I have fallen in love with these pieces. I especially like the way Gintova plays them. There are more on YouTube. i have been using my Primephonic app to listen to them.
They inspired me so much that I decided to actually schedule some organ music by Telemann for this Sunday. I’m not finding his keyboard fantasies near as cool as the violin ones, but still it’s kind of nice stuff.
Yesterday was “date day.” Eileen and I were a bit worried that since the county fair was going on that we might have difficulty getting to our usual beach spot. She suggested we go anyway. It was crowded but there was room for us.
When we have “date day,” usually my routine is to make us a picnic lunch. This is what I did yesterday.
Speaking of cooking I have been changing up my breakfast meals. We had several old bananas. I decided to mix in some egg to smashed and pureed banana to make a pancake batter. I found this very sweet by itself and quite good. The charring from the pan gives a nice frisson to this very simply dish.
This morning I decided to add some cooked blueberries to it for a syrup. I put too much water with the berries so it was runny. And it also was not sweet enough. Next time i will use much less water and a bit of maple syrup.
I ran out of fake gin a couple nights ago. More is on its way. I went back to drinking real martinis. I managed to keep it down to one drink a night and no snacks after a light meal. This is good. My weight and blood pressure are coming down.
I finished Reed’s Japanese by Spring. I enjoyed but I thought it didn’t actually work well as a novel. Reed himself invades the narrative to the point that the ending pages are only about him. I’m interested in him so I didn’t mind reading it. I did notice that it made sort of a lame ending to the book.
Eileen noticed that I couldn’t read the signs in the grocery store when we stopped to pick up some stuff at the store yesterday. Today she suggested that I call and make an eye appointment. This is a very good idea since I not only cannot see signs well I sometimes have trouble reading music. They couldn’t get me in until the end of August.
I’m hoping I will be almost retired by then. I am meeting with Rev Jen today at her request. Maybe she’ll have some good news for me like they have hired someone.
I’ve always been interested in local history. This is the first I have read about Indigenous people who lived here. I’m also curious about people of color in our local history as well as people who were servants. I just emailed VanderVeen and asked him where he got his info.
I was particularly pleased to see an article by an actual musician as a sidebar to the original. Click on Koh’s name above to go to her web site.
It pays to read the comments on both articles despite the inevitable racism in many.
Finally, once again Primephonic recommended an amazing album. It was perfect for morning stretches today. Here’s the YouTube version.
Evelyn Glennie rocks.
Apparently, Tower wrote the piece for her. The “strike” is the strike of a mallet or a drum stick. The “zone” refers to the fact that Tower wanted Glennie’s instruments strung along the stage so that Glennie moved from the dulcet sounds of the vibraphone to drums. Very cool. Couldn’t find a live performance on YouTube.
This morning I was in the mood for Chopin. I listened to an entire album by Gregory Sokolov on my Primephonic app as I did my morning routines. The album was recorded in 2012. The above video of an album by the same dude was uploaded in 2017 and the recording was done in 1990. I like the way he played these wonderful pieces on the recording on Primephonic.
Speaking of Chopin, I was reminded of this quote from pianist, René Urtreget, this morning.
“One night at club (Club st-Germain in Paris), after hours, everybody had left. It was about 3 a.m. We had a few drinks, and I went to the piano and played the Fantasie-Impromptu in C# minor by Chopin. When it was finished, Miles said, ‘René, i’d have my right arm cut off if I could that.’ He had tears in eyes.” from So What: The Life of Miles Davis by John Szwed, p. 156.
I seem to have had a major attitude adjustment about church work. This morning I felt very relaxed about the morning Eucharist. After church, my energy was much higher than usual. Eileen and I went for lunch at the Biscuit. We had to wait for 45 minutes to be seated.
After a lovely brunch, we went grocery shopping. After that, I helped Eileen flip our new dishwasher on its back so she could adjust its wheels.
Admittedly, I am tired now. But usually church is enough to kick my butt for the day.
Eileen attributes this to my impending retirement. She said after she had decided to retire from the library she experienced a similar thing.
