The free breakfast offered Thursday morning at our hotel was weirdly Western. Four half slices of dry toasted white bread served with rock hard butter in a small restaurant container. A symmetrically round sunny side up egg. Two slices of pale not quite ripe watermelon. The coffee was not bad which was surprising. But when I asked the young woman anxiously trying to wait on us if there was any steamed buns available she barely seemed to understand what I was asking for.

Later Eileen and Elizabeth went out to do some errands while I watched Alex. They purchased some of the very steamed buns I had in mind, some sweet with sweet bean paste stuffing some savory with some amazing local chive like greens, copious garlic and specks of egg.

It wasn’t too long before Jeremy and Sarah arrived. Sarah looked pretty exhausted from her flight and after a bit crawled off to do some badly needed resting in a bed at Jeremy’s and Elizabeth’s apartment.

For our meal together later, Eileen and Jeremy went to the market and purchased raw materials for an amazing little very Chinese feast that Jeremy whipped up on their return.

They purchased two kinds of Sichuan pepper so that I was able to experience the odd numbing sensation associated with the cuisine that uses this uniquely Chinese spice.

Elizabeth put rice in their rice cooker while they were gone.

The meal consisted of stir fried mushrooms, three small bowls of a different savory dipping sauces, fried rice, and Nan spread with fermented bean paste.

Not too long afer the meal, Eileen very suddenly was tired so she and I walked back to our room. Sarah was getting a second wind so she remained behind at the apartment.
Later, she and Jeremy dropped by the motel room with sim cards for our phones so that they would work in China. Jeremy grimly told me that we should wipe our phones upon return to the States presumably due to Chinese surveillance practices.
They were riding around in jeremy’s cool three wheel motor scooter. They scooted back to the apartment for a while. Then returned late with cold noodles for Eileen, Sarah and me for later in our rooms

Sarah, Jeremy and i sat in the court yard while a man from the hotel played his er hu at the next table. His tone was amazing. His repertoire seemed to move between pentatonic Chinese folk songs to Scarbarough Fair. During one of the folk songs the chef could be heard joining in singing from the nearby kitchen.
Sarah ate her noodles. Jeremy drank his beer and the three of us chatted happily. Later the er hu player switched to violin and continued with melodies like the theme from Dvorak’s New World Symphony. After a while Jeremy scooted home.
Then Eileen groggily wandered out looking for me We were sitting in courtyard steps away from the door to our room. Sarah’s hotel room is next door to ours. So we inspected each other’s rooms after a brief chat before retiring.
The conversations yesterday were very satisfying and interesting. Jeremy loves to talk and is in the young Dad high moment of exhilaration. He is madly in love with Alex who gets passed from arms to arms of everyone very contentedly.

Jeremy recommended a writer to me and instantly uploaded a book on my Kindle by him for me: I am an Executioner by Rajesh Parameswaran.

Later after he left and before Eileen joined us Sarah gave me my birthday present. It was a signed copy of Neil Gaiman’s Graveworld No 1. The graphic novel edition by P. Craig Russell. I read some in both last night.

Right now it is 4:10 AM local time. I’m wrting this off line again in the hopes that I will get a window of VPN access to our spotty wifi here in the hotel. It’s 4:10 PM back in Michigan. The adjustment to the time changes like this gets rougher and rougher as I age. But I’m having a wonderful time for sure.

So I’m writing this offline. Eileen and I are staying at what is called the Red Lantern House. Jeremy had the taxi drop us off across the street from an entrance to alley. The main road was not wide, but cars, bicycles, scooters and odd looking tricyles of all description were swooping by. Jeremy advised us not to look drivers in the eye. He said they took it as a sign and would drive right into you. Better to look straight ahead and forge in. Seemed scary to me but somehow we got across the street.
The alley was filled with people as well. Wares and food stuff were laid out for bypassers to see and buy. One man had a grill and a young woman sat in a neat small bench in front of him while he handed her little kebob like affairs with various stuff on it for her to eat.
The Red Lantern office was a hole in the wall affair. It has both rooms and a hostel set up. Jeremy quickly got us registered. I was surprised when the woman who was leading us to our room left the front door. We followed. Jeremy said that it was a two minute walk away.
We followed the cheerful woman through the winding alleyways until we came to a charminglittle courtyard. Everything is crammed into together in such an interesting way. These neighborhoods are called “hutongs” and have a long history in Beijing.
The room is neat and has a bathroom with a shower. Pretty luxurious without descending into complete Western hotel rooms (which are available here but seem pretty pointless…. I mean why come to China if you’re not going to experience something a bit different?)
We sat on the bed. Jeremy said we could get a technical upgrad to the bed if it was too hard. By this he meant they would add another thin layer of padding. We decided to ask for this.
Then we walked to Elizabeth and Jeremy’s apartment. The walk was a bit bewildering. Jeremy was keeping up his usual entertaining rap. There was a lot to take in. But I think after the walk back to the hotel last night I can navigate my way back to their apartment.
It took Eileen about two seconds to get Alex in arms. Elizabeth had ordered take out. It was a feast of four dishes which they said cost about $12 American equivalent. We had a nice meal and a chat. I got to hold Alex at one point so now I am satisfied.
Jeremy had a phone call for work from 8 to 9 PM. We goofed around with phones and computers and VPNs during this part. Also Eileen unpacked a suitcase full of stuff for Alex. Or did Elizabeth do that while Eileen held Alex? Yes that’s what happened.
By the time Jeremy was done with his call we were all a bit tired. We couldn’t quite figure out how to stay connected with our phones. Jeremy put Elizabeth’s sim card in my phone which seemed to work. But he will be picking up Sarah from the airport this morning so there is really no way to for Elizabeth and us to connect since we have her sim card and could only use it to call Jeremy.
The internet in our room is weak and spotty: low signal and intermittent. I did have about a three minute window a bit ago during which I did a quick blog post and emailed Elizabeth that we were doing fine and thought we could get back to her apartment unassisted this morning.
It’s more of an adjustment not being able to use the internet freely since many sites are blocked even after you can manage a connecction. Elizabeth installed a VPN. I think this stands for something like Virtual Private Network. Anyway, it enables you to fake out the local internet into thinking you’re actually not in China but somewhere like New York or Dallas.
Eileen put one on her netbook before we left the States thanks to Mark sending us a link. I was too lazy to do that. That’s why Elizabeth installed one on my laptop. Their old VPN expired the week Alex was born so they quickly bought a new one with only three licenses. I am now using one of the three.

