I tried to cobble together a meal for Eileen and me last night. I love to cook, but haven’t done a whole lot of cooking recently probably due to my relentless Fall schedule.

Eileen’s boss gave her some tomatillos. I’ve been meaning to make some salsa with them. So I built a little meal around salsa verde. Picked up some chicken breast, Spanish rice mix, fajita seasoning, local flour tacos, tortilla chips, fresh local salsa, limes, avocados and a couple of Jarritos.

Came home and peeled the tomatillos. I put them and a lot of garlic in the oven. Cooked up some mushrooms and onions. Fixed the chicken fajitas. Warmed the flour tortillas in the oven. Prepared the spanish rice according to the directions on the box.

My salsa verde turned out to be kind of runny and dominated by lime. I went easy on the suggested cilantro since Eileen doesn’t go too much for that taste. Next time less lime. I sliced the avocados and served them on the side (for me, Eileen doesn’t really like them).

I have to decide what anthem to begin teaching my Kids’ Choir this evening to sing on All Saints. I only have two rehearsals with them since Halloween is the Wednesday before we celebrate All Saints.

I have long admired Ned Rorem’s simple setting of the text, “Come pure hearts.” It would be a great choice for them for All Saints. It’s from “Four Hymns” by him and is out of print (this makes me crazy, that the good stuff is not accessible legally).  It’s also found in the Episcopalian Hymnal Supplement, Hymns III (pictured above). I think it would sit nicely in a cello/viola/keyboard transcription to accompany unison singers. But I think it might be too hard for my kids to learn quickly.

Instead I’m thinking seriously of using a composition that sets the text, “We are the Lord’s” by Karl J. P. Spitta to the melody called Londonderry Aire.

I have seen many anthems over the years that use the tune Londonderry Aire.  I have never been able to bring myself to use one because I hear the sappy  song, “O Danny Boy,” so strongly in the melody. And there’s the inevitable pun.

But I’m leaning strongly towards this for the kids. It’s a very singable melody even if they have never heard it. I can use it to continue to develop their range and vocal sound. I only had two children Sunday but I swear both of them sang the high E in the anthem nicely when it occurred. This anthem dips into the lower range of the child’s voice which is something I try to treat gingerly or avoid entirely. It covers a range from low A (!) below middle C to that high E.

I also considered a setting of the Te Deum.

The church owns multiple copies of a Healey Willan collection.

In it there’s a lovely simple shortened setting of the Te Deum it which would make a great Kids’ Choir anthem for All Saints.

Despite my own predilection for using Willan in an Episcopalian setting,  I think the time constraint points to the derriere song.

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Rothko Vandalized at Tate Modern – NYTimes.com

Rothko is a favorite of mine. Interesting article about why the dude did what he did.

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On Display, a Spiegelman Mural – NYTimes.com

And then there’s Art Spiegelman, another artist/writer I admire.

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‘Who I Am – A Memoir,’ by Pete Townshend – NYTimes.com

Townshend was on the Daily Show Monday evening. Eileen and I watched the recording last night. I had read this review during the day and am attracted to reading this book.

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And Now for Something Completely Literate: A Memoir From John Cleese – NYTimes.com

Another book review. Haven’t read it yet.

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At Long Last, Dignity? – NYTimes.com

Moving story about some elderly gay men looking back in sorrow but not anger.

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Social Security Death Record Limits Hamper Researchers – NYTimes.com

A friend of mine on Facebook put up a status asking what people thought about allow researchers access to death statistics. I didn’t respond, but I lean towards as much transparency as possible. One of the commentators on this article suggested simply omitting the social security numbers from the information available.

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Another day of no ballet class. I will again have some opportunity to rest, but I do have to give a piano lesson and do some work for my program at church.

I am seriously thinking of attacking two more big Bach (at least to me) pieces: the fugue from Fantasia and Fugue in G minor BWV 542 and another trio movement (BWV 526 in C minor mov I). I rehearsed these yesterday.  I also was delighted to notice that another organist besides Rhonda and myself (Elizabeth Claar) is playing  some William Bolcom on an upcoming recital. In fact, she is playing the on based on “What a Friend we have in Jesus” which is the one I have spent some time beginning to learn.

