All Comments

  • From Elizabeth on no success like failure, failure's no success at all

    Good for you being brave and asking. Jeez, what a cold response from him. Well, as a wise woman once said: Shake it off! Haters gonna hate!

    • From jupiterj on no success like failure, failure's no success at all

      Thanks, Elizabeth. Rhonda pointed out that Hew might have been having a bad day. I am willing to grant that, but it’s hard not to suspect that he doesn’t like talking with me. I have stopped sending him “friend” requests on Facelessbooger. In the meantime, I am having lunch today with Nick Palmer who just took a job in the city north of here, Grand Haven. I am hopeful that he will join Rhonda and make the number of my local supportive colleagues double. Heh.

      • From Elizabeth on no success like failure, failure's no success at all

        Nice!

  • From Jonny Keen on an old friend and learning my trio

    Steve you have mentioned needing a pipe organ in order to practice-my wife’s church Covenant PCA has a pipe organ-maybe they will let you practice on their organ-you could call them and find out-the church is located here in Holland I am sure their phone number is in the phone book-peace

    • From jupiterj on an old friend and learning my trio

      Jonny,

      Thanks for the suggestion! I will keep Covenant PCA on my list of churches to possibly contact.

      Steve

  • From Sarah on an old friend and learning my trio

    I assume you saw that the author of the insane clown president was on the daily show the other day? X

    • From jupiterj on an old friend and learning my trio

      Eileen and I have fallen out of the habit of watching The Daily Show. Now we only pull up little bits of it on YouTube and then only sporadically. Democracy Now also interviewed Matt Taibbi and we did watch some of that.

  • From Elizabeth on first february friday 2017

    I find this useful: https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com

    I signed up for the email newsletter since I can have trouble “jumping” the Great Firewall to read news.

    I don’t know much about the guy who compiles it: @matt_kiser

  • From Elizabeth on immigrant nation

    I hope the Garang family makes it to Holland. It’s overwhelming to think of all the individuals impacted by these tumultuous events — the executive action and following judicial interventions. I think this ugliness is temporary, but it’s going to take a lot of work to get us back on track and mend all the fences damaged in the process. There are some good people in many corners of the world (I think you and I are included) who are trying to do our part to fix this. It ain’t easy. I love you.

    • From jupiterj on immigrant nation

      I didn’t hear anything at church about them yesterday. My boss is in the Virgin Islands resting up with her partner. They get away regularly. Our associate pastor who presided yesterday is less in touch with the situation and had nothing specific to say about it. It is definitely a troubling time in the world. It’s good to remember that many people are still trying to make it a better place for those who suffer and are ready to help and embrace them. I love you, too!

  • From Rhonda Edgington on a musical day

    It’s funny, Brian was the one who insisted on the no listed pieces thing. Tony didn’t care, but Brian had this idea that it would be a more “relaxed, spontaneous” evening if we didn’t use programs. I thought that was weird, but whatever.
    Actually, I think for him it meant we were being intentionally more jazz oriented, and less “stuffy classical”. Seems a bit simplistic to me, but again. Whatever.

    I clearly stepped in the middle of the big classical-jazz riff at the college by doing this (as evidenced by the folks who didn’t show up…you know who) but I had fun, Brian even found a little extra funds for my efforts, and I thought it was a successful event. So that’s something.
    Thanks for your nice comments!

    That Laotian cafe is super yummy.
    Oh, it’s definitely a B3. Not that I’d know the difference. Tony brings his own with him from Cleveland whenever he comes in to play.

    • From jupiterj on a musical day

      It’s interesting to me that the impulse to be obscure and not communicate program choices is seen as “spontaneity and relaxed,” when in fact it increases the distance between the performers and the audience in my opinion. Like when Tony forgot to turn on his mic. Heh. That was spontaneous and relaxed. But I often find that the way I conceive of promoting the arts and bringing people together is very different from local profs and artists (yourself excepted, of course).

      I think Huw is making a mistake to not be more supportive. I wish Hope College was more visionary and would cultivate you to replace him when he retires. You would rock in that sort of a gig. I know you and the AGO think that college organ departments are dying, but I disagree with this impact that is sometimes assumed with this assessment when I see so much good music and new organs happening,

      If Tony’s instrument is a B 3 it resembles one I’ve never seen. Usually the cabinet is wood in the front. But I guess that might be true of C3s as well. He seemed like a sweetheart of a dude as is Brian for that matter.

      I’m very interested in some of the pieces you played the other night. Where did you buy the Henry Martin music? I’m having difficult laying my hands on the organ preludes and fugues and I would be interested in his piano preludes and fugues as well.

      Glad you got a little money for this gig. That’s a good sign.

  • From David J on no pics today

    Check your email.
    David J

  • From Sarah on thinking about now

    Sorry to only comment to correct you, but David put up one of those recipes, not me. Love you! X x 🙂

    • From jupiterj on thinking about now

      Oops. Thanks for the correction! love from Dad

  • From Elizabeth on not time to quit therapy yet

    Wow, the organ is looking so cool!

  • From Mark on a death and some political stuff

    I have never actually heard your piano trio before. No wonder you enjoy it so much! Well played!

    Thanks for passing along my post. I spent quite a bit of time trying to wrap my head around what they are proposing. I do understand that there is a problem with people signing up, getting their health care needs handled and then dropping coverage until the next open enrollment period. Obviously, that is a problem that needs to be addressed. The problem is that, as is so often the case, they go after what is really a small number of people gaming the system with a blunt force that catches up those who legitimately have problems paying their bills and drop out because they can’t pay their premiums. The typical response of going after an annoying mosquito with a bazooka.

    • From jupiterj on a death and some political stuff

      Thank you for the compliment! And thank you also for doing leg work on issues.

