I love the interwebs. Not only are printed music scores available free online for Schubert’s piano trio D. 28, there is also what appears to be a contemporary manuscript version presumably in his own hand. You can click on the pic above if you want to go to the MSLP site linking all of these in.

The printed score looks like this:

The same section in the manuscript:

The cello part is especially beautifully handwritten:

The violin and cello part are much more neatly copied than the score.

I was messing around with this because I found some mistakes in the printed score.  Whoever prepared the cello part omitted about seven measures of rests in two places. Easily fixed after determined.

Also, the printed violin and cello scores omitted many articulations that are in the printed piano score and can be confirmed looking at the manuscripts.

This kind of stuff always makes me think of how people often seem to idealize  scholarship as a mysterious and complicated endeavor.

When in my case checking out some editions and manuscripts of music often leads one to restore or change very basic ideas like the notes and articulations.

Almost every time I have turned to a manuscript to figure out an editor’s intention I have learned something I didn’t know about the piece.

And now, of course, this process is enhanced by the excellent access often provided online. Cool beans.

I attempted to prepare a meal for Eileen and me last night and had mixed success. Trying to cook some meals from Devin Alexander’s excellent cookbooks.

My attempt at Chocolate Not-only-in-your-dreams Cake failed.

I think I just needed to bake it much, much longer than the recipe indicates as my cakes came out with a slight crust on top and liquid beneath. Tasted fantastic, just liquid instead of cake.

The Bacon cheeseburger for carnivorous Eileen and the Blue cheese portobello mushroom burger for vegetarian me came off better.

All of these recipes are relatively low in calories and fat and like most of Devin Alexander’s recipes very very tasty.

Served the burgers with Crash Potatoes, another new recipe for me. This worked really well as I thought it would.

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A Nun’s Reply – ‘No One Can Tell Me What to Think’ – NYTimes.com

Great quote someone remembers from a nun teacher:

Sister Ruth was the first nun I had ever met. I said: “Didn’t you take a vow of obedience? Don’t you have to oppose abortion rights?” She answered: “The church can tell me where to go and what to do, and I will obey. But no one can tell me what to think.”

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I’m getting to blogging a bit late this morning. I had two happy emails to answer.

In reply to an inquiry about whether the local American Guild of Organists could use Grace church for practice and lessons in an upcoming event for young organists, Rhonda Edgington emailed me. She is a new local church musician I have been wondering about so it was very nice to hear from her. She checked out my blog and asked if Eileen were my wife and generally chatted me up a bit. I replied with a long winded reply. I’m hoping we might connect up for a chat sometime.  Such a breath of fresh air to meet someone locally of her caliber and enthusiasm.

In the other email, my friend and colleague Jordan VanHemert the sax guy, has taken me up on my offer to give him free piano lessons (since he can’t afford to pay). Haven’t had a new student in quite a while, so I really look forward to this.

I had my eval with my boss yesterday.

Man, I am so lucky to work with this person! She gave me rave reviews. I am looking forward to working more closely with the Christian Ed people in the fall. We are planning a Wed evening for the parish which would include a meal, formation and music rehearsals.

The past few mornings I have been itching to read some more traditional poetry as well as my beloved contemporary living poets. I landed on Shakespeare sonnets this morning.  I couldn’t find any of my copies of the sonnets, so I used this site which I quite like. The title to today’s blog comes from the first sonnet which I read and studied a bit this morning.

After piano trio rehearsal yesterday I spent a few hours on the organ bench. I’m learning a piece by Calvin Hampton that probably doesn’t fit in church. It is a great piece, however! It’s the “Primitive” dance from his five dances for organ.

Here’s a decent rendition (the first part of this video of two Hampton dances) ably rendered by Matthew Mainster.

Also have been having weird attractions to Franck. So I played some of him as well as prepared “Andantino in G Minor” for Sunday’s prelude.

I found a lovely “Offertory” by Andrew Carter (3rd movement of his “Saint Wilfrid’s Suite) I want to learn and worked on that a bit. I’m also eyeing some Walcha and Langlais to learn soon.

Today, I’m thinking of grocery shopping and making a supper for Eileen instead of doing our usual Friday night pizza. She’s trying to change some of her eating habits and since I’m the cook I’m trying to help.

Just about done with Updike’s A Month of Sundays. It’s hilarious. It’s about a Episcopalian priest who is some kind of rehab for failed priests who is writing his therapy out. I have been in the mood for Updike prose since reading so much of his poetry.

Enough. I have stuff to do.

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Retired Party Members Call for 2 Top Chinese Officials to Resign – NYTimes.com

China – Activist Applies for Passport – NYTimes.com

China in the news!

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D.E.A.’s Agents Join Hondurans in Drug Firefights – NYTimes.com

American command squads fuck up and kill innocent people. At least I hope it was a fuck up.

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Occupy Wall Street versus American military might – Opinion – Al Jazeera English

While domestic and international formations influence one another, it’s worth focussing on the interplay between international configurations and locally grounded social movements.

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Trayvon Martin Case Shadowed by Police Missteps – NYTimes.com

Interesting synopsis of a complicated situation.

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Congo – General Indicted in ’03 for Using Child Soldiers Is at It Again, Report Says – NYTimes.com

Child soldiers. What can I say? I have been deploring this for years and have written it into my songs. “Turning children into soldiers and whores.”

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I finished reading Modern Life by Matthea Harvey this morning. It’s a charming little work.

Did you know that “smaze” was a word? Harvey used it in a poem so I looked it up. “Smog” + “haze” = “smaze.” It was coined in 1955. All this according to Dictionary.com.

I just ordered a copy of this book. Reading online reviews revealed to me the structure of two sections of poems in the book called : “The Future of Terror” and “The Terror of Future.”

While I noticed Harvey’s heavy usage of alliteration, I failed to perceive that in each poem in the first sections, she used words in alphabetical order from “G” to “S” and in the second section from “S” to “T.” Get it? She is either working her way alphabetically from [F]uture to [T]error or from [T]error to [F]uture, non-inclusively.

I fell in love with this little poem which occurs as the next to the last poem in “The Terror of Future.”

