I’m sitting in my backyard. The weather is beautiful this morning. There’s a nice breeze and it’s in the seventies.

Busy day yesterday, at least before noon. I set myself tasks to do before we leave. Some were weekly tasks anyway like balance Eileen’s and my checkbook and my Mom’s checkbook, pay bills for both households, grocery shop, bank, stuff like that. I also had to prepare bulletin-ready versions of my Emmaus Fraction Anthem and Holy, Holy. I didn’t revise the Holy, Holy. I just changed the font to match.

I turned in the music for the Sunday after I get back from California. I realized this morning that I had needlessly chosen a prelude. My original plan was to do an instrumental version of my Fraction Anthem so that people in the congregation could hear it a few times before the service. So I won’t need the prelude I chose. Hmmm. It was also a composition of mine based on the tune, Sharpethorne by Erik Routley (link to pdf of this piece). I hope I’m not falling into the trap of doing too much of my own work at my church.

Anyway,  I will change this when I get back.

Since the closing hymn on July 15th will be the hoary old Anglican hymn, “O day of peace, sung to Parry’s popular tune, Jerusalem, I thought I would schedule a postlude in that English style.

Not in the mood to learn one of Parry’s pieces I own, I went over to the IMSLP Stanford page and found some fine organ pieces. Two opuses of short organ preludes and postludes (Op. 101 & 102) are collections I will return to. I know I’m a broken record but I am constantly amazed by what is available online.

I also put in for the check for my sub.

Today I have a double funeral for a husband and wife who died within days of each other. There were distressingly young by today’s standards. The husband was 61 I believe and the wife in her late 50s.

I spent some time choosing some soothing and appropriate organ music for the prelude and postlude. This is unusual. Usually I just grab something at the last minute, play what I have ready for the upcoming Sunday or improvise something. Typically  I rely on a little classical piano music for the prelude. Today I’m planning to do organ music exclusively. I chose chorale preludes on tunes and other stuff that will hopefully comfort or not distract people in what I’m expecting to be an unusually grief filled ceremony.

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The Nation Summer Reading List | The Nation

Book suggestions from crazy liberals. I bought one as a Kindle book, The Water-man’s Daughter by Emma Ruby-Sachs. Another I put in my cart on Amazon to download on vacation if I think I need another book: So Much Pretty: A Novel by Cara Hoffman.

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Terje Rypdal at Le Poisson Rouge – NYTimes.com

This musician sounded interesting to me. I bookmarked the article to remind myself to Spotify him.

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San Antonio’s Mayor Asks for 1/8¢ Tax to Finance Prekindergartens – NYTimes.com

Radical notion. Taxing to raise  money for education.

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Phoenix Area Rattled by Booby-Trapped Flashlights – NYTimes.com

Great. IEDs in the USA.

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Flavor Is the Price of Tomatoes’ Scarlet Hue, Geneticists Say – NYTimes.com

This whole news story is somehow not surprising.

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States Face a Challenge to Meet Health Law’s Deadline – NYTimes.com

It is interesting to watch this battle unfold. Governors who are deliberately not preparing for implementation of the Health Care Bill are taking a huge risk.

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CNN and Fox’s Supreme Court Mistake – NYTimes.com

Fox did not issue an apology. Sooprise sooprise. Fair and Balanced.

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Don Grady, Who Played Robbie on ‘My Three Sons,’ Dies at 68 – NYTimes.com

Robbie died. He played the oldest son in this pic.

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I woke up this morning and started reading an article online about James Joyce: The Puns and Detritus in James Joyce’s “Ulysses” : The New Yorker. I find myself reading the New Yorker both on and off line, since I subscribe to the magazine and get the hard copy in the mail. I have read Joyce  for most of my adult life. Made it through most of his work sometimes with multiple readings. He has been influential on me with what I have been able to understand of his work.

But one of his works has always eluded my understanding completely no matter how many times I try to delve into it. That, of course, is Finnegans Wake.

With it’s Lewis Carroll-gone-mad approach to language, I have often thought it is a perfect candidate for a hyper-link treatment. This morning I found an excellent site which seems to do just that:

Reading the by now very familiar opening of this book I was pleasantly surprised to have more explanations of the puns then ever before, especially delightful to get more information about the long word which represents the “fall” of Finnegan (humankind).

If you don’t know it, here’s the word:

The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonner-
ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!)

The gloss provides this info:

gaireachtach (garokhtokh) (gael) – boisterous + gargarahat, karak (Hindustani) – thunder.

“Joyce asked me ‘Aren’t there 4 terrible things in Japan, “Kaminari” being one of them?’ I counted for him: ‘Jishin (earthquake), kaminari (thunder), kaji (fire), oyaji (paternity).’ & he laughed.” (Takaoki Katta, “15 juillet, 1926.”)

ukkonen (Finnish) – thunder

bront? (gr) – thunder

Donner (ger) = tonnerre (French) – thunder

tuono (Italian) – thunder

thunner (Dialect) – thunder

trov?o (Portuguese) – thunder

Varuna – Hindu creator and storm god

åska (Swedish) – thunder.

torden (Danish) – thunder

tornach (tornokh) (gael) – thunder

At last! This word makes more sense to me than ever before. Cool beans.

I’m heading out on an airplane Monday to go to California so I am thinking a lot about what I can read with my little netbook. That’s part of why it occurred to me to look once again at online versions of Finnegans Wake. I also have several books going on my Kindle for PC. I’m never sure how much I will really read on vacation, but I like to have the access just in case I get time to actually relax and read.

Technology has been very, very good to me in my old age: OED online, vast access to books and music, scholarship at my fingertips, connection with friends and family.

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n+1: Lions in Winter, Part Two

I linked the first part of this two part series yesterday and described as bookmarked to possibly read. I took my entire treadmilling time to read both parts. It is an amazing in depth story of both the New York Public library’s renovation (and subsequent change of culture) and libraryies in general in the perspective of the rapidly changing environment of how people access information. If you have interest in any of this stuff this is top flight reading in my opinion.

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Zotero | Home

Zotero seems to be a free tool for embedding online references in your scholarly work. I haven’t done more than bookmark it for possible later investigation.

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Security firm spies on Reuters correspondent | Reuters

Greek spies. Yikes.

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Queen Elizabeth and I.R.A. Ex-Leader Shake Hands – NYTimes.com

Historic.

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Scalia’s Immigration Dissent Is Criticized as Political – NYTimes.com

Our public leaders continue to push the edge of what is acceptable.

Supreme Court Year in Review: Justice Scalia offers no evidence to back up his claims about illegal immigration. – Slate Magazine

Another conservative criticizes Scalia.

A Justice in Chief – NYTimes.com

I have read Greenhouse on the Supremes for years. She is now writing in semi-retirement. She knows stuff.