Today I have to submit music for a week from Sunday for the church bulletin. I have been trying to discipline myself this fall to submit music on Tuesday for the service for the Sunday following the upcoming one. This keeps me (and the secretary) a bit ahead. Also it helps me map out my organ work more coherently and consistently.

I also have to choose at least one anthem to begin working on with my Kids’ Choir tomorrow evening.

I have been reading poetry by the people I met recently every morning (Jon Woodward and Oni Buchanan). This morning I bogged down a bit with Woodward because I reached “Uncanny Valley,” the long poem by Woodward that he and his wife commissioned composer John Gibson to set which I heard them perform the other night.

I asked Woodward who made up the “instructions” in the poem: “Lines notated like the previous two/Are repeated (as a pair)/As many times as the reader desires from zero to 255…”. I had just purchased the book and had overlooked them with a cursory glance. He said that he did and I verified by checking it in my new copy of his book. Sure enough.

However, in the program at the  concert there were 16 titles which were not in the poem in the book. If I had my wits about (a rare occasion admittedly), I would have asked who wrote the titles. I read the entire poem this morning and noticed that it is exactly 16 pages long. Each page has 12-15 lines on it. I have begun matching the titles in the program to the pages of the poem in the book.

I suspect (wonder if) Gibson the composer added titles. At the very least Gibson and Woodward must have talked about adding titles.

More on this (probably) when I finish my analysis. This morning I’m thinking seriously of checking out the archival Hope College recording made that evening so I can learn a bit more about how the piece works.

I have returned to reading The Pale King by David Foster Wallace. I have been reading in it on and off since the summer. I thoroughly enjoy it, but it is sitting on my netbook in an ebook and I sometimes forget I’m reading it. This happens because I usually am reading four or more books at any given time.

This review of a bio of David Foster Wallace was in the Sunday NYT Book Review last weekend:

D. T. Max’s Biography of David Foster Wallace – NYTimes.com

The reviewer suggests that The Pale King is perhaps his best work. He also debunks Wallace’s obtuseness: “Wallace’s writing is not as difficult to read as it is famed to be, nor as pandering to entertain as he worried it was. Wallace writes in grammatically correct sentences; he tells jokes; and his work, if you are wired a certain way, will affect you emotionally.”

I relate to this take on Wallace. I confess that I tend to read footnotes in every book I read so his footnotes which annoy some readers are part of the fun for me.

Wallace himself has this to say about concentrating and reading:

“[S]itting still and concentrating on just one task for an extended length of time is, as a practical matter, impossible. If you said, ‘I spent the whole night in the library, working on some client’s sociology paper,’ you really meant that you’d spent between two and three hours working on it and the rest of the time fidgeting and sharpening and organizing pencils and doing skin-checks in the men’s room mirror and wandering around the stacks opening volumes at random

I’d always felt frustrated and embarrassed about how much reading and writing time I actually wasted, about how much I sort of blinked in and out while trying to absorb or convey large amounts of information. To put it bluntly, I had felt ashamed about how easily I got bored when trying to concentrate.

It took … entering a highly selective college to understand that the problem with stillness and concentration was more or less universal and not some unique shortcoming that was going to prevent me from ever really rising above my preterite [jupe note: preterite means Expressing a past action or state] background and achieving something. Seeing the enormous lengths that those elite, well-educated undergrads from all over the nation went to to avoid, delay, or mitigate concentrated work was an eye-opening experience for me. In fact, the school’s social structure was set up to prize and esteem students who could pass their classes and assemble a good transcript without ever working hard.

People who skated by, doing the absolute minimum required for institutional/parental approval, were regarded as cool, while people who actually applied themselves to their assignments and to the work of their own education and achievement were relegated to the status of ‘grinds’ or ‘tools,’ the lowest caste in the college’s merciless social hierarchy.”

I love this man.

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How to Die – NYTimes.com

Some good ideas used in the U.K. Impossible there to discuss how allow people to not be treated when they are dying is an economic factor, impossible here in the USA not to.