TERROR OF THE FUTURE/9

The teacups tied to strings along the walkway
stayed silent, had no warning songs to sing.
We shook talc onto our tastebuds
and watched the skyrockets, starry-eyed,
until night blacked them out like a giant
malevolent Sharpie. Scouts gathered
in the square and surveyed the Room
For Rent signs. In this and only this did we have
supply and no demand. It was a long time
since anyone had felt a quiver on the railroad.
We argued timetables, regardless,
(I was just glad you were speaking to me).
You wanted to go to the provinces.
I wanted to see the palace. Of course,
given the state of the ozone, we weren’t
going anywhere. We weren’t outdoorsy
anyway. Our anoraks were moth-eaten
for a reason. You said, I am morose, a new kind
of rose. I pointed hopefully at my foot and said
mistletoe? No. You wouldn’t get within a meter
of me. Later, when your lungs filled with liquid,
you might have said love, you might have said leave.
I said I love you too and left the room.
There was no ice storm, no helicoptered-in help,
no Hollywood ending. Just a gasp and then
no more you, which meant the end of me too.

from Modern Life by Matthea Harvey

On Pentecost we are doing a little arrangement of a Bach chorale. I decided it would be a good Sunday to do some Bach on the keyboard. I’m learning the C major Prelude and Fugue from the WTCII (BWV 870) to play on the piano for the prelude. It’s a happy little thing.

For the postlude, I am finally learning “Fantasia on KOMM, HEILIGER GEIST” BWV 651. I remember when one of my colleagues in grad school played this piece on her Master’s recital. Learning it, I am surprised that is relatively easy. At least easier than my Master’s recital Bach piece which was the D major prelude and fugue.  I always thought I would learn this piece some Pentecost. It’s time.

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Carlos Fuentes, Mexican Novelist, Dies at 83 – NYTimes.com

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Boston Review — Tania James: The Gulf

Online short story I stumbled across.

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I goofed around most of the morning yesterday since my Mom called and said she was too ill for her shrink appointment.

I picked out hymns for this Sunday and then went over to the church to pick out the Prelude and Postlude. For some reason I bogged down on this. I wanted something that wouldn’t take too much to get ready for performance. I found several pieces I would like to learn but wasn’t willing to dedicate hours and hours this week to learn them before Sunday.

After a couple of hours, I landed on “Andantino” by Cesar Franck for the prelude.

I have performed it in the past. It has a lot of melody and for some reason I found this satisfying enough to schedule it as the prelude.

For the postlude, I landed on “Postlude” by William Mathias. I can’t quickly find a video or online recording of it to share. I seem to like most everything Mathias wrote. I have played this one before and it shouldn’t take too much to have it in good shape for Sunday.

Came home and grabbed some lunch. Listened to a message from my Mom on the answering machine, then returned her call. She was in the mood to get out so I went and got her.

She seemed to be feeling much stronger than usual.

That was encouraging.

She was in the mood to have something to read.

So on the way home we stopped at the library and I went in and consulted Eileen on some reading material for Mom.

Took Mom back and then came home and made supper for Eileen and me. Cooked up some Chicken Enchilasagna (Tune Enchilasagna for me).

This involved grilling the chicken which was fun.

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Duck Dunn, Bassist in Booker T. and the MG’s, Dies at 70 – NYTimes.com

Also played & acted in the Blues Brothers movies.

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Diplomats and Dissidents – NYTimes.com

Chen Guangcheng,  is on his way to New York, apparently to NYU where my quasi-son-law, Jeremy Daum, works. Cool.

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One of my vacation fantasies was to begin once again to submit my compositions to publishers for possible publication this summer.

I do this because despite everything I continue to compose. And some of my compositions it seems to me might be useful for other musicians, especially church musicians since most of them were written to be performed in church.

So yesterday I spent over an hour reviewing and organizing old compositions and sketches residing on my hard drive.

Later it struck me I should review those pieces posted here, since they would be in some sort of final version. I’ll probably do that soon.

It is both encouraging and disheartening to examine so much work. The sheer quantity of compositions that builds up over the years despite lack of ambition. Sheesh.

I finished The Alteration by Kingsley Amis. I found it a delightful if modest entertainment. Nice plot twists, excellent command of language, and lots of fun alt-future touches like a reformed (literally) United States which seems to exist as the only non-Catholic and non-Muslim area of the world.

The last couple of days I have wheelchaired my Mom outside her digs into the sunlight.

This seems to be good for both of us. I think the spring has reinvigorated her a tad. My daughter, buy liquid valium online Elizabeth, has had the excellent brainstorm to get Mom an Ipad. Apparently she has ordered a pink one with an inscription on it. Grannie (grandmother of her partner, Jeremy – “Quasi-grandmother-in-law?”) took to an Ipad much more readily than some other tech. I am hopeful that my Mom will find an Ipad more user friendly and connect up a bit more with the fam.

I grocery-shopped

and made supper for Eileen yesterday.

She was out and about at work and came home for the meal. She was supposed to leave work early to get a compensatory hour off for an hour worked earlier in the day before the library opened. She forgot and came home at the regular time. I’m afraid she needs more vacation!

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The Mark of Maker’s Mark – NYTimes.com

Booze in the nooze.

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René Magritte’s Little-Known Art Deco Sheet Music Covers from the 1920s | Brain Pickings

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London Wary of Rooftop Missiles Plan During Olympics – NYTimes.com

Daughter Sarah in the U.K. recently wondered aloud on Facebook why so many weapons are needed for the upcoming London Olympics.  Why, indeed.

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‘In One Person,’ by John Irving – NYTimes.com

It’s been awhile since I’ve read an Irving novel. Tempted by his latest.

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‘The Social Conquest of Earth,’ by Edward O. Wilson – NYTimes.com

I like Wilson. Can’t tell too much from this review.

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I am over half way through Kingsley Amis’s romp of a book, The Alterations.  It takes place in a reimagined 1976. The Reformation never happened. The Catholic church has evolved into a very powerful institution. Mozart didn’t die young to be buried in a pauper’s grave, instead he lived long enough to write much more including a second Requiem which features in the opening pages of the book.

Despite the fun alt-future/past, the book is mostly about a young singer who is facing the dubious honor of becoming the best singer that every graced the halls of this imaginary world. All he has to do is get “fixed” and become a castrato.

Unfortunately, this eleven year old protagonist is just waking up to the world of sex.

And as his fellow ignorant student says speaking of a renegade monk who continued to pursue dallying with “unchastity” despite certain death if caught a second time: “This man knew all along the penalty he faced. Perhaps the first time he was rash or indiscreet. Not the second time. He preferred the risk of being pulled to pieces to not fucking. That tells us something, yes? We still don’t truly know what it’s like, but we do know how much he wanted to do it….”

I have also been reading Christopher Small’s enlightening little tome, Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening.

This book helped pull me out of my glumness on vacation. Reflecting on my isolation and much different way of seeing music from other local musicians, my mental and physical fatigue dragged me into some cynical melancholy just before vacation.

At first I was interested to reconsider Plato’s cave and understand that Plato also commits the mistake of thinking of music as a thing and not an activity.

I realize that I have thought of music as something to do since the first time I sat down at a piano and began making sounds.

Somehow school did not kill this in me. I think a lot of the credit goes to teachers I had like Ray Ferguson and Malcolm Johns at Wayne State.

