Ran across this passage last night reading Twain:

“What a wee little part of a person’s life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself. All day long, and everyday, the mill of his brain is grinding and his thoughts, (which are but the mute articulation of his feelings,) not those other things, are his history. His acts and his words are merely the visible thin crust of his world, with its scattered snow summits and its vacant wastes of water—and they are so trifling a part of his bulk! a mere skin enveloping it. The mass of him is hidden—it and its volcanic fires that toss and boil, and never rest, night nor day. These are his life, and they are not written, and cannot be written. Every day would make a whole book of eighty thousand words—these hundred and sixty-five books a year. Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man—the biography of the man himself cannot be written.” Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain: The complete and authoritative edition, vol 1

This passage leapt out at me and reminded me of the other author I was reading lately, James Joyce. Joyce would agree with this sentence I think. Except for the part that a life can never be written, since that is the point ofUlysses… to record a complete fictional day of human life.

Yesterday turned into another full day for me. I’m feeling a bit creaky this morning.  I chose Sunday’s organ music: a piece by Bach and a very interesting setting by church music composer, Harald Rohlig. I have played a few of his compositions and have always found them distinctive and interesting. A quick google reveals that he is a professor emeritus in an Alabama college (Huntingdon).  He was born in Germany and disturbingly was drafted into Hitler’s air force in WWII.  Here’s a link to 2004 lecture notes for a lecture he gave entitled, “Living under an unjust regime.”

Anyway. Both pieces I am looking at for Sunday are based on the opening hymntune: Christ ist erstanden. Rohlig and divide up their settings into sections labeled versus.  I am planning to play Bach’s third versus. Haven’t decided how much of Rohlig to schedule. It’s good music but playing all of it for the prelude might be a bit lengthy, not to mention more music to learn for this Sunday.

In the afternoon, my violinist and  I met with a bridal party for an upcoming wedding at Hope college. The bride was probably nine or ten years old the last time I saw her. This turned into a full fledged music consultation as I recommended psalm settings to a singer (who has never been a cantor before but “sings at her church”), demonstrated piano, organ and violin music for the group.  Watched the bride’s mother (who is a friend) tear up while we discussed the particulars.

Came home and worked a bit on putting the psalm in Finale so I can adjust the key for the singer. Why do people sing so low these days? I think the answer is that they are unschooled.

At ballet class my strategy of including melody in the introduction seemed to be the ticket for most of the evening. The instructor is more rigid than I am used to. One move called the frappé involves a short series of vigorous jumps. I often play a improvisation that is as much rhythm as melody. So I didn’t do much melody in the intro. Immediately the teacher began indicating a slower rhythm. Then after she explained to me that I should begin the introduction with the last phrase of the melody I planned to play. This is fine except that I often don’t know exactly where a melody is going until I play it.

In fact, my approach differs from this in church work where I have made sure for years that congregations clearly hear the beginning of the melody I am asking them to sing. It is a bit old fashion to make the introduction the last four bars of the phrase.

You can be sure tonight there will be a melody in every introduction. I am a bit more used to being treated like a member of the team than this woman can pull off. Nevertheless her temperament is very calm and matter of fact, not bullying. I think I can get through this first week and do the job if not well at least adequately for her.

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Never Mind the ‘Vast Wasteland.’ Minow Has More to Say – NYTimes.com

“…[I]n exchange for free and exclusive licenses to use the airwaves, bona fide “public service” programming should be provided by broadcasters, whom he addressed and angered at their national gathering in Washington. “

Then FCC chair Newton Minow pissed off the media when he maintained this in 1961. I think it’s still true.

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30-Year-Old Capital Case Returns to Court, With Defense Alleging Bias – NYTimes.com

Interesting history of appeals and mischief caused by prosecutors.

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Mixed Reviews for Brownsville Ban on Plastic Bags – NYTimes.com

I remember when I first took plastic bags to recycle at Meijers a few years ago. The clerk thought I wanted my 5 cents per bag and began throwing them away. She barely understood that I was trying to reuse them. Now Meijers sells fabric bags to reuse for a dollar.

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Despite Government Efforts, Tainted Food Widespread in China – NYTimes.com

We ate great when we were in China. Including the street vendor buns mentioned in this article.

Not sure the “May Term” is working out that great for the Dance Department at Hope. I put it in parentheses because as far as I can tell, the college itself is on break.  The Dance Department has invited three profs for a one week class each. Unfortunately last night only one student showed up.

I was a bit off my game of improvising. This is understandable because I wanted to make sure I could do what the visiting prof needed. I find that simplifying helps me control what I am doing. Sure enough, the prof complained that some of my introductions (called “preparations” by dancers) were quicker than my tempos for the dance (which she typified as correct).

This sort of thing is tricky. Walking home I reflected that I probably have been letting my introductions at church get sloppy tempo wise. If for no other reason that the tempo of the introduction doesn’t seem that critical to a group of lay singers whose collective sense of tempo often wavers.

