My laptop is not exactly broken. The fan has been making a loud sound for some time. Yesterday it started clicking. Eileen disassembled it and cleaned it and ordered a new fan ($14).

It worked all night for listening to online streaming audio books. But this morning I did my Greek with real books (not my computer) and I am doing this blog on our accursed larger laptop (more expensive, fancier, touch screen and an abomination to use).

I don’t have too much time to blog this morning. I deliberately laid in bed some extra time to rest my weary bones. I listened to the latest On the Media Show.

In it Bob Garfield accurately takes the media to task for the recent outbreak of measles due to a false connection between autism and measles leading to many parents not vaccinating their children.

After excoriating the media’s coverage including clips from this week (“There is not a controversy….  there are not two sides to this question” Garfield clearly puts it that “Reality” doesn’t care about opinions or web sites or ideology. The reality is that there is no connection between autism and vaccinations.

Anacharsis – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This link was trending on Reddit yesterday. I voted it up. We don’t really know much about this dude, but the quote that was trending was pretty good.

“Laws are spider-webs, which catch the little flies, but cannot hold the big ones.

True to Wikipedia’s policy of only being an aggregate of existing stuff and not original research this quote is cleverly attributed to ‘Beeton’s Book of Jokes and Jests, or Good Things Said and Sung’ – Second Edition, Printed by Frederick Warne & Co., London, 1866,

Gov. Walker’s ‘Drafting Error’ – NYTimes.com

Walker tried to take the Wisconsin idea out of the mission statement of the U of Wisconsin. The ensuing uproar and his failure is reassuring.

Brazenly deleted as well from the mission statement, which is nationally appreciated in education circles as the Wisconsin Idea, were the far from controversial goals “to educate people and improve the human condition” and “serve and stimulate society.” It was as if a trade school agenda were substituted for the idea of a university.

 China’s Fog Weighs Heavily on Shoulders of Its Premier Architect – NYTimes.com

The subject of this profile is obviously part of the problem in China. But I found him and this story very interesting having recently read a bio of Mao and having family living in Beijing.

The Question of Light: Tilda Swinton’s speech at the Rothko Chapel 

An amazing essay on art and light. I think I found this one on Facebooger.

So Eileen said that she thought I had looked like I had received too much information after I attended the recent AGO workshop. She said that she felt that it wasn’t obvious to anyone but her.  (If this is confusing, see yesterday’s blog post)

Today I have to spend some serious time with the Rheinberger Toccata I am playing tomorrow. I recorded it on my phone yesterday to check how it comes off. I am playing it under tempo and was a bit worried that my tempo was varying. I notice that it does in places but not so much that it distorts the piece.

The length of the piece on the recording was just under ten minutes. This is a long postlude in an age of short attention spans and not too much interest in postludes. But I don’t mind. I even am sort of counting on the room clearing a bit by registering the section marked Piano so softly that it won’t be heard at all if there are still people in the room talking loudly.

I had a busy day yesterday: I gave an organ lesson to my one organ student, returned the infant swing to the church (also managing to lose a nut for a bolt that held it together), practiced, went with Eileen to the hardware store (she found a nut to fit the bolt), visited Mom, grocery shopped and treadmilled.

I also had a conference with the finance person at the church. She wanted to explain to me how the pension fund is working at the church. This is pretty moot for me, since I  won’t be working there long enough to really build it up. But I did learn that my salary at Grace is now $35 K. I did not know that. I have trouble remembering how much exactly I get paid. That seems pretty good for a part time job and sufficient to support Eileen and me.

MacCulloch keeps quoting from Mortley’s From Word to Silence: The Rise and Fall of Logos. The entire work seems to be online (link). I love this shit. This is quite a dense scholarly work. I read a few pages in it this morning.

Who Rosa Parks Was, Not Just What She Meant – NYTimes.com

Parks has been sentimentalized. She was a complex leader.

The Role of the Web, an Excerpt from Understanding Context · 

An excerpt from Hinton’s book. Bookmarked to read.

UC Davis Today: Newborn horses give clues to autism | UC Davis

Niece Emily Bastian shared this link on Facebooger. Very interesting.

Final Ruling for Air Travel With Musical Instruments | News | BMI.com

For years I struggled with traveling with my guitar. I could never get a straight answer from airlines, but noticed people in airports lugging around cases. I did travel with a cheap instrument I purchased for just that use.

