I fell asleep during the Presidential debates last night. Sheesh. I’m still a bit jetlagged. I had a good meeting with my boss. She told me I’m getting another substantial pay raise or at least it’s being recommended in the new budget. That’s nice. Also, that the renovation of our sanctuary to prepare for the installation of the new organ will be done in January. This means that I will have my organ through Christmas. That’s good to know as I plan Advent and Christmas.

I chose anthems for the fall and up to Advent thinking that at any moment the organ might go away. We went through one last night by Lloyd Larson last night that is pretty hokey.

I am resisting canceling it. I think the choir and the congregation will probably enjoy it. I think it sounds a bit like the 700 club.

After meeting with Jen, it took me a good hour and a half to prep for the rehearsal. I was moving slowly. By the time I got to the organ console, I only had energy to rehearse upcoming material. The day before I enjoyed playing through a bunch of Bach. Not so yesterday. I came home and rested until rehearsal. Earlier in the day I played a lot of piano at home. Maybe I wore myself out that way. Who knows?

Last night’s rehearsal went well. Today I have a doctor’s appointment and a rehearsal with my violinist. I say rehearsal, but what we really do is read through music for the fun of it.

This is kind of a wimpy blog post today I know. So here’s a fresh video of Lucy. It’s the voice of Matthew (the dad) in the background. I love how he dotes on her.

Poor Eileen. I read her several pages from David Foster Wallace’s essay, “Authority and American Usage” last night. It’s in his collection  Consider the Lobster.  Wallace makes a convincing argument against Politically Correct English (PCE). Essentially the use of more acceptable euphemisms can too easily replace actually trying to change things in our society. Or as he puts succinctly in one of his footnotes: being polite is not the same as being fair. Since Wallace’s clever and imaginative prose requires a more sustained  attention span than most readers have these days, i will refrain from quoting him. However, here, once again, is a link to the pdf of the very essay I am reading. I encourage you to put aside some time and read this piece. The section on PCE begins on p. 110 (p. 23 of this pdf).

I am continuing to ease back into immersing myself in music. Yesterday I spent time with Faure’s piano Barcarolles, the last movement of Beethoven’s 2nd symphony (Liszt’s piano transcription), and a couple of Bach’s settings of : Allein Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehr’ on the organ. I also chose organ music for the next two Sundays. More on that in a bit.

This morning I discovered that my podcast app on my tablet will play radio stations. Ironically the U of M radio station on it plays soooooo much more easily than their stupid stupid app which continually stops playing. There were also music stations dedicated exclusively to classical music. I spent my morning Greek and reading time listening to a Classical guitar radio station (link to it’s web site).

Then I spent time with Bach’s WTC volume II, carefully playing through a few preludes and fugues. Ahhhhh.

I feel so lucky to be able to do all this stuff. My life is good.

For my prelude Sunday I am planning on playing three little pieces on the Sequence Hymn which will be “Blest are the pure in heart” (Franconia). I found a nice little piece by Richard Hillert. I have met him. I showed him some of my compositions. He was mildly encouraging. I’m also planning two little settings by Gerhard Krapf on this tune. The problem is Krapf wrote his settings in the key of Eb major. Hillert and the Hymnal 1982 have this tune in D major. So I came home and put Krapf into Finale. Now I have three little movements in the same key. Woo hoo.

The postlude will be a piece called “Fantastic Galliard” by William Byrd. I found it in an old disreputable Kalmus edition of music called “The Byrd Organ Book.”

It’s most probably NOT an organ piece, but I think it’s charming. Byrd is roughly a contemporary of Adrian Battan who wrote our lovely anthem for Sunday.

A week from Sunday I am planning to use movements of a partita by Jan Bender for both the prelude and the postlude. It is based on the tune, Jesus meine Zuversichte. We will be singing a hymn to this melody as our second communion hymn. Bender has written a wonderful set of variations on it.

I am still exhausted today, but not quite as much as yesterday. Tomorrow I have my annual six month check up.

The Government’s Addiction to ‘Secret Law’ – The New York Time

I can’t believe this stuff.

I’m still struggling with adapting to my time zone. This morning I woke at 1 AM. I dozed on and off thereafter, but mostly was awake. Dang.

In addition I am fasting for a blood draw this morning, so no coffee. I am planning on returning after the blood draw and then cleaning the kitchen and making myself coffee. It’s probably not necessary to avoid coffee. I have asked people at the lab this question. Unfortunately I think I received conflicting instructions. I find it easier to just skip coffee until the blood has been drawn.

I did some exploring of podcasts as i lay wakeful this morning. I found a couple that interested me.

I think “Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing” is kind of a dumb name for a podcast. However, after she quoted from Charles Garner and the OED, I decided to subscribe. I also liked that she reads essays on her topics by others. For example in today’s podcast she read a  fascinating bit on all of the words that have come down to us from bookmaking. That’s bookmaking, as in actually making books, not making bets. Click on the pic to go the Grammar Girl website.

I think Garrison Keillor keeps plugging this one.  The current episode is about “The Road Not Taken” and intelligently rehearses why much of the meaning of this poem is missed by readers. Again click on the pic to go to the website.

I finished Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace last night. While I enjoyed it, I have to admit buy generic valium online it’s not as splendid as some of his other works. To me, it’s locked in a time frame that is reminiscent of Firesign  Theater,  The movie Brazil (which I’m pretty certain had a strong influence on it), and National Lampoon mag. Lots of fun puns and references, but very dated in my opinion.

I have stacked all my David Foster Wallace books next to my chair. i continue to read in D. T. Max’s bio of him, Every Love Story is a Ghost Story.

I’m learning stuff from it, but I’m finding the bio a light read for telling the story of such a complex person. I may change my mind before I’m done with it. Max edited the posthumous publishing of The Pale King. He says it’s unfinished. Intriguingly Alan Moore thinks he might be wrong.

Speaking of podcasts, there were are great A.J. Leibling quotes in today’s Writer’s Almanac.

