Eileen received her Kindle Fire in the mail yesterday. I took it to her at the library when I met her there for our evening meal. Unfortunately, it required a  4 hour charge before she could use it. By the time she arrived home after work she had managed to charge it up and immediately began messing with it.

So far she gives it good reviews. Right now (at breakfast) she is poking around on it. “I like it,” she says.

I’m pretty sure the apps outstrip her Blackberry Playbook.

I skipped watching/listening to the President’s State of the Union last night. I usually prefer to read things like this these days. Instead I did frivolous escape reading and finished off Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

This is a little fluff piece which covers familiar material that has been done before. You’ve got your basic  angel and demon who carry most of the story. They are likable and they both like earth and hate to see it all come to an end. The Antichrist is born but babies are switched and he ends up being raised by a regular family to unexpected results.

Not sure if it’s as good as Hitchhiker’s Guide, but both are under the influence of other writers I sometimes admire (P.G. Wodehouse and C.S. Lewis).

It was just the ticket for last night’s reading.

I am feeling a bit guilty that I haven’t picked up Ugly to Start With by John Michael Cummings since reading the first few stories.

You may recall that he emailed me and asked me to read and review his book. After reading the first story, I could tell he was a pretty good writer and bought a ebook copy.

I’m not an avid short story reader.

I guess in general I prefer book length stories. I do, however, read collections of them on occasion and need to put Cummings higher on my radar.

My brother and I were agreeing that those of us who read many books at once are put at a disadvantage by the absence of the actual books laying around to remind us we are reading them. Both Mark and I do the ebook thing and I think we both appreciate it. But I was amused that we both have this “out-of-sight/out-of mind” thing going on with ebooks.

Of course, I sometimes forget which books I am reading in the flesh (so to speak) as well.

I deliberately tried to have a laid back day yesterday since I have been stressed lately.

Not sure if I succeeded. Phone calls to Mom’s health care providers gently inquiring and urging them to do their jobs.

Chose music for the choir and myself at the organ for this next Sunday. I have had to revise my plans to fit the situation.

I  found a reasonably interesting arrangement of “Let All Mortal Flesh” for the choir to sing Sunday. It is unison and varies the melody rhythmically (stating it in eighth notes and then in quarter notes and then in clever mixes of this kind of variation). The cleverness is mostly in the slightly elaborate organ part which I now need to learn.

For the prelude, I fell back on a repeat of Leo Sowerby’s lovely (and lengthy) “Meditation” on PICARDY (That’s the name of the melody to the hymn).

I found a setting by Proulx of the closing hymn (Thou, whose almighty word – Tune name: MOSCOW – same tune as “Come Thou, Almighty King”).

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I’m about half way through this interactive version of President Obama’s State of the Union Speech from yesterday night.

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An Assault on Democracy – NYTimes.com

Editorial that taught me something about the “relentless campaign against free speech” of President Rafael Correa of Ecuador.

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Montana’s Challenge to Citizens United – NYTimes.com

It never fails to amaze me how many smart people (like Supreme Court Justices) think there’s no problem with pumping up our election process with more and more money.

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Free-Market Socialism – NYTimes.com

Interesting ideas from my favorite conservative, David Brooks.

“If President Obama is really serious about restoring American economic dynamism, he needs an aggressive two-pronged approach: More economic freedom combined with more social structure; more competition combined with more support.” David Brooks

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Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel at BAM – Review – NYTimes.com

I’m a fan.

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Plants, in Plain English – NYTimes.com

“… [A]s of Jan. 1, the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature no longer compels botanists to provide a Latin description of a new species. Perhaps even more significant, the code now recognizes publication in online academic journals as equally valid as print publication. Both changes will help to speed up the race to catalog the world’s plant life.” quote from article

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My head is still spinning a bit from yesterday. I managed to get my Mom to the doctor and back to her nursing home just in time to make my noon class. I still have follow up to do today contacting her pain doctor (to communicate her internist’s question about what drugs she should be taking) and her psychologist (to inform his office that the internist thought there should be follow up on Mom’s mental state).

After classes I rushed home for a rehearsal with a violist for Saturday’s Solo and Ensemble festival. Then I made supper for Eileen (roasted chicken with bruschetta). Didn’t have time to treadmill and by the end of the day was too tired to do so yesterday.

Yesterday basically kicked my ass.

So onward and upward today. I have a lot of work to do for church since I have to find new anthems and switch my list around and choose prelude and postlude for Sunday. Some of that has to be done today.

I only have the one ballet class so I should easily be able to get some of this stuff done.

Came across an interesting passage on denial in In Search of the Missing Elephant this morning:

When denial and projection “… are the means by which persons see themselves as highly competent unconsciously protect their deeply held image of themselves when faced with the enormous ambiguities, uncertainties and complexities of this world.”

Donald M. Michael, “Forcasting and planning in an incoherent context,” In Search of the Missing Elephant

This passage caused me to reflect how many people I rub shoulders with on a daily basis seem unconscious of their own behavior. Struggling to define one’s self to one’s self is for me a very basic part of living. It is, of course, impossible to see one’s self clearly, but reflecting on one’s own motives, understandings and thought processes seems to be rare activity in many of the people I have to deal with. Maybe they just don’t share this stuff with me. Who knows?

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I seem to be weighed down with worry lately.

I’m worried about my Mom and several other members of my extended fam. Worried about money.

Yesterday I had five singers for the choir. It was pretty scarey. They did a fine job, but I was scrambling to help it sound decent.

No time to finish this post….. more tomorrow no doubt.

Stanley Brothers – It Takes A Worried Man
Download Music Video Code at www.yallwire.com

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At the Cancer Clinic by Ted Kooser

Darkness (excerpt) by Lord Byron

Couple of poems on Writer’s Almanac I like.

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Twelve Lessons (Most of Which I Learned the Hard Way) for Evolutionary Psychologists

This article is a little technical but I still thought it worthwhile.

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The Affirmative Action War Goes On – NYTimes.com

Michigan’s ban on affirmative action at U of M goes up for reconsideration by the Supreme court soon.

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Showtime at the Apollo – NYTimes.com

I read Maureen Dowd who wrote this regularly, but rarely link her in because she’s more amusing than insightful. This time I thought she had some interesting things to say about the Obamas.

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How Mrs. Grady Transformed Olly Neal – NYTimes.com

There are good teachers out there. This is the story of one.

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American Voters – Still Up for Grabs – NYTimes.com

I quit reading Thomas Friedman years ago when he turned into a cheerleader for the war in Iraq.  But I have been checking him more often in the last month or so. I liked this analysis and also his hope and ideas about a good presidential candidate.

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I found myself madly composing an accompaniment for today’s anthem yesterday. I hate doing last minute composing. I like to let a composition sit a bit. That way I can return to it freshly and get a better sense of its worth.

I finished the accompaniment, printed it up and walked over to church to rehearse. While there I began to hear a completely different, simpler approach to the piece and was forced to sit down and work on it there. Came home and entered the new writing into a finale doc and printed THAT up. I’m still not certain about the piece, but it will work for today’s anthem.

I scheduled “Put Down Your Nets and Follow Me” a hymn found in Wonder, Love and Praise – text by Janine Applegate, tune (DILLOW) by Randall Giles for this Sunday.

I transposed the tune down a step. I am expecting several absences today (in my SMALL choir) and tried to roll with that by attempting a clever simple arrangement.

