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

MEANWHILE, Beff is on her two-week UMaine vacation and she arrived Saturday with the cats. Of course, due to all the stuff in the kitchen and former pantry where their litter box and food used to be, we set up the cat feeding station upstairs outside the guest room and the litter box in the (now we call it the upstairs) bathroom, and the early morning feeding time has been confusing for all -- as I've had to go downstairs for the plate and fork, the cats follow anxiously, and I have to come back upstairs for the actual feeding. Meanwhile, we are both allergic to dust, so the cleaning up has been pretty interesting -- and Beff has done by far the most of it. It's interesting seeing her with the sanding mask on.

But stepping back by a week or more, there is the trip of Amy D to report -- she came in on Sunday the 25th -- the day of the last update here -- and missed her early morning plane but made it onto an early afternoon plane on standby. On that day there was a snowstorm barreling through the midwest and passing mostly to our south. She stayed at my favorite, the Midtown Motor Inn, and was in town to do a recital at Boston Conervatory and a radio appearance -- with ME -- to promote it, on WGBH. She called to let me know she made into town, and meanwhile I helped navigate her to Boston Conservatory, where she had practice time. And then she did. Practice.

On Monday I went into Brandeis for my usual teaching, except I ended at 1 in order to make it to WGBH for a 2 pm sound check. I had actually REINSTALLED the Garmin GPS thing on my windshield in order to get good directions there -- turns out it was quite easy, and I got the last available parking space -- and Rick B taught my theory class (swimmingly, it would seem -- they came out of it with a new catch phrase: Holy Cross Relation!), occasionally tuning in during the radio spiel to hear my sweet dulcet tones (I got a CD of the whole thing -- do I really sound that high and nasal?). I got there just minutes before Amy, and got to know the retrofitted studio and all its cheap carpet fairly well. We planned out the order of what Amy would play (a little Ligeti, five of me, and all of Gaspard de la Nuit), and precise timing so that it would make a nice upbeat to the news hour, and as usual Amy played splendidly -- including all of Gaspard from memory. We talked, she played, we talked, she played, repeat. Afterwards we chatted a bit in the studio, then drove to the parking garage near NEC, and went out to dinner at Legal Seafoods in the Prudential Center (she got the cioppino and I didn't).

Tuesday was a normal floppy day, and I went Bostonwards in the late afternoon for the actual recital, parking in the usual place (see previous paragraph). Of course since I was at home most of the day, there was the usual give and take with the workmen from Door and Window, as well as errands to run, etc. And to return to the established timeline, I walked about around the Pru, and then happened over to Conor Larkin pub near NEC for dinner -- it's where I had lunch before every day of lessons I taught at NEC and I got used to the place. From there I walked to Boston Conservatory (by now it was quite cold), happened by Rodney Lister at a coffee shop (I guess he was going to the Boston Symphony), and went to the concert. There I met Michael Lewin, who had set up the concert, for the first time, and Yehudi came, too, and it was a lovefest. I did my usual spiel about the etudes before Amy's set of two groups of four. Oh yes, and Dalit was there as well as some other people I had met, and there you have it. For some reason, a lot of people were quite impressed with Rick's Mood, because it's highly chromatic and also nothing but major triads. Which means it were a might pretty.

After the concert, Michael Lewin took us to the restaurant in the Colonnade Hotel, and I had to leave before any food was ordered, in order to get home before midnight -- with an early morning schedule, after all. The drive home was its usual eventless self. Wednesday and Thursday teaching were also spotlessly clean, with a caveat -- which will be explained later in this update.

For Friday, I was scheduled to meet Adam Marks at Brandeis, where he was to play Rick's Mood and Not (the talking piano etude) for me for the first time, and I had reserved practice time. Meanwhile, a slop storm was predicted for us -- snow changing to sleet to freezing rain to all rain, and it was unknown when the changeover would happen and when the roads would be okay for driving. So we planned for Adam to meet me here in Maynard and both of us to go together -- which happened. He got to see the house and the construction, and hey -- by 5:30 am (of course I was awake that early) the changeover had already happened, and the roads were okay to drive. Okay enough, in fact, for me to get some food and imbibement at Dunkin Donuts in Stow. So the drive into Brandeis was fine, Adam got some practice time, and then he played Not for me. It was wild, wild, wild -- I made a video (he doesn't want me to show it to you) and a recording (I'm not telling you where it is), and forwarded them to Rick Moody, who had written the text, and we had great fun trying to make suggestions for what to do next (I think he suggested it be acted a little more -- and that is what Adam says he has been doing). Sometimes the piece is very strange, sometimes it's quite funny, sometimes it's almost terrifying. But I now I know how to make a minimalist text sound emotional.