During class my solution to the instructor’s admonishment was to make the introductions have more melody to them. It is my impression that dancers listen mostly to the melody, some to the chord progression. Rhythmic aspects are curiously lower on their perceptions than melody and harmony. The rhythms are like a bonus to their dancing.

It’s counterintuitive until you realize that so much of dancing is mental, remembering routines in order and giving silent directions or corrections to yourself as a dancer.

This makes it very important to know where you are in the melody.

I also think that what was happening last night was I was correcting my tempo instantly after the introduction to reflect what the teacher wanted.  To get a sense of what is needed I watch dance instructors closely, especially their body language. And I adjust pretty instantly if my improvisation feels like a wrong choice.

Anyway.

The teacher didn’t seem too dissatisfied with my work.  She mentioned working with the famous dancer, Nureyev.

I had the music she requested ready to play (a scene from the Ballet “Ramonda” by Glazounov). She didn’t call for it.  She stopped the class after an hour and half. The chair of the department danced along for most of the class, drawing the line at some pretty vigorous steps due to age and an old knee injury.

I managed to pace myself yesterday and was still refreshed in the evening. Of course I am tired this morning and am looking at three more evenings of dance class and an evening gig on Friday.

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Women Against the Hangman by Roger Cohen – NYTimes.com

Challenges being faced by brave women on the ground in Libya.

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Mothers We Could Save by Nicholas Kristof – NYTimes.com

Needless deaths in Somalia due to poor pre-natal care and no contraception. Kristof’s Mother’s Day column.

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Why We Celebrate Killing Bin Laden by Johathon Haidt – NYTimes.com

Haidt is a Psychology professor who claims that it was patriotic not nationalistic for Americans to celebrate the death of bin Laden. I don’t think he quite has this right.  While I don’t think the jubilation seen in America over the death of bin Laden warped us, I do think it is humans behaving badly.

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Shampoo Free!

My niece Emily just about has me convinced to start washing my hair with baking soda and then rinsing with vinegar. I stopped by the local Natural Foods store last week and tried to purchase some things I needed there. Unfortunately the costs were astronomically greater for recycled products than cheapo Meijers versions (recycled napkins = $10 for a package, Meijers cheapo napkins = $1.50). Had to go with the cheapo, of course.

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Watery Grave, Murky Law – NYTimes.com

Interesting explanation of the history of Islamic burial practices.

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The White House’s Bedtime Bombshell – NYTimes.com

I put this link up on Facebook. I think it’s interesting how newspapers arrive at how they report a story, especially factoring in websites.

For visuals on this same story:

The Times in Overdrive – Arthur S. Brisbane – The Public Editor – The New York Times – NYTimes.com

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Why Should Teachers Be Blamed? – NYTimes.com

Some interesting letters to the editor about recent education reporting. I especially liked the first one:

“Ironically, the poor treatment teachers endure in America has to do with the high hopes we vest in them. We widely believe that, no matter what forces shape a child’s life outside school, teachers can level the playing field, neutralize the negative effects of poverty on learning, and raise every kid to proficiency in every standard. But this generally doesn’t happen.”

T. ELIJAH HAWKES
Brooklyn, May 1, 2011
The writer is principal of the James Baldwin School in Manhattan.

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My break is over and it’s back to the playing for Ballet classes this evening. I’m not as exhausted as I was but I’m still not fully rested. Pretty normal for a Monday. Interested to see how I do with increased hours and unfamiliar teachers in the May term.

In addition to church and ballet I have added playing with the Barefoot Jazz Quartet this summer.  We played last week and have another gig this week on Friday from 5-7 PM. It’s flattering to me that this group of musicians has reached out to include me in their group.  This is in contrast to my usual treatment by local people who would be logical colleagues for me (organists, composers, musicians).  I told Eileen this week that if I had to choose between being having local church or college musicians keep me on their radar as a respected colleague or playing with people like the Barefoot Jazz Quartet I would instantly choose the latter.

I find it a bit curious that local musicians keep me at arm’s length even when I make the rare attempt to connect with them. I’m not much of a schmoozer and over the years the local artistic community seems to perceive me as “odd.” But what do I expect? Much of this is my own doing. It’s probably even a bit of my heritage on my father’s side. Both he and my grandfather were intellectuals in an anti-intellectual denomination (Church of God, Anderson Indiana). The point is that I’m more comfortable with those who are eccentric (like my church people) and passionate (like the people in Barefoot Jazz Quartet).

After riding home from the Hatch Mother’s day cookout and chatting briefly with my son in California on my cell on the way, I plopped down on my new lawn chair, sipped wine and read a chapter each in James Joyce’s Ulysses and Mark Twain’s recently released autobiography.

I have read Ulysses but still enjoy returning to Joyce because each time I catch things I missed before. I think one of the points he makes in this book is that each person’s life is a sort of deep and resonant story that has it’s own secrets and beauty. Ulysses you recall is the story of one day in Dublin. It basically follows Stephen Daedalus and Leopold Bloom throughout the day. Daedalus is a sort of Icarus/son figure who is also the the main character of Joyce’s Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. Bloom is the Ulysses/father figure of the book.  Joyce begins the book in his sort of stream of consciousness technique and then moves through myriad uses of language, parodying writers mercilessly and applying an encyclopedic array of use of words. I find that I can dip in anywhere (like I did yesterday) and enjoy it.

