Beff's semester finishes today, and she is due home after dark tonight. Tomorrow night we take Big Mike out for Chinese buffet

And so there you have it. The only bummage of the whole time was that I provided a kickin' stereo for Gina's dance party, but it turns out my speakers handle up to 100 watts, and the amplifier is a 125 watt amplifier. One of the woofers, therefore, blew, and the more sensitive ears asked me why the sound was tinny.

So here are my new titles: the piano quintet, 14 minutes and 3 movements, is Disparate Measures; the trio, 10 minutes and in one movement, slow-fast-slow, is Gli Uccelli di Bogliasco; and the fortissimo piano etude is Heavy Hitter. Birds actually came into the two big pieces. After seeing lots of taking off and landing of a great blue heron just outside my studio, I wrote flapping-type gestures into the piano quintet and called the first movement "Flight". Lame, I know. And the bird songs I transcribed from those Bogliasco mornings became important material in the trio, hence the title. I'm afraid that, as an American, I can't actually pronounce correctly the first word of the title (the "gli" is said like a "yuh-lee" except quite fast, and I sound stupid when I try), but you go with what you know. And in my case, that's not very much.

The only other cute bit of information to impart is that Lisa Nonken was there, and she is no relation to Marilyn Nonken. However, Gina went to high school with Marilyn Nonken. In Milwaukee. So by doing nothing, Marilyn was everywhere.

And one other cute bit of information -- during the hot "middle period" of my residency, a few parties happened in the drinks room or the screened in porch late at night, and many bats were in evidence. Gina became known as the batcatcher because she caught one in the third floor bathroom. Meanwhile, I caught two -- but only got one outside successfully -- the other wriggled out in order to be caught shortly by Gina. And favorite resident? I'm sure everyone who was there with her agrees on Beena. I can even forgive the smelly citronella insect cream whose smell lingered on me for two days.

Weatherwise, it was typically summery, and perhaps more humid than usual. Being out in the middle of the woods, I was more cognizant of the humidity and temperature than normally, since when it was humid all my manuscript paper got moist -- indeed, when I printed, the paper steamed (my pictures of that kinda suck). There were three or four days when it was SO hot outside that I couldn't work later than about 2 in the afternoon, so I drove to the Wilton Mall or Target just to be in air conditioning (yes, I am a willful contributor to global warming this way, so deal with it). There were even two days with a weather warning I haven't encountered before: Excessive Heat Warning. Yes, it was hot, but not as hot at the beginning of July 2002 (I remember because I was writing Strident and I thought it was cool that the weather turned into New Orleans for me), and yes I went to the mall those days. Today it is quite dry and almost cool -- I am wearing a long-sleeve shirt over my t-shirt.

Easily the event of the whole residency involved Skidmore College. Skidmore is not only Amy D's alma mater, it holds a yearly Writer's Workshop in the summer, and all manner of famosity in writing are in evidence. Somehow the writers knew who was doing what when -- and alas my plan to hear Louise Gluck read was thwarted by Sunny -- and they did not alert me to Rick Moody's reading. I did the next best thing, and went the next night, to hear Amy Hempel and a guy whose name I don't recall (Alan Gurganis?), which is okay, since his story started great, and ended five times. FIVE TIMES. And I saw writers I know from other colony residencies who have become big time in the intervening years, namely Honor Moore, April Bernard and Henri Cole, for starters. And of course, Rick Moody, who was wearing a red athletic shirt with white stripes whenever I saw him. At the end of his time there, he brought his band The Wingdale Community Singers to to a gig in the "SPA" (cafeteria)), and a group of nearly a dozen Yaddites were in evidence. Including me. It turned out to be a very nice gig, and the three of them that sang and played blended well and sang in tune. Very rare, indeed. I caught Rick using some bar chords on his guitar, but I didn't call him on it. And all the photos I took of the event were on Rick's camera. Interesting, indeed.

Meanwhile, I was glad to return to Maynard and cook for myself, such as it is. The quality of Yaddo meals is a little lower than three years ago, though I have to say breakfast is unchanged, and Sally is still the only reason to go to breakfast at all (she now occasionally wears a "Law and Order" baseball cap). Over here, the lawns are a few days from needing mowing, the hammock is quite inviting indeed, and the cats follow me wherever I go. Yesterday I went to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's to replenish the fridge, and I believe I will have TJ's salmon burgers for dinner tonight. Yes. Yes.

