jupe's sunday w/pics + the usual links

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These are the peaches I bought at the Farmers Market Saturday. If you look closely you will see that some of them are a different kind of peach shaped like a doughnut. The person who sold them to me called them “BuenO” peaches. Eileen tried one yesterday and raved about how sweet they were. She insisted I have one. I told her she was like Eve offering Adam fruit. I then pointed out that geneticists have recently been upsetting fundamentalist Christians with the notion of the impossibility of the human race descending from two individuals.

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I finally got around to doing the bills after church yesterday. I try to do them on Fridays. It is nice when I do them and Eileen is around. That way when I can’t get the checkbook to balance which sometimes happens she can help me. This is what she’s doing yesterday in this pic. She easily figured out my error.

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I’ve been meaning to photograph my hymn tune index.

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I have recently been indexing new acquisitions and also previously owned music based on hymn tunes. This tedious work pays off in spades when I am trying to find a piece based on a certain tune.

taken in May 2009 in Missenden England
taken in May 2009 in Missenden England

My congregation has  a lot of energy and little patience for postludes. I have a colleague who simply refused to play postludes under similar circumstances. My solution is to sometimes play one of those varied hymn accompaniments I have been indexing. Yesterday I played one by Gerre Hancock based on MOSCOW (“Come Thou Almighty King” although the words we sang to it yesterday were “Thou Whose Almight Word.”).

The word, MOSCOW, is the name given to the melody. This is what I index this tune under.

I also finished transcribing a piece for my piano trio yesterday morning before church.

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I managed to get the cello part ready (above).  When I work with classical musicians in ensembles they are often jealous of the fact that the keyboard person usually gets to see their part in a reduced fashion, while other instrumentalists only get to see their one line. I thought it might be fun to do scores for my cellist and violinist with the other parts in reduced scores.

This is especially helpful with a counterpuntal piece like this one where the voices are all moving independently.

The cellist wasn’t at church yesterday. So I came home finished off the violin version and emailed parts to both the cellist and violinist in the hopes that we can go through it sometime soon.

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I have been wanting to take some pics and put them in a post. Unfortunately I ran out of batteries for my camera last week. Bought some on Saturday.  That’s why I’m able to post a few pics today.

These tomatoes from the Farmers Market are wonderful.

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lens culture: Robbie Kaye, Beauty and Wisdom

This is a link to some beautiful photos of elderly women at the beauty shop. It’s a bit counter cultural for our society where the old are often discarded, uncared-for or invisible. Beautiful pics.

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Giving Washington a Lesson in Meter and Verse – NYTimes.com

Former NYT editor, Bill Keller, has the mad notion that what is most needed inside the beltway is poetry.

He called on a colleague for ideas. Here’s a link to other ones the colleague came up with:

David Orr’s Picks for Poetry Congress Should Read – NYTimes.com

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In an Age of Vitriol, What Is Out of Bounds? – NYTimes.com

The NYT public editor (a kind ombudsman) weighs in on Joe Nocera’s recent vituperation and subsequent apology.

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Power to the Corporation! – NYTimes.com

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s remark about people and corporations keeps producing further observations (see the comments in my Saturday blog).

When a man in the audience yelled that corporations should be taxed more, Romney replied, “Corporations are people, my friend.”

Give “The Stormin’ Mormon,” as Neil Cavuto approvingly called him on Fox News, credit: never has the traditional Republican doctrine been so succinctly explained.

Of the corporation, by the corporation, for the corporation. We the corporation. Corporations who need corporations are the luckiest corporations in the world. Power to the corporation!

Further analysis & comment:

Shiny Happy Corporate People | Truthout

“Funny thing is, Romney’s questioner wasn’t asking him about corporate personhood. He was asking why Romney wants to cut Social Security but while preserving corporate tax breaks. It seemed as if Romney had already memorized this little speech and was looking for a chance to trot it out. He probably had.”

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Age of Outrage – NYTimes.com

It’s not just happening in Britain.

