I am avoiding cleaning up the house for tonight’s choir party by blogging. Soon I will have to get going on this. Also I am planning to make snacks. I will go over to the church later, practice and pick up some hymnals and choral music to provide entertainment this evening.
Yesterday I finally got my Mom over to the optician and ordered new lens and frames. This should help her with her reading.
I couldn’t get the check book to balance yesterday. Eileen then worked on it for several hours and finally figured out we had written down one transaction twice in the ledger. Thank goodness she’s there to help.
I feeling a little overwhelmed this morning.
The house is a wreck. I have no motivation to get ready for tonight so I will have to force myself to do so in a bit. I will put on music. That helps.
Eileen and I also went out looking for covers for our Kindles yesterday. She found one at Odd Lots. I found one at Staples. There were both 5 bucks a piece. Not bad but by the time we were one looking I was pretty tired. Came home and made myself go practice.
This was good since I spent a good amount of time reading through Bach preludes and fugues. I have been reading again in Reinventing Bach by Paul Elie. I am finding (and making notes of) more mistakes. Initially I found where he said that the tune for “A Mighty Fortress” was derived from a Gregorian chant. This is true of many Lutheran chorales. But I don’t think it’s true of that one. He mistakenly referred to the number of ranks in an organ as the number of pipes. Big difference. He also said that Mendelssohn was Jewish using it to make a point. Weird. Mendelssohn was a baptized Lutheran and only Jewish by heritage not faith or practice.
Anyway despite these errors I am finding the book pretty inspiring in its enthusiasm about Bach. It goes into quite some detail about Albert Schweitzer and is inspiring me to consider re-reading his book on Bach.
I read it once straight through when I was about twenty. Since then I don’t think I’ve made it all the way through again. But have thumbed through it many times. Even though his scholarship is inevitably dated, I find his insights still pretty valuable.
Oh well, time to get cleaning.
*********************************************************************************************************************
James Meek reviews ‘Breaking Bad’ produced by Vince Gilligan · LRB 3 January 2013
This review made me think of rewatching this series. Also the reviewer puts “Breaking Bad” in the same high quality category as “Mad Men,” “The Sopranos,” and “The Wire.” This makes me think Eileen and I might enjoy watching all the way through “The Sopranos” one series we haven’t been that attracted to.
**********************************************************************************************************************
With Accessory, Officers Looking Sharp and Staying Safe – NYTimes.com
The history and advantages of clip-on ties for law officers.
*********************************************************************************************************************
Is It Time to Scrap the Constitution? – NYTimes.com
Letters in response to an article I recently linked.
*********************************************************************************************************************
A Guide to the Senate’s Freshman Class | RealClearPolitics
FWIW
********************************************************************************************************************
Peter Blaikie: Guns, gun culture, and madness in the United States
A conservative from Canada talks sense about this topic. Thank you for pointing this out on Facebookistan to Ken Near my friend who lives in Quebec.
*******************************************************************************************************************