I had a full day yesterday. I found myself catching up on tasks like proofing a press release for the June recital (probably too late to be effective), paying my Mom’s bills, ordering organ education material (coloring books), giving a lesson, rehearsing with my string players and practicing organ at St. Francis. Whew. Today I only have one meeting scheduled. It is with a college student who is a member of Grace and plays violin. I’m hoping to have her do some playing this summer. This will be our first meeting. I will try to assess what is reasonable to expect from her. Besides that all I have to do is practice.

A Whole New Jupiter: First Science Results from NASA’s Juno Mission | NASA

New info about Jupiter.

Wait, what? Scientists discover snakes that hunt in packs – CNN.com

Snakes hanging from the top of a cave’s opening, co-operating and grabbing bats.

From Silence to Noise: Rauschenberg’s Influence on Music – The New York Times

The violinist who did the Cage silence piece on violin (instead of the usual piano silence)  tuned before going on stage. Very cool.

Rauschenberg Among Friends MoMa video – YouTube

Official video about the show.

Robert Rauschenberg: It Takes a Village to Raise a Genius – The New York Times

Bookmarked to read. Linked in the first article.

How the G.O.P. Sabotaged Obamacare – The New York Times

Facts matter.

I’m feeling grumpy this morning. But I want to take care to be appropriate in describing why. Last night when Eileen and I arrived at church for choir rehearsal, the parking lot was unusually full. As we headed for the sanctuary where I had prepped the evening rehearsal by setting up chairs, a wipe board on a stand, and the order for rehearsal written on a large sheet of paper on another stand, we passed a man on the stairs.

He was stooped. Probably middle aged or a bit younger. Black dude with a back pack. I looked at him. I asked him if everything was okay. He said no. Then he said he wanted to pray with us. I said actually we were having choir rehearsal. Eileen and I continued heading up the stairs.

Well, this guy seemed to be a problem for several of my choir members. The first I heard of it was when someone mentioned that a missing member was “helping him.” I think that’s what they said. A bit later, a different member showed up who had signed out and said nothing. Then another member showed up late and started singing too loud and sort of freaked out when I asked for better choral balance. By this time everyone was there.

After rehearsal, I attempted to apologize for being a bit curt with the choir member who had taken my general admonition to balance personally. That was when I began to find out that several members had confronted the man on the stairs. They said he quickly become belligerent and began swearing when they suggested he check out the local mission. And that he was drunk. Finally I guess one of them called the police.

In the course of this conversation more than one of them said that it was obvious that he was someplace where he didn’t belong.

I told them that what they should have done is come and get me. I told them that as a staff person I wanted them to feel safe and a situation like this was more my responsibility than theirs.

I’m not sure how I would have handled this dude. One never knows. My tendency is to normalize situations. I angered a choir member when I talked about having to deal with a “midnight cowboy” in downtown Detroit. She didn’t let me finish my story. Too bad. When he showed up in a choir rehearsal room on Sunday morning at First Pres, I put him in the tenor section.

I’m not saying that’s what I would have done with the guy last night. Most likely I would have ignored him and made sure he understood that we didn’t have money for him (if that’s what he wanted) and had a rehearsal we had to do. I hope I wouldn’t have called the police unless he physically threatened someone.

My choir members were angry and anxious. They pointed out that this was the second time a stranger (drunk) had shown up on Wednesday night around rehearsal time. Two weeks ago we had a guy looking for Feeding America who didn’t speak English. A Spanish speaking choir member talked to him.

I feel like the dude last night isn’t the only one who might not belong in the situation. Once again I’m feeling like I don’t belong.

This morning on the radio i heard someone talking about identifying each other as “one of them” or “one of us.” It’s hard not suspect my upset choir members saw our visitor as “one of them.” They described him as “homeless.” I wonder why.  I picture several elderly educated white people gathered around him and shudder. No one seemed to have learned his name or anything about him. Maybe they did. Mostly it just leaves me grumpy and wondering why I do this for a living even though I know that I am a lucky guy. Lucky to have a place to sleep and food to eat. Lucky to belong, I guess.

I have been enjoying reading Derek Walcott’s Omeros. A book length poem sounds like a dreary proposition but Walcott is continuing to charm and interest me. He is writing about straddling the old world and the new. The old world is England (with its erudition and colonialism) and the USA (with its racism and destruction of indigenous people). The new world is mostly St. Lucia, the island from which Walcott hailed, and the Caribbean in general.

He flits about from setting to setting and from time period to time period without too much warning. But so far it has all made sense to me. Imagine my delight, to find that the section I arrived at this morning was an homage to James Joyce. Very cool. Since one of the sustaining metaphors in Omeros is Homer (that’s what it means) and his Iliad and Odyssey, it is a logical step to the troubles in Ireland and Joyce.

As usual Walcott expects the reader to figure out just where and when he has shifted in the new chapter.  By the time he uses Joyce’s name in the final few lines of the chapter it has been obvious for a while that’s who he’s writing about. Not only Joyce but Ireland. 

Each chapter has three sections marked by  number. Here is section 2 from Chapter XXXIX, the one about Ireland and Joyce. I love the image of the shirt.

Though all its wiry hedgerows startle the spirit,
when the ancient letters rise to a tinker’s spoon,
banging a saucepan, those fields which they inherit

hide stones white-knuckled with hatred. A pitted moon
mounted the green pulpit of Sugar Loaf Mountain
in its wax collar. Along a yew-guarded road,

a cloud hung from a branch in the orange hour,
like a shirt that was stained with poetry and with blood.
The wick of the cypress charred. Glen-da-Lough’s tower.