“The fury in British cities follows huge social protests this year in Greece, where violence also flared, and in Spain, where tens of thousands have camped out from Madrid to Barcelona. Other nations, including Portugal, have seen a diffuse anger rooted in a shared conviction: things can’t go on like this. This European malaise is no stranger to a United States of high unemployment, economic bafflement, ideological radicalization and political pettiness.”

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You Want Compromise? Sure You Do – NYTimes.com

I found this little quote sort of interesting in a goofy way.

“89 percent of the Whole Foods stores in the United States were in counties carried by Barack Obama in 2008, while 62 percent of Cracker Barrel restaurants were in counties carried by John McCain.”

My parents were always wanting to meet to eat at Cracker Barrel. I never could shake the bigotry in the name. A barrel for white people, you know, “crackers.” And apparently we will never have a Whole Foods store in Western Michigan. Thank goodness for the Farmers Market in Holland.

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The Elusive Big Idea – NYTimes.com

I have read the author of this article, Neal Gabler, and have found his insights helpful. Here I think he starts out with a good idea (literally that’s the topic of the article: “ideas”) and misses the boat with thinking that has not entirely adapted to or understood the evolving environment.

By that I mean that technology can enhance thought as well as provide ways for the trivial to drive out the meaningful.

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Chinese Director’s Path From Rebel to Insider – NYTimes.com

I bookmarked this to read after reading this quote from the person profiled in the article, Zhao Liang.

“I remember quite clearly one of my middle-school teachers telling me that I was a stone with sharp, jagged edges, but that I would turn into a smooth river stone as I grew older,” Mr. Zhao said. “During the years while I was making this film, I felt like I was getting sharper and sharper instead.”

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3 thoughts on “jupe's sunday w/pics + the usual links

  1. It is true that some of the questions to Romney was about FICA tax. Currently, it limits at a little of $109,000. of income. There always has been a limit in FICA. The top limit has moved upward for as long as I can remember. It use to be when I started paying into it, $15,000. This question was really about class warfare. The idea that the people making more should pay more. The fact is that they do. FICA currently, is solvent according to the S.S. trust fund governors. The problem is though that the U.S. treasury provides to the trust fund a series E bond as a representation of value. The cash actually stays in the treasury. A lot of people say things, but really are not analyzing the situation critically. So…..When someone yells out Corporations are bad and Institutions are bad, well this may or may not be true. Some corporations operated by individuals without a moral compass can do bad. They are still operated by individuals. When Institutions like Universities, Colleges et. al. allow students to borrow money from the public to attend classes that they never attend. Is this a problem? When money is given away and not earned, do individuals respect the source of the money? When you cut off these funds due to less tax collections, does this create some of the problem that we are seeing in Europe? This idea that money without responsibility, that it is the government’s money is false and a lie. The government must first take it from someone. Of course my simplistic analysis is just that, simple. I understand simple, as do most folks.

  2. Ray,

    Thanks for commenting. I wrote a long reply to you and then thought better of it. Suffice it to say that you and I probably going to disagree about politics for the rest of our lives (may they be long!).

    This talk about politics and economics is such a small part of what I think about.

    I think about you much more in terms of our ancient history together. I remember so many good times you and I had together. Like the time we were driving in a snow storm and you shut off the van and all of us listened to the quiet and watched the snow fall. Do you remember that?

    I remember you teaching me to towel dry my long hair.

    I remember you commenting that when you are little liqueurs sound like such an enchanting idea, but when you finally taste one they are startling bad tasting to a child’s taste.

    I have dozens of memories of you. Almost everyone of them ones I treasure.

    Fuck politics, dude.

    your friend from the past,

    Steve

  3. Yes, it is true that my sense of enjoyment of things has left me. I have forgotten all of the things that we have had together. My commentary is not meant to be negative, but perhaps an opportunity to save what I can. There is not much that I enjoy anymore. I have had great responsibilities over other peoples lives in many different aspects. This sense of responsibility to others is difficult to let go. Peace to you and your family

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