Elizabeth, Jeremy and Alex got up early with me yesterday so I could say good-by before driving away to Grand Rapids for a day of Solo and Ensemble.

It was great having them. Alex’s personality is starting to show and it’s a delight to be with her.

I managed several wrong turns on the way to the Solo and Ensemble Festival but arrived in time to juggle my first two simultaneously scheduled accompaniments. In the first one, I quickly learned that using a tablet for an accompaniment in this situation is not a good idea.

Nearing the end of the simple clarinet accompaniment, I reached out to the tablet to scroll by hand. Something I did enlarged the page and flipped it back a page or two. I madly tried to get in the right spot, but had to improvise (badly) the ending. Sheesh.

Besides the eleven scheduled appointments I ran into several people from my past. First, the Roman Catholic Cathedral musician, Nick Palmer. It was good to see him in person. We connect tenuously through Facebooger. We used to see each other much more when I worked for the RCs. Now, not so much. Hugs in the hall.

As I was finishing my lunch in the school cafeteria, a woman from my past work with the National Pastoral Musicians sat down with me. She told me some sad stories including how her husband was dying and how badly her priest had handled her retirement. But she seemed upbeat.

Later another Nick (Nick Hahn) and I ran into each other. He sang in my choir at Our Lady of the Lake . Most of the time I knew him he was single. I played for his wedding. Now he and his wife are down to two kids in High School and several in college.

Besides these moments the day was a whirlwind of trying to help the Holland High Band director and his students. This was the director’s first Solo and Ensemble in Michigan. Several of the kids were missing judge’s copies for their event. Judge’s copies must be originals (non photocopies) with the numbers measured. He and I were madly flying around making sure this happened.

Also after my first bad experience I tried to make photocopies for myself of accompaniments I had planned to play from the tablet. I was able to do this with all of them but one which didn’t go as badly as the morning one did.

I was sipping my martini and relaxing at home when the phone rang. It was my Mother’s place of residence informing me she had fallen and hit her head. Would I like to come take her to ER or should they send her by ambulance? I opted for the latter. This morning I got up and called her caretakers and determined that she was back in her room after having spent a couple of hours on this little adventure and was okay. Eileen and I will make sure she is okay later today.

Also, I inadvertently noticed my boss had emailed me. She was having trouble getting the pics of progress on our organ sent to us by the builder to download. Could I put them on a USB drive for her? I decided to deal with this the next day. Which I did this morning. I didn’t have a thumb drive handy, so I downloaded the pics, re-sized them smaller, emailed them to her, uploaded them to a google directory and shared it with her.

I have interspersed some of these throughout this post. Whew. Hopefully today will be a bit less crazy than yesterday.

Getting a little blogging in first thing this morning. I have to leave shortly to drive over to East Kentwood High School for a day of accompanying High School Students at the Solo and Ensemble Festival.

At the lengthy rehearsal last night, I was reminded how refreshing it is for me to work with young musicians. I do enjoy this sort of thing and am looking forward to today.

Elizabeth, Jeremy and Alex are leaving sometime this morning. I will wake them before I leave (as per their request) to say good by. It has been fun having all three of them here.

I messaged my friend, Peter Kurdziel, who often is doing some accompanying at these festivals. He has tried to connect with me before so we could do some catching up. No response yet of course but this is a real possibility.

Pardon Plea by Adolf Eichmann, Nazi War Criminal, Is Made Public – The New York Times

In my head, Eichmann is forever connected to Arendt’s ideas about the banality of evil.

I have spent my morning making an apple cake for today, reading Finnegans Wake, making a coffee bean, bagel and lox run, then Greek. People are just stirring now.

I ran into a choir member at the coffee bean store (Simpatico). A member of the local Roman Catholic church’s choir that is. He said they were up to 30 members and were rocking. I believe him. I made encouraging noises.

Then at the place where I buy bagels and lox, I ran into a choir director from another church. He was kind enough to chat me up. He is serving on the  search committee for a new conductor for the Holland Chorale. He told me they were close to an announcement and that he was happy they were going to hire someone local.

It’s funny when someone does this to me. Treats me like it didn’t occur to them that this is something I do for a living: conduct choirs. Though the locals don’t seem to see me as skilled, I know that my choir conducting skills are not bad. I demonstrate this each week with my work at church. But I think so much is about perception not actual skill. I could be wrong, but I think I’m as competent as any local choral conductor (this includes college types). But since I don’t act like the usual academic hot shot and look like a goddam hippie, it’s not occur to my local friends that I’m good at this sort of thing.

But no matter. It was fun to see the serendipity of running into two local choral related people on my morning errand.

My brother and his wife are driving over for lunch today (Hi Mark!). That should be fun. I have a bit of a marathon of rehearsals later after Holland High lets out. In theory I am running through all of the accompaniments (except the one bass clarinetist I have been meeting with) for tomorrow. That should be good

I was very surprised to notice that I only have about twenty pages left until I will have read Finnegans Wake.

It’s hard not to feel like an anachronism these days. Much of the stuff that interests me, other people are not only not interested in, they are not very aware of it. This includes Joyce, but also any music that is not popular music.

It’s encouraging (if a bit overwhelming at this point) to be involved with 13 or so high school students preparing for Solo and Ensemble this Saturday. Their level of interest varies but I have to admire the Band Director at Holland High (Mr. White) for trying to light a fire under these kids for music.

Choir attendance was sparse last night. It took huge amounts of energy to keep the rehearsal positive and productive. i think I did that, but boy am I tired today.