I’ve really been chomping at the bit to read some novels by Ishmael Reed. I was waiting until I had finished his book of poetry, Why The Black Hole Sings The Blues: Poems, 2007-2020. Yesterday I finished the book of poetry. I decided to randomly choose a novel by him and grabbed the first one on my to-be-read shelf.
I have read Japanese by Spring before, but I don’t remember it. I suspect I am getting more out of it in the second read. Most of the references Reed makes to history and Jazz I easily recognize now. I’m not so sure about whenever I read it before.
The most startling thing so far is the references to Jack London’s completely perverted, 1910 story, “The Unparalleled Invasion.”
The plot to this story is so outrageous that I had to double check to make sure Reed hadn’t invented it. London begins his tale in the then future of 1922. After breaking away from Japan and conquering some of its territories, China spends the next fifty years experiencing a population explosion that overwhelms all European colonies in Asia. “The United States and the other Western powers launch a biological warfare campaign against China, resulting in the total destruction of China’s population.” (from the Wikipedia article linked below)
I admit I didn’t read the story yet. Not sure if I will, but here’s a link to the less painful synopsis on Wikipedia and here’s a link to the entire story online.
In the Reed novel, he invents a fictitious Jack London College in Oakland, California, for the setting of this romp. Basically, it describes a college in the nineties that has completely capitulated to the demands of more non-Western centered curriculum. There are many moving parts including the main character, Chappie Puttbutt, who is sort of a Clarence Thomas of academia (Thomas and many others are described in acidic and hilarious ways).
The winds change when the College is purchased by Japanese investors who not only give Puttbutt his much desired tenured, they actually retain him to axe all the feminists profs, African American profs, and others.
I am finding it laugh-out-loud funny.
Although, the Jack London College is fictitious. There is a Jack London Square in Oakland.
Japanese by Spring is also the name of a made-up text that teaches Japanese.
So today instead of random music, I’m embedding this very cool 1987 interview with 61 year-old Miles Davis.
It’s fun to listen to Miles. I haven’t seen many videos of him talking like this. it’s funny to hear what he has to say about Wynton Marsalis (“good trumpet player, very precise, straight”). I have boundless admiration for Miles Davis.
Today was Birky day. Curtis Burky is my therapist. It usually puts me in a good mood to talk to him. Today was like that.
It’s also five days of having an evening fake gin martini. This is working out pretty well. Like I told Birky today, I don’t have any clear plan on all this. But I am glad that I am able to skip my evening snacks because after a martini, I’m more interested in a light supper than a glass of wine. Of course today is pizza day. I haven’t made any resolution about alcohol use but plan to keep trying to avoid snacks. In order to do this, I will probably drink fake gin in my martini.
I just ordered 3 more bottles. Eileen doesn’t really go for this. But it seems to work for me.
As I mentioned yesterday, I’m on a bit of an Ishmael Reed kick. I read some more in the linked article. I like how grumpy he is.
Here are a couple other links to stuff on/by him that I plan to check out.
It’s not clear to me how to access current issues of this magazine. But there is at least one old issue online from 2018 I plan to check out. Tennessee Reed is Ishmael’s daughter. I plan to check out her stuff as well.
I used to own the album that Russell put this song out on. It came out in ’72 according to Wikipedia.
I have been getting up later. Why not? I’m practicing to be retired. But this morning I was under a little more pressure to move through my morning routine of stretches and exercises. I had a funeral at 10 AM. I left before Eileen got up.
The funeral was a bit odd. The person who died has been dead a while. They delayed a memorial service because of the Covid plague.
I began with gentle improvisation at the piano. I noticed that most of the people were elderly. Also, most of the men were in suits. I only saw one or two people who weren’t older. I stuck in a little Bach on the piano just in case anybody would appreciate that.
During Communion I played a piece I have been had in my repertoire since Oscoda (before studying organ). It’s a charming, gentle setting of Ach Gott und Herr by Walther. Here’s a nice version I found online.
I like that the guy playing doesn’t use a nasty reed on the cantus firmus. That’s the way I hear it too. Have for decades. Nice Taylor and Boody organ i n this video as well.
The dishwasher that Eileen picked out and ordered is up and running.
The cabinet she picked out came yesterday. She worked on assembling it last night. She sees assembling something likes this as a bit of puzzle. She loves puzzles.