Then Small opened my understanding to the idea that the performer or composer is just a part of the entire action of music. Besides listeners, there are dancers, people who make instruments, people who prepare performance areas, in short anyone who contributes to the “musicking.” Small’s ideas enlarge the western concept of music to include all human music making of any kind. This fits me so much better than narrow ideas like academic classical music or popular music in the U.S.A.

Small’s concept is big enough to include these as well. But he is asking some very cool questions. Questions like “What does it mean when this performance of this work takes place at this time, in this place, with these participants?” and “What’s really doing on here?”

These strike me as similar to liturgical questions I have been asking since I listened to a Louie Weil lecture on a tape many years ago in Oscoda Michigan. They are essentially can u buy valium questions that seek more honest understanding than received wisdom allows.

I am consoled that even though I have no living musical community beyond those parishioners who listen and enter in to the “musicking” with me and others, that what I am doing is a basic human activity of making meaning whether I am performing a work composed by others or myself or improvising.

It also helps me understand why I enjoy congregational singing so much even as I struggle with the ideas of believing in a simple religious faith.

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Sunday Music Report

I enjoyed doing the music at yesterday’s service as usual. It helped to be more rested. I was able to just “do” the music and that was fun. I nailed the William Byrd prelude, “The Carmens Whistle.”  I did the entire set of nine variations on 4′ stops (sounding up an octave). This is logical because keyboard instruments of the time were actually tuned up an octave. This made them smaller and more portable.

I managed to come up with settings that provided an entirely different sound for most of the variations. The sounds were very soft and gentle in places and were probably drowned out by the sounds of the congregation. But I shrug this off and just play.

The choir did a respectable job on S. Drummond Wolf’s 1945 arrangement of the keyboard piece, “The Earl of Salisbury” by William Byrd.  I have loved this little piece of music ever since I heard the Pentangle perform it in the 60s or 70s. I managed to take Drummond’s arrangement and make it a bit more appropriate by dropping his dynamics and doing it faster than his marking of “Andante.”  Choir blended well and made good vowel sounds.

I also nailed the postlude, “Galliard” by Byrd. Ray Ferguson taught me a different one by Byrd which I love. I love the way Byrd (and others in his period) are so subtle with meter shifts and excellent interior part writing.  What I played was essentially a sort of modern organ rendition of a wonderful harpsichord piece. I register it pretty loud. I thought it came off well.

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Saving the Lives of Moms – NYTimes.com

Fistulas are terrible holes that persist in women’s abdomens between their rectum and vagina and/or their bladder and vagina. They used to be more wide spread but now are a problem in Africa and Asia.

I love the urologist who originally hailed from Grand Rapids and then decided to make fixing these conditions his life work. He has now fixed more fistulas than any other doctor (according to Kristoff’s article).

Great quote:

“People in America can’t believe I left urology to do this, but this is about changing lives,” which is better than “listening to men tell me about the quality of their erections…”

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Vera Hall on the Alan Lomax sitel

Alan Lomax recordings are now online (though they seem to be experiencing enough high volume to make accessing them problematic). I was excited to find so many recordings of singing and conversation with Vera Hall whose recordings I have loved for years.

This is my favorite:

Yesterday, Eileen and I packed up our stuff and jumped in the Mini and drove home. I noticed that I felt much more relaxed than a week ago. I hope that my vacation worked and calmed me down a bit, gave me a bit more perspective and provided some real rest. I know I feel relaxed this morning.

I checked out a bunch of poetry books out of the library recently.  This morning I read a bit in one that impressed me:

Matthea Harvey is, I think, one of several poets I read about demonstrating in Washington D.C. recently. I inter-library-loaned titles by several of them.  This morning I read in her This Modern Life.

At least this poet seems to be keeping a reasonable website (as we used to call them): http://www.mattheaharvey.info/poems/index.html

Anyway, you can click and read or listen and decide for yourself about Harvey. I am dazzled by her ability to come up with excellent images that resonate with daily life. Plus I like her propensity for alliteration.

It seems to occur not in her prose poems as much as poems which she lines out.

On the drive back from Ann Arbor I had all these fantasies about spending my summer sending out manuscripts of my compositions to publishers, finishing my harpsichord and organizing the house (clearing out junk and putting my CDs and books in accessible order.

I almost started looking at compositions the first time I sat down at my desktop yesterday. Fortunately I recognized this as maybe not the moment to get going on that. Instead, I drove over to my Mom’s nursing home. She looked pretty good but sang the same old song about not feeling good (diarrhea and back pain).

I brought her a cupcake from Ann Arbor but she said she thought she shouldn’t eat it. I took it home. Later she called twice and left a message about it while I was at church practicing.

The first message was to thank me for bringing it to her in case she had forgotten (she hadn’t). The second message was that she had changed her mind and she thought she would like to have it. I put it in a plastic bag for her.

While I was visiting her, I booted up her laptop and showed her Facebook pics of Eileen carrying a banner in Wednesday’s Tulip Time parade. I also showed her the pics I put up of our visit to the “farm” of  my niece, Emily.

After that, I went to the church to prepare for this morning.  Besides the cool William Byrd pieces I have scheduled for today, I spent some time with the Bach organ trios, namely the third movement of the D minor. This is one I haven’t learned yet. Great stuff.

Came home and treadmilled. Went to bed early. Eileen stayed up and watched TV. Today after church, we’re off to the annual Hatch Mother’s day gathering which involves mostly old people (Eileen’s brother and sister and “spice”). I boiled eggs to make deviled eggs yesterday. Still haven’t done more than that. I will also take a frozen veggie burger patty to throw on the grill with the meat burgers in a pathetic attempt to fit in.

Life is good.

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‘The Great Animal Orchestra,’ by Bernie Krause – NYTimes.com

I heard about this guy on the radio on the ride home yesterday. You can get an idea of his work by listening to this:

I’m totally impressed.

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When did music become unimportant? | The Audiophiliac – CNET News

Playing on the question someone asked in the 60s (“When did music become so important?) the writer of this article notes how constant music loses its impact. Sooprise.

Link to related video below about how if everything is the same volume once again…. it loses its impact la la la

Mastering Engineer Greg Calbi on Compression and the Loudness War in Mastering – ArtistshouseMusic

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Crossword Puzzle Stirs Controversy in Venezuela – NYTimes.com

Death threat Crossword puzzles in the news!

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After Fiery Speech, Voting Rights Amendment Is Pulled – NYTimes.com

Very unusual. Senator withdraws amendment after a speech by another Senator.

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Archaeologists Unearth Ancient Maya Calendar Writing – NYTimes.com

I love this stuff.

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Asteroid Vesta Provides Hints of How Earth Came Together – NYTimes.com

and this stuff.

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I dreamed two dreams last night which involved imaginary manuscripts of my own compositions.