I had a good meeting with my boss. She and I agreed that I probably need a new laptop to replace my ailing one. I think the church is going to buy me one. That will probably happen soon. We haven’t heard anything for a while from the organ builder we have hired to build us an organ, Martin Pasi. Jen emailed him yesterday. I messaged him this morning on Facebooger. I hope he responds in time for us to update the congregation at the annual meeting Sunday.

It is a pleasure to have Elizabeth, Jeremy and Alex visiting. Yesterday while I was at work, they drove to Whitehall for a visit  with the Hatch side of the fam. That seems to have been successful. All of us, I think, are showing signs of wear from the visit. I do appreciate  the time and trouble Elizabeth and Jeremy are taking to keep their extended families connected. This is no mean trick when we are scattered all over the world.

I drafted an article on Psalmody for the Church Bulletin yesterday and emailed to Jen.

I put quite a bit of work into it. I will probably put it up here after Jen okays it. The purpose of this article is to educate the community about why we sing the psalms, the theology of worship around singing and the Anglican identity of using Anglican chant to sing the psalms.

The next few days will require energy from me.

I have rehearsals today and tomorrow. Then the whole day Saturday in Kentwood playing the actual Solo and Ensemble Festival. Then Sunday business as usual. I am playing a Bach Fantasia (in B minor, BWV 563) for the postlude Sunday. It’s not a terribly hard one but I have been practicing it. I wonder if I will have time and energy to do so Saturday. We’ll see.

I fell for one of those subscription offers from the New Yorker: Six issues for six dollars. So far I have received three issues. I have told myself that if I can’t find some interesting articles or funny cartoons them I will take steps to NOT have it automatically sign me up for more subscription the way their email warned me they would.

On the Road with Trump and Cruz – The New Yorker

This is the article I read in the latest issue. I think it’s pretty good. I have decided that Trump and Cruz are mirrors of who we are in the United States right now: uneducated, narrow, preoccupied with style over substance, entertainment over thinking. fear over courage. We did not suddenly get here. We have been edging this way for decades. And I firmly believe we all have a measure of responsibility for it.

How “Making a Murderer” Went Wrong – The New Yorker

This is the other article I found helpful and interesting a one of the three issues of The New Yorker I have received so far. This article raised questions that have occurred to me about this TV series. Such as clarity over the crime and bias of the presentation of the story. Jes’ sayin’

Dear Diary,

It’s embarrassing how relieved I was after my doctor’s appointment yesterday. For the first time in years, my blood pressure was low at the visit. Usually it spikes so high, that they wait and retake it and then it’s lower. The doctor jokes about white coat syndrome…. that is, that I’m so nervous at seeing her that my blood pressure goes up.

But I think it might be the Mom syndrome I mentioned here: fear of failure. Yesterday I went to the appointment knowing I had gained weight and was resolved that no matter what that would be obvious. Also, just before hand I greeted my daughter Elizabeth, her husband Jeremy and my grand child Alex. It so nice to see them and have them here that this may have lowered my blood pressure as well.

After a grocery trip with Elizabeth, Jeremy and Alex (Eileen was having her hair done), I sat in my living room and realized I was exhausted and relieved. Weird.

I regained some energy for my rehearsal with the one high school student whose mother had engaged me before Holland High School hired me to do numerous other accompaniments.

My doctor did intend for me to have blood work done. But decided that since I had not fasted, it could wait six months. I asked her to order it the week before my next appointment so that she could have it hand for our next meeting. It mystifies me why this isn’t the usual procedure. Possibly it’s difficult to get patients to make two appointments instead of one?

It’s been fun having Alex around. On her first visit here, she was terrified of me and would invariably become unhappy if I was visible. This time she is full of curiosity and is obviously processing everything around her. I’m just part of the deal. I like that.

She is also mobile and walks around constantly checking stuff out.

I need to pace myself today to get through another long day to this evening’s rehearsal. Getting old.

Ammon Bundy and 7 Others Held in Oregon; LaVoy Finicum Is Reported Dead – NYT

I woke up and read about this this morning. The logic in using the constitution to defy the government escapes me.

So I missed my guests arrival last night. By the time they got here I was already asleep. This morning I can tell they are sleeping soundly in the master bedroom. I heard Alex cry out, but she apparently went back to sleep.

I have to leave for my doctor’s appointment in about an hour. I’m not sure how much blogging I will get done with Elizabeth, Jeremy and Alex visiting. If they sleep in this late each day, I will have time. Otherwise, the blogs might be short while they are here. I do love to talk to my daughters and their significant others!

Yesterday was Virginia Woolfe’s birthday. I found out via Writer’s Almanac which I listen to pretty regularly. I have read three books by her: Orlando, To the Lighthouse, and A Room of One’s Own. Yesterday I gathered all her books and took a look at them. I do like her writing quite a bit. I read Orlando as a young man and loved it. I think that along with Yuikio Mishima, Samuel Beckett and Salmon Rushdie, she is going on my list of authors to read in the near future.

At the latest “Strategic Doing” meeting, there were several people who expressed the opinion that we should not always sing the psalm at Eucharist. They apparently found it difficult and missed the meaning of the psalms by concentrating on trying to sing the Anglican Chant.

“Strategic Doing” is the name our consultant or somebody came up with for these meetings. Like so many of these kind of meetings, they brainstorm thoughts, then everybody gets 12 stars and they all walk around and put stars up on things of concern or interest. Not always singing the Psalms got 7 stars. My boss said that 7 stars do not a change make, but we mutually decided to respond with some education.