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‘Pressure for Change is at the Grassroots’: An Interview with Chen Guangcheng by Ian Johnson | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books

Bookmarked to read.

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Interesting looking new book. Link to PDF of prologue.

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Eileen brought the teen graphic novel, Anya’s Ghost, by Vera Brosgol home for overnight last night. I got up this morning and read it before she went to work so she could return it today. I went to the author’s website. I think she’s more interesting than the book, but the book is not bad. I don’t think it’s a “masterpiece.” But that’s just me.

It’s going to get hot in Holland today. I already have the downstairs AC going and it’s pleasant here at the computer.

Michel Houellebecq has a new book out in English. I have decided he’s like a contemporary Celine.

And like Celine I think the idea of his work is better than actually reading it.

I didn’t think I would want to read another book by him after I finished reading The Elementary Particles.

It was a very uneven work. Parts of it were brilliant and fascinated me. Parts of it were dull and boringly obsessed with sex. I like sex, of course. But not boring nihilistic.

Then I read this review. I also read the beginning of the book online which describes the main character, Jed Martin, painting a portrait of the real living painters: Jeff Koon and Damien Hirst.  The review suggests that Houellebecq has abandoned his obsession with nihilistic sex in this novel and is addressing artistic dilemmas that his work and the contemporary situation of meaninglessness create.

I put myself on a waiting list at the library for it.

I’m about 2/3rds the way through Irving’s new one. It’s kind of fun. It’s a transsexual saga. Charming in its own way.

Finally, I started reading Conversations with Casals by Corredor yesterday. Pablo Casals has had a large influence on me and I realized that I hadn’t read this one. I have a beat up paperback that looks a bit like the cover above.

I was thinking about Casals because I somehow have the notion that he insisted on rehearsing the best musicians in the world. Not sure where I got this idea. It doesn’t seem to something I could find in his memoirs.

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Besides the article on Houellebecq, I bookmarked several articles to read from n+1 issue 14 online yesterday.

n+1: Lions in Winter, Part One

About the New York Public Library renovation/destruction project.

n+1: Please RT

On Twitter… I mean it’s about Twitter.

n+1: Death by Degrees

On education.

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Britain – Big Ben to Become Elizabeth Tower – NYTimes.com

Renaming Big Ben. Wonder if it will take.

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Yesterday went remarkably well for me. A meeting at church which I was more anxious about than I realized went splendidly. We are designing a Wednesday program which combines a meal, adult and youth education and music rehearsals. Last week my boss told me how they were looking at it. The design looked to me like it would sabotage my planned fall attempt at resuscitating the flailing kid’s choir. I dismayed my boss by raising some objections to the direction they were heading.

She presented a trimmed down proposal to a committee yesterday. The whole thing looks more workable to me.

I chose a couple of low impact pieces for the prelude and postlude next Sunday. I’m not sure many people notice whether I am playing what I think of as repertoire versus lighter stuff. I usually begin with the hymn tunes we will be singing that day to see what has been written based on them.  If I’m lucky I find things that are substantial but learnable in a limited amount of time.

Our opening hymn Sunday is “In boldness, look to God” by hymn writer Mary Louis Bringle. We are singing it to the 19th C. tune called Morning Song. My index pointed me to a setting by George Shearing, the Jazz musician, that I own. It’s nothing breathtaking, but it will do for this Sunday.

Our closing hymn will be “O for a thousand tongues to sing.” The tune for this hymn is called  Azmon. I will be using a John Ferguson varied hymn accompaniment setting as though it were a set of variations on this tune. His work is always thoughtful and attractive so this will be good.

It took me two weeks to get last week’s prelude and postlude in shape. It’s time for some easier music.

My grandson was very active via online chat and email for about 48 hours.  I haven’t heard a peep out of him for a while. I do hope that we can continue to connect online intermittently. I could tell that the novelty of it attracted him so I expected him to move on a bit.

I read a fascinating article about young people online yesterday.

Software Helps Parents Monitor Their Children Online – NYTimes.com

Being a parent is pretty complex these days. At least that’s the way it looks to me. Balancing being invasive and protecting your children has always been complicated. Throw the Internet into the mix and it makes my head spin.

There is an interesting tool that allows a parent to set up a dashboard that will present him/her with a synopsis of a child’s online activity.  It was mentioned in the above linked article, called UKnowKids.com. I think I would be looking at this if I had a young preteen child right now.

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Singing about leaders fine: Zuma – Politics | IOL News | IOL.co.za

Music in the news. South African government telling people what songs are okay to sing.

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Fears Accompany Fishermen in Japanese Disaster Region – NYTimes.com

I’ve read some pretty hysterical comments about radiation and fish and the recent Japanese disaster. Surprise, they are only just beginning to fish the ocean nearby.

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Supreme Court Declines to Revisit Citizens United – NYTimes.com

The Court – Citizens United – NYTimes.com

I think we can use the past tense and say the “Supremes” have ruined our political system.

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The Power of the Particular – NYTimes.com

David Brooks and Bruce Springsteen. Fun online comments as well.

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New Play About Dr. Ruth Westheimer – NYTimes.com

One woman show. Dr. Ruth is played by an actress I recognize from TV.

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Music – The Devil Made Him Do It – NYTimes.com

This is an article originally published the month after 9/11. Apparently composer Karlheinz Stockhausen made some pretty stupid comments about art and disaster in the wake of it. I wasn’t aware of this until it was mentioned and linked in a recent NYT music review.

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Cities Consider Selling Ads as Economic Lifelines – NYTimes.com

Commericialism of our communal life marches on. Somebody has to govern I guess.

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The Great Abdication – NYTimes.com

This article about the failure of our leaders to heed our economic past reminded me of Gertrude Stein’s couplet: “Let me recite what history teaches. History teaches.” from “If I told him: a complete portrait of Picasso.”

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America’s Shameful Human Rights Record – NYTimes.com

Clear thinking from President Jimmy Carter.

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Stuxnet Will Come Back to Haunt Us – NYTimes.com

Thinking about the web as a battlefield.

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Japan’s Inept Guardians – NYTimes.com

Interesting critique of Japanese police.

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Alternatives to Long Prison Terms – NYTimes.com

Letters in response to an editorial. The surprising thing for me is see Grover Norquist, the Southern Poverty Law Center and NYT on the same page. Wow.

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Tried to take a day off yesterday. Pretty much succeeded. I spent the day reading and practicing piano trying not to think about work too much.

I indulged in some playing through music at the piano. Recently I have been doing a lot more practicing which is slightly different from playing through music and is a lot more like work. On the other hand I love to play through music.

Yesterday I began with my old staple, Bach. I did a few movements of the WTC. This always makes me think of Pablo Casals who said in his autobiography that he began each day playing a prelude and fugue from the WTC at the piano, he called it something like his “the benediction of the house.”