Eileen and I staying in a neat little nook in what they call a “hutong” neighborhood. The wifi is weak with intermittent internet access. I suspect this is because our room is an alley away from the main desk. Anyway it’s early Thursday morning here and we are still trying to get our body clocks acclimatized a bit. I’m going to publish this little post before I lose the Internet again.

Today Eileen and I get on a plane and fly away to China. I’m hoping I can blog during this trip. Probably I will be able to.

Last night was the AGO officer installation. I have to admit I wasn’t very into it. But that’s not new for me. My musical interests include so much that doesn’t seem to connect with the local AGOers. They are very much into local Reformed Church politics and point of view.

One nice thing was that since the person scheduled to play the postlude had a medical emergency,  Rhonda played an interesting last minute postlude. The piece scheduled was “Final” from  Symphony #3, Op. 28 by Vierne. Vierne is not a composer that interests me much. He is an important organ composer and the person scheduled (Huw Lewis) is an exemplary player. But I admit I was dreading it. The prelude “Adagio” from Sonata in C Minor, Op. 56 by Guillmant. It was nicely performed by a college student but again it really was a dopey piece. It ended with chimes.

I don’t get why when people get a chance to program music they make just dreadful choices. But it’s probable that I’m just out of touch and have an eccentric non-pipe organ point of view. In the student’s case it was probably a recommendation from his teacher, Huw.

I thanked Rhonda afterwards for playing the piece she did (Mouvement by Jean Berveiller). I also had a chance to speak with Emily Brink briefly who is someone I admire. I thanked her for her work. She edited the Psalter Hymnal and was president of the Hymn Society. Again she is a big Reformed church dudette, but I still think she has done some good stuff.

Yesterday was a bit weird. I had two performances experiences that ended up being the opposite of what I expected, at church and at a party. At church, Dawn and I performed the Brahms cello sonata movement we have been working on for the prelude. I was a bit worried that people would be insensitive. Dawn can get upset and distracted when people move into her performing space making noise (talking). I think this is pretty understandable and try to do what I can to make her safe to play.

We have had instances where people actually have poked her while she played.

Anyway, I did talk to an older altar boy about making sure they didn’t loiter near her and make noise.

This turned out not to be very necessary. The piece we played was about eleven minutes long. About seven minutes into it, I noticed that the people in the room were very quiet, quieter than usual. I think they were listening.

I wondered later if it had been an example of the rewards of my stubborn persistence to try to do quality stuff in the hopes that people might be drawn to listen and/or respect the music.

Later Dawn and I and Amy all played at Rhonda’s party as we promised. I was surprised that people at the party seemed so disinterested in what we were doing. The french doors were open and there seemed to be screen doors. But when the flute player played I went outside and could barely hear her and the piano not at all. I know Rhonda appreciated our music. But for the most part I think the music performed by us and other instrumentalists was unheard and barely noticed. The performances all day were pretty good. I know I enjoyed playing.

I finished Shark’s Fins and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuschia Dunlop this morning. It was a great read. I especially appreciated her writing style and the many stories she told of her experiences in China. If you are interested in Chinese cooking or life, I recommend it.

I’m not sure how well I will be connected to the internet in China. My daughter and her husband have VPN which allows full access but we are staying in a hotel. I’m hoping they will help me install a VPN if I need one to use my laptop there.

At any rate, the blog might be sporadic for about a week and a half while I’m away.