In the first dream, I was looking for one. Searching through papers and papers for it. I could remember it. It was a song that involved a simple chord progression and a simple melody. I remember that it was a good one. I wanted to show it to somebody.

In the second dream, I had a music manuscript in my hand. It was one of my more classical attempts. Something about it was clever and subtle. Some sort of reference. Reference to a piece of literature? I handed it to an musician older than me to look at.

Both manuscripts were hand written in ink on manila music paper, the way I copied final copies before I began using software to make music manuscripts.

I woke up this morning in the motel room and wrapped myself in a blanket and sat by the window for light so as not to disturb Eileen’s rest. I finished reading The New World by Suzanne Gardinier. It is a powerful, beautiful and disturbing poem in its entirety.

This is one that caught my attention this morning:

In That Time

In that time the people presided over
what came to be known as The Great Dying
Osprey and herons and hawks were exchanged
for speedboats and paved wooden neighborhoods
Bear and beaver and moose disappeared
for top hats and gas pumps to take their places
the gifts to the seventh generation
included dead fish piled in simmering creeks
tides that bore surgical sutures and needles
horizons heavy with smokestacks and tailpipes
falling on trees as searing rain
The earth was opened for interment of poisons
The sky was divided by lots and sold
The sounds that the wind and rain made together
became audible only in fenced preserves
Unprecedented prosperity
sustained the industries of destruction
the makers of stacks of prison cages
of chairs designed for electrocution
of weapons to suppurate the deserts
and erase waterlines and warehouses of seeds
A banner of that time depicts many children
standing on top of a map of the world
Some smile Some stare without expression
at the thicket of swords hanging over their heads

from The New Word by Suzanne Gardinier

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In Greece, a Vote of Expression, Not Choice – NYTimes.com

Informed look at recent election.  Link to a poem in this article:

From the Greek Streets › Manolis Anagnostakis: “are you in favour, or against?”

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Rituals Clash in Brooklyn – Outdoor Cafes Vs. Churchgoers – NYTimes.com

Reminds me of Holland Michigan.

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An Indiana Voter Mourns the Defeat of Senator Lugar – NYTimes.com

Letter to the editor.

Clear eyed comment from an Indian perspective.

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D.S.M. Panel Backs Down on Diagnoses – NYTimes.com

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Game Over for the Climate – NYTimes.com

Another scientist pleas for coherence.

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President Obama’s Moment – NYTimes.com

Good take on the President’s recent same-sex marriage comments. I especially agree with the criticism that points out the necessity of a federal ruling instead of states deciding one by one.

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Roman Totenberg, Violinist and Teacher, Dies at 101 – NYTimes.com

NPR’s Nina Totenberg’s dad died. Sounds like a pretty fascinating family.

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From Beijing With Love – NYTimes.com

Revealing look at behind the scenes spy trades and negotiations on behalf of dissidents and defectors in the 80s and 90s.

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Finished what I think is the last volume of the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman yesterday. Today is our last day to be holed up in a hotel in Ann Arbor.  Interestingly, I have not found it that easy to relax. It has been pleasant to spend time with Eileen, read and play my electric piano.

But I found my mind circling around to things that bother me. Good grief. Poetry helps. More than music apparently. Music frees my mind as I play. Usually I like to hold on to that blank feeling and let the music consume me. But sometimes it makes a space for discomforting thoughts to buzz. If I realize I’m doing it, I can shake it.

As I say, poetry helps. This morning I read in John Updike’s final volume of poetry much of what seems to have been written in the last months of his life. It’s wry and comforting in an odd way. I liked the one he wrote on Baseball quite a bit.

Eileen and I had lunch at Zingerman’s, yesterday. That was fun.

The internet service is at our hotel pretty lousy. I called the desk on the first night and spoke to the remote internet person.

He suggested reconnecting to get the internet. Two days later I have now done this many many times.

I spoke in person to the front desk. They assured me that no one else was complaining about this.

A cursory check online (when I could get it to work) found other complaints about this specific hotel and internet service.

The service never improved although we began to get a sign-on portal. The desk never inquired if I was satisfied.

Needless to say, we will be staying somewhere else next time.

Eileen and I are holed up in a Holiday Inn in Ann Arbor for a few days off. We are glad to have this time. Eileen was confused about how much vacation time she had left and found herself about to lose a week of it if she didn’t use it before the 15th of this month. She immediately began taking days off while I was still in New Hampshire. We left town yesterday after she walked in the parade.

The wifi in the room connects well but still manages to lose internet access pretty regularly. The first time it happened, I called the desk and they put me through to their remote wifi people. The operator advised me to disconnect and reconnect. This worked. Unfortunately, this seems to be necessary every few minutes. I don’t see how being on the fifth floor might exacerbate this, but maybe that is so.

I did download the book I mentioned and linked in yesterday, “Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl.” I read a couple of chapters this morning in bed. I do wonder about it. It seems awfully articulate but I guess it’s believable since the narrator was educated by her first master. I can’t help but suspect a ghost writer.

Eileen and I went down for drinks last night before turning in. We were both exhausted. I’m hoping this time off will give Eileen a chance to rest up. We are planning to go look at the newly birthed lamb at the farm/home of our niece, Emily. But the most important thing is to get some time off together.

I skipped treadmilling last night because there was no rack for my computer on it. I will probably treadmill today, though. Also I think I left my sphygmomanometer at home so no monitoring of blood pressure as well.

Unfortunate because I feel like my blood pressure is probably slowly getting lower.

Well, I have lost internet several times while doing this post, better sign off.

I had to rise in the middle of Monday night (2 AM) in order to reassure myself I could get my rental car back to Boston in time to shuttle to Logan airport to catch my flight home.  Even though I had hugged my brother and his wife goodbye early the night before, he, godblesshim, stirred himself and hugged me once again before I set off.

I quite liked New Hampshire. Maybe it’s just because it wasn’t Holland MI, but I still felt much more at home there than here. Many people are about my age and look like me a bit.  There are more liberals of course. But there are also more bookstores.  I ran across a book that began to answer some of my questions about the history of the area:

I found it for nine dollars used at the Toad Bookshop in Keene in the Colony Mill Marketplace. It is elegantly written and is informed from many disciplines. He begins with the formation of the earth itself and moves through 17th century thus ending before any of the other local Keene histories I have found.

I read it on the plane on the way back.

I have also decided that I now have a passion for the work of Suzanne Gardinier.

She combines a literate poetic sensibility with the necessary brutality of being awake in our time.

A short couplet in her book The New World struck me this morning.

In this poem Gardinier imagines the real life Harriet Jacobs writing letters as she hides in her grandmother’s house.

“Don’t expect much Amy You shall have
no talent but truth Ever your Harriet”

from “Incidents in the life of a slave girl” book four by Gardinier.

Gardinier footnotes this book to the poems she calls “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” Of course it makes me want to read the original (link to ebook of it).

