French Classical Music

One of my passions as a college student was the music of the French Classical period, especially music for harpsichord. I have found that while Bach and the English Virginal School can be realized to some extent on the piano, Couperin and his French colleagues do not fair so well.

Another book I purchased from Cramer was Soderlund’s annotated performer’s edition of Clerambault’s First Organ Book. It is an excellent edition with pages and pages of background and explanation.

It reminded me how much I miss French Classical Music.

After church yesterday I felt like I needed to hide. Instead Eileen and I had lunch, went to the grocery store and visited Mom. Needless to say by the time we got home I was exhausted.

Then I began thinking about French Classical music and reading in Soderlund’s Preface to her Clerambault edition. It occurred to me that my new $50 synthesizer would have a harpsichord stop on it. For kicks I began looking at the sounds on this machine.

Hmmm. I didn’t think the harpsichord sound was as bad as I usually think of electronic harpsichord sounds.

Then it also occurred to me that the touch on the synthesizer was more harpsichord friendly than piano. It is, of course, a very flimsy piece of equipment and I’m pretty sure the designers didn’t think too much about the feel for the performer of the keys.

But I began playing through some of my French Classical Music. When I looked up, an hour and a half had past. I was still exhausted, but I felt a small exhilaration to return to this passion.

I’ve also thought that it might be interesting to record myself playing a bit more and use these recordings here to show what I’m doing in the privacy of my little house.

So this morning I was motivated to video me playing some harpsichord music. After several tries, I came up with the one above. I put it here so that you can decide what you think of the sound of my fifty dollar harpsichord stop. I know it’s a bit pathetic, but I don’t think I’m going to be fixing my old broken harpsichord soon and I do sorely miss this music. It has little application to my church work. That’s probably a small part of its attraction, but mostly I have spent a good deal of time thinking about, learning and performing this music. it’s good to get back to practicing it even on a silly little synthesizer.

L’Auguste is the name of this Allemande. It refers to Louis XIV who was very formative on the art of dance and music. Francois Couperin was a court musician. There is little known about him except that he had a prominent career in the French Court and lived roughly at the same time that Bach did.

Bach knew his music. I would love to know how Bach performed this highly stylized music. Bach played with French bands in North Germany as a young man. Did they show him how to do their music?

Anyway, I plan to be practicing this stuff on my fifty dollar synth. Maybe I’ll put up more recordings. At least the synth is a bit better tune than my old piano.

Cruising Through The Louvre

When I’m in the library, it’s hard not to browse books. Yesterday I ran across David Prudhomme’s Cruising Through the Louvre.

This is an amazing little book. There’s not too much plot. Basically the main character is wandering around the Louvre looking at the people and the paintings and trying to locate his friend, Jeanne.

What I like about this book is how eloquent the visual content is. There is a fun relationship between the people looking at the art exhibits and the art exhibits themselves. Very clever.

This happens gradually. It’s not the case in the first few pages. Also, there is an unforgivable typo at one point where the writer uses the word, “know,” when he means “no.” But this only slightly diminishes the pleasure of the book which takes a surreal turn at the end. I won’t give it away here in case you click on my links to it (thus assuring me of a kick back from Amazon, thank you Jeremy Daum).

At the end there are a few pages of prose in which interesting statistics about the Louvre are given. This is a delightful book, well drawn and well conceived. Recommended.

DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore

Can you tell that the new book section at my library is not far from the graphic novel section?  This Alan Moore collection came out in 2013. I think Moore is an interesting skilled writer. I couldn’t resist taking this one home to read. So far, I’m enjoying it.

Jupe gets a synth

Ever since I mentioned to Eileen that it would be a convenience to have a little synth with a midi connection she has been vigilant to find one. Recently she did. Yesterday we closed the deal on this. Fifty bucks What a bargain!

It’s very light weight. I haven’t messed with it. I did plug it in and made sure it worked (at Eileen’s insistence). It does.

Dave Brubeck Church Music

I have always had a soft spot for Dave Brubeck. I have played his works in church and coffee shops. So when Craig Cramer was offering this folio of music by him for organ I was curious.

Yesterday I played through the first one in this collection and found it lovely. (Yes, that’s my new synth it’s sitting on in the pic above.)  I came home and listened to some of the original cantata embedded below while I treadmilled for 25 minutes. That was all the energy I had left after my Saturday.

The verdict is out on this music but I am curious about it.

Measure in Florida That Claims to Back Solar Power May Discourage It – The New York Times

So this whole business of “framing” or as I am increasingly thinking of it, “lying,” is ruining our public discourse. Makes me crazy.

Academia, Love Me Back – TIFFANY MARTÍNEZ

So this women’s asshole of a teacher decided she was not using her own words. I was sorely tempted to comment and mention David Foster Wallace searing critique of profs who cannot write much less teach writing.

Jupe’s Friday

My appointment with Dr. Birky went fine. I like him. I had a lot to tell him.  To bring him up to speed I had to talk about my Aunt Ella’s death; a dream I had in England and recorded in my journal; the visit with Sarah, Matthew, and Lucy; jetlag; informing my Mom about her sister’s death; and other stuff I can’t recall right now (Alzheimers).

I drove back to Holland and stopped at church to work on choosing upcoming anthems and practice organ.

Eileen had a headache yesterday. She needed to take it easy. After lunch, she went to bed. So I ended up doing afternoon chores by myself: library trip to pick up some Mom books, visit Mom, and grocery shop. All the while, I kept an eye on my devices to see if the dude who says he’s going to sell me a synthesizer messaged me that he was home and ready for me to come and get it.

I got home around 3 PM. Nothing from the synth guy yet. Eileen was still resting.  I managed to rally myself and get on the treadmill for only the second time since returning from England. Eileen got up. I had my evening martini and we ate pizzas and watched the news.

Troilus and Cressida

So it turns out that Shakespeare wrote a play called Troilus and Cressida.

I am reading Chaucer’s version of the story.

I found out this morning while reading the footnotes to the prologue to Shakespeare’s Henry the VIII. So many things to read, so little time.

Stephanos

I recently ran across the Greek word for crown in my Greek studies. Hey. I knew that Stephen meant Laurel but hadn’t figured out that it was a Greek word. My key translates the word as crown, but Laurel actually makes more sense in the passage where the word occurs. Socrates (Aristophanes’ Socrates) says that a flea that can leap from the eyebrow of fellow sophist, Chairephon, to his own bald head is worth of an Olympic “stephanos.” It seems to me that Olympic winners get “laurels” not “crowns.”