“Cynicism is often the shamefaced product of inexperience.”

I like this. I think it means the more you know (the more “experience” you have), the less often you retreat into bitterness. Nice thought.

“The world isn’t going backward, if you can just stay young enough to remember what it was really like when you were really young.”

I generally don’t subscribe to my culture’s obsession with youth (being an old fart myself). But what I take away from this  quote is that remaining a child in world will propel you forward through your life. This has certainly worked for me.

This morning I am predictably exhausted. My mind felt fuzzy as I worked on Greek. Yesterday, however, I was rested and ready for my day. I played through a Schubert Impromptu I have been learning. it went surprisingly well. it began raining. I love rain in the morning. I was reminded of Chopin’s Db major prelude and pulled it out and played through it a few times.

Before the Choir pregrame, I played it again while waiting for the choir. The service went well. I thought I played particularly well. This is not unusual after some time off. I come back tired but also a bit renewed, especially mentally. I was surprised at how effective my reduction of Shepherd’s anthem based on the Tallis Canon was. My prelude and postlude was modest, but I found it satisfying to return from time off and play these pieces based respectively on the opening and closing hymn.

After church, a choir member introduced me to a scholar visiting Hope College. He told me he was a choir director at his parish in Mississippi. We talked shop and quickly reached consensus on the need to include African American music in Episcopalian worship. I emailed him from my phone in an attempt to stay connected with him.

Then a rehearsal for “Stewardship: The Musical.” Again I felt like I played this well. The instigator has actually written a funny little parody. But by the time this rehearsal was over I was very tired.

I have been listening to my old Bob Dylan vinyl albums in honor of his Pulitzer. I started with New Morning.

Then Self Portrait.

I remember when this double album came out many critics panned it due to its use of string arrangements, back up singers and covers of other people’s compositions one doesn’t necessarily associate with Dylan. People like Paul Simon, Gordon Lightfoot, and, even, some standards. Listening to it years later, I realize how embedded Dylan is in my brain.

I have always thought of Dylan and Leonard Cohen as primarily poets who make songs. I know that’s what has attracted me to their music over and over. When i discovered Cohen I could see Dylan’s influence.

Later in the evening I returned to Chopin’s preludes. I played from the beginning of the book, trying to be careful and use my improved rehearsal techniques. Although I was exhausted, i found the music of the day carried me through.

Alan Moore’s Time-Traveling Tribute to His Gritty Hometown – The New York Times

This book has been on my radar for a while. Definitely one I want to read.

Ripples From the ‘How Low Can They Go’ Campaign – The New York Times

This comment from an American playwright struck me:

“My heart is broken,” Mr. Baitz said. “There is, to me, a kind of fundamental American decency, and it’s just been lost in the prurient shallowness of the discourse.

The funeral I played yesterday was an easy one. The family had a strong Lutheran background. The woman we memorialized was the mother-in-law of the Lutheran minister I worked for for a while, Dennis Remeinschneider. He and his wife now attend Grace. As I have said before we have a lot of clergy in our pews.

The peace took longer than usual at this funeral. This is the time in the service when people can “greet” each other, usually with a handshake, sometimes a kiss or an embrace. The peace at this funeral took longer than usual. I noticed an elderly man being slowly led around to greet people. The widower obviously. Then I remembered that this man was in full blown Alzheimer’s disease. I watched as he  moved carefully but with obvious confusion at the funeral of his wife.

After the funeral, I came home and Eileen was just getting up. She had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and then we went to the Grocery store to replenish a few supplies. We came home. I had a salad. We played boggle.

Then Eileen and  I went to visit my Mom. The onerous task I had was to tell Mom that her sister, Ella, had died on Monday and had been buried on Saturday before we could get back from England. I only found this out by googling and finding Aunt Ella’s obit. I was disappointed that my cousins, Ella’s children, had not reached out me with this information. It is as though I see them more as family than they see me. And of course they were in the midst of grieving for their mother, not a high functioning time. Ah well. I am planning on sending condolences cards and finding out a way to donate a memorial for my Aunt.

I had decided not to tell Mom that I “had some bad news for her.” Instead after we had greeted her, I simply told her that Aunt Ella died Monday. As it sank in, she drew in a little breath. Her lower lip trembled a bit. In the ensuing silence I handed her a large print version of the obituary, I had printed up for her. She read it slowly and sadly.

Later I was thinking about the people in my life, the old ones and the new ones. It was a pleasure and a privilege to be with Lucy, my newest grandchild. Both she and Alex seem so beautiful, fresh and full of life and potential.  On the other end of the spectrum are my Aunt Ella who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, the confused widower at the morning funeral, and my beloved Mom realizing her sister was dead.

Fiction Podcast: Etgar Keret Reads Donald Barthelme – The New Yorker

The story is called “Chablis” and it fits in with my pondering of babies. It’s the not-quite-congenial pondering of a new Dad on his wife and child.

I am adjusting to resuming my normal time zone. I haven’t quite gotten there yet. This morning I awoke around 3:30 or so and couldn’t get back to sleep. Fortunately, this charming story was playing on my tablet. It reminded me of being with young parents lately. I am very impressed with my daughters and their partners as Moms and Dads. As I knew would be the case, they are excellent and caring parents.

I remember shocking a friend of mine holding one of my babies. He said to me, “Steve! You are doting!” I replied something like, “Of course I am! It’s my kid!”

Blood Orange covers Philip Glass

This is cool. I don’t know Blood Orange but this inspired me to  check them out. I’m listening to Dev Hynes play this right now. Sounds good to me. Good interp.

Blood Orange – Augustine Lyrics | Genius Lyrics

Good link to explain lyrics and translate the Krio words at the end of the song.

I didn’t blog yesterday. Eileen and I spent the entire day traveling home from England to Holland, Michigan. The most startling thing that happened to us occurred at Heathrow. Eileen noticed that Mark and Leigh would be passing through Heathrow around the same time we were there. We communicated and managed a few minutes together in a coffee shop in the airport. Very cool.

