If I had more time this morning I might goof around with the colors on my new web site design. I don’t think the gray quite does it. But we’ll see.

I have the usual packed Wednesday routine today. This means it’s quite likely I won’t see my niece Emily and nephew Ben who probably arrived late last night. I say probably because I went to bed exhausted expecting to arise early this morning as I did.

This morning I finished off two of the books of poetry I have been reading: A Village Life by Louis Glück and The Stag’s Leap by Sharon Olds. I segued into another Glück and read several poems in her volume Ararat.

I was surprised to see that I have several volumes by Glück sitting on my shelves. Recently on Facebook my daughter Elizabeth posted a picture which showed my crazy stuffed bookshelves in the background. These caught the eye of one of her “friends” and they commented on the books. Elizabeth then said that before she left home she hadn’t realized how “bountiful” our home was.

“Bountiful.” I told her (in person) that she was kind with this adjective. More like “cluttered.”

My boss pointed out to me that my visit from my two daughters seemed to be creating no stress for me. I agreed.

It is pleasant even luxurious for me to have them here. I forget what it is like to have someone besides Eileen sort of “get me” and listen to me so well. But of course that’s not the only good part. I do like having them here. Elizabeth is thinking of coming and staying a bit in December. This seems to have to do with her situation in China. I think that would be very cool.

I mentioned Laurie Spiegel’s compositions recently. Here is a link where you can listen to this entire album. You can even buy it if you want.

Yesterday I chose some organ music for upcoming Sundays in Advent. I picked a little Toccatina by Alan Ridout to match the chorale prelude I have been learning by him on Sunday’s opening hymn: “Lo, He comes with clouds descending” (HELMSLEY).

Then for Advent II I decided to play a Scherzo by Adolphus Hailstork on WINCHESTER NEW for the prelude and a hilarious little piece by Charles Ore on BEREDEN VÄG FÖR HERRAN for the postlude.

 

The latter tune is paired with the hymn, “Prepare the way, O Zion,” in the Hymnal 1982. 

I feel pretty disconnected to church lately. I like the work but religiosity and its accouterments leave me cold. It doesn’t help that I understand it so well.

I continue to read Chris Ware’s Building Stories in my spare time.

It is amazing how he builds a narrative with discrete parts in no particular order (as far as I can see). Each little piece of his book (which comes in a cool box) provides a part of the story in way that can be understood intact but contributes to the overall story. In a way this reminds me of David Foster Wallace’s last book (which I am reading) The Pale King.

It seems that Wallace wrote the sections much the way Chris Ware’s stories work: each sort of intact but contributing to an over all story. The posthumous editor then decided as well as he could how Wallace might put them in order.

Maybe they could an edition in which each chapter is separately bound and could be read in random order.

That’s what Ware did and it seems to work.

 

So I  didn’t actually read poetry after blogging yesterday. Usually I write and then do the pictures. This took longer than I anticipated. But this morning I did do the poetry thing.

I am reading several poets right now.

Louis Glück.

A Village Life.

Demetria Martinez

(re-reading her Breathing Between the Lines).

Sharon Olds.

Stag’s Leap.

Charles Bukowski. 

The People Look Like Flowers at Last.

I tried to lay low yesterday. My cold is still with me. My daughters did the grocery shopping so all I had to do really was go to church and practice organ then treadmill.

In between I found some time for Scarlatti and Prokofiev on the piano.

The daughters decided at about 8:30 Pm they would like to go out to eat. I was too tired to accompany them but they met Eileen at work and she decided to join them.

Today they all three drive up to Whitehall and go shopping with Eileen’s Mom then lunch.

I have to do church stuff today. Pick a postlude. Submit info for the Advent I bulletin. Call some instrumentalists. Stuff like that.

My Mom canceled out on her shrink appointment yesterday. Her stomach was bothering her. We had planned to try to get her out to lunch again but that was all a no go.

I made a playlist of some of the composers from the NYT article and listened to them on Spotify.

Rediscovering the Electronic Music Godmothers – NYTimes.com

I liked Laurie Spiegel quite a bit.

Elizabeth found her album online for digital purchase.

I will probably buy it today after I check to make sure we are doing okay for money.

Elizabeth found her link on the site Band Camp. I just checked and

it’s also on Amazon.

I have one class today at noon. Then a church meeting at 1 PM.

I am enjoying having my daughters around for chats.

Sarah installed carbon monoxide detectors and smoke detectors yesterday. It helps her worry less.

Sarah and Elizabeth have rented a dumpster for Thursday and plan to clean out their stuff from the basement, stuff which is mostly damp and unusable.