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‘Skagboys,’ Irvine Welsh’s ‘Trainspotting’ Prequel – NYTimes.com

I made it through Trainspotting (both the book and the movie). Brutal stuff. Bogged down in Filth by Welsh. This one sounds brutal as well.

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‘500 Days,’ by Kurt Eichenwald – NYTimes.com

review of Eichenwald book which documents panic by Bush and Cheney after 9/11.

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Philip Glass and Beck Discuss Collaborating on ‘Rework’ – NYTimes.com

Glass’s influence on pop music? What about pop/rock’s influence on him and all minimalists?

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The Pain of Reading – NYTimes.com

Heart rending little vignette about living on the outside in Puerto Rico.

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Intelligence and the Stereotype Threat – NYTimes.com

If people think you are weird or something it increases the chances you will behave that way. Ahem. I think I have a bit of that. No, honestly, I do.

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Court Cases That Drag On Forever – NYTimes.com

Writer actually mentions the Bleak House case by Dickens. See. People do read.

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The Cancer Lobby – NYTimes.com

Did you know formaldehyde is a carcinogenic substance? Not likely to if chemical company lobbies continue to slow down public welfare legistlation.

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Emory Confronts Legacy of Bias Against Jews in Dental School – NYTimes.com

What? Antisemitism in the US around WWII?  Go on!

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Bo Xilai’s Former Wife Reveals Paranoid Side of a Once-Powerful Chinese Family – NYTimes.com

I think this continuing story is like an opera plot.

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Israeli Jets Down Drone – NYTimes.com

And they don’t know where it came from. Right.

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Hooray! Today and tomorrow Hope has Fall Recess so no ballet classes. I’m mostly glad about today. My present schedule gives me little time for an entire day off so I look forward to one today.

I’m still basking in satisfaction about “Bach Sunday” at my church yesterday.

Okay it wasn’t really “Bach Sunday.” The readings for the day included the difficult sayings of Jesus about divorce (he forbade it).

My boss did an excellent job of breaking this open for contemporary Episcopalians and then connecting it to the second part of the gospel which included the story of Jesus pointing out that one must be as a child to inherit the kingdom.

Briefly she talked about how most of us are touched by divorce. That when Jesus made his comments about divorce only the man could initiate it. When he did so the woman became ostracized. This is what Jesus was forbidding. Then she said that he had deliberately moved from forbidding throwing people away to reaching out to children who were themselves as much property as women. Good stuff.

It was the latter part of gospel that led me to choose anthems and recommend hymns for the day. It’s harder to find happy divorce hymns.

Bach’s Cantata 139, movement one begins “Wohl dem, der sich auf seinen Gott Recht kindlich kann verlassen!” which can be translated “Happy is the man, who to his God can abandon himself just like a child!”

As I continually point out, the index I use to find hymns usually connects the Sunday readings to a Bach cantata.

The words certainly connected this time.

The Kids Choir sang along on Bach and also had a little anthem of their own whose words also connected to the gospel: “We All Are God’s Children” by Johannes Brahms, arr. by Harriet Ilse Ziegenhals which begins “We all are God’s children you made us every one.
You guard and watch o’er us from morn ‘til setting sun.”

Our closing hymn  was “He’s got the whole world in his hands.” The hymnal arrangement has some nice jazz chords in it.

Our sequence hymn was the Swedish hymn, “Children of the Heavenly Father.” Interestingly this text is only found in Lift Every Voice and Sing II, our African American hymnal in the Episcopal church.

Although it might be counter intuitive to think of the African American hymn practice as including a hymn like this, Africans brought here as slaves appropriated the music of the white church from the very beginning. Actually this use is earlier than the creation of Spirituals and Sorrow Songs by this community.

I have been reading Horace Clarence Boyer’s excellent essay, “Cultural Diversity,” in the Hymnal 1982 Companion.

He briefly chronicles the praying practices of the first American slaves and finds them using metrical psalms and hymns in their Christian prayer. It is only when they pray in private groups away from the watchful (and disapproving) eyes of their masters that they continue to combine the music and prayer practices of Africa with the practices of their white owners.

