While I was on vacation, I composed a draft of a choral setting of the the text, “Ride on, ride on” by Henry H. Milman. I haven’t had time to put it into a Finale file and do some rewrite on it. Not sure I will actually perform it with my choir, but was interested in the text. The Hymnal 1982 Companion describes it as “one of the best hymns in the English language.” This intrigued me so I worked with the text a bit and came up with some choral musical ideas.
Yesterday was an amusing day of stops and starts. I had set for myself the task of finalizing all choir recruitment letters to send out to a list of adults and children at my church. Each letter was to be personalized at least with the name of the recipient. In many cases I further added a paragraph specifically for the person the letter was addressed to. In addition I had two versions of the letter for the adult choir: one for people who had previously been in the choir and one for people who would be new to the choir if they chose to accept my invitation to join.
After a morning of cleaning house and putzing about I finally sat down to work on these letters. I altered the first one and printed it up. Yikes. My printer needed ink. I decided to pop off to the grocery store and pick up a few groceries and get printer ink.
I returned home and installed the new ink cartridge. Then as I began to work I realized that the internet was down. I do all my work online so this was a revoltin’ development.
Undeterred I jumped in the car and drove to work to finish the task. I began using my boss’s computer (she was out of the office) and immediately ran into trouble again because her browser (Internet Explorer 8 ) didn’t seem to be able to talk to the networked printer.
After many attempts to correct this I found out from the secretary that Google Chrome was newly installed on my boss’s computer and was the browser of choice recommended by the IT guys. Good to know.
After that it was clear sailing for two hours and I finished this stage of the project. The secretary gave me mailing labels, envelopes and stamps. Today I finish off this project by stuffing the letters into prepared envelopes and mailing them.
Sheesh.
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Speaking of computer fuck ups, my online bookmarking service refused to bookmark links for me yesterday as well. I have a folder in my browser called “When diggolet doesn’t work.” This is where I bookmark sites when the silly thing fails.
Here’s today’s links:
Donal Henahan, a Music Critic for The Times, Dies at 91 – NYTimes.com
I thought this guy sounded pretty interesting. As usual, this music critic had a pithy phrase or two up his sleeve.
‘Sex and God at Yale,’ by Nathan Harden – NYTimes.com
This book review is an evenhanded look at a young naive conservative person’s reaction to weird college stuff.
‘The Victims’ Revolution,’ by Bruce Bawer – NYTimes.com
Another book review of a hostile look at college.
U.S. Foreign Arms Sales Are Most of Global Market – NYTimes.com
Sooprise. Sooprise. We are the arms dealer to the world.
The Mermaid by Heinz Insu Fenkl — The Endicott Studio Journal of Mythic Arts, Summer 2003
I have joined several LinkedIn groups. This and the next link come from the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Group there. I did not know the story of Starbucks mermaid/siren. Haven’t finished this article yet.
Medieval legend at Parthenay-le-Vieux (Dennis Aubrey) « Via Lucis Photography
Dennis Aubrey and P J McKey have made a beautiful web site. They are photographing historic churches in Europe and write eloquently about the legends surrounding them. Very very very cool.
Gullibility in Politics and in Film – NYTimes.com
Just what it says in the title of this article. Frank Bruni muses.
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