This is tax free weekend in Massachusetts, and I have already planned my early Saturday morning: drive to Staples, get the HP 5200TN printer to replace my ailing 12-year-old 4MV, and that will cost me $2109.88, because I have a Staples rewards coupon and there is no tax. I am not doing it online, because I don't trust the sucker not to charge me the tax. And when that printer arrives, I will have to go into full production mode, which will also involve a trip to Alphagraphics in Concord, twice, because the scores are oversize. I also will take my nice paper I got from Yehudi into Brandeis to make the scores themselves. Beff will be back, and we will resume our daily bike rides. And I will finally do my syllabi for the year -- 3-part species counterpoint was such an abject failure the last time I taught 2nd year theory that I'm replacing that unit this time with a chorale harmonization unit. Uh oh.

All the links on the left are unchanged from the last posting. The yellow ones are little movies from my Bogliasco time, the blue ones are websites, the red ones are links to studio performances of my hand drums pieces, the "Birdsongs" is the Bogliasco birdsongs I transcribed, and the greenish-yellow ones are silly cat movies. The many, many pictures below are from Yaddo, as follows: my studio, the mossy carpet on the bridge into my studio, a mushroom, and lots and lots of nice peoples.

Brief news flash. I have won the 2006 Barlow Prize. That's a $15,000 commission to write a piece at least 15 minutes long for a consortium of 5 wind ensembles. More when details are available.

AUGUST 19. Breakfast this morning was Trader Joe's potato pancakes, rice link sausages, orange juice, and coffee. Dinner was swordfish puttanesca, roasted vegetables, and salad. Lunch was Campbell's Chunky Chicken Soup. Campbells and Trader Joes have not paid a fee to be mentioned in this space. TEMPERATURE EXTREMES THIS LAST WEEK: 47.8 and 84.0. MUSIC GOING THROUGH MY HEAD AS I TYPE THIS "Makes Me Want to Pray" by Christina Aguilera. LARGE EXPENSES this last six week include an HP 5200tn printer, $2139.88 tax-free and delivered, a pair of PSB Alpha "B" speakers, $245 tax free, movies and CDs at Strawberries, $58, tax-full. POINTLESS NOSTALGIC REMINISCENCE: Two summers ago, during which the long but not slow descent into Chairhood was happening, I had two ten-minute pieces to write, and we had just gotten our new cats -- who were very small kittens at the time. During July and August, a daily ritual happened between 2 and 3 in the afternoon. As I sat at the piano writing, Cammy climbed up the back of my shirt and perched on my shoulder. I carried him into the living room, sat on the couch, put him in my lap, and petted him. After 5 to 10 minutes, he would be close to sleeping, would move off me onto the couch, and sleep. And I could resume composing. COMPANIES WHO HAVE NOT COVERED THEMSELVES IN GLORY THIS WEEK is Staples, but not really. COMPANIES WHO HAVE COVERED THEMSELVES IN GLORY is Staples, and the contradiction will be explained below. Also Maynard Door and Window. THIS WEEK'S COSMIC QUANDARY:are we "safer" than we were five years ago? THIS WEEK'S MADE-UP WORD: fornation. THINGS I HAVE GROWN WEARY OF are waiting around, pine pitch, and pictures of W wearing safety glasses at yet another photo op. RECENT GASTRONOMIC OBSESSIONS: are actually -- none. DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK printer heft. THIS WEEK'S NUMBER BETWEEN 1 AND 10: pi. REVISIONS TO THIS SITE: This page. NUMBER OF HAIRCUTS I GOT TODAY: 0. FRAGILE THINGS DESTROYED BY THE CATS THIS LAST WEEK is a vitamin pill, plus some grapes swiped onto the kitchen floor. RECOMMENDATION AND PROFESSIONAL LETTERS WRITTEN THIS LAST WEEK: 0. DAVY'S BAROMETER FOR THE FUTURE OF MUSIC this week is 25 out of 100. WHAT THE NEXT BIG TREND WOULD BE IF I WERE IN CHARGE: Blacklight specials at K-Mart for people wearing white socks. THIS WEEK'S FEATURED FAKE SENDER NAME IN A SPAM: very special. SUBJECT OF THAT SPAM: MASTER. PHOTOS IN MY IPHOTO LIBRARY: 9,652. WHAT I PAID FOR GASOLINE THIS WEEK: $3.04 and $2.96. OTHER INANIMATE OBJECTS THAT WOULD BE A BETTER PRESIDENT THAN THE CURRENT ONE vapor lock, a piece of very, very moldy cheese, the word that gets stuck on the tip of your tongue, bread pudding.