So yesterday was a bit crazy as I thought it would be. Eileen and Barb left around 10 AM to go north for a celebration of Eileen’s Mom’s 90th. On the way they stopped at  a nursing home and visited Barb’s Mom. I met with my musicians at 10 AM and we practiced for today.

I had a wedding at 3. There was no one from our community there as far as I could see. I didn’t recognize anyone including the minister. Celebrations like this are bad for my already weak faith. I know people are sincere, but I lost interest in the ceremony and read my Kindle (hopeful unobtrusively). I raised my head to hear the guitarist play (strum) and sing “The wedding song.” The minister remarked afterwards that he had had the same song sang at his wedding forty years ago. I was thinking as the baritone huskily sang the tune that the writers and original performers of this now pretty traditional wedding song were all probably all dead.

A quick google reveals that only Mary is dead.

The other time I raised my head was for the ritual playing of a cd recording of the “our Father.” I noticed that the singer on the recording was the bride herself and that the accompaniment appeared to be a sort karaoke orchestra.

What can I say?

Afterwards as I was posting hymns for today’s service, the photographer was very complimentary of my prelude piano playing (Bach, Mozart). He also was whistling my Brahms postlude. I am playing it again today. I often try to use pieces I already have ready for the weekend service and weddings and funerals if they are at all appropriate.

This Brahms pieces is just the chorale of the First Symphony. It does make a nice little (easy) postlude that fits with the Brahms Cello sonata movement we have planned for the prelude.

I didn’t get paid for the wedding or the funeral yet. I know that my boss will make sure I get paid eventually. But it will probably be after I get back from China. Sigh.

I went to the grocery store to pick up some items we need for the next few days (wine, baileys, ice cream, bread). Then came home to an empty house. Exercised.

I wasn’t expecting Eileen and Barb until later so I read for a while. Then I watched a pretty cool video.

Despite the goofy title this was a great documentary about life in  taiga in Russia.

I don’t know how filmmaker Herzog did this documentary but it captured my interested. He follows trappers in this immense area (1.5 the size of the continental USA if I heard correctly). They make their own skis , traps and canoes out of trees. Very cool. About a third of the way in, Eileen and Barb returned. They joined me to watch the rest of it.

The last few days before boarding an airplane to China have turned into a bit of a marathon.  Yesterday I had ballet class, then a funeral. In between, Eileen had some gifts arranged on the table for me. She explained that this was the best day to celebrate my birthday which is actually Monday.

I arranged to meet Rhonda to go over the program for Monday evening’s AGO installation at 2:30. I had about an hour off before that during which I rested and practiced piano. Eileen and I went over to the church around 2 to get started. Eileen has had experience with Publisher software and had proofed the service so far. By the time Rhonda arrived we had corrected a lot. Rhonda had some further corrections and info. We finished this project and returned home.

I rested then jumped on the treadmill. I was still treadmilling when our friend Barb Phillips arrived. We all went out to CityVu together to celebrate my birthday. After two martinis I was relaxed but exhausted. Whew!

Today I need to prepare the bulletin information for the Sunday after I come back, Sept 28th. I am meeting with my piano trio people at 10 to rehearse pieces we plan to perform at Rhonda’s party tomorrow. I have a 3 PM Wedding to play and need also to prep for tomorrow morning’s Eucharist.

In the meantime, I am trying to think through what I need to take with me to China. The short answer is as little as possible, since Eileen has packed bags full of gifts for Alex, our new granddaughter. Once again as I look towards travel i am grateful for the devices which allow me to take along books and access to the internet.

What We’re Afraid to Say About Ebola – NYTimes.com

The basic fear is that the virus will transform into an airborne one. Yikes.

Obama’s Betrayal of the Constitution – NYTimes.com

Although the comments section challenges this conclusion on the grounds that the renewed fighting is not directed toward an actual nation, I think I have concerns about the executive branch ordering troops and bombing without public debate and congressional approval despite the grid lock in our Congress right now.

Finished How Music Works by David Byrne this morning.

I wrote a little review for Good Reads:

I have mixed feelings about this book. When Byrne talks about what he knows like song writing and the music business and his own story, this book is quite good. But he ventures into areas where he seems not to know about stuff. For example, he lauds the experiments of David Wish’s Little Kids Rock in which kids are encouraged to improvise, something which Byrne says had never been considered for part of music curriculum before. He must not know about the Orff Schulwerk pedagogy.

This is in chapter nine, “Amateurs.” This chapter along with the next concluding chapter of the book called “Harmoni Mundi” gave me the most problems. Byrne follows the thinking of John Carey that classical music is an expression of economic repression. Also, Byrne thinks its anti-amateurism, reserving for experts (by which he must mean people who learn that craft) the experience of making that kind of music which bores him anyway. His argument sort of withers when one factors in choral music or hymn singing (both of which I admit are my field).

But having said all that, I think this is a book worth reading. Byrne has a great mind and I think has written and recorded some excellent music. But I quote his concluding idea which pictures him torn between the narrative of pop music and the beauty of music of the sound an ocean makes, “Do I have to choose?”