I wrote a ritornello (a repeating little section) and an instrumental descant (to be played by myself on piano) so that all the choir will have to master today is the beautiful subtle melody that Giles wrote.

I listened to Krista Tippett’s latest show this morning. (Thank you to Mark Jenkins for mentioning it on Facebook and inspiring me to check it out) She taped it in Detroit and interviewed several interesting people there none of whom I recognized.

I found the conversation interesting. But I was struck more by its relationship to the book In Search of the Missing Elephant by Donald N. Michael.

Both the people on the Tippett’s show and Michael (now deceased)  speak to and about the incoherence of the present day. Both are thinking about the future and talking about now.

Here’s some links from Tippett’s show:

The show itself: Becoming Detroit.

Interesting Essays on the site:

Essay: Turning To Instead of Against Each Other | Becoming Detroit with Grace Lee Boggs [OnBeing.org]

This is an Xmas essay by Detroiter Gloria Lowe but still worth reading even at this time of year.

Essay: Jobs Aren’t the Answer | Becoming Detroit with Grace Lee Boggs [OnBeing.org]

Essay: Re-Imagining Education | Becoming Detroit with Grace Lee Boggs [OnBeing.org]

Essay: Redefining {R}evolution | Becoming Detroit with Grace Lee Boggs [OnBeing.org]

In this last essay Boggs shares a student essay. There is a misattribution in it. The student accidentally says that her Polanyi quote comes from Blessed Unrest from which she quotes Paul Hawken. Her Polanyi quote presumably comes from his book, The Great Transformation, which she links under the second mention of the title Blessed Unrest.

I ran down Boggs’s blog: http://boggsblog.org/ and bookmarked it. Anybody who mentions Hegel, Einstein and Malcolm X in the same breath is okay in my book.

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Rushdie Backs Out of India Literary Event, Citing Security – NYTimes.com

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Chinese Leader, Wen, Criticizes Iran on Nuclear Program – NYTimes.com

Surprising, though Wen and others seek to disassociate economic trade and nuclear sanctions.

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Iran Attacks an Old Enemy – Barbie – NYTimes.com

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Etta James, Singer, Dies at 73 – NYTimes.com

Her and Johnny Otis dead in the same week.

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The first sexual revolution: lust and liberty in the 18th century | Books | The Guardian

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My netbook arrived repaired in the mail yesterday! Hurray! Well worth 99 bucks to me!

Good graphic from ProPublica. Click on the pic to go the article. Found the link on the wonderful web site: http://luthiermark.tumblr.com/ I have checked this site pretty regularly since my friends Dave Barber and Paul Wyzinitas pointed it out to me.

This was also on it:

So I made it through a full week (minus one canceled class) of ballet accompaniment.  I wondered how I would do with 4.5 hours of improvising and I actually did fine.

Yesterday I was a bit off balance since Eileen and I started the day talking to a contractor about redoing our kitchen and first floor bathroom. Great ideas but it left me wondering how we could afford it…

Did bills and then went and checked on my Mom. She took another tumble and I am a bit concerned about her.

I wasn’t very happy with my improvs in my last class yesterday. Part of the problem was that I was under the impression I had two classes and was trying to pace myself a bit in the first class. But I was incorrect. I only have the one class on Fridays. That is a good thing, I think.

I am trying to make today a day off. With my increased schedule, I need to attend to relaxing and recouping on my one day without anything scheduled.

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Active-Duty Army Suicides Reach Record High – NYTimes.com

Another terrible hidden cost to our society.

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Johnny Otis, Rhythm and Blues Musician, Dies at 90 – NYTimes.com

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The Wealth Issue – NYTimes.com

Some interesting (not mean) history of the Romney fam.

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Ultra-Orthodox Jews and the Modesty Fight – NYTimes.com

A blame the victim mentality mistakenly reads the Torah.

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I was surprised to turn the page of the last poem in Volume I of WCW’s Collected Poems this morning. Surprised and not a little annoyed to find that there were many pages of notes in the back. I spent a good deal of time trying to check some of the poems I found difficult for supporting information. But my questions largely remained unanswered by the notes. I still don’t quite understand all of “Spring and All 1923” which mixes untitled poems with prose – “Chapters.”

I then carefully read the preface to Volume II and read a few poems.

I continue to find reading WCW’s poetry satisfying. Even the difficulties are kind of fun. Now, at least, I know to check the notes in the back. The second volume is edited by a different editor, Christopher MacGowan and seems to represent later scholarship.

Also finished the first essay, “Technology and the Management of Change from the Perspective a Culture Context,” in In Search of the Missing Elephant by Donald N. Michael this morning.

Originally written in 1973, Michael posits some pretty dispiriting but convincing observations in prose that sometimes bogs down a bit.

But he is endeavoring to articulate a beginning of understanding the complexities of a society that has progressed its way into an untenable present situation.

“We need to acknowledge that, somehow, we have discovered and are ensnared in a new wilderness, a new jungle, and that the skills that got us here are inadequate to get us out. Looking around us, we must acknowledge that we are really lost.”

Don N. Michael, “Technology and the Management of Change from the Perspective a Culture Context”

He is talking about the current lack of “adequate forms of governance, negotiation, mediation and constructive control.” Control of ourselves as a society.

He points to three conditions that have created this situation:

1. “Dissent has always been constrained to expression and action within the rules of the game. Now dissent includes rejection of the rules.”

This is painfully evident if one listens to a politician talk as we are being forced to do so this election year. But it’s also true in many other aspects of life. People will reject your basic premise and change the “frame” to fit their own point of view pretty quickly these days.

2. We have a “large population size” and “high frequency of repetitive events,” but “a small percent[age] of people or events now become socially perturbing.”

So we have terrorists and bankers, Occupy Wall Streeters and Tea Partiers. Michael charmingly dates himself by mentioning “hard hats and hippies.”

3. “complexity and interdependence” for which there are “no adequate forms of governance for comprehending, anticipating, and dealing with the scale, variety and speed of interactiveness of the men [sic] and events in society.”

[emphasis added in all 3 quotes]

Michael is writing in 1973, pre-Internet. But his words accurately describe the speeding up of events and the inability of us, as a society, being able to predict, control or even understand what is happening to us.

He concludes this first essay by saying recognizing ourselves as lost is a step toward the slim possibility of reshaping ourselves together.

Hope, not optimism, as I mentioned in a different post.

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Gustav Leonhardt, Harpsichordist, Dies at 83 – NYTimes.com

Very influential dude in the music world.

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5 Ridiculous Things You Probably Believe About Islam | Cracked.com

Even though this is on Cracked.com and annoyingly consists of two pages that can’t be viewed as a single page, this is worth checking out.

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So I mostly abstained from the internet all day yesterday in a small sympathetic response to the SOPA protest.

It wasn’t too hard since I spent a large part of the day sitting on a piano bench in a ballet classroom.

I found that my first 4.5 hour day of ballet accompaniment wasn’t too much for me. I’m not sure if this is because of my own increasing confidence about what this work expects of me or the high quality of the people for whom I am working.

I was struck with the irony that in the two situations in which I earn money these days I am perceived and treated in such different ways. In the ballet class, I feel that I am there by the seat of my pants. I am learning about ballet, but don’t really have a background in it. My work is to study the musical requirements I think the teacher needs for a given set of movements and then make something up that fits these.

In some ways it’s not too different from what I did as a 15 year old sitting alone at the piano bench of my father’s empty church goofing around with sounds.

