So, if you’re reading this on Sept 10, 2014, you probably had to click through a pop up to get here. I wasn’t sure exactly what the plugin I installed would do and thought maybe I would be unable to blog today. I did hear an interview with a guy from the Electronic Frontier Foundation who said that there slow down was not really a slow down, but a way of raising consciousness. Makes sense.

I found out yesterday that my church secretary is taking the week off. At first this threw me off a bit since I was counting on her to answer questions that might crop up when I used the church Publisher software to make the program for the upcoming AGO officer installation service. But my confidence was soon restored after spending a few hours with it yesterday and managing to make it do what I wanted it to.

I was amazed at how easy it was to put together a little pamphlet. I’m old enough that I remember trying to do this without all the tech. “Publisher” is very user friendly at least to this user and I managed a working prototype. Cool.

I also decided that I could do a matching Brahms postlude Sunday that will fit nicely with the wonderful first movement of his cello sonata that Dawn and I plan to perform. At first I wanted to do the “Tango” section of his last symphony. I have always loved that section. But I couldn’t find a premade organ transcription of it. I can play it at the piano okay. But to do it at the organ for a postlude would take some adapting that I don’t really have time for.

Instead I landed on playing the Chorale from his first symphony which he wrote in a kind of tribute to Beethoven’s Ninth. Again working from a piano transcription I think it will be pretty easy to just render this melody in a firm organ setting. That will both give me a Brahms postlude and also not create a little project for me in a busy week.

D.E.A. to Allow Return of Unused Pills to Pharmacies – NYTimes.co

I can remember being appalled at an elderly nurse who simply laughed at me for trying to figure out a good way to dispose of my Dad’s old meds.

Becoming a Real Person – NYTimes.com

David Brooks continues to be interesting reading for me.

As Two Men Go Free, a Dogged Ex-Prosecutor Digs In – NYTimes.com

Good reporting that tells an interesting story about vivid personalities.

Three Short Walks Reverse Harmful Effects Of 3 Hours Of Prolonged Sitting | Neo

Since reading this article yesterday I have since done a couple of short five minutes sessions in the middle of my morning sedentary ritual. What the heck.

With any luck, my blog tomorrow will look something like this.

I have attempted to install a plug in to do this. I am supporter of Net Neutrality but a pretty cynical one. I’m not sure the internet will continue to be a resource that is helpful and available to all. But I’m for it.

I have been struggling with tech lately. The many layers of possible solutions to glitches is frustrating. I notice that the time it takes me to figure out whether it’s my computer, my router, my internet connection or a web site that is causing a slowdown is annoying me more. It’s becoming more and more like the old dial up where I would sit and wait with a book or a newspaper while the connection resolved itself.

The last couple of days I have been using my old Greek texts because somewhere along the line my Kindle book versions of the second edition are taking forever to load when I try to turn back a page. Good grief.

I am finishing up David Byrne’s How Music Works. Some of what he writes frustrates me. I think he is a skilled song writer and performer, but there is a lot about music that he either ignores or just plain doesn’t know.

Also, his lens seems to be strictly commercial and popular. He doesn’t like Bach, Mozart or Beethoven in particular. That’s fine, but he also seems to see them in our present society as representatives of an economically elite way of living. It’s really weird, since he himself seems to be to be a representative of what is dominating our artistic life, namely the popular/money -making/celebrity elite.

There is actually less and less room for anything truly eccentric or gratuitous. Or that judges itself in terms of profundity and meaningfulness, not potential for earning.

I think I will probably do a blog where I list many of Byrne’s omissions and errors in his discussion.

Or maybe not. Who knows?

Today I plan to finish a working final draft of the program for the AGO officer’s installation service next Monday. It’s busy work but it will take some time and the acquiring of some new skills such as using a publisher software the church owns. Fortunately, Gail the secretary has sounded very amenable to helping with this. I hesitate to just throw it at her, but will definitely ask for help.

I continue to feel a bit unique in how I see and do music. On the one hand, I have the David Byrne type people in my history. The ones who do only pop music. Like some of the artists I have known they are disinterested in history of their craft. I remember thinking how comical pretentious rock and roll guitarists were when I consider they would never have their goddam/I, IV, V/Louie Louie/”Man am I a heavy dude”/power chord progression without the evolving of tonality and harmony in the 14th to 17th century in Europe.

And likewise many of the classically trained musicians I have known have looked askance at music that is not primarily educated and (in David Byrne’s description) canonical.

Anyway, there’s more to this but I see that I’m running up a high word count. 

Yesterday, I spent three and half hours on the piano bench improvising music for ballet class that speaks in a wider language than either musical camp. Then I rehearsed my upcoming accompaniments (Bach, Brahms and Mozart). Also I have been weirdly drawn into Schumann piano music lately and rehearsing it for the simple fuck of it.

