This blog will be mostly links. I tried to catch up on a couple days of New York Times this morning.

I also haven’t done my morning reading yet. I think I’m half way there to getting rested up mentally. I am looking forward to three more days away this week, visiting my brother, Mark, and his wife, Leigh.

I had a very good time there last week. Lots of good food, good conversation and booze. I was surprised that my blood pressure was low this morning. I took it at the grocery store last night and it was high. I didn’t take my blood pressure kit with me.

The facts that neither side wants to admit about gun control | The Fifth Column

I have been thinking a lot about this column. It does give one pause that the material to build a gun is readily available for about $20. But this article seems to contradict other understandings of how regulating guns DOES effect violence and crime. But I think the author is on to something by saying the gun discussion is missing the larger point.

My question is if our problem is a culture of violence, how in the world does one go about changing that? I don’t have a clear idea, but I am thinking about this a bit differently.

And then there’s this link from yesterday:

Gun Violence Archive

These people are trying to keep track of gun violence in the USA. There is no denying that we have more mass murders and gun incidents than is acceptable in a civilized society.

So whether there is a statistical connection between the presence of unregulated guns and crime is not swaying me away from the need for regulation and also keeping track of our society’s violence.

Rampage Killings Linger in Memory, but Toll of Gun Violence Is Constant – NYT

This article says that 60 people a day kill themselves in the USA with guns. It’s not clear where this data comes from. What a troubling statistic.

Gail Zappa, Keeper of Her Rock Star Husband’s Legacy, Dies at 70 – The New Yor

Frank Zappa died in 1993 and did not ever get up to speed with the whole copyright/fair use thing. After reading this obit, I suspect Gail Zappa has had a lot to do with the tight restrictions (and very expensive scores) on Frank’s music. I wonder if that will change. Probably not.

It’s All Benghazi – The New York Times

One of the reasons I read Krugman regularly is that he keeps the drumbeat of challenging misinformation.

Putin’s Imperial Adventure in Syria – The New York Times

Although a particularly eloquent online reader comment challenges the writer of this article (and may be correct in his criticism of an incomplete picture that omits Western Imperialism in the area), I still found the rehearsal of unfamiliar and familiar history helpful and enlightening.

We All Get ‘Free Stuff’ From the Government – The New York Times

One of the comments on this article challenges that we get “free stuff” if we pay taxes. I think the whole discussion misses the concept of citizenship and the social contract altogether.

Judge Picks Voting Map in Florida – The New York Times

Although keeping track of State laws can be like watching paint dry, it’s still very very important that our gerrymandering cease. Some slightly hopeful news form Florida.

Is Money Corrupting Research? – The New York Times

Yes.

I am enjoying visiting Mark and Leigh.

But three days is probably not enough to get my groove back so after consulting with Eileen, I’ve asked them if we can come back next Thursday through Saturday. They readily agreed, so that’s the plan, if I can arrange it. I have already emailed my piano trio people in an attempt to move our Thursday rehearsal to Tuesday. Dawn is scheduled to play at Eucharist two Sundays in a row beginning with a week from tomorrow, but I think if we can rehearse Tuesday that would be enough.

I’ve also emailed the organist at St. Paul’s to ask if I could practice there again. I have a rather involved postlude a week from this Sunday and it would be good if I could continue to practice while visiting here in Gregory.

One of the fun things about visiting is that Leigh allows me to rifle her piano music library. She has a lovely little Steinway baby grand and I have been practicing and playing on it. While doing this I came across a Bach piece that I have seen before but never quite figured out how it fits into his opus, the Fantasy in F minor.

It’s a great piece. But when I have run across in it in piano anthologies (as I did here this week) I notice that it is a very unusual Bach keyboard piece. It has many hand crossing reminiscent of D. Scarlatti (another favorite of mine). Blair Johnston has observed that this piece is on “the very brink of leaving the Baroque behind texturally speaking.” I would even go further than that and say not only the texture but the musical ideas do not remind me of much of Bach. Nevertheless I like the piece and have put a copy on my tablet.

This piece exists in an manuscript version that is authenticated as being in the hand of Bach.

Gun Violence Archive

This web site attempts to count incidents of gun violence in the USA.