On the other hand, I have spent a good deal of my life getting the expertise needed to be a quality church musician. Trained and credentialed in organ, choral conducting, and liturgy, I use these skills on a weekly basis.

I think this might have come to me during my lunch break yesterday. I spent part of the time reading a printed off scholarly article (printed off because I was abstaining from the internet…): Toward an Interp of the 16th c. Motet by Anthony M. Cummings ( Source: Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 34, No 1 (Spring, 1981), pp. 43 – 59).

I have been thinking about an  upcoming choral anthem I am teaching to my choir, “Tu Solus” by Josquin DesPrez. It caught my attention that Josquin had made a motet which had a dual function in it’s original use: liturgical and devotional.

There are some interesting interpolations of non-Mass texts and use of previously composed material and I wanted to know a bit more about the context of the piece.

I was mildly surprised to find liturgical scholarly material that I studied quoted in this musical article. It reminded me the extent of my own training and skills such as they are.

So while I am treated with respect (which is pretty much protocol in the ballet classroom) and fondness (which is nice) by all of my co-workers in the Ballet department,  it is mildly ironic it is probably only my boss at church who understands my qualifications for my present work that I labored to obtain. To most of the rest of my co-workers I seem to be invisible and/or intimidating. The intimidating part is something I learned to deal with after grad school.

That was when I learned how to cope with people’s anxiety and bad behavior out of sheer survival. I did this by picking up some listening skills, assertiveness training and attempting to calm my own presence when others are flailing around me.

Before Ballet class, I took my Mom to her new neurologist. He seemed pretty competent. After Ballet class, I came home and madly set out the chicken dish I had put in the crockpot for Eileen to have for supper (I had a couple of veggie burgers). Then Scrabble and reading.

Do I need to say it?

Life is good.

Boing Boing used this lovely pic to illustrate its announcement of rules for posts for the period of the election campaign. I quite like it. Obamitt.

Finished Volume 3 of Sandman last night. I am finding this pretty interesting. I especially liked the story in this volume which was about how Dream (Sandman) commissions Shakespeare to write “Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

Dream commissions the play to commemorate the actual Auberon and Titania who along with most of the faerie folk have abandoned humanity and return to watch Shakespeare story based on them.

Very clever.

I also appreciated (but did not read all the way through) the original script of the first story in this collection. One does wonder exactly how Gaiman transmits his ideas to his team of creative collaborators. This script shows how he does it and has his own comments (which I sometimes found illegible since he scribbled them right over the script) in red and comments of his artist (Kelly Jones) in blue.

I also read a bit in In Search of the Missing Elephant by Donald N. Michael this morning. It’s written in that faux technical prose that seems almost willfully obscure to me these days. His ideas are interesting. He is talking a lot about the same dilemmas that Maier addresses in his Among Empires. But more from a general point of view of planning a tumultuous future.

I find it so interesting that our colleges and universities cultivate this sort of silly prose.

For me clarity and ease of reading are windows into meaning. If the sentences are convoluted and the words bigger than they need to be, it reads like sort of drone like in my head.

What can I say?

I notice that my usual progression in the morning lately has been from the “word” beauty I find in poetry (lately I have added John Donne to my morning list of poets), then to ideas I find in non-fiction, then to a bit of music practice (which I actually skipped this morning). After that relaxing sequence, I feel ready to face a little blogging and then the rest of day. (I read fiction later in the day)

I started a huge biography this morning.

I ran across James Forrestal in Bacevich’s The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. Bacevich points out that Rumsfeld’s wrongheaded willfulness as a cabinet member could be seen as a revenge for what happened to the brilliant but flawed first Secretary of Defense, James Forrestal (under FDR).

I find myself attracted to the biographies of flawed American leaders and men. I have read biographies and autobiographies of Nixon, Whitaker Chambers and Bill Clinton. Forrestal promises to give insight into how America was governed around WWII and after.

I have read a couple chapters and so far it seems pretty good.

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3quarksdaily: Everything Americans Think Is Complete Crap — Why Occupy Wall Street May Be Our Last Best Hope

Haven’t finished reading this yet, but I like how it starts out: America now as worse than apartheid South Africa.

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King of All Nations – NYTimes.com

Of all the Martin Luther King things I read, I found this pretty interesting. Mostly because it talks about Brit history and perception around racism. It mentions the statue of King I saw on the facade of Westminster Abbey and points out that there are no British black people commemorated, only King.

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Land Carvings Attest to Amazon’s Lost World – NYTimes.com

More mysterious lines that can only be seen from upper altitudes.

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Why Is Europe a Dirty Word? – NYTimes.com

The demonization of Europe and other civilizations in the U.S. has always struck me as speaking from a lack of understanding and historical knowledge. Did you know that the USA introduced union leaders into the reconstruction of Post WWII Europe via the Marshall plan. The idea was to help them understand how unions contribute to economic rebuilding.

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Bitter Politics of Envy? – NYTimes.com

I know I linked this on Facebook, but I love the Elizabeth Warren quote in it:

“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there, good for you. But, I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory and hire someone to protect against this because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea. God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

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North Korea Plans Permanent Display of Kim Jong-il’s Body – NYTimes.com

Stalin, Lenin,

Mao Zedung, all weirdly displayed corpses…

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Music went pretty well yesterday at church. I continue to enjoy leading a bunch of people in the congregation in singing.

The boss remarked on the Sequence Hymn which was “I have decided to follow Jesus.” I told her I knew she was digging it.

Although this hymn was written by an Indian and does not represent the African American tradition, it does work much like a spiritual with a bit of a swing.

I leaned over to the choir and told them that I wanted to start softly on it and seduce the congregation into joining in. Start like a murmur I said.

Then I gave a soft pitch to myself and began quietly but firmly singing.

In seconds we had a lot of participation from the congregation.

Imagine a group of about 200 people (maybe less) singing this goofy hymn in harmony unaccompanied as the priest and the gospel book carried by acolytes made its way into the center of the church.

I knew my boss was digging it.

I did three pieces by Gibbons which you probably know if you’ve been reading any of my past posts.  I found a bunch of keyboard music and specifically music for organ by Gibbons online this week that I did know about. I played 2 of them for the prelude and postlude. We sang an anthem by Gibbons. The choir struggled a bit more than I expected but ended up giving a pretty credible rendition. I think it might have had something to do with the snowstorm they waded through to get to church.

I nailed the little “Fancy” that I played as a prelude. It was quite delicate and I had trouble concentrating since people were talking near me. Not sure if it was even noticed or heard by many since it was so delicate.

I managed to stay pretty immersed in the performance despite distractions.

The postlude went superbly for the most part. It was a majestic thing, very renaissance and beautiful. I lost my concentration in the last couple of measures but managed to save it.

I totally like this music.

Today is my first Hopeless College Monday of Ballet accompaniment.

Usually I will have four classes on this day, but today my noon class is seeing a movie so I don’t have to go in until 2:00 PM.

I have high hopes that my increased schedule at Hopeless College is within my aging energy capacities.

I guess we’ll see.

Eileen and I went snowshoeing yesterday. I got to use my new snowshoes for the first time. Unfortunately, the snow was so light and fluffy it would probably have been easier to move with just our boots on. But we persisted.

We drove down to the walkway on the river just north of Holland. It was partially closed because huge trees had collapsed on the bridge section. But it was beautiful. The browns, the blues and the whites of a first snow on the shallow river with the weeds sticking up.

We saw a gaggle of ducks.