I’m hoping to get more done on my string quartet arrangement of “Yellow” by Coldplay today. Also need to practice ballet music since one of the instructors has requested a scene from Glazounov’s ballet, “Raymonda.” I have been learning it, but need to polish it more. Tomorrow I and the violin player meet with a wedding party. I need to do some prep for that as well (find some music and practice a couple of Debussy piano pieces the bride has requested).

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Today’s links are a bit on the liberal side of partisanship. I apologize to the conservatives who visit.

Obama Administration Plans Corporate Tax Cut in Year of Record Profits | The Nation

Pakistan’s K Street Connections | The Nation

After Osama bin Laden’s Death, an End to ‘Bad Guys’ | The Nation

Do They Dream? Spelunking With Werner Herzog | The Nation

My Friend Len Weinglass | The Nation

Guernica / Noam Chomsky: My Reaction to Osama bin Laden’s Death

I find this last article a bit troubling. My daughter, Sarah, linked it in on Facebook. My wife read it. Chomsky can be excellent. I have found him more shrill as both he and I age. In this case he seems to misrepresent the Osama bin Laden caper a bit. His phrase, “virtually no resistance,” seems suspect to me since people were killed in the initial gunfight. He second guesses the situation strictly from a narrow point of view and then says that President Obama lied about “quickly” learning that al Qaeda was behind 9/11 . I don’t find his comments any more helpful than that of, say, Rush Limbaugh or Dick Cheney.

Hmmmmm.

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Yesterday on the Writers Almanac site, I found it curious that they posted a poem about fathers. Had to be on purpose.

Weeds
by Wesley McNair

In my fifty-fifth year,
kneeling in my garden
to pull a weed,
I discover my father,
whom I hardly knew,
lying down in his garden.
His heart so damaged now
no doctor would remove
the cataracts that spoil his sight,
he has no other way to see
what he is doing. With him again
in his sad dimness,
I don’t want to lecture him
about the smell of booze
or talk about the seed
he left long ago untended.

link to entire poem

Mother’s Day is sort of turning into a big deal for me today. I’ve always felt that these kinds of holidays have been co-opted by our consumer oriented society.  By turning holidays into big marketing days we drain authenticity from important holidays like Christmas and Easter.  When it comes to a more gentle idea like honoring our Fathers and Mothers, it seems to me to collapse under the weight of this kind of treatment.

Nevertheless, I have always tried to reiterate my love for my Mom on this day so she doesn’t even suspect I am not thinking of her.

Yesterday I had another full day off. Eileen and I met an old class mate of hers for lunch at the pub. That was fun, talking to someone who played in Band with Eileen in High School. Very cool. After grocery shopping and organ practice, I prepared food. I made a carrot cake to take with us to the annual Hatch Mother’s Day (Hatch is Eileen’s maiden name…. and I told you I was out of control) and prepared a quiche for a brunch with my Mom today.

The quiche is in the oven right now.

I have yet to frost the carrot cake because it came out of the oven at 8:30 PM last night. That’s pretty late for an “early-to-bedder” like me.

At about 6:30 or so, Eileen’s long awaited lawn edging arrived in the mail. She has been marking time waiting for this to arrive. She was planning to use it to create a little three tiered strawberry bed. This involves many wheelbarrows of compost. She looked at me exhausted and said we could wait on doing garden work. But after a brief conference to determine that she actually would like to work on it right away, we went to work.

So I found myself manually laboring again. New territory for this musician/cook. But what the hey.

So by the time the evening rolled around I was once again a tired camper.

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The Politics of Solipsism – NYTimes.com

David Brooks column. I don’t entirely agree with his point of view but find his arguments interesting.

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The Knot | Lindsay Elect

I once “jammed”with this young woman in the park. Now she has released a CD.

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I never miss this show. Here’s links to a couple of good segments from this week.

Bin Laden in Culture

50th anniversary of TV Wasteland Speech

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This is the song I have been asked to arrange for String Quartet. On top of everything else yesterday I managed to get started on this.

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Skipped blogging yesterday and worked on church stuff instead. I managed to come up with anthems for the rest of the season (through the middle of June).  This kind of work is pretty absorbing. At this stage in what I do, I want the repertoire to work on several levels. I want it to be well crafted. That’s something I have paid attention to all my career as a church musician. But in addition I want it to be music that has a spark of some kind of attraction beyond mere craft. This is much harder to define.

Also, I have to factor in the actual people I think will be performing the music. Will I have enough singers to pull off an anthem? Is there a likelihood they will find something attractive in the music?

Another thing I think about is how will this music enhance the worship of the community. Will it provide a resonant addition of meaning and beauty that could possibly make sense to this community in this time and in this place?