For those of you late-readers of last week's update -- the very end changed twice -- you know I have returned from a few days in Burlington, Vermont, where I went for Beth's father's funeral. Most of the details should remain private, and will, but I have no problem revealing things that embarrass me. For the record, he died Sunday afternoon, the service was Thursday morning, and there was a viewing at the cemetery Thursday afternoon. During that time, there was a whole lot of waiting around. And eating out.

I stayed in Massachusetts so as to attend Jeremy Sagala's dissertation defense on Tuesday, notable because I was able to give Lee Hyla -- the outside reader -- a $10 jar of pickles. Also notable because Yu-Hui showed up and it became her first official faculty act. The drive was nearly eventless (save a car that tried to pass a car I was already passing -- rear view mirrors don't show you everything, people!), thus giving my car horn its agogic accent for the year. All five siblings were there eventually, as was a sister (aunt) from the midwest. My best moment was introducing myself to a pallbearer as "Beth's wife". The service was in the Catholic church attached to the Catholic school Beff attended grades 1-8, and Catholic services just seem weird to those of us brought up Protestant. The music was played on a Klavinova and the Klavinovist also sang. I rued having trained ears during the musical portions, as said Klavinovist used willy-nilly inversions of chords as if playing bar chords or reading from a lead sheet -- and thus the shapes of the bass lines were not elegant. During the down time at home, the same old sibling relationships played out as I have always seen them.

Before all of this was last weekend, tax-free weekend in Massachusetts. On Saturday, I had my day entirely planned out. Well, actually, I had the first 15 minutes of it planned out. I drove to Staples and timed it to get there just when they opened at 9 -- I was 5 minutes early and was not the first one there. Another woman in line related that she was there to get a computer, tax-free. I think it would have been a waste to buy pens and pencils that day. I motored to the store "kiosk" since I knew they weren't going to have a bigass printer such as I was buying in stock, confidently recited the model number, and got a receipt to take to the register -- which promptly charged me $107 tax. Said kiosk guy, "the no tax was supposed to be programmed automatically", and he had to do a manual override. Ah, technology. This is why I did not order it online -- in fact, the order as it appears on line shows an amount that includes the tax. Then I drove down Route 2A to Littleton, where New England Home Theater was listed as a dealer of PSB speakers -- the brand of speaker I had that blew at Yaddo. But they were not open. So I drove to K-Mart in Acton, got cat treats, and then drove back to Litteton, where I got another pair of speakers of similar size to the ones I had (Alpha "B"), and left the blown one there to be repaired.

Then my Saturday was, essentially, done, except for the scheming of what other big ticket items we could get and save tax on. Beff turned down the oppotunity to get another Power Book (now the Mac Book Pro, I guess), citing issues of compatibility. So I installed Finale 2007 -- the sexy new feature being parts linked to the score -- and experimented a while. I generated parts for "Disparate Measures" and did the customary adjustments -- shortening and lengthening crescendoes, moving dynamics, fixing slopes of slurs, adding bits of text -- all of which were reflected on the score, which, because its spacing was different, now commenced to look -- crapful. I put the text "Violin I" on the Violin I part, which then showed up on ALL the parts AND on the score. So this linked parts thing -- quite obviously has to go back to the drawing board. MakeMusic, alas, released a product on time rather than one that was useful. Seems like Finale 2007a or 2007b should modify that feature to make it actually useful. So later I generated the parts as separate, unlinked, files, and adjusted them, etc. And should have done a little more proofreading before I did that.

Meanwhile, the Staples webpage listed the anticipated date of delivery for the printer as August 22 -- the original receipt said between August 16 and 22. While I was in Vermont crusing on the neighbor's wi-fi, I looked up the order, and found out that the printer had been delivered at 4:30 Tuesday afternoon -- a few hours after I had left for Vermont. With Big Mike out of town, Dewek in Colorado, and Carolyn vehicleless, I resorted to the last resort -- calling the folks at Maynard Door and Window to ask them to make sure the printer wasn't on the front porch, and possibly to cover it if it was on the back porch. When I got back, the printer was deep in the garage. I tried carrying it in, but the box was far, far too large for me to carry myself. It took both Beff and me, on Saturday afternoon, to carry it in.

So Beff finally got back on Saturday afternoon after being away at least two weeks. It took forever to get all her stuff out of the car -- as we also had a few things from the "estate" with us (Budapest pillows and a big rug, for starters), and of course Beff wanted to vacuum. So we reconfigured our rug situation (new rug in alcove, rug from alcove moved to guest room), I set up the printer, and Beff vacuumed. It seems to be a fact of life that for me installing a very large piece of technology involves much sweating.