I guess this quote struck me because I get the feeling that many locals see me as a no talent but also that I am mostly reconciled to this and see myself as seeking in my own way to connect to art and life as honestly as I can mostly via music and words. I also feel that part of my reconciliation to isolation is that I consciously choose to connect to the brutality that is the history of the United States (and all peoples for that matter). This roughness seems alien to the very people that either disrespect me or don’t fucking see me.

Heavy.

Eileen and I prepare to bolt away to a motel in Ann Arbor for some more vacation this afternoon.

Time for another blog post. I’m lazing around on a quiet Sunday morning in Keene, New Hampshire instead of getting geared up to go do church. My brother, Mark, is off to do his priestly duties. My sister-in-law, Leigh, is off bird watching. I’m enjoying the morning.

I have been trying to do some relaxing. Mark and I went over to nearby Battlesboro on Friday to visit the bookshops and give Mark some time away from Keene. I bought my own copy of Sandman 5

and a book of poetry by Jane Shore, Music Minus One.

I brought a library copy of volume 9 of the Sandman series with me and have been reading it. I have decided I would like to reread the whole series. I think it’s quite good. When I reread it, I always catch things I missed the first time. I like that. Might be fun to own them.

Yesterday was Free Comic Book Day at Comic Stores in the U.S. Mark and I walked over to the local Comic Book Store and were gratified to see several copies of Mouse Guard: Labyrinth and other stories awaiting us. It contains new work by Mark’s son-in-law, Jeremy Bastien.

One was allowed to choose three free comix from stacks of comix specially created for the day.

In addition to Mouse Guard, I chose Weathercraft and other unusual tales by Jim Woodring.

And Bongo Comic Free-for-all 2012.

Unfortunately, Bongo is probably not the work of the originator of the Simpsons (and other great stuff), Matt Groening. I think he may have done the cover since it’s signed, but the “script” is by Brian Houlihan and there is a team of artists listed in the credits that only includes Groening as Publisher.

The comic is one of those that is two in one with each comic beginning upside down from and on the back of the other.  SpongeBob was on the other side of Bongo Comics.

I looked around at the used comics at the store and found one by Alan Moore, someone I admire.

Apparently this comic represents bringing together several previous Alan Moore  related stories and giving them over to a new genius artist, Juan Jose Ryp.

Each Rype piece is an intricate and terrifying line drawing. Excellent stuff.

Then we walked across the street to Eagle Books, a used book store.

I found a collection of Anne Sexton’s letters edited a few short years after her suicide by Linda Gray Sexton and Lois Ames.

I also have been developing an interest in how this area was before the white settlers moved in. Eagle Books had tons of books about and published here in Keene. They mostly were touristy or very very old and falling apart. I thumbed through them and that was fun.

The local library has put some local history books and pamphlets online, but none of it is about the people who lived here before the settlers as far as I can tell.

The most recent book, “Upper Ashuelot”; a history of Keene New Hampshire by the Keene History Committee (1968), contains this passage about Indians.

“When permanent settlement was finally made at Upper Ashuelot in 1736, the region had experienced some 10 years of peace. Roving bands of Indians were commonplace, threading their way in single file over trails they alone could recognize. The Schaghticoke tribe which once inhabited the area had long since moved to the Hudson River, the and the Squawkheags who followed them in the region had been nearly destroyed by the Mohawks in brutal indian warfare before 1670. The dreaded King Philip assembled his forces in the regioni during earlier Indian wars but few Indians had remained afterwards, although some of the former Indian residents knew the terittory and were able to lead hunting and war parties through the forest and swamps?
from
A Narrrative of Keen, new Hampshire 1732-1967
by David R. Proper in the 1968 online book linked above (emphasis added).

I could only quickly find this wiki  info one of the two tribes mentioned.

Schaghticoke has various spellings (Pachgatgoch, Patchgatgoch, Pisgachtigok, Pishgachtigok, Scachtacook, Scaghkooke, Scanticook, Scatacook, Scaticook, Schaacticook, Scotticook, Seachcook) derived from an Algonquian Dialect-R word Pishgachtigok meaning “Gathered Waters.” The language/culture base is Algonquian with Iroquoian influence.

Anyway, I think this shit is interesting.

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MTV Geek – Setting Sail With Writer/Artist Jeremy Bastian and His ‘Cursed Pirate Girl’

Print interview with my famous relative.

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Benjamin Keene – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Keene, New Hampshire – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The War of Jenkins’s Ear and New York Hotels

Some other local history links I have been perusing. Apparently the town is named after British diplomat, Sir Benjamin Keene (King’s Lynn, 1697 – Madrid, 1757). He was British Ambassador to Spain and was unable to prevent “The War of Jenkins’s Ear.” I have never heard of this war, but the link above about it refers to it as “one of the wackiest wars in military history.” I have a hard time of conceiving of a war as “wacky,” but find the use of my family name intriguing if not gratifying.

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Paul Revere’s Work Found in Brown’s Rare Book Room – NYTimes.com

This NYT’s feature article is pretty badly written (too “jaunty” for it’s subject), but I think the idea is cool.

This link is more straight reporting: Map Markings Offer Clues to Lost Colony – NYTimes.com

This is the evidence in question:

When I clicked on the link for Brown University library where the document in question is available online, their site was down. Probably due to the link in the NYT article, no doubt.

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‘Beyond Debate’ – NYTimes.com

This editorial about the continuing damage America is doing to itself by not granting civil liberties to all people.

Pertinent Morrow quote from this article:

In times like these, it may help to remember the words Edward R. Murrow used when he spoke out against McCarthy: “We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.”

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Harvard and M.I.T. Offer Free Online Courses – NYTimes.com

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How Chemicals Change Us – NYTimes.com

Yikes!

<T>he scientists who know endocrine disruptors best overwhelmingly are already taking steps to protect their families. John Peterson Myers, chief scientist at Environmental Health Sciences and a co-author of the new analysis, said that his family had stopped buying canned food.
“We don’t microwave in plastic,” he added. “We don’t use pesticides in our house. I refuse receipts whenever I can. My default request at the A.T.M., known to my bank, is ‘no receipt.’ I never ask for a receipt from a gas station.”

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So I’m trying to get some relaxing in here in Keene, New Hampshire. I still feeling tired and stressed, BP is still up. Not easy for me to relax, I guess. My brother and his wife have a very spacious and charming house here. We walked to a restaurant last night for dinner and drinks.

I don’t have a place to practice organ. Usually I would probably be able to do so at my brother’s church, but he is right in the middle of some delicate stuff with his musician and it would unnecessarily complicate things if I were to sneak in and practice there. We are talking about checking with one of the other local churches.