It’s all who you know around here

“It’s all who you know around here,” my friend Rhonda said to me over tea yesterday. She came over to play duets, but first conversation over tea. I was in a free fall mental space, stalled, all day yesterday. When we finally sat down to play, my brain was fried and I couldn’t play well.  Rhonda doesn’t mind, but that’s pretty much how my entire day went: free fall mental space. It was something to do with a busy Wednesday no doubt or as Ronda pointed out yesterday referring to my jet lat problems, “It’s hard when you’re old.”

The Newsboys Comment

“It’s All Who You Know”

Das Kapital by Amiri Baraka

Strangling women in the suburban bush
they bodies laid around rotting while martinis are drunk
the commuters looking for their new yorkers feel a draft
& can get even drunker watching the teevee later on the Ford
replay. There will be streams of them coming, getting off
near where the girls got killed. Two of them strangled by
the maniac.
There are maniacs hidden everywhere cant you see? By the dozens
and double dozens, maniacs by the carload (tho they are
a minority). But they terrorize us uniformly, all over the place
we look at the walls of our houses, the garbage cans parked full
strewn around our defaulting cities, and we cd get scared. A rat
eases past us on his way to a banquet, can you hear the cheers
raised
through the walls, full of rat humor. Blasts of fire,
some woman’s son will stumble
and dies with a pool of blood around his head. But it wont be
the maniac. These old houses
crumble, the unemployed stumble by us straining,
ashy fingered, harassed. The air is cold
winter heaps above us consolidating itself in degrees. We need
a aspirin or something, and
pull our jackets close. The baldhead man on the television set
goes on in a wooden way
His unappetizing ignorance can not be stood, or understood.
The people turn the channel
looking for Good Times and get a negro with a pulldown hat.
Flashes of maniac shadows before
bed, before you pull down the shade you can see the leaves
being blown down the street
too dark now to see the writing on them, the dates, and
amounts we owe. The streets too
will soon be empty, after the church goers go on home having
been saved again from the
Maniac . . . except a closeup of the chief mystic’s face rolling
down to his hands will send
shivers through you, looking for traces of the maniacs life.
Even there among the mythophrenics.

What can you do? It’s time finally to go to bed. The shadows
close around and the room is still.
Most of us know there’s a maniac loose. Our lives a jumble of
frustrations and unfilled
capacities. The dead girls, the rats noise, the flashing somber
lights, the dead voice on
television, was that blood and hair beneath the preacher’s
fingernails? A few other clues

we mull them over as we go to sleep, the skeletons of
dollarbills, traces of dead used up
labor, lead away from the death scene until we remember a
quiet fit that everywhere
is the death scene. Tomorrow you got to hit it sighs through
us like the wind, we got to
hit it, like an old song at radio city, working for the yanqui
dollarrrr, when we were
children, and then we used to think it was not the wind, but
the maniac scratching against
our windows. Who is the maniac, and why everywhere at the
same time . . .

Jupe Comments

“Mythophrenia” is not in the Oxford English Dictionary. The above definition seems reasonable to me.

It interests me that when I read this poem for the first time earlier this morning, I was struck by the lines:

“dollarbills, traces of dead used up
labor”

I love the idea of money being something dead and lifeless compared to the time in our lives. Then it hit me that this poem was title “Das Kapital.” The entire poem is about economics (as well as other stuff no doubt.”

The image of leaves blowing in the street that we see in the darkness as we peer out of our windows:

“too dark now to see the writing on them, the dates, and
amounts we owe”

Baraka has definitely made a poem, not an easy task. His beauty brightens my stalled morning.

Choosing organ music for All Saints

I have decided to repeat an 8 minute piece I learned for All Saints last year. It’s based on Sine Nomine, the tune for “For All the Saints” and is composed by Francis Jackson.

I am highly unmotivated for church work but that does not stop me from doing it as well as I can. I had to drag myself to church yesterday for what I call a “No Thank You Helping” of a rehearsal on this dam piece.

Jupe goes to the shrink

I have an appointment with Dr. Birky today. I’m wondering what we will talk about. I had some weird dreams in England but haven’t thought too much about them since. Maybe I’ll tell him I was “stalled” yesterday. Maybe I’ll wait and see what he thinks we should talk about. I’m in a better space today than yesterday but that’s not saying too much.

Paul Beatty Wins Man Booker Prize With ‘The Sellout’ – The New York Times

Another author to check out. He sounds excellent.

jupe’s facebooger policy

There was a meme that went by recently on facebooger. It was something chiding people for reposting things they hadn’t verified. This wasn’t it, but it’s in the same vein.

It’s very disturbing to me that people and organizations are looking to Facebooger for verified info. I rarely check stuff I repost there. Often people correct me. For that I’m grateful. But it’s hard enough to verify stuff that interests me, much less goofy superficial stuff I find myself reposting.

I am reminded of Neil Postman’s observations on television. Television, in his view, is about entertainment not content.

Facebooger similarly is about tidbits of goofy superficial stuff not complex ideas or even necessarily true ones.

I like seeing what people I know are doing. I like the humorous bits. But I don’t approach social media with large amounts of patience. If someone puts up something too long, I just move on. I’m not looking for long reads.

I do try to avoid reposts that are too negative.  So that even if I agree with a meme’s point of view, if casts aspersions on the opposition (Vote for Hilary you fucks!), I smile but don’t share.

Hollow words

I am becoming more and more convinced that so many people do not consider the echo chamber effect that permeates the entire internet (not just Facebucks). In addition the words they sometimes use seem to be redefined or should I say hollowed out.

In the Oct 31st Issue of the New Yorker, there is a portfolio of photographs of people which tells how they plan to vote and why. (Here’s a link, but I’m not sure it’s not behind a firewall since it logged me on automatically as a subscriber).

I read all the Trump supporters. One 21-year-old man named Peter Lyndon described his rationale in words that seemed hollowed out to me. Here’s an excerpt:

Peter Lyndon: “The thing about the word ‘racist’ is that every time it gets used it loses meaning. For the past decade or two, it’s been used by people on the left as a kill shot. That just kills your argument, no matter what you’re trying to say. You’re a racist and therefore you’re evil and therefore you lose. But I think people are noticing that it doesn’t work that way anymore.”