And Adam and I presented to Eric Chafe's modernism class, as he played Absofunkinlutely for them and I did my usual spiel. I also pointed to the chair where Adam sat in his slacker Music 101 days (Dahlia was in it) and tried to give Adam a chance to let them know what the life of the in-demand performer is like. "Nice", I think Adam said. Anyway, Adam played it twice, and the second time a bunch of students stood behind him to see his hands. Then it was off the the Quarterdeck in the driving rain, and then Adam made it back to New York. Today I got an e-mail from him informing that he'll be interviewed on Radio France tomorrow and they'd probably play his Orleans performance of Absofunkinlutely. So there. The premiere of Not happens Friday at the Salle Cortot in Paris, by the way, which is rumored to be the "Tully Hall of Paris" -- an acoustically great medium sized hall. But what do I know?

On the weekend arrived Beff, and what you already know happened. It got nice and mild for a while and then a deep freeze started on Monday -- record cold, I believe, more like mid-January. And windy. Pretty crappy, if me is who you ask.

But before Beff arrived, I drove up to the MacDowell Colony for lunch with John Aylward, who is resident there, and we did Harlow's as usual, and I left some very expensive beer for John S, as usual. It was suddenly quite mild, odd for the day after a slop storm, and the sun in the early morning heated up the rain on the trees and other surfaces so quickly that everything seemed to steam. Since I had named an etude after a similar occurrence at the MacDowell Colony (Les Arbres Embues, aigu accent over that last e, and meaning Steaming Trees), I had to take a bunch of pictues of my own steaming trees. One is in evidence below. And anyway, when Beff got in, we retrained the cats on their new/old/new/old/new house.

To start this paragraph, I inform the gentle reader that I am temporarily on the wagon. So I have been wearing my lovely night guard regularly since the 16th of February, and it was okay for the first week, but after I got back from Maine the old mouth pain started right back up -- even to the point where it was occasionally excruciatingly painful on Wednesday and Thursday of last week. Monday of this week things actually felt better, but I made appointments with both the doctor an the dentist to scope out this problem that the night guard was supposed to help make go away, and yesterday, Tuesday, I finally got a name for it: TMJ Syndrome. TMJ is the big joint in your mouth stretching just about from ear to ear, and teeth clenching is one of the causes, as well as stress, various misalignment, etc. and the doctor advised ibuprofen and prescribed a muscle relaxant but suggested the underlying cause be identified and dealt with. I.e., avoid stressful situations. And she advised regular exercise to relax (don't all doctors prescribe exercise?), meditation, yoga, whatever, and once we turn the clocks ahead -- THIS WEEKEND! -- I'll have more light (and hopefully warmer weather than this deep freeze) to take constitutional walks, etc. Hmm, TMJ syndrome. It's got a name, and I have an ironclad excuse to avoid stressful things that people want me to do. And the muscle relaxant cannot be taken when you are having alcohol. Hence, on the wagon.

Speaking of stress-causing situations -- last week during a routine look under the kitchen sink for something, I noticed that everything under there was soggy -- and then discovered that that was because the drainpipe under the sink -- the metal part between the sink's pipe and the pipe going downstairs -- had corroded clear through, and anything going down the drain was just dripping into the little storage space under the sink. Sigh -- stressmachen. I had to put a bowl there to catch drippings, put up a sign saying no sink usage, and that made doing dishes or even making coffee quite a chore -- as I now had to bring the coffeepot into the back yard to empty the dregs and drain it. Etcetera. Sigh. Luckily, the plumber already hired for the home job finally fixed it on Monday, during which time the toilet and sink were installed and connected, and the fridge icemaker apparatus connected. On Monday night, I used the toilet #1) for the very first time, and delighted at telling Steve of Door and Window, and later Jeannine, about it. "Know what I did last night?" "I used the toilet downstairs!!!!" "Know what I did then? Hmm? Hmm?" "I FLUSHED!!!!!"

