I’m taking time away from my vacation activities to do a quick post. Vacationing or working does seem to be a bit of a head trip I do to myself. It is working to think of myself on vacation. I am getting a lot of reading, practicing, and studying done.

It was a week ago today that Rhonda and I live streamed an AGO Workshop. Here’s a link to our handout, if you’re curious.

I am doing a lot of thinking about Jazz these days. Herbie Hancock’s Harvard Norton lectures on YouTube continue to give food for thought. I have been listening to a lot of  Hancock’s recordings. I am coming to think that he is one of those rare people with whom I share an aesthetic.

Hancock’s first Norton Lecture was about Miles Davis. I am back reading So What: The Life of Miles Davis by John Szwed and Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of An American Original by Robin D. G. Kelly. I temporarily left off reading them a while back and am enjoying working on them both at the same time. At this point, the bio of Miles Davis is discussing some of his work with Monk. It’s fun to read these two bios side by side. Apparently their relationship was a bit contentious.

Greek is going well. I have the F major invention of Bach just about memorized. I’m also studying Levine’s  book on Jazz Theory. It’s a companion volume to a book on jazz piano technique that I have worked in quite a bit.

Apparently I needed this  vacation. One indicator is that on my first day of vacation every adult in the house asked me how it was going. Hmm.

It’s going well.

I’m getting closer to getting a bit of time away from work. Yesterday I put in a few hours editing the handout for tomorrow evening’s presentation Rhonda and I are doing. It continues to surprise me how much stuff is available online. Stuff like sheet music. Plus I checked out the interlibrary loan possibilities for some of the music we are recommending tomorrow evening. It is interesting when you add in the university and college libraries in the 430 libraries connected through MelCat (Michigan Electric Catalogue?).

I know there are over 430 of these libraries because I figured it out yesterday working on my handout.

I went over to church and grabbed a bunch of music to remind me of some stuff I still want to put in the handout. In the unlikely event I can build up some energy I will work on this handout today a bit. Otherwise, Monday will find me in the unusual position of preparing a very last minute handout on the day of a presentation.

Today for church, Dawn, my cellist, and I performed four movements from Vaughan Williams’ Six Studies in English Folksongs. I find these pieces lovely and inspiring. I like that Vaughan Williams used folk songs. I continue to think about writing more little pieces based on either English or American folk songs. Also I may not have given up on the beautiful melodies in the Southern Harmony practice.

In fact, on Wednesday Amy, my violinist, and I are planning to record two melodies found in the Southern Harmony: Wondrous Love and Sinner’s Friend. I will play banjo on them and I think they will sound pretty cool. My boss will use recordings to replace me while I’m on vacation.

Eileen and I are going to move our weekly Tuesday Date Drive to Thursday this week. That way I should be entirely done with all tasks by then.

I have to go over the music for the next two Sundays plus the Triduum and make sure the online docs are ready. That will probably be a Tuesday project.

On Friday evening while I was ordering pizza, my friend Jordan dropped off a copy of the book Heart to Heart by RYK. I read a few poems in it this morning. So far I like it quite a bit. The pic at the beginning of this post comes from this little book. There seem to be pictures across from every poem in the book. Thank you, Jordan!

Speaking of pleasant surprises, another book came in the mail this week. It is part of a subscription Elizabeth and Jeremy gave me this past Christmas.

BookPeople, this huge Texas bookstore, sells subscriptions they call Trust Fall.

This entails receiving four books a year they choose and recommend. The first one, Infinite Country by Patricia Engel has already grabbed my attention. Thank you, Elizabeth and Jeremy!