It’s an excellent choice for our kitchen which is getting quite snazzy due to Eileen’s diligence.
After I got home from the funeral today I was complaining about being so tired after doing so little. Eileen told me, “That’s why you’re retiring.”
Touché!
I recently picked up a copy of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home. I hadn’t realized that I hadn’t read it. It is amazing. Highly recommended!
The new New Yorker came today. It’s a good day for it since I’m so tired . The first time through I usually only look at the cartoons. I then put it aside to read the poetry in my morning reading session unless there are some articles I would like to read.
I got lucky. There are two articles in this issue I want to read.
This article is entitle, “I ain’t been mean anough” in the printed issue. I think it’s a better title.
An article on Reed is a special bonus for me. I am almost done with a book of his poetry and have decided I should read all of his novels. They are in my to be read shelf.
I’m toying with adding a bit of embedded music to my daily blog posts. This is another piece that helped me get through my morning exercises. I find it particularly strenuous to do 25 sit ups a day, even if they are old man sit-ups. As I told my lovely sister-in-law, Leigh, recently it’s a daily near-death experience. Music helps.
O Frabjous day! Callooh Callay! I no longer have to attend weekly staff meetings. Yesterday I sent my boss her own copy of an audiobook of Diangelo’s Nice Racism. Later in the day I emailed and asked to be excused from future staff meetings starting with today. I pointed that the audiobook was a bribe. Late last night she responded that I “can totally skip staff meetings” and here I sit liberated on a Wednesday morning.
I finished Rooney’s Normal People a few days ago. I read it because my grand daughter Savannah had it on her reading list. I wonder if it being on her list had anything to do with an upcoming TV series version of it.
I found it very unsatisfying as a book. The writing is competent. But the story left me wondering what the point was of following the two main characters from high school to college. They fuck. They’re friends. They’re from different social classes in Ireland. I found it helpful to listen to their voices in an Irish accent.
Marianne, the girl of the couple, is a product of an abusive home, but rich. Connell is the boy of the couple and his mom works at Marianne’s house as a cleaner. He’s not so rich.
As far as I can tell although the main characters age in this book, they don’t do much changing. Marianne is drawn to Connell physically, helplessly, with large doses of masochism. Connell is a hapless male who likes the sex but is totally confused about them and life in general.
I guess it is teenage angst writ small.
I was expecting some sort of a denouement concerning the title. Around half way through I began to note the author’s use of the concept of “normal” thinking that might be what she was getting at. But no. At the end, after multiple split ups and coming back together, Connell is looking at an MFA program in the States and Marianne assures him that even if he won’t play into her masochistic needs she will be there for him when he returns to Ireland.
I closed the book and thought, who cares? I’m afraid this old fart doesn’t care that much.
I read some reviews this morning and could only find one commenter on the NYT review who seemed to share my lack of enthusiasm.
On the other hand, I have been looking forward to starting Zadie Smith’s OnBeauty. It feels a bit like a guilty pleasure since I like this writer so much. My daughter Elizabeth has read it and wasn’t too taken with it. I think it helps to know that Smith is enamored of E. M. Forester. It feels like a bit of tribute to him at some level.
And it is funny.
I made myself wait to start it after I finished a hefty volume of Smith’s collected essays and some other books like Normal People.
Here’s a Zadie Smith quote I like.
The flight from the rational, which was everywhere in evidence in the new century, none of it had surprised Howard as it had surprised others, but each new example he came across—on the television, in the street and now in this young man—weakened him somehow. His desire to involved in the argument, in culture, fell off. The energy to fight the philistines, this is what fades.
Zadie Smith, On Beauty
I continue plowing through Diangelo’s excellent Nice Racism. Her basic point is well taken. Progressives, self identified allies of Black Indigenous People of color (BIPOC) are in a position to do lots of harm with their good intentions and ignorance. Conversely white progressives can do better.