This means jupe has to write a bulletin article. I started on it yesterday. I’ll probably post it here as well. Basically I’m going to remind people that psalms are songs are most themselves when sung, that Anglican chant is a practice specific to our heritage, and when words are sung, their meaning is widened and emotionally opened up.

My boss said that she had the opposite response to these twelve stars. She said that singing helped her understand the words better.

So, I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning. Six month checkup. These are coming faster and faster. In the last six months I think I have gained weight and struggled with gradually high blood pressure, although the blood pressure has dropped some this semester. This is probably related to not having to do ballet class.

I didn’t notice when my annual checkup became a six month one. I fasted last night in order to have blood drawn this morning. But when I got up, I hesitated, because I wasn’t sure that my doctor drew my blood twice a year. This is more critical than it used to be because Eileen and I are paying more and more medical fees out of pocket due to our insurance coverage.

So I started looking for my medical file.

Of course I couldn’t find it. I managed to get on my medical providers web site to check out my stuff. But of course this took several resets of my password. By the time I had decided not to go up for a blood test I wasted hours of my morning. After 8 AM I called my doctor’s office and found out that she had NOT ordered a blood test for me. That sounds right.

I played well yesterday.

The Böhm variations on “Christe der du bist tag und licht” went well. The secretary omitted the word “partita” so no one was expecting a set of variations. I warned the choir. I don’t think too many people were listening to this. Leading with quality music played well has to be its own reward. One of the choir members remarked to me that my prelude was a “good one.” I replied that I like it too. I hope these off hand remarks don’t seem as arrogant when delivered as they sometimes do to me later when I’m pondering. Like on a Monday.

At the end of the postlude, I looked around and noticed that a few loyal choir members had listened to the bitter end.

I think Böhm is cool. Too bad more people don’t bother to listen, but I do it for the music.

Next weekend will be a full one. Friday evening I am rehearsing with ALL the students (12 by the count of this mornings email from the Band Director). Then Saturday I spend the day at East Kentwood High School accompanying these kids plus one more who contracted with me separately.

I have scheduled a bit easier music for next Sunday’s prelude and postlude.

The prelude is by Marilyn Biery and is based on Ubi Caritas (we will be singing this hymn at Communion). The postlude is Fantasia in B minor BWV 563 by J. S. Bach. I’ve never played this one in public but it’s not too hard (nothing like the Böhm or many of Bach’s other major works for organ).

David Stoliar, Survivor of World War II Disaster, Dies at 91 – The New York Times

This guy died in May of last year. The NYT just got wind of his death. They had a prepared obit. I can see why. Interesting stuff and pertinent to the terrible refugee situation in the world now.

‘Dark Money,’ by Jane Mayer – The New York Times

Book review. Looks good.

How a Namib Desert beetle could help stop frost on airplanes – CSMonitor.com

This shit fascinates me. Changing the surface in order to prevent collection of moisture. Hence nothing to freeze or frost. Cool.

A Drug to Cure Fear – The New York Times

We understand more and more about memory and our body chemistry.

I don’t think I’ll be doing much digitizing for the next week. We are expecting my daughter, Elizabeth, her husband, Jeremy, and grand daughter Alex sometime this week. They are currently stranded in New Haven by the huge snowstorm that has hit that area and beyond. They were originally schedule to come to Chicago last night. But now it has been delayed until tomorrow evening and could easily be canceled again judging from the reports from the area.

Eileen and I have prepped the house and this has meant clearing away the harpsichord tools and the tape recorder. While putting it away I noticed about 12 more tapes that I didn’t realize were tucked away. They are mostly tapes of my college recitals, but one might be a tape of my Father preaching. I would like to have that.

I have been spending some time with Froberger at the organ lately.

I always think of one of my profs in grad school who liked him. Froberger died before Bach was even born. (Froberger died in 1667, Bach was born in 1685). So his music is an interesting fore runner of the baroque with a lot of freedom and imitation in his Toccatas.  I own a couple volumes of his works. I like it, but think it might be a little esoteric for many listeners, especially at church. They will work better once I get a better instrument.

Amy and I played entirely through this sonata this week. As usual with these Mozart violin sonatas, it is a wonderful piece. I found it’s form intriguing.

Mozart begins and ends the first movement with this unusual material. It barrels along for a while with this sort of stuff, but then becomes very melodic.

The second section begins with the piano and violin tossing charming melodic fragments back and forth.

This builds to what sounds like a prep for a return of the main theme of the movement, but it’s not the beginning theme, it’s the second theme, moved from B minor to E minor, puzzling but beautiful and inevitable sounding and suddenly answering identical gestures from the first section.

The beginning theme returns to end the movement. I haven’t studied this very closely but it interests me. I will bring the score home today from church and work more on understanding this lovely sonata.

I made a new mp3 this morning of my Grandfather telling a story and singing a song (link). This seems to be a set piece among ministers in the Church of God denomination.

I remember hearing the minister, Herb Thompson, perform this much the same way.

The racism in this song is a bit disturbing to me. Hearing my Grandfather talk about “darkys,” “Negroes,” and the “colored maid” and “colored folks” in the town is not pleasant to me. But I do think it’s good to hear this little story from the past told and sung by him.

I couldn’t find any references to this hymn in most of my books. However, in Ira Sankey’s book, My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns, it is mentioned.

This is a story I have found in several other places about how Mr. Peter P. Bihorn sang this song to “cowboys in the West” in 1883. Here’s a link to much the same story as in Sankey. Another online citation says this hymn was written in 1877.