I recently heard someone say that the “cloud” is not real.

She said that the Hope College Library discarded all their records. They used to have 2 recordings or more of Saint-Saens Cello concerto. Now they own none. The only way a student could listen to it was on Naxos. She was skeptical if the great recordings she recalled would be there.

I checked this morning and Naxos has 114 links to recordings of this piece including some very fine ones by Rostropovich and Yo Yo Ma.

On the other hand in a conversation with Jeremy recently he pointed out that there are some basic flaws in the design of the World Wide Web that will lead to its ultimate demise.

So, is the cloud real?

This morning it is. Will it be tomorrow? Who knows? In the meantime I avail myself of its wonderful attribute to connect me to the things and people I am interested in and care about.

I had one of my dreams last night where I am doing badly at the organ. I was playing in a mall setting. The instrument was confusing. I couldn’t see the music. I was having difficulty holding it in place. I was playing a hymn. I remember the tune. It was Ode to Joy which I’m pretty sure I can play from memory with my waking mind.

After I finished, a young man told me that he had it second hand from someone that I had made some drastic mistakes in the way I had provided a copy of the Gloria for people to sing. In the dream, I asked him to have the person complaining to speak to me. But he didn’t look like he was going to do that.

Also in the dream I was aware that my colleagues were in the mall and were probably witnessing my failure.

Anxiety dreams have been a part of my life. I actually went through a series of them before quitting my Roman Catholic job (2001?). They culminated in a dream where one of my dream characters looked me carefully in the eye and asked me “What’s at stake?”

This was a turning point in my dreaming life. I don’t think I had an anxiety dream in the same way after that.

I realized this morning after waking that this dream was not an anxiety dream. it was about competence and how other musicians see  me.

Talking with Eileen yesterday, I mentioned that Tuesday and Wednesday of this week were stressful for me. She said she could tell Tuesday night after the AGO meeting by the look on my face that it had been stressful. I didn’t ask her what that meant. I will today.

I experienced the AGO meeting as an influx of information, most of it very helpful and interesting. Wednesday I think the departure of  my family along with a full day of tasks left me drained and feeling pretty incompetent.

Anyway, I’m better today. But I’m wondering about the look on my face Tuesday evening and that dang dream.

Picasso’s Granddaughter Plans to Sell Art, Worrying the Market – NYTimes.com

Interesting story of art and family.

How the produce aisle looks to a migrant farmworker | Public Radio International

Found this link on Reddit. I think the idea is very interesting. Monica Campbell the author has sort of a soft sentimental approach that I find off putting. However, the idea of a farm worker wandering the produce aisle grabs my attention. I often think of the harvesters as I purchase produce from the grocery store. The last person to touch this head of iceberg lettuce was probably a farm worker. I feel the connection. Is it exploitative? Probably. But I don’t know for sure.

Stacked Deck: A Story of Selfishness in America: Lawrence Mitchell: 9781566395

Greenfield footnoted this book in The Myth of Choice. I thought it looked interesting.

The Bible and Literature: A Reader Paperback – November 28, 2007 by David Jasper (Editor), Stephen Prickett (Editor)

MacCulloch footnoted this book. Also interesting.  Hope College owns it.

I said goodbye to my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter yesterday before going to work. I was surprised to find that I was quite sad for much of the day beginning with some rather intense sadness for the first hour of class. I ascribe some of this to the way I do my improvising. I tend to think in the moment when I improvise. Granted the style is probably insipid by academic standards and maybe even trite by pop standards, but it does reflect my own momentary impulses. These impulses are often grounded in a sort of personal vulnerability in an effort to not consciously be insipid or trite. I think this vulnerability probably helped surface my sadness at parting from people I enjoying being around and care about deeply.

Ah well. I was exhausted and depressed for the entire day.

It ended with a choir rehearsal for which I wanted to apologize to the singers. Fail. Ah well. Afterwards Eileen told me a singer had asked her if I had a drink before rehearsal. When Eileen said no, apparently the singer had enjoyed my demeanor. That’s odd.

I have been goofing around a bit with Reddit both on my phone and laptop. I still don’t quite have the swing of it. Jeremy claims it is the main way  he accesses stuff on the interwebs. I have a definite way that I approach the interwebs daily for information and entertainment. I am still getting my Reddit chops going.