Someone at church recently pointed out to me that I do much more than is required. I take this to mean that I could get by with a lot less work and careful planning. This is certainly true and sometimes I opt for the easy road just to survive. But attempting stuff that I determine will stretch myself and my community is much more fun. Important to be realistic as possible about reaching out of the comfort zone because one of the basic mistakes church choirs make is to perform medium difficult music poorly.

Anyway.

Eileen and I also took my Mom out for lunch in downtown Holland  yesterday. I can say it that way because she actually allowed us to treat her. Usually she insists on paying for lunch. Afterward, we had a nice walk in the sunshine down to the fudge shop. Mom bought some fudge for herself and some for Eileen. Then we were off to my Mom’s favorite shop, the Dollar Store. After a quick trip to Walgreens we took Mom back to her place.

We came home and I did some hauling of stuff for Eileen for her garden. She is hoping that some material she ordered will come in the mail today so she can finish planting strawberries.

Eileen helped me in the afternoon by putting the new anthems in the choir folder slots while I practiced organ. Then we went for drinks and appetizers at the pub. Another busy day off.

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Here are some bookmarks from a cursory look this morning. Haven’t read any of these yet, but will read or scan sometime.

Michigan House approves cuts in funding for education | Lansing State Journal | lansingstatejournal.com

West Ottawa Schools (northern Holland Michigan area) did not renew it’s millage. I can’t understand how people think our society will be able to continue without systematic education.

Facing protests, Pscholka withdraws from Blossomtime parade | Michigan Messenger

Pscholka sponsored our recently passed Michigan Emergency Manager law.  He is pissed off that people are going to picket him in Benton Harbor. Where they recently put in a Michigan Emergency Manager. Ahem.

House approves penalty for colleges that offer partner benefits | Michigan Messenger

Hatred of people with different sexual orientations continues to be fanned by politicians.

Dick Cheney, the President Will Take Your Apology Now | Mother Jones

Dick Cheney is someone I have difficulty respecting. From a loud vocal “Fuck You” on the floor of the Congress to “Deficits don’t matter” to meeting behind closed doors with oil companies the first year of Bush’s term, I just think the guy is way off base.

RealClearPolitics – Torture Is Still Torture

Eugene Robinson, the author of this article, continues to insist on the truth that torture did not lead to Osama. And that torture is a stain on our national honor. I’m with him on that last one for sure.

All the frogs croak before a storm: Dostoevsky versus Tolstoy on Humanitarian Interventions | openDemocracy

High-Quality DNA – Print – Newsweek

Lone Frank writes about young scientists in Beijing in the world’s largest genome facility.

Faulty Towers: The Crisis in Higher Education | The Nation

The Intimate Orwell by Simon Leys | The New York Review of Books

‘I Tried to Stop the Bloody Thing’: an article by Adam Hochschild | The

American Scholar

War resisters to WWI.

Simon Blackburn Reviews Stanley Fish’s “How To Write A Sentence” | The New Republic

Boston Review — Junot Díaz: Apocalypse (Haiti, Japan, earthquake, tsunami)

Junot Díaz is a writer I admire. This appears to be his blog for the Boston Review. Cool.

Interesting day yesterday. I baked a peach pie prepared the day before as I blogged. Took it with me to staff meeting. The staff meeting was very low key. A lot of good feelings about the recent Holy Week celebrations and the direction the church is heading in. The boss is pleased.

After the meeting I took some time and practiced organ. I think I have about four movements (theme and three variations) of the piece I have been working on that I possibly can play this Sunday. I think that’s pretty good for a piece of organ repertoire like the“Variations sur un noël” op. 20  by Marcel Dupré.

I purchased a recording of this piece on Amazon. It was an album of pieces played by Ji-yoen Choi. As I was listening to her album, my attention was caught by the last movement of Bach’s E minor trio sonata for organ. I liked it so much I began rehearsing it yesterday. I love the organ trios of Bach. They are fun to play and challenging in a uniquely organ way. Thinking seriously of learning this movement.

In the afternoon I received a package of used music I purchased from my previous organ teacher, Craig Cramer. From time to time he sends out an email of a list of music he is selling. I bought about 30 titles from him including pieces for organ by Milhaud, Copland, Gerald Near, Vaughan Williams and Stanford.

I also bought three volumes of The Dett Collection of Negro Spirituals and six piano vocal scores of Bach Cantatas I didn’t own.

I immediately set about indexing the organ music based on hymn tunes.  I do this by recording the composer and  name of a setting on a 4×6 card with the name of the hymn tune at the top of it. I have been keeping this index for several decades and it is very handy for finding organ music in my collection based on certain hymn tunes.

At 5 PM I met Nate Walker and Jordan VanHemert at Nate’s house. We met Roman Tarchinski at the High School for our first gig as a foursome.  While there was some very fine playing on all of the players parts at the gig, I’m hoping this group will settle into a bit more equal partnership of players since each musician has a unique musical insight to offer to our collective sound.

This is Nate, Roman and me at our last gig. I found the gig in this picture a bit more laid back and creative than last night’s. But still I had fun and was happy to be asked to play with these guys.