Eventually Sorrow Songs develop like folk music from the community. This would be mid 18th century. Once the Fisk Jubilee Singers begin using this music as their repertoire right after the US Civil War, the corpus of music moves into white circles and indeed is accepted around the world as a significant contribution.

Ironically, African Americans do not use the spirituals in their evolving prayer practices. Instead Boyer dates the emergence of a distinctive American black prayer practice in the early roots of what becomes “gospel music.” These roots are Pentecostal and begin what is called the Second Awakening in 1900.

African Americans return to using spirituals more in their communal prayer with the advent of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.

I’m trying not to blather on too much about this, but I have to close with Boyer’s wonderful description of piano gospel music style (a style I regularly attempt at the keyboard at church).

“A new style of piano playing was created: chordal, rather melodic, percussive rather than legato; and, unlike the organ accompaniment for traditional hymns that double the voice parts, gospel piano provided an additional ‘response’ to the singer’s ‘call.’ Gospel piano sets up the beat and serves, even during sustained passages, as the time keeper throughout the song. Attacks and releases are explosive in this style; divisions and subdivisions of the beat are characteristic.”

Boyer, Horace Clarence, “Cultural Diversity,” The Hymnal 1982 Companion Volume One, p. 29 – 39

Breaking pattern and blogging in the afternoon. Usually I do so in the morning.

As I was preparing for church this morning, Eileen used her blackberry to videotape me.

This short video is the result. Lo and behold it’s a quantum leap in quality from my little web cam.

She basically only uses it as a camera anyway. So now I’ll be using it and feeling better about sharing videos.

Bach Sunday came off pretty good this morning. The organ prelude and postlude went well. The choral cantata movement also seemed to come off pretty good. I managed to drill the parts during the pregame in such a way that may have helped people feel more confident.

I had two absences in the Kids’ Choir. There are only four kids active right now. So that’ s over half. One kid was sick. The other kid’s parents planned and an out of town weekend on Kid’s Choir Sunday. Whatchagonnado?

Eileen and my new soprano were prepared to quietly sing along with the kids to help them feel like they were in a larger group.

So the little Brahms adaptation they were scheduled to sing by themselves at communion came off pretty well despite the absences.

I think the primary purpose of a kids choir is for the kids to have an experience of music and learning.

This definitely happened. The kids sang along in German on the Bach.

I felt pretty good after all of this in service.

This afternoon is blessing of the animals.

As usual I am planning to drag m electric piano, an amp and a battery over to church and play for this outdoor service.

With any luck it will rain and we can have it in the church basement instead.

My brother and his wife

were in town for a quick visit. Hence no morning blog this morning. We all went out for drinks and dinner last night. Good conversation, Good times. They left as Eileen and I walked over to church this morning.

I have been using my new video cam to tape myself.

The sound is terrible. After posting a few of my first videos I find myself reluctant to share more. It’s an experience I have had over and over with recording in general. In order to make it acceptable to ears that are used to high production (in other words everbody’s) I have to spend more time with the recording than I do worrying about the actual notes themselves.

So I have been using the process to help myself to more objectively examine my playing and then improve it.

Yesterday I divided my rehearsal into morning and afternoon. In the morning I taped three pieces (despite the vacuuming going on in the church). Then I came home, converted the files into video files, uploaded them privately on YouTube, and listened to them.

I learned that speeding up the Bach trio to a more normal tempo increases its effectiveness as a piece and is something I can easily do (judging from the recording which was not error free but satisfactory as a rehearsal of the piece… much faster than the one posted here before).

This evening at a wedding at my church, I have agreed to perform Jackie Wilson’s song, “Your love keeps lifting me higher and higher,” on the piano as the couple leaves the room. I know, I know. I’m a whore.

I don’t really object to the music and its use. What bothers me is that there will be little to no congregational participation at this wedding. This will increase the feel of spectacle and decrease the idea of communal event and prayer.

Whippy fucking skippy. Both my boss and the bride rejected my suggestion of singing a hymn or two to combat this. I’m a good dooby and easily defer to my boss’s judgement. But I still think it’s a mistake going in. We’ll see how it works out.