Scientists Recover First Genome of Ancient Human From Africa – The New York Times

Fun facts about the movement of genes.

Researchers Say They’ve Recreated Part of a Rat Brain Digitally – The New York Times

This is a breaking story since the original research published this week is a very long piece. But isn’t it cool?

Getting away from town helped me. I was very grumpy yesterday as you may remember. But by the time we arrived at my brother’s house in Gregory Michigan the cloud had lifted.

We seem to have gone a bit overboard on the food. But it’s all good. I splurged and had a cheese sandwich and a piece of apple pie for lunch. Everyone else joined in. Mark seemed especially happy that we had some white cheddar to go with (still warm) apple pie.

I then called the church where I was planning to practice. No answer. But that did not deter me. I set the GPS on the phone and drove over to the church (not without screwing up and driving further than necessary due to my lack of awareness of east and west).

The secretary let me in and remembered me. She had put the phone on voice mail because she was in a meeting. She was very courteous and helped me get settled at the Rodgers organ.

I feel a bit like an organ snob,

but the organ sound was quite bad. I tried to turn off the reverb with some success. Finally I stumbled across the preset midi sounds and proceeded to practice sounding like Wendy Carlos. That was actually a bit fun.

I came back and Mark chatted me up in a most amiable manner. Cool. My resolve to walk two miles went away quickly and Mark made me a 5 PM Martini with his fancy gin.

We put together a good supper of marinara sauce on capellini and a salad with good bread.

Then we watched tv or I should say that the rest of the group watched tv while I snoozed on the couch.

This morning I got up and showered, cleaned the kitchen a bit, made coffee, read Finnegans Wake and did Greek. Life is good.

IFTTT – Make Your Work Flow

Mark mentioned this link to me. Apparently it’s an app you can install and develop “recipes” of instructions to remember and do stuff for you. Looks interesting.

I woke up in an unusually bad mood this morning. Cooked anyway. I put on Charles Ives Concord Sonata played by Kirkpatrick (thank you Spotify). Ruined a pie crust. Made another one.  Then proceeded to make an apple pie and fresh marinara sauce to take with me to my brother’s house. Listening: Keith Richard’s new CD (which I highly recommend) and Mozart’s Piano Trio K. in C Major K. 542, second movement (which I also highly recommend).

I did get a place to practice while visiting my brother in Gregory, Michigan (Thank you, Geoff Stanton and St. Paul’s UCC church in Chelsea). We will drive over this morning so Eileen can spend a few days helping Mark get started weaving on his loom.

I felt unusually incompetent last night after choir rehearsal. Ironic after a couple days of inspiring talk with my friend, Ken Near. O well. Sometimes you eat the bar, sometimes the bar eats you.

I’m trying not to share my mood with lovely Eileen who is sitting and having breakfast while I do this.

Baby Jack: A Novel: Frank Schaeffer: 9780786720217: Amazon.com: Books

Ken recommended this novel to me. It’s about pacifist parents with a son who becomes a marine and gets killed in Iraq. I guess there’s some Episcopalian shit in it. It’s on my list to read.

Combat Vets Destroy the NRA’s Heroic Gunslinger Fantasy | The Natio

Eileen put this link up on Facebooger yesterday. I have it boomarked to read. The low information crowd is going nuts with the nation’s discussion of our gun madness. I’m about ready to condone taking away everyone’s guns except those specifically for hunting. The low information crowd thinks all liberals are like that anyway, so fut the whuck.

One of the low information crowd posted the above meme. I have ceased to try to engage angry people on Facebooger, but I couldn’t resist running this down.

The incident in the meme took place in 1997. And sorry, Mr meme, it was covered in the New York Times which specifically mentions that Joel Myrick had his handgun with him.

Southern Town Stunned by Arrests in Murder Plot – NYTimes.com

I didn’t reply on Facebooger. It was enough for me to see that once again people were operating on low information.

I had discussion with Ken, Karen, and Eileen about the fact that so many Americans are acting irrationally.

I do ascribe it mostly to a spectacularly poor education system in the USA and a raised level of dissemination of reporting about terrible things.

I continue to try to believe that people have the possibility of redemption and make sense to them selves.