From Bach, I moved to Beethoven, first his sonata in F Minor, Opus 57.

I actually played through the entire sonata, under tempo, of course. Then for some reason I turned to his first Symphony which I have been listening to lately and played through the first movement in the Liszt transcription.

I find that my chops have improved in the last decade and I can read stuff like this pretty well albeit usually under tempo. It’s satisfying to me to reproduce the music I am thinking about. Hands on. That’s the way I like it.

Read in The Pale King by David Foster Wallace and Brothers Karamazo.

Eileen came home and we sat in the back yard and had our meal together (roast beef wrap for her, mushroom wrap for me).

I finished off the evening alternating reading In One Person by John Irving and playing Mendelssohn piano pieces including several of his Songs Without Words.

I was very satisfied with my performance of Saint-Saëns Prelude in B yesterday. Unfortunately, it was pretty much lost. Eileen said she tried to concentrate and hear it but was distracted by the loud conversations of the adult acolytes. I didn’t notice this so much as the loud static over the PA system during the first moments of it.

But I mustered my concentration and nailed the dang thing even no one (except Eileen) noticed that I was even playing.

The challenge for me was that in my rehearsals the week prior I couldn’t get through my first run through without a silly mistake. A brain fart.  After that I could play it without mistakes. But it seems that I couldn’t get my concentration to quite come up to snuff on the first play through.

Mind you, I do all the stuff about rehearsing weak sections multiple times until they come out with ease. But something about being at this stage of learning the piece seemed to always produce the pattern of a mistake in the initial run through.

My strategy yesterday was to get to work early enough to do a run through. I did and it seemed to work.

We performed the Solo Soprano/Cello Saint-Saëns piece very musically. The piece is weirdly title, “The Heavens Declare.” I figured out this is an allusion to the piece from which this movement is taken which is a big setting of Psalm 19 for soli, choir and orchestra.  The words in the movement are only “Thou, O Lord, art my Protector, Thou, O Lord, art my Redeemer.”

I was very happy with the way the singer and cellist took to my suggestions to make our interpretation more musical.

I thought we sounded pretty good.

Unfortunately, the secretary omitted a line of the second communion hymn. I felt foolish that I hadn’t run through it before the service and caught it. Instead I was taken by surprise. I could almost hear the missing line but didn’t get it until the third verse when Laurie (the soprano) helpfully put the music in front of me. Embarrassing.

The hymn was “Blessed Assurance.”

And of course people shouted to each other as they were quickly leaving  during my postlude which I played pretty well but not as well as I played the prelude.

It was kind of big piece replete with a flashy pedal solo.

All lost on 99.9% of the people in the room.

I associate this sort of lack of interest with the lack of general literacy and manners in our society. Also I do think of myself like movie music at church. By this I mean that the music is important but often people don’t notice it. And nobody stays to hear the music behind the credits.

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Your Brain on a Magic Trick – NYTimes.com

More cool brain stuff.

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Funerals Remain a Segregated Business in the South – NYTimes.com

Blacks bury blacks, whites bury whites. Hey. We’re post racial here in the USA, don’t you know?

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Not-So-Crazy in Tehran – NYTimes.com

Kristoff continues to offer an alternate view of reality. Shhhhhh. Don’t wake up the public.

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When My Crazy Father Actually Lost His Mind – NYTimes.com

This article is wrenching. Using her own experience with her father and those of others, the author describes the holes in the mental health safety net.

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SPIEGEL Interview with Daniel Barenboim: ‘It Isn’t the Bomb that Makes Israel Secure’ – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Barenboim thinks clearly about Israel, antisemitism and Wagner.

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Venezuelan Tribe Demands Return of Sacred Kueka Stone from Germany – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Used in a piece of art. The artist claims he had permission to take it. Now the indigenous people are concerned the cosmos is not a happy camper and it needs to be returned.

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My 12-year-old grandson is getting more internet literate. He emailed me this past week and yesterday he pulled me up on chat online.

We had a lengthy exchange. I learned that he has switched from playing trombone to trumpet and likes that quite a lot.  He also likes blues and church music. Wen I asked him what blues he liked, he mentioned Louis Armstrong.

He linked me in to a Youtube video of a piano piece he is learning. Wow. It sounds hard to me, but he is determined to learn it and no doubt will do so.  In response I linked him in to this video:

After a few minutes of viewing it, he messaged me back his surprise that Armstrong played trumpet. He only knew him as a singer.

That was fun.

As we were sitting and chatting, I sketched out an easy piano version of Basin Street Blues and sent it to him in a PDF.

I continue to be thrilled and amazed at how the internet can connect and educate all of us.

This morning I browsed through the OED entry for the word, “book.”

One of the things I enjoy is looking over the quotes in the full entry that illustrate meanings and senses of the word.

This is from meaning 4.a. “That in which we may read, and find instructions or lessons.” The highlighting is from DIIGO an online bookmarking service that I use that has this option. I used this service free for years, but recently upgraded to their cheapest paid version since I use it so much.

In the online edition of the OED,  there are quotes and emendations that have been made as recently as this month. I find that pretty exciting.

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The Anti-Union Roberts Court – NYTimes.com

Ever since the 2000 Supreme Court ruling I have been bemused how obvious the bias of the majority of the current court is. My reading in brain science and subjectivity pretty much blows away the notion that any of us are truly objective. If we do not recognize our bias (as many justices have protested even as they actively pursue an obvious partisan agenda), we will be at the mercy of what Daniel Kahneman and his dead colleague Amos Tversky have labeled System 1 in the brain. This is the activity of the brain that allows snap judgments and intuition.

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Why Vincent Chin Matters – NYTimes.com

An impassioned insight to American racism.

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This has been an amazing week when I think about it.

More ensemble playing (not only the piano trio, but piano duets with my colleague, Rhonda, and my student, Rudi), collaboration (with my wife, my boss and my colleague, Nick, via a flurry of emails last night about my Jazz Mass), and an actual social life (Choir party last Sat and last evening a relaxed and wonderful evening with Rhonda and her fam).

I step back to reflect because I think if asked I might mistakenly  say that my life has  a dearth of things like collaboration and social contact.

I was tickled to get a couple emails from my 12 year old grandson. He is (with some help from his Mom and Dad I suspect) beginning to dabble in this sort of communication. I of course immediately wrote him back.

Nick had some very interesting observations about my slowly emerging Jazz Mass. I only have two movements done (Sanctus composed in 2010 and the Fraction Anthem composed this past week).  Eileen and Pastor Jen helped me with the fraction anthem with insightful critiques of it’s weaknesses. I thought it might be fruitful to invite comment from some of my old Roman Catholic colleagues. So I emailed it off to Nick Palmer (who is currently music director at the diocesan Cathedral) and Peter Kurdziel (who has a relatively prestigious gig at the Basilica in Grand Rapids).