Here’s a paragraph I marked and even read to poor Eileen. (Also I just posted it on Facebooger)
Here’s “… a particular critique … of the ‘unsung hero’ narrative that has surfaced during the pandemic. This narrative allows us to thank those we are calling essential works for their selfless willingness to risk their lives in order to serve the rest of us. In reality, the vast majority of ‘essential’ workers have no choice at all if they want to eat and make their rent. They tend to be the lowest-paid of works, engaged in the most menial of labor, with the least job security or benefits: food service, transportation, warehouse and delivery, agriculture, meatpacking, hospital works, and childcare, among others. They are overwhelmingly Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC). Positioning their necessity to work under conditions that risk their lives as a brave choice obscures structural and economic inequality. Robin Diangelo, Nice Racism
I have more, but that’s enough of that. I close with a poem that caught my eye recently by Kim Addonizio
Small Talk
Let’s skip it and get straight to the rabid day at hand.
This is some weather we’re cowering from.
Would you please touch my face like a blind person?
I feel like a giraffe in a parking garage.
Let’s skip it and get straight to the death smell
Coming from behind the refrigerator.
Can I over you something more subtly evocative
of the underlying them of your life story?
How many self-important wounds do you have?
Everything you is say is tiresome.
I’m going to walk away slowly and not look back.
Now we’re getting somewhere.
from the collection, Now We’re Getting Somewhere
I only just realized how applicable much of this poem is to my current mindset.
I seem to have a pathological addiction to variety. I can see it in my music listening habits. Recently, I have been turning more to music listening during my morning routine less to podcasts. There are still podcasts I enjoy and listen to, but I find myself more attracted to music than words.
This morning as I began to wash dishes, I thought it would be good to listen to some Beethoven symphonic music. In my app, y eye fell on his Coriolan Overture. I don’t know much about this piece, but I have been very interested in thinking about the relationship between Greek and Roman myths and history and subsequent dramatic treatments.
For example, I am reading Shakespeare histories and plan to read Coriolanus soon. So I thought, what the hey, what does Beethoven have to say about this in his overture? Unsurprisingly, Beethoven was writing music related not to Shakespeare or history but to a contemporary play based on the Roman emperor.
After that I decided I wanted to hear some Mozart. Again on my app, I noticed that Jordi Savall had recorded an album of Mozart.
That’s for me! So I listened to it. Then I recalled how much I love Mozart’s Gran Partita and switched to that.
Then I decided my exercising needed some up tempo music so I put on an old playlist and clicked on Bang Bang by Jessie J and company.
This is a great high energy thing. I let my playlist continue for a bit. Next was Bermuda Triangle Exit played by John Renbourn and Stefan Grossman. Great tune.
My playlist had Hole in the Coal by Pentangle next. I love this piece.
Finally, when it was time for a shower, I switched to the sound track the Triplets of Belleville for my shower.
If you don’t know this movie, I recommend it. French with English subtitles.
My daughter Sarah recently visited the Eden Project in Cornwall. She took the whole fam. I was familiar with this project but didn’t know about this sculpture.
The promo material describes it as a huge, breathing ceramic sculpture, Infinity Blue from Studio Swine. It “pays homage to the “cyanobacteria, one of the world’s smallest living beings. Around three billion years ago, cyanobacteria first developed oxygenic photosynthesis and changed the nature of the Earth. \
“The sculpture is a monument to these vital microscopic beings, who, along with their descendants found in the photosynthesising cells of all green plants, continue to provide the oxygen in every breath we take.
“On the surface, local clay and oxide glazes reflect Cornish mining history. The textural pattern on the ceramic tiles is generated by the reaction-diffusion algorithm found in nature from zebras to coral reefs.
“From the sculpture, vortex cannons fire vapour rings whose scent tells a layered history of the Earth’s atmosphere.?
Viewers are encouraged to try and grab the bubbles.
“Blue (Infinity Blue) is one of the world’s largest ceramic sculptures.”
The pictures are ones that Sarah shared with me. Cool beans.
Finally, my Monday Gin arrived in time yesterday for me to have my martini made out of it. There are no calories or alcohol in it. It wasn’t too bad. The good thing is that I can keep up my daily routine and cut down on booze and snacks. The taste is very Junipery with the addition of some strong spicy tastes that almost (almost) taste of alcohol.
I found that after this non alcoholic martini, I didn’t want a glass of wine or snacks, just a light evening meal. Cool.
