Yesterday Julie the ballet instructor asked me if it was much of a culture shock to return to Holland. I hadn’t thought much about it but reflected that in many ways it wasn’t. In Beijing I was a foreigner who couldn’t speak the language and didn’t know customs. Here in Holland I often also feel a bit like a foreigner. Julie smiled and said that she did as well.

I do feel at home in my house and with the music I love to learn and perform. Maybe it’s just being my age, but I feel like my tastes in music and books are getting more and more obscure and eccentric (out of touch?). I find myself losing interest in much popular music and at the same time finding that I feel energized by Bach, Brahms and other composers.

I still put on some loud rock or funk to exercise or clean house. And all of this music feels like a country where I am not a foreigner.

Interestingly enough as I write this my youngest daughter is swearing allegiance to the Queen of England as she successfully applies for citizenship there (Just got the text from her). While she still struggles sometimes with the cultural differences and misses the USA I do think she is largely at home in the U.K.

I was reading William F. Buckley Jr yesterday about Whittaker Chambers. I suppose I should synopsize the story of Chambers and Hiss. Chambers was a Communist in America. He eventually recanted. But having rubbed shoulders with many Americans who were Communist he was surprised to see Alger Hiss so prominent in the National Government. He denounces Hiss and a scandalous public dispute ensues.

I have read about this scandal on and off for years. Chambers fascinates me. He is a good writer I think. I admire his classic memoir, Witness, and have read it at least once. And after reading him and Hiss and others about the scandal in which he accused a high government official of being a Communist, I pretty much think that Chambers was telling the truth. A lot of good it did him. Hiss never admitted it, but the evidence that eventually came out is pretty damning.

Chambers also translated the children’s book Bambi.

Fun fact.

For a Worker With Little Time Between 3 Jobs, a Nap Has Fatal Consequences – 

Well written feature.

Turning a Book Tour Into a Literary Circus (and a Hot Ticket) – NYTimes.com

What caught my eye about this article is that musicians along the tour will be playing for free. Like Amanda Palmer did on her zillion dollar Kickstarter tour. I think musicians who eek out a living are less on people’s radar than ever. I constantly try to get people paid and I realize that the hundred bucks is important to them. Probably because it’s important to me. Hard not to see this as a class issue, but it may be simple ignorance about what it takes to be a performing musician.

Our Invisible Rich – NYTimes.com

Today’s political balance rests on a foundation of ignorance, in which the public has no idea what our society is really like.

I think this is probably true.

China’s Fruitless Repression of the Uighurs – NYTimes.com

And students in Hong Kong. I keep thinking of the comment a Romanian friend made to me in the 80s: “Don’t you know? All governments are jerks.”

Is There Room for Black People in the New Detroit? – Suzette Hackney – POLITIC

No.

The Secret Recordings of Carmen Segarra | This American Life

Good report,but at the end, Glass talks over a vocal piece. i think that’s odd.
The music is not identified in the transcript. “Poker Face?”

The Unrepentant Bootlegger – NYTimes.com

I still think this is a complex question. Interesting article and comments.

Why We Sit Back and Let Apps Do Our Chores – NYTimes.com

Some weird shit in this article. I question this sentence: “Technology has conditioned us to expect ease, efficiency and speed in almost everything we do.” My tech is often difficult to use, inefficient and slow. How about you?

Learning to Love Criticism – NYTimes.com

Although this article is gender based (about women) I thought it was helpful in thinking about myself and my reaction to criticism.

Kicking the Facebook Habit – NYTimes.com

Cool definition of Facebook: “Facebooking as a verb, a premeditated crime against spontaneity.” But I persist in checking it from time to time.

I need to do a quick “no thank you” blog this morning since I have to be at work in an hour. A “no thank you” blog is like a “no thank you helping” when someone offers you something you don’t want or don’t have time to eat.

Yesterday went well at work. I had nine singers and they did a fine job. After service a church leader made an odd suggestion that maybe our new pipe organ would be best served if the pipes pointed into the room and the choir and the player were behind them in the choir area. I tried to explain that some pipe organs do indeed have pipes behind the player that speak into the room but that they were more elaborate than the instrument we were purchasing. Also that I didn’t think it was a great idea to not have the sound behind the choir.

The parishioner was of course entirely well meaning and one likes to keep the communication lines open. It never fails that after an exhausting morning someone will approach me and I will have to draw on my draining reserves to be as non anxious as possible. This is not an accident according to St. Friedman. I hope I did okay. I know I did the best I could at staying non anxious and at the same time communicating.

I know I have lost my mind since last night I found myself looking up all the hymns we did yesterday in the Hymnal 1982 Companion. It occurred to me to do this since all the hymns were drawn from it yesterday.

I thought it was pretty interesting that the entry on “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” was written by Harry Eskew and Marion Hatchett. I have met both men. Eskew has written an important history of hymnody which I own (and he signed for me.). Cool.

Sarah is in a jet on her way back to England from China as I write this. I have been messaging back and forth with Eileen this morning. Morning is pretty good time to connect with people in China since it’s early evening there.

I’m gradually getting back into a groove here in Holland. Slept better last night, but my cold is getting worse. Body aches this morning. Or maybe my dissipating fatigue is allowing me to distinguish them from jetlag.