Within hours, Nick sent me a detailed critique of both movements. Bless his heart. I was especially interested in his comments on the Sanctus since he was viewing it very much about how successful he could predict it would be when taught to a congregation. My congregation sings this one since I wrote it in 2010.

Although some of his expectations were not borne out (he wondered about the successive syncopations and whether a group of singers would automatically simplify them into on the beat after one or two) he did catch one problematic section which I have agonized over and finally allowed to pass since it’s now learned by the congregation.  I’ve mentioned this before here. (link to June 8, 2012 post: Jupe continues to compose himself).

I will be pondering his other critiques. As soon as I have a finished copy of the fraction anthem I will post it. Also, I’m changing the font on the Sanctus to match the more legible font (Comic Sans – recommended by brilliant lovely wife).  I’ll put that up as well.

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Jack Caulfield, Bearer of a Watergate Message, Dies at 83 – NYTimes.com

Another obit that is a story, this one more of  a behind the scenes one.

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Grooveshark – Listen to Free Music Online – Internet Radio – Free MP3 Streaming

Mark Edgington (Rhonda’s hubby) mentioned this service to me. It’s how he does a lot of his listening, I guess. I had never heard of it.

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Style and the Meaning of Gay Culture – NYTimes.com

I think this writer makes some salient points about how something is lost when gay men basically adopt to the larger culture in their adoption of a middle class life style and ignore or turn away from what queer theory has to offer. Some shrewd comments on “style” and “content.”

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Prisons, Privatization, Patronage – NYTimes.com

Privatization as hidden government financing (and hence still a public burden, even increasing costs). Fascinating insights and information.

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Migrants Dying on the U.S.-Mexico Border – NYTimes.com

Illegal immigration is down, the number of deaths is constant.

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Why US conservatives have gone crazy – Opinion – Al Jazeera English

This writer’s outlining of the rightward swing of Clinton and Obama is something I have thought about.  Basically he is saying that Democrats have tried to move right and by their natural political tendency are open to and even seek compromise. This threatens the right which does not automatically think compromise but rather thinks that it threatens their principles and then they pull further right away from the Democrats. The Health Care Law is a clear example,  most of the program was developed by right wing think tanks, when implemented by the centrist Obama many on the right reversed their endorsement and generally pulled away from it.

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Usually I don’t show people works in progress. But yesterday and the day before I found myself doing so with “Emmaus Fraction Anthem.” I found it very interesting that the two non-professional musicians (my boss and my wife) had critical comments that were helpful and the two professionally skilled musicians (my violinist and cellist) complimented it but did not offer critical assessments.

My boss seemed interested in adding it to the repertoire of our congregation. We are now planning to introduce it a week from Sunday. She agreed with me about changing the melody to be more legato and drop the holes I put in it. You can see them on the second line (Jesus…. in the breaking …. in the breaking…).

She said it was confusing to follow. I had neglected to put road map signs on the copy I showed her (the one above).

My wife made a very helpful suggestion over lunch. She suggested that I repeat the melody used for the words “The bread which we break” in the phrase “one body are we.” She said the melody in the former was a bit tricky but attractive. I think that the melody in the latter was probably boring as well. Repeating a tricky passage helps the congregation learn it quicker and more solidly.

I think I will be able to do a final version today. Then I will let it sit for a few days. Hopefully by the middle of next week I will feel confident enough in it to give it to the secretary to put in the bulletin.

Eileen also pointed out that the font was not legible. I will have to do something about that.

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Health Care Law Loses Ad War – NYTimes.com

It’s depressing to me to see the effective use of tons of money and framing as a deciding factor.

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North Carolina Eugenics Compensation Program Shelved – NYTimes.com

This is shameful.

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A Senator’s Sometimes Lonely Fight Against Waste – NYTimes.com

Senator Tom Coburn continues to piss off his colleagues. What a guy.

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857 Desks Call Attention to Dropout Problem – NYTimes.com

You can sign the petition here:

Don’t Forget Ed: The Future of America Is Education

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In Iran, They Want Fun, Fun, Fun – NYTimes.com

I often think about the fact that over half of the population in Iran is under 25 years old.

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Let’s Add a Little Dirt to Our Diet – NYTimes.com

No. Really. We need the bacteria.

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Yesterday I starting writing a congregational setting of the part of the Eucharist rite where the bread is broken. This called the Fraction Anthem for obvious reasons. The usual text is Agnus Dei or Lamb of God.

We recently started actually “fractioning” the bread before distributing it at my church. This was my suggestion. The idea is the breaking of the one bread into many parts is symbolic of the idea of we are many and one in Christ. You get the picture.

So we restored singing the “Fraction” anthem to this part of the ritual. My boss seems to have a propensity for the optional text: “The Disciples knew the Lord Je- sus in the breaking of the Bread. The Bread which we break, Alleluia, is the communion of the body of Christ. One Body are we, Alleluia, For Though many we share one bread.”

That’s what we are singing now. I thought I would try my hand at making a setting. I decided it would be a companion piece to my Jazz Holy Holy I wrote in 2010.

So I worked on it yesterday. Got up this morning with the idea I could get a draft version ready for my meeting with Pastor Jen today at 10:30.  Skipped my morning poetry routine and got right to work on it this morning.

After an hour or so, the stupid stupid program I was using (Finale) froze. I had to restart it and it seemed to have not done it’s supposed assigned routine of saving every five minutes automatically and I lost lots of rewrite.

Fortunately I am working from a hard copy I used to write it yesterday so the ideas are not lost, just the work.

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Senators Request Live TV for Health Care Ruling – NYTimes.com

I’m for this.

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Letters in response to Disaffected Catholics – Leave, or Stay? – NYTimes.com

I liked this comment from a retired historian of religions, Jean E. Rosenfeld in Pacific Palisades, Calif.

The predominant religious movement of the era is fundamentalism, the literal misreading of sacred texts and traditions that motivates world-changing political activism at the expense of rich and complex traditions.
It started in early 20th-century America among Protestant dissidents who rejected advanced biblical criticism in the mainline churches. A century later, versions of fundamentalism afflict nearly all the major world religions from India to the Vatican.

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Free Speech for Computers? – NYTimes.com

Doctor Frankenstein’s monster could walk and talk, but that didn’t qualify him to vote in the doctor’s place.

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After I had met but not married my wife Eileen, we visited the college where I had been studying musical composition,  Ohio Wesleyan in Delaware, Ohio.

The purpose of our visit was to be present when one of my compositions was to be performed by fellow students.

After the concert somehow we ended up sipping wine at the home of one of the professors who had attended the concert. He was one of those charming musical bigots who were so prevalent in my experiences of colleges. He had along with several of my other profs thoroughly disapproved of my quitting school to leave my first wife. He was flatteringly complimentary of  my piece. He remarked to me something about maybe being wrong that one could not learn the craft of composition without attending college.