I discovered this morning the word “curragh” which can mean “a small boat” or a “marshy area” is pronounced with a stress on the first not the second syllable. Walcott uses this word in the first line of this section.

This morning I returned to reading Inside Early Music, a collection of interviews by Bernard D. Sherman. At first I cherry picked my way through these. But I have been enjoying them so much that I decided to read them all. A few days back I started the one with Barbara Thorton about Hildegaard of Bingen.

I remember when the Hildegaard fad was going. A choir member gave me a “new-agey” type book about her.

It’s approach was so goofy, I didn’t take Hildegard very seriously. I recently ran across this book since I have been working on organizing my books. I gave it another try. Nope. I see why I rejected it out of hand. However, the Barbara Thorton interview inspired me to try again. I put on a play list and read in J. S. Bach: A Life in Music by Peter Williams (another of my little reading projects). Suddenly a track came on that was so beautiful, I couldn’t concentrate on reading. Here. You can make up your own mind.

I haven’t found any information yet about the use of instruments with this music, but I do like this track quite a bit.

I’m uploading pics to the cloud via Google Photos.  It has been running since yesterday. I’m not sure it runs when the computer goes to sleep. But you can see above it’s making progress. This is timely because Eileen recently purchased a new smart phone and wanted to save and access all her pics from her old phone.  During this process (which involved an extra trip to the Verizon franchise store) we discussed the fact that our exterior hard drive is filling up and a lot of the files are pictures. Then I stumbled across the article which I linked yesterday and discovered that Google is providing unlimited free cloud storage of pictures.  So, that’s what I’m doing. This might inspire me to go back to backing up my computers via a back up system which I have let languish.

It looks like my blog activity has risen in the last few days. I don’t actually know what to make of this. I’m not sure exactly who Google analytics is counting. I don’t delve into the mountains of information they provide.

So today I should do a bunch of tasks. I need to answer some correspondence from local organists asking about the Pasi installation. I need to read carefully the press release prepared by a parishioner. I need to practice. I need to submit Sunday’s music for the bulletin. I want to include an article on Healey Willan for this Sunday since I am planning two organ pieces and an anthem by him. I have some other things on my mind as well. Usually on Mondays and Tuesdays I try to rest and relax and not think about church very much. This is harder to do these days with so much going on.

Japanese Transgender Politician Is Showing ‘I Exist Here’ – The New York Times

I think this is cool.

When I first began using the internet to connect with people, I envisioned interesting two way conversations. This was way before the idea of blogging. Now when I write these posts it feels a little like talking into a darkened room. I know some people are probably out there. But It is a one way conversation unless someone comments.

So it was nice to chat with my brother on the phone yesterday. He reads this blog daily (Hi Mark!). He has it emailed to him so he is probably not showing up in my google stats which admittedly are not that high (30 hits yesterday). Also this morning my friend Rhonda dropped by. We had a nice chat. I know she reads this blog from time to time (Hi Rhonda!). Also, one of my main motivations is that  my kids and family can see what’s going on with me if they want by checking here. I pretty much blog daily so it’s easy to stay somewhat abreast with me that way.

I practiced organ for a couple of hours last night. I have decided on my loudest registration to date for next Sunday’s postlude, “Aeterna Christi munera” by Healey Willan.  It seems to require a big sound.  It is an amazing revelatory experience to play the Pasi organ. The sounds themselves sound so beautiful. I’ve never been one to worry too much about the quality of various keyboard instruments I play. I can tell the difference, but so many keyboards that I spend time on are not that good. Now that I’m working with a superb sound, I realize how nice that is. I still like the other kinds of sounds but this chance to play beautiful sounding pipes is quite nice.

Scientists Sneak A Peek At How Ladybugs Fold Their Wings : The Two-Way : NPR

fucking amazing

Useful or Little Known Android Features – TechSpot

Did you know that google has unlimited free cloud storage of photographs. I’m uploading them from my hard drive as I type.

We May Have Accidentally Created An Energy Shield Around Earth That Protects Us From Solar Radiation – Indiatimes.com

Since we have accidentally done this, it’s nice that is seems to be beneficial unlike global warming.

Drag Queen Story Hour Puts the Rainbow in Reading – The New York Times

When she enters the parents clap politely, the kids go crazy!

So it’s a damp, overcast Sunday afternoon in Holland, Michigan. Church went well this morning. The biggest challenge for me was the psalm. We did an Anglican chant that we hadn’t done before by C. V. Stanford. I skipped some organ practice this week. I remembered that my prelude and postlude for this Sunday were not too challenging. But I forgot about that dang psalm until yesterday. So I practiced in the morning, the evening and again this morning on the piano. I breathed a sigh of relief after we did it this morning that I managed to do it okay.

The choir sounded great. The congregation was small and didn’t really do much singing. I adjusted the organ and played louder than I have been playing. I also accompanied in a bit of a vigorous manner our first communion hymn, “Jesus in the Morning.”

After I finished the postlude, there was applause and I turned around to see a good number of people standing and looking like they had listened to it. That was nice.

Eileen and I had lunch with Martin Pasi at the Laotian restaurant we like yesterday. He is such pleasant company. Earlier he and I had discovered our mutual admiration for many 20th century Jazz players. He had mentioned how annoying the music had been at a restaurant he had eaten at here in Holland. Fake jazz. In the course of this conversation, he confessed that he had been a jazz fan long before liking classical music. He shares with me a confusion about what people are doing with jazz now. He is about my age. Our confusion comes from listening to jazz players like Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, observing their growth as musicians and watching them transform music. This kind of musical transformation in which jazz has its roots (as far as I’m concerned) is largely absent in much of what passes for jazz today.