They have three pianos here in the house so I can play piano pretty much to my heart’s content. I have already been playing a bit this morning.

is also a treadmill here in the house  where I can exercise as well.

Hopefully relaxation is on the way.

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I bought a New York Times in the Grand Rapids airport. It is such a different experience, reading a paper online versus reading it on newsprint.

In some ways I prefer the online version. This morning I had to take the actual paper and remember which articles I thought were interesting enough to bookmark and then pull them up online and bookmark them.

Reviewing the paper in the online version, I realize how tough it is to browse the New York Times online since most of the articles are linked through old timey headlines that rely on being short, snappy and drawing you right into the prose to find out what it’s about.

If a headline doesn’t give me clue what the article is about online, chances are, I don’t bother to link through and read it.

I know I miss things this way, but I also figure it’s probably not that important. Certainly, it’s not important enough for me to click on “maybe” headlines and then unsurprisingly not be that interested in the article.

I actually figure it is the New York Times itself (and other print media trying to understand and use the online media) that bears some of this responsibility.

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Artek Plays Book 4 of Monteverdi’s Madrigals – NYTimes.com

This review of a recent performance intrigued me. I wanted to hear how the group sounds. Also when I checked it out online this morning, I was amused and pleased to see that the online version linked in the actual (free) music scores of Book 4 of Monteverdi’s Madrigals.

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At WD-50, Wylie Dufresne Shakes Up the Entire Menu – NYTimes.com

This is an article I might not have read if I hadn’t been on vacation and reading a newsprint version of the paper. As it is, I find the chef and what he is doing fascinating.

It reminds me of my niece, Emily, who is a baker. While she was visiting me recently we discussed the science of cooking. I loaned her my copy of Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking:The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.

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Renzo Piano’s Nasher Museum in Dallas Has Sunburn Problem – NYTimes.com

What a gas! Museum uses unique natural lighting approach to some of its galleries. It’s such a great attraction that someone builds a huge 42 story condominium next door figuring the Museum would be a prime attraction to live. Unfortunately, they built it of highly fashionable reflective surfaces that threaten the museum’s use of natural light.

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A Word Heard Often, Except at the Supreme Court – NYTimes.com

Can’t say the word fuck at the supreme court.

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The Sun, the Moon and Walmart – NYTimes.com

About bribery as a way of life in Mexico. One that needs reform.

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Amid Rural Decay, Trees Take Root in Silos – NYTimes.com

Silos – a set on Flickr

Trees and silos. Perfect combination.

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So, I’m waiting to board the first leg of my journey to New Hampshire. Flying from GR to Newark then on to Boston. I mistakenly booked to Boston instead of the closer airport at Manchester, but no harm done. It will just take me a bit longer to get to Keene.

I dearly wish my wife could have come with me, but I also desperately need some time off. Blogging here in the GR airport because it has free Wifi which seems to be rare in the airports I have visited. Maybe that has changed.

I was a little out of control yesterday preparing to leave. I ran a stop sign. Yikes. Hopefully I will relax away from Holland. I did manage to get Mom out to look at some chairs to replace the huge recliner we discarded. She didn’t see anything she liked and quickly tired. But at least we gave it a try.

Figured out I could play a couple of very cool little pieces by William Byrd as prelude and postlude. This will match the anthem which is an adaptation of a keyboard piece by Byrd for choir.

The prelude is Carman’s Whistle and the postlude a Fantasia I think. Oops they’re starting to board. Gotta skate.

It’s mid-day in Western Michigan. I usually blog in the morning. But today I was hosting my niece, Emily,

and her lovely husband, Jeremy.

They were in town so that Jeremy could do a presentation the library about his comic book work.

Check out Jeremy’s blog: http://www.jeremybastian.com/

His work is excellent.

He gave his first solo presentation as comic book artist last night. I thought he came off relaxed and interesting. His audience was pretty rapt for a group of teens.

I learned a lot.

Anyway, Emily and Jeremy and Connor and Basil all just jumped in their comicmobile and drove away.

Eileen went to work. So now I have the rest of the day to prepare for my big adventure which begins tomorrow.

Vacation!

I broke my pattern this morning and grabbed  my netbook instead of a real book of poetry.

I am planning to rely more on my netbook on my upcoming vacation and thought it might be interesting to see what that was like.

Also, I felt more like reading in a book I recently downloaded, The Poems of John Donne edited by Herbert J.C. Grierson.

Haven’t gotten past the Grierson introduction yet. Since my usual source of free ebooks, http://manybooks.net/ , has been down so much, I ended up downloading this from http://archive.org/details/texts . A lot of these sites (along with the freebies on Amazon) use the same ebooks anyway.

My blood pressure has come down a few degrees each for the last few days. It’s still higher than my doctor wants (it was 140/80 this AM), but I’m hoping this trend continues as I start relaxing this week and go on vacation.

I also have been reading in online music journals that I have access to via my Hope staff status.  Having access to scholarly journals practically makes me delirious with happiness. As a younger man, I subscribed to several of them despite the expense. I still have copies of Musical Quarterly and others laying around somewhere I believe.

Usually I file them under one interesting article in the magazine about something in specific. For example under Euclid in my library of music books I have the Fall 1975 issue of Journal of Music Theory.

The pertinent article is “An annotated translation of Euclid’s division of a monochord” by Thomas J. Mattheson.

You can see why I get excited about access to information online.

This morning I said to Eileen that Hope College giveth and Hope College taketh away. It is a hard pill for me to swallow sometimes when potential local colleagues in the Music Dept there either don’t see me (Invisible Jupe)

or see me as an inconsequential hack who cannot further their own career.

That’s how Hope College “taketh away.”

But O how it giveth! Eileen and I deliberately chose a small town in Western Michigan with a college, small for her, college to help me live in a small town. When we arrived in 1987 I was happy to have access to Hope College’s library and Western Theological College’s library. Little I dream that the Internet was barreling its way into existence and common usage.

Now through my staff status I have incredible access which I utilize when I have time.

Right now I’m listening to Michael Daughery’s symphony, Metropolis on Naxos via my staff login.

I remember running across him via the good old days of Napster (before it went commercial) and being intrigued. But he is symphonic and I haven’t run across any chamber work by him utilizing organ or piano. But I do think he’s pretty interesting. Naxos carries a ton of his compositions. So now I can hear them.

After reading a bit in Grierson’s intro to John Donne, I pulled up an article I was looking at yesterday on tempos in Brahm’s Variations on a theme by Haydn. Again accessed through Hope College’s subscription to online journals.

As I was reading it, I listened to it on Spotify, pulled up the scores on imslp.org. Man, am I spoiled.

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SUNDAY CHURCH REPORT

Several parishioners thanked me for playing the Debussy yesterday as a prelude. I pretty much nailed it the way I intended to. But I had to muster a lot of concentration since the people who were there for the baptisms filled the back rows of the church a few feet from where I was playing and like true Americans everywhere treated the music as background to their loud conversations.