I bought some interesting mushrooms to stir fry on Friday. I am hoping I will have the energy and ambition to make myself a nice lunch after church today.

I have begun to return to practicing a bit though my energy is low. Spent some time with Brahms at the piano yesterday. That’s always fun. My prelude (Nettleton arr. by yours truly) is not as easy as I was hoping but I think I am ready to play it this morning. I kind of copped out for the postlude and scheduled a lovely dance from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (the “Irish Ho Hoane”).

Purchased some interesting books at the UUAW used book sale yesterday. I am reluctant to add to my collection of books since we have so many here in the house (thousands). But couldn’t resist a few.  Probably a good way to do it instead of the old way of coming home from any used book source with stacks of books.

Anyway, I found two books on China. A cookbook and a dictionary.

The cookbook was one of the Time Life series. I already own over a dozen of these and enjoy them both for reading and cooking. The China cookbook is fascinating because it was written in the late 60s. This means the contemporary context of writing it was Communist China which was not all that officially  sympathetic to traditional Chinese cooking.

Couldn’t resist an Oxford Dictionary. I do like that publisher and have been thinking about learning a bit more about Chinese characters.

Also fell for adding another bio of Glenn Gould to my Glenn Gould collection.

Finally, I also purchased a book by William F. Buckley. I have always admired him a bit despite his blind spots and reactionary conservatism. This looks like a good read.

Well, time to finish breakfast and get to church.

Slept badly last night. After resisting the urge to sleep in the afternoon, I kept myself awake by exercising and watching some TV. By 11 PM, I thought I should fall asleep pretty easily. This did not happen. Ah well. After a restless night, Edison and the sunlight woke me up around 8:30.

It’s after 11 AM now. I have already been to the Farmers market and made a quick stop at the AAUW annual book sale. I just made my breakfast of stir fried veggies with egg and sesame seeds.

I did manage to get a bit of practice in yesterday. I have scheduled strategically easier pieces for tomorrow.

This afternoon I am planning to check on Mom, pick up her books and return them to the library and replace them with a new bunch.

After that I have to hit the church, post hymns and prep for tomorrow.

I am hoping I will feel a bit better tomorrow.

Watch Videos | The Roosevelts | PBS

I watched Jon Stewart’s Sept 15th show in which he interviewed Ken Burns about his documentary series on the Roosevelts. After that I decided to google it and sure enough there it was online. Just the ticket to keep me awake.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Miss America Pageant (HBO) – YouTube

Then I watched this. I can’t quite get into a rhythm of checking YouTube for the latest “Last Week Tonight.” I do think Oliver is on to something with his format.

Alastair Reid, a Restless Poet and Essayist, Is Dead at 88 – NYTimes.com

I am a relentless reader of obits. This one sent me scurrying to read poetry by the person  who died. Found a nice poem here.

Christopher Hogwood, Early-Music Devotee, Dies at 73 – NYTimes.com

Speaking of obits, this is a musician whose career I have followed.

Remarks by the President at U.N. Security Council Summit on Foreign Terrorist Fighters | The White House

David Brooks said that President Obama’s speech give last Wednesday was an example of him at his best. I read it. Didn’t quite get that.

Fostering National Identity but Not Nationalism – NYTimes.com

Good op ed piece on this topic.

Eric Holder’s Legacy – NYTimes.com

Sorry to see this guy go, at least on his civil rights record.

Uighur Scholar’s Life Sentence Is Seen as Reining in Debate on Minorities in China

Ilham Tohti, Uighur Scholar, on Life Under Scrutiny in China – NYTimes.com

Last week in China, my son-in-law Jeremy came home. When asked how his day went, he said bad and mentioned this case. What I didn’t get in the US reporting that Jeremy mentioned was that the usual sentence for this crime (which is trumped up) was five years.

How Gary Hart’s Downfall Forever Changed American Politics – NYTimes.com

I saw Hart when i was in Oxford a few years back. I think he could tell I recognized him, but I mercifully left him alone. I always admired his politics. This excerpt from Matt Bai’s new book sheds light on how we got into “gotcha” political coverage. I also learned that even though I followed Hart’s fall in 87 (88?), I still got many of the facts wrong. This article corrects some misconceptions that still prevail about the whole deal.

Women’s Rights Activist Executed by ISIS in Iraq – NYTimes.com

 At Least 50 Killed in Xinjiang Violence, Officials Say – NYTimes.com

Pakistani Guard Shoots Prisoner Convicted of Blasphemy – NYTimes.com

Madness around the world. Happy stuff.

Whew. Yesterday was literally a very long day for me. I got up around 5 AM on Thursday Sept 25 China time. That would would be 5 PM Wed Holland Michigan Time. My day ended at around 10 PM Thursday Holland Time which would have been 10 AM Friday China Time. By my reckoning I was going for about 30 hours straight. No wonder I’m a bit tired today.

I did nod off a few times on the airplane but not very much.

I woke up at 5 AM this morning (local time) but fell back asleep until about 9.

I enjoyed my China visit in many ways. Probably the best part was seeing fam especially the new member, Alexandra Daum Jenkins.

Of course it was excellent to see everyone else as well.

This next one is actually my favorite picture of the trip.