He wrote music reviews for a hi fi magazine and was himself a composer in his earlier life. He was a great conversationalist and fun to be with and listen to. Sitting in his breezeway somehow the composer, Aaron Copland, came up.

“You know who Copland is. He writes that Americana crap.”

These words seemed to have a liberating effect on my wife. It seems to me that we had recently seen a reconstruction of Copland’s “”Billy the Kid” on TV. It had been devastatingly goofy, both music and dance wise, a reconstruction of the original choreography probably. My professor’s words seem to give Eileen permission to dislike Copland because thereafter she always said didn’t like his work.

I on the other hand as a musician and composer have grown in my appreciation (and simple awareness) of Copland’s work over the years. I even heard him speak a few years after this when I had returned to college at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Last night my friend Rhonda brought some Copland in her stack of piano duets for us to play through. I thought of Eileen (who was to be our “audience”) when Rhonda mentioned to me she had some Copland I might enjoy playing.

But by the time Rhonda and I got going and playing through material I had forgotten Eileen’s predilection against him. Rhonda bought two charming pieces by him for two pianos: “Danzon Cubano” and “El Salon Mexico.” They are lively, rhythmic, even tricky little pieces and we had fun pounding them out.

After Rhonda had left Eileen was commenting that some of the music was attractive and sounded interesting. I had to tell her it was by Copland. We were both surprised. It’s the first time I can remember she ever decided she liked something by him. Blind taste test, I guess.

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Why Republicans Oppose the Individual Health-Care Mandate : The New Yorker

An unusually lucid analysis of some modern political conversation.

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End-of-Life Choices Shoud Be Clearly Mapped – NYTimes.com

Jane Brody again. I liked the way one person talked about their end of life care.

“After family, I value clarity of mind and the capacity to make decisions. To live well is to continue to possess the ability to converse, to read, to retain what I learn and to coherently reflect and understand. I do not want my life prolonged if I undergo a marked lessening of my cognitive powers.”

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An Anomaly in Mating – Self-Castration Raises Reproductive Success – NYTimes.com

I love counter intuitive things like this.

By becoming a half eunuch or full eunuch, the spider reduces its weight by 4 to 9 percent. It then stands guard by the female it has mated with. Its lighter weight allows it to better fend off other males.

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Don’t Look Down – NYTimes.com

Can living in America really be considered edgy? Bruni seems to think it’s at least sort of true.

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The Betrayal of Egypt’s Revolution – NYTimes.com

Fooled again.

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Spent a lot of time yesterday looking through piano duet music.

I’m always amazed by what’s available free  online.

In my own library I had these:

Schlummerlied by Liszt
Morceaux en forme de poire by Satie

Brandenburg concertos 4,5,6 by Bach (transcribed by M(ax?) Reger
Sonata 1 by Mozart K. 357

All this is in preparation for this evening’s planned reading through piano duets by me and my friend, Rhonda.

I have suggested to her that we could actually do 2 piano things if she doesn’t mind the gicky sound of my electric piano.

In that case, I have 2 scores (necessary) for the following:

Rapsodie sur un theme de paganini, op. 43 by Rachmaninoff
L’Embarquement pour dythere – Valse Musette by Poulenc
Scaramouche by Milhaud
Piano Concerto in G minor by Mendelssohn

This one looks like fun. Believe me, we will not be reading it “Vif.”

I love playing music with other people. I think I am basically an ensemble player. Although I do a lot of solo playing on organ and piano, I still think it’s more fun with others playing along.

I have played in 3 & 4 piece rock bands, accompanied many solo instruments on piano and organ, played in wind ensembles (mostly trumpet in high school. This includes some excellent experiences at Interlochen and state festival wind ensembles conducted by some excellent people), orchestras (8th grade? again trumpet, harpsichord with South Bend Orchestra, organ and harpsichord with Grand Rapids Symphony – 1 time), not to mention the many choirs I have conducted.

I love it all.

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PrideSource – LGBT Chevy ad goes viral

article by my talented nephew, Ben Jenkins.

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg predicts ‘sharp disagreement’ among justices – POLITICO.com

Eileen and I watched Ginsburg’s speech on C-span. Regarding the upcoming ruling on the Health Care Plan, she said, “Those who know don’t talk. And those who talk don’t know.”

You can see it here:

Supreme Court Justice Speaks at American Constitution Society Conference | C-SPAN

But you have to click on the Video Playlist: American Constitution Society for Law and Policy Convention on the right side.

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Music mogul donates audio interviews to Library of Congress  – NY Daily News

Doesn’t look like there are plans to make this available online. Too bad.

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Falling U.S. crime rate raises more questions than answers – latimes.com

Did you know that crime rates are falling even as people are more and more frightened of each other?

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A Test of Racial Justice – NYTimes.com

North Carolina seeks to gut the 2009 Racial Justice Act. Nice.

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The Linda Lingle Channel – NYTimes.com

One entire cable TV channel in Hawaii dedicated to one senatorial candidate.  Yikes. Can you imagine the future of this sort of thing?

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Vulnerable to ‘Reform’ – NYTimes.com

A life long wheel chair bound person outlines what changing federal funding will mean for him.

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Music by Ulrich Nehls

While I was looking for piano duets, I ran across the work of this composer. I like the way he self promotes by allowing performers to use his scores mostly for free. What a guy!

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It’s probably silly to be excited about this, but this morning as I was reading my morning poetry it occurred to me that I might have online access to the Oxford English Dictionary via my staff position at Hope College.

I checked and I do! Frabjous day! Callooh Callay!

I have long been in love with this dictionary and have a copy of the compact edition which I bought back in the 70s.

Here’s some words I looked up this morning.

“But there is a different kind of performance at the heart of the renascence of poetry as an oral art—the art of the griot, performed in alliance with music and dance, to evoke and catalyze a community or communities against passivity and victimization, to recall people to their spiritual and historic sources.” from the essay “Someone is writing a poem” by Adrienne Rich

… But this evening deep in summer
the deer are still alive and free,
nibbling apples from early-laden boughs
so weighted, so englobed
with already yellowing fruit
they seem eternal, Hesperidean,
in the clear-tuned, cricket throbbing air.

…

…she finds herself,
becoming now the sherd of broken glass
slicing light in a corner, dangerous
to flesh, now the plentiful soft leaf
that wrapped round the throbbing finger, soothes the wound;

both excerpts from the excellent poem, “Transcendental Etude,” by Adrienne Rich

And whereas, you say, there are good examples to be learnt in them : truly, so there are ; if you will learn falsehood; if you will learn cozenage, if you will learn to deceive; if you will learn to play the hypocrite, to cog, to lie and falsify

PHILIP STUBBES The Anatomie of Abuses 1583

from a diatribe against the evils of the theater quoted on the Shakespeare Sonnet site I have been reading.