In the meantime, here’s Jackie Wilson’s version:

It’s a great song. There’s only three chords all of which have the same bass note. Watching my rehearsal of a piano version of it, I learned that I could be freer and use less pedal and more rhythmic improv. Good to know.

So I continue to have an ambivalent relationship to the art of recording.

I guess I won’t be posting videos made with my little video cam very often. The sound is so bad it’s embarrassing. That’s not even talking about how well I play in front of the camera. fuck the duck.

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Moving Beyond Affirmative Action – NYTimes.com

This article typifies a certain acquiescing I have seen over and over to the non-thinking extreme right wing in our country. Okay. You win. We’ll fight the battle differently.

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Romney’s Sick Joke – NYTimes.com

Debunking one of the many inaccuracies Romney put forth in the debate.

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Study Finds Free Contraceptives Cut Abortion Rate – NYTimes.com

This is not surprising to me, but of course I’m a damn soft headed liberal.

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Feeling a bit more rested this morning but running a bit behind. I have ballet class in less than an hour.

Yesterday despite (because of?) my exhaustion I was quite pleased with my improvs for class.

Lately I have been making them a bit more like pop and blues tunes.

Easier to make them rhythmic which I find a bit more interesting.

I always try to be clear to help the dancers know where they are in the combination. Nothing too abstract.

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A New Call for Catalonia’s Independence – NYTimes.com

One of the great memories I have is visiting Barcelona which is in Catalonia. We went there after Sarah graduated from school in England. Eileen and I treated her and Matthew. Good times.

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New, Bizarre Species of Small Dinosaur Identified – NYTimes.com

I usually browse comments to NYT articles.  One said “Evil Chickens.”

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Understanding Kids, Gangs and Guns – NYTimes.com

Some practical suggestions that could be implemented without politicizing the situation but aren’t being done.

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Jerry Seinfeld (Really!) Riffs About … Something – NYTimes.com

Seinfeld wrote a letter to the editor.

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At Last Night’s Debate: Romney Told 27 Myths In 38 Minutes | ThinkProgress

This is partisan but I suspect there’s a lot of truth to it.

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Tomatillo Salsa Verde Recipe | Simply Recipes

Eileen’s boss gave her a bunch of tomatillos and instructed her to have me do something much like  recipe. Just a matter of time.

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To Combat ‘Modern Slavery’ – NYTimes.com

It would seem to me that with the heritage of slavery in our country we would be in the forefront of speaking out and ridding the world of it.

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U.S. Sends Ospreys to Okinawa, Despite Fierce Opposition – NYTimes.com

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I am dragging this morning. I have had a full week so far. Tuesday just before Eileen and I left for the concert (see yesterday’s blog), my daughter Elizabeth called to tell us she and her long time partner the lovely Jeremy Daum had gone out and gotten married that day.

My daughter Sarah upbraided me for not blogging about this yesterday.

So here’s a bit on that.

I have always respected the way my daughters have handled their relationships. At a certain point this has to become a person’s own responsibility. In both cases, my daughters currently have partners who are delightful people to whom they both seem committed and who are committed to them. That’s quite an accomplishment. Many people who marry never come close to this wonderful experience.

A few in my extended family and in-laws have had a bit of trouble with the way my daughters have chosen to live. I, on the other hand, am totally proud of them. I have gently indicated to those who disapprove of Sarah and Elizabeth how much I approve and love them.

Elizabeth and Jeremy have been together for around ten years. The turning point in their relationship as described on the phone ten years ago by Elizabeth was that she had discerned she was in love with Jeremy. I think they got married now because it was the sensible thing to do and was probably largely influence by the quagmire that awaits any American who wants to reside permanently in China.

Gay people know only too well the roadblocks unmarried couples can run into in ERs and insurance. This is also solved by just getting married. Unfortunately gay men and women don’t always have that option.

I would love to somehow show my love and approval of Elizabeth and Jeremy through a gift, but they have asked their family and friends not to give them more stuff especially as they shedding so much in preparation for moving to Beijing.