I just checked. It’s actually a paddling of ducks – on water, a team of ducks in flight, a raft of ducks – general group name, a gaggle of geese – on water, a skein of geese – on water or generally, and a wedge of geese in flight. (link to source)

I love words.

This morning I learned a new word finishing up Auden’s “Age of Anxiety.”

The character, Quant, who supposedly represents Auden’s own intuitive side “sings” near the end of the poem:

“peace was promised by the public hepatoscopists”

I finished off the poem and then looked up this word.

hepatoscopy – Divination by the liver of an animal or bird. The liver was divided into sections, each section representing a deity, and the markings in these zones were important.

(link to source)

My morning poetry reading of William Carlos Williams was frustrating. I discovered that his difficult collection of poetry which he entitled, “Spring and All” actually had titles for each section, but only in the contents of the book.

I made notes trying to understand the structure of this poem. The omission of the titles seemed almost like willful obscurity. I penciled them in even though I had finished this part of the over all collection a while back.

I did manage to make some sense of what he was doing without the information.  But it was still a bit annoying.

I got up a little late this morning. I find that my morning ablutions (which have been including doing a pan full of dirty dishes before making coffee and taking my blood pressure and daily weighing) are taking longer.

Gotta skate.

I ordered In Search of the Missing Elephant: Selected Essays by Donald N. Michael. It arrived a few days ago in the mail. I mentioned this book in my Dec 20th blog post. I attempted to get the local bookstore to order it for me. But they couldn’t match my $25 maximum limit on cost. I felt slightly bad and then ordered it on line $25.13 including S & H.

I am intrigued by the late Donald N. Michael’s use of the story of the blind men and the elephant. This story has been very formative on me. It was in my mind when I wrote my song, “Why did the elephant cross the road?”

Michael uses the story to talk about the complexity of contemporary life. He says that not only the blind men who are grasping parts of the elephant do not see the elephant, but the person who is watching also cannot see it clearly. In other words, none of us understand very much right now.

“We need to acknowledge that, somehow, we have discovered and are ensnared in a new wilderness, a new jungle, and that skills that got us here are inadequate to get us out. Looking around us, we must acknowledge that we are really lost.”

Don Michael quoted in the introduction

When I apply this kind of thinking to my understanding of the world I perceive this makes sense to me.

From the back of the book:

“Don Michael was a remarkable polymath, policymaker, scholar, teacher and sage. With degrees in both the natural sciences and in social psychology he carried his knowledge lightly, also taking a deep practical interest in the arts, in nature, and in cultures that revere ‘the beginner’s mind.’

The book is a collection of his later essays collected by and for the International Futures Forum.

Graham Leicester, Director of the International Futures Forum, wrote the introductory essay which I read this morning.

He ends with these quotes from Michael:

“First be hopeful. Hope not optimism. ‘Hope has to do with looking directly at the circumstances we’re dealing with; at the challenges we must accept as finite and vulnerable beings … recognizing the limits of our very interpretation of what we’re committing ourselves to, and still go on…”

“This means acting according to what I have been calling ‘tentative commitment.’ That means you are willing to look at the situation carefully enough, to risk enough, to contribute enough effort, to hope enough, to undertake your project. And to recognize … that we may well have it wrong…”

“And finally, practice compassion.. the blind must care for the blind.”

Don N. Michael quoted in the introduction to the book.

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A Murder at Paradise – NYTimes.com

A moving description of a park ranger who recently was killed by a mad man.

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The C.E.O. in Politics – NYTimes.com

America Isn’t a Corporation – NYTimes.com

I abhor the business model of governing and also community. It is so reductive as to be incoherent to me.

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Why Taiwan’s Future Matters – NYTimes.com

Some stuff I didn’t know about recent events in Taiwan. I hope this is all true and seen clearly.

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Jodi Kantor’s “The Obamas,” Review : The New Yorker

A “friend” on Facebook had a strong negative reaction to Jodi Kantor (“she lies”).  I always read with large doses of skepticism. But I enjoyed this article. Especially the history.

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Got up this morning and after reading a bit of William Carlos Williams and W. H. Auden (“The Age of Anxiety”), I finished off Maier’s tome, Among Empires.

I have learned a lot from this book. I love the historical scope of his understanding. At the end of the book he does a fascinating description of about five thousand years of empires occupying the Fertile Crescent. Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian (which provided a strong Greek influence in the area), another Persian Empire, Judean, Roman alternating with more Persian Empires, Byzantine, Arabic Islamic Dynasty (the one that blasted into North Africa and Spain), then Turkic conquerors, Ottoman Empire, Mongols (Genghis Khan or as Maier names him: Chinggis Khan), a renewed Ottoman Empire, German French and British Expansion.

When you put American in that line, he concludes it was probably inevitable that we would at some point extend our military reach to the area.

Maier avoids the polemics that the Bacevich indulges in. I have to admit that while I find Bacevich pretty convincing, I prefer Maier’s more dispassionate historical critiques.

I found his definition of “market democracy” very eloquent. I read it to my poor wife this morning over breakfast.

Market Democracy: “... [T]he energetic and contradictory mixture developed in the United States of the vigorous local government and national plebiscites increasingly contested by candidates of great wealth, of powerful media influence often built on the cult of personality status, technological inventiveness and mass access to electronically facilitated culture and consumption, and the touching commitment to family rites asserted alongside the constant discussion of permissive sexual mores…”

Charles Maier, Among Empires

This is typical of the clarity of his observations.

As I have been writing this post, at the same time, I have been corresponding with John Michael Cummings an author who has emailed out of the blue me asking me to read his book and review it.

At the same time I received an odd request to guest blog on jupiterjenkins.com from a different person about physical therapy.

As I usually do, I researched both of these requests. In the case of the author, I found corroborating info (a wikipedia site that is admittedly sketchy, plus evidence that he is who he says he is and is widely published). The fact that he was writing about West Virginia, an area with which I have fond ties, intrigued me. I emailed him that I was considering it and we have just gone back and forth in a pleasant couple of emails, chatting.

A quick check of the latter email looked very dubious. Pretty sure it was sent by a robot. Delete.

I have found that online conversation works, but only in certain situations. I have a colleague in Chicago I have never met in person. But due to our common interest in pipe organs and music, we have had a fruitful connection online for years. I have had online conversations with authors and composers whom I have never met in person. This feels like good old pre-interwebs correspondence. Cummings seems to fall in this latter category.

God bless the interwebs!!!!

Other than those sorts of connections with people, I find the social media stuff a good supplement to actual in the flesh connections. Without that, I find it not very interesting or even credible.

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New York Philharmonic Halted by iPhone During Mahler’s Ninth Symphony – WSJ.com

“Marimba sounds” stop Mahler.

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Justices Recognize ‘Ministerial Exception’ to Job Bias Laws – NYTimes.com

Not sure what I think about this. In the case, the teacher was dismissed for claiming a disability through government channels instead of church channels.

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Mississippi – Some Pardons by Barbour Are Halted – NYTimes.com

I have been following this, since in almost all cases I approve of acts of mercy.

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Fraud Charges for Dipak K. Das, a University of Connecticut Researcher – NYTimes.com

Retraction Watch

These two links are about fraud.

I read this lovely sentence in Auden this morning:

“Human beings are, necessarily, actors who cannot become something before they have first pretended to be it; and they can be divided, not into the hypocritical and the sincere, but into the sane who know why they are acting and the mad who do not.”

