I went over to church to prepare for streaming tomorrow. I managed to connect to the wifi but couldn’t raise the internet. I struggled for a good while, restarting my computer a few times and checking stuff. Finally I texted Jen. I used my phone as a a hot spot and tested that connection which worked fine.

I found a fancy new microphone on my bench and wanted to see if that would work. it did. I practiced a bit and did some work on my composition. I was packing up when i received a text from Jen that she had just learned that the internet was shut down for the weekend. “The new access points are in the building but not yet wired which means it’s next Sunday before we’ll get the boost.”

I’m not sure what that means other than no internet tomorrow. She asked if the phone hotspotting would work for me to stream from church tomorrow. I said, sure.

This was a bit discouraging. It did strike me that, of course, I would have internet stuff on the fourth of July when techs are not available. Also, I think that I feel invisible sometimes because I’m basically invisible sometimes.

But toujours gai, Archy.

In the process of working on my new composition, I have been studying jazz harmony. I feel I have a good understanding of classical (white racist?) harmony. I would like to have the same expertise in jazz harmony. It’s not that far away from me. I think much of it is already a part of my own basic compositional and improvisational musical language. As I study I often have the insight that I already use the musical language, I just don’t have the facility of the nomenclature.

But this is certainly not true of all of it and I am enjoying improving these chops as I continue to work on  my current composition.

Kelly’s updated paperback version of his bio of Thelonious Monk arrived in the mail yesterday. I bring it up here because Monk’s harmonic language and improvisation have always attracted and intrigued me. This biography looks to be another excellent in-depth exposition of its subject. On the to-read stack it goes, but near the top.

I keep plowing through Kendi’s How to be An Anti-racist and Gessen’s Surviving Autocracy.

Here’s a cool story from the former.

“In my first course with [Professor Ama] Mazama, she lectured on [Philosopher Molefi Kete] Asante’s contention that objectivity was really ‘collective subjectivity.’ She concluded, ‘It is impossible to be objective.’

“It was the sort of simple idea that shifted my view of the world immediately. it made so much sense to me as I recalled the subjective choices I’d made as an aspiring journalist and scholar. if objectivity was dead, though, I needed a replacement. I flung up my hand like an eighth-grader.

“‘Yes?’

‘If we can’t be objective, then what should we strive to do?’ She stared at me as she gathered her words. Not a woman of many words, it did not take long.

‘Just tell the truth. That’s what we should strive to do. Tell the truth.”

Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be An AntiRacist