Instead they have charmingly asked people to do what they did and photograph themselves eating cake in honor of the occasion. So that’s what we’ll do.

Theirs is the first marriage I have heard of with its own FAQ.

Very cool.

I had the pleasant experience of hearing “fresh music” last night. The composition, “Uncanny Valley,” by John Gibson was commissioned by Jon Woodward, the author of the text, and his wife, pianist and poet, Oni Buchanan.

They performed it last night at the Knickerbocker for only the second time in public. Afterwards, Oni read three poems from her new book of poetry, “Must a Violence.”

The composition and performance combined an array of 20th century techniques. (You can get a good idea of much but not all of what it sounded like on this web page from Ariel Artists who represent Oni and also my friend Rhonda Edgington) Jon read. Oni was at the piano. Jon manned a computer which produced sounds both random and amplified from Oni’s piano. The form of the piece itself probably had origin in the lines from the poem that read “Lines notated like the previous two/ Are repeated (as a pair)/As many times as the reader desires,/ from zero to 255, before continuing.”

The composition is neatly divided into 16 sections one of which is called “Instructions” which utilizes the text which seems to have influenced the form of the piece.

In each section, Jon would repeat phrases over and over after having read several other lines. The poem actually tells a story of sorts. I heard it as a kind of sci-fi tale. One reviewer says that it is a “story told by a stutterer” and that it tells “what happens when seven trees fall on the highway.” That’s as good a description as any.

I was left with visions of future beings, cyber beings, obnoxious and/or charming current sentient beings talking about an incident from several points of view.

The music enhanced and set this text almost like movie music at times.

John Gibson, the composer, describes his own doctoral dissertation about repetition in Reich, Feldman, Andriessen, and the duo Autechre, this way: “The essay engages issues such as the disorienting effect of repetition, the role of repetition in shaping large-scale continuity, and the surprising fact that literally repeating patterns may sound different as they continue.”

This could describe much of what I heard last night. But it falls short of what was for me a charming and interesting experience. At times Oni played very carefully with the recorded sounds, at one point punctuating jazzy/dissonant chords over an invisible recorded bass sound emanating from the speakers hooked up the computer. At other times she moved the music stand on the piano to allow her to reach in and make sounds by plucking and rubbing the strings.

These sounds seemed to be then picked up by mics running from the piano to the computer and then utilized in good old fashioned echoplex like ways.

At this point it felt very much like a techno concert where the sounds were being used and reused much like the words in the poem would be repeated and repeated and take on a new life from this repetition.

I didn’t follow the sections of the poem until they reached what I suspected (correctly it turns out) was no. 12. This section began with a long piano piece which was drew heavily on Beethoven’s slow movement of the Pathetique Sonata. But Gibson did not merely quote it. He transformed the material and made it his own in a breathless quiet beautiful way suddenly utilizing the harmonic language of tonal music and making a bit of beauty.

In this way, he captured something about Woodward’s work itself which alternates with the familiar mind-numbing repetition of early avant-guard (Hello John Cage and Karl Stockhausen) and then blossoms suddenly into interesting images and ideas.

A good time was had by all.

We were privileged to be included in the after concert meal with the artists and students. I bought a book each of their poetry and had a martini as I listened and chatted with people around me. It continues to amaze me when shit like this happens here in provincial Holland Michigan at such a bleak intellectual time in our nation. It gives me hope and delight. I’m still processing the work and reading the poetry. Life is good.

Finished The English Hymn: A Critical and Historical Study by J. R. Watson yesterday morning. This morning I optimistically began reading the collection of essays that is volume one of The Hymnal 1982 Companion. I consult regularly in this four volume work which I have owned since it was published and read many of the essays and entries in it. It would be good for me to read this volume straight through. Not sure I’ll continue, but it seemed the way to go this morning.

By the Book: Michael Chabon

In the Sunday NYT Book Review, Michael Chabon mentioned an author I have never heard of, Edward St. Aubyn.

I poked around on Amazon, library web sites and such. It looks like a good read. One of the reader reviews on Amazon said that it despite it being a “brutal read,” he/she continued to be sucked in. Read the first few pages and decided I would like to get a copy. An interlibrary loan request was denied. It’s $9.99 on kindle. That’s probably what I’ll end up doing, since the used copies are even more expensive.