Some days this is easier than others.

I had a great time visiting with old friends last night. Ken and Karen Near took the time and trouble to drive over from Detroit where they are currently living to chat with Eileen and me and have supper together.

I knew Ken and Karen at the beginning of my church music career. Ken is a year older than me and was an Episcopal priest in nearby Tawas City when I lived in Oscoda (1976ish). It was while living in Oscoda that I got the church music bug.

I was raised in a church family but didn’t anticipate the beauties of the Episcopal service and music in the Book of Common Prayer 1928 and Hymnal 1940. I stumbled on to them after answering an ad in the local Oscoda paper that a church was looking for a musician.

I was a bar musician at the time. I passed the audition even though I had no real organ skills and began my time at St. John’s Oscoda. I remember it as a time of fun. I did a lot of crazy things and wasn’t very good at the whole deal. But I learned a ton. And we did a lot of music there. Ken was part of this time and actually performed with me at least once since he was a semi professional horn player at the time as well as a new priest.

Last night I was reminded about how much delight I took in my life at Oscoda. My life now bears some resemblance to that time of my life then. I now live out many (but not all since I have changed) of the values I had then.

I’m hoping I can pick up my friendship with Ken and Karen. They are intelligent people in at a time of ignorance, they are progressive at a time of regressive values in the good old USA. Both of them are well read and articulate. What a gas!

On the home front, I got up this morning and was struck forcibly by the beauty and brilliance of a poem by Amiri Baraka. If you look at the top the page I have added the entire poem as a link (not sure how long I will keep it there).  It’s called “Rhymn & Blues 1) by Amiri Baraka.

Maybe it’s my feeble mindedness, but I think this is an excellent poem. If you don’t like the American beat poets you might not like, but I suspect if you examine it at all you will see its skill and value.

Here are some lines that are haunting me this morning.

“An action so secret it creates.
Men dancing on a beach.”

“the peacock insolence of zombie regimes
the diaphanous silence of empty churches
the mock solitude of a spastic’s art.”

“A tub, a slick head, and the pink houses waving
at the night as it approaches.”

“If I see past what I feel, and call music simply ‘Art’ and will
not take it to its logical end. For the death by hanging for
the death by the hooded political murderer, for the old man
dead in his
tired factory; election machines chime quietly his fraudulent faith.”

“There is no ‘melody.’ Only the foot stomped the roaring harmonies of need. The
hand banged on the table, waved in the air. The teeth pushed agains
the lip. The face and fingers sweating. ‘Let me alone,’ is praise enough
for these musicians.”

“I am deaf and blind and lost and still not again sing your quiet verse. I have lost
even the act of poetry…”

I recommend reading the entire poem.

Out loud.

Twice.

I think I am in need of some time away again. While things are going well, my personal mental space is not terribly good. Yesterday, despite having time off, I spent a lot of the day stressed. Poor me, eh?

I did cook. I made cornbread in the morning and a nice roasted tomato pasta and pear/gorgonzola salad for lunch. Usually cooking helps. I walked to my Mom’s. Eileen stayed home reserving her energy for an evening Weaving Guild meeting in Grand Rapids. I also walked to church. Again I rehearsed Franck as well as upcoming stuff.

Haven’t heard back from the churches and people I contacted regarding getting some organ rehearsal time while I’m away this week. Oh well. Not that big a deal. The pieces are in good shape. It’s the choral anthem that needs the work.

Look Out by Wendell Berry

Stumbled across this poem this morning. It’s not a happy one, but it hit me. I like that he ends such a screed with a redemptive “yes.” I put it on Facebooger just now.

Us | United Society | We are Us

USPG – USPG Homepage

A couple of links from Diarmaid MacCulloch. I am reading the section of his book Silence: A Christian History which deals with Christian Amnesia. The section on slavery is particularly eloquent. Basically he says we have revised our own Christian history to only reflect the recent complete renunciation of slavery. Before that (and even now in the US  white supremacy groups) the Bible was used to justify slavery because it clearly condones slavery.