Today I have another full day. I take my Mom to the Neurologist, meet with my boss and then a piano trio rehearsal. Eileen is driving off to meet nephew Emily and pick up Alpaca poop together.

Apparently Alpaca poop is top notch fertilizer due to the fact that Alpaca have three stomachs and their poop is a gentler mix of nitrogen and lower in phosphorus.

I need to get going on a string arrangement I have agreed to do (Yellow by Coldplay) and pick out some choral anthems for the rest of the church year.  Not to mention bearing down on some upcoming piano pieces I have to perform: A movement of Glazounov’s ballet, Raymonda for the May term of Ballet classes and a couple of Debussy piano pieces for an upcoming wedding.

As usual I stay pretty busy for someone with the self image of a “bum.”

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Anatomy of a Fake Quotation – Megan McArdle – National – The Atlantic

This is pretty interesting. I saw this quote going around on Facebook and didn’t think much of it. Apparently due to cut and pasting and “sharing”, some quotation marks got mislaid and some words were attributed to Martin Luther King that he never said.

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Politically, Osama was already dead by Samir Saul

A Canadian take from the Montreal Gazette on recent events.  Haven’t read it yet, but plan to.

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Fit to Rule on Same-Sex Marriage – NYTimes.com

NYT editorial about efforts to get a Judge to recuse himself because he’s gay. Sheesh.

“After the trial, Judge Walker said he is gay and involved in a long-term relationship. Last week, Proposition 8’s lawyers argued that the ruling should be tossed out because he had had a duty to recuse himself, or at least disclose the relationship at the start of the case.

“The claim is bogus.

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The Myth of Mr. Obama’s Weakness – NYTimes.com

Another NYT editorial. I thought it put it well. I continue to be a bit disturbed at the hatred and anger that is directed at the President. This bothered me with Bush as well even though I totally disagreed with his presidency. Civility and good behavior in public is paramount to me.

“One of the subtexts to this argument is that Mr. Obama is not a true American, a thread soaked in the politics of fear and racial intolerance that runs through so much of the anti-Obama right.”

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Cables Show U.S. Concern on Japan’s Disaster Readiness – NYTimes.com

Wikileaks strikes again.

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Bin Laden Raid Revives Debate on Value of Torture – NYTimes.com

I continue to abhor violence enacted by governments. Torture is for me the opposite of concepts I think America should stand for, namely freedom and the willingness to tolerate and respect those we disagree with.

Salient quote:

“….[A] closer look at prisoner interrogations suggests that the harsh techniques played a small role at most in identifying Bin Laden’s trusted courier and exposing his hide-out. One detainee who apparently was subjected to some tough treatment provided a crucial description of the courier, according to current and former officials briefed on the interrogations. But two prisoners who underwent some of the harshest treatment — including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times — repeatedly misled their interrogators about the courier’s identity.”

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Clues Gradually Led to the Location of Osama bin Laden – NYTimes.com

I have bookmarked this article to read. Maureen Down referred to the quality of this reporting in a recent column and I thought I would check it out.

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Got up yesterday. Blogged. Made a nice breakfast for Eileen and me (Fruit Salad, softer breakfast burrito for Eileen, breakfast fried rice for me).  Then we walked to our precinct and voted in the millage and school board election. We were voters number 110 and 111. Not a big turnout.

In between I fingered the fifth variation of “Variations sur un noël” op. 20  by Marcel Dupré. When I was in grad school I :fingered all my pieces. This means writing a finger number on every note. Before that, my undergraduate teacher, Ray Ferguson, spoke of taking a portion of his summer vacation and fingering all the pieces he planned to perform in the coming year. Fingering is an arduous task. One has to plan the logic carefully utilizing both the logic of limiting hand movement as much as possible and also what seems logical to you as a unique performer.

I chose to finger this movement due to the fact that the right hand is a perpetual mobile kind of figure of quick notes. I could already play it pretty well at a slower tempo and realized that if I always used the same fingers it would speed up the process of learning this difficult variation. This took a good chunk of my morning.

I have figured out that my son, David, hits the road for his morning commute in California at 10:15 my time. This is a time he has time on his hands and a good time to call him to shoot the breeze.  In California, it is against the law to talk on a cell phone and drive. This is a good law, I think. What phone users are expected to do is use hands free devices when they drive.

David insists that talking to me on the phone using his hands free dealy is no more distracting than listening to the radio. The time difference makes it less easier for me to call him to chat after his work.

So yesterday I took advantage of this and called and chatted with David for a bit.

After that, filled the dishwasher, then helped Eileen move a bunch of compost from our driveway to where she is planning to raise vegetables. She usually does this work herself, but she is still recuperating from her fall and having some other back issues as well. I volunteered. Amazingly, I am not that sore today even though I rarely do manual labor.

Then I came in and made two pies, one blueberry for a welcome gift to the neighbors and one peach to take to today’s staff meeting potluck at church. While the blueberry was baking I went over to church and practiced Dupré.

I can play the theme and six of the variations of this piece. But not all of them are “ready for prime time.” I will choose the ones in best shape on Saturday to play on Sunday and probably continue working on them and the others until I learn the whole piece.