As I read I couldn’t help but hear the prose in the voice of Byrne’s character in True Stories.

This added to pleasure for me. I think Byrne is essentially a poet of contemporary life. I like many of his songs and I admire his execution of them.

I guess I feel like a bit of an old codger when I read his book even though Byrne is only one year younger than me. I do wonder why more people like him don’t like Bach (he doesn’t). But at least I get to like all kinds of stuff and don’t have to limit myself to what sells or historical music but can enjoy anything that strikes my fancy.

The Digital Wallet Revolution – NYTimes.com

I keep waiting for this to happen.

Stop the Anti-Obamacare Shenanigans – NYTimes.com

I find the “take no prisoners” approach depressing, but I keep voting and calling my senator.

Obama, in Speech on ISIS, Promises Sustained Effort to Rout Militants – NYTimes.

I fail to see how war helps anything. I bought the ebook of  Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt and read in it yesterday. I’m already learning stuff.

Alibaba Is Bringing Luxury, Fast, to China’s Middle Class – NYTimes.com

My daughter who is living in Beijing (Hi, Elizabeth!) says that the courier service there is amazing. She can order something online and it will be delivered to her door sometimes within an hour.

For Many Iranians, the ‘Evidence’ Is Clear: ISIS Is an American Invention – NYTime

Whenever I read a story like this I wonder what misconceptions I have that are this far from reality.

Finished The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship by Paul Bradshaw this morning. it was a very helpful update to scholarship in this area.I like Bradshaw’s skeptical approach. He ends the book with this great quote from Robert Taft who is another teacher I studied with in grad school.

“Knowledge is not the accumulation of data, not even new data,  but the perception of relationships in the data, the creation of hypothetical frameworks to explain new data, or to explain in new ways the old.”

This is typical of Taft’s rigorous mind.

This book, Thomas Cranmer by MacCulloch, and The Later Reformation in England 1547-1603 also by MacCulloch filled in gaps in my knowledge and understanding.

Thomas Cranmer helped me better understand how the Anglican church emerged from the Roman Catholic church and the Reformation. The Later Reformation helped me understand how the Anglican church stabilized after this transition.

I’m thinking my next serious non-fiction book will not be religious.  Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 should fill in some more gaps.

I spent a good amount of time solving a question I had about my Greek studies this morning. I have been pondering some answers to an exercise. My texts provide a key to all exercises. I couldn’t quite understand two answers but figured out this morning I was misinterpreting an answer. Excellent.

I have designated today as the day to finish the program for Monday nights AGO installation service. Yesterday I actually helped the financial secretary at work with the publisher software in between meetings. I forget that I have these kinds of skills or that they might be recognizable to others.

This morning I managed to sleep in a bit. Got up later than usual and worked on Greek and read. Eileen got up and we had breakfast then took her Mini over to get worked on. Its battery seems to have died last Sunday. Everything is expensive with the Mini. But I think they’ll get it running today. Eileen then took off to get her hair done.

I have been thinking that we should contact our bank and credit card to let them know we will be in China. It seems to me like last time I was out of the country they got all weird about that when we just starting using them on the other side of the world.

This week is a very full week for me. I also have a funeral on Friday and a wedding on Saturday. It’s a bit odd to look forward to a trip to China as a reprieve from the usual but that’s how it’s shaping up.

Yesterday I didn’t play a note in class until after 11 AM. While it might seem cool to just sit and get paid, I think it might have been more tiring to do nothing and keep an ear out in case the teacher decided she needed music. I got some reading in, but by the end of the day was too tired to treadmill.

So, if you’re reading this on Sept 10, 2014, you probably had to click through a pop up to get here. I wasn’t sure exactly what the plugin I installed would do and thought maybe I would be unable to blog today. I did hear an interview with a guy from the Electronic Frontier Foundation who said that there slow down was not really a slow down, but a way of raising consciousness. Makes sense.

I found out yesterday that my church secretary is taking the week off. At first this threw me off a bit since I was counting on her to answer questions that might crop up when I used the church Publisher software to make the program for the upcoming AGO officer installation service. But my confidence was soon restored after spending a few hours with it yesterday and managing to make it do what I wanted it to.

I was amazed at how easy it was to put together a little pamphlet. I’m old enough that I remember trying to do this without all the tech. “Publisher” is very user friendly at least to this user and I managed a working prototype. Cool.

I also decided that I could do a matching Brahms postlude Sunday that will fit nicely with the wonderful first movement of his cello sonata that Dawn and I plan to perform. At first I wanted to do the “Tango” section of his last symphony. I have always loved that section. But I couldn’t find a premade organ transcription of it. I can play it at the piano okay. But to do it at the organ for a postlude would take some adapting that I don’t really have time for.

Instead I landed on playing the Chorale from his first symphony which he wrote in a kind of tribute to Beethoven’s Ninth. Again working from a piano transcription I think it will be pretty easy to just render this melody in a firm organ setting. That will both give me a Brahms postlude and also not create a little project for me in a busy week.