Thus alienating myself from both strictly pop musicians and classical musicians in my head.

And church/organ music hardly enters the conversation since both sides see it as slightly disreputable and unimportant.

It’s odd to think how much pleasure I personally as an artist and a human get from stuff that stereotypically in my field is so unimportant or invisible on both sides of a stylistic divide.

Whippy skippy.

At Joan Rivers’s Memorial, Celebrities, Cameras and Crowds – NYTimes.com

Unusual funeral.

After 55 Years in Vaunted Spot, a Picasso Is Persuaded to Curl – NYTimes.com

I’ve been following this story.

Facebook’s Feeds Give Videos a Boost – NYTimes.com

This article says there’s a way to turn off that annoying instant video play in the Facebooger newsfeed. Haven’t found it yet but will look again.

Crime, Bias and Statistics – NYTimes.com

Charles Blow summarizes a recent study which shows the continuing white racism in our country.

The Source of New York’s Greatness – NYTimes.com

Learned some history from this article.

Watergate’s most lasting sin: Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, and the pardon that mad

Rick Perlstein, the author of this article. put a link to it up on Facebook for his followers (I’m one) with the very interesting observation that the NYT had rejected it as hard to follow. Very funny.

Finished MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood last night.  Now I have read her entire Oryx and Crake trilogy. I didn’t find this volume as entrancing as the first two. In Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood Atwood’s incisive satire and wit is on display with her inventions of a future in the former book and a religion in the latter. In MaddAddam she instead tells a final chapter in the story of the future referring less to how it got there then she did in the first two.

MaddAddam is good but the first two are superb.

I continue to attempt to memorize my Greek definite article table. This morning I copied it over and over while waiting for coffee. This is a different approach than I have been using (I keep experimenting).

Previously I have been going over the table mentally. It reminds me of when I first learned the fingerings for cornet/trumpet as a kid. I would find myself thinking of the finger combinations in relation to the notes when sitting around doing nothing.

This kind of mental rehearsal can be helpful.

But today I thought I would see if I could accurately copy the table over and over from memory. I did quite well at it, but still don’t feel 100 per cent secure. It takes time.

I then worked in Grammar text. Going over and over material seems to help. I get a bit deeper into it over time. I hope I can keep this up with my fall schedule.

Yesterday went well at church.

I have to admit I am pretty amazed at how anxious people can be at church. When I think of their passing complaints and grumpiness and compare it to people whose lives are in turmoil it makes me cautious personally to take my own little dilemmas that seriously.

I guess that just working with people.

I found some wonderful lines in Mark Bibbins’ They Don’t Kill You Because They’re Hungry They Kill You Because They’re Full this morning.

We can say we kept things running
by creating distractions
from the hideous truth
of how things run

from “Factory” by Mark Bibbins

This reminded me of the “bread and circuses” theory of society: where a ruling class makes sure there are things like hate radio and sports to keep people from noticing how badly they are running things. Sleigh of hand, misdirection.

The closing lines of “Factory” made me think of Detroit.

We had seen other things
That we had seen
That had come unstrung
And blown between adjacent bridges
Whose river had presented us a city
That was broken
That we had been
That we were broken
That was our city
That was our city
that was a song replaying itself in the dark

from “Factory” by Mark Dibbins

It probably helps to read the whole poem. I also like these closing lines of a another poem of his:

…theory’s just another word
for nothing left to like

Couldn’t help but hear Janis Joplin singing “Me and Bobby McGee” as I read that.

Plus watching the faces of pompous profs caught in the throes of complex but essentially trivial theories. I hate that because the next step in my head is to realize I’m looking in a mirror.

Happy Monday.

Why Democrats Can’t Win the House – NYTimes.com

Some enlightening observations on how a state can be presidentially blue and House red.

Demanding More From College – NYTimes.com

I liked this paragraph:

The Internet has proved to be one of the great ironies of modern life. It opens up an infinite universe for exploration, but people use it to stand still, in a favorite spot, bookmarking the websites that cater to their existing hobbies (and established hobbyhorses) and customizing their social media feeds so that their judgments are constantly reinforced, their opinions forever affirmed.

China’s Education Gap – NYTimes.com

This is written by someone educated in China and whose parents were as well. The mad pace of change in China continues to amaze and appall me. I love hearing from the people involved.

How did Brahms come up with such beautiful themes for his cello sonata? Simple. He took them from Bach’s Art of Fugue.

And they are quite beautiful to my ears.

Today is what my church calls “kick off” Sunday. They make a fuss over starting the fall program year. They bless the backpacks of students and anyone else who wants to bring a backpack to celebrate the beginning of the school year. After church they take a group picture of everyone at once on the lawn. Then we all walk over to a nearby park for a cookout and a pick up kick ball game.