The first time Eileen held Alex. Boy had she looked forward to that!

Well that’s all for today folks. I have some serious resting to do.

Today is my last day in China. Yesterday we spent the morning at the Great Wall. The scenery was amazing. The cable car ride up and the tobbaggon slide down were also fun. We came back to Elizabeth’s apartment and hung out for a bit. Then after Jeremy came home from work, Elizabeth, Eileen, Sarah and I all went for a nice meal in a restaurant together. Great fun!

My flight doesn’t leave until this afternoon. I think we will probably invade Elizabeth’s and Jeremy’s apartment sometime this morning for some last minute face time with Elizabeth, Alex and Sarah. Jeremy has to work but will come back in time to shepherd me to the airport.

The flight is a long one, but I am braced and ready to get back to my routine. Somehow my smart phone can read my gmail despite the fact that Chine routinely blocks google sites. This morning I had an email from John Sheridan in New Jersey that he will be performing my Chorale Prelude on Nettleton this weekend. I have been carrying around this little piece with me in China in hopes that I might get a second or two at a keyboard to practice it. I’m also planning to use it this weekend. I’m planning it as a prelude, Mr. Sheridan mentions in his email he will be doing it as a postlude. I wonder if he is doing it with a larger registration. I hadn’t thought of that, but it should work.

Very satisfying to get an email like that. Another organist surprised me a while back by letting me know she was going to use this same piece. I think it must be functional and free. Nothing wrong with that. I do think of doing some more composing now and then. When people play my work, it makes me think that my compositions may have some appeal to others.

I mostly compose and improvise for the sheer fun and personal satisfaction I get from it. As Zappa says sarcastically, “No Commercial Potential.” He also has a bit where a promoter promises him he could make his band as successful as The Turtles. The lead singer from the Turtles actually joined the band and was involved in the performance of that piece which culminated in the Mothers doing a cover of the Turtles’ big hit “I Can’t See Me Loving Nobody but You.” I always admired that.

Well it’s been fun to be in China. Lovely to meet my new baby granddaughter Alex and see my daughters and Jeremy. I will miss Eileen for the next three weeks she remains here, but I hope she continues to relish her role as Grandma to Alex the way she has been.

I will probably put up more pics after I return to the USA since it’s a bit easier and i wil have more time to do so. I have a new internet modem waiting for me unopened from Comcast which might make my wifi work a bit better at home.

In the meantime I loaded my Kindle with articles from the New York Times for the flight. Between them and my bio of Mao and the book on the Forbidden City and sundry other books on my Kindle I think I will have plenty to occupy my time on the flights home.

Up, up and away.

Another offline entry today. Yesterday was a long day in central Beijing. We took the subway to Tienanmen Square. It was thrilling to me to think that this famous area so long closed to Westerners was now a sort of gigantic tourist attraction.

The scale of the places we visited yesterday was mind boggling. It struck me in retrospect that the Tienanmen Square functioned as a sort of Communist Forbidden City serving as the place Mao announced the beginning of the Communist Republic to routine huge displays of military might to the world and other spectacles.

There were young military garbed men everywhwere. Many were standing at attention and staring straight ahead like Beefeaters from England. But their attention seemed to be easily distracted by a pretty girl asking a question or just exchanging glances as groups of tourists both Chinese and foreign passed by them.

We spent most of the day walking in the maze of the Forbidden City. Sarah’s sense of direction and interest led us. She did get confused at points and finally broke out a compass app on her phone to help her figure out where we were in the massive structure of buildings and courtyards.

It rained gently the entire day. This led to many charming parts of the tour for us. The presence of so many tourists armed with multi-colored umbrellas in vast spaces lent a surreal beauty to an already impressive background. More than once I found myself listening to the quiet echo on the stone ground and walls as we moved from place to place.

We managed to arrive at the building which housed an incredible number of mechanical clocks in time to see three of them demonstrated. That was cool.

The Forbidden City closed around five and we joined throngs of people trying to get out of the place. We ended up on the outside of the wall walking and walking trying to find Beijing again to hail a cab.

We walked several blocks away from the Forbidden City to avoid taxis that charged exorbitant rates. When we finally managed to get a cab driver’s attention two young men came out of nowhere and attempted to take the cab from us. The driver locked his door on them and yelled at them through the window.

Sarah was still appalled at the cab driver’s price and hesitated. He wanted 100 RMB which is about 18 dollars US but much more than our cab ride from the airport to our hotel room (30 RMB). We quickly decided it was worth it and jumped in.

One of the reasons the driver gave for his price was that we were moving in rush hour traffic in the rain. Funny how he could communicate this with very little English. Of course we only had a few words from a Mandarin book of phrases to help us, but Sarah did well and we arrived back near our hotel.

Due to the rain, the hutong was flooded at its entrance. Sarah volunteered to go back to our rooms and grab what we needed before going on to Elizabeth’s and Jeremy’s apartment.. This was mostly dirty laundry to wash.

We had a take out meal with Elizabeth and Jeremy and then managed to get lost on the way home trying to find another way to our rooms through the endless hutong alleys in the night. I was surprised that my GPS App worked on my phone.

We finally arrived at the same flooded area to find that the water had significantly receded and trudged home after a long satisfying day.