So the printer is BIG. Being the larger, networkable model, it comes with an extra 500-sheet paper tray that becomes one with the printer -- rather than being a separate tray you substitute, like on the 4MV that is now outta here. The first thing it did was misfeed, but I think it may have been designed to -- the little control panel knew exactly where the misfeed was, and gave me step-by-step instructions for clearing it out. I installed the driver software on the 3 computers attached to the network, and it worked on all of them. A Windows first! I tested both letter and tabloid size printing, and they both worked well. Shortly, much 11x17 printing will happen. And then we will need to figure out how to do double-sided printing (automatic duplexing was a $500 option I did not go for).

Meantime, readers of an earlier version of last week's update know that I have my work cut out for me after school is over in May. That's a bit of information that I think I'll leave mysterious until the granting organization makes its official announcement. I can say that because of it I will definitely join a frequent flyer program, since I expect to be flying in a year almost as much as Gusty Thomas does in a typical week.

And yesterday I drove back to Littleton to pick up my new speakers, which are very small and sound terrific. On the way back, I stopped at Strawberries and got the new Christina Aguilera album, which has a few terrific tracks, and plenty of tracks where you wonder why she bothered. Also, I finally got the DVD of Office Space, which was on super-duper special. I may be capturing some small movies from that one -- where Jennifer Aniston says "I love Kung Fu movies", for instance.

So now my producing of scores and writing of syllabi, etc., has been delayed by a week. C'est la vie. Today Beff and I plan to walk downtown and do a bike ride. And I love days where that's all there is for us to do. Well, that, and lie in the hammock.

Today's pictures begin with the new printer, contextualized. Then there is an old milk wagon from a venue in Burlington, two pictures from the dregs of Burlington that Beff and I encountered on our walks, the bean-type fruit of a tree we encountered on a walk, the beach beneath the camp (summer home), view of the beach from the property, and the camp itself, showing the lower floor which has recently been converted from spiderwebby storage space to an actual bedroom and bathroom.

AUGUST 25. Breakfast this morning was rice sauasage links with melted 2% cheese, orange juice and coffee. Dinner was 99% fat free ravioli. Lunch was ... come to think of it, I guess I forgot to have lunch. TEMPERATURE EXTREMES THIS LAST WEEK: 56.3 and 86.1. MUSIC GOING THROUGH MY HEAD AS I TYPE THIS "Bathtime in Clerkenwell" by The Real Tuesday Weld. LARGE EXPENSES this last six week include iPod speakers, $99 at BJ's, various mailing bag and binding materials at Staples, $72, and bindings for large scores at alphagraphics, $21. POINTLESS NOSTALGIC REMINISCENCE: The family purchased a 1/4 track reel-to-reel player/recorder in 1964, and it had the capability of recording sound-on-sound. Over the years I would occasionally record multipart piano things or even four-part choral things with myself singing all four parts (you don't want to hear them -- trust me). There were two games that I and friends invented that, upon reflection, seem pretty inventive. One game involved using the pause a lot for a question and answer session so that the questions could be, say, composites of several consecutive questions (I most remember coming up with the composite question from four questions, "What does/used/toilet paper/taste like?") In the other game, one of us would record one side of a conversation, and the other would come in and record the other side, not knowing what to expect. Classic exchange: "What color is the wall you're looking at?" "I'm not looking at a wall." "Why aren't you looking at a wall?" COMPANIES WHO HAVE NOT COVERED THEMSELVES IN GLORY THIS WEEK is the Joyce Chen Asian Market in Acton, who still has no ginger sesame dressing on hand. COMPANIES WHO HAVE COVERED THEMSELVES IN GLORY is alphagraphics and good old Trader Joe's. THIS WEEK'S COSMIC QUANDARY: has anyone ever met one of the 33% of Americans who think W is doing a good job? THIS WEEK'S MADE-UP WORD: strack. THINGS I HAVE GROWN WEARY OF is formatting parts. RECENT GASTRONOMIC OBSESSIONS: are Santa Barbara olives, as usual. DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK I think I figured out how to do ovesize binding myself. THIS WEEK'S NUMBER BETWEEN 1 AND 10: 8. REVISIONS TO THIS SITE: This page. NUMBER OF HAIRCUTS I GOT TODAY: 0. FRAGILE THINGS DESTROYED BY THE CATS THIS LAST WEEK is nothing. RECOMMENDATION AND PROFESSIONAL LETTERS WRITTEN THIS LAST WEEK: 2. DAVY'S BAROMETER FOR THE FUTURE OF MUSIC this week is 32 out of 100. WHAT THE NEXT BIG TREND WOULD BE IF I WERE IN CHARGE: E-mail spam that literally smells like spam. THIS WEEK'S FEATURED FAKE SENDER NAME IN A SPAM: Cortney Arce. SUBJECT OF THAT SPAM: re: se. PHOTOS IN MY IPHOTO LIBRARY: 9,676. WHAT I PAID FOR GASOLINE THIS WEEK: $2.94. OTHER INANIMATE OBJECTS THAT WOULD BE A BETTER PRESIDENT THAN THE CURRENT ONE a Ken doll, a day without orange juice, a jar of dark matter, seventeen of whatever it is that wakes you up in the morning.