Unsurprisingly, the portable dishwasher Eileen ordered does come with wheels. In fact, the wheels were in the box. But the people delivering it did not know that. It’s now scheduled for delivery tomorrow.
Edison is eating so that’s good. This picture is from today.
Although I have more free time, I continue to feel tethered to my job. I have been thinking about the secluded life that is ahead of me. Eileen is truly my sole companion at this stage of life. She seems to be able to handle my intensity and moods well. Thank god for that. Plus seclusion is something I look to with mixed expectations. I think it will be good, but know that longevity is connected with socializing.
Eileen and I were discussing this morning how we don’t fit into the Holland scene. Not much to do about it, but I think it helps to realize it. We are looking forward to a visit from someone whom we both knew as a young boy, Steven Frayer.
This is a picture of him and his husband (in back). He remembers Eileen and me fondly. We re-acquainted via Facebooger a while back. The picture is a recent one Steve put up there. They live in the Detroit area and are planning a visit to Holland and Saugatuck in August. Eileen’s a bit worried that we will be too boring for them. I pointed out that they seem very socialized to me and won’t be expecting to see young versions of us.
Steve F. remembers my harpsichord and has been very complimentary of both me and Eileen as teachers. He is now somehow an out of the closet Roman Catholic church musician. It should be fun to chat with these guys.
So Edison is starting to eat more. He was not eating more than one or two small feedings a day previously. But this morning he seemed more interested in his food. Eileen has been feeding him tuna as well and that’s working also.
His morale is pretty good. He demands petting which is normal Edison behavior. We try to provide the human touch with him as much as possible.
He’s still on the porch.
My laptop caused problems at this morning’s church service. For some reason, we weren’t getting connected to the internet despite being connected to the church’s wifi. We went to plan B which is to use my phone as a hot spot. This worked.
However, during the service, Streamyard (the software we use for broadcasting) kept spontaneously shutting down on my computer. The usual tech guy had taken the Sunday off (of course). The assistant tech guy is really just as good but it was a bit of a harrowing morning tech wise.
Olivia Rodrigo has been in the news. She was one of the answers to the New York Times Weekly News Quiz. The question was about her encouraging fans to get vaccinated.
This morning I listened to a bit of Friday’s NPR’s 1A News Round Up.
Sometimes this show is pretty good. But they talked about Rodrigo as well. So I pulled up her album on Spotify.
Apparently Target is selling a vinyl version of it (pictured above).
Here’s a the first song on the album.
Rodrigo is actually eighteen according to her web site. This is two years older than my grand daughter Savannah.
Many of Rodrigo’s lyrics reminds me of Normal People by Sally Rooney, the book I am reading, even though the characters are a bit older than she is.
Here’s another song.
I like the arrangements.
I know it’s kind of weird for an old guy like me to be listening to such teenage angst, but I think the writing is pretty good. I know, I know, this stuff is super commercial, but hell so were many of the musicians I have liked over the years.
Edison is not better. He’s not eating a lot, but does enjoy getting petted. I have tried to go in several times to keep him company today. He seems comfortable.
Eileen ordered a portable dishwasher for us. It came today. It didn’t seem to have wheels. Weird. The installers had no clue. Eileen sent it back. She looked at the picture of what she ordered and lo and behold: wheels! Not having wheels takes the portable out of portable dishwasher, n’est pas?
Eileen has been on the phone with Lowe’s and apparently someone will be straightening all of this out by Monday. Sheesh.
Someone on one of the Facebook feeds I subscribe to mentioned that he thought Marcus Millar picked up where “Miles” left off. So I thought I would give a listen. I like what I’ve heard so far.
I have been having a serious jones for Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, playing them, listening to them, analyzing the melodies.
I have been thinking quite a bit about melody. When I hear new music, especially pop music, my attention is directed toward the melody.
Good, interesting melodies take some craft to make up. Now that I am gradually freeing myself from the yoke of church music, I am re-approaching making up music and thinking about melodies.
Also, today I decided to take a look at Kazantzakis’ sequel to The Odyssey. This book has been sitting in my library for ever. It’s a used paperback and its cost is marked 50 cents. I wonder if it dates back to one of my used book stores.
