I recently finished Ron Padgett’s collection of poetry called Alone and Not Alone. It came out this year. It’s pretty good. I’m not as excited about his poetry as I am about Cynthia MacDonald’s.

My copy of her first book of poetry, Amputations, arrived in the mail yesterday. I find her very witty and acerbic, a nice antidote to living in Holland, Michigan and even the USA of today.

I have been contacting churches near where Mark my brother is currently living in the middle of Michigan near Ann Arbor. Eileen and I planning to go over to see him and Leigh next Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The main purpose of the trip is so that Eileen can help Mark get started with some weaving. Eileen is also planning to purchase more stuff to weave with.

I have contacted three or four churches including St. Barnabas Episcopal church and St. Paul United C of C. I am hopeful that one of these last two will respond and allow me to practice on their instruments while visiting. But they are long shots at this point.

I would like to practice because I have organ music by Distler and Pepping scheduled the following Sunday. Also the anthem is one that I plan to accompany at the organ and it could use some practice as well (“Tarry no Longer” by William H. Harris from the Oxford Easy Anthem Book).

But if I don’t hear from one of these churches I think it’ll be alright. I can probably get some rehearsal in on Thursday morning before we leave and Saturday evening after we get back.

It’s getting cooler in Holland Michigan. These cool fall days are perfect days for long walks. Eileen and I walked over to my Mom’s nursing home yesterday as we have been doing almost every day (Skipped Wednesday due to my strenuous schedule on that day).

We also stopped by the building where I work so that Eileen could look at the pool and exercise rooms she now has access to. Then we went to Hope’s ticket office and bought tickets for the Oct 29 Great Performance Series. We couldn’t afford season tickets this year but are planning on going to a few of these.

I found it interesting that my Julie my ballet instructor confessed that she didn’t like Stravinsky.

We were having a discussion about time signatures that were not in four or three. I was rehearsing Sunday’s prelude (Toccata in Seven by Rutter) on the piano and Julie asked me about it. This led to a discussion of interesting meters.

Then Julie said that she didn’t like Stravinsky which I found amusing. She of course has danced his music. I can see where a dancer might not be enamored of Rite of Spring or Petrushka. But I told Julie that not all of Stravinsky’s music is like his ballets.

I have been exploring pod casts on my tablet recently. This morning I listened to one on the French conductor Pierre Monteux (1875-1964) I didn’t know the name, but apparently he knew Brahms well enough to have played in a string quartet with him. One of the recordings the panel played and discussed was of Petrushka. Apparently Monteux knew and was a champion of Stravinsky. His recordings are early enough that they exhibit the learning curve of orchestras with music that was new to them.

I listened to a recording of a Brahms symphony movement before I turned it off and did my morning reading.

I’m interested in podcasts. They are a good way to have some interesting listening while cooking or cleaning.

I subscribed to On The Media this morning which I listen to regularly but it was a repeat show.

The Most Important Thing, and It’s Almost a Secret – The New York Times

The “thing” is world wide improvement in stuff like poverty, education and standard of living. Not great but getting better.