Kent Greenfield was the person I cited regarding the larger problem of money in US politics (He pointed out that Citizen’s Union is a drop in the bucket compared to money from individuals). I was so impressed with this that I instantly bought his latest book on an unrelated topic. It came in the mail yesterday.

I read the introduction and the first chapter this morning. It’s quite readable and also very good. It asks and answers the question “what if our choices are fake?”

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality | WIRED

I admit I skimmed this article. But I do think it’s cool when actual players in an event comment on it.

The Vigilant Citizen

Again recommended by Jeremy Daum. As a site that is so bad it seems like satire. Conspiracy theories and complete weird inaccuracies and bad logic abound.

I seem to have lost my mind and scheduled a larger toccata as this Sunday’s postlude. It’s the one above from Josef Rheinberger’s 14th Sonata for organ (link to the ISLMP page for it).

Of Rheinberger, the online Groves says “even his best works are only rarely heard: his work remains valued chiefly by organists and Catholic choirmasters.”

Ha! I was introduced to his work by my first organ teacher, Kent McDonald. Kent taught me many of his trios one of which I am using for this Sunday’s prelude.

The toccata I chose is not terribly difficult. It is long and will require lots of practice. I chose it because I continue to find Vierne’s Final to his third Organ symphony very satisfying to rehearse.

I have been attempting Franck but continue to find him less interesting than Vierne and even Rheinberger. Vierne is a bit of a poet and Rheinberger is extremely coherent compositionally. At least I find him so.

The whole organ thing has occupied a lot of my attention. Last night our local American Guild of Organists’ chapter meeting was a talk given by the local college prof on teaching and learning the organ. I have known this dude for most of his professional career (since the early 80s). Interestingly we have always been on opposite sides of the fence in terms of pedagogy and church. He was my own teacher’s antagonist for a while at Wayne State U. And when I became interested in the Episcopal church, he was firmly on the side of the church of “good taste” and grounded in the historical Anglican practice of men and boys choirs and conservative ecclesiology.

When he accepted the position as organ prof at the local college, I was already living here. Since that time I seem to make him uncomfortable. He is, however, a splendid player and had many helpful and interesting things to say about learning the organ.

I am amused that it was actually my suggestion to ask him to do this program. I took many notes and left with much food for thought.

Inside Syria’s Jails – NYTimes.com

Written by someone who has been there.

France’s Ideals, Forged in Revolution, Face a Modern Test – NYTimes.com

France grappling with the same global mixture many countries are dealing with… with its own peculiar and charming history.

Channel in Bahrain Goes Silent After Giving Opposition Airtime – NYTimes.com

Free speech, Saudi Arabian style.

In This Song, a Bleep Fills In for ‘Bombay’ – NYTimes.com

PC Indian style.

By the time I watched this video recommended by Jeremy (my son-in-law) I was already interested in Reddit due to his verbal description and encouragement.

The Magazine: Can the Pipes Prevail? | Episcopal Cafe

My boss who is on vacation in the idyllic Caribbean somewhere nevertheless sent out a link to this article. I find it interesting that Frank Boles who is quoted in it also did the rather popish arrangement of the Nigerian tune, “Jesus we want to meet” we are performing on the last Sunday before Lent. Also I am a bit disturbed by the tacit assumption that music and styles of worship are what drawn people to church. Is that true? it is sad if it is.

After my postlude Sunday a choir member asked me when Purcell lived. I didn’t know his dates right off. Another choir member volunteered in the 17th century. I said it was easily determined by a quick phone google. (1659-1695)

For my postlude I had played the above “A New Scotch Tune” and the  “A New Irish Tune” below. I treated them like paired dance movements in suites adapting them a bit for the organ. I added repeats to the sections of both, playing them in succession with repeats, then repeating the “Scotch Tune” without repeats. I thought it made a charming match to our Purcell anthem for the day.

My choir member had apparently asked the dates of Purcell because he was under the impression that folk dance melodies which Purcell was imitating did not exist that early in history. I assured him that folk music and dances had been around a long time.

I found that an odd but interesting assumption.

I confessed to my piano trio recently that I seem to be drawn to romantic music lately. Dawn the cellist and Amy the violinist looked at each other, then Dawn said with a smile that working with string players may have affected me, since they are also drawn to romantic music and play the perfect instruments for it.

I had a little time to myself last night while the fam was still in Whitehall visiting the Hatch branch of the family. I made myself a martini and  read the paper online. For music I put on a Kurt Weill playlist to relax.