Working off line again. Internet access and mobile phones are kind of problem. In our hotel room, we have difficulty getting signal. Plus it changes from weak to non-existent. The first night when another helpful patron gave me the password, he commented that it was “rubbish,” one of my Anglicized daughter Sarah’s favorite expressions.

Also, Eileen and I aren’t exactly power users of our phones. Jeremy helpfully switched in some local sim cards for us, but the options on our phones flip around in bewildering ways due to rebooting. Eileen only yesterday figured out that her cellular network was turned off on her phone. So we are babes in the woods in more ways than language and culture.

I have been putting up few pics daily on Facebook. Showing people (“friends” in Facebook nomenclature) pictures of your vacations as it is happening feels terminally narcissistic but I’m pretty sure a few (family mostly) are interested.

The Art Museum was a bit of a bust. The main exhibit which would have been very interesting to see was closed. “Depicting the Chinese Dream” is still in the process of being installed. According to the pamphlet it opens today. Oh well.

We did see “The Art Class of Ludwigs.” According to the pamphlet, Peter and Iriena Ludwig are “world class art collectors” from Germany . Donated back in ’96, “This is the first time for China to have a vast collection of Western Art.” There were no Engish translations of any information about the art so it was kind of cool to just walk around and look at art that dated from the 70s to the 90s.

The other display was “Tracing the Past – Painting the Future.” in order to celebrate the 170th birthday of Wu Changshuao the museum had put up a selection of traditional calligraphy like paitings of birds and flowers starting with Wu’s work. It was excellent stuff but there were no benches to sit down on except the ones in front of a video presentation about the exhibit. Again no Englsh translations but I did sit for a while and enjoyed watching the video.

Sight seeing gives me time with Eileen and Sarah which I quite enjoy. And it gives our hosts a break. Having this much family around after a birth has it’s plusses and minuses. One of my goals as a dad (and father-in-law) is to do no harm which is not as easy as it sounds.

Today we head off for the Forbidden Palace (which keeps rattling around in my addled pop culture brain as theFortress of Solitude). Eileen and I lay in bed this morning reading up on it, she on her Lonely Planet guide on her Kindle fire, I on a copied Wikipedia page on my Kindle.

As I’m writing this, Eileen informed me that Gmail is not blocked when used from our phones. I did not know that. Facebook and Google are blocked with browsers but apparently one can still do email (and upload pics to the same) with one’s smart phone. Man, we really are babes in the woods.

Yesterday, Elizabeth join Jeremy, Sarah and me in a taxi ride to the Vegetarian Buffet Restaurant near a Buddhist temple and the Confucius temple. Eileen was very happy to stay home with Alex.

Most dishes were labeled in Chinese and English. We had a version of the above dish (green beans and sichuan pepper) from takeout a day earlier. The takeout was much better.

But the choices were many, so it was fun to taste so many different dishes, all vegetarian.

Afterwards, Jeremy and Elizabeth walked Sarah and me to the Confucius temple then they took a taxi home. Elizabeth is pacing herself after giving birth, plus she’s breastfeeding and needed to get back for a feeding.

It was pretty thrilling for me since Confucius has been on my radar since my teens (centuries ago).

I think maybe it was Ezra Pound that probably introduced me to Confucius in any serious way.

I have since learned that he not might be the most reliable way to access this stuff,

but I still have a lot of Pound’s translations rattling around in my head as well as subsequent translations of some of the same poems. I own both books pictured above.

The monuments were all clearly marked. The English was quite helpful. There were weird monuments from the 18th century commemorating putting down riots. They were big slabs and many of them had these turtles at the base. They reminded me of Gaudi turtles I saw in Barcelona.

The largest building was full of musical instruments. Pictured below is a jade gongs.

Up From Pain – NYTimes.com

So the way I’m reading the NYT in China is downloading articles to my Kindle when I’m near a decent Wifi. This works out well but I can’t always tell exactly which article I’m reading since I just read them in the order they occur on my Kindle.

Also, the plug in doesn’t always identify the author. In the case of this article, it took me a while to realize that one of my favorite columnists was talking openly about his sexuality and its relationship to his abuse as a kid.

It’s a good read. I was telling Elizabeth J. that his fluid approach to sexuality makes a lot of sense to me.

The Vain and the Desperate – NYTimes.com

Bruni talks about our political leadership and a new book about Gary Hart and the erosion of political journalism as a contributing factor. The book is excerpted in Sunday’s NYT. I’ve already downloaded it to my Kindle. I say Gary Hart in Oxford a few years back. I didn’t speak to him out of respect for his privacy but before he went down in flames I related to his political stances.

Alicia Keys Asks: Why Are We Here? – NYTimes.com

Using the power of celebrity for good causes. Laudable.

Our Saturday in Beijing began with a walk to the market. The streets are really little alleys for the most part. On either side people have stuff laid out to sell. Food, trinkets, clothes, you name it. The market was an immense roof over innumerable little stands.

There were sections selling everything one could of think of. Wares were stacked on tables and on the ground. Sarah negotiated a purchase of some slippers despite her own dread of haggling.

Sarah and Eileen helped me buy a hat and a grapefruit. Of course we over paid for all of this due to our own ignorance of the language and money. But still we were quite proud of ourselves.