D.E.A. to Allow Return of Unused Pills to Pharmacies – NYTimes.co

I can remember being appalled at an elderly nurse who simply laughed at me for trying to figure out a good way to dispose of my Dad’s old meds.

Becoming a Real Person – NYTimes.com

David Brooks continues to be interesting reading for me.

As Two Men Go Free, a Dogged Ex-Prosecutor Digs In – NYTimes.com

Good reporting that tells an interesting story about vivid personalities.

Three Short Walks Reverse Harmful Effects Of 3 Hours Of Prolonged Sitting | Neo

Since reading this article yesterday I have since done a couple of short five minutes sessions in the middle of my morning sedentary ritual. What the heck.

With any luck, my blog tomorrow will look something like this.

I have attempted to install a plug in to do this. I am supporter of Net Neutrality but a pretty cynical one. I’m not sure the internet will continue to be a resource that is helpful and available to all. But I’m for it.

I have been struggling with tech lately. The many layers of possible solutions to glitches is frustrating. I notice that the time it takes me to figure out whether it’s my computer, my router, my internet connection or a web site that is causing a slowdown is annoying me more. It’s becoming more and more like the old dial up where I would sit and wait with a book or a newspaper while the connection resolved itself.

The last couple of days I have been using my old Greek texts because somewhere along the line my Kindle book versions of the second edition are taking forever to load when I try to turn back a page. Good grief.

I am finishing up David Byrne’s How Music Works. Some of what he writes frustrates me. I think he is a skilled song writer and performer, but there is a lot about music that he either ignores or just plain doesn’t know.

Also, his lens seems to be strictly commercial and popular. He doesn’t like Bach, Mozart or Beethoven in particular. That’s fine, but he also seems to see them in our present society as representatives of an economically elite way of living. It’s really weird, since he himself seems to be to be a representative of what is dominating our artistic life, namely the popular/money -making/celebrity elite.

There is actually less and less room for anything truly eccentric or gratuitous. Or that judges itself in terms of profundity and meaningfulness, not potential for earning.

I think I will probably do a blog where I list many of Byrne’s omissions and errors in his discussion.

Or maybe not. Who knows?

Today I plan to finish a working final draft of the program for the AGO officer’s installation service next Monday. It’s busy work but it will take some time and the acquiring of some new skills such as using a publisher software the church owns. Fortunately, Gail the secretary has sounded very amenable to helping with this. I hesitate to just throw it at her, but will definitely ask for help.

I continue to feel a bit unique in how I see and do music. On the one hand, I have the David Byrne type people in my history. The ones who do only pop music. Like some of the artists I have known they are disinterested in history of their craft. I remember thinking how comical pretentious rock and roll guitarists were when I consider they would never have their goddam/I, IV, V/Louie Louie/”Man am I a heavy dude”/power chord progression without the evolving of tonality and harmony in the 14th to 17th century in Europe.

And likewise many of the classically trained musicians I have known have looked askance at music that is not primarily educated and (in David Byrne’s description) canonical.

Anyway, there’s more to this but I see that I’m running up a high word count. 

Yesterday, I spent three and half hours on the piano bench improvising music for ballet class that speaks in a wider language than either musical camp. Then I rehearsed my upcoming accompaniments (Bach, Brahms and Mozart). Also I have been weirdly drawn into Schumann piano music lately and rehearsing it for the simple fuck of it.

Thus alienating myself from both strictly pop musicians and classical musicians in my head.

And church/organ music hardly enters the conversation since both sides see it as slightly disreputable and unimportant.

It’s odd to think how much pleasure I personally as an artist and a human get from stuff that stereotypically in my field is so unimportant or invisible on both sides of a stylistic divide.

Whippy skippy.

At Joan Rivers’s Memorial, Celebrities, Cameras and Crowds – NYTimes.com

Unusual funeral.

After 55 Years in Vaunted Spot, a Picasso Is Persuaded to Curl – NYTimes.com

I’ve been following this story.

Facebook’s Feeds Give Videos a Boost – NYTimes.com

This article says there’s a way to turn off that annoying instant video play in the Facebooger newsfeed. Haven’t found it yet but will look again.

Crime, Bias and Statistics – NYTimes.com

Charles Blow summarizes a recent study which shows the continuing white racism in our country.

The Source of New York’s Greatness – NYTimes.com

Learned some history from this article.

Watergate’s most lasting sin: Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, and the pardon that mad

Rick Perlstein, the author of this article. put a link to it up on Facebook for his followers (I’m one) with the very interesting observation that the NYT had rejected it as hard to follow. Very funny.

Finished MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood last night.  Now I have read her entire Oryx and Crake trilogy. I didn’t find this volume as entrancing as the first two. In Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood Atwood’s incisive satire and wit is on display with her inventions of a future in the former book and a religion in the latter. In MaddAddam she instead tells a final chapter in the story of the future referring less to how it got there then she did in the first two.

MaddAddam is good but the first two are superb.

I continue to attempt to memorize my Greek definite article table. This morning I copied it over and over while waiting for coffee. This is a different approach than I have been using (I keep experimenting).