According to the notes in the book, I have messed in this book before, once in 2016 and once even earlier. In is introduction, translator, Kimon Friar, quotes W. B. Stanford who places this work right next to Joyce’s Ulysses. Cool. I just interlibrary loaned Stanford’s The Ulysses Theme which Friar quotes.
Eileen left me a note on my blood pressure kit last night where I would see it this morning. Apparently, Edison seemed very uncomfortable to her. He was squatting as though to pee but only passed blood. She ended up moving him to the porch along with a litter box, food, and a blanket.
When I got up he seemed to be doing okay. Later I called the vet. They gave me an antibiotic shot to give him hoping that he might be suffering from a urinary tract infection. I’m not confident about how much I got inside him since the vet taught me to pinch some loose skin and inject him that way. Unfortunately, it’s easy for the needle to slip all the way through the skin and out the other side. I’m sure that happened a bit but n.ot sure how much actually got inside him.
I sat and petted him on the porch just now. He doesn’t seem that different. I think he has oriented himself to his new environment pretty well. Eileen isn’t sure how much blood he scattered on the carpet. He doesn’t seem to be bleeding now.
We’ll have to take it a bit at a time. He may worsen, stabilize or improve. At any rate, we’ll keep him on the porch until we’re sure he’s no longer bleeding. No sign of blood since last night.
I sent a message to the kids and their spouses about this.
I finished The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen yesterday. This is an amazing book, full of brutality and insights. Plus the plot was interesting as well. Not for the fainthearted.
Here’s a taste of Nguyen.
“… we watched the three policemen do what men have undoubtedly been doing to women since Adam blamed Eve for listening to the serpent. It had not occurred to me until now, blind man that I was and surely still am, that the serpent was Adam’s own penis, which the writer of the Book of Genesis had detached from Adam and flung into the grass. From there it could rear its head and talk Eve into eating the forbidden fruit, as if Adam had nothing to do with it. And how does one eat forbidden fruit? By asking permission? Or by taking it, which, for all we know, Adam might have done and then blamed Eve? If prostitution was the world’s oldest profession, then rape was the world’s original crime.”
Eileen changed her mind and wanted to go out the Ottawa Beach Inn last night so that’soo what we did. It was a nice night to sit outside, be together, and eat.
I’m slugging away at Diangelo’s Nice Racism. I think this is an important book for American white people to read. Very helpful. She keeps pointing out the need to work on oneself and not others. I listened to a bit of Ezra Klein’s interview with Ibram Kendri this morning. Kendri pointed out that it took him twenty years to work through his own racism. It’s not something that can be undone by one workshop or book if it can actually be undone.
But awareness is important.
Self awareness is difficult but is a lifelong project for me, I guess.
I’m not getting up as early as I used to. I am anticipating retirement. Why rise early if you have the whole day to do what you want?
Still, I roasted mushrooms this morning and then made bread. I managed to heat up the kitchen. Eileen has been moving the kitchen around in anticipation of receiving a new dishwasher. She’s also looking at ordering a new free standing cabinet for the kitchen.
Eileen did the dishes last night after I went to bed. This is her doing something nice for me, since I get up and clean the kitchen before she gets up. However, by the time she did get up I had dirtied a bunch of dishes with my cooking. They are still sitting in the sink so after I’m done here I will do them.
We will be going out to eat tonight for sure. I have suggested Thursdays as a good night for us to eat out on a fairly regular basis. We missed going out to eat on Monday (Eileen’s birthday), so I think we’ll be heading for her favorite restaurant tonight, El Rancho.
Savannah my grand daughter is reading Normal People by Sally Rooney. I am reading it to see what it’s like. The main characters are just a bit older than Savannah. Unsurprisingly, they having sex like crazy. But still there is a story and Zadie Smith blurbed Rooney’s first novel, Conversation with Friends.
Eileen and I did “date day” yesterday. Her Mini didn’t break down. Last time we tried to do one of these the Subaru stopped. It’s still sitting at the car place waiting its turn I guess.
Monday evening Eileen was tired. So even though it was her birthday she opted out of going out to eat and asked if we could stay home and play Scrabble. So we’ll probably go out tomorrow evening to her favorite restaurant.