Sarah and I wandered around together later while Eileen stayed with Alex and Elizabeth and Jeremy was off gallivanting on his scooter.

We walked entirely around a nearby little lake (Houhai Lake) which butts up against a drum and bell tower. We had a nice talk about family systems and generally caught up with each other. This conversation alone was worth the plane ride for me. It was great fun. There were many people out walking and doing just what we were doing: chatting and enjoying the scenery.  Some were fishing, a few swimming. There were boats shaped like ducks presumably in honor of the little duck preserve in the lake.

I was unsurprisingly exhausted after this three mile walk. Jeremy and Elizabeth went out that evening and once again purchased an excellent feast of take away of the local cuisine. Our meals are turning into another highlight of this trip for me.

And of course Alex the new grand daughter is the star of the event.

It’s Friday afternoon (6:30 PM) back in the States and it’s Saturday morning (6:30 AM) here in China. This is possibly one of the most confusing parts of orienting myself. This means that although it’s Saturday morning, the New York Times for Saturday is not available yet. It seems to become available around 5 AM New York Time (5 PM here).

Yesterday I mostly laid around the apartment, reading and sleeping on and off. Oh yeah. Eating. I was eating like crazy. Once again excellent food was provided by our hosts. This time Elizabeth did all the cooking since Jeremy was at work most of the day.

I am enjoying sampling all the different foods.

I also downloaded my next China read yesterday: Mao: The Real Story by Alexander V. Pantsov and Steven I. Levine.

I was reading the sample on my Kindle when I decided it was the bio of Mao I wanted to read and ordered it. As you might expect ordering a book from Amazon on your Kindle is extraordinarily easy. But it does depend on your wifi connections. Attempts to download the book kept failing, so I just read the sample. A

The cool thing was as I was reading, Kindle finally managed to download the book and it automatically kicked me into the spot where I was reading in it. Suddenly instead of being 34% into the sample I was 2% into the book. Very cool since otherwise I would have to manually have moved from the sample and found my place in the new purchase.

This biography takes into account more recent research than any other English bio. Docs from Russia and China that have never been used before inform its story. Plus it’s written in a readable style. Cool beans.

Yesterday I got very groggy in the afternoon and laid down and slept at Elizabeth’s and Jeremy’s apartment. This ended up being very restful despite the cautioning of everyone that I would not be able to sleep in the evening.

In between napping I read a bit in Jonathan Lem’s goofy Gun with Occasional Music.

Bubble gum for my tired mind.

The free breakfast offered Thursday morning at our hotel was weirdly Western. Four half slices of dry toasted white bread served with rock hard butter in a small restaurant container. A symmetrically round sunny side up egg. Two slices of pale not quite ripe watermelon. The coffee was not bad which was surprising. But when I asked the young woman anxiously trying to wait on us if there was any steamed buns available she barely seemed to understand what I was asking for.

Later Eileen and Elizabeth went out to do some errands while I watched Alex. They purchased some of the very steamed buns I had in mind, some sweet with sweet bean paste stuffing some savory with some amazing local chive like greens, copious garlic and specks of egg.

It wasn’t too long before Jeremy and Sarah arrived. Sarah looked pretty exhausted from her flight and after a bit crawled off to do some badly needed resting in a bed at Jeremy’s and Elizabeth’s apartment.

For our meal together later, Eileen and Jeremy went to the market and purchased raw materials for an amazing little very Chinese feast that Jeremy whipped up on their return.

They purchased two kinds of Sichuan pepper so that I was able to experience the odd numbing sensation associated with the cuisine that uses this uniquely Chinese spice.

Elizabeth put rice in their rice cooker while they were gone.

The meal consisted of stir fried mushrooms, three small bowls of a different savory dipping sauces, fried rice, and Nan spread with fermented bean paste.

Not too long afer the meal, Eileen very suddenly was tired so she and I walked back to our room. Sarah was getting a second wind so she remained behind at the apartment.
Later, she and Jeremy dropped by the motel room with sim cards for our phones so that they would work in China. Jeremy grimly told me that we should wipe our phones upon return to the States presumably due to Chinese surveillance practices.
They were riding around in jeremy’s cool three wheel motor scooter. They scooted back to the apartment for a while. Then returned late with cold noodles for Eileen, Sarah and me for later in our rooms

Sarah, Jeremy and i sat in the court yard while a man from the hotel played his er hu at the next table. His tone was amazing. His repertoire seemed to move between pentatonic Chinese folk songs to Scarbarough Fair. During one of the folk songs the chef could be heard joining in singing from the nearby kitchen.
Sarah ate her noodles. Jeremy drank his beer and the three of us chatted happily. Later the er hu player switched to violin and continued with melodies like the theme from Dvorak’s New World Symphony. After a while Jeremy scooted home.
Then Eileen groggily wandered out looking for me We were sitting in courtyard steps away from the door to our room. Sarah’s hotel room is next door to ours. So we inspected each other’s rooms after a brief chat before retiring.
The conversations yesterday were very satisfying and interesting. Jeremy loves to talk and is in the young Dad high moment of exhilaration. He is madly in love with Alex who gets passed from arms to arms of everyone very contentedly.

Jeremy recommended a writer to me and instantly uploaded a book on my Kindle by him for me: I am an Executioner by Rajesh Parameswaran.