These two links he gives to illustrate how the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel is changing its past. At one point not only did this English Missionary society have slaves, it also had it’s own brand. None of this info can be found on the links. The second link is an archive link which shows links to information about this. MacCulloch says they have been removed. The links for more info don’t work, but I think this all interesting and disturbing.

Niemöller, origin of famous quotation “First they came for the Communists…”

Another MacCulloch link. It’s an old one, but it is interesting that the famous quote has such an unclear origin and weird history.

Yesterday was the Feast of St. Francis. It was also the annual blessing of the animals at Grace Episcopal Church where I work. It is about the seventh annual celebration of this rite. But yesterday was the first time I didn’t play any Bach. Usually I take my electric piano and play a bunch of Bach while the animals are blessed. I also accompany the two hymns. For some reason yesterday I thought it would be more fun to improv. I think part of this was that our closing hymn at Eucharist was “He’s got the whole world” and I thought it would have been cool to have a jazz piano trio postlude on it. However it was just me at the piano and I jumped up after the closing hymn and went quickly to the organ to perform the schedule postlude.

So at the Animal Blessing, I played some souped up versions of hymns instead of Bach. I was particularly happy with playing “On the wings of a snow white dove.” Get it? I’m not sure if anyone else did, but I thought it was clever.

I was going to post some pics here of the blessing but couldn’t find any on Facebooger. People were taking pictures with their phones and cameras but I didn’t find any thing I was tagged in or any thing else for that matter.

This morning I thought it might be interesting to search pod casts for something on Finnegans Wake. Lo and behold I found one.

Reading Finnegans Wake | A Reading for Everyone

This guy sounds pretty normal. Maybe not what you’re looking for if you’re looking for an expert. But I listened to his introduction and learned something from it (a third way to see the title of the work reading the word “wake” as in the wake of boat… this is very signifcant as bodies of water play a huge role in this book).

Also he promises to do a podcast where he talks about all the books he uses to help him read Finnegans Wake. Cool.

His comments sent me to another website.

Finnegans Wake Audio Blog

This seems to be a dead project (last dated piece is March 2011). Who knows what happened? Maybe the guy died. But at any rate I thought I would poke around on this site sometime as well.

Wilton Felder, Saxophonist for the Crusaders, Dies at 75 – The New York Times

I learn interesting things from obits. Such as Mr. Felder also played bass on many recordings. This makes me want to go back and listen to the Crusaders again.

The Reign of Recycling – The New York Times

Eileen finally asked me to stop reading sections of this article to her and just send her the link. Lots of info on the effectiveness and history of recycling. I am going to put this link up on Facebooger as well.

What Should an Ethicist Tell His Readers? – The New York Times

Hot Damn! The New York Times has abandoned the panel approach for this column. It makes me so happy I left what was probably my first online comment for the NYT.

I also noticed that the stupid app I use to read the paper finally (finally) fixed the glitch for the poem in the Sunday magazine. When the magazine format recently updated, the poem was never there. One had to click a link and it never worked for me. I finally gave up. Yesterday I noticed that the poem was now right there on the app. Wow.

I learned Franck’s Grande Pièce Symphonique when I was an undergraduate. It’s still probably my favorite organ symphony. As far as I know it was the first in this form.  Yesterday despite my fatigue late in the day, I played carefully through the first movement or two.

It was fun to go back through the piece and hear (and see) comments made to me by my then teacher Ray Ferguson. The piece takes more organ than I have (as most pieces do… or at least a better organ).

My musical practices are changing a bit. I have mentioned here before that I am practicing much more carefully than I used to. Another thing I find myself doing is respecting the integrity of the organ I am playing by not throwing on couplers (that is artificially adding a rank).

I sometimes think of myself as “pretending” when I am playing a piece like this. But also I have learned not to think too loud and accept the fact that I am practicing on a small (and small scale) organ and let my registration reflect that.

This is much more satisfying.

Ray and I talked a great deal about using this piece for preludes and postludes, chopping it up. I have done some of that. But not since beginning my work at Grace.

I am listening to the video embedded above. I like this guy interp and tempos so far. It reminds me of Ferguson’s.

I think I thought of the Franck because of the music podcast I mentioned yesterday. They played a recording of his symphony. I studied that in undergraduate school as well. I think it made me a bit nostalgic for the music.