I thought of this young man and his ideas about racism when I was clicking through the articles in the next section about medical providers dealing routinely with patients bigotry, misogyny, and racism. I feel like so many people clothe their misconceptions in language that is bland and blurs having to understand themselves clearly.

 thinking about how a story gets reported

Below are five links I looked at this morning about a recent study. I was on Google news and trying to find the original source of the story. Often I notice that some news source breaks a story and other news sources basically pass on the same story either giving credit to the prior reporting or sometimes not doing this.

1.Racism in medicine: An ‘open secret’ – CNN.com

2. Researchers explore how physicians can handle discrimination by patients, families | News Center | Stanford Medicine

3.Exploring How Physicians Can Handle Discrimination By Patients | Scope Blog

4.Researchers explore how physicians can handle discrimination by patients, families | EurekAlert! Science News

5.How doctors can respond to discrimination from their patients

So the first link is obviously from CNN. They cite the Stanford report, but do some independent reporting from a couple other sources as well.

The next two come from Stanford Websites where the author of the study is going to school. The fourth link is a publicity release. Both of the people credited at the end of it have standford.edu emails. The last link is an interview and seems to be on some sort of Research online information site.

Google news time stamps these sort of reports. There were six links this morning when I began. As I reloaded the page a seventh one came up. Right now there are nine links on my google news page on my tablet for this story.

I find it interesting to read how professional people are dealing with others bad behavior.

Sometimes on Facebooger people will say they have “researched” something.

It’s hard not suspect that they don’t even go to Google news to search but just use a search engine with a few key words. God knows what they come up with.

Cut to the quick

Sunday night at the Oktoberfest we shared a table with a Hope College prof and his wife. They sat across from us. The room noise was loud.  At one point the prof (who teaches Jazz studies) politely inquired if I was doing any composing. Yikes. Cut to the quick. I replied that at this point I was only working on beating jet lag. He nodded sympathetically.

I have noticed that I do most of my composing when I have a clear final performance in mind or a clear reason to compose. I’ve been this way all my composing life. Before we went to England I was struggling to write a daily compositional sketch. One of my strengths seems to be working daily on stuff. For instance, I spend 45 minutes to an hour most mornings studying Greek. This kind of discipline can pay off.  After being reminded on Sunday evening I think I want to continue to pursue daily compositional work.

But I also have found that if I talk too much about what I’m working on, it short circuits it and I can easily lose interest and motivation. So all I want to say at this point is this morning I managed to do some work in this area, preparing for some more compositional activity. Nuff said.

Norman Dello Joio

I mentioned yesterday that I purchased a couple pieces by Dello Joio and was pleasantly surprised by them. So yesterday I poked around online and found out more about him. He began his musical life as an organist but only seems to have published a couple of organ works: “Five Lyric Pieces for the Young Organist” and “Laudation.”

I requested these and other music by him via interlibrary-loan yesterday. I love my library.

You Want It Darker

I made a playlist of the tunes on Leonard Cohen’s new album on YouTube yesterday. It’s on Spotify but i couldn’t find a play list of it on YouTube despite the fact that all the tunes were there. Here it is.

Scarlatti Sonatas online – legal or not?

 Several years ago I purchased a used set of the complete keyboards sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti from Craig Cramer. It is a very outdated edition. Recently I noticed that Kenneth Gilbert’s fine edition of the Scarlatti sonatas is online at IMSLP.

Unfortunately, it is not in public domain in the United States. When this is the case, you can still access it. But you have to click on something that says you take personal responsibility for any violation of the law.

However, if I access this on my tablet, I don’t actually download it. The music loads in a browser and I can play it from that. My question is does just looking at the music online violate copyright law?

I admit that I sometimes ignore copyright laws and go ahead and use what I can find online. I am excited to be able to use Gilbert’s much much much better edition (no comparison).

Music in the Mail!

Before we went to England, I ordered some used music from Craig Cramer. He sends out periodic emails with lists of used music, books, records, and CDs he is reselling. Usually I write a check for my order and get reimbursed from the church. However, we were a little cash poor so I submitted it to the church and asked them to mail Craig a check. When we returned I was sure a box of music would be sitting somewhere in my house.

But no. I waited a bit more and finally emailed Craig asking if he had a way to track the package since I hadn’t received it yet. He was traveling and promised to look into it when he returned.

Last night in the  middle of a piano lesson I was giving, my boss walked in with a box. “I’ve been meaning to give this to you,” she said. Mystery solved! Craig (or more likely his teaching assistant) mailed the package directly to the church.

What was in the  box?

Although I spent about $130, there was a great deal of music in the box. Most of it was organ music. But some of it was other stuff. There were two piano pieces by Norman Dello Joio. I played through this nocturne this morning. I think it’s lovely.

There was also “Three Sonatas” for four hands by Johann Christian Bach.

I texted Rhonda this morning to ask if she would like to get together and do some piano duets like we have been doing. I’m hoping this might entice her.

Similarly I’m hoping this nice edition of solos for “basso” by Frescobaldi will entice Dawn my cellist.

I also purchased an organ duet. It’s a bit more involved than the J.C. Bach, but I still think Rhonda might at least be interested in knowing about it.

Chaucer’ death day and Women

When I was visiting William Morris’s museum/house in England, I discovered that he and his contemporaries were very interested in Chaucer’s The Legend of the Good Women.

I resolved to come home and read it. I was reminded of this when I learned that today is the date Chaucer died in 1400. I pulled out the collection of his work I have been reading.

Sure enough, there was “The Legend of the Good Women” in it. But I remembered from my reading in England that Chaucer had written this work to atone for his unflattering portrayal of Criseyde in his “Troilus and Criseyde.”

When I turned to this poem in my collection, I discovered that it was exactly where I had left off last time I had read in this book. Thus if I continued with Troilus and Criseyde, I would be reading all of the works in order. So this morning I started reading Albert C. Baugh’s introduction to “Troilus and Criseyde.” I own an independent copy of this work that I might consult.

What The Christian Right Got Wrong About Donald Trump | Huffington Post

My friends Dave/Paul emailed me this link. I say Dave/Paul because my friends Dave Barber and Paul Wizynajtys are a couple and  share one Facelessbook account and probably one email account. I find this confusing, but I guess it’s their choice.

The Books My Dad Won’t Read? Mine – The New York Times

A family story.