Martin will be away starting Sunday afternoon through Tuesday evening. This means the organ will be free. Rhonda has asked for some time to practice on it while Martin is away. I figure that if she and I need to practice at the same time I can practice at Hope Church while she works at Grace. I like that.

I had a nice chat with Dr. Birky my shrink yesterday. There is a lot happening with me these days. It’s fun to review it with him. He chimes in with insights often based on brain science I don’t know. It is cool.

I have to go over to church today and make posters. Apparently Rev Jen wasn’t talking to Mary our executive administrator about the poster. I emailed her and asked her to print up some for me. She thought I was asking her to design one since she didn’t know we already had a design. She sent me back an email with an attached design. I didn’t see the email until she had left the office for the week end. I’m hoping she left it at that and didn’t do any more work on it. I feel a little sheepish at not communicating better.

I worked in the choir room yesterday while Martin was working on the organ. I am determined to file all my instrumental music so that I can have better access to it. Recently, I couldn’t find music for my violinist to play at a funeral, even though I knew I had it. This is crazy.

Anyway, while I was working in the choir room, I remembered something I heard Salman Rushdie say or read recently. It was about doing less thinking and more being. It struck me that was something that would not help me to ponder, but might help my choir. So I wrote the phrase in large letters on a sheet of paper and tacked it on my wall. Goofy I know, but that’s the breaks.

If you’re reading this you are one of a dwindling crowd. My numbers are down. So thank you for reading.

Yesterday was so full that I was unable to blog at leisure. This morning I am doing this right after Greek.

After spending a nice leisurely breakfast with Eileen and our ritual games of Boggle, I headed off to church. On the way, my student Rudy phoned me. He was scheduled to have a lesson at 1 PM, but was in town and was wondering if I could work him in sooner. My boss and I were going to meet sometime before lunch  but we hadn’t set up a time yet. I told him I would get back to him. Jen was able to see me at 11:30 so I phoned Rudy and told him to come over since it was about 10:30.

When I got to church I was surprised to find Martin Pasi working on the organ. I had understood he was going to be out of town until today. He simply came back early from his work in Detroit. So Rudy and I had a lesson in the choir room.

I had informed Rudy at the end of last summer that I didn’t want to teach him anymore because for the entire summer he had not practiced and only touched the piano when we were together. He winters in Washington D. C. where he has a different piano teacher. Apparently he finds more time to practice during that part of the year. When he called me to arrange for lessons now that he had returned to Holland, I reminded him how we had left it. He had forgotten.

In order not to some too ungracious I asked him if he thought he might have more time to practice this year. He said he thought he would. I then agreed to teach him. But of course I will be watching to see if his behavior changes.

The frustrating thing is that I enjoy chatting with him. I see him as a friend. During our lesson he observed that he could understand that I did not want to be paid to be his friend so something must be getting through to him.

Happily he had new material he has been learning to show me. His D.C. teacher had a brilliant idea and introduced him to some etudes. He doesn’t like to work on technique only literature and highly romantic literature at that. So these Moszkowski etudes seem to be just the ticket for him.

We had a good lesson. I do enjoy TEACHING when allowed.

After that I had an intense meeting with Jen. We had a lot of territory to cover. In addition to our usual debriefing of the immediately previous Sunday and examining the plan for the upcoming Sunday, we discussed upcoming recitals and Eucharists.

Sarah has designed the poster for our first recital.

Jen liked it a lot as do I. I wrote an announcement for the bulletin about this recital. I also announced that we would have a recital onJuly 30th at 3 PM called “A Young Person’s Introduction to the Organ (Adults Welcome)” and a solo recital by Rhonda Edgington on August 27th at 3 PM.

At the “Young Person’s Intro” recital, Eileen and I will perform what they call an organ demonstrator entitled “Hiker’s Gear.” Cooman describes it this way: “A Hiker’s Gear (2004) for organ and opt. narrator was commissioned by Wayne Leupold Editions as part of their series of “organ demonstrators.” The movements of the work correspond both to families of organ stops (and organ characteristics) as well as elements of the equipment of a hiker.”

I want this to be a “hands on” experience for people, young and old. So I will be inviting listeners up to the organ to give it a try as well as allowing people to climb up into the organ.

Other music at this event (“Hiker’s Gear” is about 8 minutes long) will include performances by some of our more skilled young people. There are a couple of college students home for the summer that I plan to invite to play. Also I am thinking of breaking out my drum collection and doing an African hymn together. That should be plenty for a recital of a reasonable length.

Length is something that’s on my mind for these recitals. Amy, my violinist, and I came up a Mozart sonata excerpt for her and me to play. It begins at about 5:33 in the following version.

We both like it. It’s part of the first movement of this sonata but will stand easily alone and is not too long.

Besides recitals, Jen and I discussed the upcoming visit of Trinity English Lutheran’s children’s choir to sing with us at Eucharist on June 11. Lots of planning.

I spent the afternoon rehearsing with Dawn and Amy. Dawn and I managed to sneak into the church while Martin was on lunch break and play the Frescobaldi we are learning for the June 4th recital. Amy forgot her music for my piece so we played the first movement of Faure’s wonderful piano trio.

I’m sitting at work waiting for a meeting with my boss so I thought I would blog now since I have full day. We had a good choir rehearsal last night. Eileen attended even though she was very jet lagged.  As I have mentioned here before I have some brainy people in the choir. In fact most of them are. Trying to bring out the intuitive and visceral in analytical minds can be tricky.