This was fun. Eileen and I rushed off to make a flight. However, the first of a couple glitches slowed us down. We were in line to board, but the airline people announced that boarding would be delayed due to flight maintenance. They kept us standing in line for quite a while before telling us to take our seats to wait. Finally we got on board and began our long day.

It was difficult to leave loved ones behind. We had an excellent visit with Sarah, Matthew, and Lucy.

Lucy is beautiful. Her personality is beginning to show. I snapped a few pics including the one above one day.

Speaking of family stuff, my Mom’s sister, Eloise, died this week while we were in England. Her middle name was Missouri. How cool is that?

| Eloise Reveal

This is a link to her obit.

New computer glitch delays United Airlines flights | Reuters

It looks like we got off pretty easy with our delays. We were delayed at Heathrow, but we arrived in Newark very close to on time. Then our Grand Rapids flight out of Newark was only about an hour or so delayed. We almost missed this flight, since we took them at their word when they said it was going to be an hour and went and had food and drinks. Eileen happened to notice that she had received texts from UA that they were doing a last boarding call. As we hurried to the counter, the woman was announce, “Jenkins, party of two.” We were the last people to board the flight. Ahem.

Bob Dylan and New York: A Complicated, Fertile Romance – The New York Times

This is a fun article about Dylan and his early years in New York.

Working offline in our rooms this morning. I listened to a portion of a podcast of “The United States of Anxiety” this morning.

Apparently this is a podcast put out by The Nation. I have been reading The Nation for years and do admire it and have learned from many of its writers. I’m not currently subscribing to it, but I think they make it available free online judging by how many of their articles I end up reading still.

On The Media passed on this podcast. Here’s a link to The United States of Anxiety website (it’s a  product of WNYC). Basically, this episode attempts to explain what looks like irrational support for Donald Trump’s presidency. I was gratified to hear them ascribe much of the fact free notions of the Trumpites to the rise of hate radio (Rush Limbaugh in particular) and Fox News. I have long suspected this myself.

They parse it out carefully. The hate campaign first accused “main stream media” of over reacting to their jokes. Rush Limbaugh’s famous commission of the parody, “Barack the magic negro” illustrated this. The parody was excoriated (as I think it should be), but Limbaugh’s point was lost in the discussion. He was reacting to an article in the LA Times that said that Obama was the soft headed white liberal’s acceptable black person. Limbaugh characterizes this sort of misunderstanding (at least he thinks it’s misunderstanding) as the typical liberal “drive bys” as in  “shooting” understanding.

Using examples like this, hate radio and tv destroy credibility of journalists. Then the vacuum is filled by their misinformation. This is a clear and believable analysis of how people persist in their support for Trump.

At the second debate, Trump was speaking the language of hate radio, according to this podcast. Refering to many enemies of hate radio simply by their name: Sidney Blumenthal and others, leaving much of the audience in the dust. But the true believers of hate recognized the references. Hence the description of Trump as playing to his base.

Today is our last full day in England. Yesterday Matthew and Sarah got away for some time alone while Eileen and I spent time with Lucy. A good time was had by all, I believe. They went to a nice Italian restaurant and came back in a good mood. Lucy was easy to watch and spent a good deal of time sleeping. I’ll put up some pics after I get online.

I don’t think we have much planned for today. Often Sarah finds parting from family difficult. In fact she had already begun trying to deal with it before we even arrived. But in fact her emotions don’t seem quite as extreme as they used to be before motherhood. I do hope it’s not too painful for her this time (Hi, Sarah!).

I am gently dreading return. Saturday I have a funeral. Sunday is a full blown choral Sunday. I have chosen material that is easy. After church, I have to rehearse with parishioners on “Stewardship, The Musical.” This is something I dread the most. I feel very disconnected from this kind of stuff. But I did promise my boss I would play piano for them and I will.
A good deal of the dread comes from wondering how I will muster energy in the face of readjusting to travel and time change. Eileen and I both have managed to adapt to the difference in time. I awoke around 6 AM local time this morning. This is 1 AM Michigan time. Yikes! Sarah has said she has found it easier to move from English time to “Amurican” time. But I guess we’ll see.

Thankfully, I do enjoy traveling with Eileen. I will get through the weekend somehow and try to recuperate on Sunday evening and Monday.

Another part of my gentle dread is the fact that I have a physical check up a week from Friday. I haven’t been monitoring BP and weight on my vacation. I mostly dread beginning to monitor it again and face my doctor after gaining weight and possibly an increase in BP. How’s that for creative worrying?

Leonard Cohen Makes It Darker – The New Yorker

Cohen has a new CD coming out soon. I haven’t made it through this article, but I think it talks about it at some point.

It’s almost noon local time.

I’m sitting on the couch at Sarah’s and Matthew’s house.

We did manage to go to Stowe yesterday in the afternoon.

It involved lots of walking through beautiful English country side.

We scratched the surface of the history of the mansion there via a quick fifteen minute tour.

We sneaked our tour in just before the house tours closed down.

The basic story is that this mansion once housed a very rich and important family in English history (Temples and Grenvilles) during the 18th and 19th century.

Over generations the family used its wealth to create an extravagant environment of rooms, art, gardens, and other stuff.

Then the family suffered a financial set back and everything in the estate (house and environs) was auctioned off. Many of the pieces have since been restored.

Here’s a link to more information on Wikipedia than any of you, dear readers, are probably interested in.

Before departing yesterday, I used Matthew’s keyboard to practice a bit. I will do this again today. It helps me lead the psalms securely if I rehearse them. I forgot that we will begin my service music the Sunday after I get back. As with the psalms I need to be secure on these pieces in order to lead them well. I went over them on Matthew’s keyboard.