My doctor finally contacted me about getting a check up. I’m glad on the one hand because I was afraid they were waiting for me to log on to their silly app before informing me I needed a check up. But on the other hand I have about ten extra pounds I have gained and I’m not very happy about that.
My BP has been a bit lower over all since deciding to retire.
Today after breakfast and boggle, Eileen and I went to the church and worked on the mess. I have stacks of stuff that need to be sorted. Some of it needs to be filed, some discarded. Eileen is immensely helpful with this stuff. I worked on the instrumental music and she worked on the choral music. We made some head way.
I’m trying to resist bringing stuff home from church. Today, I did pull a few things like the Mendelssohn Piano concerto for two pianos. I do like Mendelsohn.
I am leaving a ton of music and not just organ music. I figure if for some reason I wanted to look at any of it, I will probably have access to it. If not, it’s not that big a deal.
After I got back home I discovered that I was exhausted. It was a little bit physical, but there is a certain amount of emotional drain going through all the stuff at church and trying to leave it in some semblance of order.
Eileen ordered a dish washer. It’s suppose to arrive at the local store tomorrow. Then they will arrange to deliver it. That’ll be weird.
I have been wondering about how listens to classical music these days. Recently on one of the later episodes of the Radiolab series on Harry Pace, they talked about Roland Hayes.
Neither moderator seemed to have ever heard of the song, “Were you there.” Sheesh.
I think accessing music online gives me a bit of a warped view of how many people listen to classical music.
I missed a couple days of blogging. Saturday I drove us back from Mark and Leigh’s. By afternoon, I was too tired to blog. Yesterday, the service went well and it didn’t take too much energy, but still I was too lazy to blog.
But here I am today.
The tree we bought in memory of Mom is blooming like crazy.
Today is Eileen’s 69th birthday. I snuck over to Meijer to buy me a new French Press (old one broke) and took advantage to get Eileen some flowers and gifts. I told her the gifts were Meijer gifts and it was kind of like airport gifts.
For some reason rattling in my head is some kid who when he or she goes to the airport sees all the gifts their absent Dad brought for them on the shelves at the airport gift shops.
Unfortunately, I used my morning and haven’t done my daily stretches or exercises yet. I did do the dishes and picked hymns for next Sunday. I discovered that our Ritesong subscription is lapsed. Reported that to Mary and she is fixing it.
Parishioners continue to chat me up about retiring. Yesterday a woman asked me if I would continue to worship with them. I told her that unfortunately I wasn’t that religious. She was not happy. She said she would have to step away from our talk so she didn’t weep.
I have been getting non alcoholic booze ads in my Facebook feed. This might be a good idea if the gin is pretty tasty. Eileen ordered me a bottle.
I finished reading my brother’s copy of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I picked it up to read because my grand daughter Catherine is reading it. I wasn’t too impressed. My sister-in-law Leigh liked it. Mark hasn’t read it as far as I know.
I thought the author had an interesting story to tell about her eccentric family. But the first two thirds of the book seemed disjoined and inauthentic to me. It picked up when she was talking about the time she was ten. From there to the end it was more readable. But the way she began seemed to obfuscate something. Not surprising since it’s a family story and all families are pretty fucked up.
Anyway, I’m feeling a bit melancholy as my vacation comes to an end. Even though I return to very low duties as a pre-retiree I am dreading it.
This evening we will eat out again. Then back home tomorrow after breakfast and boggle. I will go to church and post the hymns.
It has been fun to be at Mark and Leigh’s. I have started reading Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm by Robin Diangelo. It is excellent! More on this book later.
Diangelo mentions Tess Martin as a blogger to read. Here’s a link to her blog. I recommend this article from her blog:
Eileen and I agreed that we would still our “date day” even while visiting my brother and sister-in-law. That will end up taking a big chunk of today. I’m blogging now so I can go sit on the porch and begin my day of reading.
I did end up purchasing the books I mentioned yesterday. I started Nice Racism last night. It looks like it’s going to be as good as it looks to me.
We had a lovely dinner last night with the Ann Arbor branch of the fam sans Tony, Ben’s husband. He has switched jobs and is working remotely for a New York company and they had scheduled a zoom meeting right at the time we got together for dinner.