Collected Works of a Poet Who Took Her Time – The New York Times

Bookmarked to remember this poet. I found myself more attracted to her work than the person reviewing her.

In Russia’s ‘Frozen Zone,’ a Creeping Border With Georgia – The New York Times

Weird. Russia keeps need a “little more room.”

emptiness of church experience yesterday

By the end of the evening yesterday I was quite disenchanted with all things church. The playlet composed by a vestry member came off fine. But I found myself feeling uncomfortable and out of place for the part of the evening when I wasn’t at the piano accompanying the skit.

I embrace this emptiness. It helps me realize that I don’t need to take stuff so seriously. i can sit at a table with other people from my church and listen, not speak so much.  I still get to come home, have a martini, and watch Louie CK stand-up on Netflix. That definitely helps.

Okay, maybe I should modify some of this since I did get nice comments on my playing for the musical last night, both in person and on Facebooger. My boss’s partner, Beth, even drew me in my costume (see above).

Also, I keep receiving nice comments on the music at church and my bulletin article. Yesterday two people commented on the bulletin article and one woman came up to our table last night and said how good the choir sounded that morning.

malleable or curious jupe?

I am well aware of the fact that I seem to flit from one interest to another. There are some days and today is probably one of them when many things seem interesting to me. Once my attention is caught I am almost unable not to act. Thus if I hear some Schumann on the radio, I find myself spending hours with his wonderful piano pieces.

I have been playing Schumann’s Opus 4 much much more slowly than this wonderful recording for accuracy’s sake. But I can still hear the beauty in a slow version. Curiously, Schumann writes a quote from Goethe’s Faust over a particularly poignant passage in the second intermezzo: “Meine Ruhe ist hin (My peace is gone).” Not sure what to make of that. He was only 22 years old when this was published. He had a couple decades ahead of him before he went mad.

I am easily influenced. This sometimes feels like a sort of vapidity or superficial nature. The blog serves a function in that it allows me a small place to discuss my current passions or curiosities without worrying too much about being boring.

I share the concern for the reader that David Foster Wallace and Charles Garner insist on. I think it is Garner who says you must not assume anything in the reader. You have to be clear,  thorough, and succinct. Thus how you use words is essential.

new  new york public library podcast

This is a brilliant podcast. You have to get past the person who introduces Atwood and Shaw. Then the fun begins. Shaw can rattle off Shakespeare at an amazing speed. Atwood’s mind is so sharp and her experience is so broad that it must not be missed.

This podcast is being taped the week of the third Presidential debate. Atwood slyly points to Bob Dylan’s Pulitizer as a gift to poor America at a hard time. She also manages to work a reference to “pussies” in her comments.

But the best part is watching her mind at word. Amazing stuff.

Also she reads from her new book a section of hip-hop-like adaptation of Shakespeare. Not to be missed.

Atwood’s graphic novel

Atwood is working on a series of graphic novels with Johnnie Christmas (as she says in the podcast, his real name). Who knew?

quote from today’s Writers almanac

Readers of my blog probably know that I listen to Writer’s Almanac almost daily. It’s hard not share stuff from it. Today is Denise Levertov’s birthday. I think she is speaking of writing when she says:

“Strength of feeling, reverence for mystery, and clarity of intellect must be kept in balance with one another. Neither the passive nor the active must dominate, they must work in conjunction, as in a marriage.” 

Finished Seven Good Years

I wasn’t too impressed with this book. Maybe it’s because it’s a translation from the Hebrew.

Trying not to take work too seriously

I have noticed that my daily life is a bit more relaxed if I manage not to take church too seriously. I didn’t get a chance to blog before church this morning. So I thought it might be a good opportunity to see if I could still write a paragraph or two here about not taking work too seriously on a Sunday afternoon.

It is on Sunday afternoon that I am liable to give in to what I have been thinking of as my mild pathology, that is being a tad too quick to blame myself for stuff or feeling like I have failed when in fact I haven’t.

 Lord, we beseech thee

This morning the high point of church for me was the choral anthem. “Lord, We Beseech Thee” by Adrian Battan. The anthem occurred where we usually do it, right after announcements, during the collection. This morning, they plugged the musical we will be doing to night at the Ocktober fest, “Stewardship, the Musical.” They had several of the characters speak in costume. As you can imagine it was kind of a funny moment  with lots of good-natured giggling and laughing..

I was pleased that we pulled the group back into a more meditative mood with a solid performance of this beautiful anthem.

Jupe the old man on Sunday afternoon

So, now I have done a service and a post service rehearsal (of the musical for tonight). I walked  home exhausted. I wonder how I will muster doing Sunday afternoon concerts after we get our organ. Maybe I will need to either rethink offering recitals at this time or make a point to baby myself after church until it’s time to go play.

Designing concerts

I have strong ideas about putting together programs at my church. I want to get away from the stodgy idea that one has to perform all movements of a composition or that different styles of music do not sit well in the same program.

This morning we went right from the lovely anthem into my Jazz mass setting of the Holy Holy. I have been taking more liberties with this music since we have been singing it for a while. I felt the movement from Renaissance to hokey pop worked.

When I played coffee house I often went from “classical” to “folk-rock” to other stuff. It always seemed logical to me. I especially like the idea (which i stole from an organ dude whose recital blew me away) of thinking carefully about the melodies in different (otherwise unrelated) pieces and matching them. This takes some cleverness. But the idea of using hymn materials (as so much instrumental church music does), opens up some possibilities.

Matching music themes

Just thinking randomly, the tune, Westminster Abbey, to which we usually sing “Christ has made the sure foundation,”

moves like the main theme of  Beethoven’s  3rd symphony, the Eroica.

Greek Studies

Part of my Greek study method is to copy over information. This morning I was doing so when I realized I needed to organize the various verb conjugations I have learned. After I did this, I realized that I have learned 16 ways that Greek verbs show their grammatical person and number. Wow. No wonder I have trouble keeping them straight.

HyperNormalisation

For some reason Sarah and Matthew seem to think this is a worthy documentary. Warning! I have embedded the entire two hours and forty minutes here. If you’re interested you might want to go to YouTube and watch it at your leisure. I watched the first fifteen minutes and am skeptical so far, but interested. My skepticism comes from the sweeping generalizations and observations from the omniscient  narrator. My interest comes from wondering if he’s on to something. I will probably ask Eileen if she wants to watch this together sometime.