So it's the time of year when so much crap is going on at the 'Deis that people schedule 8 am meetings. I had such a meeting today, and it must have been a stressful one, because the old jaw started doing the hurtin' thing, continued for a while, and then felt better later. Oh yeah -- and when I got to the dentist, it was late afternoon and she was much behind (waiting room was full). So I rescheduled for 7:30 on Friday morning. Talk about early morning meetings.

So soon after I post this, I take the first muscle relaxant pill. Given my history, I expect not much. But hope for the best.

Upcoming: Amy D does the show again at U of Southern Maine on St. Patty's Day, and I'll do the etude spiel and give some composition lessons and a public talk. Adam does a show in Paris on Friday, as we know. Amy repeats her concert in Portsmouth the next day. Theory 2 students have their art songs performed in class on the 19th. And I meet good old friend (MacDowell '00) Anna Schuleit at the Harvard Faculty Club on the 29th for lunch to talk over details of me mentoring a Peterborough public school student for a project celebrating the 100th anniversary of the MacDowell Colony. That would be cool.

This week's pictures begin with two in the WGBH studio -- in the first see Amy at the piano, and in the second see the deluxe table where we sat for the interview. Then, see our new bath, the just-tiled mud room before the sliding doors go on, the kitchen island, the refrigerator WITH ICEMAKER WOO HOO in context, the toy piano bench with dust on it before it got cleaned off, and one of our steaming trees from Saturday morning. And better etude recordings from the Mike Kirkendoll-Mary Fukushima show in New York arrived, so catch those references in red above and on the left.

MARCH 17. Breakfast today was a Boca meatless sausages with some melted cheese, orange juice, and Strange Flavor Coffee. Lunch was a shared vegetable pizza, blackberries, and some limeade. Dinner last night was 93% lean burgers, home fries, and salad. TEMPERATURE EXTREMES THIS LAST WEEK: 1.9 and 70.3. MUSIC GOING THROUGH MY HEAD AS I TYPE THIS The Smokey Robinson version of "Ain't That Peculiar". LARGE EXPENSES this last week are none. BIRDS HEARD RECENTLY: chickadees, Canada geese, cardinals, a whole bunch of birds I don't know, a song sparrow, downy woodpeckers, white-breasted nuthatch. POINTLESS NOSTALGIC REMINISCENCE: In the next to last week of Tanglewood 1982, we composers were asked to submit what we had written there to be considered for the big composition prize. As one, almost all of us decided to eschew the competition. It turned out, all the instrumentalists and conductors also decided not to compete, and so at the awards ceremony it was decided to use the prize money to fund a 1983 Tanglewood residency. I imagined whoever got it would have to write a LOT of thank you notes. But I never got mine, Jack. THIS WEEK'S MADE-UP WORD: striggleness. THINGS I HAVE GROWN WEARY OF TMJ, variable New England weather, wet feet. RECENT GASTRONOMIC OBSESSIONS: Edy's Lime bars, spicy olives. DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK Songs are more natural for theory students than variations. THIS WEEK'S NUMBER BETWEEN 1 AND 10: 5.12083503. REVISIONS TO THIS SITE: This page, Performances. NUMBER OF HAIRCUTS I GOT LAST WEEK: 0. DENTIST VISITS SINCE SEPTEMBER: 12. CUTE CAT THINGS TO REPORT: Sunny now likes to sleep between the folds of the sleeping bag in the practice room/guest room. RECOMMENDATION AND PROFESSIONAL LETTERS WRITTEN THIS LAST WEEK: 3. FUN DAVY FACT YOU WON'T READ ANYWHERE ELSE: When I played organ at my sister's wedding, I was wearing a leisure suit with a color that has no name and wearing white socks with yellow stripes. WHAT THE NEXT BIG TREND WOULD BE IF I WERE IN CHARGE: I'm the new me. PHOTOS IN MY IPHOTO LIBRARY: 10,432. WHAT I PAID FOR GASOLINE THIS WEEK: $2.52. OTHER INANIMATE OBJECTS THAT WOULD BE A BETTER PRESIDENT THAN THE CURRENT ONE the second hand on an old Timex watch, the third time I ever saw your face, holding forth, a fifth of gin.

