another boring jupe update with lynx

I mailed off my manuscript to New York yesterday after having attempted to make the notation as consistent as possible. This involved a lot of changing of little details like how dynamic signs like FF are written and where little crescendo lines and accents appear on the page. Very tedious. This tedium somewhat relieved with the help of my wife’s very excellent proofing skills.

I still think that my music is as likely to strike a judging committee as weird as my pajama pants do people from Western Michigan (and others, I know, I know).

After an hour and half of intense improvising to the intense teaching of my ballet teacher yesterday, her one comment to me was surprisingly, “I like your pants.” Yes, I was wearing some very nondescript black with gray stripes pajama pants. I thought they were probably conservative enough to not be detected as such. Oops. But I was totally amused.

Bills and grocery shopping were not all that fun for me yesterday.

Money is not going as far I would like even with added income.

I have been mulling over the money stuff at my church. I decided I wouldn’t up my pledge until after the community acted and restored minimal COL raises to the staff. This will probably happen and then I will up my pledge the amount the financial people requested parishioners to do.

It’s kind of moot because I under pledge by 50% to give myself some breathing room money wise. So even raising it 10% will still be less than I plan to try to give.

I was so moody after bills and shopping that I took solace in Bach’s organ trios for about an hour before Ballet class. This music is pretty wonderful if technically kind of advanced. I once heard another organist say learning them was the equivalent of a master’s degree. But I love the music and it did lift my spirits. Returning as I do to the same difficult music over and over gives me a measuring stick of my continued technical progress as a player. I’m pretty hard on myself as many musicians are since the advent of recording. A lot of the times I feel like I’m not that great a player. Maybe it’s true, but when I am more myself I can assess my abilities fairly well and know that I can play my instrument pretty well.

When I returned to the Bach organ trios, there were moments of delight when I was able to play difficult sections with more ease. This, of course, is not my main delight. The main joy for me is simply rehearsing wonderful musical ideas. I do like Bach.

After Ballet class, I rehearsed a Vivaldi piece with the high school viola player I have been working. This morning is the festival (an hour and a half away…. so I will be jumping in the car soon). Last night my viola player was pretty stressed. She knows the piece but is dealing with performance anxiety and mental fatigue. High school students can be so driven these days to achieve. She kept stopping despite my admonitions to not do so. I gently said she was rehearsing doing this, when she should be practicing not stopping no matter what happens.

She has a lovely sound for a high school player and has been obviously practicing the hell out of this piece. Her mother is very involved in her student career and was vocally coaching her through every meeting. This makes me crazy but didn’t seem to bother the violist much.

I will be interested to see how she does this morning. She is most likely going to do well, but there’s always a risk to a musical performance. This risk is increased by rehearsing stopping in the middle.

LINKS

My son asked me what I thought of the State of the Union. I responded in the comments of the post from yesterday (link). Here are some more links regarding this topic:

Obama delivers State of the Union address | In Obama’s Words | The Washington Post

A transcript. Although I did listen and watch some of the speech, I mostly read it.

I plan to read some of the following reactions and comments.

on the left side of the political spectrum:

Obama Reassures Democrats (Mostly) in SOTU Address | The Nation

Mingling but No Tingling at State of the Union | The Nation

on the right side:

The Old (Liberal) Frontier | The Weekly Standard

Henninger: A Presidency to Nowhere – WSJ.com

I have already read these:

In State of the Union, Obama Pushes Projects to Stay Competitive – NYTimes.com

State of the union address: not classic but effective | Michael Tomasky | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

In this last link, a commentator from the UK says that Obama is speaking to the entire public, while the Republicans are only addressing their base.

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writing in public: All art comes from art

I have been following the compilation of blogs called “Writing in Public.” This particular post looked interesting.

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THE MINIMALIST – FREEZE THAT THOUGHT – NYTimes.com

I continue to read old articles Mark Bittman has recommended from his years as the Minimalist. I even spent extra time yesterday in the frozen food section due to his comments in a previous linked article (Frosty the Vegetable )

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Greed Said to Be Throwing Feng Shui Off Balance – NYTimes.com

For real. In Hong Kong:

Villages are entitled to ask the government to pay to repair any adverse changes to the landscape caused by such projects. That covers not just environmental damage as commonly understood but also the possibility of ill fortune brought about by tearing down a tree or placing a road in a way that might disturb the local qi, the energy that some Chinese believe pervades all things. Qi is a crucial factor in determining feng shui.

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