I did pretty well until the ending where there is a slight pause before the final chords. I wasn’t expecting silence particularly but the volume that came rushing at me in the rests left me rattled after finishing.

The result was I played the first hymn poorly, especially the introduction. What I learned was that next time I attempt some repertoire I might want to factor in a minute’s interval where I am consciously trying to gather my wit(singular).

But I was happy with the rest of my playing.

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Three articles in yesterday’s NYT by three excellent writers.

Unexceptionalism – A Primer by E. L. Doctorow -NYTimes.com

Wow, E. L. Doctorow seems angry about America.

Hello, Martians. This Is America by Margaret Atwood – NYTimes.com

Margaret Atwood has some good things to say. I particularly like the way her Martians read Moby Dick.

Marty and Nick Jr. Go to America by Martin Amis – NYTimes.com

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This cartoon in the April 30th issue of the New Yorker made me smile and think of myself.

I also found another interesting word in Ian McEwan’s short story in the same issue.

“The United Kingdom had succumbed, one letter announced, to a frenzy of akrasia–which was, Tony reminded me, the Greek word for acting against one’s better judgment. (Had I not read Plato’s Protagoras?) A useful word. I stored it away.” from “Hand on the Shoulder” by Ian McEwan, New Yorker, April 30, 2012

I’m still feeling quite exhausted. I guess I really do need to fly away. I did most of the paperwork for applying for reimbursement for medical expenses for 2011 yesterday. Eileen has a “benny” at work which allows her to set aside a certain amount of non-taxable income designated just for medical expenses. It’s set up so that we pay and then apply for reimbursement. The deadline for applying for 2011 is May 2012.

I worked on “Danse” by Debussy quite a bit yesterday. I played it slowly all the way through with the metronome set at eighth note = 120 beats per minute.

Then I set the metronome at dotted quarter = 85 beats per minute and went through it a couple times to see if I was speeding up in places. I actually sped up in the some of the very slow moving sections.

In reality I didn’t set it at 85 M.M. but at 3×85 (255) since Debussy goes back and forth between pulsing quarter notes and dotted quarter notes throughout the piece.

I continued to find errors in the score I am using. I have mostly been comparing it to a four handed version online. Not sure that the four handed version is a better edition but it does represent some editor’s choices. So far I found that most things that struck me as bit squirrelly initially are mistakes.

I hate changing things the day before performance. I have told myself to just play the dang thing and not worry about the changes and just see what comes out. That seems to work.

I’ll probably go through the piece at least one more time this morning slowly. I know it’s silly to put all this work into performances in a context where so few people seem to appreciate or even notice.

But Debussy and I are still there plus a few people listening.

It’s a fine line between performing with an audience present and completing the process of music (if music is played in church and no one hears it, does it make a sound?) and thinking about the audience as you play.

Mostly in church work I am sometimes defeated by distractions.  Like when people are talking or moving around near me while I am trying to concentrate. This is intensified when these people are music teachers or performers themselves.

But I do try to concentrate on what the music is saying and make that as much of my consciousness as I can.

“Just play” as we used to say in grad school.

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Hollande and Sarkozy Trade Insults as Runoff Nears – NYTimes.com

I have been following the upcoming French election a bit.

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Police Chiefs Focus on Disparities in Gun Violence – NYTimes.com

Chief Flynn recounted pleading with a state senator to include a provision in Wisconsin’s concealed weapons law that would ban habitual criminal offenders from obtaining permits. The senator, he said, told him, “Here’s the phone number of the National Rifle Association lobbyist in Washington, D.C. If it’s O.K. with him, it will be O.K. with us.” The provision was not included, Chief Flynn said.

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God and Man in Tennessee – NYTimes.com

This writer seems to hail from Eastern Tennessee, the section where I spent a lot of my childhood.

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‘Wrecking Crew’ Film Focuses on Session Players – NYTimes.com

I don’t quite get how music can work when the laws and the people owning the rights are so profit driven. I hope this movie comes out.

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J. S. Bach’s English and French Suites with an emphasis on the Courante

I love it when entire articles are available to read online. God bless Diapason Magazine. This article was mentioned in the new American Guild of Organist column, “The Organist’s Bookshelf,” under “Journals.” This is just a list of sources without comment.

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I survived my ear doctor appointment. My blood pressure continued to be pretty high for the rest of the day. It’s a bit high this morning, but I feel much better today than yesterday, more rested.

As I expected I have hearing loss in both ears, but it’s not as dire I feared it might be.

The audiologist said I wasn’t quite ready to think about hearing aids.

The otolaryngologist (ear, nose, & throat doctor) was a bit more aggressive. He suggested that musicians often opt for hearing aids sooner. Which is funny because I quizzed the audiologist about the state of tech of hearing aids and she said that the frequencies it amplifies are much less than the frequencies of music and are aimed at audibility of speaking.

When I mentioned this to the ear, nose and throat guy he didn’t respond.

He did prescribe a nasal spray that might help prevent my inner ear from filling up with fluid. It is this symptom that drove me to ask my internist for a referral to a ear, nose, and throat doctor.

Too much information, right?

I started reading Army Cats by Tom Sleigh yesterday. It’s a typically thin book of poetry.  Here’s a link to the first poem which is also called “Army Cats.”

He was present in Lebanon in 2007 as a journalist when all hell broke loose there. His poems reflect the experience.

I picked up on him as one of several political poets mentioned in a recent NYT article.  I find it interesting that I am much more aware of the mention of authors and composers than I used to be. The advent of the interwebs is a double edged sword.

The lack of filters like publishers and bookstores and record stores creates a wide open space which is exciting but far too fragmented to peruse effectively.

Better to run down people mentioned or found in a secondary role like protesting (this was the political poets) or moderating or being interviewed on the radio (Steve Almond mentioned below).

I’m already grateful to Sleigh for teaching me a new word as well as writing some decent poetry.  Here’s the word:

rodomontade –  Literary

n
a. boastful words or behaviour; bragging
b. (as modifier) rodomontade behaviour
vb
(intr) to boast, bluster, or rant
[from French, from Italian rodomonte a boaster, from Rodomonte the name of a braggart king of Algiers in epic poems by Boiardo and Ariosto]

I heard Steve Almond ranting about the recent Pulitzer prize debacle (you know they didn’t give one in fiction…). I thought he sounded pretty interesting.

Looked at his work on Amazon. Noticed that Junot Diaz (a top notch writer in my opinion) gave him a blurb.

That clenched it for me  so I checked out a book of his short stories from the library.

I have read the first two in this book and they are fun.

I’ve also picked up Houellebecq’s The Elementary Particles to finish before I leave on vacation. This book translated from the French is a gas. I keep laughing out loud as I read. It’s a laugh of horror at the behavior of the characters and the obvious irony of the author.