Also I am a very impressionable weak willed individual. For example last night in Donna Leon’s book I was listening to she has the main character read through the first chapter of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon. So this morning I pulled out my copy of which I have read 476 pages (according to where the bookmark was) and read a bit in this book.

I skipped Finnegans Wake this morning and instead decided to roast tomatoes.

And eggplant.

Here they are before roasting.

And after.

Well it’s getting late. I have to get ready for church. I bought these veggies at the market yesterday. Life is good.

I recently finished Ron Padgett’s collection of poetry called Alone and Not Alone. It came out this year. It’s pretty good. I’m not as excited about his poetry as I am about Cynthia MacDonald’s.

My copy of her first book of poetry, Amputations, arrived in the mail yesterday. I find her very witty and acerbic, a nice antidote to living in Holland, Michigan and even the USA of today.

I have been contacting churches near where Mark my brother is currently living in the middle of Michigan near Ann Arbor. Eileen and I planning to go over to see him and Leigh next Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The main purpose of the trip is so that Eileen can help Mark get started with some weaving. Eileen is also planning to purchase more stuff to weave with.

I have contacted three or four churches including St. Barnabas Episcopal church and St. Paul United C of C. I am hopeful that one of these last two will respond and allow me to practice on their instruments while visiting. But they are long shots at this point.

I would like to practice because I have organ music by Distler and Pepping scheduled the following Sunday. Also the anthem is one that I plan to accompany at the organ and it could use some practice as well (“Tarry no Longer” by William H. Harris from the Oxford Easy Anthem Book).

But if I don’t hear from one of these churches I think it’ll be alright. I can probably get some rehearsal in on Thursday morning before we leave and Saturday evening after we get back.

It’s getting cooler in Holland Michigan. These cool fall days are perfect days for long walks. Eileen and I walked over to my Mom’s nursing home yesterday as we have been doing almost every day (Skipped Wednesday due to my strenuous schedule on that day).

We also stopped by the building where I work so that Eileen could look at the pool and exercise rooms she now has access to. Then we went to Hope’s ticket office and bought tickets for the Oct 29 Great Performance Series. We couldn’t afford season tickets this year but are planning on going to a few of these.

I found it interesting that my Julie my ballet instructor confessed that she didn’t like Stravinsky.

We were having a discussion about time signatures that were not in four or three. I was rehearsing Sunday’s prelude (Toccata in Seven by Rutter) on the piano and Julie asked me about it. This led to a discussion of interesting meters.

Then Julie said that she didn’t like Stravinsky which I found amusing. She of course has danced his music. I can see where a dancer might not be enamored of Rite of Spring or Petrushka. But I told Julie that not all of Stravinsky’s music is like his ballets.

I have been exploring pod casts on my tablet recently. This morning I listened to one on the French conductor Pierre Monteux (1875-1964) I didn’t know the name, but apparently he knew Brahms well enough to have played in a string quartet with him. One of the recordings the panel played and discussed was of Petrushka. Apparently Monteux knew and was a champion of Stravinsky. His recordings are early enough that they exhibit the learning curve of orchestras with music that was new to them.

I listened to a recording of a Brahms symphony movement before I turned it off and did my morning reading.

I’m interested in podcasts. They are a good way to have some interesting listening while cooking or cleaning.

I subscribed to On The Media this morning which I listen to regularly but it was a repeat show.

The Most Important Thing, and It’s Almost a Secret – The New York Times

The “thing” is world wide improvement in stuff like poverty, education and standard of living. Not great but getting better.

I am doing more walking. I walked to church yesterday for my Piano trio rehearsal. We are doing some wonderful music. The three of us find, I think, our time together to be a time of easing into and embracing the beauty of the music we rehearse. And it is beautiful.

Dawn and I have been working on Bach’s Gamba sontata in G major (the first two movements). I think this music is profound.

We take the second movement slower making it even more “jolly” than the video above.

Dawn is also working on “Six Studies in English Folksong” by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Here’s a video. These are even more beautiful than this team makes them sound and they’re not bad.

As a trio we spent time with Mozart yesterday. His C major piano trio (K 548) is wonderful, especially the second movement which is the lyrical/profound Mozart.