This book is one of several I have inherited from Benjamin. This is the flyleaf.

They are treasured possessions.

I note that this song is in the denominational hymnals of the Church of God and that the tune is a bit straighter.

Pop Ben seems to have the variant in his ear, varying the initial melody and the second phrase.

I wonder about this being sung in a denomination that had a large black constituency (although the integrated congregations seems to have been a rarity). I’m going to continue to try to find out more about this little set piece. So far, googling hasn’t worked for me.

On another note, I spent three hours yesterday working Mr. Demitrius White, the new Holland High School band director, and his students. It was loads of fun.

This morning I am taking a little hiatus from wallowing in the past here. If you’re curious, I did follow up on yesterday’s blog with a reply to Sarah’s comment.  I also listened to the second side to the 7th reel this morning. It was a recording of a commercial recording of hymns. It made me imagine Ben and Dorothy listening to this kind of thing for pleasure (and devotion). In the recordings, a male singer is dominant, there is a back up choir and the accompaniment is a shaky sounding electric organ sound much like the one Grandmother Dorothy uses in the recordings.

It makes me wonder how Ben thought about his own recordings. But more on that in future blogs.

Wonder of wonders, the Holland High School orchestra director, John Reikow, emailed me yesterday about accompanying several students at the Solo and Ensemble Festival in Grand Rapids a week from tomorrow. I marvel a bit at the last minute nature of the request. I replied and he put me in touch with band director, Demetrius White.

Weirdly, instead of communicating by email, Reikow asked me to phone White which I did.

He immediately emailed me pdfs of accompaniments. I went through all these yesterday on my tablet. I’m still working out how to use the tablet with these accompaniments. It simplifies things to have all the music on the tablet, however some of these little pieces have musical roadmaps that result in having to jump all over the several pages of the score (D.C. al Coda).

I will work on these more this morning, mapping out how to do them. I have thought of printing one or two pages if it would be helpful. But then I have to coordinate them with the tablet. We’ll see. White just emailed me three more pdfs.

It’s a bit weird to suddenly be asked to do this kind of work after having been overlooked for many years here in Holland. I did a lot of this kind of thing for Grand Haven High School. I connected with them through the Band Director who hired me to help with the pit orchestra for the school musical. This led to him recommending me to parents for Solo and Ensemble accompaniment.

At Holland High, I was only ever asked to help a bit with a couple of their musical pit orchestras. It was oddly directed by a non faculty person whom I knew through church. I think this is how I met my friend, Jordan Van Hemert, when he was a high school student.

So Mr. White from Holland High has arranged for multiple 15 minute rehearsals for me with students today at Holland High School. This will take from noon to 3 PM. I’m expecting at least one more day like this next week and then the Saturday gig.

Prehistoric Massacre Hints at War Among Hunter-Gatherers – The New York Times

Violence among our ancestors.

ISIS Has Destroyed One of Iraq’s Oldest Christian Sites – The New York Times

Loss of life and the brutal movements of refugees is the worst part of these conflicts. However, the loss of history is also tragic.

Today I begin the sixth reel of these old tapes I am checking out. So far, I have listed to 5 reals but only digitized 3 of them.

One reel was a recording of symphonic music, probably from a record. One was an excerpt of a recording of “The Young Lutheran’s Guide to the Orchestra.” These two I did not digitize. I have a stack I’m working on.

I’m listening to reel 6, but it seems to be blank on this side. I also found a picture of my Mom in her nursing home room that I didn’t recognize.

This is her at a place she worked in Anderson, Indiana, while she and Dad were attending college.

Here’s what’s written on the back.

Mom says that Gadbury’s was an eating place and that she was a waitress there. I’m not sure about the time frame here. I think it was before she married Dad, but I’m not sure. And I don’t know what G.T.means. In Dad’s memoirs, I can only find a reference around this time of Mom working when he says that right after they were married she went to work “for the Clergy bureau” and he, at the Gospel Trumpet Company. The Gospel Trumpet was the name of the journal published by the Church of God. 

I’ll try to remember to ask Mom more about this when I see her today.

So reel 7 is now being digitized. It begins with a recording of Benjamin Jenkins, my Grandfather, doing a story song on “A Child of King.” This looks promising.  Stay tuned and I’ll be putting up more silly stuff from my past.

Peter Dahlin, Detained Swedish Rights Worker, Said to Confess in China – The New York Times

These public confessions on Chinese television are chilling.

Prisoner Swap With Iran Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Iran Gets Anyone – The New York Times

This helped me understand this news story better.

link to mp3

I’ve been doing a lot of listening to recordings of people singing in church in the early 60s in Tennessee. This sound is one I recognize. And while these are not churches where my Dad was pastor, this sound is very familiar to me and probably is close to what I heard at First Church of God in Greeneville, Tennessee. I remember visiting my Grandfather at Broyles Chapel Tennessee where he moved for his final pastorate. This is the site of these recordings. My Grandfather was a man of gadgets. I can picture him having an usher manning the Wollensak tape recorder (If indeed, it was a Wolensak. That’s how I picture it). It must have seemed like a new-fangled device the preacher from Maryland brought with him to the mountain community.

Yesterday, after meeting with my boss and practicing, I went to Bibles for Mexico. I was looking for a large print Bible for my Mom and a turntable for myself. As I was sitting in the parking lot, I received a skype invitation from my daughter, Sarah, who lives in England. I love tech. I sat and chatted with her for a bit before going into the thrift shop.