Previously I have been going over the table mentally. It reminds me of when I first learned the fingerings for cornet/trumpet as a kid. I would find myself thinking of the finger combinations in relation to the notes when sitting around doing nothing.

This kind of mental rehearsal can be helpful.

But today I thought I would see if I could accurately copy the table over and over from memory. I did quite well at it, but still don’t feel 100 per cent secure. It takes time.

I then worked in Grammar text. Going over and over material seems to help. I get a bit deeper into it over time. I hope I can keep this up with my fall schedule.

Yesterday went well at church.

I have to admit I am pretty amazed at how anxious people can be at church. When I think of their passing complaints and grumpiness and compare it to people whose lives are in turmoil it makes me cautious personally to take my own little dilemmas that seriously.

I guess that just working with people.

I found some wonderful lines in Mark Bibbins’ They Don’t Kill You Because They’re Hungry They Kill You Because They’re Full this morning.

We can say we kept things running
by creating distractions
from the hideous truth
of how things run

from “Factory” by Mark Bibbins

This reminded me of the “bread and circuses” theory of society: where a ruling class makes sure there are things like hate radio and sports to keep people from noticing how badly they are running things. Sleigh of hand, misdirection.

The closing lines of “Factory” made me think of Detroit.

We had seen other things
That we had seen
That had come unstrung
And blown between adjacent bridges
Whose river had presented us a city
That was broken
That we had been
That we were broken
That was our city
That was our city
that was a song replaying itself in the dark

from “Factory” by Mark Dibbins

It probably helps to read the whole poem. I also like these closing lines of a another poem of his:

…theory’s just another word
for nothing left to like

Couldn’t help but hear Janis Joplin singing “Me and Bobby McGee” as I read that.

Plus watching the faces of pompous profs caught in the throes of complex but essentially trivial theories. I hate that because the next step in my head is to realize I’m looking in a mirror.

Happy Monday.

Why Democrats Can’t Win the House – NYTimes.com

Some enlightening observations on how a state can be presidentially blue and House red.

Demanding More From College – NYTimes.com

I liked this paragraph:

The Internet has proved to be one of the great ironies of modern life. It opens up an infinite universe for exploration, but people use it to stand still, in a favorite spot, bookmarking the websites that cater to their existing hobbies (and established hobbyhorses) and customizing their social media feeds so that their judgments are constantly reinforced, their opinions forever affirmed.

China’s Education Gap – NYTimes.com

This is written by someone educated in China and whose parents were as well. The mad pace of change in China continues to amaze and appall me. I love hearing from the people involved.

How did Brahms come up with such beautiful themes for his cello sonata? Simple. He took them from Bach’s Art of Fugue.

And they are quite beautiful to my ears.

Today is what my church calls “kick off” Sunday. They make a fuss over starting the fall program year. They bless the backpacks of students and anyone else who wants to bring a backpack to celebrate the beginning of the school year. After church they take a group picture of everyone at once on the lawn. Then we all walk over to a nearby park for a cookout and a pick up kick ball game.

I usually take some more relaxed clothes to change into after church and folding chairs for Eileen and me.

The choir is coming to this service. This will be our first meeting this year. Kind of brave of me to just plunge in with easy anthems and no weekday rehearsal for this month. But it will probably work out fine. Today’s anthem is a goofy clever combination of the Pachelbel Canon and “Tis the gift to be simple.” I plan on playing a toccata by Pachelbel for the prelude and then improvising a postlude on the “gift to be simple” theme.

The improvisation is an especially good idea for this Sunday because we try to hustle outside for that picture. If I’m improvising I can adjust the length to fit however long it takes people to get out of the pews and on the lawn.

I sent a friend request to a musician and to a poet yesterday on Facebooger. The musician was the organist/director at St. Paul and the Redeemer in Chicago. This is where we went on Friday to see Martin Pasi’s opus 15. They seem to be doing a similar type program as we are at my church: eclectic and classy (at least we are trying to do the latter). I messaged the musician in case he didn’t recognize my name.

The poet is the author of a book I picked up randomly at the library yesterday. Facebooger has this goofy challenge going around. Someone on Facebook will ask you to to list five things for which you are grateful in a daily message for for five days. Each day you are also supposed to invite a few other Facebookers to do the same. I got asked yesterday and did my five.

When I was looking at the poems in They Don’t Kill You Because They’re Hungry, They Kill You Because They’re Full by Mark Bibbins, the last poem in the book was aptly titled A Small Gesture of Gratitude. I read it and loved it. So I linked a copy I found online on Facebook and promptly found Bibbins there and sent him a friend request.

I am curious to see if either of these men responds.

Why #RussiaInvadedUkraine Matters – NYTimes.com

This is a superb discussion of the importance of language.

The entire day yesterday was taken up with a trip to Chicago with the organ committee to look at a Martin Pasi instrument.

