On Friday, I spent an hour with Eddie Bullinger, a parishioner, making the soundtrack for his stop motion video he made of the installation of the Pasi organ. This was fun! Now he will do the final edit. I will link it here when it’s public.

Both he and Bill Bier’s assistant used a hand held recorder to make a better recording than a video soundtrack on a device. Eddie allowed me to take a picture of his. I am surprised at how inexpensive this little dealy is.

I’m definitely interested in getting one of these to make recordings with. It’s made by Zoom, the company that made the first digital recording unit I purchased (and no longer have).

The Transformation of the ‘American Dream’ – The New York Times

This author traces the change in the concept of “American Dream” from egalitarian to financial.

Russia hacked our election because the spies took over – The Washington Post

I have’t quite finished reading this article, but it reminds me of the non-Trumpists in the above link. Paranoid nationalism is rampant in the world. I think that Brexit is largely a nationalistic movement. All of these countries pulling back from each other at the exact time we need to be repairing our world.

Yesterday afternoon Eileen thought it was too cool to go down to the beach as we had planned. Instead she suggested we go to the movies. She said she wanted to see “War for the Planet of the Apes.”

I readily agreed. It was the first time I had sat in a movie theater with my new fancy dance glasses.

This turned out to be a good thing because there was lots of use of out-of-focus foreground or background shots. I am getting quite used to using my new glasses for driving or for sitting in the pew at church. Yesterday I set out without them for an errand and immediately noticed.

So they help with the whole movie theater experience.

But I didn’t like the movie. SPOILER ALERT FOR SECTION THAT FOLLOWS!

I found so many things weird about this movie. The plot was preposterous and disconnected. Many of the apes in Caesar’s tribe spoke with ESL. Caesar was mysteriously able to read their signing without looking at them. There were so many plot twists that it seemed definitely to be a committee decision to include them.

The humans start the movie by attacking Caesar’s outpost. It’s very high tech (communicating by helmet mic and eventually using high tech night laser finders) versus sharpened spears on the apes part. During the initial battle I kept expecting something to happen to turn the plot. But nothing really did. The apes won this battle.

The humans return and Woody Harrleson’s character. The Colonel, kills Caesar’s wife and one of his children.

Caesar and a few others set out to kill The Colonel. Unfortunately while they are on their way somehow The Colonel and his men capture and enslave the entire Caesar tribe.

The movie then turns into a sort of “Bridge over the River Kwai” war prisoner movie. Both the original “Planet of the Apes” movie and “Bridge over the River Kwai” movie were based on books by the same author, Pierre Boulle.

From there we have an escape plan during which The Colonel and his men are attacked by a more efficient human army. During the battle, even though they are losing, The Colonel’s men begin killing the escaping apes for some reason. Caesar attempts to blow up the entire camp at this point by igniting fuel supplies. The more efficient human army beats the Colonel’s group. They are celebrating when they see Caesar. One lone gunman raises his weapon. Then….. an avalanche happens.

I can’t go on.

The music was goofy as well. Since I’ve already given a spoiler alert I will point out that an early theme in the score bears more than passing resemblance to “It Aint Necessarily So” by Gershwin in Porgy and Bess.

I don’t think I am a 21st Century movie person judging from this movie and the atrocious movies in the pregame trailers. Most of which I would give $20 not to have to watch.

I’m a grumpy old man for sure.

My son, David, has been having trouble commenting here. He messaged me about yesterday blog, commending me for reading Rogers, someone he has read and whose techniques he is versed in and has used. If you have trouble commenting please email me or message me.

On Tuesday I relented a bit and chose upcoming organ music that will require some (but not too much) prep. This Sunday is Transfiguration. I didn’t see that coming when I sketched in some easier organ music to play. I had to reevaluate. So, instead I am playing two pieces by Emma Lou Diemer: “Psalm 117” and a chorale prelude based on the tune Wareham to which we are singing Transfiguration words.

Then for the following Sunday, I simply scheduled what I played three years ago when these readings came up. They are trios by David Harris based on two hymns in the service. Trio playing is not something challenges me in and of itself. And I think they are nice settings. And like so much of the music I have played in the past they become transformed on the Pasi.