Later after he left and before Eileen joined us Sarah gave me my birthday present. It was a signed copy of Neil Gaiman’s Graveworld No 1. The graphic novel edition by P. Craig Russell. I read some in both last night.

Right now it is 4:10 AM local time. I’m wrting this off line again in the hopes that I will get a window of VPN access to our spotty wifi here in the hotel. It’s 4:10 PM back in Michigan. The adjustment to the time changes like this gets rougher and rougher as I age. But I’m having a wonderful time for sure.

So I’m writing this offline. Eileen and I are staying at what is called the Red Lantern House. Jeremy had the taxi drop us off across the street from an entrance to alley. The main road was not wide, but cars, bicycles, scooters and odd looking tricyles of all description were swooping by. Jeremy advised us not to look drivers in the eye. He said they took it as a sign and would drive right into you. Better to look straight ahead and forge in. Seemed scary to me but somehow we got across the street.
The alley was filled with people as well. Wares and food stuff were laid out for bypassers to see and buy. One man had a grill and a young woman sat in a neat small bench in front of him while he handed her little kebob like affairs with various stuff on it for her to eat.
The Red Lantern office was a hole in the wall affair. It has both rooms and a hostel set up. Jeremy quickly got us registered. I was surprised when the woman who was leading us to our room left the front door. We followed. Jeremy said that it was a two minute walk away.
We followed the cheerful woman through the winding alleyways until we came to a charminglittle courtyard. Everything is crammed into together in such an interesting way. These neighborhoods are called “hutongs” and have a long history in Beijing.
The room is neat and has a bathroom with a shower. Pretty luxurious without descending into complete Western hotel rooms (which are available here but seem pretty pointless…. I mean why come to China if you’re not going to experience something a bit different?)
We sat on the bed. Jeremy said we could get a technical upgrad to the bed if it was too hard. By this he meant they would add another thin layer of padding. We decided to ask for this.
Then we walked to Elizabeth and Jeremy’s apartment. The walk was a bit bewildering. Jeremy was keeping up his usual entertaining rap. There was a lot to take in. But I think after the walk back to the hotel last night I can navigate my way back to their apartment.
It took Eileen about two seconds to get Alex in arms. Elizabeth had ordered take out. It was a feast of four dishes which they said cost about $12 American equivalent. We had a nice meal and a chat. I got to hold Alex at one point so now I am satisfied.
Jeremy had a phone call for work from 8 to 9 PM. We goofed around with phones and computers and VPNs during this part. Also Eileen unpacked a suitcase full of stuff for Alex. Or did Elizabeth do that while Eileen held Alex? Yes that’s what happened.
By the time Jeremy was done with his call we were all a bit tired. We couldn’t quite figure out how to stay connected with our phones. Jeremy put Elizabeth’s sim card in my phone which seemed to work. But he will be picking up Sarah from the airport this morning so there is really no way to for Elizabeth and us to connect since we have her sim card and could only use it to call Jeremy.
The internet in our room is weak and spotty: low signal and intermittent. I did have about a three minute window a bit ago during which I did a quick blog post and emailed Elizabeth that we were doing fine and thought we could get back to her apartment unassisted this morning.
It’s more of an adjustment not being able to use the internet freely since many sites are blocked even after you can manage a connecction. Elizabeth installed a VPN. I think this stands for something like Virtual Private Network. Anyway, it enables you to fake out the local internet into thinking you’re actually not in China but somewhere like New York or Dallas.
Eileen put one on her netbook before we left the States thanks to Mark sending us a link. I was too lazy to do that. That’s why Elizabeth installed one on my laptop. Their old VPN expired the week Alex was born so they quickly bought a new one with only three licenses. I am now using one of the three.

Eileen and I staying in a neat little nook in what they call a “hutong” neighborhood. The wifi is weak with intermittent internet access. I suspect this is because our room is an alley away from the main desk. Anyway it’s early Thursday morning here and we are still trying to get our body clocks acclimatized a bit. I’m going to publish this little post before I lose the Internet again.

Today Eileen and I get on a plane and fly away to China. I’m hoping I can blog during this trip. Probably I will be able to.

Last night was the AGO officer installation. I have to admit I wasn’t very into it. But that’s not new for me. My musical interests include so much that doesn’t seem to connect with the local AGOers. They are very much into local Reformed Church politics and point of view.

One nice thing was that since the person scheduled to play the postlude had a medical emergency,  Rhonda played an interesting last minute postlude. The piece scheduled was “Final” from  Symphony #3, Op. 28 by Vierne. Vierne is not a composer that interests me much. He is an important organ composer and the person scheduled (Huw Lewis) is an exemplary player. But I admit I was dreading it. The prelude “Adagio” from Sonata in C Minor, Op. 56 by Guillmant. It was nicely performed by a college student but again it really was a dopey piece. It ended with chimes.

I don’t get why when people get a chance to program music they make just dreadful choices. But it’s probable that I’m just out of touch and have an eccentric non-pipe organ point of view. In the student’s case it was probably a recommendation from his teacher, Huw.