W. H. Auden, “The Age of Anxiety”

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E.P.A. Unveils Map of Major Greenhouse Gas Producers – NYTimes.com

NRDC: Benchmarking Air Emissions of the 100 Largest Electric Power Producers in the United States – 2008

Greenhouse Gas Data Publication Tool

Use the last link to see some (but not all) of the greenhouse gas produced in your very own U.S.A. area.

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The Value of Teachers – NYTimes.com

Kristoff is making an economic argument for good teachers. I think they have intrinsic value (as I’m sure he does).

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Should The Times Be a Truth Vigilante? | The Public Editor – NYTimes.com

Yep.

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I’m old enough to remember the “code” words politicians like George Wallace and other Southern Democrats used to talk about maintaining the overt racism of the U.S.

“Busing” and “States Rights” were popular. Tom the Dancing Bug has done a pretty good job deconstructing some of the current hate talk.

It’s especially disheartening to me to see people use religion to justify this stuff.

Oy.

Democrats are not far removed from this kind of talk by any means.

Yesterday, first my noon ballet class teacher made my attendance optional. I opted out since I was anticipating a strenuous day. Went to my church staff meeting.

I found five volumes of Gibbons Keyboard music online. Used some of the extra time to read up and find that the editor of the online edition said that when Gibbons entitles a piece with the word “Fancy” in it, the piece was probably intended for organ.

So I changed the cartridge in my printer and printed up a few. I found two nice pieces for Sunday’s prelude and postlude.

Counting the anthem, we will do three Gibbons pieces at church Sunday. I like stuff like that.

I noticed that there was a message on my cell phone.  I use it primarily as a clock and usually keep turned off. Messages tend to be solicitations. I ignored it and walked to work.

It turns out that it was a message from my afternoon ballet teacher telling me she had canceled the three classes I was expecting to play.

I came home. I did some reading. Then treadmilled. I had planned not to treadmill since it was going to be a full day. So that was good.

Picked up Eileen after work and we once again went for drinks and dinner.

This morning over breakfast we talked about how lucky we are to have work we look forward to and a good relationship with each other.

Lucky, lucky, lucky.

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C.I.A. Drone Strikes Resume in Pakistan – NYTimes.com

I think the use of drones is a hideous example of death technology that helps keep America hegemonic.

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Marine’s Unusual Résumé May Have Attracted Iran’s Suspicion – NYTimes.com

One can’t help but wonder if this dude really was working for the CIA. He’s from one of my home towns: Flint, Michigan. Nevertheless I’m always against states executing humans.

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Music Lessons on Webcams Grow in Popularity – NYTimes.com

Interesting idea. (Leigh Jenkins if you read this, maybe you could hook back up with some of your Michigan students from New Hampshire this way? Jes sayin’)

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Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi Is Criticized on Wave of Pardons – NYTimes.com

Ah yes. Prisoners serving political potentates at the mansion. Whatever it takes to get pardoned I guess.

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North Carolina Sterilization Victims Get Restitution Decision – NYTimes.com

The original program of sterilization occurred from 1929 to 1974. This overlaps with the unthinkable experiments Germans did to living humans in the 30s and 40s.

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Using Interactive Tools to Assess the Likelihood of Death – NYTimes.com

I like the idea of patients managing their own care with full disclosure of information. One doctor in this article commented that “despite the new tools’ shortcomings … they don’t have to be perfect to be better than what’s already happening.”

Here’s the actual site you use to determine your own statistical stuff: ePrognosis

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Supreme Court Cites Withheld Evidence in Reversing Conviction – NYTimes.com

Surprising ruling from our right wing court. Unsurprising dumb long dissent by Justice Thomas.

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Give Guantánamo Back to Cuba – NYTimes.com

“Imagine that at the end of the American Revolution the French had decided to remain here. Imagine that the French had refused to allow Washington and his army to attend the armistice at Yorktown. Imagine that they had denied the Continental Congress a seat at the Treaty of Paris, prohibited expropriation of Tory property, occupied New York Harbor, dispatched troops to quash Shays’ and other rebellions and then immigrated to the colonies in droves, snatching up the most valuable land.”

“It is a history excluded from American textbooks and neglected in the debates over terrorism, international law and the reach of executive power. But it is a history known in Cuba.”

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Research Bought, Then Paid For – NYTimes.com

“Rather than rolling back public access, Congress should move to enshrine a simple principle in United States law: if taxpayers paid for it, they own it.”

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A Right to the Internet? – NYTimes.com

Glad to see this dissenting letter in the NYT (with which I pretty much agree). Although I believe more and more that the slickness of the Internet has harmed its potential as a tool of authentic communication.  I have witnessed institutions (such as our local library and my church) fail to realize the potential in their websites and to succumb entirely to basing their access on their own (business) type understandings.

For example, it took me several years to convince my church to use Google Calendar. Our web site is basically static and often has incorrect and outdated info on it.  We are hiring someone to do a new website for us, but my hopes are not high. Every new website I seek goes for slick, not ease of use and understanding. Another example is the local library’s interface, which is cumbersome and often difficult to use. At least I find it so.

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Search Engines Are a Thorn in Congress’ Side : Roll Call News

Autocomplete provides hints about your congressman you might not know or remember. Yay Google Search!

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At the end of the anniversary edition of American Gods, Neil Gaiman says that he spent a good deal of his life writing Sandman and the reader should get copies and read it.

Never one to totally ignore the ideas of a writer I admire, I went to the library yesterday to see what I could find.

Volume one was the only missing volume so I checked out 2-5.

And an anthology entitle The Sandman: Endless Nights.

Last night I read Endless Nights. I think the glossy paper puts me off a bit. This is probably my old guy stuff, having read comics, books and graphic novels all printed on lovely rough paper all my life.

But there were some interesting stories and prose-poems in this book.

Gaiman mentions  R. A. Lafferty, a writer,  I have admired over the years in his introduction to Endless Nights

I used to own his Nine Hundred Grandmothers. Gaiman says that Lafferty “wrote like an angel, and, like most things angelic, may not be to everyone’s taste.” I decided I would like to read some Lafferty and went and checked my library.

All I found was his novel, Okla Hannali, a fictionalized historical story about Native Americans. I read the first four chapters last night.

I also finished savoring Lou Beach’s lovely 402 Characters. I plan to try to “like” him or whatever on Facebook where most of these poems or whatever you want to call them supposedly originated. (Post morning additional note: I just found that most if not all of this book is available online with audio portions also linked: http://420characters.com/index.html )

The last essay in Charles S. Maier’s Among Empires: American Ascendancy and its Predecessors is intriguingly entitled “Technology’s Utopias: Digital Democracy and Post-Territorial Empire.”

I read this essay this morning. In it, Maier makes several interesting points. He draws a parrallel between the impact of nuclear technology on the 50s and the integrated chip from then to now.

“As of 1963 only 10 percent of electronic components were in integrated circuits; by 1973, 95 percent were. Meanwhile the unit price dropped from $50 to $1, and the military’s portion of consumption fell from 100 percent to about a third.”

Maier, American Empire

He speculates that technology may be changing the very idea of empire in the 21st century. At least it is putting stress on the idea of territorial security as represented by America’s 20th century empire.

But he is careful in his analysis.