As far as the number of teeth I have goes, thirty-one is it.

As I type this (afternoon of March 17, 2007), I am scheduled to be hanging with Amy D and Dan Sonenberg at the University of Southern Maine (that's in Gorham, 10 or 15 miles west of Portland) wherein Amy does a masterclass, I do a public talk and some private meetings with student composers, and Amy does a recital with some live program notes from me. But alas, a Nor'easter blew this way yesterday and today, and by the time we would have had to drive to Gorham (84 miles for Amy, 123 miles for me), the roads were crappola-rama and there was still freezing rain falling. Indeed, in the morning I drove to CVS downtown -- a nice 0.9 mile drive -- and the freezing rain made a sheet of ice on my windshield (i.e. I couldn't really see, and stuff, and I utilized a LOT of wiper fluid to keep it from freezing again, though that didn't actually work), and there was a bit of slipping and sliding if you went faster than 25 mph. So we cancelled -- or more likely, postponed until next spring.

Meanwhile, here comes the context. And let me start, like, around the time of the previous post. I started taking muscle relaxant pills for TMJ (such is as it says on the bottle), and at first there was not much difference (as I predicted). But after 4 or 5 days, things improved, I made it through this whole week without any particularly bad pain, though some stiffness was still in evidence. And for once -- for ONCE! -- I was at full strength, so to speak, for Theory 2 on Wednesday. I called my doctor, as I had been asked to, and was only able to speak to a nurse, described my progress, and I got 10 more to take. So there. What I can report, then, is progress (though still in the middle of the day I do feel something like pressure on my temples and I have to pop my ears some), and like Mayor Goldie Wilson, I suppose I can make progress my middle name. And I have discovered friends who had the same thing, all of whom got over it and sometimes get it back. Lovely. Some of them also have lovely night guard stories.

Meanwhile, over the 6 or 7 days following the previous post, little things got added to the big bathroom/mud room project that brought it closer to fruition -- a light fixture was ordered, arrived and installed; an old 2-prong outlet was replaced by a quadruple 3-pronger; the metal piece on the doorjamb that engages with the doornknob assembly was installed; new handles were put on the sliding doors in the mud room; and the plastic handle on the storm door in front was replaced (a worker had broken it). So as of Tuesday this week, the job was officially, and finally, finished. Hallelujah. Now we are waiting to see just how much extra all the other stuff was had done will cost us (e.g. tiling the mudroom floor, building the cabinet for the fridge, beadboarding and wainscoating in the bathroom, assembling the kitchen island) on top of the half we already owe.

So frigid Arctic cold came back for several days, and it kind o' sucked -- in fact, the coldest day of the year was about eight days ago (hence the low of 1.9 degrees, above). A gradual warm-up caused some pretty serious spring fever -- even to the point of putting out the Adirondack chairs last Sunday, getting out the bicycles and oiling/inflating them on Tuesday morning, and even doing bike rides Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday it was just me after getting home from doing some office hours, and it was the shortest possible ride in our retinue. Wednesday it was over 70 when I got back -- and since I was feeling not much TMJ, I was elated -- and I took a longer one that also involved two significant uphills. Thursday rained and Friday snowed -- as did today -- so now the bikes are just laying in wait for the next warm day.

By Tuesday, the fourth consecutive day with highs over 50, enough of the snow had melted that the crocuses started to come out -- mark that on your calendar that this year Crocus Day was March 13 (last year it was March 16, and the year before it was considerably later). As usual, I went out to take pictures of them, pretty much indistinguishable from the pictures I have taken in previous years. And of course on Wednesday that became T-shir and shorts day (last year I don't remember when that was), which was my silly-looking attire for my bike ride.