I didn’t find a Bible or a turntable. I did find about $20 worth of collections of solo voice and opera arias. Very cool.

About this time I realized I was probably avoiding calling Social Security about a recent screw up. For some reason my Mom didn’t get her direct deposit check from Social Security for January 2016.

I gathered all my info around me and made the call. I was skeptical they would talk to me instead of Mom. A while back, Eileen and I went to the local Social Security office on behalf of Mom. They kept us waiting and when they finally saw us told us they couldn’t talk to me even though I have power of attorney. I had to bring Mom to authorize me as a representative. Sheesh. Since we were on a mission to solve some problem (I forget which one), this wasn’t helpful. And I didn’t feel like dragging Mom from the nursing home to get authorized. Too hard on her.

So anyway, I talked to the Social Security robot for a while, pushing numbers and shouting responses to get through the fucking phone tree. At one point, the robot wanted to “gather some information” from me. He assured me that they were within their rights to ask these questions. Then a new robot said that if I gave false information I could get put in jail and fined.

This discouraged me from answering with Mom’s info when they asked questions. I hung up and took a different path on the phone tree trying to talk to an agent (you know, a live person).

Finally I got on the waiting list. The new robot informed me my wait time would probably be 35 minutes. I was basically calling to make sure I couldn’t take care of this without bothering Mom. When the robot told me the wait time, I put on my coat and walked to my Mom’s nursing home. This is a form of exercise for me and I was already planning on doing this.

Now walking while on hold with the Social Security office I was hoping that I could arrive at Mom’s before I got an agent. Long story short: I did. Good grief.

Every year Social Security sends Mom (me) a form in which she is supposed to state if her pension income (from other sources) has changed and how. I’m pretty sure I sent this letter in, but Social Security did not get it. They’re response was to suspend Mom’s checks.

They are now sending me another request form to fill out. It’s possible I didn’t do it right and the bureaucrat trashed the letter and suspended Mom’s account. Or I guess it could have gotten lost in the mail.

link to mp3 of above

 For Black Lives Matter, MLK’s kind of activism isn’t the only way – CSMonitor.com

Interesting take on evolving ways to do social activism.

G.O.P. and the Apocalypse – The New York Times

Only refers to Trump as “The real estate developer.” I like that.

Composers’ Collectives Offer Creativity and Challenges – The New York Times

This sounds like fun

Missing Man Back in China, Confessing to Fatal Crime – The New York Times

This is not encouraging.

Despite a good Sunday I spent most of yesterday feeling frazzled and off balance. I have experienced mood swings all my life. Combined with an over sensitivity and sometimes a lack of perspective it can be uncomfortable.

However today I feel back on my game a bit. I guess that’s why they call them mood swings.

So it looks like linking in mp3s (which I am uploading to my google drive and publishing) works.

Yesterday I linked in this recording.

Here’s the link to it I put up yesterday. My brother, Mark, said it worked for him. Please keep me informed of difficulties as they happen to you, dear reader.

Here’s a link to this audio file.

It’s a short excerpt from a sermon in which my Grandfather Ben recalls quitting a good job and moving to Anderson, Indiana. There he and Dorothy attend the new Anderson College of the Church of God. Apparently, Dorothy is the one who took my Uncle David and Uncle Johnnie to class. They are the “babies” my Grandfather refers to.

In my Father’s memoirs, he says that his Dad and Mom moved to Anderson on Dec 10, 1924. At that time, they would have one baby, David. Johnnie was born on January 8, 1927 the winter before Benjamin’s graduation on June 7, 1927. Ben receives a degree, but it doesn’t seem that Dorothy did. In fact, I hadn’t thought of her attending college at that time but apparently she did. She probably took music classes. There is a family story about my Uncle Dave wowing the undergrads in class as a precocious toddler. I picture it in a music class.

All of my info is coming from the sermon and my Dad’s memoirs. Dad does mention that Dorothy attended college at this time but only in passing.

The choir sounded excellent yesterday! That was gratifying. I performed the prelude from my tablet, turning on the scrolling function which moved through the music as I played.

After church, I looked at turntables and pastry cutters on Amazon. My turntable is not reproducing both left and right channel which makes it pretty useless. I think it’s interesting that so much equipment is being sold to reproduce tape recordings and vinyl records these days. I can remember when most of the equipment available online was used and often crappy. I bought several reel to reel tape players online. “Vintage” ones. Heh.

But now there is a wide range of equipment available. I am looking at a turntable in the $200 range. The $100 ones look unreliable in quality. I probably need a tone arm that can be adjusted to play more worn older records.

I broke my pastry cutter and could only find one with blades not wires at Meijer. I bought one with blades but was wondering if there was a reason to use one with wires. Still thinking about that.

I returned later to the empty church to practice organ. I am planning a Böhm Sunday on the organ next time.

After about an hour and a half, I went home, made a martini and listened to several interpretations of the partita I am learning.

It’s based on the tune, Christe der du bist tag und licht.

It was interesting to me to listen to the various interpretations on YouTube. Different tempos (changing tempos!), registrations, manual changes, use of pedal.

I am evolving an interpretation on my own. But it is helpful to hear what others are doing. I think today I will make a Spotify playlist. The YouTube videos seemed to be recordings of live performances for the most part. All of them had resonant rooms. I was surprised that the players rushed through the reverberation at the end of little sections.

I told the choir to listen to how the organ was “breathing” in a hymn we were rehearsing. I think being a choral conductor improves my phrasing on the organ both in hymn playing and repertoire.