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How to Read a Racist Book to Your Kids – NYTimes.com

Some level headed advice and discussion.

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‘Barack Obama,’ by David Maraniss – NYTimes.com

This new bio covers the first part of President Obama’s life with what sounds like excruciating detail.

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Aung San Suu Kyi Accepts Nobel Peace Prize – NYTimes.com

Sounds like prizes can make a difference.

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Moral Dystopia – NYTimes.com

Dowd comments again on the Sandusky scandal. Eileen’s comment was that her late grandmother felt that sexual abuse of children was not becoming more prevalent, sadly only more reported.

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Russian Spy Nathan Nicholson and Father Harold James Nicholson: Newsmakers: GQ

BBC – Adam Curtis Blog: HOW TO KILL A RATIONAL PEASANT

Bookmarked to read.

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Fair Use, Art, Swiss Cheese and Me – NYTimes.com

What if your the subject of some art and it embarrasses you? Sometimes your just shit out of luck.

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Missing – My Dad – NYTimes.com

William Styron’s daughter writes a beautiful and surprising tribute to her father figure (not her dad).

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The top 10 reasons why music is compressed | The Audiophiliac – CNET News

Interesting how narrowly this techie guy looks at music. I have heard the comment before how music that insists on having contrasts in loudness and softness is not appealing to listeners (presumably listening to it in the background or in their car).

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It rained during the choir party yesterday. The host asked me to help him move a table as it began. We got soaked. He changed clothes and handed me a towel. I was wet for the rest of the evening. But not uncomfortable.

I found a fascinating piece by Albeniz in the multi-volume piano music anthology my father bought for me at a garage sale.

Albeniz was a contemporary of Debussy and Granados. They all wrote exotic piano music. I think they were aware of each other’s work. Debussy obviously is the giant of the three. But in the last few years I have been more and more attracted to composers who use folk language in their art. Guys like D. Scarlatti (whose essercizi abound with Spanish rhythms and other musical ideas) to Villa Lobos and many others.

I was surprised by the rhythmic tattoo Albeniz employed in this piece. A quick glance online reveals that the zortzico was a Basque dance form in 5/4. Who knew?

I read this passage in the Adrienne Rich essay, “Someone is writing a poem,” this morning:

“… sending letters to myself is enough for attention to be paid….

most often someone writing a poem believes in, depends on, a delicate, vibrating range of difference, that an “I” can become a “we” without extinguishing others, that a partly common language exists to which strangers can bring their own heartbeat, memories, images. A language that itself has learned from the heartbeat, memories, images of strangers.”

I was reminded of my recent musings about what I expected initially from the internet… conversations, ideas, and so on…

Earlier in the essay Rich mentions the reader as an “active participant without whom the poem is never finished.”

Rich’s emphasis on the communal and the interactive nature of her art is a breath of fresh air to me. Musicians haven’t in my hearing or reading debated this much. So often, music is reified from activity to dull object of learning.

I thin this is why I have landed on the idea that music is “something you do.”

And I like the idea of “musicking” a word Christopher Small coined to include all participants in the process. Not just players and listeners, but dancers, people who cleaned the room, anybody who has anything to do with the process.

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Tough Guise (Unabridged) Preview | Media Education Foundation

This seems to be online access to video about media distortion recommended by Brene Brown.

She also recommended this one:

An earlier version seems to be available online.

Killing Us Softly 3 –

Neither is on Netflix.

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Reporter Interrupts Obama During Statement on Immigration – NYTimes.com

Lack of civility contributes to the erosion of the quality our public discussions. Just my opinion.

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Michigan’s Attack on Women’s Rights – NYTimes.com

Michigan stupidity makes the NYT editorial page.

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During yesterday’s practice, the Saint-Saëns organ pieces I am learning began coming together. The musical logic of the Prelude in B Major had pretty much eluded me until yesterday. I found the meter confusing. It’s in 6/8, but each 16th note is divided up into triplets. Thus the meter is very compound feeling.

I found it difficult to hear the complete measure as a unit. Yesterday I began counting each measure in two groups of nine. That did the trick. Cool.

I made page turn copies of both pieces and began rehearsing from them. I also worked a bit more on Buxtehude.

At home for some inexplicable reason I played through a couple of Tchaikovsky piano pieces. It was very odd. I quite enjoyed them. What is happening to me? Heh.

I called my Mom and invited her over to have lunch with Eileen and me. She begged off. Then changed her mind and called back within an hour to accept. Went and got her. The three of us had a pleasant lunch in back yard. Eileen walked back to work. I drove Mom to wait in the library parking lot while I went in and got her more Christian romance novels to read. She must be reading 6 or 7 of these a week if not more.

This morning I need to make viola scores of the hymns for tomorrow. At least the ones I envision my violist playing along on.

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With Science, New Portrait of the Cave Artist – NYTimes.com

Amazing that a cave is described in this article that “appeared to have been revisited and painted many times over a span of 20,000 years.” It’s like science fiction.

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Sioux Group Asks Officials to Reopen ’70s Cases – NYTimes.com

This is a convoluted story. What in the world is going on? The reporter dryly reports official “suicides” that were found with knife wounds. Weird.

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Does Wine from New Jersey Taste the Same as Wine from France? : The New Yorke

Objective tests continue to mortify experts. Satisfying.

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Chronic Fatigue Researcher Won’t Face Theft Charges – NYTimes.com

Intellectual dishonesty never fails to amaze me.

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Bahrain Compounds the Injustice With Doctors’ Convictions – NYTimes.com

So these doctors treated patients and then were arrested and tortured. Now most of them have been sent to jail.

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What Republicans Think – NYTimes.com

I love the author’s use of a “debauched musician” as an example of an over paid rich person.

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We Don’t Need No Education – NYTimes.com

In the comments section to Krugman’s article, “palnicki” from Columbus, Ohio penned this observation:

Remembering history is not a common human activity. After WWI Germany had austerity imposed on it. When the depression came along and greatly increased the pain, the matter was temporarily resolved when a megalomaniac stimulated the economy reneged on national debts and attacked those who imposed the auterity and stole as many of their national assets as he could. Will we repeat this horrid solution?

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How Greece Squandered Its Freedom – NYTimes.com

So many of this author’s historical comments reminded me of America right now. Not good.

Example:

We lost the self-discipline, moderation and inventiveness that once helped the Greeks achieve great things, and we succumbed to political expediency, delusions of grandeur and a fatal sense of entitlement.