In the meantime, I have added How Music Works by Byrne to my morning reading. I like his dry formal/informal voice which comes through nicely to me in his prose. It’s like having a conversation with a goofy educated experienced pop musician who exhibits both insight and naivete. I’m going for the insights.

This evening Eileen and I have been invited to have supper with our friends, Rhonda and Mark Edgington, Jon Woodward the author of this book of poetry and Oni Buchanan, the musician who will be accompanying him as he reads. They are performing a setting by composer, John Gibson. Rhonda knows Oni, I believe. They are both represented by Ariel Artists anyway.

Here’s a link to a page about the work with an embedded audio excerpt.

I received an email from my friends Dave Barber and Paul Wizynajtys, yesterday.

These are two talented men whose friendship I have valued over the years and art I have long admired. I wish they would use the interwebs to sell their art. They fear copyright infringement or people just plain stealing their designs which are wonderful and unique.  They limit their marketing to personal appearances at art fairs and stocking their wares in art galleries. I think if they showed their wares online, they would make  a ton of money.

Anyway, the email said that Dave’s Halloween ornaments were currently available at Mackerel Sky Gallery in East Lansing.  Since the gallery had put the above image on their web site I assume that Dave has given his permission to so. I put up a link on Facebook and he thanked me in a comment.

Daughter Sarah (Hi Sarah) asked for more pictures and an online purchasing option. I would like that as well and would instantly buy something.

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Haven’t had time to include links recently. The list is long today as a result.

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Quentin Tarantino Tackles Old Dixie by Way of the Old West (by Way of Italy) – NYTimes.com

Haven’t read yet.

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O.J. Simpson, Racial Utopia and the Moment That Inspired My Novel – NYTimes.com

Michael Chabon essay from Sunday NYT Book Review. Bookmarked to read.

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University of Mississippi Commemorates Integration – NYTimes.com

Heard James Meridith on the radio about this. He and others have problems with this commemoration. It does seem questionable to commemorate something that was forced down the throat of a university ostensibly founded to perpetuate white supremacy.

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With Tattoos, Young Israelis Bear Holocaust Scars of Relatives – NYTimes.com

Fascinating story. Seems like fiction.

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Who Controls the Story? – NYTimes.com

Public Editor, Margaret Sullivan, takes on “quote approval.”

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How to Help Iran Build a Bomb – NYTimes.com

Attack it. That should calm things down.

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Kill the Indians, Then Copy Them – NYTimes.com

Fascinated when I looked up the word, “deracinated,” used in this article. It’s not “race” as in human race, it’s “race” as in “racine” French for root, hence the meaning is to uproot.

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What I Learned From Debate Prep – NYTimes.com

Fun little article by Mondale’s Debate prep partner who played Reagan in his debate prep.

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Poisoned Patriots of Ft. McClellan | Law Enforcement Today

Received an email from a friend of a friend who is affected by this. Her husband has long suffered from erratic behavior. Now he is in advanced alzheimers. It turns out his condition has been caused by exposure to toxic chemicals when he was in the service.

Here’s what I put up on Facebook.

This (is) happening now. I have copied parts of an email from someone who is desperately in need of this bill (HB NO: 2052 AKA The Fort McClellan Health Registry Act) to pass. Please act and pass on.

“The CHAIRMAN of this Congressional Committee is Rep. Jeff Miller, from the Pensacola/Fort Walton area in Florida. HIS PHONE NUMBER IN WASHINGTON: 202-225-4136

Congress will be in session next week from Oct. 1-5 before adjourning until after the Nov. election. I called this office the other day – a very friendly young woman named Noel answered the phone. My call took only moments.

You can just say that you know that Congressman Miller is the CHAIRMAN of the Veterans Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives, and that you want to URGE him to pass House Bill NO: 2052 – AKA The Fort McClellan Health Registry Act – because you know someone whose life has been destroyed by toxic chemical exposure at Fort McClellan.