I can remember my piano teacher years ago asking me not to rush from a major section in a Beethoven sonata to one in minor. A slight pause gives the listener a chance to make the transitions with you better.  I think this is even more important when dealing with reverberation.

Yesterday, more than once, my lively singing congregation had a different concept of the tempo of a piece than I did. I mentioned to the choir during the pregame that I might do the psalm tone differently with the congregation. The trick, I told them, was not to leave the group in the dust, to maybe meet them half way if i can tell they were struggling a bit with singing the anglican chant.

Conversely, I didn’t want them to drag in one of the hymns.

I dropped out on the last stanza of the second communion hymn. The congregation finished it without me. This is an accomplishment. When I first arrived, I remember the participation in the communion hymns was mostly limited to the choir.

As I am writing this, I am taping another service which seems to be my Grandfather Jenkins again. I think he sings a bit of a solo and my Grandmother probably played the organ solo at the offertory.

I am tempted to re-record this reel and break it up into its constitute parts, especially my Grandfather’s solo and my Grandmother’s playing.

Here’s an attempt at embedding an mp3 link people can copy from. (Post Script: I couldn’t get this to work on my tablet. It did have an option to download it, however. If you, dear reader, try this, I would be interested to know if you were successful.)

I am amused that at the age of 64 I am still sitting and thinking about church as I listen to a recording made of other Jenkinses doing church some fifty years ago.

I have often thought that my Grandfather and Grandmother Jenkins would be horrified by my agnosticism and approach to Christianity.

If I can figure out how to share it a bit better, maybe I will upload some snippets if I make those discrete smaller sectional recordings.

I snapped this pic yesterday as I was going to church to practice and prepare for this morning.

I think I might be learning to pace myself a bit better.

Although I was exhausted yesterday, my blood pressure was still good as it was this morning. Hard to fool that function. I cooked a bit, then Eileen and I went to a local discount store and a thrift shop. She found a ton of stuff. I was looking for turntables. No dice. But I did find a pristine copy of Paul Creston’s “Five Little Dances.”

After this, we stopped by to say hi to my Mom. I found a large print edition of the Psalms (King James) at the thrift shop and bought it with her in mind. I was sort of surprised that she seemed interested. Eileen and I were talking about whether she had a large print Bible or not. It turns out, she doesn’t. 

Mom’s religious stuff seems to ebb and flow. During Dad’s final years, I was pretty hard on Mom about religion. I tried to use it to motivate her. Literally to get her to take a shower and go to a doctor’s appointment. It didn’t work. The only thing that did was insisting that she do stuff.

I know the nursing home where Mom lives is very religious. They pray communally before each meal, with a worker reading a meditation. This reflects the larger local community as I think I have mentioned here before.

Mom has said that sometimes it’s a bit much for her. She doesn’t go to many of the church meetings which are held regularly on the premises.

On the other hand, when I mentioned the daily meditation pamphlet, “Day by Day,” she seemed interested enough recently that I took her a copy from church.

I’m not pushing the religion thing with her.I’m just trying to facilitate her life at this point.

A good thing about the local crazy thrift shops (BIBLES for mexico) is that they give Bibles away for free.

Maybe Eileen and I can find a large print edition for Mom next time. At any rate, I’m sure I could pick one up for her on Amazon or even new locally.

I cooked yesterday morning to relax. I didn’t take food porn pics, however. This morning I took some pics so you could see what the food was like. The above is my second take on the Dutch Apple Cake recipe Eileen brought home from the library when she was still working. I altered it by using a different topping recipe. I think it’s better. Unfortunately, it added calories.

I also made Bacon Open Face Tomato Sliders. It’s a Devin Alexander recipe. I changed it. She uses Turkey bacon. I used real bacon on the carnivore version. This didn’t work. After a while I had to take off the bacon, fry it, and return it to the top of the little tomato thingo.

I was going to make a veggie version for myself with some Quorn fake meat.

Then I looked closely at the calories. 1000 of them in 12 oz. No way, Jose! Instead I made a fake veggie ground beef substitute (ground cooked carrots, mushrooms, onions, peppers). It was excellent.

A Psychologist’s Open Letter to U.S. Voters | Psychology Today

Eileen says that we have read this one before. i don’t remember it. I find that some of what this author is saying often runs through my mind. Like wondering what’s the big deal when people get outraged when politicians change their mind. As this author says, it’s called “thinking.”

Among the Disrupted – The New York Times

I found myself agreeing with only some of what this author has to say. I think he perpetuates some of the disruption he criticizes with his own use of vituperative language. A bit histrionic for me.

When Beauty Strikes – The New York Times

I found the histrionic link in this recent article. It surprises me when I agree with David Brooks. In this case, I interlibrary loaned the book he references on his topic.

I’ve been doing some thinking about beauty ever since I realized I was annoyed at an advertisement’s persistent use of the word to refer to web sites. I don’t think web sites are “beautiful.”

This work by Takemitsu is on my personal list of music I love. This is also the recording of it I prefer.

I had a crazy day yesterday. I showed up for the ballet auditions I was booked to play. Afterwards the teachers (who were judging the audition) were very complimentary of my playing. The modern dance teacher was so enthusiastic she said she wanted me to come back in the afternoon for the modern dance audition. The chair of the department was also there and was praising me. He repeated her request.

Ay yi  yi.

I said to him, “It’ll be another fifty dollars, Matt.” I hate shit like this. It feels odd to be the one bringing up money when people are asking you to do something. He readily agreed.