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Eileen walked home during the day yesterday and we had  lunch outside together. She has been taking advantage of the good weather to do this. Then I picked her up after work and we went to our favorite restaurant. Even before we sat down the waitress asked us if we wanted our “usual.” This meant a gin martini for me and an espresso martini for Eileen. We sat outside and drank, talked and ate. It was a very nice anniversary. And what is more this is a usual date for us at least once a week. I marvel almost every day at how good my life is and how lucky I am to be living with Eileen.

I seem to be on a Saint-Saëns kick. Fauré was his student.

Both composers have my attention these days for some reason.  They have lots of music available online. My piano trio is learning Fauré’s piano trio. Yesterday my violinist didn’t show for rehearsal, so the cellist and I played through material with just the two of us. It’s slightly surprising how helpful this. We worked on the Fauré and Hovhaness. After the cellist left, I put up Sunday’s hymns on the hymn board then settled down and practiced organ for a couple of hours. Spent most of the time on the upcoming Saint-Saëns pieces. But I also returned to Buxtehude.

Are you asleep yet?

I have been wondering about this blog. When I started doing this online blathering, the term blog wasn’t even coined yet. I wanted to build my own website. I envisioned a platform where I could put up interesting ideas and stimulate conversation.  As quickly as possible I included a way for people to comment.

I had not anticipated how easy it is to lurk and not connect. It’s what we all do online.

It has occurred to me that maybe this daily pouring out of “dear diary” stuff might be winding down.

Nothing lasts forever.

When I skipped a day recently, my daughter in England (hi Sarah) was a bit concerned that I hadn’t put anything up for 24 hours. My wide spread family is indeed one of my motivations for doing this. I’m pretty sure they read this on occasion if not regularly.  I clock about fifty hits a day.

And then I do check Facebook for my fam and friends. That is a way people connect.

Oh well. We’ll see. I know that putting up something once a day makes checking here more worthwhile (not that I actually come up with stuff that many people necessarily think is worthwhile).  I usually write about 500 words. I know that many people who check here don’t read them that carefully. That’s one reason I put up pics. Another reason is that I like collages and serendipitous juxtapositions.

I got up a little later than usual this morning but I have already read some Shakespeare and Updike (poetry) and filled the dishwasher. Now I need to stop this and do my and my Mom’s bills.

See you on the funway.

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Syria Says It Has ‘Cleansed’ Al Heffa – NYTimes.com

I hate this use of language. It distances as it enlarges evil. IMO. Not to mention the awful actions it describes.

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Books: Camille Saint-Saëns (sorted by popularity) – Project Gutenberg

Saint-Saëns was a bit of genius. A prodigy in many ways, he wrote several books and edited an edition of Rameau. This is a link to several of his books available online in both in English and French.

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Churches Challenge Britain Over Same-Sex Marriage – NYTimes.com

C of E and the RCs jump in bed together. Fuck it. Now that’s a marriage of shame if I’ve ever seen one. May they both sink.

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Calcium and Vitamin D Ineffective for Fractures, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Says – NYTimes.com

I’ve been doing some reading in Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow. He explains some very interesting ideas about statistics and studies. It helps me put oscillating recommendations as the result of a recent study like this in better perspective. Often the study seems to be asking one question but is reported as answering a different question.

This is also something Kahneman deals with. When we react to something often we change the subject by answering a different (easier to deal with) problem in our head. Example: Should I vote for Romney(Obama)? Yes, I think he looks cute (I don’t consider that whether he will govern well or not).

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Skipped blogging yesterday. I read a couple of Shakespeare sonnets and then began working on an arrangement of Vaughan Williams’ organ piece, “Rhosymedre,” for viola and piano. I am fascinated that this organ piece is now public domain and available online.

link to pdf of original

link to pdf of my new piano score

link to pdf of viola part

This ended up taking most of the rest of the morning. When Eileen left for work, I went over to the church and practiced for a bit. Came home and got right back to work on the piece.  I looked up just before 1:00 or so and realized that Eileen was going to walk in momentarily for her lunch hour.

I got weird the other day and decided to learn a couple of Saint-Saens organ works to perform a week from Sunday.

I landed on him because I invited a soloist to sing a solo by him.

The gospel that Sunday is Jesus speaking to the storm and saying, “Peace, be still.”

I figure that this little song about protection kind of fits the readings.

I also figure that Saint-Saens is an aesthetic match for tastes in my congregation that I am not all that drawn to (i.e. the romantic, the rilly romantic).

I know the singer will enjoy rendering this.  I think it’s make a nice balance to some of my other more “quirky” choices.

The organ pieces are Prelude in B Major, Opus 99, No. 2, and “Allegro giocoso” from Seven Improvisations for Organ. These are tough little pieces to learn in two weeks but doable.

This guy is actually going slower than I was thinking of going. Finding recordings slower than my own interpretations is pretty rare for me.

Here’s a recording of the other piece.

In the afternoon I drove out to the lake where my piano student lives in a lavish home and gave him his first lesson of the summer. He winters in D.C. We have been working together for some time. He has learned most if not all of Faure’s Barcarolles.

Two old men sitting at a piano.

Today is Eileen’s and  my 37th Wedding Anniversary. I bought some flowers last night and decided it was silly to hide them and surprise her this morning. This is what I usually do with stuff. So to break pattern I left them on the table so we could begin enjoying them earlier. I told her it was my gift to both of us. This is really the truth.

I returned to my rereading of Brothers Karamazov yesterday. I am enjoying the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation and getting more out of it than I ever did from other translations.

I mention it because of the terrible news about Syrian government troops using children as shields and torturing them.

I was reminded of the point in the novel where the brothers Ivan and Alyosha are having a heart to heart about God and faith. This is the chapter just before the famous “Grand Inquisitor” chapter.

Ivan makes an argument that due to the death of innocents (and many other complex evil incidents which according to the notes Dostoevsky pulled from contemporary events), he either cannot believe in God or must somehow disavow God. “It’s not that I don’t accept God, Alyosha, I just most respectfully return him the ticket.”

It struck me that the atrocities we read about every day all over the world are not new, but nonetheless are shatteringly horrifying.

“The society whose modernization has reached the stage of integrated spectacle is characterized by the combined effect of five principal factors: incessant technological renewal, integration of state and economy, generalized secrecy, unanswerable lies, and eternal present.

The spectator is simply supposed to know nothing and deserves nothing. Those who are watching to see what happens next will never act such must be the spectator’s condition.
Guy Debord, quoted in Adrienne Rich’s book of essays What is found there.

This quote relates to the helplessness one feels when confronted with evil.

I am reminded of the character, Charles Wallace Murry, in Madeline L’Engle’s series Time Quartet.

He a little boy whose bravery in the smallest of things becomes a critical hinge in the cosmic battle against evil. It always makes me think of how important the choices we make in our lives can be even when they seem so trivial or we feel so helpless.