There are ten variations. The last one is quite involved. It begins with a fugue and ends with a toccata.  The sixth variation is a clever little three part canon. I quite like it and plan to end whatever group I come up with for this Sunday with it. The canons begin at the interval of a descending fifth. This is like singing “Row, row, row your boat” with each voice the round starting in a different key. The result is arresting to my ears.

After practicing, I came home and treadmilled. Then Eileen and I went out to eat. This was a good relaxing day off that I badly needed.

Today I have some tasks. Besides the staff meeting, I have a little jazz gig with the Barefoot Jazz Quartet around 5 PM. We are playing for a National Honor Society reception at the local high school. My bass player is graduating this year I think.  I suspect he is a member of this organization.

At any rate, this should be fun.

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Analysis of Marcel Dupre’s Variations Sur un Noel, op. 20

Found this, this morning. Bookmarked to read later.

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Buying Copyrights, Then Patrolling the Web for Infringement – NYTimes.com

A week after On the Media reported on this, the New York Times follows suit. This whole deal drives me nuts. I think that consumers should boycott copyright holders who sue customers.

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Hearts Beat as One During a Fire-Walking Ritual – NYTimes.com

This is fun. Scientists find that a group of people watching an event turn out to sometimes have synchronized heart beats.

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A Pakistani Student Reflects on Osama bin Laden’s Death | The Nation

And as I watch all-American, 20-something Caucasian males fist-pump and chest-bump one another outside the White House lawns in celebration, I hope and pray that we are on the road to changing this past decade’s master narrative of the “Global War on Terror.”

The Ghost of bin Laden | The Nation

“I suspect many people will also feel somewhat embarrassed that their reasonable emotions were manipulated by cheap propagandists into something dreadfully exaggerated and irrational. We have a right to resent some of the shameful things done in our name. We have an obligation to make sure they do not continue.”

I have been chagrined and embarrassed by watching unbridled jubilation at the death of Osama bin Laden and the weird anger of people I know towards our president. I share this writer’s idea that people are manipulated by cheap propaganda in the USA. I call it the “echo chamber” since so few people are critical of what they see, hear and read in their news sources. I think this has seriously damaged us as a country.

My wife and I attended the funeral of her uncle Pat (her Mom’s younger brother) yesterday in Muskegon. The funeral was in a funeral home.

Funeral homes always strike me as surreal in a sort of “Talking Heads” or Matthew Barney way.

The open casket sat between two huge floral arrangements.  To the right of the casket was a podium where the preacher was to stand. Before it was a a long couch. Behind that were rows of chairs.

Uncle Pat was 80 something years old. Many of the mourners were elderly themselves.  There was a restrained sadness in the air. It’s hard not to use a liturgist’s eye in this situation. Humans need ritual so intensely. Ritualizing our lives is one of the things Americans have such difficultly doing. Our lives seem so rootless sometimes and we never know what to expect at those important times of our lives like birth, marriage and death. We lack a common authentic culture.

But this vacuum is quickly filled by attempts to make sense of these moments of change. Yesterday, speaking through a microphone (of course), the genial Baptist minister walked the congregation through the moment by reading some scripture, praying, preaching, inviting up Pat’s daughter for a moment of invitation to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, preaching some more, then inviting the mourners to come to the church for a meal and reminiscences of Pat’s life to be followed by burial at the cemetery.

At one point, he plopped down in the easy chair behind him. Music started up in the P.A. It was “Amazing Grace” with a synthesized Hammond B3 accompaniment and a smooth voiced male singer singing. It wasn’t long before this group of about a hundred people were humming and murmuring along with the recording uninvited. Soon they were singing. They obviously knew all of the three verses the singer sang. It felt like a moment of meaning that sort of leaked in to a situation struggling to be human.  The genial preacher did not sing.

After his bit, the local Veterans marched up and ritually walked past the casket and saluted slowly one at a time. Then the local Commander of the Veterans and the Chaplain led us through another entire service of prayer which culminated in a 21 gun salute outside out of sight, taps (sounded like a real horn to me), and presentation of the flag and a pouch with the empty shells of the gun salute to the widow.

Then the funeral director came up and instructed us how to leave (back row first, file past the coffin and exit).

When I was in graduate school and taking a class in the ritual of Eucharist, we had an assignment to attend a non-liturgical church and observe and report on it.  I did a Christian Scientist service and was able to see ritual (albeit unacknowledged or sought for) throughout their prayer. Many of these Christian denominations deliberately position themselves as non-ritual. But I think ritual is inescapable where there are human beings. From domestic rituals like brushing our teeth or reading bedtime stories to highly stylized rituals like beatification of Roman Catholic saints, rituals help us be human.

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Springtime for Bankers – NYTimes.com

Krugman keeps on plugging despite the Orwellian tendencies of our public rhetoric to bend the facts.

“As you may recall, Republicans ran hard against bank bailouts. Among other things, they managed to convince a plurality of voters that the deeply unpopular bailout legislation proposed and passed by the Bush administration was enacted on President Obama’s watch.”