Now I’m back at home grabbing some lunch. I had a great meeting with Jen. We have a lot of irons in the fire right now and we nailed down a bunch of stuff. Eileen is sleeping still working on jet lag. I have to eat then go seem my Mom and then I have an afternoon of trio rehearsal. So this is going to be the blog for today.

Life is good.

Eileen’s train was late last night. She kept texting me from the train. Finally around midnight her train rolled into Holland. She seemed exhausted but happy to be home. I usually am in bed near 7 PM. But I didn’t get sleepy until 10 PM or so. I watched Raol Peck’s 2016 movie, “I Am Not Your Negro,” to stay awake. And awake I did certainly stay.

I was vaguely aware this movie was out there. I love Baldwin. I recently looked for all my copies of books he has written. I think this was why. The movie basically reviews a book Baldwin did not finish. It was to be his personal reminiscence of Medgar Evers,

Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Most of the time the voices you hear are either Baldwin  himself or the actor Samuel L. Jackson.

But this bare description does not convey the genius of the movie.

First of all, the visual aspect of the movie moves into the present even as it is using Baldwin’s prophetic words of the past. The editing, the use of clips from Baldwin’s Cambridge debate with Buckley (no sign of him however),

Baldwin’s eloquent appearance on Dick Cavett.

It’s hard to believe that people (Baldwin) spoke so intelligently in public at one time. This movie takes a dead center aim at American in this moment and gets it brutally right.

You can watch it free online here.

I find myself dissuaded from watching movies. I don’t have the acumen to find the rare ones that would attract me. But I’m glad I watched this. Eileen and I are planning to watch it together soon.

I have never heard of SolarMovie the site where this movie is found. But Eileen mentioned two more movies that she thought I might like. Moonlight.

and Fences.

Cool. Some movies to watch.

Eileen and Elizabeth picked out some “funny Chinese Dried Goods” for me.  Above are

百合 Bai He – Elizabeth: “This just means “lily” but what you have is the lily bulbs. It looks a bit like garlic cloves but they are dried. Once cooked they are very mild — a little nutty flavor. Texture will be crunchy.”

“Another ingredient we found is 黄花菜 Huang Hua Cai which literally is “yellow flower vegetable” and are dried day lily flowers. These are also very mild in taste and can be added to a stir fry.”

“Sichuan Pepper Salt is some spicy crazy stuff. ”

There was also a packed marked “curry.” It will be fun to check this stuff out. My weight is slowly dropping and blood pressure is down. These don’t look like fattening things to me.

Coincidentally, I found some funny low fat food at Meijer yesterday. Shirataki fettuccine is apparently made from the root of the konjac plant.

I had some yesterday with some commercial pesto sauce. It wasn’t bad. I think it’s important to have a tasty sauce since the “pasta” has little taste.

Here’s the nutrition run down.

Trump will likely win reelection in 2020

Some discouraging dispassionate writing. I like what Jason Fisher, a commenter says: “kind of thinking this article is bait for an anthropology experiment related to the comment section :)”

David McCullough on Reading History as Resistance

This sort of balances the stats in the first link with some sanity.

Eileen is in a airplane between Beijing and Chicago. I think this is the longest separation we have had since we met. I know I am missing her this morning. I am planning on cleaning up the house a little bit. It’s no  messier than usual but it might be nice if it was straight and clean when she came home. Also, I think I’ll put clean sheets on the bed. She usually misses sleeping in her own bed and looks forward to returning to it.

Last night was the chapter meeting of the local AGO. Grace Episcopal Church, my church, hosted. Martin Pasi was available for conversation and questions. At one point, he gave a little presentation. I don’t think either he nor I knew exactly what was going to happen at the meeting. I urged members to play the instrument. At first all were reluctant. But eventually most of them sat down and tinkered. I don’t think there is such a thing as a non-intimidating AGO meeting for regular players. I was glad people tried it out.

I am such an introvert. Spending time with people usually leaves me shaken and drained. Last night was no exception despite the obvious up side of showing off Pasi and his instrument.

I managed to sneak in a little organ time before the meeting. I landed on a couple of Healey Willan pieces for a week from this Sunday to match our post Ascension anthem of his, “God has gone up.” Martin dropped by. I showed him my registration for the little Duo by Clérambault I am playing Sunday. He had a clever way to register it better. I like that.

Today, if I want to practice organ it probably means using one of the two in town where I am permitted to practice. Martin will be working on the organ all day. The silly note stuck last night during a hymn I played for a demo. I wonder if it’s something I’m doing. I’m not particularly feeling “ept” this days (as in “inept). It’s hard not to feel I’m out of my depth. A depth I’m not too sorry to be out of, but nevertheless I am more and more seeing myself as a different kind of musician than academics and most trained organists. And I like it. I just know it’s different and probably seems odd to many.

I found it mildly troubling to listen to my fellow organists’ conversations last night. There’s so much crap that we are exposed to. It drives me crazy that people who are involved in such a wonderful thing as making music are often so wounded and often wound each other. Oh well.

It doesn’t help to be an introvert in that kind of environment. I didn’t get to sleep until late. And didn’t sleep that well. However, my blood pressure took a big drop this morning (so fans you can rest easy…. I know you were on tenterhooks about that).