” Still, U.S. supremacy was not based on the continued acquisition or annexation of states. Instead it rested on a trio of hegemonic assets….” 1. “the reach of American power, or “full-spectrum dominance..” 2. “American economic role–first as producer, then diffuser and consumer….” 3. “American cultural attractions and ideologies…”

Charles Maier, American Empire

I found his subsequent analogies of cultural empire pretty interesting:

“The reach of American culture and values had many earlier precedents. The influence of Hellenistic art reached the Indus and beyond; Greek and Latin art, philosophy, and linguistic primacy had penetrated vast areas, and their presence lingered even as the Alexandrian and later Roman borders shrank. Buddhist texts and models of spiritual commitment suffused East Asia… Islam … left a powerful notion of an underlying territorial as well as a spiritual community. the Habsburg conjunction of Roman Catholic religious institutions and imperial power testified to a cultural connection from the backlands of Brazil to the edges of Poland…”

Charles Maier, American Empire (emphasis added).

One last point he makes in the essay also captured my attention. He differentiates between the effect and desirability of democracy and capitalism. Sorting out these two is important to me. I support the former much more than the latter.  Then he mentions that if there is to be “an empire of liberty, as Jefferson envisioned, it could not be America’s alone.

I only have the Afterword left to read. American Empire is an illuminating book. I love the way he pulls thousands of years of history into his discussion.

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A study encourages people to take the doctor’s notes home after exams. – NYTimes.com

I would love to see the entire medical profession culture changed toward more openness. I like the idea that (excepting those who are being treated for mental illness) patients should be able to manage their own care with as much info as possible.

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New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in Newark – Review – NYTimes.com

Skryabin’s notion of color organ was used in this concert. I would love to have heard/seen it.

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Thieves Steal Picasso and Mondrian Paintings in Athens – NYTimes.com

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Elderly ‘Experts’ Share Life Advice in Cornell Project – NYTimes.com

Maybe it’s because I am becoming “old,” but these age/wisdom things attract me.

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Deception – Radiolab

Thank you to daughter Sarah for pointing me to this podcast. I have added Radiolab to my night listening…..

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Mom can stay in U.S. while deportation case is reviewed | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

Thank you to daughter Elizabeth (who is on a flight to Beijing as I write this) for pointing out this injustice and linking me up to sign the petition that stopped this woman’s deportation.

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I sent my Gateway netbook to Texas yesterday. The person who was helping me online said it’s probably a cracked screen.

It looks like they will replace the screen on it for about $100. Since it’s a $300 machine, this seems worth it to me. We’ll see how it all works out. I have had some pretty confusing emails from the repair center. One email suddenly identified the company I was dealing with as Acer instead of Gateway. Everything else was the same. Very odd. I will give them feedback via the provided link once the whole deal is over.

I finally finished the huge 10th Anniversary edition of American Gods last night. Apparently it has lots of additional material to the original version including 12K more words. I have to say I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Gaiman has interesting ideas and I love his America. It’s sort of a fantasy, murder mystery, road trip. Recommended.

So today is the first day of the new Hope term.

I am back at doing the ballet thingo at 8:30 AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I woke up early. During the break I have found myself sleeping in more and more. Also feeling a lot of fatigue and stress. The stress has not, however, been expressing itself in my blood pressure which is pretty low this days.

Yesterday I spent a lot of time with that Bach fugue.

I almost have it transcribed for organ. I heard some recordings of it on organ and quite like that rendition. Couldn’t find a score online, so I am fooling around with making my own.

Not planning to play it soon, since I just did a heavy dose of Bach last Sunday (which went well by the way).

I also have been playing Beethoven and Mendelssohn. I recently read that James Dean really liked Beethoven’s last piano sonata, opus 111. Unsurprisingly this is a difficult one. I guess I’m trying to familiarize myself with all of Beethoven Sonatas, so I tackled this one yesterday only to find I have played through it before (as evidenced by the little notes I make to myself on scores).  A music prof once described this sonata as using jazz idiom before jazz was invented. I am finding that kind of thing pretty boring these days. I can see what he means because of the use of the triplet rhythm which is sort of like swinging jazz. I can only hope that that is not what James liked about it.

I read that story about Dean in a recent obit.

Earlier in life Mr. Hirshbein had taken up auto racing, as a consequence of his friendship with James Dean, a racing enthusiast. The two had met when Dean was an unknown young actor.

Dean was sitting on Mr. Hirshbein’s doorstep one day listening to him practice while waiting for a neighbor to return. When Jessica Hirshbein invited him in, Dean asked Mr. Hirshbein whether he could play Beethoven’s Opus 111 Sonata.

“That piece really swings,” Ms. Hirshbein recalled Dean saying. “ I love those syncopations.”

After Dean was killed in an automobile crash in 1955, Mr. Hirshbein gave up auto racing at his wife’s insistence.

link to entire obit of Hirshbein

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Just the Ticket – NYTimes.com

Speculation on the Democratic presidential ticket. Obama/Clinton (H.)?

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Harder for Americans to Rise From Lower Rungs – NYTimes.com

America’s Unlevel Field – NYTimes.com

Recent research is having an effect on public rhetoric and understanding of this subject.

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China as a Destination for Job Seekers – NYTimes.com

Come to China and get a job.

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Got up this morning and played through this fugue several times. Then I went on Spotify and queued up 23 versions of it, including one for strings and two for organ. Here’s the one for strings:

I remember reading about how Rosalyn Tureck interpreted these fugues years ago, but never bothered to actually look up her recordings.

I found two different recordings by her on Spotify.

I love the visualizations in this version:

When I first learned about fugues and Bach (9th grade or so?), I was very impressed with the idea of cleverly combining melodies that were constructed from the same little modules of note patterns. This fascinated me for years.

Now I distinguish between the craft and the beauty. Bach’s fugues are amazingly crafted but don’t always attract with the beauty of their musical ideas. This particular one really does it for me, however.

I decided it would be polite to just sit at the breakfast table with my wife (instead of pounding away at the piano first thing in the morning) and analyze this same fugue.

I knew there would be online versions I could quickly print up. Lo and behold I found one of this 5 voice fugue in score. This means there is a line for each voice and since Bach overlaps voices it is much easier to see the counterpoint.

(Little post posting note: I just found out that Bach’s entire manuscript is online to view. Here’s a link to a PDF of this prelude and fugue in his handwriting!!!!!)

I often use the interwebs this way. Yesterday, I introduced a new piece Tu Solus Qui Facis Mirabilia to my choir. I mentioned it in yesterday’s blog, I believe.

One of the sopranos started questioning the meaning of the words even though we were not singing the text yet (easier to skip the Latin the first couple of read-throughs).

I will probably blog about her specific question later.

But I came home and found numerous references and articles about this particular piece online.

Very cool.

I am loving the interwebs for sure.

Here is the Hilliard Ensemble recording of this piece. I am moving away from their lovely interpretation to one that is not quite so ethereal. But they do sound pretty good.

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Bookmarked several articles to read yesterday:

What Happens To Old And Expired Supermarket Foods – Forbes

Will Robert Kyncl and YouTube Revolutionize Television? : The New Yorker

Supreme Loser – By Ali Vaez | Foreign Policy

Why Iran’s ayatollah-in-chief always gets it wrong.

The Q Factor – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education

Q = Queer theory.

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The Folly of Fools — By Robert Trivers — Book Review – NYTimes.com

I have been very interesting the idea of deception and self-deception lately. So this book and the very interesting review caught my attention. I particularly liked this story the reviewer tells about Trivers:

Throughout the book, he recalls instances in which he lied — to girlfriends (he has apparently had many), wives (two), children (five) and colleagues. In one especially poignant passage, Trivers recalls walking down a city street with an attractive young woman, “trying to amuse her,” when he spots “an old man on the other side of her, white hair, ugly, face falling apart, walking poorly, indeed shambling.” Trivers abruptly realizes he is seeing his reflection in a store window: “Real me is seen as ugly me by self-­deceived me.”

