 PM here).

Yesterday I mostly laid around the apartment, reading and sleeping on and off. Oh yeah. Eating. I was eating like crazy. Once again excellent food was provided by our hosts. This time Elizabeth did all the cooking since Jeremy was at work most of the day.

I am enjoying sampling all the different foods.

I also downloaded my next China read yesterday: Mao: The Real Story by Alexander V. Pantsov and Steven I. Levine.

I was reading the sample on my Kindle when I decided it was the bio of Mao I wanted to read and ordered it. As you might expect ordering a book from Amazon on your Kindle is extraordinarily easy. But it does depend on your wifi connections. Attempts to download the book kept failing, so I just read the sample. A

The cool thing was as I was reading, Kindle finally managed to download the book and it automatically kicked me into the spot where I was reading in it. Suddenly instead of being 34% into the sample I was 2% into the book. Very cool since otherwise I would have to manually have moved from the sample and found my place in the new purchase.

This biography takes into account more recent research than any other English bio. Docs from Russia and China that have never been used before inform its story. Plus it’s written in a readable style. Cool beans.

Yesterday I got very groggy in the afternoon and laid down and slept at Elizabeth’s and Jeremy’s apartment. This ended up being very restful despite the cautioning of everyone that I would not be able to sleep in the evening.

In between napping I read a bit in Jonathan Lem’s goofy Gun with Occasional Music.

Bubble gum for my tired mind.