The Heart Goes Last

It looks like this is my next fiction book to read. It was published last year. I believe Mark gave me my copy. It has been on my list of books to read for a while. I just got to page 31 where the main characters are considering entering what Atwood has dubbed the “Positron Project.” From the blurb and reviews I gather this is a trade off for people who have nowhere to live and no income. If you agree to live in a prison for six months a year, the other six months you can live in a gated community with everything you need provided.

The Seven Good Years

I’m on page 135 (out of 171) on this book. I’m not sure what I think of it. The chapters are a few pages long. It doesn’t seem to hold together as any sort of narrative. Some of the essays are charming, some not so much. At least one of them defied my ability to understand what the heck the writer was trying to say. Salmon Rushdie blurbs this book. But I’m still reserving judgement.

LISTEN TO THIS: Chapter 12 Almost Famous: on the road with the St. Lawrence String Quartet

I’m finally get back to reading Ross. He seems very taken with this string quartet. Ross mentions that they talk to audiences. I like that. They talk on this video after playing.

Thousands: a poem by Leonard Cohen

THOUSANDS

Out of the thousands

who are known,

or who want to be known

as poets,

maybe one or two

are genuine

and the rest are fakes,

hanging around the sacred

precincts

trying to look like the real thing.

Needless to say

I am one of the fakes,

and this is my story

Gatsby’s Theory of Aesthetics (commentary and excerpts)

My morning reading not only included Cohen’s “Thousands,” but also Amiri Baraka’s prose poem “Gatsby’s Theory of Aesthetics.” Both poets seem to be looking in the mirror and thinking about themselves as poets and people. In this essay/poem, Baraka writes “Poetry is not a form but rather a result… Poetry aims at difficult meanings. [It] aims at reviving, say, a sense of meaning, or meaning’s possibility and ubiquitousness.”

I’m very interested in human beings as “meaning makers.”  I do believe it’s one of the things we do, whether in the obvious artistic sense or in the more basic sense of interpreting our lives to ourselves and each other. Baraka goes on: “I write poetry only to enlist the poetic consistently as an apt description of my life. I write poetry only to feel, and that, finally; sensually, all the terms of my life. I write poetry to investigate my self, and my meaning and meanings.”

Writing of any kind can do this. We can use language as a mirror as well as poetry. Organizing our ideas into words and sentences helps us “investigate” our selves, our “meaning,” and our “meanings.” It’s one of the reasons I persist in this silly blogging.

Internet down

Earlier this morning I sat down to do my blog while Eileen was having breakfast with the alto section from the church choir. Suddenly my internet went down. Hmmmm. Yesterday there were outages. Could this be the final take down? I mused. My reaction was to say to myself, Oh well. Then I went and practiced piano technique for a while. I came back and the internet was here. Crisis temporarily averted.

David Foster Wallace on the porn industry

I finished Wallace’s lengthy essay/review of Charles Garner’s A Dictionary of Modern Usage. I thought it was a fun read. It kept sending me to Garner 4th edition and the Oxford English Dictionary. It also kept me laughing.

I thought I would start at the beginning of this collection of essays and just fucking read them all. The first essay in the book is “Big Red Son.” This is a euphemism for the porn movie industry which apparently makes a ton more money than the Hollywood one.

Wallace makes the industry fascinating to read about. He dedicates his essay to “between one and two dozen adult US males [who] are admitted to ERs after having castrated themselves” annually. “In answer to the obvious question, surviving patients most often report that their sexual urges had become a source of intolerable conflict and anxiety.”

Ouch. He explains a few pages later that there’s nothing more deadly than watching a ton of porn movies. “By the end of the Awards weekend, none of us were even having normal biological first-thing-in-the-morning or jouncy-bus-ride-between-hotels erections, and when approached even innocently by members of the opposite sex, we all now recoil as from a hot flame…”

My doctor seemed to think I’m in pretty good shape for an old guy yesterday at my six month checkup. At one point, she was quizzing me. “And you don’t drink, right?” “Well, actually I do. I have a martini every night.” Pause, then my doctor said, “I love martinis!”  Then she proceeded to tell me that she only drinks on vacation in Mexico and that one martini can make her loopy.

i like my doctor. Anyway, my blood pressure was good and she noticed I had gained weight but wasn’t too concerned about it. I will go back in six months.

My friend Rhonda was looking for an organ piece based on on Old Hundredth. I told her I had several including one by Purcell. She liked it but it was in the wrong key. I found some finale files online for a Brass arrangement of it. I downloaded it and used the files to make a Finale copy of the piece in G major. It will be handy to have this. I emailed it to Rhonda this morning. I am considering uploading it to IMSLP where I found the Brass arrangement. I also put it here on my music page. Here’s a link to the pdf.

I fell asleep during the Presidential debates last night. Sheesh. I’m still a bit jetlagged. I had a good meeting with my boss. She told me I’m getting another substantial pay raise or at least it’s being recommended in the new budget. That’s nice. Also, that the renovation of our sanctuary to prepare for the installation of the new organ will be done in January. This means that I will have my organ through Christmas. That’s good to know as I plan Advent and Christmas.

I chose anthems for the fall and up to Advent thinking that at any moment the organ might go away. We went through one last night by Lloyd Larson last night that is pretty hokey.

I am resisting canceling it. I think the choir and the congregation will probably enjoy it. I think it sounds a bit like the 700 club.

After meeting with Jen, it took me a good hour and a half to prep for the rehearsal. I was moving slowly. By the time I got to the organ console, I only had energy to rehearse upcoming material. The day before I enjoyed playing through a bunch of Bach. Not so yesterday. I came home and rested until rehearsal. Earlier in the day I played a lot of piano at home. Maybe I wore myself out that way. Who knows?

Last night’s rehearsal went well. Today I have a doctor’s appointment and a rehearsal with my violinist. I say rehearsal, but what we really do is read through music for the fun of it.

This is kind of a wimpy blog post today I know. So here’s a fresh video of Lucy. It’s the voice of Matthew (the dad) in the background. I love how he dotes on her.

Poor Eileen. I read her several pages from David Foster Wallace’s essay, “Authority and American Usage” last night. It’s in his collection  Consider the Lobster.  Wallace makes a convincing argument against Politically Correct English (PCE). Essentially the use of more acceptable euphemisms can too easily replace actually trying to change things in our society. Or as he puts succinctly in one of his footnotes: being polite is not the same as being fair. Since Wallace’s clever and imaginative prose requires a more sustained  attention span than most readers have these days, i will refrain from quoting him. However, here, once again, is a link to the pdf of the very essay I am reading. I encourage you to put aside some time and read this piece. The section on PCE begins on p. 110 (p. 23 of this pdf).