This is not a bad little keyboard. The sounds were almost acceptable through its tiny speakers. And it doesn’t weigh much. This is different from my keyboard which doesn’t sound any better, really, but weighs a lot more. I rehearsed the Bach C # major prelude I have been working on. I will do more practicing today.

This morning (after Greek of course) I was reading about England’s very ancient history as imagined by the informed mind of Peter Ackroyd in his book, Foundation: The History of England: Vol 1. I find it interesting to read about places I’m visiting while I’m visiting them.

New song by Randy Newman. I didn’t preview it in order not to disturb people.

We are planning a second day trip today. We talked about going to Oxford, but I think it’s better if we go to a different destination. In England, they have what they call National Trust Sites. This designation seems to indicate some sort of official status. Sarah has a book of them. There are a couple relatively close by.

If we went to Oxford, we would drive to a sort of park and ride area. You can drive in Oxford. Sarah has done so. But apparently it’s crazy. So we would get on a bus there and then be hauled to downtown. This whole process could easily up an hour or less. Since Sarah did not want to make a decision, I encouraged the idea that it might be less wear and tear on us (me and the baby) to do a National Trust Site.

I’m not sure but I think that Matthew and Sarah had their first time away from Lucy together yesterday when they went to the grocery store together leaving Eileen and me to watch Lucy. We are hoping for a more romantic time for them to be away together on Thursday and Friday. Matthew monitors his at home business’s daily progress. He needs to make a certain amount of money a week buying and selling items online. Until he is able to do this, it is difficult for him to relax and host the “Amurican” grandparents. We, of course, encourage him to do what he needs to do despite our presence. So far, he seems to be managing to balance chatting, hosting and working. As the week progresses and he makes his quota he undoubtedly feels better.

This morning laying in bed I had my first pang of needing to do some practicing and playing. Matthew has a keyboard and will probably help me get some time in today or thereafter. He hasn’t been able to lay his hands on the correct cord for the thing, but presumably there is a way to get it up and running.

The occasion of my impulse is a dream I had last night. In it, I was organizing an office for a church music job. I was looking (in the dream) for the upcoming psalm to put on my practice list. I awoke and began mentally rehearsing the C # major Bach prelude I have been learning. Time to get my fingers on a keyboard soon I think. It may be that I am finally getting rested enough to miss practicing. It’s hard to say.

I have had two emails regarding stuff I will have to do when I get back. My boss emailed me that there is a funeral the Saturday after I return (this Saturday). She was extremely considerate and offered to find a different organist for it. These funerals are very easy (in the doing of them anyway). I told her I would do it. I had another email from someone at my Mom’s nursing home. They changed their activities director a year or so ago. With the advent of the new person, the ceased inviting me to come and play. I’m not sure if they have switched directors again or the current director has for some reason reached out to me, but the current activities director emailed me a request to play for the November birthday concert/party and also explore carting a bunch of residents to my church to hear me practice organ.

I emailed her back that I could do the party and was willing about the organ dealy. However, I pointed out to her the logistical problem that we might soon be sans working organ. Martin Pasi, our builder, has set an install date of late Feb or early March next year. This means we would have our new organ for Easter. That would be cool. It would be so much more fun for nursing home residents to visit and hear our new organ, I think.
That’s about all I have to write about offline. I do have some links to add as hopefully you will see below. No time for comments on them.

I’m attempting to work online this morning, standing at the window in our bedroom. It works but is sloooooww. I am in a quiet mood this morning. I got up and read a transcript of the Presidential debate last night. It’s a trope that things now are worse then they ever have been. But it certainly seems shameful that our public discourse has been reduced to this. Trump went in last night with exceptionally low expectations. From the transcript, it seemed that he was more restrained than in the first debate. Clinton seemed to deliberately lay low and points and allow Trump to hang himself. What strikes me is that Trump was firing up his base and Clinton aimed to win over undecided voters. Matthew was going to stay up and watch it (2 AM local time). I will be very curious what he thought of it.

I fear that yesterday was hard on our host and hostess. Matthew’s Mom and Sister Louisa and nephew Lloyd (son of Louisa) visited. It was pleasant, of course, to see these people who loom so large in Sarah’s life. I think I am beginning to be able to read Matthew more clearly than I used to. He obviously cares deeply for these people and attempts to tease them into relaxing. Louisa is very social. Lloyd (teenager) had a droll sense of humor that played over his face even as he buried himself in his laptop, but listening closely at all times.

Lloyd and Matthew hiked to the nearby quick purchase shop to pick up some more bread to feed everyone. They obviously enjoyed some private time together. After the whole group left, Sarah was very deflated. She kept us hanging around a bit later than she has. I think it was as much for her benefit (Hi, Sarah!) as for ours. I have had misgivings about invading the scene so quickly after Lucy’s birth, but it seems to be more positive than negative for all concerned.

After reading the debate transcript, I did a little Greek. Then I turned to my ebook copy of The Legend of Good Women by Chaucer. Not having access to the Internet, I made notes on what I would like to look up when I do. I read the introduction provided by the editors even though the edition is ancient. Chaucer wrote this work before embarking upon The Canterbury Tales. It seems to have been a classical type of response or recantation after writing a work critical of a woman. In Chaucer’s case, this was his long poem, Troilus and Criseyde.

He apparently wrote two complete drafts. My creaky old edition (which is probably not that bad) has the drafts in columns. The Introduction said that the earlier draft contained some important beautiful passages that Chaucer cut out of the second so i was glad to see them side by side.

I also read in an ebook copy of Peter Ackroyd’s Foundation: The History of England From Its Earliest Beginnings to Tudors. Apparently, this is volume one of several works along this line. So far the most startling think I read was in “1995 paleontologists discovered that the material from a male body, found in the caves of Cheddar Gorge and interred 9,000 years ago, was a close match with that of residents still living in the immediate area.” Presumably from DNA tests. That is a long time.

Well now we are back at Sarah and Matthews. We had a quick chat with Matthew but he needed to adjourn to his work so he doesn’t fall behind.