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What Should Children Read? – NYTimes.com

Discussion of what reading is for. Like everything else the teaching of reading is slipping  into the nonsense utilitarian world of how much money it will help you make. Good grief. Some interesting comments from teachers in the comment section.

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Sunday Dialogue – Is Classical Music Dying? – NYTimes.com

I read this. I think the violinist letter writer and some of the other letter writers see music much differently than I do. I think that music is such a part of being human it is no danger. Our concepts change (symphony orchestra, rock band), but music continues to contain the possibilities of  fun, joy, sorrow and sundry profundities to me.

Some of the writers seem to make the assumption that there is a corpus of music that is the canon of received human art. This kind of canonic thinking is not aware of its own romanticism and ultimate shifting in the face of all human change.

Whippy skippy. I said to my ladies group I recently played for that music is what keeps me going.  It’s not all that keeps me going but it’s definitely an important part for me.

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As Bombs Fell in Gaza, a Rich Cactus Lover Could Cultivate Only Patience – NYTimes.com

A bizarre portrait of a man living in Gaza. In Arabic, “cactus” comes from the same root as “patience”: sabra.

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Republican and Lesbian, and Fighting for Acceptance of Both Identities – NYTimes.com

I have often said that sexual orientation (to use a catch phrase) does not have a causal relationship with liberal politics.  Gay people are people. Therefore in my mind they can have all the virtues and foibles available to any human. Including identifying themselves as Republicans.

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Close Guantánamo Prison – NYTimes.com

The USA continues to pursue unsavory and evil practices. Maybe it’s just inherent to having a state in the first place. Kafka might say so.

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So here’s my snazzy new blog design from my daughter Sarah and an updated WordPress software. More adjustments will probably be forthcoming as I figure out how to run this thing. 

Yesterday I took Eileen’s Blackberry to work and recorded some of the service.

I set it on top of the organ console and recorded what was happening right next to the organ while I played the prelude.

Usually I concentrate as hard as I can on the music I am playing and ignore everything happening around me. It was unusually quiet at the beginning. I did notice that but soon lost track of anything but trying to play the music.

There doesn’t seem to be much hubbub in this video while I am playing. Interesting to know.

Unfortunately Eileen’s little Blackberry made a soft but distinctly audible beep as it began to record.

I taped the next two musical parts of the service.

The opening hymn:

I did this mostly for myself to observe how well I accompany and my tempos and such. The sound is pretty bad but still it does seem that people are singing. Again with the beep in silence. Yikes.

Then the Gloria.

 

 

I do a very spare accompaniment to this and allow the congregation to carry the melody without any reinforcement. I was wondering how it sounded. Even with the bad sound I can tell that the group carries the melody pretty well. But again with the beep. I decided to quit taping because of it.

During the sermon I went in the chapel and tried to change the settings but was unable to do so. Later Eileen showed me how.

I want to tape the service music I have written in order to see how the congregation sings it. I guess that will have to wait since we will switch service music next Sunday on Advent I.

That’s the way the cookie crumbles.

At least now I know how to mute the beep.

I have had a very bad chest cold since Thanksgiving. It feels a bit better today. I am enjoying my two daughters’ extended visit. Since they chose to be here for a couple of weeks there is much less urgency about connecting, more normal relaxed time.

At least it seems that way to me. It’s hard for me not to think that there is stress visiting for them that I can’t detect since being the parent I’m involved in it (mostly unknowingly). I know I often found my parents pretty stressful,

 

but my relationship to them did(does) differ from my relationship with my kids.

At least that’s how it seems to me. At the minimum my parents did not understand me at all and my kids seem to.

Parenting. The impossible task.

I jumped on to the web earlier than usual this morning because I was curious if I could get a post going in the new design. I think I will wrap up and go read some poetry.

TODAY’S LINKS

Rediscovering the Electronic Music Godmothers – NYTimes.com

Bookmarked to check out some of the composers mentioned.

Indian Prostitutes’ New Autonomy Imperils AIDS Fight – NYTimes.com

“Studies show that prostitutes who rely on cellphones are more susceptible to H.I.V. because they are far less likely than their brothel-based peers to require their clients to wear condoms.”

Tech creates new problems such as increased prostitution and less protection against AIDS in India.

New Senate’s First Task Will Likely Be Trying to Fix Itself – NYTimes.com

Inner workings of Senate arcane but important.

White House Presses for Drone Rule Book – NYTimes.com

There are some transparency suggestions in this article I strongly agree with. I’m not sure how there will ever be a just legal process to license this kind of behavior. It feels like assassination to me. And murder by the state.

Mo Yan: “Bull” : The New Yorker

Entire text of a short story by the new Pulitzer Prize winner from China.