I guess I am melancholy today in Eileen’s absence. But life is still good. I spent some time with Beethoven on the piano yesterday and that was fun.  I persist in doing some Greek, reading poetry, non-fiction and novels daily. Yesterday I finished Dona Leon’s new mystery, Earthly Remains. I enjoy her books and her characters. I think she can write a decent sentence. And her main character, Brunetti, is interested in classical literature. I’m almost done with Zadie Smith’s new tome, Swing Time. I read a condescending review of this book. The reviewer was “fond” of Smith but wondered just what the book was exactly about. I think the book is wonderful, complex, and subtle. It really is about the narrator and her relationship to others including a childhood friend and a famous rock star that she works for. I can’t imagine reading it and not seeing all the webs of connection throughout. One persistent theme is encapsulated in the title which is also the name of a Fred Astaire movie. I believe it’s the one where he dances in black face. Race and dance are the big themes in the book and Smith is brutal in how she tells a story of hypocrisy witnessed by the main character. Anyway, read it.

Eileen comes home tomorrow night. She will get on an early plane in Beijing.She arrives in Chicago 10 AM local time. But she is planning to take a train to Holland which means she won’t arrive until late in the evening. The train departs Chicago around 6 PM and arrives here around 10:30. I feel a little guilty for not driving down and picking her up at the airport. But that’s how she decided she wanted to do it, to spare me drives back and forth on top of my regular schedule which is full these days.

Yesterday afternoon, after rehearsing for around three hours on the new Pasi, I came home, made a martini, and sat in the back yard and read. The pics today are ones I snapped between drinks.

I think I’ve done okay in Eileen’s absence. I spend a lot of time alone anyway: practicing, reading, studying. But I do miss her. I was thinking of contacting my doctor today about my elevated BP, but of course it wasn’t that high today (135/100). I will keep an eye on it and if it does become elevated again for any length of time, I will contact her. I was thinking of doing this online since Spectrum Health provides a pretty good interface. I think I can leave a message for Dr. Fuentes there.

This evening is an AGO meeting at my church. Martin Pasi will give some sort of presentation. I have to provide coffee, plates and napkins. Today sometime I will drop by and ask how to make coffee at church. Hopefully the secretary or someone knows.

“Mother” from Tell Me Again how the White Heron Rises and Flies Across the Nacreous River ... – Hayden Carruth – Google Books

I am systematically working my way through several books of poetry, a poem or two a day. One of  these is Last Poems by Hayden Carruth. It’s kind of a clever collection. The editor went through Carruth’s many volumes of poems and chose the last poem in each volume.  Yesterday on Mother’s Day I coincidentally began reading the poem, “Mother.” It’s a long one. I have linked the google book hopefully to open at this poem if you’re curious.

I’m still reading this long poem and did not finish it this morning. The first section of the poem, “The Event,”  is a wrenching description of the death of Carruth’s mother (Happy Mother’s Day!).  She seem to have completely lost her mind as she was dying. At one point Carruth bemoans how medicine has improved so much and is giving her a lingering death. When I read the following line, I had to laugh out loud.

“For every technological advance, intelligence makes a moral regression.”

 Where Anti-Tax Fervor Means ‘All Services Will Cease’ – The New York Times

As with so many things in the US right now, it’s complicated. People get used to one level of contribution subsidized by timber harvesting on local public lands. Plus income is down. One local says conservative is one thing, community is another. Public services cease, but in one case cited budget tightening resulting in a creative use of the combined county Park department and the juvenile department. In this case, the result was positive. It’s complicated.

I believe strongly in paying taxes but also I see greed consuming our government and business community (Is there a difference?) usually at the expense of people barely making it.

Perfect dinosaur fossil found in Canada makes public debut – CNN.com

Not a skeleton, a fossil. Wow.

For Liberals, Is It Time to Move to Norway? – The New York Times

This author staying but not after some consideration.

The Republican’s Guide to Presidential Behavior – The New York Times

A list of President Trumps misbehavior (madness?). Bookmark for future reference. More instances cited in comments.

Thanks to Mom, the Marxist Revolutionary – The New York Times

Another author talking to his dead mom, learning stuff from reading her diary.

I left church quickly today. I was on foot and wanted to get to my Mom’s nursing home before noon. I just made it. The attendant told me that Mom was down to go out to eat with me today. I said that I had meant to eat with her at the nursing home. The attendant said that Mom wasn’t feeling well and that she was going to eat in her room. I told her I would sit with her. Somewhere in there I remembered that I had purchased a little potted flower to take to my Mom for Mother’s day but had left it home. Ah well.

Mom kept saying that I should have them bring me something, but they don’t really do vegetarian there and it was a bit meat day. I did sit with her for a while. I guess that’s the point of Mother’s day, right?

Church went well today. I used the organ more. In fact, I had to be conscious of adding piano on a couple things since there was nothing that pianistic to do in the service choices today. It is satisfying to have Martin Pasi observing (actually praying with us). He seems to see my work as I do. This means he values stuff that I sometimes feel is a bit eccentric. I have evolved into a “less is more” organist.  Today on our opening hymn, even though I had a 2 foot stop (2 octaves above the basic sound of the organ, the 8 foot stop), I didn’t use it. And as I have been doing, buy damien hirst valium  when the sopranos sang two different descants on verses 3 and 4, I actually cut the organ back. During rehearsal the sopranos didn’t sing loud on these descants. I praised them. I think it’s cooler if the descant soars a bit above the melody but is not so loud as to make you think of a loud trumpet sound or something.

Martin commented again after church that I was using the organ well. He liked my registrations. He is so unpretentious. It’s so refreshing since he is so good at what he does. I had parishioners talking to me about how good the sounds were after church. I pointed at Martin and said, tell him. He made them.