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More bookmarked to read:

Social media in the 16th Century: How Luther went viral | The Economist

All They That Labored – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education

This about the King James translators of the Bible.

On Neutrinos and Angels – The Express Tribune

Haven’t read this all the way through, but this excerpt will give you an idea of what it’s about:

Speed of light issues have often moved sections of religious people in rather strange ways. Way back in 1973, as a young physics lecturer at Quaid-i-Azam University, I had been fascinated by the calculation done by the head of our department. Seeking the grand synthesis of science and faith, this pious gentleman — who left on his final journey last month — had published calculations that proved Heaven (jannat) was running away from Earth at one centimeter per second less than the speed of light. His reasoning centred around a particular verse of the Holy Quran that states worship on the night of Lailat-ul-Qadr(Night of Revelation) is equivalent to a thousand nights of ordinary worship. Indeed, if you input the factor of 1,000 into Einstein’s famous formula for time dilatation, this yields a number: one centimeter per second less than the speed of light!

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Edge : Conversations on the edge of human knowledge

A blog I have bookmarked to check intermittently.

By the way, I found a lot of these links on an excellent filter blog: The Browser. I am checking this one a lot lately.

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I found a particularly moving poem yesterday:

To an Iraqi Infant

by Sinan Antoon
December 2002
Translated from the Iraqi by the poet


do you know
that your mother’s nipples
are dry bones?
that her breasts
are bursting
with depleted uranium?

do you know
that the womb’s window
overlooks
a confiscated land?

do you know
that your tomorrow
has no tomorrow?
that your blood
is the ink
of new maps?

do you know
that your mother is weaving
the slowness of her moments
into an elegy?
And she is already
mourning you?

(click here for the whole thing)

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As one ages one looks in the mirror more carefully, I think. The wrinkles, the age spots stand out more and more clearly. The stranger in the mirror becomes a more familiar. As do his well examined flaws.

One of my flaws I have been pondering is my own sensitivity.

Although I manage to conceal my overreactions more and more, I do notice that I tend to be thin-skinned. This is probably the flip side of the coin of awareness. But it’s actually a bit more self-centered than that.

On the inside, I tend to react quickly and often negatively to what I perceive as mistreatment or slights. Also on the inside, I mull my reactions around and often find them childish or way off base.

I spent my childhood watching my father do the same thing. At least, he seemed unable to help reacting and often in negative ways.

I think learning to control my responses more has been a step toward maturing.  Rabbi Friedman used to comment on the space between an act of bad behavior on someone else’s part and one’s own response. He got me to think about that space.

Although I have gotten better, I am reminded the standard of Friedman and his teacher Bowen for mental health is never more than 80% or so and more often we act maturely about 50% of the time if we are lucky.

This doesn’t have much to do with anything other than me figuring myself out.

Yesterday was a very busy day for me. I began working on a manuscript of an anthem for the choir to learn in the next semester. About half way through I realized I was setting myself up for a large task. So I gave myself permission to not have it done by today and turned balancing my and my Mom’s checkbooks.  Then I took my weekly look at bills.

I had the borrowed dishes and glasses in the dishwasher. I planned to return them to the church after they were clean. So I had to wait for the cycle to finish. In the meantime I returned to my arrangement (Tu Solus Qui Facis Miabilia by Josquin Desprez).

Basically all I was doing was putting the notes from an online version into my music software, changing the clef on the alto part (from tenor to a more usual rendering in treble), and adding dynamics and breath marks. I found a recording by the Hilliard ensemble of this on Amazon and bought the MP3 for 99 cents.

I didn’t ape their performance. But I did feel better about interrupting Latin sentences with breaths after listening to them do so.

So I did manage to get this arrangement ready for today. I gathered up the clean dishes and hymnals I had brought for church for the choir party. Loaded up the car.

Then I remember the choir wanted to sing today’s anthem in parts if possible. The only version available (in the hymnal) did not have alto, tenor and bass parts in their copies. So I plopped myself down and did that in my music software. It took about an hour.

Then I was off to check on my Mom. She was doing better after her fall Thursday night. No broken bones. But they have ordered physical therapy for her to offset her increasing number of falls.

I went to the church after that and unloaded stuff. Then I spent a good hour or so at the copy machine making legal copies of three anthems (including the two I had prepared in the afternoon). Stuffed them in the choir slots and then practiced organ.

I was pretty tired after all this. After all I’m an old man. Heh.

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The G.O.P.’s ‘Black People’ Platform – NYTimes.com

Racism alive and well in the land of the free.

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Last night was the choir party. I think it was pretty much a success. People seem to have a good time. Almost every choir member either showed up or let me know they wouldn’t be there due to illness or previous commitment. I try each year to broaden these social events to include all the music ministers. But this essentially ended up being choir members and significant others. Besides eating and drinking, we sang hymns. I brought over hymnals from the church (as well as dishes and glasses to use, clean and return).

This was my first church party. I have kept a pretty low profile at church and have not wanted to rush into letting people into my private life. But now I’m ready. This group of singers is doing a phenomenal job. Plus I like each one of them quite a bit.

So the blog is going up a bit late this morning. I got up and cleaned a bit, then sat down and tried to prepare a score. The piece is “Tu Solus Qui Facis Mirabilia” by Desprez. It is beautiful. I found an online edition and am redoing it because the alto line was written in the wrong clef.

As I’m doing this, I’m adding interpretation as is usual in this kind of a score (16th century choral music). I have been listening to a recording of it by the Hilliard Ensemble (one of my favorite choral groups).

I decided about an hour ago that I’m not going to try and get this manuscript ready for tomorrow’s post service rehearsal. We have enough to learn and it’s not scheduled until mid-Feb.

So now I’m waiting for the dishwasher to finish cleaning the plates and glasses. After it’s done, I will cart all the stuff I borrowed back to church and then practice, make a couple anthems legally on the photocopy machine and put them in the slots for tomorrow.

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Chevron’s Ecuador case takes new twist – FT.com

Ray Hinkle linked this article in yesterday’s comment section. Warning, you have to register in order to read it, but it is free.

After doing some more poking around, I found that this disaster is under reported for sure. Petroecuador, Texaco and subsequently Chevron (who acquired Texaco) have ruined large swathes of South America plundering it for oil and leaving chaos in their wake.  Apparently this is the biggest environmental lawsuit in history (so far) 7 times bigger 1989 Alaskan debacle and comparable only to what happened in the first Gulf War when Hussein trashed Kuwait’s oil fields.

Chevron fights Ecuador pollution lawsuit – FT.com

Back in June, Naomi Mapstone (who co-wrote the first link with Ed Crooks) outlined the whole mess in the above link. There is also a slide show but I couldn’t get that to work.

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From Senator Bernard Sanders – Free Trade vs. Jobs – NYTimes.com

Senator Sanders continues to gain my admiration. This is a link to a letter he wrote recently.

He was recently on Stephen Colbert and kicked butt (link to the whole show).

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Study Says Looks Matter as TV Covers Congress – NYTimes.com

Is this surprising? Not to me.

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Study of Medicare Patients Finds Most Hospital Errors Unreported – NYTimes.com

Hospital employees recognize and report only one out of seven errors, accidents and other events that harm Medicare patients while they are hospitalized, federal investigators say in a new report.

