thanks for checking back

Thanks for checking back. I have been doing a lot of reading. I almost missed Palm Sunday but last Saturday I noticed it was almost Easter. This is my first Holy Week not working. It feels like it should be longer than that but it’s not.

I still am very glad to be retired and am even more glad I seem to have survived a kidney infection. I am still recovering I am sure. Having lost some weight has allowed me to be a bit more reckless in my eating. Yesterday morning I made banana bread. The day before I made some veggie chili and had nachos.

I have returned to Alex Ross’s Wagnerism. I am also reading volumes of poetry. I remain skeptical that many people actually read books. But I do. History of our nation continues to interest me. This includes the history of the indigenous people who originally lived here and the people we brought over from Africa.

Finally I have returned to David Foster Wallace. I own many volumes of his that I haven’t read. I have read all of his longer works except The Broom of the System. I think I backed off on his work after reading The Pale King. Both my brother’s distaste for his longer works and Foster’s troubling suicide sort of put me off for a while. But I decided to read a book of his essays, Both Flesh and Not. It’s a romp. I think I’ll write more about it after I finish the book.

the usual

I started very slowly back in exercising today. I did everything in my usual routine but starting out with a few repetitions of each exercise. Then I did an entire stretch routine. I can feel it already.

Prof. Wole Soyinka not dead - P.M. News
Wole Soyinka

I finished Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth by Wole Soyinka. I am almost done with Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar. These books are similar in that they are both surreal. But Soyinka takes place in the present and Brunner was written in 1968 and also takes place in the present. They’re points of view are diametric in some ways, Soyinka is a bit of a romp. Brunner presents a pretty grim picture with lots of outrageous humor.

Since I am reading all kinds of depressing books about African American history, native American history, Russian history, it’s good to be following these droll stories as well. And this doesn’t even cover all the poetry I am reading.

On the music front I am reading CPE Bach’s Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboards. I feel like I know him pretty well by now having reading most of a book of his correspondence and a biography of him. I’m also reading Wagnerism by Alex Ross. This is kind of a disagreeable book even though it limits itself to the “ism” in the title. I don’t see how a book about Wagner would not be anything but disagreeable, but that’s me.

I’m still plugging away on Haimo’s Haydn.

So if you ever wonder what you’re going to do in retirement, this is what works for me.

I teach critical race theory in all my classes | GUEST COMMENTARY – Baltimore Sun

How could you not?

High Protein, Low Carb, Healthy, Keto Cereal | Magic Spoon Cereal

Magic Spoon Grain-Free Keto Friendly Cereal Review | Kitchn

Is Old Music Killing New Music? – The Atlantic

I’m not even sure I’m in this article but it’s something to thing about.

Underscores Makes Music About the Anxiety of Being Alive – The Atlantic

More thoughts on this subject.