I spent three hours yesterday on the instrument. I chose a prelude and postlude for next Sunday. For the prelude, a “duo” from Suite on the Second Tone by Clérambault.

For the postlude, I chose “Postlude on Converse (What a Friend We Have in Jesus) by Carson Coomans. We are singing a choral anthem by him next Sunday so i thought that would be cool. Also I found an Organ Demonstrator by him I might want to use. It’s called “A Hiker’s Gear.” It compares family of sounds on the organ to the gear one needs for a hike. It’s “geared” toward middle school, high school, and adult listeners. I stumbled on it yesterday doing some filing.

Martin mentioned Hans Davidsson to me. I think this is a very cool video and I like the way this dude plays. Martin also says he is a ballet dancer. Cool.

The funeral yesterday was packed. And they sang up a storm. Unfortunately, during the first hymn we used a note stuck on the Pasi. I thought it was a cipher (a stuck pipe) so while continuing to play the hymn I systematically took off one rank at a time. I was expecting that the note would stop when I took of the rank of pipes in which the guilty pipe was contained. This did not happen. No matter what I did the note persisted. Finally I shut the organ down. The congregation sang the third stanza a cappella (with gusto). I came back for the fourth stanza on piano.

I wonder how noticeable this event was since the note stuck was in the key of the hymn (F in the key of F major). When I returned to the console after the hymn I noticed that the key itself was stuck down on both keyboards  (since they were coupled). I took off the coupler. The keys returned to their normal off position.

During the creed I turned the organ on to see if the note would still sound. Silence. Good. I played the rest of the service on the organ as planned.

Eileen seems to be having a great time in China. Yesterday I think I frightened her a little bit when I didn’t get up and text her. She phoned me in a bit of panic. The connection was bad and we couldn’t talk that much, but we did text thereafter. This morning I texted her when I got up, so she wouldn’t worry about me.

The United States of Anxiety | WNYC

New podcast I am following. On The Media put it in their podcast stream.

I listened to this episode this morning:

Episode 1: Whose Kansas Is it Anyway? – The United States of Anxiety – WNYC

Recommended.

Assessing the Frequency Nurse Practitioners Incorporate Spiritual Care into Patient-Centered Care

Publish or perish. This is an article recently published by Barb Vincensi who sings in the alto section of Grace’s choir. Cool.

A Better Way to Help the World – The New York Times

Good goals, but I am suspicious of any politician talking about eliminating regulations.

Home – Solutions Journalism Network

Co founder of this worthy organization, Tina Rosenberg, is interviewed on this week’s “On the Media.” I found their web site clunky but I like the idea of teaching reporters how to report more clearly and be more effective.

Amy Siskind – Medium

Since the November election, Amy Siskind, co-founder of The New Agenda has been compiling a weekly list of “things subtly changing around you” that may point to a drive toward authoritarianism:

I broke my pattern today and haven’t gone over to church yet this morning. I have an 11 AM funeral. The woman who died was in the choir for a while. She and her husband threw one of those significant wedding anniversary parties a while back. I can’t remember how long they had been married. But I did learn a great deal about her and her husband via the memorabilia and photos they shared at this party. They had traveled extensively and had a fascinating life. I realized how sophisticated they were. The widower has requested Bach for the funeral. Yesterday Amy, my violinist, and I prepared several Bach pieces for today’s funeral. We worked at my home. I invite Amy and Dawn to rehearse at my house on Feeding America Thursdays which occur once a month.

It was a shame we couldn’t get over and work with the organ and new acoustic at church. But that’s the way it goes sometimes. We are thinking of playing Spiegel im Spiegel as part of the long musical prelude that usually occurs at funerals at our church. I have to get over there before too long and find the dam violin part. It was not with the accompaniment.

The new organ still presents an interesting challenge since I’m not overly confident about how well I can make it work. Part of that is my own learning curve on a tracker and a flat pedal board. Also part of it is that it’s an incomplete instrument. I will probably have about six ranks to work with today. Thankfully one of those will be a 4′ principal something that will help me lead the singing if we happen to have an enthusiastic assembly.

My treadmill stopped last night after twelve minutes of treadmilling. Dang. I was so proud of myself that I had jumped on it at the end of the day before martini time. I was chatting with Eileen on Whatsapp this morning and she said we should a “real one.” The problem with that is that a better machine is expensive. Of course by the time I have bought four of the fucking things I will have spent close to a thousand dollars. I don’t think I can get a “real one” for that amount. But it’s frustrating to keep buying crappy ones that break.

I am washing my non-black dress pants for use today. The last thing I said to Amy was that she didn’t have to wear black. She doesn’t like wearing black. I think it has something to do with not having had a lot of fun experiences with string quartets and other gigs that insist on musicians in black. Anyway, I got up this morning and realized that my non-black nice pants were not clean enough to wear. I have black pants, but then I thought that it would be kind of creepy  to show up in black pants after telling Amy she didn’t have to wear black.

I am sometimes amazed how much my trio talks about what we should wear. I know it’s important to the other members to think about it. For me, it’s less and less important.

Phil Harrington, the Methodist minister who sings in the bass section of my choir, asked me in front of Pasi if I had told him about my marimba organ piece. I had not, but it prompted Pasi to email me the above audio file of Robert Bate’s piece for organ and synth. The organ playing is a Pasi, naturally. It’s  Opus 19, located at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston, TX.

I’ve listened to the piece twice. I’m not sure what I think of it as a piece of music but it’s cool that Martin emailed it to me.