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Meet the Online Mischief-Makers | Inc.com

My daughter, Elizabeth, is quoted at length in this article. I am very proud of what she’s doing!

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10 Words You Mispronounce That Make People Think You’re an Idiot | Primer

Also got this link from Emily Jenkins on Facebook.

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The title to this morning’s post comes from a William Carlos Williams poem, “The Flower.”

The phrase struck me as I read it this morning.

As you may know, dear reader, I have taken to rising and soothing my mind with poetry and non-fiction before starting my day.

I have to wonder if this procedure has allowed my blood pressure to fall (which it has ever since my last doctor visit in December). Of course it could also be a faulty sphygmomanometer (blood pressure machine).

I tend to rise in the grips of thought.

“Thought was never an isolated thing with me; it was a game of tests and balances, to be proven by the written word.”

William Carlos Williams (again), Autobiography xiii

WCW seems to concur with my brother’s observation that writing itself can be a process of self-illumination. This phrase from WCW’s autobiography was also one I read this morning over coffee.

As was this one:

“What becomes of me has never seemed important, but the fates of ideas living against the grain in a nondescript world have always held me breathless.”

William Carlos Williams, Autobiography xiv

Ah yes, ideas, the bane of my existence.

HE SITS IN THE SUN rearranging the past, and tries to keep warm. He knows words, says them, but has forgotten their meaning. They hand all about, sparkling, just out of reach, the crystals on a chandelier he can’t light. His memory rings like a wind chime, sounding clear and bright, then dwindles to random jingles and clinks.

Lou Beach, 420 Characters: stories, p. 151

I’ve been reading in the book my brother and his wife gave me for Xmas, 420 Characters by Lou Beach.

This morning several of the entries in it jumped out me as well. The one above seems to be a telling portrait of loss of memory.

In his author’s note, Beach says that “The stories you are about to encounter were written as status updates on a large social networking site. These updates were limited to 420 characters…”

Stories? More like poems to me way of reading. Beach is a visual artist. The book says it’s his first book of prose. They are just dark enough to keep one’s attention:

I FLAY my skin for you. It hangs from my chest and arms and back like a fringed jacket, like I’m going to a Neil Young concert, like I smell of patchouli and boo, like I stick to the seat of your VW. Except that the shreds have hardened and clink against one another. I’m a human wind chime. Hey man, can you hear me now?

Lou Beach, 420 Characters: stories, p. 151

So a big thank you to Mark and Leigh for this book. I quite like the poetry or whatever it is in it.

“LET ME IN!” The failed artist from around the corner, 6 ft. 4 in. of canned ham, and his wee wife, 5 ft. 1, a regular pill bug, was banging on my door. A bird had just shit on his head, an avian comment on his life. Drug-riddled and depressed he was making lots of money in the video game industry. “What should I do?” he asked. I thought he should shoot himself, but didn’t say so. I handed him a towel.

Lou Beach, 420 Characters: stories, p. 144

Finally, I close with another passage I read this morning. I think about what it means to live in artistic isolation and the relationship of journaling as I do in public. WCW puts it nicely.

“There is a great virtue in … isolation. It permits a fair interval for thought. That is, what I call thinking, which is mainly scribbling. It has always been during the act of scribbling that I have gotten most of my satisfaction.”

William Carlos Williams, Autobiography, xii

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Internet Access Is Not a Human Right – NYTimes.com

Ok. I guess you can make an argument that Internet access is not a human right, but this guy goes on and says it’s not a civil right. Is education a civil right? I suspect this writer’s motives.

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Ecuador – $18 Billion Ruling Against Chevron Is Upheld – NYTimes.com

From the people who underwrite PBS.  I usually yell during their commercials.

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Guilty Verdicts in 1993 Racial Murder Case That Changed Justice in Britain – NYTimes.com

Racism in the U.K. is just as hidden and perverted as it is in the USA. That’s saying quite a bit. When Dick Gregory arrived in the old Apartheid South Africa, he gave a bitter smile and said that he recognized the place…. it was like the USA.

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I have been thinking about how exactly one accomplishes expression on piano and organ. It’s not like string instruments where one touches the string or wind instruments where the embouchure is critical. Fingers on an organ keyboard basically only turn the sound on and off. On a piano keyboard they also affect the loudness or softness of the notes produced. But what about tone?

I have seen studies that say no difference shows up on an oscilloscope (or whatever one uses to physically measure the sound) between using a pencil to play a note on the piano and using your fingers.

As a student of piano I have learned that one can somehow make a good tone on the piano. This involves using as much of the skin of the finger in contact with the key, we are taught.

And I can tell when a pianist is doing this.

But I have to ask myself what am I hearing when I hear a good tone quality in music?

Also when I was an organ grad student at Notre Dame my teacher, Craig Cramer, talked to me at length about thinking about producing a good tone with organ technique. He used to say that the beginning of any musical technique on any instrument is determining how to make a good sound.

This is borne out by a story Mr. Olson, (a clarinetist & teacher at Ohio Wesleyan University where I briefly attended) once told me. He said he was studying clarinet with some famous player in Paris. He went and played for him. The Parisian teacher stopped him. He said, play this note. Then he said, that is a good note. Go away and don’t come back until they all sound that good.

So Mr. Olson rented a church basement in Paris and played long tones attempting to match all of the notes in his register to the quality of the note his teacher had pointed out.

Tone is basic.

But I have come to suspect that the subjective experience of when notes occur in organ and piano playing  and how loud they are in piano playing creates a transmission of meaning and tone.

Another factor in my thinking is observing how technology allows complete accuracy in rhythm and pitch. One can either use it to make deadly accurate sounds or use it to adjust sounds into absolute accuracy.

The result is often curiously sterile.

So maybe the intention (usually not conscious) of beauty in sound on the piano and the organ causes tiny inaccuracies that end up sounding like meaning to the listener.

I recently was watching some YouTube videos of a masterclass by the pianist György Sebök.

I was startled when he made this comment: “”We play the notes sooner and later, and louder and softer, and technically that’s all we can do.”

He was actually trying to gently lead a pianist to a less subjective rendering of a Haydn sonata movement.

So when you play a note on the piano and how loud and how soft you play it can lead to more or less coherent actual subjective meaning.

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Frozen Dead Guy Days, a Festival in Colorado, Stays Put – NYTimes.com

Sick humor.

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The Iowa Caucuses – NYTimes.com

Partisan but on the money. I especially like the phrase “dark and disturbing” when referring to the images Republicans are putting forth.

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Oedipus Rex Complex – NYTimes.com

Maureen Dowd reminds us of the history of Mitt Romney and his dad.

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The Forgotten Wages of War – NYTimes.com

Essay that says something I often think, what about all of the people being killed in wars?

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Relatives of 9/11 Victims, Suspecting Hacking, Await Answers – NYTimes.com

Wonder if it will ever be known who was tapping this phones and if they used the information as this article implies.

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China Set to Punish Another Human Rights Activist – NYTimes.com

Blithely reading this article and ran across quote from Jerome Cohen. He is the boss/mentor of my quasi-son-in-law, Jeremy Daum.

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Manhattan Street Grid at Museum of City of New York – NYTimes.com

The history of cities fascinates me.

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English Pronunciation | The Poke:

My niece, Emily Bastian, put this one up on Facebook. I enjoyed reading the whole thing aloud. I love words.

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