I thanked Rhonda afterwards for playing the piece she did (Mouvement by Jean Berveiller). I also had a chance to speak with Emily Brink briefly who is someone I admire. I thanked her for her work. She edited the Psalter Hymnal and was president of the Hymn Society. Again she is a big Reformed church dudette, but I still think she has done some good stuff.

Yesterday was a bit weird. I had two performances experiences that ended up being the opposite of what I expected, at church and at a party. At church, Dawn and I performed the Brahms cello sonata movement we have been working on for the prelude. I was a bit worried that people would be insensitive. Dawn can get upset and distracted when people move into her performing space making noise (talking). I think this is pretty understandable and try to do what I can to make her safe to play.

We have had instances where people actually have poked her while she played.

Anyway, I did talk to an older altar boy about making sure they didn’t loiter near her and make noise.

This turned out not to be very necessary. The piece we played was about eleven minutes long. About seven minutes into it, I noticed that the people in the room were very quiet, quieter than usual. I think they were listening.

I wondered later if it had been an example of the rewards of my stubborn persistence to try to do quality stuff in the hopes that people might be drawn to listen and/or respect the music.

Later Dawn and I and Amy all played at Rhonda’s party as we promised. I was surprised that people at the party seemed so disinterested in what we were doing. The french doors were open and there seemed to be screen doors. But when the flute player played I went outside and could barely hear her and the piano not at all. I know Rhonda appreciated our music. But for the most part I think the music performed by us and other instrumentalists was unheard and barely noticed. The performances all day were pretty good. I know I enjoyed playing.

I finished Shark’s Fins and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuschia Dunlop this morning. It was a great read. I especially appreciated her writing style and the many stories she told of her experiences in China. If you are interested in Chinese cooking or life, I recommend it.

I’m not sure how well I will be connected to the internet in China. My daughter and her husband have VPN which allows full access but we are staying in a hotel. I’m hoping they will help me install a VPN if I need one to use my laptop there.

At any rate, the blog might be sporadic for about a week and a half while I’m away.

So yesterday was a bit crazy as I thought it would be. Eileen and Barb left around 10 AM to go north for a celebration of Eileen’s Mom’s 90th. On the way they stopped at  a nursing home and visited Barb’s Mom. I met with my musicians at 10 AM and we practiced for today.

I had a wedding at 3. There was no one from our community there as far as I could see. I didn’t recognize anyone including the minister. Celebrations like this are bad for my already weak faith. I know people are sincere, but I lost interest in the ceremony and read my Kindle (hopeful unobtrusively). I raised my head to hear the guitarist play (strum) and sing “The wedding song.” The minister remarked afterwards that he had had the same song sang at his wedding forty years ago. I was thinking as the baritone huskily sang the tune that the writers and original performers of this now pretty traditional wedding song were all probably all dead.

A quick google reveals that only Mary is dead.

The other time I raised my head was for the ritual playing of a cd recording of the “our Father.” I noticed that the singer on the recording was the bride herself and that the accompaniment appeared to be a sort karaoke orchestra.

What can I say?

Afterwards as I was posting hymns for today’s service, the photographer was very complimentary of my prelude piano playing (Bach, Mozart). He also was whistling my Brahms postlude. I am playing it again today. I often try to use pieces I already have ready for the weekend service and weddings and funerals if they are at all appropriate.

This Brahms pieces is just the chorale of the First Symphony. It does make a nice little (easy) postlude that fits with the Brahms Cello sonata movement we have planned for the prelude.

I didn’t get paid for the wedding or the funeral yet. I know that my boss will make sure I get paid eventually. But it will probably be after I get back from China. Sigh.

I went to the grocery store to pick up some items we need for the next few days (wine, baileys, ice cream, bread). Then came home to an empty house. Exercised.

I wasn’t expecting Eileen and Barb until later so I read for a while. Then I watched a pretty cool video.

Despite the goofy title this was a great documentary about life in  taiga in Russia.

I don’t know how filmmaker Herzog did this documentary but it captured my interested. He follows trappers in this immense area (1.5 the size of the continental USA if I heard correctly). They make their own skis , traps and canoes out of trees. Very cool. About a third of the way in, Eileen and Barb returned. They joined me to watch the rest of it.

The last few days before boarding an airplane to China have turned into a bit of a marathon.  Yesterday I had ballet class, then a funeral. In between, Eileen had some gifts arranged on the table for me. She explained that this was the best day to celebrate my birthday which is actually Monday.

I arranged to meet Rhonda to go over the program for Monday evening’s AGO installation at 2:30. I had about an hour off before that during which I rested and practiced piano. Eileen and I went over to the church around 2 to get started. Eileen has had experience with Publisher software and had proofed the service so far. By the time Rhonda arrived we had corrected a lot. Rhonda had some further corrections and info. We finished this project and returned home.

I rested then jumped on the treadmill. I was still treadmilling when our friend Barb Phillips arrived. We all went out to CityVu together to celebrate my birthday. After two martinis I was relaxed but exhausted. Whew!

Today I need to prepare the bulletin information for the Sunday after I come back, Sept 28th. I am meeting with my piano trio people at 10 to rehearse pieces we plan to perform at Rhonda’s party tomorrow. I have a 3 PM Wedding to play and need also to prep for tomorrow morning’s Eucharist.