By the end of the day I was exhausted physically and mentally. We were taxied down and back by a congenial member of the committee. After we looked at the organ we all went to an excellent Mediterranean restaurant near the church recommended by Rhonda.

That was fun.

The church picked up the tab.

I was only able to rehearse my Pachelbel toccata with a run through on the Pasi. This is Sunday’s prelude and is pretty easy. But I also didn’t have energy to rehearse my piano accompaniments for the Violin and Cello sonatas I will be performing soon. Nor did I have energy to treadmill.

Instead I relaxed with a martini and Eileen and I chatted and watched some online tv.

This morning I did do my Greek and my liturgy reading as usual. We leave for China soon and the days in between then and now are very full. This is weighing on me. I’m pretty sure it will all be okay, but I do have creeping doubts about my energy levels at this age and sometimes wonder exactly how I will negotiate all I have committed myself to.

I had some good news on the piano trio front yesterday.  I was chatting with my violinist when she indicated that she was now interested in performing occasionally at Grace. Very cool! We are preparing some very attractive music which would be a significant addition to Grace.  Grace is now beginning service at 10 AM permanently which means that Amy my violinist could be available from for a prelude and an anthem since her church starts at 11 AM.

I have mentally been writing David Byrne a letter about some of the ideas in his book How Music Works. He seems to think that classical music has set itself up as anti people making music for themselves (amateurs). He makes this case by looking at the funding of the arts which he sees as elitist in the extreme. But what is missing is the whole world of choral music which relies heavily on amateurs to even exist since there are few completely professional choral groups.

I know church stuff is obscure. But the liturgical movement in the 20th century is largely dedicated to getting people to participate. I guess this stuff doesn’t count in the world of popular music where Byrne lives.

I am thinking of moving away from reading liturgy to reading history next. I have had my eye on Tony Judt’s Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945 for a while. It is now sitting next my reading chair and I have been perusing it. I will probably wait until I finish Bradshaw’s The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship.

Today we go to Chicago to hear an example of the work of Martin Pasi. This should be our last field trip. This committee will hopefully make a recommendation soon.

Bring Back the Party of Lincoln – NYTimes.com

This is a pretty biased look at the GOP but I like the history and its point of view.

ISIS’ Antiquities Sideline – NYTimes.com

People auctioning off history. Ay yi yi.

Spent the morning on Skype with Elspeth, Jeremy and Alex.

They are still pretty exhilarated by the whole experience. Everyone seems to be doing fine.

So no more time for blogging.

But thank goodness for this tech that keeps me connected to my love ones!

I have a new granddaughter. Alex was born yesterday at 10:40 PM, Beijing time.

She has some bruises from delivery but she and mother Elizabeth are in good shape.

As is the father, Jeremy. Eileen and have our plane tickets and our visas ready to roll and will be visiting them soon.

In the meantime, we splurged last and went out to celebrate.

I made it through my first Monday schedule. This involves 6 and half hours even though I only have 3 and half hours of actual class. The holes in the schedule are doable but it ends up taking as much energy to wait as to do a class.

AGO tasks are bunching up. I have committed myself to doing the program and posters for the upcoming Installation service. I need to get some of this done today.

Also, today I need to get anthems ready for upcoming choir Sundays. This means making up multiple copies of two legally photocopied anthems.

When I add on the task of preparing info for the Sept 14 bulletin I can see this day won’t necessarily be one of relaxation. But there’s a good chance I can a lot of it done before noon.

It’s funny the different attitudes ballet students have toward the piano player. After my 8:30 class one of the better dancers came over and thanked me for my playing. This is old school etiquette but she pulled it off with sincerity and friendliness.

Later I had a novice dancer ask, “So they hire you guys to play music for the dance eh? That must be cool to just sit around and play music.”

Yawning is something that is forbidden by old school etiquette. Once in awhile an instructor will mention this but usually they just ignore breaches of the old etiquette. There was some yawning yesterday.

I have scheduled pretty easy organ music for this Sunday so I don’t feel pressed to spend a lot of time on it. I am however spending time on the accompaniments I will be playing at Rhonda’s birthday bash: Bach Violin Sonata, Brahms Cello Sonata and a Mozart Violin Sonata. Good stuff, but it won’t learn itself.

I tried to download the Washington Post to my kindle and my phone unsuccessfully this morning. I think my $19 subscription is just for web access and nothing else. That seems fair, but it would have been helpful to have that more spelled out so I didn’t download their dang special e-reader and then have to uninstall it.

In his chapter, “Amateurs!”, in How Music Works, David Byrne subscribes to the weird idea that somehow popular music is some sort of renegade rebellion instead of the dominating force it is. He seems to think that people listen to “high art” out of a sense of superiority and elitism. He is weird about it and inconsistent. I guess that makes sense. But it’s annoying to me since many of my passions (music, literature, Ancient Greek) are invisible or at least of no concern to so many people I rub shoulders with. Whippy Skippy.

So I only had two and half hours of ballet class last week. Today I have the regular full schedule (three and a half house). Hope College doesn’t give Labor day off. But I am taking Friday off to go with my organ committee to Chicago to hear an instrument built by Martin Pasi. I hope we make a decision soon on which builder to contract with so this process can move on to the next stage.

