so maybe vacation worked

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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