Working off line again. Eileen and I had a nice restful morning in our rooms this morning. Yesterday was a long day of traveling and sight seeing. Sarah drove us first to a Weaving site where she sat in the car and breast fed Lucy while Eileen and I looked around.

Although there was some interesting stuff, Eileen was largely unimpressed with this place. The looms were not working. They had stopped making fabric several years ago due to safety considerations. Despite the fact that they were machine looms (operated entirely without people as far as I could see), Eileen would have liked to have seen them in operation.

Most of the rest of the place was predictably a shop. You could buy everything from retro toys to woolen suits. There was a small museum area. But there were few labels and lots of stuff. There was a sign purporting that they had opted for a “gentleman’s curio” type display where the viewers could use their own powers of imagination and observation to figure stuff out.

The William Morris house and village was much better. We took back roads via Sarah’s GPS. Sarah has long been fond of driving through out of the way routes, so this was no surprise. But at one point, an unanticipated toll of 5 pence took her and us by surprise. We had no British coins with us. Sarah explained to the toll person. He allowed us through. But addressing her comment that she had not expected a toll at this point, he said, “Now you know.”

We parked and walked about ten minutes to the Kelmscott Manor complex. When we purchased our tickets we had to specify what block of time during the day we planned to enter the house itself. We gave ourselves enough time to grab some lunch at the tea room there.

This was pleasant enough. Sarah was using the entire trip as a trial run on what it would be like to travel with Lucy. Eileen seemed to be helpful for her in this way. Lucy was very well behaved. At just over four months weeks, she is a happy baby and seems to relish (in a baby way) her Mom and Dad’s attention.

We hit the inevitable tourist shop before it was our time to go into the main building. There were some books on William Morris. I was disappointed that there was nothing about his font designs. Nor was there a copy of A.S. Byatt’s Peacock and Vine the inspiration, really, for me to check to see how far away Sarah is living from Kelmscott Manor.

Morris was intent on simplicity and integrity in all that he did in his life. This includes the buildings he lived and worked in. The Kelmscott Manor was begun by the original family of Turners around 1600. Through several generations of Turners, the original U shape of the house was added onto and lived in. It was not called a Manor until 1854 when James Turner purchased the lordship. Morris loved the house so much that he kept much of it as he found it when he began living there in the late 19th century.

There were many artifacts and pieces of art that were satisfying to see. I was especially taken with several variations inspired by Chaucer’s The Legend of Good Wimmen. I did not know this work previously, but found it in my ebook copy of his works. It inspired some of Morris’s colleagues to make portraits of the women described in the book. Copies of their works hung on the walls. I found them intriguing along with everything else.

It was fun to see this building and its contents after reading Peacock and Vine.

Happy coincidence of having just read it before coming to England. Eileen and Sarah seemed as taken with the place as I was.

Recent pic of me singing. Note sleeping Lucy.

Today, we are planning a road trip. Sarah is antsy to get her mobility back after giving birth to Lucy. She is using our visit as an excuse to try out some day trips. We are planning to go to a weaving site which Eileen and Sarah have scoped out a bit. Eileen has only limited interest in it because it seems to be mostly retail sales of stuff woven by machine not by hand. However, it’s only about ten minutes out of our way. So it would be a practical add on to our excursion.

The main destination is William Morris’s Kelmscott Manor. Sarah has limited interest in Morris designs having dealt with commercial sales of them via her past employment. I’m hoping that despite this she will find Morris’s house a worthwhile destination. At any rate, it will get her out of the house with Lucy on a field trip which is the main goal.
Matthew is still learning to balance Dad duties and his job, both of which take place in his and Sarah’s home. Our trip away today will give him a chance to catch up on work and possibly even nap a bit.

He had a productive day trip yesterday. He took a bus to Aylesbury. From there he took a train to his Dad’s home. While visiting his Dad he was able to sort out several tasks (like changing his Wifi server and helping his Dad get oriented to his new fangled portable oxygen tank). He seemed exhausted but satisfied when he returned last night.

It was fun helping Eileen with Lucy while Sarah slept yesterday. Baby stuff comes back quickly. Plus Eileen did the lion’s share, I mostly helped out but did get to hold the baby quite a bit during this time. It is fascinating to see a four month old’s perceptions and behavior. Lucy will be a bright one. That’s obvious.

I even strummed the guitar and sang later after Sarah awoke. Lucy was sleeping soundly wrapped in the baby contraption (sling?) in Eileen’s arms while Sarah made supper. We all agreed that the singing was largely for Sarah. Hot tunes included “Froggie went acourtin” and “Obla di Obla da.”

This is the first time I have picked up a guitar in ages. I used Sarah’s nylon string which needs new strings of course since it doesn’t get too much use.

I don’t think I’m going to lose weight on this trip. Sooprise sooprise. I have a check-up after I return. I will probably weigh distressingly higher. It’s worth it to see Sarah, Matthew, Lucy, and England.

I’m working off line again. Sarah suggested I try to tether in to the phone from the living room. I attempted this, but the phone insists on going off wifi in order to tether. This makes that particular maneuver impossible. I’ll put this online after Eileen wakes. We said we would leave in about an hour or so with lots of flexibility in getting started today.

I’m sitting at Sarah’s. It’s almost midday in England. Matthew took off to go see his Dad today. This involves a day long trip via buses.  I think it is the first visit since Lucy’s arrival. We managed to trip a fuse at our rooms earlier losing all power. Apparently this has now been restored. Sarah came and rescued us. We had breakfast here and are now skyping with the Beijing branch of the fam. Eileen’s phone is the source of communication and is low on batteries.

Actually now they have hung up. I tried to communicate via Skype on my laptop but somehow failed. (Eileen was perturbed with me). But all had a nice chat. Alex looks tired. Apparently she slept the entire flight from Chicago to Beijing (if I understood correctly). But Elizabeth and Jeremy are still adjusting to the time switch. I relate.