I am finding the preponderance of popular music I run across these days insipid and boring (like my reaction to many movies). I must be getting old, eh? I still like popular music of course. It may be my natural music language.

However this morning I read this line in Rollin Smith’s bio of Louis Vierne (It’s actually Vierne speaking. His autobiography is contained in this volume in its entirety):

“Anarchy and independence are opposites.Anarchy rapidly becomes regimen that holds one prisoner; independence tolerates no regime.” Louis Vierne

When I read that sentence I was reminded of the sameness of much popular music. It does have a bit of a “imprisoned” feel to me.

On the other hand, my ballet improvisations are often identifiable as popular in musical language or actual genres due in large part to their simple harmonic progressions and use of rhythm.

Hackers Use Old Lure on Web to Help Syrian Government – NYTimes.com

Chatting online and trading pictures with others:

“What the fighter did not know was that buried in the code of the second photo was a particularly potent piece of malware that copied files from his computer, including tactical battle plans and troves of information about him, his friends and fellow fighters.”

Lights Out in Nigeria – NYTimes.com

Novelist, CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE, writes about the trials and tribulation of procuring working electricity in Nigeria

Why Judges Tilt to the Right – NYTimes

The higher in the system, the easier to choose ideologues, I guess. At least that’s what I got out of this article.

Yesterday music went well at church. I was slightly disappointed in my piano playing on the Mozart. I failed to nail one tricky section. This is unusual because it’s usually the tricky sections that I rehearse in depth and then end up nailing. I remember in my immediate prep rehearsing one tricky section but feeling that when this section returned in the recap it was sufficiently similar to not rehearse in depth. Wrong. Ah well.

The string players, however, played well. The Purcell anthem which also involved them went well. Attendance was down due to the snowstorm. My boss was out of town, but the curates rose to the occasion of their first Sunday in charge and did well.

I met with a parishioner after who is going to play congas on an upcoming Nigerian anthem.

Eileen and I walked home in the snow.  Karen Goldstein part of our extended family (Jeremy’s step Mom) had arrived safely from Chicago. We all chatted for a while. Of course Alex was the main attraction. We all went out for a nice meal. Afterwards I visited my Mom and practiced organ.

The weather was too bad for Karen to drive home last night so she graciously accepted our offer to spend the night. It was fun meeting someone whom I had heard so much about.

Today I’m up early getting ready for a day of ballet.

I jumped in the car and drove to Muskegon yesterday morning for Solo and Ensemble Festival. I only had one person to accompany, the violinist I have been working with. In the time I worked with her it was obvious that she enjoyed it. I was slightly disconcerted by her easy acceptance of me. I guess that these days when I meet someone local I expect that my personality and presence will confuse or slightly repel them. The violinist’s mother kept telling me how much her daughter had enjoyed working with me.

This all was especially satisfying because I felt that the young musician surmounted her inevitable jitters and pretty much nailed the piece she played.

On the way home, I decided to stop at Meijer and pick up some things I knew we needed. I pulled in to the parking lot and began texting Eileen only to look up and see her and the entire crew sitting in the car next to me.

We all went in to Meijer. When family members who are living abroad come home and go to Miejer it helps me realize how overwhelming our abundance is in the United States. Or as Jeremy put it yesterday, even the so called “99% ” in the USA is part of the 1% of the world.

Factoring in the fact that in the USA we still have people who are suffering order valium from china from hunger and no place to live, this is still true for many of us. I know it’s true for me and my loved ones and friends.

Later my trio rehearsed for today. I video taped our piece with my phone and uploaded it to YouTube to see how bad the recording is. I remember the performance to be pretty good. I think we will do well this morning.

I just posted this on Grace Music Ministry’s Facebook group. It might be my first video on Facebook. I make videos with my phone often but usually just to time preludes. The quality both of the recording or my playing often convinces not to post them. This one is not too bad.

While I was practicing the fam went to visit my Mom.

It has been very encouraging to watch my Mom lately. She seems to be doing better and enjoying life a bit more.

And of course it certainly doesn’t hurt to have a new great-grand baby to hold.

Jeremy has just about convinced me to consider installing Window 7 on my PCs. It looks doable. Of course I will have to reinstall critical software like Finale. Scary.  I think it will speed the laptops up significantly, but I’m still looking to purchase a Mac Mini for Eileen and me. I think it would be fun to learn the Apple interface.