In the meantime, I am trying to think through what I need to take with me to China. The short answer is as little as possible, since Eileen has packed bags full of gifts for Alex, our new granddaughter. Once again as I look towards travel i am grateful for the devices which allow me to take along books and access to the internet.

What We’re Afraid to Say About Ebola – NYTimes.com

The basic fear is that the virus will transform into an airborne one. Yikes.

Obama’s Betrayal of the Constitution – NYTimes.com

Although the comments section challenges this conclusion on the grounds that the renewed fighting is not directed toward an actual nation, I think I have concerns about the executive branch ordering troops and bombing without public debate and congressional approval despite the grid lock in our Congress right now.

Finished How Music Works by David Byrne this morning.

I wrote a little review for Good Reads:

I have mixed feelings about this book. When Byrne talks about what he knows like song writing and the music business and his own story, this book is quite good. But he ventures into areas where he seems not to know about stuff. For example, he lauds the experiments of David Wish’s Little Kids Rock in which kids are encouraged to improvise, something which Byrne says had never been considered for part of music curriculum before. He must not know about the Orff Schulwerk pedagogy.

This is in chapter nine, “Amateurs.” This chapter along with the next concluding chapter of the book called “Harmoni Mundi” gave me the most problems. Byrne follows the thinking of John Carey that classical music is an expression of economic repression. Also, Byrne thinks its anti-amateurism, reserving for experts (by which he must mean people who learn that craft) the experience of making that kind of music which bores him anyway. His argument sort of withers when one factors in choral music or hymn singing (both of which I admit are my field).

But having said all that, I think this is a book worth reading. Byrne has a great mind and I think has written and recorded some excellent music. But I quote his concluding idea which pictures him torn between the narrative of pop music and the beauty of music of the sound an ocean makes, “Do I have to choose?”

As I read I couldn’t help but hear the prose in the voice of Byrne’s character in True Stories.

This added to pleasure for me. I think Byrne is essentially a poet of contemporary life. I like many of his songs and I admire his execution of them.

I guess I feel like a bit of an old codger when I read his book even though Byrne is only one year younger than me. I do wonder why more people like him don’t like Bach (he doesn’t). But at least I get to like all kinds of stuff and don’t have to limit myself to what sells or historical music but can enjoy anything that strikes my fancy.

The Digital Wallet Revolution – NYTimes.com

I keep waiting for this to happen.

Stop the Anti-Obamacare Shenanigans – NYTimes.com

I find the “take no prisoners” approach depressing, but I keep voting and calling my senator.

Obama, in Speech on ISIS, Promises Sustained Effort to Rout Militants – NYTimes.

I fail to see how war helps anything. I bought the ebook of  Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt and read in it yesterday. I’m already learning stuff.

Alibaba Is Bringing Luxury, Fast, to China’s Middle Class – NYTimes.com

My daughter who is living in Beijing (Hi, Elizabeth!) says that the courier service there is amazing. She can order something online and it will be delivered to her door sometimes within an hour.

For Many Iranians, the ‘Evidence’ Is Clear: ISIS Is an American Invention – NYTime

Whenever I read a story like this I wonder what misconceptions I have that are this far from reality.

Finished The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship by Paul Bradshaw this morning. it was a very helpful update to scholarship in this area.I like Bradshaw’s skeptical approach. He ends the book with this great quote from Robert Taft who is another teacher I studied with in grad school.

“Knowledge is not the accumulation of data, not even new data,  but the perception of relationships in the data, the creation of hypothetical frameworks to explain new data, or to explain in new ways the old.”

This is typical of Taft’s rigorous mind.

This book, Thomas Cranmer by MacCulloch, and The Later Reformation in England 1547-1603 also by MacCulloch filled in gaps in my knowledge and understanding.

Thomas Cranmer helped me better understand how the Anglican church emerged from the Roman Catholic church and the Reformation. The Later Reformation helped me understand how the Anglican church stabilized after this transition.

I’m thinking my next serious non-fiction book will not be religious.  Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 should fill in some more gaps.

I spent a good amount of time solving a question I had about my Greek studies this morning. I have been pondering some answers to an exercise. My texts provide a key to all exercises. I couldn’t quite understand two answers but figured out this morning I was misinterpreting an answer. Excellent.

I have designated today as the day to finish the program for Monday nights AGO installation service. Yesterday I actually helped the financial secretary at work with the publisher software in between meetings. I forget that I have these kinds of skills or that they might be recognizable to others.

This morning I managed to sleep in a bit. Got up later than usual and worked on Greek and read. Eileen got up and we had breakfast then took her Mini over to get worked on. Its battery seems to have died last Sunday. Everything is expensive with the Mini. But I think they’ll get it running today. Eileen then took off to get her hair done.

I have been thinking that we should contact our bank and credit card to let them know we will be in China. It seems to me like last time I was out of the country they got all weird about that when we just starting using them on the other side of the world.

This week is a very full week for me. I also have a funeral on Friday and a wedding on Saturday. It’s a bit odd to look forward to a trip to China as a reprieve from the usual but that’s how it’s shaping up.

Yesterday I didn’t play a note in class until after 11 AM. While it might seem cool to just sit and get paid, I think it might have been more tiring to do nothing and keep an ear out in case the teacher decided she needed music. I got some reading in, but by the end of the day was too tired to treadmill.