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Payback, Served Cold | Al Jazeera Blogs

I heard about the Osama killing on the radio yesterday morning. When I sought more information, I went first to Al Jazeera. They continue to outdance American news sources about international news. I read several articles including the one above by a member of the (U.S.) Council on Foreign Relations.

I also happened across Hitchens take:

Osama Bin Laden’s legacy: It will depend in part on what Obama does next. – By Christopher Hitchens – Slate Magazine

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When Bad Things Happen to Do-Good People – NYTimes.com

I keep being fascinated by the fall from grace of Greg Mortenson, the man who spearheaded building schools for Afghan girls and then crashed and burned in a scandal in which it appears he defrauded his supporters and mishandled money.

This article is by the illustrious David Rakoff whom I have heard on This American Life. I heard his voice in my head as I read the article.

“If Mr. Mortenson’s apparent fall from grace stems from a failure of character, it also has the ancillary benefit of showing us that the world is indeed a good deal more complicated than merely taking tea with our enemies. That global realities of entrenched money and power, diametrically opposed ideologies, religious conflict and centuries-long geopolitical animosities can render change nigh on impossible, so why try? It confirms the good judgment inherent in our own inaction. It certainly allows me to live another day without getting off the couch.”

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What if Sanity Prevails In Washington? – NYTimes.com

New York Times editor, Bill Keller posits the practical solution of compromise in politics.

People tend to remember Nelson Mandela as the moral champion who liberated South Africa by suffering in prison for 27 years. The fact is he liberated South Africa by sitting down and cutting a deal with the white leaders who put him in prison.

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The previous article has a link to a puzzle exercise called You Fix the Budget.

“Today, you’re in charge of the nation’s finances. Some of your options have more short-term savings and some have more long-term savings. When you have closed the budget gaps for both 2015 and 2030, you are done. Make your own plan, then share it online.”

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My energy is starting to catch up to my exhaustion. Yesterday did not leave me quite as exhausted as the previous Sunday.  The music went well. I played a nice set of Variations by Wilbur Held on O Fillii et Fillia. They reminded me of Distler and Bender. I walked over a little early to rehearse them and they went pretty well in performance. They were based on the opening hymn yesterday, O Sons and Daughters.

I introduced the choir to next week’s anthem. Taken right out of the Hymnal 1982, it is a pretty unique text and tune.

1. Look there! the Christ, our Brother,
comes resplendent from the gallows tree
and what he brings in his hurt hands
is life on life for you and me.

Refrain:
Joy! joy! joy to the heart and all in this good day’s dawning.

2. Good Jesus Christ inside his pain
looked down Golgotha’s stony slope
and let the blood flow from his flesh
to fill the springs of living hope. Refrain

3. Good Jesus Christ, our Brother died
in darkest hurt upon the tree
to offer us the worlds of light
that live inside the Trinity. Refrain

4. Look there! the Christ, our Brother,
comes resplendent from the gallows tree
and what he brings in his hurt hands
is life on life for you and me. Refrain

Words: John Bennett (b. 1920), alt.
Music: PETRUS by William Albright (1944-1998)

Nice poetry in the hymnody but what makes it unique is Albright’s tune, PETRUS, which layers an 11 note pattern with a six note pattern in the accompaniment to the stanzas and lapses into sixties R&R in the chorus.  The choir responded to it quite well.

I also had applause on my postlude which is always surprising in this context. I played a little Charles Ore setting of “Lift High the Cross.” I like Ore’s work. He combines imaginative rhythms with just a touch of the spice of dissonance.  This particular setting is a bit bombastic and for once I played it quite loud. I accomplished this by playing it up an octave and with the crescendo pedal down and adding a few couplers. It made my little organ sound bigger than it is.  I think the volume might have had something to do with the fact that this particular postlude grabbed the attention of listeners. Usually the energy of the crowd takes over at this moment which I see as a pretty good thing.

Since I’ve shared a hymn this morning, I think I’ll close with a poem by Emily Dickinson, I read recently and enjoyed.

I shall keep singing!
Birds will pass me
On their way to Yellower Climes—
Each-with a Robin’s expectation—
I—with my Redbreast—
And my Rhymes—
Late—when I take my place in summer—
But—I shall bring a fuller tune—
Vespers—are sweeter than Matins-Signor—
Morning—only the seed of Noon—

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Separating Free Speech From Hate in South Africa – NYTimes.com

Having been alive during the years that South Africa freed itself from apartheid, I find the “rest of the story” fascinating.

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Japan’s Leader Defends Handling of Nuclear Crisis – NYTimes.com

This reminds me of something a friend of mine from Romania told me years ago: “Don’t you know? All governments are jerks.”

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Spring Offensive to Begin, Taliban Say – NYTimes.com

Deadly start to Taliban ‘spring offensive’ – Central & South Asia – Al Jazeera English

Last night’s killing of Osama Bin Laden is all the media noise this morning. But I find this little news story pretty disturbing: The Taliban announced a increase in wanton killing (now that the weather’s nice) and then did it. One of the things about suicide bombings or picking off civilians from a sniper perch that always strikes me is the cowardice of it: killing unsuspecting people in ambush.  I figure this is just my own cultural bias, but I do find it cowardly to shoot or blow up someone who is not only unarmed but looking the other way.