I am continuing to ease back into immersing myself in music. Yesterday I spent time with Faure’s piano Barcarolles, the last movement of Beethoven’s 2nd symphony (Liszt’s piano transcription), and a couple of Bach’s settings of : Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr’ on the organ. I also chose organ music for the next two Sundays. More on that in a bit.

This morning I discovered that my podcast app on my tablet will play radio stations. Ironically the U of M radio station on it plays soooooo much more easily than their stupid stupid app which continually stops playing. There were also music stations dedicated exclusively to classical music. I spent my morning Greek and reading time listening to a Classical guitar radio station (link to it’s web site).

Then I spent time with Bach’s WTC volume II, carefully playing through a few preludes and fugues. Ahhhhh.

I feel so lucky to be able to do all this stuff. My life is good.

For my prelude Sunday I am planning on playing three little pieces on the Sequence Hymn which will be “Blest are the pure in heart” (Franconia). I found a nice little piece by Richard Hillert. I have met him. I showed him some of my compositions. He was mildly encouraging. I’m also planning two little settings by Gerhard Krapf on this tune. The problem is Krapf wrote his settings in the key of Eb major. Hillert and the Hymnal 1982 have this tune in D major. So I came home and put Krapf into Finale. Now I have three little movements in the same key. Woo hoo.

The postlude will be a piece called “Fantastic Galliard” by William Byrd. I found it in an old disreputable Kalmus edition of music called “The Byrd Organ Book.”

It’s most probably NOT an organ piece, but I think it’s charming. Byrd is roughly a contemporary of Adrian Battan who wrote our lovely anthem for Sunday.

A week from Sunday I am planning to use movements of a partita by Jan Bender for both the prelude and the postlude. It is based on the tune, Jesus meine Zuversichte. We will be singing a hymn to this melody as our second communion hymn. Bender has written a wonderful set of variations on it.

I am still exhausted today, but not quite as much as yesterday. Tomorrow I have my annual six month check up.

The Government’s Addiction to ‘Secret Law’ – The New York Time

I can’t believe this stuff.

I’m still struggling with adapting to my time zone. This morning I woke at 1 AM. I dozed on and off thereafter, but mostly was awake. Dang.

In addition I am fasting for a blood draw this morning, so no coffee. I am planning on returning after the blood draw and then cleaning the kitchen and making myself coffee. It’s probably not necessary to avoid coffee. I have asked people at the lab this question. Unfortunately I think I received conflicting instructions. I find it easier to just skip coffee until the blood has been drawn.

I did some exploring of podcasts as i lay wakeful this morning. I found a couple that interested me.

I think “Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing” is kind of a dumb name for a podcast. However, after she quoted from Charles Garner and the OED, I decided to subscribe. I also liked that she reads essays on her topics by others. For example in today’s podcast she read a  fascinating bit on all of the words that have come down to us from bookmaking. That’s bookmaking, as in actually making books, not making bets. Click on the pic to go the Grammar Girl website.

I think Garrison Keillor keeps plugging this one.  The current episode is about “The Road Not Taken” and intelligently rehearses why much of the meaning of this poem is missed by readers. Again click on the pic to go to the website.

I finished Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace last night. While I enjoyed it, I have to admit buy generic valium online it’s not as splendid as some of his other works. To me, it’s locked in a time frame that is reminiscent of Firesign  Theater,  The movie Brazil (which I’m pretty certain had a strong influence on it), and National Lampoon mag. Lots of fun puns and references, but very dated in my opinion.

I have stacked all my David Foster Wallace books next to my chair. i continue to read in D. T. Max’s bio of him, Every Love Story is a Ghost Story.

I’m learning stuff from it, but I’m finding the bio a light read for telling the story of such a complex person. I may change my mind before I’m done with it. Max edited the posthumous publishing of The Pale King. He says it’s unfinished. Intriguingly Alan Moore thinks he might be wrong.

Speaking of podcasts, there were are great A.J. Leibling quotes in today’s Writer’s Almanac.

“Cynicism is often the shamefaced product of inexperience.”

I like this. I think it means the more you know (the more “experience” you have), the less often you retreat into bitterness. Nice thought.

“The world isn’t going backward, if you can just stay young enough to remember what it was really like when you were really young.”

I generally don’t subscribe to my culture’s obsession with youth (being an old fart myself). But what I take away from this  quote is that remaining a child in world will propel you forward through your life. This has certainly worked for me.

This morning I am predictably exhausted. My mind felt fuzzy as I worked on Greek. Yesterday, however, I was rested and ready for my day. I played through a Schubert Impromptu I have been learning. it went surprisingly well. it began raining. I love rain in the morning. I was reminded of Chopin’s Db major prelude and pulled it out and played through it a few times.

Before the Choir pregrame, I played it again while waiting for the choir. The service went well. I thought I played particularly well. This is not unusual after some time off. I come back tired but also a bit renewed, especially mentally. I was surprised at how effective my reduction of Shepherd’s anthem based on the Tallis Canon was. My prelude and postlude was modest, but I found it satisfying to return from time off and play these pieces based respectively on the opening and closing hymn.

After church, a choir member introduced me to a scholar visiting Hope College. He told me he was a choir director at his parish in Mississippi. We talked shop and quickly reached consensus on the need to include African American music in Episcopalian worship. I emailed him from my phone in an attempt to stay connected with him.

Then a rehearsal for “Stewardship: The Musical.” Again I felt like I played this well. The instigator has actually written a funny little parody. But by the time this rehearsal was over I was very tired.

I have been listening to my old Bob Dylan vinyl albums in honor of his Pulitzer. I started with New Morning.

Then Self Portrait.

I remember when this double album came out many critics panned it due to its use of string arrangements, back up singers and covers of other people’s compositions one doesn’t necessarily associate with Dylan. People like Paul Simon, Gordon Lightfoot, and, even, some standards. Listening to it years later, I realize how embedded Dylan is in my brain.

I have always thought of Dylan and Leonard Cohen as primarily poets who make songs. I know that’s what has attracted me to their music over and over. When i discovered Cohen I could see Dylan’s influence.