I usually take some more relaxed clothes to change into after church and folding chairs for Eileen and me.

The choir is coming to this service. This will be our first meeting this year. Kind of brave of me to just plunge in with easy anthems and no weekday rehearsal for this month. But it will probably work out fine. Today’s anthem is a goofy clever combination of the Pachelbel Canon and “Tis the gift to be simple.” I plan on playing a toccata by Pachelbel for the prelude and then improvising a postlude on the “gift to be simple” theme.

The improvisation is an especially good idea for this Sunday because we try to hustle outside for that picture. If I’m improvising I can adjust the length to fit however long it takes people to get out of the pews and on the lawn.

I sent a friend request to a musician and to a poet yesterday on Facebooger. The musician was the organist/director at St. Paul and the Redeemer in Chicago. This is where we went on Friday to see Martin Pasi’s opus 15. They seem to be doing a similar type program as we are at my church: eclectic and classy (at least we are trying to do the latter). I messaged the musician in case he didn’t recognize my name.

The poet is the author of a book I picked up randomly at the library yesterday. Facebooger has this goofy challenge going around. Someone on Facebook will ask you to to list five things for which you are grateful in a daily message for for five days. Each day you are also supposed to invite a few other Facebookers to do the same. I got asked yesterday and did my five.

When I was looking at the poems in They Don’t Kill You Because They’re Hungry, They Kill You Because They’re Full by Mark Bibbins, the last poem in the book was aptly titled A Small Gesture of Gratitude. I read it and loved it. So I linked a copy I found online on Facebook and promptly found Bibbins there and sent him a friend request.

I am curious to see if either of these men responds.

Why #RussiaInvadedUkraine Matters – NYTimes.com

This is a superb discussion of the importance of language.

The entire day yesterday was taken up with a trip to Chicago with the organ committee to look at a Martin Pasi instrument.

By the end of the day I was exhausted physically and mentally. We were taxied down and back by a congenial member of the committee. After we looked at the organ we all went to an excellent Mediterranean restaurant near the church recommended by Rhonda.

That was fun.

The church picked up the tab.

I was only able to rehearse my Pachelbel toccata with a run through on the Pasi. This is Sunday’s prelude and is pretty easy. But I also didn’t have energy to rehearse my piano accompaniments for the Violin and Cello sonatas I will be performing soon. Nor did I have energy to treadmill.

Instead I relaxed with a martini and Eileen and I chatted and watched some online tv.

This morning I did do my Greek and my liturgy reading as usual. We leave for China soon and the days in between then and now are very full. This is weighing on me. I’m pretty sure it will all be okay, but I do have creeping doubts about my energy levels at this age and sometimes wonder exactly how I will negotiate all I have committed myself to.

I had some good news on the piano trio front yesterday.  I was chatting with my violinist when she indicated that she was now interested in performing occasionally at Grace. Very cool! We are preparing some very attractive music which would be a significant addition to Grace.  Grace is now beginning service at 10 AM permanently which means that Amy my violinist could be available from for a prelude and an anthem since her church starts at 11 AM.

I have mentally been writing David Byrne a letter about some of the ideas in his book How Music Works. He seems to think that classical music has set itself up as anti people making music for themselves (amateurs). He makes this case by looking at the funding of the arts which he sees as elitist in the extreme. But what is missing is the whole world of choral music which relies heavily on amateurs to even exist since there are few completely professional choral groups.

I know church stuff is obscure. But the liturgical movement in the 20th century is largely dedicated to getting people to participate. I guess this stuff doesn’t count in the world of popular music where Byrne lives.

I am thinking of moving away from reading liturgy to reading history next. I have had my eye on Tony Judt’s Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945 for a while. It is now sitting next my reading chair and I have been perusing it. I will probably wait until I finish Bradshaw’s The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship.

Today we go to Chicago to hear an example of the work of Martin Pasi. This should be our last field trip. This committee will hopefully make a recommendation soon.

Bring Back the Party of Lincoln – NYTimes.com

This is a pretty biased look at the GOP but I like the history and its point of view.

ISIS’ Antiquities Sideline – NYTimes.com

People auctioning off history. Ay yi yi.

Spent the morning on Skype with Elspeth, Jeremy and Alex.

They are still pretty exhilarated by the whole experience. Everyone seems to be doing fine.

So no more time for blogging.

But thank goodness for this tech that keeps me connected to my love ones!

I have a new granddaughter. Alex was born yesterday at 10:40 PM, Beijing time.

She has some bruises from delivery but she and mother Elizabeth are in good shape.

As is the father, Jeremy. Eileen and have our plane tickets and our visas ready to roll and will be visiting them soon.