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Randy Walker’s Carletta Sue Kay Releases Her First Album – NYTimes.com

This interests me. The article describes the singer as a gender busting incredible rock and roll singer. I think I like it.

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Study Sheds Light on How Birds Navigate by Magnetic Field – NYTimes.com

Brains appear to be incredible things. We are still learning so much about them.

It’s a stunning piece of work,” David Keays of the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna wrote in an e-mail. “Wu and Dickman have found cells in the pigeon brain that are tuned to specific directions of the magnetic field.”

I also love how this article gently drops in a fact about taxi driver brains:

A well-known and often-mentioned study of London taxi drivers showed that experienced drivers with a mental map of London had a hippocampus larger in one area than people without their experience

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Robert Bork, Romney Standard-Bearer – NYTimes.com

I know content doesn’t count any more.  But Bork has some pretty extreme views.

[Bork] opposed broad protection for free speech;

he questioned the constitutional right to privacy;

he once opposed integration of public accommodations by the 1964 Civil Rights Act, calling it “unsurpassed ugliness.”

Even after a confirmation conversion, his views on civil rights were decidedly unfavorable to minorities.

After his defeat for being outside the mainstream, he resigned his federal judgeship and became a polemicist for ultraconservative ideas. Whether Mr. Romney picked Mr. Bork for his legal views, to arouse the right wing or both, the choice is disturbing.

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An Incomplete Justice – NYTimes.com

This makes one wonder if the Kony kids have even heard of Liberia.

Mr. Taylor’s arrest and trial has been hailed as a great stride against impunity, but we must not laud it too much, when many of his closest former associates remain at large and active in public life, for want of a tribunal to take them on. Mr. Taylor’s ex-wife, Jewel Howard Taylor, who filed for divorce after his fall from power in part to protect her assets from international sanctions, is a member of the Liberian Senate. So is Prince Y. Johnson, a onetime Taylor ally who literally butchered President Samuel K. Doe at the start of the civil war and was so certain of his impunity that he had the entire episode videotaped for posterity. Far from becoming a pariah, Mr. Johnson played kingmaker in Liberia’s presidential election last year, delivering the bloc of votes that assured President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf a second term.

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Life in China Is Stranger Than My Fiction – NYTimes.com

This chatty little article makes me want to read the author’s fiction despite his obvious self promotion in it.

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Even though my vacation looms, my blood pressure seems to be up. Dang. I think it possibly could be related to my visit to the ear doctor this morning.  I am not looking forward to putting numbers on my obvious loss of hearing.  Or hearing a doctor tell me I have hurt my ear drums by using swabs to clean them. Bah.

Yesterday I had a pleasant lunch with my boss. We reviewed Holy Week and talked about how we want to now consider making it even more interesting, creative and reflective of the community. She is a pleasure to work with.

Then I trolleyed off to my Mom’s and managed to get her internet connection working. She wasn’t in her room when I arrived. She came by later saying she had attended a “coffee klatch.”  By the time I had her new modem hooked up and working, she was exhausted and lay on the bed with her face to the wall. She is worried she won’t remember how to use the internet. I told her I more concerned that she won’t be motivated. But yesterday she was talking about trying to play games once again. But she was too tired to mess with it by the time I was done.

I found a good metronome site yesterday – http://www.bestmetronome.com,

better than the one I usually use: http://www.metronomeonline.com/.

I say better because it allows one to set the beat at any number. Ironically I used it to practice my Debussy at eighth note = 120 which both sites do just fine.

I have noticed inaccuracies creeping in to my “Danse” by Debussy. I know I can basically play it, but I’m trying to “nail it” for Sunday’s prelude. Hence the disciplined practice.

For the postlude I’m playing “Voluntary in A major” by Maurice Greene (Link to PDF of piece). Greene is also the composer of the choral anthem for the day based on Psalm 23…. it being Good Shepherd Sunday.

I’m still feeling burn out and stress. After a period of stress I find that I often feel more tired and stressed when I first start to wind down.

School is finally over for me.  I will miss working with the teacher, Amanda Smith-Heynen. She has decided to stop driving from Grand Rapids and teach at Hope several days a week. A bit part of this decision is that Hope pays her poorly and will not make her official faculty because she doesn’t have a degree, only professional experience. I think she is brilliant and Hope is making an obvious mistake.  The dance department would have rectified this if the college would allow it, I am sure.

Amanda and I mutually decided that we didn’t have mixed feelings at our last class. We were both relieved and exhausted. She has asked me a couple times about continuing our professional work together. Yesterday she even said that we might collaborate on a dance piece, she, choreographing, me, composing. I always make positive sounds. I told her I would like to work with her again.

It would surprise me if she contacted me again.

Earlier in the day, I attempted to relax after dropping off the Mini for Eileen at work. I walked to the coffee shop, ordered a latte, sat down and starting putzing with Spotify on my netbook. I wanted to see if I could use headphones and the netbook to access Spotify on my vacation.

As I was doing this, Google calender warned me that I had a Grace church staff meeting in five minutes.

I called to confirm.

Alas, it was true.

The secretary graciously offered to come and pick me up, since I was downtown on foot. She did so.

After staff, I was at church so I rehearsed organ for the second time that day having zipped in earlier before the 9:30 AM Eucharist for about 45 minutes. I had left the music I was working on at home.  This included a Dan Locklair piece I was goofing off with. So I played Bach for about an hour. I worked on the Eb trio, the D Major prelude and fugue, and a C major Prelude and Fugue. Fine music.

I had told Eileen that I didn’t need to go celebrate college duties ending, but by the end of the day I had changed my mind and we had a nice dinner together at the pub. Whew. I’m still running on inertia and look forward to slowing down over the next few days.

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http://predictingthefuture-logically.blogspot.com/

An old friend of mine has started a blog. He told me he tries to write on it every few days. I didn’t mention that I have been blogging pretty much daily since before the word was coined. In his latest post, he asks his daughter the almost lawyer to predict how the Supreme Court will rule on health care. She thinks they will strike it down and explains why.

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Philippine Court Says Aquino Estate Must Be Split Among 6,000 – NYTimes.com

This is amazing. A just redistribution of wealth to the exploited. Hey it could happen. Just not in America.

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ENO to stage Philip Glass opera about the last days of Walt Disney – News – Theatre & Dance – The Independent

What can I say? Glass has written 23 Operas? Good Grief. #24 coming up.

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Consumers Need More Protection, Not Less – NYTimes.com

It never fails. It makes me crazy when the government protects businesses at the expense of the public.

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475 Free Movies Online: Great Classics, Indies, Noir, Westerns & More | Open Culture

Open Culture is a very cool site sharing bunchs of free access.

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