stressful monday

 

03.21.2017Many thanks to daughter Elizabeth for showing me the widget for a profile pic on my blog. As you can probably see, I have changed it to today’s pic above.  (Caveat: This doesn’t seem to work on phone type apps…. it’s at the bottom of the entire frame) My niece Cindy Cosway once remarked that she liked it when I kept  my profile pic on Fecesbook up to date. I gathered that she found it helpful to see my aging mug and think that was what I looked like now. Anyway, I haven’t made a decision to continue doing things one way or the other. That’s the beauty of the interwebs and having daughters who can help their old man with tech. [Post script. I have removed the widget entirely and updated the header with a pic. Still a work in progress obviously, but I’m glad to get rid of that orangey pattern thingo that came with the template.]

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Yesterday devolved into a bit of a stressful Monday for me. One thing Dr. Birky has helped me understand about myself is how sensitive I am. This was certainly the case yesterday. I was a bit rattled to perform with a jazz musician I didn’t know very well except by reputation. I know that I am an unconventional musician (to say the least) who doesn’t fit well into categories. In addition, I’m at peace with my own understandings about music and improvisation, understandings that rarely rhyme with other musicians’s understandings.

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As I was saying here yesterday, my improvisations are a mismash of the musics of my life. I am usually proud of them.

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And as I mentioned to Eileen when I do jazz I tend to be playful, not careful the way academic jazzers can be. I’m thinking of chord voicings here. It’s similar to improvising baroque figured bass. I think both are interesting, but neither are skills I want to develop. If you are a listener, I like to think my improvs buy diazepam online uk london will take you somewhere. And honestly my brand of improvising does seem to be something that I get comments on frequently, even from academic musicians.

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After yesterday’s funeral, the jazz trumpet player said that more church musicians should be able to sit down and do what I did with him yesterday. This is probably as close to a compliment as this dude gets. Mostly I had weird anxiety going into this gig. The deceased was a jazz aficionado. There were musicians present as well as eccentric bow tied intellectuals who were probably jazzers. But mostly I was off balance beforehand. I acquitted myself satisfactorily on the tunes the trumpet player had chosen. I invited him to play more with me in the prelude, but he demurred.

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It ended up being a emotionally charged funeral. I had moments of being over whelmed and quietly weeping. This happens to me from time to time at funerals. As Eileen later pointed out it’s  difficult to watch other people grieve, especially family. My trumpet player referred to the dead man as a dear friend and I think he was doing his share of grieving.

Earlier in the day, Eileen could not find my  W2 form from church.

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I overreacted and didn’t really calm down about this until I had found the form just before the funeral. Eileen and I agreed that at our next weekly “check-in” we would work out some ground rules about protecting over sensitive jupe. Hopefully I can avoid stressing myself out that way. Hey. It could happen.

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Chinese police say officers may have tortured dead suspect in rare admission on social media | Hong Kong Free Press

Famous relatives in the news, part I. My illustrious son-in-law, Jeremy Daum is quoted in this article.

The Current for March 21, 2017 – Home | The Current with Anna Maria Tremonti | CBC Radio

Famous relatives in the news, part II. My illustrious smarter better looking brother was interviewed yesterday for this show aired this morning.

2 thoughts on “stressful monday

  1. 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..

    1. 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

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