In the meantime, we splurged last and went out to celebrate.

I made it through my first Monday schedule. This involves 6 and half hours even though I only have 3 and half hours of actual class. The holes in the schedule are doable but it ends up taking as much energy to wait as to do a class.

AGO tasks are bunching up. I have committed myself to doing the program and posters for the upcoming Installation service. I need to get some of this done today.

Also, today I need to get anthems ready for upcoming choir Sundays. This means making up multiple copies of two legally photocopied anthems.

When I add on the task of preparing info for the Sept 14 bulletin I can see this day won’t necessarily be one of relaxation. But there’s a good chance I can a lot of it done before noon.

It’s funny the different attitudes ballet students have toward the piano player. After my 8:30 class one of the better dancers came over and thanked me for my playing. This is old school etiquette but she pulled it off with sincerity and friendliness.

Later I had a novice dancer ask, “So they hire you guys to play music for the dance eh? That must be cool to just sit around and play music.”

Yawning is something that is forbidden by old school etiquette. Once in awhile an instructor will mention this but usually they just ignore breaches of the old etiquette. There was some yawning yesterday.

I have scheduled pretty easy organ music for this Sunday so I don’t feel pressed to spend a lot of time on it. I am however spending time on the accompaniments I will be playing at Rhonda’s birthday bash: Bach Violin Sonata, Brahms Cello Sonata and a Mozart Violin Sonata. Good stuff, but it won’t learn itself.

I tried to download the Washington Post to my kindle and my phone unsuccessfully this morning. I think my $19 subscription is just for web access and nothing else. That seems fair, but it would have been helpful to have that more spelled out so I didn’t download their dang special e-reader and then have to uninstall it.

In his chapter, “Amateurs!”, in How Music Works, David Byrne subscribes to the weird idea that somehow popular music is some sort of renegade rebellion instead of the dominating force it is. He seems to think that people listen to “high art” out of a sense of superiority and elitism. He is weird about it and inconsistent. I guess that makes sense. But it’s annoying to me since many of my passions (music, literature, Ancient Greek) are invisible or at least of no concern to so many people I rub shoulders with. Whippy Skippy.

So I only had two and half hours of ballet class last week. Today I have the regular full schedule (three and a half house). Hope College doesn’t give Labor day off. But I am taking Friday off to go with my organ committee to Chicago to hear an instrument built by Martin Pasi. I hope we make a decision soon on which builder to contract with so this process can move on to the next stage.

Last night I browsed through a friend’s online library of ebooks. He seems to have added about a thousand more. Very cool, although many of them were in the pdf format which doesn’t seem to work well with my Kindle (paperwhite version).

But I’m not complaining. I love having access to so many books and my friend seems to have deliberately put books up that might interest me. Like this one:

I understand why pdf is a good format for this book because it such a beautifully laid out and illustrated one. When I consider China, I often think of its ancient literature and art which has been an ongoing interest for me. This morning I read a poem in it called “Calling to the Recluse” by Zuo Si. One couplet leaped out at me:

“ why depend on whistling or song,

when tree clumps hum so movingly? “

I love this. It reminds me of an observation of an artist I know that he spent his life trying to learn how to make beauty in his art and then beautiful and stunning images emerge in nature around us and in his phrase, “Just happen!”

Apparently the above painting is by the poet (at least that’s what Google says).

I also figured out that I have nine chapters plus an epilogue left in Fuschia Dunlop’s excellently written, Shark Fin and Sichuan Pepper.

This woman can write up a storm as far as I’m concerned. I read a chapter in it this morning and need to do that more often in order to finish it by the time I get on a plane to go visit China and my  new grand daughter.

Rick Perlstein: By the Book – NYTimes.com

I follow this guy on Facebook. When this article was published this week end, he changed his profile picture to him holding a hard copy of it with a goofy smile.

Reflections on a Shooting Range Death, From One Who Knows – NYTimes.com

The author of this article also accidentally killed as a child.

When Did We Get So Old? – NYTimes.co

How to handle being the oldest person in the room when one is used to being the youngest.

Jorge Luis Borges interview.

Stumbled on to this. Haven’t read it yet but I do love Borges.

John Kerry: The Threat of ISIS Demands a Global Coalition – NYTimes.com

John McCain and Lindsey Graham: Confront ISIS Now – NYTimes.com

I do like it when involved parties go on the record with an essay. Unfortunately I didn’t get much from either of these essays.

David Rosand, an Art History Scholar Whose Heart Was in Venice, Dies at 75 – NY

Mr. Rosand’s career was shaped by the conviction that the arts of all eras and cultures are connected, and that past and present exist on a continuum, so that all art is immediately pertinent to our lives.