I went downstairs to fill out a time card. As I was doing so, the dance improv teacher (a third person) came in and told me they wanted me to stay for her portion of the audition. She said it would run another half hour. I told her I would have to charge a bit more then and she said that authorized.

I filled out my card as though I had worked two hours in the morning and three in the afternoon. At $25 an hour, this would be $125.

Matt came down to the office while I was doing this. He told me that he would expect me to put in for 6 hours ($150). I told him I was putting for five and that was fine. I’m not sure if he understood what he was proposing. He booked me for two more Friday audition sessions, morning and afternoon, in February.

These people are extremely cordial and competent at dance. They all compliment me continually. This doesn’t decrease the stress of having to remind them that I need to get paid for what I do.

The odd thing is that the afternoon session only lasted an hour. $75 is not an outlandish amount for playing an hour. I would not be able to change the time card anyway as it had already left the office to go wherever time cards go.

Although I didn’t work that long yesterday, it took a strong emotional and physical toll on me. Good grief.

After the morning session I came home and bandaged a couple of fingers which had broken open and bled on the piano (hard core, eh?). I’m not sure why this happened, other than I was playing an old stiff action baby grand Steinway and maybe played a bit too vigorously. My hands do dry out this time of year and that does cause some very uncomfortable cracking. But that didn’t seem to be what was going on.

On a similar note, I received a surprising email from a Hope college prof inviting me to play the Solo and Ensemble gig at Holland High.

The kids get together and pay $20 each and they are about 20 or so, making it worthwhile (notice how a musician immediately talks money to another musician). I’m already playing a Solo and Ensemble competition on the day she mentioned. It will quite possibly work out in my schedule. I asked her to pass my email on to the high school teacher (Mr. Reikow, Sarah!).

So today feels like a Monday or Thursday to me. In other words, I am deflated and exhausted from the day before.

One good thing is that I managed to get in a good long walk going back and forth between the college and home twice.

Incidentally, the title of this blog is taken from a sentence in Finnegans Wake, I read this morning. 

More music I love.

In my sixties I am beginning to understand myself as overly sensitive. This is helpful when sorting out the events in my past. Hard memories become a bit easier to remember and understand when I factor in my own distorted sensitivity.

However In the meantime I am satisfied with who I am and who I continue to become.

Yesterday I had a very rewarding rehearsal with Amy my violinist. Dawn the cellist continues to suffer from various ailments that prevent her from playing her cello. Amy and I read through Brahms magnificent Sonata in A major.

This piece has been in my regular rehearsal for awhile.

The more I practice it, the more I like it.

I am closing in on completing a reading of Finnegans Wake by James Joyce. I am using two editions to read it,

one old one (Viking Press 1945)

and one I purchased to keep better track of allusions and citations (Oxford World Classic Paperback 2012).

I do most of my reading in the former edition. The latter edition is useful for its introduction and information. I also use it to mark my old edition so that I can see the Oxford pagination which is more standard in citation in the literature about this book.

It helps to have read Rabelais when reading Finnegans Wake. Often it helps to remember Rabelais’s combined attitude of erudition and whimsy especially when Joyce gets in a fanciful listing mode where he makes these wonderful lists of names or ejaculations.

Another thing that helps is reading it aloud in a sort of poetry mind set. By that I mean, the sounds of the words are important to enjoying the book.

Each day I begin with the original text in my old edition and read several pages. Then I read what Joseph Campbell and Henry Morton Robinson have to say in their Skeleton Key.

I began this read last year by reading the final section of book which I think of as the feminine ending which rhymes with the wonderful last section of Joyce’s Ulysses. I finished this section in August of last year. Then I turned around and began to read the beginning of the book. Even though I had read it many times, I thought it would be useful to read the entire work beginning there.

At this point, in my old edition I have about seventy pages left to read. This is out of 540 and counts having read the last short section. Similarly in the Oxford edition I have about 90 pages left out of 628. All of this, I have read to myself out loud.

When I finish this book, I will continue to read in it for pleasure. At that point I will have read every major work by James Joyce.

I enjoy getting up, taking my blood pressure, weighing, doing the dishes, fixing coffee, then settling down to reading Joyce and doing some Greek.

It’s a very pleasant morning routine for me.

Today I have to go over to Hope College and accompany a ballet class. It’s an odd feeling to have renegotiated a bit higher pay for this work. Although we can use the money, my main motivation for paying me fairly is respect for my art.

Yesterday I spent hours rehearsing Brahms by myself and with Amy. Of course I receive no pay for this other than the sheer joy of performing the music. This joy is the most important thing for me. I also rehearsed an upcoming accompaniment for a job I have accepted for a high school bass clarinetist.

I take no less joy in cracking this piece open, learning it, eventually rehearsing it and performing it at a competition.

Yesterday I made a play list for pleasure of versions of both these pieces.

Glass Beads Made in Czech Village Adorn Bodies of the World’s Tribes – The New York Times

A guy in Czechoslovakia is looking at a recent issue of National Geographic and sees beads historically made exclusively in his village being used by the Kayapo tribe living on the Amazon river. I found this story engaging.

I was tempted to join Eileen at Evergreen yesterday afternoon to treadmill there despite my aversion to the general religioso atmosphere.

I haven’t been exercising since walking is not a very easy thing to do in the weather. But judging from my exhaustion this morning, it was a good idea not to expend energy in that direction before an evening rehearsal.

I accompanied a singer at the funeral on Tuesday. One of the solos she sang was Psalm 23 by Howard Goodall. This is the theme from the BBC TV Show, “The Vicar of Dibley.”