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A Doctor’s Focus Is the Minds of the Elderly – NYTimes.com

Excellent feature article by Jane Gross in yesterday’s NYT.

Why, Mrs. Sachs asked, “do they send buses of psychologists to a high school every time there’s a tragedy,” but here, where death is constant, “there’s only a brief memorial service and cookies?”

Dr. Agronin talked to them about accumulated grief, how one death re-opens others, how they had held themselves together for their families’ sake. He said grief is part of the human condition, not a psychiatric condition.

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Alabama Family Loses Everything Except What Really Matters – NYTimes.com

Another good feature article from yesterday’s NYT, this one by Dan Barry. Worth reading.

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What’s Left of the Left: Paul Krugman’s Lonely Crusade

by Benjamin Wallace Wells

Nice article on Krugman. Haven’t finished it yet.

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Sendak, picturing mortality – Philly.com

Some great quotes in this one by the aging Sendak who is seen by the author as an elderly Pierre (character he created). I’ll let you find them.

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Cheating and God: Study ties willingness to cheat, viewpoint on what God is like – latimes.com

Believe in a compassionate God and you are more likely to cheat. Makes sense to me. I have watched people who seemed to be cheating who fall in this category and have seen this correlation up close and personal. Yikes.

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Since I am an obsessive ol’ compulsive type, I try to avoid harping on or revisiting a subject over and over here.  Thus, when I realized I was in the midst of a bit of burnout, I began to guard against always blogging about it. Similarly, my slow bounce back from a Week of Holy (Holy Week that is) followed not by a week of rest but a week of more work, albeit enjoyable work.

The upshot is, I’m still recuperating. Big deal.

Eileen is taking some time off work for herself.  She is also exhibiting what I think of as building up to feeling exhausted. By this I mean gradually coming down from the self motivated energy to do something (like a job) and allowing one’s body to feel the fatigue and then rest.

Yesterday I spoke with Nate Walker on the phone. He told me I was pretty much in the band (Barefoot Jazz Quartet) for the summer.

We were discussing a booking for next Wednesday to play for the National Honor Society reception at his High School. I am looking forward to playing with this group.

I am replacing the keyboard player and my colleague and friend Jordan VanHemert will replace the former sax player. This leaves Roman on Drums and Nate on Bass from the original group.

We will be doing next Wednesday without a separate rehearsal and I am confident it will be some pretty good music with these players since we will be doing Jazz tunes from the Real Books.

I am seriously considering (as is Jordan) adding a few of my own tunes to the playlist eventually.  This will be a good outlet for my obscure compositions which I like to air out when I can since I have very few venues for them.

I recently purchased MP3s of the Dupré “Variations  on a Noel.” The performer is Ji-Yoen Choi an award winning organist. Whew. She plays the hell out of these and makes me realize the amount of preparation necessary to perform this kind of literature. I am trying to learn a few of these to play for the prelude next Sunday. Yesterday I worked on them and began wondering if even a few of them might be biting off slightly more than I can chew. In fact, I have already rehearsed the manual parts (the keyboards) of  a couple of the variations this morning on a silent keyboard.

My teacher, Ray Ferguson, used to point out that the vast majority of the technique needed to play the organ is keyboard not pedals. This is true of this piece. This means I can benefit from adding some at home keyboard practice.

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George Sprott – The Funny Pages – The New York Times Magazine – New York Times

There are a couple of graphic novels that the New York Times has left online besides the previously mentioned Mister Wonderful.  George Sprott by Seth is one.

Watergate Sue – The Funny Pages – The New York Times Magazine – New York Times is another.

I read both when they appeared in the New York Times. Both are recommended.

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North Korea Food Aid Is Not a Political Tool – NYTimes.com

The U.S. government joins South Korea in refusing food to North Korea in order to punish it. This editorial (and moi aussi) deplores this.

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Silliness and Sleight of Hand – NYTimes.com

This insightful article by Charles Blow comments on the Obama birther stuff. Excellent quote:

In 1965, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described how the strategy of separating people with common financial interests by agitating their racial differences was used against the populist movement at the turn of the century, explaining that “the Southern aristocracy took the world and gave the poor white man Jim Crow.”

He continued that Jim Crow was “a psychological bird that told him that no matter how bad off he was, at least he was a white man, better than the black man.” He called this “their last outpost of psychological oblivion.”

But the right, with a new boost of energy from Trump, is reaching for new frontiers. The language and methodology are different, but the goal is the same: to deny, invalidate and subjugate, to distract from real issues with false divisions.

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Like His Papacy, John Paul’s Beatification Proves Polarizing – NYTimes.com

“A vial of John Paul’s blood, saved by a Rome hospital in case he needed a transfusion, will now be used as a holy relic.”

‘Nuff said.

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