Yesterday was the first day I did no Greek for a long time.  I don’t remember putting it off all the time I have been working on it. That has been for a few years. Just like this morning I sneaked over to church before Martin Pasi arrived to get in some rehearsal on the instrument. Thursday mornings find me tired from rehearsal the night before and this morning is no exception. But on both the past two mornings I had a little shot of adrenaline to get over practice upcoming organ music.

I am planning to play and conduct Sunday’s anthem from the organ console. This always takes extra preparation.  Plus I only have a limited number of ranks (sets of pipes) available and have to think carefully about which ones to use to accompany the choir.  After last night I think I have a good idea of how to do it. Now I have make sure I can actually do it.  Chances are, I will be able to do it competently.

The trio is coming to my house today for our weekly rehearsal. We do this on Feeding America weeks since that project begins to fill up the parking lot right about the time we leave. Last night we had a person interrupt the beginning of choir rehearsal. He seemed to speak no English and have his Feeding American nights mixed up. Luckily the Methodist minister who sings in the bass section does. He later confided that the guy was drunk. Ah, the life of a church musician.

I interrupted my morning routine this morning. After feeding the cat, taking my BP (slightly lower) and weighing (also a bit lower), cleaning the kitchen, and making coffee, I managed to get to church around 7 AM and practice on the Pasi. I went through hymns and spent a good deal of time on Sunday’s anthem. Eileen called from China during this period slightly worried since I wasn’t on any of the online chats we use. We chatted for a bit. She is doing great. Yesterday I think not having her around contributed to a bout of melancholy (which didn’t last long). We hung up. Then I began thinking about my prelude and postlude. I decided to change them to pieces a bit more organistic. For the prelude I am now planning to use Gerald Near’s lovely setting of Westminster Abbey (our opening hymn), for the postlude i found a charming little piece on Middlebury (Come away to the skies) by Russell Schulz-Widmar. So I’m kicking off my first organ prelude and postlude with pieces based on the adjacent hymnody by two American Episcopalian composers. Not a bad way to go.

Martin arrived around 9. He told me had reached out to Huw Lewis at Hope and received a nice response and a promise to drop by today or tomorrow. I thanked him profusely. He knows that I would like to connect the organ department at Hope to Grace Church and that this is not easy with the present players (myself and Huw).  I refrained from gossiping about Huw. I only told Martin that I had known him for a long time and that I didn’t think he liked me very much. Martin said that I was indeed a different sort of organ guy. Coming from him this is a high compliment.

I’m blogging and eating breakfast at home. Finding out about President Trump’s firing of the FBI director, James Comey,  was a rude way to wake up this morning. It’s so hard to tell what’s going on. A commenter on a NYT report (KM of San Fransico) put it this way

Conservatives have been conducting a slow motion “coup d’etat” over the past 30 years. Gerrymandering. Voter suppression. Judicial manipulation. Propaganda programs to misinform and confuse large swaths of the voting public. The removal of Comey in the midst of of crucial investigation of the President and his enablers is one more step towards the inevitable: the perversion and ultimate destruction of democracy in the US leading to permanent conservative control of the country.

For contrast I listened to a little Fox news radio this morning on my tablet. They were yelling about Hillary’s emails.

I’ve also been thinking about greed. Marcus the organ builder pointed out how greed seems to be driving so much in the USA. I think he’s right especially about the players like Koch. I started reading Dark Money by Jane Mayer. We are, indeed, in a very dark time in our country and perilously close to turning our backs on democracy, if this hasn’t already happened.

Happy stuff.

I chatted with Martin yesterday for a while. His politics are very similar to mine. He couldn’t understand how so many Americans are disconnected from politics and don’t bother to vote. He said in Austria it was so expected that everyone voted that he thought it was a law (it isn’t). I want to remember and ask him what his sources for news are.

10 tracks that dominated the first ever Music On Festival – Blog – Mixmag

I’ve only made it through the first couple of the embedded videos. So far I’m finding the music not interesting.

Robert Bozeman videos

This is a link I found in my AGO mag. If you scroll down you can see interviews with Roberta Gary, someone I respect. I’m also intrigued by Bozeman’s doctoral project, Gesture, Movement, and the Keyboard Performer: A Somatic Approach to Learning, Practicing, and Performing. 

The Gary interview was part of the project. And according to Bozeman’s notes to his interview with her in the mag, the complete project is online, but I haven’t found it yet on his web site. Still I am planning on listening to the full interview.

Alexander – Blachly // Faculty // Department of Music // University of Notre Dame

This dude is someone Martin mentioned to me. I guess he has stayed at Blachly’s house for one reason or another. He said the Blachly house is full of interesting instruments. Blachly directs Pomerium. Here’s a lovely taste. I like the paintings.

thinking about rhythm

Martin Pasi again complimented me after Sunday’s Eucharist on the “rhythmic” way I do church music. I told him that it was probably because I was a rock and roll musician first and never lost complete touch with that.

But I’ve been thinking about it. I think they’re might be two sources for some of this in my playing: dance and voice. When I first played regularly in a house bar band, ever weekend there were dancers on the floor from the first note to the last. We were a dance band. Then in recent years I have accompanied ballet class. I think that movement is basic to music and informs it.

Also I think that many organists I listen to do not seem to think very clearly about breathing and the human voice. I have been a singer on and off all my life and also a choir director. I think that the human voice also informs music, breaths life into it.