After Dawn left, Amy and I read through some CPE Bach. This sonata was at one time thought to be by J.S. It is a sort of miniature of one of the larger J.S. multiple harpsichord concerts. You can even hear snippets of the same melodic and motivic material.

This flute version comes the closest to the way I understand this beautiful music.

I think we will schedule this one soon. I can add cello to the continue and it will be fun and beautiful to hear.

I am starting my blog writing later and later in the morning. This means I need to quit.

Series of Explosions in Southern China Kill at Least 7 – The New York Times

I was very surprised to read Chris Buckley as the author of this article with a Beijing dateline. Sure enough a little poking around revealed a recent Tweet from Buckley that he is back in Beijing. He must have finally received his long withheld visa. I wonder if the New York Times is still blocked there.

Phoenix (2014 film) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This showed locally recently and I missed it. A choir member at church was quite enthusiastic about it. I will have to get access to it sometime (it’s not presently on Netflix).

One Fish Stands Watch While Another Eats – The New York Times

Fish lookout. Very cool.

Manual Vs. Electric Treadmill | Healthy Living – azcentral.com

I am seriously thinking of purchasing a manual treadmill at some point. They cost less and are easier to store out of the way. Since I only walk on mine I think it might be more what I want. Plus it uses less electricity and that’s always good.

Eileen and I are planning to find one locally so I can try it out today.

Recently, Eileen complained to me that we don’t DO anything together just the two of us. In response, I suggested that we might play games. An insight I have gradually understood is the value in things like playing games is more about doing something with someone you love or like than it is in enjoying the activity. After trying a few different games, we have been playing Boggle. I like it, because I’m not that bad at it and do win from time to time.

It’s more social than playing online Scrabble and Words with Friends (both of which I also do).

Once again my habits are changing.

Since I no longer treadmill, I am not spending that time reading the daily New York Times. Instead I have been listening to the New York Times Podcast which comes to me via Audible.

This morning I found an app for my tablet (Podcast Addict) and subscribe to a couple more of these New York Times podcasts.

I have been reading the New York Times on my tablet as well, but I find that I finish fewer articles this way.

I spent a good amount of time this morning working on a first draft of a bulletin announcement encouraging members at my church to volunteer in music ministry. I continue to invite people into doing this sort of thing but have very limited success. There’s the dedicated people in the choir and that seems to be working. But people, especially young people, are so busy these days. Often it’s difficult to get them to commit to the necessary prep time for doing things well because of their other activities.

I have invited people who are studying musical instruments to use the church’s prelude time as a moment they could “air out” a piece. It’s a good opportunity but no one has ever taken me up on it. This is one of the things we are putting in the announcement I’m working on. My boss will help me shape this announcement, plus I have already emailed Eileen a copy to proof and comment on.

Another idea I have is adding drums to the Jenkins Jazz Mass. We have recently begun using this again after over a year hiatus. Jen and I were trying to figure out why we haven’t sung it for a year. Jen remembered that there was so much change and turmoil (adding curates, buying an organ, changing staff) that we decided to keep the service music very predictable and easy for a while.

My “jazz” mass is really more Latin and pseudo African in style. Drums would fit nicely. Recently Jen’s partner, Beth, gave me a bunch of drums. I used them a couple times this summer with some African hymns. It worked very well. Drumming is popular. My idea is to make sure a group of people are sufficiently trained and competent to drum on the service music and then have them just jump up (or start playing in their pew) when we do the Gloria, Sanctus and Fraction Anthem. I think it would be cool.

Smash Your Cucumbers for a Smashingly Simple Chinese Side Dish | Serious Eat

I made this yesterday. Linked in from a New York Times article.

It’s from  J. Kenji López-Alt who does very interesting cooking/science blog. He has just published a book which seems to compile stuff he has written about online.

Here’s the blog:  Serious Eats: The Destination for Delicious | Serious Eats

Here’s his link to his book: Serious Eats: The Food Lab | Serious Eats

And here’s a link a good example of his ability to write and explain and entertain all at once: The Food Lab: The Hard Truth About Boiled Eggs | Serious Eats

I love this picture. It illustrates how cooked the egg is at each boil time.