The postlude is a calm beautiful setting of the closing hymn. This Sunday the prelude (Psalm 117 by Diemer) is actually quite loud and fast. I like to schedule organ music I think is appropriate. This means that I don’t always play a soft prelude and a loud postlude.

I have also been hired to play at the Holland Symphony’s outdoor concert next Saturday. The lineup includes some lively Latin music. I have been working on the piano parts so that I can do a good job. This is the second time they have hired me for this concert. It’s nice to be asked back. I think their usual keyboard player is unavailable.

Eileen and I were hoping to get some more beach time in today, but it’s looking like rain. I thought I heard thunder earlier. Maybe it’s not to be.

Finding Common Ground, Despite Ideological Divides – The New York Times

An article by Linda Greenhouse always interests and informs me as does this one. Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein say that one way to dilute the extremism and asymetrical stymieing of our government is to make sure more people vote.  More people voting would enhance the possibility of centrality in candidates. They even go so far as to endorse mandatory voting which would lessen the need to fire up the voters with extreme rhetoric and positions designed to get them to the poles.

One commenter reposts a comment that recommends increasing the number of seats in the House of Representatives. She believes that would go a long way to clearing up some of the grid lock.

This morning reading On Becoming a Person by Carl Rogers I was amused to read:

“… if I can form a helping relationship to myself—if I can be sensitively aware of and acceptant toward my own feelings—then the likelihood is great that I can form a helping relationship toward another.”

Rogers himself prefaces this statement with the phrase: “One way of putting this which may seem strange to you is that….” But for me it seemed a bit of a convergence between him and a recent insight I expressed here (see “a small insight for an old musician“). I was pointing out that if I try to support and validate other people’s musical actions, it might behoove me to do so for myself as well. This and trying to be as kind and accepting to myself as I try to be to others make up a sort of “helping relationship to myself.”

In this same chapter, Rogers comments that the “locus of evaluation, the center of responsibility lies” within the self.

I didn’t read Rogers at the beach yesterday. I took a bag of books. By the time we decided to leave I realized that I had read a bit in each book. This is my pattern. This is one reason real books help me a bit more than ebooks. I can forget I am reading something if it’s tucked away in a etablet but if the physical book is present I am more likely to remember I am slowly reading it. I picked up this habit years ago when I read an essayist who pointed out that if one read a few pages a day in a book eventually one will have made it all the way through it.

Here’s my beach reading from yesterday and the page number I reached sitting on the sand.

left off at page 162 of 222.

Left off at page 145 of 197.

These stories are mind boggling. I read in its entirety the fifth one in the book yesterday, “Memories We Lost” by Lidudumalingani at page 81 of 292.

I am on chapter three in this book, “Seeing Through Words: an Introduction to Basho, Haiku and the Suppleness of Image” I discovered that this chapter seems to have been published at least as a separate Kindle “single” ebook.

Left off at page 82 of 300.

Left off on page 224 of 606 but I read more in my ebook copy this morning laying in bed.

Left off on page 222 of 388. I might put this one down. Robinson doesn’t have much to say to me and Le Guin writes rings around him.

I offer these in the spirit of my own curiosity about other people’s reading. A woman was sitting at a picnic bench reading a book yesterday that suspiciously like It’s Even Worse Than It Looks. I didn’t have the courage to strike up a conversation but was curious.

When I told Dr. Birky that I came out of our previous session feeling helped and buoyed by it despite there being no direct insight to point to, he told me that was very “Rogerian,” the idea that having someone listen to you is helpful.

He is taking some time off so this time there will be a month between sessions. I told him I had read some Carl Rogers but in truth I was thinking of titles by Rollo May.

I pulled out my copy of Becoming a Person by Carl Rogers. I noticed that I had read in it and made notes in the back. I think it would be a good time for me to reread it between visits to my therapist.

Rogers insists that his insights are not just for therapy but for all relationships.

He summarizes his efforts this way.

1.  It’s better to be genuine to others. He tries to listen carefully to his own responses and avoid presenting a façade of one attitude while actually holding another.

2. He seeks to accept the one he is in relationship with. The more he can like and accept someone the better their connection.

3. Seeking to understand the other is the next step. I typically say that people make sense to themselves. Figuring out as much as possible about this can be helpful.

I am finding reading Rogers helpful and interesting. More later, since Eileen and I are heading for the beach again today! Woo hoo!