These things are more aspirations of mine than what I consider accomplishments since one must closely monitor the moment of music making persistently.

blood pressure news

My blood pressure has been up for the last four days (around 140/100). In the past when I have a high reading, it usually went down after I did the dishes. But that’s not happening. If it continues I will report it to my doctor. I may wait until Eileen returns to see if it goes down then. Ah, getting old is fun.

Review: Angélique Kidjo Takes ‘Remain in Light’ Back to Africa – The New York Times

I love the interwebs. There are several YouTube videos that seem to be related to the story at the link about Kidjo’s recent performance of Talking Heads tunes as well as other stuff.

E.P.A. Dismisses Members of Major Scientific Review Board – The New York Times

fuck science

Gabourey Sidibe: By the Book – The New York Times

I cannot resist checking out books that interesting people recommend in these regular NYT interviews.

Trump Administration Is Sued by ACLU for Files on Botched SEAL Raid in Yemen

Where, if anywhere, in the Qur’an does it say that non-believers must be killed? In what context? – Quora

I looked this up after seeing some particularly rabid memes on Fecesbooger.

what a difference quality sound makes

I have spent my life enjoying music largely for the way it works together not primarily for the beauty of the sounds. This has worked out well for me because as an organist and pianist often I have to play pretty crappy instruments. Many other musicians would probably turn up their nose at many if not most of the keyboard instruments I have had to perform on.

But after having spent several hours alone with Martin Pasi’s Gedackt and Viola pipes I am moving into another level of awareness of the beauty of organ sound. It is connected to the action as well. Playing these ranks on mechanical action quickly begins to feel more like singing than anything else. It’s an odd but extremely pleasant sensation. Of course it pulls me deeper into the music and the sounds themselves. How nice this is.

Sunday report

Here’s a link to a video of Rev Jen introducing Martin Pasi at the announcements yesterday (4:21 or so). Martin quickly gives a little talk. Later in the video (10:52) you can listen to the first sounds of the organ in the service accompanying Dvořák’s “God is my shepherd.”

Before this moment in the service, I only used piano. After this, I used the organ for the Holy holy, the Fraction Anthem, and the first Communion hymn. So now we have our feet wet as a community.

My Dvořák piano pieces were not stellar. I stumbled a couple of times. I do wonder if the flaws somehow contribute to the performance. I know I try to quickly get past them as I am playing. I also know there were some pretty musical moments in both the prelude and postlude. However, they might have gone better had I not spent time playing the organ for the sheer delight of it  before the choir arrived. Oh well. It was so much fun to play the organ that I’m not too disappointed in my performance of the Dvořák piano pieces which I learned in under a week.

Dupuytren’s Contracture

It’s official. I have Dupuytren’s Contracture (pronounced something like doo puh trens). I met with Dr. Richard Howell, orthopedic surgeon who specializes in hands, this morning. He said I have a classic case. He also recommend not intervening in any way at this time. He described for me the many treatments including operations. Since I am not exactly experiencing radical changes that inhibit my playing, he wanted to wait until doing something would provide significant relief since there is the risk he could make it worse. I see him again in January 2018 unless I have had no change in my hands in which case he said to cancel the appointment.

How music influenced the art of Marc Chagall – CBS News

I’m way behind on sharing links on the blog. I thought it was odd that this article mentioned “Firebird” but never says it was composed by Stravinsky. So much the influence of music, eh?

The Unconventional and Honest Music of Paul Russell | The Cornell Daily Sun

Kind of hip hoppy.

Ai Weiwei: How Censorship Works – The New York Times

This artist should know.

A Season of Regret for an Aging Tribal Expert in India – The New York Times

A disturbing sad story.

F.C.C. Will Review Complaints About Colbert Joke, Chairman Says – The New York Times

We are living through a time of evolving fascism.

Years After Boko Haram Kidnapping, Dozens of Girls Are Freed, Nigeria Says – The New York Times

I continue to follow this story. Some good news.

A Modern-Day Harriet Tubman – The New York Times

Now I understand why little minds were so upset at this woman making public statements. I think she’s inspiring.

It’s ironic that though I am using the Pasi for the first time in Eucharist this morning, I am spending hours preparing piano music, namely the Dvořák piano pieces for the prelude and postlude. I have already gone over them some this morning and plan to do more before I leave for church.

Yesterday was the first time I was able to practice on the Pasi. I went to church to prep for today. This meant moving choir chairs and the piano back into place, putting up the correct hymn numbers on the hymn board, making sure the choir has bulletins on their chairs in church and so on.

Then as I sometimes do, I methodically worked over the order for the service from beginning to end, either playing through material or simply looking at it and reassuring myself I could easily do it.

The first thing I will use the organ on is today’s choral anthem, “God is my shepherd” by Dvořák. So that was the first time I sat at the organ and worked yesterday. I discovered that there are two ranks ready for tomorrow plus all couplers are working. So after rehearsing playing and conducting the Dvořák, I could not resist rehearsing some upcoming organ music I want to use by Bach and Bender for Pentecost.

I pulled all the couplers on and found that it will take some getting used to a bit heavier touch. The flat pedal board presented very little challenge. It’s possible the touch will change after Pasi adjusts pipes but I’m thinking it’s going to be the most different thing about playing this instrument.

The flute stop which I will use today is beautiful. I rehearsed hymns on the organ just for fun to practice playing on it. I figure I will probably be able to get some more time on it today in the afternoon. But Pasi and I will probably be dodging each other next week, me giving him all the time he needs to do his work but at the same time looking out for times I can practice if he thinks that’s a good idea.

Well I have to get to more piano rehearsal. See you on the fun way.