Goodall or someone had written “Religioso” at the beginning of the piece to describe the mood.

As I indicated to my friend Rhonda E., that about sums it up. I find many local institution a tad religioso for my tastes.

Having said that, I received an email from the chair of the dance department at Hope yesterday. He was wondering if I could play an audition tomorrow morning from 9 AM to 10:15 AM. I immediately emailed him back and started asking questions about how much I would be paid for an hour and fifteen minutes of work for the august religioso institution of Hope(less) College.

After a flurry of weird emails, I finally determined that he would meet my minimum fee of $50 for this short bit of work.

Emailing is a difficult task these days. We live in an angry and largely ignorant society where people who CAN read often hear emotion that’s not there or not intended in texts stripped of affect.

Thus emailing or post on social network sites is fraught with the possibility of being totally misunderstood.

I often have Eileen proof my work. This is especially true of emails. She helps me stay clear and reduce confusion in my messages. Or at least, she lowers the possibility that a reader will misunderstand me or read in emotion that I don’t intend to convey.

So I didn’t make it a week through the new semester at Hope(less) without accompanying a ballet class. At least that’s the plan. Cumbersomely, the chair of the department is having me fill out the usual time card (worth two weeks) for this hour and fifteen minute remuneration. This means I won’t be paid for a while. But the upside is they will automatically put it into my checking account and take out taxes and stuff.

Manchu, Former Empire’s Language, Hangs On at China’s Edge – The New York Times

Stories about language like this fascinate me.

David Bowie Dies at 69; Star Transcended Music, Art and Fashion – The New York Times

If you Facebooger, you are probably over saturated by David Bowie stuff, however I did enjoy the obit. I am addicted to good obits.

Rethinking the Airplane, for Climate’s Sake – The New York Times

Excellent idea.

Moonlight Drives Zooplankton’s Winter Migrations – The New York Times

Just figuring out an activity that is happening all over the planet! Cool!

If it’s not one thing, it’s another. It looks like one of my channels has failed on my turntable. Good grief! I will have to do something about that at some point. I am continuing to make mp3s from tape. I’m not posting anything at this point because I’m not sure what soprano is singing in the live recital on my tape.

Also I will try to find a way to post mp3s so that readers (Hi Mark) can easily download them when I put them up and talk about them.

I see a slight spike in my hits yesterday. My beloved nephew Ben linked in the post about my Dad on Facebooger. That may have contributed to that.

So in my first week of officially not being a ballet accompanist I had a funeral yesterday that paid $200. This is more than I usually make. But it is exactly what Hope College was paying me for two weeks of accompaniment. Weird.

I am enjoying practicing organ. I am rehearsing a lot of music these days. Some of it I haven’t scheduled but am just learning and will probably schedule eventually. Did I mention I ran across a charming piece by William Mathias.

It doesn’t seem to be on YouTube. I quite like it.

I think I’ll quit here. My friend, Rhonda, is threatening to drop by for tea in a few minutes.

Elizabeth Strout’s ‘My Name Is Lucy Barton’ – The New York Times

New book by an author I like.

‘The Defender,’ by Ethan Michaeli – The New York Times

This review by Brent Staples outlines some history of African American newspapers. He is also on the current New York Times book review podcast which I haven’t listen to yet but probably will.

This past Sunday afternoon, the day of David Bowie’s death, Eileen, I and probably many others serrendiptiously  were viewing videos of his album, Blackstar.

Although the video above seems to have been released in November of last year, the wikipedia article on the album says it was released Jan 8, 2016. That would be two days before his death. Weird.

The analog converter continues to work.

Yesterday I made an mp3 of a radio show which featured my Dad.

The show is called American Profile.

The episode is from Nov 1968. Since there is now a magazine with this title, the radio show didn’t pop up with a few searches. Nevertheless I think this is very cool.

In Nov 1968, I was a senior high school student at Carman High School. Dad writes about this time in his memoir, Through Many Dangers, Toils and Snares.

In March, 1968, he attended the Urban Training Center in Chicago. He writes, “This helped me discover a new direction for the inner changes which were happening to myself.”

He describes the beginning of this training as “… trainees taking the ‘PLUNGE.’ Living on the street as did the street people with only $1.50 a day for three days… [As a result of the training] I returned to Flint with some drastic new directions.”

He continues, “The Church [West Court Street Church of God in Flint] began to think I was no longer THE PASTOR they had called in 1963… I came back … wearing A CLERICAL COLLAR.”

In this same month of that year, Dad was awarded the Pastor of the Year Award from the Men of the Churches of God in Michigan.

In October, 1968, West Court Street took a “vote of Confidence” on the continuation of Dad as their pastor. He narrowly won: 54% to 47%.

In November, 1968, Dad notes in his memoirs that Nixon was elected president. This radio program also aired that month. Dad resigned the pastorate at West Court Street the next year and moved to Ohio.

 The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb. — Medium

This is an excellent article from which every user of social media could benefit. It describes stuff I think about especially regarding myself after having used Facebooger for a few years. It was put up by Nick Palmer on Facebooger. Many thanks.

getting past the coalition of the cool | Fredrik deBoer

This blog post from November is linked in the one above. Good stuff.

I plan to keep an eye on this blog. As far as I can tell, to access his different blogs you have to go to the following link and look on the left hand side of the page for recent entries.

Fredrik deBoer | “For the way in which the word is experienced is always momentoous” -Walter J. Ong