Later in the evening I returned to Chopin’s preludes. I played from the beginning of the book, trying to be careful and use my improved rehearsal techniques. Although I was exhausted, i found the music of the day carried me through.

Alan Moore’s Time-Traveling Tribute to His Gritty Hometown – The New York Times

This book has been on my radar for a while. Definitely one I want to read.

Ripples From the ‘How Low Can They Go’ Campaign – The New York Times

This comment from an American playwright struck me:

“My heart is broken,” Mr. Baitz said. “There is, to me, a kind of fundamental American decency, and it’s just been lost in the prurient shallowness of the discourse.

The funeral I played yesterday was an easy one. The family had a strong Lutheran background. The woman we memorialized was the mother-in-law of the Lutheran minister I worked for for a while, Dennis Remeinschneider. He and his wife now attend Grace. As I have said before we have a lot of clergy in our pews.

The peace took longer than usual at this funeral. This is the time in the service when people can “greet” each other, usually with a handshake, sometimes a kiss or an embrace. The peace at this funeral took longer than usual. I noticed an elderly man being slowly led around to greet people. The widower obviously. Then I remembered that this man was in full blown Alzheimer’s disease. I watched as he  moved carefully but with obvious confusion at the funeral of his wife.

After the funeral, I came home and Eileen was just getting up. She had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and then we went to the Grocery store to replenish a few supplies. We came home. I had a salad. We played boggle.

Then Eileen and  I went to visit my Mom. The onerous task I had was to tell Mom that her sister, Ella, had died on Monday and had been buried on Saturday before we could get back from England. I only found this out by googling and finding Aunt Ella’s obit. I was disappointed that my cousins, Ella’s children, had not reached out me with this information. It is as though I see them more as family than they see me. And of course they were in the midst of grieving for their mother, not a high functioning time. Ah well. I am planning on sending condolences cards and finding out a way to donate a memorial for my Aunt.

I had decided not to tell Mom that I “had some bad news for her.” Instead after we had greeted her, I simply told her that Aunt Ella died Monday. As it sank in, she drew in a little breath. Her lower lip trembled a bit. In the ensuing silence I handed her a large print version of the obituary, I had printed up for her. She read it slowly and sadly.

Later I was thinking about the people in my life, the old ones and the new ones. It was a pleasure and a privilege to be with Lucy, my newest grandchild. Both she and Alex seem so beautiful, fresh and full of life and potential.  On the other end of the spectrum are my Aunt Ella who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, the confused widower at the morning funeral, and my beloved Mom realizing her sister was dead.

Fiction Podcast: Etgar Keret Reads Donald Barthelme – The New Yorker

The story is called “Chablis” and it fits in with my pondering of babies. It’s the not-quite-congenial pondering of a new Dad on his wife and child.

I am adjusting to resuming my normal time zone. I haven’t quite gotten there yet. This morning I awoke around 3:30 or so and couldn’t get back to sleep. Fortunately, this charming story was playing on my tablet. It reminded me of being with young parents lately. I am very impressed with my daughters and their partners as Moms and Dads. As I knew would be the case, they are excellent and caring parents.

I remember shocking a friend of mine holding one of my babies. He said to me, “Steve! You are doting!” I replied something like, “Of course I am! It’s my kid!”

Blood Orange covers Philip Glass

This is cool. I don’t know Blood Orange but this inspired me to  check them out. I’m listening to Dev Hynes play this right now. Sounds good to me. Good interp.

Blood Orange – Augustine Lyrics | Genius Lyrics

Good link to explain lyrics and translate the Krio words at the end of the song.

I didn’t blog yesterday. Eileen and I spent the entire day traveling home from England to Holland, Michigan. The most startling thing that happened to us occurred at Heathrow. Eileen noticed that Mark and Leigh would be passing through Heathrow around the same time we were there. We communicated and managed a few minutes together in a coffee shop in the airport. Very cool.

This was fun. Eileen and I rushed off to make a flight. However, the first of a couple glitches slowed us down. We were in line to board, but the airline people announced that boarding would be delayed due to flight maintenance. They kept us standing in line for quite a while before telling us to take our seats to wait. Finally we got on board and began our long day.

It was difficult to leave loved ones behind. We had an excellent visit with Sarah, Matthew, and Lucy.

Lucy is beautiful. Her personality is beginning to show. I snapped a few pics including the one above one day.

Speaking of family stuff, my Mom’s sister, Eloise, died this week while we were in England. Her middle name was Missouri. How cool is that?

| Eloise Reveal

This is a link to her obit.

New computer glitch delays United Airlines flights | Reuters

It looks like we got off pretty easy with our delays. We were delayed at Heathrow, but we arrived in Newark very close to on time. Then our Grand Rapids flight out of Newark was only about an hour or so delayed. We almost missed this flight, since we took them at their word when they said it was going to be an hour and went and had food and drinks. Eileen happened to notice that she had received texts from UA that they were doing a last boarding call. As we hurried to the counter, the woman was announce, “Jenkins, party of two.” We were the last people to board the flight. Ahem.

Bob Dylan and New York: A Complicated, Fertile Romance – The New York Times

This is a fun article about Dylan and his early years in New York.

Working offline in our rooms this morning. I listened to a portion of a podcast of “The United States of Anxiety” this morning.

Apparently this is a podcast put out by The Nation. I have been reading The Nation for years and do admire it and have learned from many of its writers. I’m not currently subscribing to it, but I think they make it available free online judging by how many of their articles I end up reading still.

On The Media passed on this podcast. Here’s a link to The United States of Anxiety website (it’s a  product of WNYC). Basically, this episode attempts to explain what looks like irrational support for Donald Trump’s presidency. I was gratified to hear them ascribe much of the fact free notions of the Trumpites to the rise of hate radio (Rush Limbaugh in particular) and Fox News. I have long suspected this myself.

They parse it out carefully. The hate campaign first accused “main stream media” of over reacting to their jokes. Rush Limbaugh’s famous commission of the parody, “Barack the magic negro” illustrated this. The parody was excoriated (as I think it should be), but Limbaugh’s point was lost in the discussion. He was reacting to an article in the LA Times that said that Obama was the soft headed white liberal’s acceptable black person. Limbaugh characterizes this sort of misunderstanding (at least he thinks it’s misunderstanding) as the typical liberal “drive bys” as in  “shooting” understanding.

Using examples like this, hate radio and tv destroy credibility of journalists. Then the vacuum is filled by their misinformation. This is a clear and believable analysis of how people persist in their support for Trump.