As I type this, it is a cool and rainy morning the likes of which we haven't seen since the last cool and rainy morning. Beff returned from Vermont last Saturday, and we've been back to the normal workload, or actually, more than the normal workload. Beff and I both had to write syllabi for our fall courses, and I rejoiced at getting mine done by Monday and being able to send them to Mark in the office for display purposes -- or for whatever reason it is that Brandeis makes us put our syllabi in department offices before classes begin. I was also happy to have three pieces of equipment toward the high end of their respective product lines: bigass printer, big paper cutter, very nice binding machine. For you see, the music I was waiting to print out was formatted for 11 x 14 paper, which means printing onto 11x17 paper and cutting it down. It was a long search for the paper cutter that was robust enough to let you measure 14 inches (most of them stop at 11). I then brought them to be copied onto expensive, heavy paper, double-sided, and then to alphagraphics to be bound. Now that was a trip.

So on Monday I let the Garmin direct me to alphagraphics, which is in one of the many villages of Concord -- it saved me maybe a mile and 10 minutes. After leaving them off, I drove into Brandeis to have a meeting about representing music on the experiential learning webpage of Brandeis, and while there I gave a tourlet to a family taking a look at Brandeis. On the way back, I got my scores, and voila, the last page of one of them was upside down and cut in the wrong place -- my bad. Upon return, I reprinted the page, cut it the correct way, and figured out how to make the TWO cuts on the binding machine to get it to fit with the score. I rule. Now I think I can do it again in the future, but we shall see. Obviously I got excited about extremely mundane things this week.

Then there was the issue of binding the parts and mailing the scores and parts off -- some to Kansas, some to Long Island -- and trips to Staples were necessary for the correct size mailing bags and for more binding coils. One of those trips was piggybacked onto a trip for iPod speakers -- I've requested iPod plug-ins for the small teaching room I'm in this fall, and I know we will get them -- in December. CompUSA had the gorgeous-but-so-expensive Bose system, but we opted for a smaller, less deluxe Logitech system, whose sound is adequate, and portable -- not to mention, it comes with a remote control and a carrying case. Also a trip to Trader Joe's got piggybacked on that trip, and I was able to get delicious salmon filets for dinner. So there, smarty pants.

Bike riding also resumed, and we did Boon Lake, the "other" Gropius house, and West Acton. Which leads me to note that for the first time in many months, the column of links to the left is different. The four bright yellow links are QuickTime movies from our West Acton ride, greatly sped up. See "Arriving Home" to see both Erickson's Dairy and Christy's trailer.

I also had to make a list of required listening for my orchestration class, bring it to the library, and ask for the materials to be put on reserve. This is a much faster process than trying to get them put online, which takes two weeks at least, and there is no score. So in the syllabus I noted that the listening is not online, and this semester we are "kickin' it oldstyle". There is a pretty large amount of work for the orchestration students to do, and at this point I can't resist putting in a little "MWA-ha-ha" for good measure. Also, deciding which homeworks the Theory 2 students will have to do was a chore -- especially considering I have to grade it all.

So now things for school are in gear, and Beff is in Bangor yesterday and today to start getting that stuff together -- as well as mowing the lawn, getting the car inspected, and paying the excise tax. As I type this, she is in Downeast Toyota getting new tires and doing work on her computer.

Meanwhile, I have begun the long and arduous process of extracting parts to my piano concerto. I'm going to try to average at least one a day for a while so that it won't drive me totally batty. So far, the two flute parts and the first oboe part is done. Each part has to have four files, since there are four movements, and doing the page numbers, remembering page turns, and especially putting in cues when there are long rests are very time-consuming, yet necessary. An extra five minutes spent putting in a cue might save five minutes times the number of players in an orchestra in rehearsal time. So I slog. Perhaps the second oboe part later today.