I’m contacting everyone I can think of – I figure that if Mr. Miller’s office is deluged with calls about this that he will take notice!

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Why Obamacare is a Conservative’s Dream – NYTimes.com

Language has been raped. What is called “conservative” is radical,  what is called “middle of the road” in on the right, what is called left is in the center. Good grief. Now let’s talk about actual ideas.

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Sacrifice, Three Muffled Syllables – NYTimes.com

Unpopular political idea, but solid.

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Away From Cities, a Life Laced With Violence for Syrians – NYTimes.com

Fire Sweeps Through Aleppo’s 17th-Century Souk – NYTimes.com

Reporting from Syria improves. What a mess.

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Recording of me practicing yesterday’s prelude.

Listening to the Dresden Dolls do “Girl Anachronism” yesterday I realized “anachronism” was also an apt description of myself.

The OED definition no. 2 says an anachronism is

“Out of harmony with the present.” That’s me alright. My ideas about music, learning, history seem pretty out of step.

But I do like Amanda Palmer. Her song, “Girl Anachronism,” appealed to me the first time I heard a recording of it.

Recently she raised over a million dollars on Kickstarter. Pertinent links:

Amanda Palmer’s Million-Dollar Music Project and Kickstarter’s Accountability Problem

Amanda Palmer: The new RECORD, ART BOOK, and TOUR by Amanda Palmer » all you ever wanted to know about all this kickstarter money & where it’s going. — Kickstarter

I found this a bit troubling. I have since read what she has to say about it (doing an expensive project well) and understand a bit more. I do like these tunes:

I think “The Killing Type” is a marvelous piece. Both music and video.

I think the following performance of her song, “The Bed,” is excellent if a bit hokey (the song is a story and musically reminds me of Andrew Lloyd Weber, no mean feat, but he’s not my favorite composer). But I love the sound in the video. It reminds me of analogue recordings of my youth (e.g. the strings in Eleanor Rigby). I love the simplicity of using a sheet as she does and the setting which is intimate and surreal.

She recently put out a call for local musicians to play on her tour when she arrives at their city. For free. I get that it could be an opportunity for a local dude to play with Amanda Fucking Palmer (as she refers to herself). But I find this troubling but it might be more of my own “boy anachronism” stuff.

The very idea of what “music” is has changed certainly in the populist arena.  “Music” now seems to be about a very large ephemeral experience which includes personality, story, emotional strength, entertainment to name just a few. Where I feel out of touch is that I’m interested in music mostly for how it sounds and how satisfying it is to make those sounds physically. When people talk about “music” they seem to mean what’s on their computers, phones and mp3 players.

I have been out of touch, I think for most of my life. I was attracted to the Beatles, Bach and Paul Simon because I thought the sounds were intriguing and satisfying. Later to some extent I identified my own subjectivity in my attraction, but I never quite got that music was a business and much larger enterprise than the sounds themselves.

Then I hit my first music college. I was a bit of a rebel I guess. Certainly again out of touch. I met several fine pedagogues but mostly the teachers were either angry  or distant. And they did damage. I was damaged but not near as badly as other students by the teachers myopic arrogance. One of my fellow composition students attempted suicide. I believe it was largely about academic pressure. I watched teachers ridicule students, seduce students, affect airs of superiority (often when they weren’t all that superior), and generally turn people away from music.

Yikes.

I dropped out of my composition program (due to leaving my first wife, not out of disgust with it or anything) and returned to school years later to study organ.

I was on the phone with a bride recently.

It is during conversations like this when I realize how out of touch I am. I hear brides and grooms talk about not using “churchy” music. Instead they want music that is lively and interesting. I of course think that a lot of the music I do at church fits that description. But I certainly get that the church is a strange land for many people. They don’t suspect that what they are looking for is also what a church community might be look for.

The ideal of a community that has a sense of authenticity is a distant one in the USA at this point. These are missing in our society at large, of course, so institutions will have a tendency to mirror that.

In the meantime I make my community out of sounds I guess. Through them I reach other minds, living and dead, and deep emotions as well as playfulness and simple enjoyment.

That’s quite a bit.