An irrational belief in the importance of how we choose to live takes issue with Shakespeare’s cynical phrase, “That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows” from Sonnet 15. Even though Shakespeare may be right in the sense that ultimately life/reality has no meaning other than itself, it seems to me that living a life of integrity and simple kindness might be the only response to nihilism. I know I struggle between Ivan Karamazov and Charles Wallace Murray.

I shouldn’t be feeling so melancholy today. I had lots of time off yesterday.

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John Irving – By the Book – NYTimes.com

Reading Irving’s new novel.

This is kind of a lame interview however. Not sure the interviewer had read the new book. Oh well. He missed some real opportunities to query Irving about the relationship of the formative reading patterns of the main character in the book to himself.

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‘It began when Wallace wrote Franzen a fan letter in the summer of 1988’ | berfrois

Short little article describing a friendship between two writers.

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Another Bank Bailout – NYTimes.com

All over the world, banks get bailed out while populations get screwed.

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‘College,’ by Andrew Delbanco – NYTimes.com

‘Power and Constraint,’ by Jack Goldsmith – NYTimes.com

Two new interesting books now waiting for me in my Amazon cart. I put them there so I won’t forget them. I don’t necessarily then buy them there. Haven’t even checked the library yet.

Two solid reviews.

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Today I am planning to do more relaxing, reading and practicing.

My blood pressure seems to have dropped back into reasonable low readings. I suspect this might be connected to my intentionality around relaxing.

Or maybe not. Who knows?

I was surprised by a lovely passage at the end of Adrienne Rich’s essay, “A leak in history” as I was reading this morning.  She talks about the loss of “vitality in everyday life,” the loss of people doing things they are good at simply because they love it. She goes on for a page or two about music.

After my mid-life crisis (where I turned to doing more things in life because of passion), I quietly began to think  of myself as an amateur, that is, one who does something for the love of it.

amateur (n.)
1784, “one who has a taste for (something),” from Fr. amateur “lover of,” from L. amatorem (nom. amator) “lover,” agent noun from amatus, pp. of amare “to love” (see Amy). Meaning “dabbler” (as opposed to professional) is from 1786. As an adjective, by 1838. from Online Etymology Dictionary.

This notion was resisted by my colleagues who persisted in seeing themselves and me as skilled practitioners of our art.

But on the side, I knew (and know) that I do what I do out of sheer love of it

Rich ends her essay this way:

“To ears accustomed to high-technology amplification and recording processes, the unamplified human voice, the voice not professionally trained, may sound acoustically lacking, even perhaps embarrassing. And so we’re severed from a physical release and pleasure, whether in solitude or community—the use of breath to produce song. But breath is also Ruah, spirit, the human connection to the universe.”

I know this is a bit harsh even a bit pretentious (“Heavy, heavy, dude”). But I still find it beautifully said. And I also know that ears of listeners accept a wide range of sounds these days: “singers not professionally trained” may even tend to dominate many recordings.

But the idea that something is missed out on when one doesn’t do the singing or the music or the art or the dance is the thought that continues to echo in my head.

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In Brazil, Violence Hits Tribes in Scramble for Land – NYTimes.com

More indigenous people make way for civilization.

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Cathedral Renamed – NYTimes.com

Catholics take over Crystal Cathedral. It will be called Christ Cathedral. Fitting somehow. Schuller the founder of  the Crystal Cathedral hales from holy old Holland Hope College.

Plus Crystal Cathedral apparently moves to a Catholic church site.

God is good.

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From Peace Prize to Paralysis – NYTimes.com

Memorable quote from Kristoff:” [W]e have the spectacle of a Nobel Peace Prize winner in effect helping to protect two of the most odious regimes in the world.”

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The G.O.P.’s Gay Trajectory – NYTimes.com

This proves my bias that being gay doesn’t mean being anything other than being gay.

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His story, our story – FT.com

Simon Schama on Shakespeare.

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While I was making coffee in the kitchen this morning, a bat began flying around from corner to corner. I closed the door to keep him in the room. Opened the back door to provide an escape. He landed above the sink. I continued making coffee and eventually started urging him to fly again with a broom.

Eventually he fell into a pan and I slapped the dust pan over it (“I am definitely going to have clean that pan well”) and escorted him outside.

This all sounds calm, but it wasn’t.  My blood was pounding and my hands were shaking. I was glad I had already taken my morning blood pressure before he showed himself (it has gone down the last few days).

Finished reading Sexton’s Complete Poems this morning. Then I paged to the end of her collected letters and read about her last years. She manages to estrange herself from her previous support system of fellow poets and family. She divorces her husband. She surrounds herself with more shallow admirers. It looks like she was cutting herself off from those she cared about. Then she calmly committed suicide. Sad stuff.

I found her poetry deteriorating toward the end. This is not entirely fair because the poems at the end of the collection are unpublished and un-revised. But still, they did get weaker in my estimation.

A section of one of my morning poems by Updike inspired me this morning.

Ohio

Rolling along through Ohio,
lapping up Mozart on the radio
(Piano
Concerto No. 21, worn but pure),
having awoken while dawn
was muddying a rainy sky,
I learned what human was:
human was the music,

natural was the static
blotting out an arpeggio
with clouds of idiot rage,
exploding, barking, blind.
The stars sit athwart our thoughts
just so.

In the next section of the poem he obliterates the “static” and compares the “empty road” to the “hammered melody.”

This made me want to play some Mozart this morning (“worn, but pure”).

I didn’t have a piano concerto to bang out so I turned to one of the piano trios we have been working on and rehearsed it silently on the electric piano with headphones. Very satisfying.

I’m still reading Adrienne Rich daily. This morning after reading a few of her lovely “Twenty One Love Poems” written about middle age lesbian love, I returned to her essays.

Found this excellent sentence:

regarding current loss of community and subsequent public interest, Rich writes:

“When a vast, stifling denial in the public realm is felt by every individual yet there is no language, no depiction, of what is being denied, it becomes for each his or her own anxious predicament, a daily struggle to act ‘as if’ everything were normal.”

from the essay “A Leak in History” by Adrienne Rich

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The revolutionary potential of the Queen’s English | Brendan O’Neill | spiked

“It isn’t only old farts who should stand up for standard English.”

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Approval Rating for Supreme Court Hits Just 44% in Poll – NYTimes.com

Institutions in the USA seem to be in crisis. Just another day in the Republic I guess.

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Ivory Coast – 7 Peacekeepers Killed – NYTimes.com

I find it so troubling when these kind of deaths occur.

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Chinese Activist’s Death Called Suicide, But Supporters Are Suspicious – NYTimes.com

He couldn’t hold a spoon but somehow he killed himself. Hmmmm.

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Suicides Eclipse War Deaths for U.S. Troops – NYTimes.com

This totally makes me crazy. We never care for our broken people.

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