I don’t have too much to blog about today. I enjoyed chatting with Matthew last night. I’m trying not to drive him crazy, but he is such a good conversationalist and keeps asking questions, keeping me blabbing. I do like him a great deal and wish I could spend more time with him. He loves being a Dad.

I think we are mostly going to take it easy today.

Good thing for me, since I am still adjusting to the time switch. Eileen slept better last night.

At this point in blogging, I had to stop and help with Lucy.

This lasted for a while, but now Eileen is feeding her while Sarah grabs much needed rest.

Race, rock, and the Rolling Stones: How the rock and roll became white.

I stumbled onto this article yesterday. Race in American music is something I think about quite a bit. It is obvious to me that slavery and subsequent presence of the mixed up cultures it brought together is the source of so much of the American musical genius. I don’t think too much about historical and aesthetic perspective of rock and roll. I’m up way too close to this. But it had never consciously occurred to me that rock and roll is a co opted “white” thing other than the fact that black artists (outside of Motown) do not get near the exposure or credit of white ones.

A couple of things occurred to me reading this article. First of all, many rockers abhor early rap. This fell along racial lines. Whites were rockers, rappers were black. Then there was a move of young whites to adopt a black rapper persona. This is all way before hip hop and further refinements in this area, but it is a racial thing I noticed.

And I do admit to noticing and admiring black rock and rollers and thinking it was exceptional (Living Color for example) thus slipping into the weird racism Jack Hamilton describes.

But at the same time, I have never faltered in seeing the “race records” as examples of great very influential American music. Also, the obvious influence of black artists and makers of music in the evolution of jazz and blues and other musics.

What is helpful about this article is pointing out the subtle racial biases in the early reception of the Rolling Stones. That had not occurred to me at all.

Plus I tend to distinguish between strictly commercial endeavors from music that interests me. This cuts a weird swathe across all musics.

I have never accepted the idea that one had to be black to play gospel or jazz since to me one can think clearly about the musical techniques required. However, the whole stealing ideas and making money on it “white” thing is obviously unethical, but more the rule than the exception.

Weird stuff.

11 Songs Prove the History of Music Is All About Cultural Appropriation

Aside from the fact that the “History of Music” seemed to start late last century, here are some examples of what Jack Hamilton was talking about (not all of which I recognize).

Jet lag and time change is kicking my butt.

I purchased gin and vermouth yesterday and ended the day with a couple martinis. This helps me fall asleep but then I usually wake up. With the time change, my body is confused. I did manage to get sleep in last night, but Eileen slept fitfully (her report).

It is after noon local time but we are still moving slowly in our rooms. Apparently Lucy, Matthew and Sarah had a rough night last night as well. We are all content to take it slowly this morning.

Sarah and I went to Tesco together last night. That was great fun! (Hi Sarah! Sarah tells me that she read my blog post yesterday afternoon while breast feeding Lucy…. I find it sort of interesting when family members are checking up on me via the interwebs when I’m so close…. suspected the same was going on with Mark and Leigh when we stayed with them.)

Sarah drove us. Also she was a great help in pointing me at quality and less expensive goods. Besides booze, I stocked up on fruits, vegetables, meat (for Eileen, coffee, and other sundries for our rooms so we are self sufficient. By the time we got back to Sarah’s house, Eileen (who had been watching Lucy) was ready to crash for the night. We came home and fixed food. We turned on the TV for the first time. Surprisingly there were many USA shows on. Eileen found an episode of NCIS.

Eileen has figured out the clothes washer and the dish washer. We brought fewer clothes with the idea we would have access to a washing machine. British stuff and lingo is just different enough to be interesting. It’s like waking up in the next dimension over. It’s similar enough to figure out, but also many differences in the details. Since many of these are quirky language differences (“cooker provided” means there’s an oven in our room), I enjoy figuring stuff out. It helps to have read tons of English literature (and junky stuff as well).

The interweb continues to be very helpful when I can get access to it. I am keeping up with reading my New York Times. Yesterday while Sarah, Matthew and Lucy were busy, I missed having my David Foster Wallace novel The System of the Broom, with me. But I was able to go online and pull down an ecopy from Mark’s online library and continue reading. Cool!

I am enjoying chatting with Matthew as well as Sarah. It is interesting to hear his ideas about politics, both US and England. I realized recently that he has spent his entire life as a British citizen in the European Union. Although, he has had some “buyers remorse” about his initial support for Brexit, he is hopeful that it will work out well for England.

The Conservative Party has been holding a Conference in Birmingham, not too far from here.  I noted to Matthew the increased use of the term, “foreigner,” in British public discussions (instead of immigrant or migrant). This is a term that seems to permeate the Chinese way of looking at things as well.

It’s interesting to follow local politics when abroad. Matthew says that he finds his own local politics disheartening and enjoys following American madness (my term, not his). Madness, indeed.

Stepping Over the Dead on a Migrant Boat – The New York Times

I read this article on my tablet, but didn’t see the stirring photographs included in the online version. The movement of people trying to escape dire awful situations continues world wide. Today’s OED word for the day seemed apt.

We made it to the UK. I slept more than Eileen did on our 8 hour flight. But we were both exhausted by the time we arrived around noon local time. We managed to get on the wifi at Heathrow and were able to communicate with Sarah and Matthew via WhatsApp, a messaging app we use to talk to our family around the world.

Sarah arrived shortly to drive us to her home in Calvert Green. We grabbed some sandwiches and drinks to go at Heathrow and ate in the car on the way. Their new home is in Calvert Green, half way between Aylesbury and  Bicester (pronounced BIST- ah). We went there directly.

Although Eileen and I were tired, we enjoyed holding Lucy for the first time and chatting with Sarah and Matthew.

Our temporary home in the UK is a comfortable couple of rooms in an old converted, one-story, barn.

The rustic beams are echoed in this painting on the wall.

It seems to be in the middle of a diary farm.