I sat next to Jeremy Bastian.
I always enjoy chatting with him. He is an extremely talented artist and has been working on a book about the Pirate Girl as long as I have known him.
I was delighted to find out that he likes Jean-Michele Basquiat.
I am passionate about Basquiat. I haven’t really bet anyone who likes him as much as I do since learning about him from Jennifer VanHolstein who knew him. She is married to Martin Pasi and that’s when I met her. Since then Basquiat has been on my radar.
Well this is short and sweet so I can get a bit of alone time.
Last night we drove to the little town of Chelsea nearby, went to the bookstore, then to a charming restaurant. Tonight we are planning a similar trip to a different restaurant. This evening some if not all of Mark and Leigh’s kids and spouses will be able to meet us.
The bookstore last night was Serendipity Books. The owner is in Mark’s writing group. It’s a mix of used and new.
The restaurant was The Grateful Crow.
Tonight’s Bookstore is Nicola’s, it’s all new books
The restaurant is a vegetarian one, Seva’s.
This restaurant used to be right in Ann Arbor, but moved to the mall. It’s in the same mall as Nicola’s.
I got up good and early this morning and got some reading in. Also I have been playing Leigh’s wonderful piano.
My son-in-law Jeremy appears in the above video as the expert he is. He is in the lower right hand corner.
I am planning on blogging more as I get closer to retirement. But this week we are visiting my brother Mark and sister-in-law Leigh in Unadilla. Unadilla is not that far from Ann Arbor. Chelsea is closer. That’s where we are off to this evening. A quick trip to the local independent bookstore. Then out to eat.
Mark cooked last night. I find it very satisfying to watch him cook. He been taking classes in cooking for a while and is, of course, quite adept.
My energy level is not high. I think I’m sort of winding down a bit even in the throes of looking forward to retirement. I have had a couple of nice emails from church music colleagues. All very laudatory and supportive.
I am feeling more and more disconnected from church stuff. But my other of interest are as strong as ever. I have been reading in my Child Ballads (which are actually the collection of tunes for the Child Ballads compiled by Betrand Harris Bronson). I have been listening to the playlist of Child Ballads that I posted here.
I am trying to read Leigh’s copy of The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls while we are here. My grand daughter Catherine is reading it and that’s why I am doing so. So far, it hasn’t really grabbed all that much. It reads like someone review their history with their weird family of origin. But I don’t detect a very clear narrative development as of yet. But I’m only a hundred pages into it or so.
I am planning on picking up a couple of new books when i see them. Perhaps they will be at the book store this evening.
Nice Racism by Robin Diangelo.
And The Cruelty is the Point by Adam Serwer.
Well that’s all for today. I just have enough time to do a bit more piano playing on Leigh’s lovely Steinway before we leave for the book store and restaurant.
Increasingly I am spending my morning routine listening to music. I liked to listen to podcasts while I exercise and do the dishes in the morning but have been finding most of them bogged down in stuff that doesn’t interest me.
Eliza Stein put together a playlist based on contemporary renditions of Child Ballads.
I am loving this.
This morning for some reason I was drawn to Mozart’s Prussian String Quartets.
This group has just released a recording which is what I was listening to on Primephonic this morning.
I pulled out my scores and discovered the first movement all marked up with my markings (way past schooling).
Rhonda dropped by last night around martini time. She brought me a few copies of the CD she and Brian Reichenbach made of new trumpet music. My BLM is on it.
This promo video begins and ends with excerpts of my piece. CD can be purchased on Rhonda’s or Brian’s web site.
I am flattered these two did this. I still like the piece and I like the way they play it.
Finally, here’s an excerpt from Natalie Diaz’s American Arithmetic in her Postcolonial love Poem.
Police kill Native Americans more
than any other race. Race is a funny word. Race implies someone will win,
implies I have as good a chance of winning as—
We all know who wins a race that isn’t a race.
Native Americans make up 1.9 percent of all
police killings, higher than any race,
and we exist as .8 percent of all Americans.
Sometimes race means run.
I’m not good at math—can you blame me?
I’ve had an American education.
We are Americans, and we are less than 1 percent
of Americans. We do a better job of dying
by police than we do existing.
