Jeremy’s Mom gave Alex this cool toy. She can draw a picture on the Plexiglas and then light it up. I love it.

I recently discovered Mozart Y Mambo.

I subscribed to Primephonic.

It’s actually a pretty good app. There is info about albums, composers, and performers provided, plus sometimes you can download the booklet that comes with the CD. I especially like  that.

That’s how I found Mozart y Mambo.

It’s a clever album. It seems to have a progression from unadulterated Mozart and Mambo in the first two cuts and then the Horn takes a cadenza that ends up being influenced by Mambo. From there on out, it’s mix and match, Mozart y Mambo.  I couldn’t figure out how to embed a YouTube playlist but the whole album is there plus on Spotify.

Not sure if this play list will work for you but there it is for the heck of it.

I have been rereading James Joyce for sheer comfort reading.

My current interest in Homer and Shakespeare connects to Joyce.

I dipped into Ulysses’s 9th chapter sometimes referred to as the Scylla and Charybdis chapter and enjoyed the discussion the characters have about Shakespeare.

I’ve also been reading in Stuart Gilbert’s book.

I’ve had this book since I was kid but have never read the whole thing straight through. Armed with  my new understandings of Homer and Shakespeare, all of this stuff seems more interesting and easier than ever.

However, I was discouraged when presumably referring to reading it in Greek,  Gilbert writes: “… the Odyssey is quite easy reading; a smattering of Greek (seconded by a good dictionary and W. W. Merry’s notes) suffices.”

I am totally self-taught in what little Greek I know. Learning has not been “quite easy.” I can only guess that he is writing when most educated people had Greek and Latin in their education and simply had to brush up on the basics and learn Homeric idioms (which admittedly are not insurmountable at all if you have the basic Greek).

Obama shares his favorite songs of 2020

It’s the time of year for lists. I have bookmarked some music lists to check out later.

NYTimes: The 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2020

NYTimes: Swapping Songs With Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov

Alex made three pictures lately that I really like. I like the kite picture of course. I do like kites. I even wrote a song from the point of view of a kite many years ago. It’s goofy but it’s proof of a lifelong admiration. I like the tree in the picture a lot as well.

These two pictures are very clever. They are assembly instructions with parts and then assembled. The one above is a cat.

I just asked her what this was and she said it was “dogs in building process.” How cool is that?

I listened to this podcast this morning while exercising. I like that it talked about the word “media” and asked listeners to think about it in it’s singular form.

The OED defines medium as “Something which is intermediate between two degrees, amounts, qualities, or classes; a middle state.”

It gives this obvious etymology   “classical Latin medium middle, centre, midst, intermediate course, intermediary…”

There are many obsolete meanings cited. I love the quotes.

For the obsolete usage as “average” it gives this:

1729   J. Swift Modest Proposal 7   I have reckoned upon a Medium, that a Child just born will weigh 12 pounds.

For the obsolete meaning of “a middle course, a compromise”

1719   D. Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe 38   When I let him know my Reason, he own’d it to be just, and offer’d me this Medium, that he [etc.].

The definition that fits the discussion is

My sister-in-law responded to my post yesterday (Hi Leigh!). So I thought I would do two days in a row just to show off.

In an effort to support the local Readers World Bookshop, I purchased Chris Ware’s Rusty Brown.

I do love it. I’m about halfway through.

If I can get my tablet to work, everyday I listen to The Writer’s Almanac. I use it to sit quietly for five minutes before i take my blood pressure. Unusually yesterday I loved the poem, Forms of Love by Kim Addonizio

So it’s Sunday afternoon and I’m exhausted. Church went fine today. Streaming church is a bit of a weird experience for me. There are just a few people in the room. We now have a large screen which shows what we are streaming. This is helpful. The whole thing starts to feel even more surreal than usual.

Ir’a interesting to have Jeremy, Elizabeth, and Alex here during the holidays. Jeremy and Elizabeth are, I think, basically atheists. But when you have a kid  it’s a bit different. Even though Jeremy’s background is Jewish, he seems find with having us do a few Christmas things like put up a tree. Alex is of course enthralled. Yesterday, she, Elizabeth and I went to get a tree. Specifically Alex was along to help pick it out. We haven’t decorated it yet, but Alex is looking forward to that.

Today the fourth day of Hanukkah begins at sundown. Jeremy, Elizabeth, and Alex are doing Hanukkah things each evening. Elizabeth made latkes the first night, Jeremy, last night.

They did get a dreidel for Alex and have been playing that game each night. And of course Alex gets a present each evening.

Right now that family unit is off gallivanting in the Subaru. Eileen and I pulled the tree upstairs. It’s now ready to be trimmed.

I sure have mixed feelings at this time of year. Usually i get burnt out pretty quickly on religion. That’s kind of happening, but mostly I would just like to sit and read. That’s what I’m going to do now.

Dear Diary,

Well, it’s been a while. I have been a busy bee lately. I finished the three movements of my Covid Christmas 2020 Suite, rehearsed them and then recorded them for my brother, Mark.

I just attempted to upload the video of one of the pieces directly to my web page. That didn’t work. Now, I’m working on putting it on YouTube. If that works, I will link it here sometime.

Last Saturday, Eileen sent me flowers. On Monday, she told me she thought I was drinking too much lately. After some discussion, we agreed I should cut back to one martini and one glass of wine in an evening. So that’s what I’ve been doing the last few evenings. So far, this seems to work out fine. When the woman you love tells you you’re drinking too much (or whatever), it behooves one to pay attention.

Plus it gave me something to talk to my therapist about.

So I had to upload this video to my YouTube channel and then embed it. Here are links to pdfs of the music scores:

Greensleeves Violin pdf
Greensleeves Cello pdf
Greensleeves Piano pdf

Whew! That took longer than I was hoping it would to put here. Since I haven’t been posting, I’m not sure anyone’s really checking here very often. Google Docs says I’m getting hits but I’m not exactly sure what that means.

In order to upload the other two movements to YouTube, I have to first download them from my Google Drive. I’m doing that now. In the  meantime, I’ll blather on for a bit.

I have had a full week of prepping for upcoming liturgies. Monday I set aside as a day to do my own working plan for a streaming version of Lessons and Carols and Christmas Eve for my church. I managed to do that.

Tuesday is Date Drive Day for Eileen and me. This means we make a picnic lunch then jump in the car and drive to the park and sit where we can see the lake. Then read, have lunch, and play Boggle in the car. it sounds goofy but it gives us some relaxed time completely alone.

Recently, Elizabeth was joking with me. “Remember?” she said, “Remember when we lived with you for a year?” (meaning our current situation) I replied, “Remember when you lived with me for three years and we took turns having nervous break downs?”

My therapist got a kick out of that one.

On Wednesday I met virtually with my boss, Rev Jen, and we sketched out what I and the piano trio will need to do for Lessons and Carols (on Advent IV) and Christmas Eve. Yesterday, I showed the plan to Amy and Dawn (my string players). They approved. It’s helpful to have this all thought through and finished when we are so constrained with safety precautions for the Covid 19 pandemic.

This morning I returned to some of my long range reading projects and read another Canto from Dante’s Paradisio (in three translations). I’ve been doing a lot of reading in and about Homer, but failing to get to Dante. I’m about half way through Paradisio after having finished Inferno and Purgatorio.

So I’m uploading while I’m writing today’s entry. This one finished.

The Snow piano pdf
The Snow – Violin pdf
The Snow – Cello pdf

and finally this one:

God rest keyboard pdf
God Rest violin  pdf
God rest cello pdf

I think that’s enough for today. I hope to not be away from my blog so long next time.