The exposed beams could well be from the original barn. But most of the interior is redone in a fanciful mix of antiques and late 20th century British kitsch. The setting is quite idyllic.

Despite being a one story building, there is a little loft with a balcony.

We settled in last night. Eileen hitting the sack as soon as she could. The proprietors had left a basket of goodies including wine which I availed myself of. Sarah dropped us off and returned with some plug adaptors (Brit to US), eggs, bagels, marmite, and juice.
The time change was difficult for me since I was not as exhausted as Eileen. Plus I had my eye on listening to the Vice presidential debates. There is wifi here in the barn, but it doesn’t work so well at the dining room table where I am sitting and writing off line. The pictures scattered throughout today’s post are ones I snapped this morning for that purpose.

I think I lost Tuesday. We left late Monday evening and arrived here in England around noon on Tuesday. But it seemed like the same day. Now I have a Wednesday ahead of me.

We couldn’t get the heat to work this morning. Eileen emailed the proprietors and soon a pleasant, chatty man in grubby work clothes stopped by and helped us. He managed to get it going after much grumbling about the system. “If it has four legs and it mooed, I’m more comfortable with it,” he said as he left, after gesturing at the fancy thermostat.

Snapped this pic through the Sarah’s car window. The proprietor’s brick home is to the left. Our “barn” is a long building on the right. There are two units. We are in the furthest one. The two windows are where I stand to do the internet with my computer. Right now I’m using the wifi at Sarah’s. It seems to be a bit quicker although Matthew has said it’s “rubbish.” He uses it for his business (buying and selling stuff online).

A friend of mine has recently accepted a position as music director for a nearby Episcopal community. My boss described this community as “high church” but in a healthy way or something like that.

In Anglican circles, “high church” has had a lot of different meanings for me over the years. My first contact with the Episcopal church was when it was still worshiping with the 1928 Prayer Book and the 1940 Hymnal. The language and music of these resources impressed me.

Also I liked the ritual. “Bells and smells” it was sometimes called and aspired to “high church.”

Rather quickly I witnessed and helped implement new resources: the 1979 Prayer Book and the 1982 Hymnal. I was later to learn that these were highly under the influence of an Episcopalian take on the 1963 Vatican II documents. The idea of a highly stylized Anglican prayer service began to gradually seem to me as less and less interesting.

Around about this time, I sought employment in the Roman Catholic church to pay the bills when living in Detroit. It was then that I was exposed to and began reading the Vatican II documents.

Somewhere in there, my personal eclectic musical aesthetic began rhyming with an eclectic worship aesthetic. At the age of 65, I am convinced that the genius of American music is eclecticism. If one looks beyond sectarian approaches and dogmas, there is a wealth of musical influences in our society. I tend to like and value them all to some degree.

All of this is to say that I wonder if I am now “low church.” Stylized English buy valium perth approaches to communal prayer that emphasize a choral expression of beauty in sung portions of the ritual don’t interest me that much. I can see its beauty. But I see beauty in many places and kinds of music. I’ll have to ask my boss about this after we get back from England.

It will be a long day today for me and Eileen. Our flight doesn’t leave Grand Rapids until 8 PM. It will be interesting to see how we hold up. I’m usually in bed by this time, but of course traveling across time zones involves adjusting. As I age, this gets more difficult. But I’m looking forward to getting away.

How to Use Google to Plan Your Trip – The New York Times

This article was in yesterday’s paper. I downloaded this app on my tablet and phone. What the heck.

A RaHbbi’s Enduring Sermon on Living Your Last Five Minutes – The New York Times

Religious stuff often drives me crazy. This is a good article, though.

Oscar Brand, Folk Singer Whose Radio Show Twanged for Decades, Dies at 96 – The New York Times

He didn’t get paid for his radio show? Wow.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Advice for Living – The New York Times

I do admire this person.

Don’t Like the Candidates? Vote Anyway – The New York Times

I’ll have to check to see if this article is one of the ones I “shared” on fecesbooger yesterday. Good stuff.

Bishop takes to Facebook to defend firing of gay music director | WJAR

Yes, stupid gay guy, why don’t you stay in the closet like so many bishops and priest do?

It turns out the English B and B we are staying at and, for that matter, Sarah and Matthew’s home is not that far from Kelmscott Manor where William Morris lived out the last years of his life.

We may just trundle over for a look see if that works out.

Sarah has indicated to Eileen that she wants to try some outings while we are visiting. This is both for our touristy benefit and her own regaining routine after giving birth. I am hoping not to drive my quasi son-in-law crazy at this delicate time of his life. He does adore his new baby, that’s for sure!

Eileen and I are looking forward to this trip with excitement.  I am thinking of packing very light. This is always more a good idea when traveling, especially overseas. The B and B we have booked has a washer. It looks quite luxurious. I hope they let uncouth Amurican church musicians stay there! (Just kidding).

One of my choir members gave me a beautiful leather satchel. I love it. It’s used, which adds to its character and beauty as far as I’m concerned. Once again I’m feeling very spoiled. I’m thinking seriously of using it for this trip. Leather is heavier and it doesn’t hold as much stuff, but I’m not planning on taking much stuff. I’m sticking my old organ shoes in the luggage. I’m hoping my tablet will double as both ereader and sheet music access for this trip. So mostly I will have devices in my satchel along with carefully selected real copies of books and music.

The B and B does have wifi, so we should be able to use it with our phones, my computer and tablet.

Why Don’t You Just Call the Cops? – The New York Times

Because they might hurt you, especially if you are black.

I’m tempted to purchase The Enigma of Arrival by V.S. Naipaul as an ebook to read while I’m in the UK. Some of this book takes place in nearby Salsbury (which we have visited before). Naipaul writes about what it’s like to move from one country/culture to another….

I was sitting in my therapist’s waiting room waiting yesterday. I was reading Leonard Cohen’s Book of Longing.