  • From Rhonda Edgington on electric harpsichord explorations or how I spent my day off

    Did I tell you Saunders spoke last spring at Calvin at the Festival of Writing? He is so great in person. For one thing, he is SO funny. And then he’s just so down to earth and friendly and kind. He signed books afterwards and even though there was a big line, was chatting with people. I’m a big fan! Have to check out that link from Vanity Fair.
    The NYT piece on the rallies is really good too, and trademark GS – thoughtful and fair and self-questioning.

  • From jupiterj on electric harpsichord explorations or how I spent my day off

    I remember when Saunders came to town. I was sorely tempted to go hear him but didn’t. I like his writing. You probably mean the New Yorker piece instead of the NYT piece, eh? Thanks for dropping by yesterday. I enjoyed visiting.

  • From Cindy Cosway on short weary thursday blog post

    Hello Mark! Nice article. I think it’s sad that our powers that be have not yet produced a viable solution to the health insurance/medical field. I’m not sure any country has it perfect, but surely we have some intelligent folks here that could come close? I tend to stay politically neutral – neither too right nor too left , this seems like it should be a non-partisan priority to resolve.

  • From jupiterj on short weary thursday blog post

    Hi Cindy! Thanks for reading and thanks for the comment. I agree that health care would seem to be an area of sensible bipartisan agreement. Would that were the case!

  • From Elizabeth on Gorsuch and jupe improvs

    I can help you add a profile pic in the sidebar. Easy peasy.

    • From ejenkins on Gorsuch and jupe improvs

      Done. I wrote you on WhatsApp with info about how to change it.

      • From jupiterj on Gorsuch and jupe improvs

        Thank you! I figured out what you did. I’m not sure how I will end up using it. I like the big pic at the beginning of a post as well. Too much? Who knows?

        • From Elizabeth on Gorsuch and jupe improvs

          Kind of like BuzzFeed does with their authors? Example: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ishmaeldaro/skip-the-wages

  • From Cindy Cosway on stressful monday

    I enjoy that you provide a peek into not only how you look, but a photo glimpse of you with the trimmings. For example, you with a hat & heavy coat must mean you’re out & about in the winter weather. While a playful face you make I interpret you’re having fun. Etc..

    • From jupiterj on stressful monday

      Thanks for clarifying a bit more what you meant! It’s helpful. Of course there is a strong element of vanity and even narcissism in posting pictures of myself. But I have my rationalizations! Hah! love from Uncle Steve

  • From Elizabeth on guitar, piano, organ

    Oh, I like the game to try and name your series at Grace.

    Here’s a great tool for playing with words — http://www.rhymezone.com/r/rhyme.cgi?Word=grace&org1=syl&org2=l&org3=y&typeofrhyme=jjb

    • From jupiterj on guitar, piano, organ

      Wow, that’s quite the resource. Sort of like a combination thesaurus/free association.

  • From Mark on frenchifying purcell

    There’s a 1992 film about the Travellers starring Gabriel Byrne called “Into the West.” Wikipedia calls is a “magical realist film.” I never really saw it that way but it was always a favorite of Emily and Ben as they were growing up. If you ever see it, I’m sure you’ll understand why. And, I suspect, added a lot of allure to Ireland for them when we visited as a family in 2006. On that trip, we ran into a young man who was walking his Traveller horse down the road.

    There are also a significant population of Travellers in the U.K. And the U.S.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Travellers

    Eddie Izzard did a short lived television series about a family of U.S. Travellers called The Riches that we enjoyed.

    • From Sarah on frenchifying purcell

      Yes, the travellers are called gypsies here and are often seen as a crime ridden lower class, whether Irish or Romanian… that roll into town and cause problems. There are also some sensational Channel 4 ‘documentaries’ about the travelers that you might find interesting, Mark… if you search things like ‘my big fat gypsy wedding’ etc you might find them. I didn’t know about that film, though. I’ll check it out.

      • From jupiterj on frenchifying purcell

        Sarah, So locals don’t distinguish between Gypsies and Travelers? I think of Gypsies sometimes called Roma I believe as having a long tradition including a musical one. Are there musical associations with Travelers that you know of?

        • From Sarah on frenchifying purcell

          Not that I’ve noticed – I believe they’re used interchangeably. I’ve heard the term Roma too, but it’s not used much around here… and I haven’t heard any reference to any cultural contributions from them at all! Though this would of course be of interest to me too. They do seem to have a very different set of customs and traditions which are a bit startling – to do with courtship and family, but really they’re spoken about very derogatorily around here.

          • From jupiterj on frenchifying purcell

            Some of the parents of this group were actually Gypsies. I’m quite found of this group.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gipsy_Kings

            Then there is this.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsy_style

            and this.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsy_jazz

            and there’s more online.

    • From jupiterj on frenchifying purcell

      Wow. I just hadn’t heard of them. Cool.

  • From Rhonda Edgington on dream, poem, music in the mail

    It’s kind of bizarre that you have a book that was originally English, but your version is the German translation! (I know, a deal is a deal…)

    Also, those performance anxiety dreams are the worst! Mine always involve a concert to begin shortly, and either I don’t have my music, and/or I’ve never played or seen the organ before. Good times.

    • From jupiterj on dream, poem, music in the mail

      John Brock’s book has both the English and German. It’s also a second edition of this work. I’m very happy to won it.

      Anxiety dreams. Sigh. Did I ever tell you how I learned from people in my dream how to deal with anxiety? One of the people said to me in the midst of my anxiety attack, “What’s at stake?” I woke up and thought, “What’s at state?” I found that helpful.

  • From Elizabeth on jupe's hands

    Yes, take care of your hands. I love you!

    Thanks for the music.