At the second debate, Trump was speaking the language of hate radio, according to this podcast. Refering to many enemies of hate radio simply by their name: Sidney Blumenthal and others, leaving much of the audience in the dust. But the true believers of hate recognized the references. Hence the description of Trump as playing to his base.

Today is our last full day in England. Yesterday Matthew and Sarah got away for some time alone while Eileen and I spent time with Lucy. A good time was had by all, I believe. They went to a nice Italian restaurant and came back in a good mood. Lucy was easy to watch and spent a good deal of time sleeping. I’ll put up some pics after I get online.

I don’t think we have much planned for today. Often Sarah finds parting from family difficult. In fact she had already begun trying to deal with it before we even arrived. But in fact her emotions don’t seem quite as extreme as they used to be before motherhood. I do hope it’s not too painful for her this time (Hi, Sarah!).

I am gently dreading return. Saturday I have a funeral. Sunday is a full blown choral Sunday. I have chosen material that is easy. After church, I have to rehearse with parishioners on “Stewardship, The Musical.” This is something I dread the most. I feel very disconnected from this kind of stuff. But I did promise my boss I would play piano for them and I will.
A good deal of the dread comes from wondering how I will muster energy in the face of readjusting to travel and time change. Eileen and I both have managed to adapt to the difference in time. I awoke around 6 AM local time this morning. This is 1 AM Michigan time. Yikes! Sarah has said she has found it easier to move from English time to “Amurican” time. But I guess we’ll see.

Thankfully, I do enjoy traveling with Eileen. I will get through the weekend somehow and try to recuperate on Sunday evening and Monday.

Another part of my gentle dread is the fact that I have a physical check up a week from Friday. I haven’t been monitoring BP and weight on my vacation. I mostly dread beginning to monitor it again and face my doctor after gaining weight and possibly an increase in BP. How’s that for creative worrying?

Leonard Cohen Makes It Darker – The New Yorker

Cohen has a new CD coming out soon. I haven’t made it through this article, but I think it talks about it at some point.

It’s almost noon local time.

I’m sitting on the couch at Sarah’s and Matthew’s house.

We did manage to go to Stowe yesterday in the afternoon.

It involved lots of walking through beautiful English country side.

We scratched the surface of the history of the mansion there via a quick fifteen minute tour.

We sneaked our tour in just before the house tours closed down.

The basic story is that this mansion once housed a very rich and important family in English history (Temples and Grenvilles) during the 18th and 19th century.

Over generations the family used its wealth to create an extravagant environment of rooms, art, gardens, and other stuff.

Then the family suffered a financial set back and everything in the estate (house and environs) was auctioned off. Many of the pieces have since been restored.

Here’s a link to more information on Wikipedia than any of you, dear readers, are probably interested in.

Before departing yesterday, I used Matthew’s keyboard to practice a bit. I will do this again today. It helps me lead the psalms securely if I rehearse them. I forgot that we will begin my service music the Sunday after I get back. As with the psalms I need to be secure on these pieces in order to lead them well. I went over them on Matthew’s keyboard.

This is not a bad little keyboard. The sounds were almost acceptable through its tiny speakers. And it doesn’t weigh much. This is different from my keyboard which doesn’t sound any better, really, but weighs a lot more. I rehearsed the Bach C # major prelude I have been working on. I will do more practicing today.

This morning (after Greek of course) I was reading about England’s very ancient history as imagined by the informed mind of Peter Ackroyd in his book, Foundation: The History of England: Vol 1. I find it interesting to read about places I’m visiting while I’m visiting them.

New song by Randy Newman. I didn’t preview it in order not to disturb people.

We are planning a second day trip today. We talked about going to Oxford, but I think it’s better if we go to a different destination. In England, they have what they call National Trust Sites. This designation seems to indicate some sort of official status. Sarah has a book of them. There are a couple relatively close by.

If we went to Oxford, we would drive to a sort of park and ride area. You can drive in Oxford. Sarah has done so. But apparently it’s crazy. So we would get on a bus there and then be hauled to downtown. This whole process could easily up an hour or less. Since Sarah did not want to make a decision, I encouraged the idea that it might be less wear and tear on us (me and the baby) to do a National Trust Site.

I’m not sure but I think that Matthew and Sarah had their first time away from Lucy together yesterday when they went to the grocery store together leaving Eileen and me to watch Lucy. We are hoping for a more romantic time for them to be away together on Thursday and Friday. Matthew monitors his at home business’s daily progress. He needs to make a certain amount of money a week buying and selling items online. Until he is able to do this, it is difficult for him to relax and host the “Amurican” grandparents. We, of course, encourage him to do what he needs to do despite our presence. So far, he seems to be managing to balance chatting, hosting and working. As the week progresses and he makes his quota he undoubtedly feels better.

This morning laying in bed I had my first pang of needing to do some practicing and playing. Matthew has a keyboard and will probably help me get some time in today or thereafter. He hasn’t been able to lay his hands on the correct cord for the thing, but presumably there is a way to get it up and running.

The occasion of my impulse is a dream I had last night. In it, I was organizing an office for a church music job. I was looking (in the dream) for the upcoming psalm to put on my practice list. I awoke and began mentally rehearsing the C # major Bach prelude I have been learning. Time to get my fingers on a keyboard soon I think. It may be that I am finally getting rested enough to miss practicing. It’s hard to say.

I have had two emails regarding stuff I will have to do when I get back. My boss emailed me that there is a funeral the Saturday after I return (this Saturday). She was extremely considerate and offered to find a different organist for it. These funerals are very easy (in the doing of them anyway). I told her I would do it. I had another email from someone at my Mom’s nursing home. They changed their activities director a year or so ago. With the advent of the new person, the ceased inviting me to come and play. I’m not sure if they have switched directors again or the current director has for some reason reached out to me, but the current activities director emailed me a request to play for the November birthday concert/party and also explore carting a bunch of residents to my church to hear me practice organ.

I emailed her back that I could do the party and was willing about the organ dealy. However, I pointed out to her the logistical problem that we might soon be sans working organ. Martin Pasi, our builder, has set an install date of late Feb or early March next year. This means we would have our new organ for Easter. That would be cool. It would be so much more fun for nursing home residents to visit and hear our new organ, I think.
That’s about all I have to write about offline. I do have some links to add as hopefully you will see below. No time for comments on them.