I read the poem “All My News” and liked the ending so much I wanted to make a little check mark on the last few lines and write down the page. This is what I do with books. I put the page of the things I want to be able to return to in the back of the book. I didn’t have a pencil. Then my therapist was ready for me and I went in.

Here’s the lines I later marked:

5.
Undeciphered
let my song
rewire circuits
wired wrong,

and with my jingle
in your brain,
allow the Bridge
to arch again.

I ended my session with Dr. Birky pointing out that my “pathology was submerged” today. My life is good and has been especially good lately (record player, new books to read, impending trip to England). Dr. Birky, my therapist, has indicated that I can bring in stuff I am thinking about and we can talk it over. If I don’t have anything, he promises to have stuff to talk about. Yesterday it was his turn. I have been busy and also finding life sweet.

So Dr. Birky asked me questions about my life and I talked. I told him I like to talk so talking is not really a problem for me. I didn’t tell him,  but I think I have had many interesting things happen to me and that, yes, I am still trying to figure them out. Is that therapy? I don’t know, but I do know that I like Dr. Birky and I like talking to him. Fut the whuck.

I have a tendency to get  up and listen to podcasts in the morning. I listen to the Writers Almanac in order to sit still for five minutes before taking my BP. I listen to podcasts while I clean the kitchen and make coffee. The Writers Almanac has a new poem every day as part of its five minutes. Today’s poem made me remember Leonard Cohen’s closing lines.

I finished A.S. Byatt’s Peacock and Vine: On William Morris and Mariano Fortuny this morning.

It is a beautiful little book full of fascinating connections not only between the two artists in the title.

Byatt describes the genesis of the idea of the book, the idea of connecting two interesting people. She is standing in Venice.

The city that surrounds her overwhelms her with its “airy light.” She beholds the city of Fortuny, the designer of unique and beautiful dresses. She closes her eyes and the “aquamarine light” of the waters of Venice reflecting on the beautiful buildings and sees an “English green,” “more yellow green composed of the light glittering on shaved lawns, and the dense green light of English woods, light vanishing into gnarled tree trunks, flickering on shadows on the layers of summer leaves.”

She beholds the reality of Venice. But in her mind, she captures and examines a remembered English beauty. Thus begins a skein of mostly visual associations that are at the core of this book.

Byatt later says in the book that she “can’t hea r music,” and wonders if her sensitivity to color and the visual is “attention I have spare from not listening to sounds.”

As she muses on the stories of Morris and Fortuny, she passes through their lives and captures details and people that came charging off the page at me. Morris’s wife’s lover, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, has captured the late English romantic sensitivity in a painting Byatt puts in her book. In the legend illustrated, Pluto has swept Prosperine away to the underworld. Ceres, her mother, is so distraught with grief that she neglects the earth and all is beginning to decay. Zeus is forced to ask for Prosperine’s return. This is possible only if she has not eaten anything while with Pluto. Unfortunately she has eaten four seeds of a pomegranate. She may return to earth. But is forced to forever return to the underworld for four months a year, the winter season. Jane Morris, William’s wife, is pictured as Prosperine holding the infamous pomegranate.

Morris would leave Dante and Jane alone at Kelmscott manor one of many places described in Byatt’s book where his subjects lived. The painting hung there. Byatt describes the portrayal of Jane as “brooding, sexual, greedy” and says it exhibits Dante’s odd naked feelings and wonders what effect in would have on Morris. The reader wonders who is who in the legend and the Morris triangle.

This is one of many observations which make up this fascinating little excursion into rooms in Venice and England. As I read the book, I thought of my niece, Emily, and my good friend from the past, Dave Barber. I had a stifled impulse to send them copies of this book. There is a chapter on pomegranates in the work of both men. Emily has made some wonderful photographs of this fruit. She also is very interested in historical women’s clothing.

Dave would like the many descriptions of the way both men researched and recreated printing and textile crafts of the past. Emily would too. Maybe I will act on this and send them copies of this wonderful book.

Wednesday is more and more turning into a “hump day” for me. I think part of it is my shrinking energy pie. But I spent another hour and a half with my boss yesterday. She is feeling like she has too much on her plate. Our times together seem to be good for her. We spent a lot of time talking about non work stuff, like books I am reading and podcasts I am listening to. Then we went through a bunch of service music I had prepared to show her and discuss.

This was all good, but afterwards I could feel how drained I was and I hadn’t even done my prep for the evening rehearsal nor practiced organ.

I went into the rehearsal looking for some Friedman sabotage. By this I mean, that I was expecting some possible unforeseen moments that i would need to deflate, dodge or otherwise deal with. Besides “Stewardship the Musical,” there are other things going on at Grace which might precipitate stuff. Discontent in the people living nearby the church seems to be reaching new levels.

After our curates moved out, complaints about their  behavior surfaced at a routine public meeting of the neighborhood to discuss our upcoming parking lot expansion plans. These sentiments slowed the process way down and now there are more public hearings planned to ostensibly talk about the parking lot, even though complaints about how our curates handled themselves continue to come up in these discussions.

Night before last, Jen was involved in a meeting where people in the neighborhood were complaining about our monthly program to feed people, “Feeding America.” According to Jen there was little sympathy for people who come to get food and help. Apparently there were people in the neighborhood who were not happy about their presence.

This program is near and dear to my boss’s heart. A heart which seems to be under a lot of stress and near breaking lately. But this intolerance reflects the country at large.

I pointed my boss (and I point you, dear reader) to a series of podcasts which Brooke Gladstone has just begun about poverty and attitudes towards it in the USA:

The poverty tour – On the Media

This is a great show and Gladstone promises more like it. The perplexing thing is how myths from decades ago about poor people being lazy and exploiting the system persists even after conservatives (thank you Bill ‘the end of welfare as we know it”Clinton) have long ago won the battle and there are people in our country starving and without homes.

Although I assured my boss that my life is more than good these days, I can see I’m a little tired and grumpy this morning. I think I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Have a day.