Last night I browsed through a friend’s online library of ebooks. He seems to have added about a thousand more. Very cool, although many of them were in the pdf format which doesn’t seem to work well with my Kindle (paperwhite version).

But I’m not complaining. I love having access to so many books and my friend seems to have deliberately put books up that might interest me. Like this one:

I understand why pdf is a good format for this book because it such a beautifully laid out and illustrated one. When I consider China, I often think of its ancient literature and art which has been an ongoing interest for me. This morning I read a poem in it called “Calling to the Recluse” by Zuo Si. One couplet leaped out at me:

“ why depend on whistling or song,

when tree clumps hum so movingly? “

I love this. It reminds me of an observation of an artist I know that he spent his life trying to learn how to make beauty in his art and then beautiful and stunning images emerge in nature around us and in his phrase, “Just happen!”

Apparently the above painting is by the poet (at least that’s what Google says).

I also figured out that I have nine chapters plus an epilogue left in Fuschia Dunlop’s excellently written, Shark Fin and Sichuan Pepper.

This woman can write up a storm as far as I’m concerned. I read a chapter in it this morning and need to do that more often in order to finish it by the time I get on a plane to go visit China and my  new grand daughter.

Rick Perlstein: By the Book – NYTimes.com

I follow this guy on Facebook. When this article was published this week end, he changed his profile picture to him holding a hard copy of it with a goofy smile.

Reflections on a Shooting Range Death, From One Who Knows – NYTimes.com

The author of this article also accidentally killed as a child.

When Did We Get So Old? – NYTimes.co

How to handle being the oldest person in the room when one is used to being the youngest.

Jorge Luis Borges interview.

Stumbled on to this. Haven’t read it yet but I do love Borges.

John Kerry: The Threat of ISIS Demands a Global Coalition – NYTimes.com

John McCain and Lindsey Graham: Confront ISIS Now – NYTimes.com

I do like it when involved parties go on the record with an essay. Unfortunately I didn’t get much from either of these essays.

David Rosand, an Art History Scholar Whose Heart Was in Venice, Dies at 75 – NY

Mr. Rosand’s career was shaped by the conviction that the arts of all eras and cultures are connected, and that past and present exist on a continuum, so that all art is immediately pertinent to our lives.

I was sitting at a surprise birthday party for my friend Rhonda yesterday. I found myself in conversation with a teacher from Hope. As we chatted I realized that we had a love of  poetry in common. I somehow wanted to tell him. But I was reluctant due to previous futile attempts to connect with professors around my interests. But I overcame my introverted predilections and mentioned it to him. We then had a conversation around books and poetry that I found very enjoyable.

Part of being an introvert is the way conversations like this drain me in retrospect. I have to convince myself that I wasn’t too chatty and didn’t dominate the conversation with my passionate talk.  Sheesh.

I have now reached the chapter entitled, “Amateurs!,” chapter nine in How Music Works by David Byrne. I note that this is a chapter that he footnotes more than the others. He quoted from John Carey’s grumpy little book, What Good are the Arts? 

Carey apparently has written a exposition that treats an elitist approach to the arts as a bad thing. This might be needed where he lives. But where I live, people barely are interested in what used to be thought of as high art.

Jupe the introvert thinks twice before mentioning his love of poetry or Proust or Bach or Buxtehude. My passions seem not only to be antiquated but evidence of some sort of inherent snobbery and elitism. Weird.

I like Denis Dutton’s response to Carey’s book (which he still says can be fun to read):

What good are the arts? Here’s one stab at an answer. They provide us with powerful pleasures. They expand our imaginative sense. The are windows into historical epochs and into realms of pure fancy and fantasy. They sharpen our intellectual discriminative powers and, for example in music, develop human technical capacities to the highest degree possible. The arts incite emotional experience of an intensity and variety nowhere else available and take us deeply into alternative human sensibilities. They can increase human sociality, for artistic performers and their audiences alike. They record what are some of the most profound ideas human beings have ever had, but unlike advanced science do it in a way that ordinary mortals can understand.

Byrne really doesn’t evidence interest in Carey’s ideas or at least not yet. He quotes Carey quoting Ellen Dissanayake who is doing some interesting thinking around evolution and the arts.

She has her own website. I note with amusement that one of her recent articles (unlinked on her site) is “Denis Dutton: Appreciation of the man and discussion of the work. ” Philosophy and Literature 2014 38:1.

And Dutton does mention her as a bit of lucidity in Carey’s book. How about that?

Anyway, Byrne is full of hilarious and outrageous quotes.

I do enjoy reading his thoughtful reflections from a specifically commerical popular musician’s point of view.

“Of all the arts, music, being ephemeral, is the closest to being an experience more than it is a thing—it is yoked to where you heard it, how much you paid for it, and who else was there.” p. 267 HOW MUSIC WORKS

Good grief. How much you paid for it?