My friend, Rhonda Edgington, dropped by yesterday with some music for me. She has been using an old copy of my piece, “Pentecost Suite for Marimba and Organ” to cut and paste a working marimba part for it.  Composed in 2004 as the result of a commission from Peter Kurdziel it may be one of my last more involved compositions.For some reason I haven’t been able to find the Finale file for this piece. I guess since 2004 I have had to switch computers and update software enough that my original working computer files were lost. Rhonda has been systematically working from a score I obtained from Peter a while back.

In the last decade I have felt pretty isolated in my approach to music. Rhonda’s interest in this piece (and her general collegial approach to our friendship) has from the first struck me as something I have missed and am very grateful for and value.

I feel a little guilty that she has gone to such lengths to prepare a performing copy of this piece and am seriously considering revisiting it with my current software and equipment to prepare a clean score. It is a three movement piece and would take quite a bit of time but there’s no time like the present to restart this little project (I began work on it when Rhonda originally expressed interest in it).

I finished Stoner by John Williams. For me it wasn’t a very satisfactory read largely due to Williams’ treatment of the main character’s wife, Edith. She is the villain of the book and I find his pairing of Stoner for whom he is engaging our sympathy for a life of struggles with the cold, fucked up wife a bit dated and sexist. I gave it two stars on GoodReads which translates as “it was okay.”

F.B.I. Is Broadening Surveillance Role, Report Shows – NYTimes.com

Obama to Call for Laws Covering Data Hacking and Student Privacy – NYTimes

These two articles were back to back on my New York Times page. That can’t be an accident. In the first one, the NYT is suing the government. In the second one they quote the President:

“If we’re going to be connected, then we need to be protected. As Americans, we shouldn’t have to forfeit our basic privacy when we go online to do our business,” Mr. Obama said Monday. “Each of us as individuals have a sphere of privacy around us that should not be breached, whether by our government, but also by commercial interests.”

The first article is about the privacy of foreigners which I suppose makes a difference to many (but not to me).

Religious Bias Issues Debated After Atlanta Mayor’s Dismissal of Fire Chief – NYT

I’ve been watching this story where a Fire Chief of 30 years experience was fired because he handed out a book he wrote which villifies gay people. I think it was probably poorly handled. Firing him seemed over the top to me unless there’s more the story than is being reported. Why not censure him in some less drastic way that helps retain freedom of expression on his part and retains the rights of those who work under him?

The Color of Food Leadership | Mark Winne

Thank you to my son, David, for linking this on Facebooger.

Andraé Crouch, 72, Who Infused Gospel With Soul, Dies – NYTimes.com

I was talking with one of our new curates last night. He confessed that he has gone from actively disliking church music to being indifferent to it. He said he doesn’t have any CDs of organ music that he listens to. I am always interested in what music works for people. I mentioned to him the following line in Crouch’s obit:

“It’s a pity that a lot of great messages have been wasted because they have been paired with bad music. That’s what’s wrong with a lot of traditional church music. That’s why most of it bores me.”

Andraé Crouch