Meanwhile. My duty with the Faculty Senate Council called, and that meant a meeting with the President of Brandeis University on Thursday afternoon. It also meant other various things that kept me at Brandeis from 7 am to 7:30 pm -- and thanks to daylight savings time, it wasn't completely dark when I left. Zoomaphonic! And that was my longest day there yet. I spent NO time there Friday, choosing instead to stay at home, watch it get colder and colder, and wait for the snow to sleet to freezing rain to begin. And, by the way, the statistics are: there was exactly a foot of white stuff (snow underneath sleet underneath freezing rain), with an extremely high water content.

So that meant that Maynard Door and Window came by and plowed out the driveway at about 5:20 this morning, and then at 7:30 -- by which time I was up, not sure yet whether I'd be doing the gig at U of Southern Maine -- they sent the shoveling brigade. Who did the schmutz left behind by the plow, and both sidewalks. I then touched up, anal as I am about this stuff, especially as the wide part of the driveway near the garage was not shoveled. So I took out the snow rake, raked two sides of the garage roof, the porch roof, and the other porch roof, widened both sidewalks with shovels, and engaged the snowblower in the very difficult task of getting this heavy white stuff out of the way -- it tended to want to climb the big piles, rather than move them out of the way. Later, Beff and I did some more pushing of the snow off the roof from the computer room (Sunny enjoyed tasting a little snow, too), so that ice jams won't seep into the alcove.

I couldn't help thinking that exactly a year ago as of yesterday, Beff and Carolyn (ka-ching!) and I were painting, leaving the pantry window open for the cats to look out, and resting on the Adirondack chairs afterwards. Oh yes, and taking crocus pictures that are suspiciously similar to this year's crocus pictures. While over here, the snow started around 11:15 and just would not stop.

MEANWHILE, continuing my habit to report out of sequence, since my doctor (or actually a nurse representing him) prescribed exercise, Beff and I went out walking whenever we could, including our 2-1/2 mile Assabet loop, and the Summerhill Road loop, the old train tracks, etcetera. And then we started to inquire about replacing the kitchen window for one that insulates much better and gives more light. We were given two estimates for two kinds of windows (flush with the wall, and bowing out, bay-window like) of which the flush with the wall version is considerably less expensive. So that is what we plan to do. In August. When we are in Vermont and the house is empty.

Meanwhile, Adam Marks's gig in Paris seems to have gone well. He was interviewed on Radio France and he spoke about my music, he said the gig went well and the music was very well received (which is good, since everything he played was by me), and as is usual for anything requiring technology, a few technical glitches with amplification caused some strangeness at times. Then I got word that the Koussevitzky Foundation didn't have the contracts I and BMOP had signed, which I had sent registered return receipt requested, and had a record that they had been delivered at 1:43 pm January 12 -- so we have to sign them again. Sigh. And meanwhile, our own PhD Seung-Ah got a Goddard Lieberson fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and we all got happy about that.

And on Tuesday, Beff rented a van for too much money from Enterprise, and drove to Albany to get stuff from her father's condo that her sister was storing so that her brother can eventually put it in his new house. Right now two leather chairs are on the side porch awaiting their final fate. Since I was at school all day, Beff had to move all the stuff herself. Which shows that she is both strong, and determined.

So now it is two weeks until our Passover vacation begins. In those two weeks will be quasi performances of the songs written by Theory 2 students, and the beginning of the sonata form unit. That is fun, too, because where the quality of the songs is pretty good, usually the sonata assignments range the gamut from execrable to extremely good. And then there is more faculty senate council stuff, and a colloquium (finally!) by Yehudi Wyner, which has been in the works since at least 2000. But mostly I am looking to March 29 -- when I get home I won't have to be at Brandeis again until April 11. And what it is, too. Zounds.

So it turns out Mike Kirkendoll also put up videos of his performances of my two bangy etudes in NYC on his site -- I have supplied sky-blue colored links on the left to those movies, which I also retained the mp3s from last time. And the kitchen walkthrough movie will stay up. Since so many people (2) who watched that movie asked what was in the freezer, I have made a point of including that in the pictures below.

Speaking of which -- here we have yet another shot of the finished bathroom, this time with the cat litter contraption AND new wastebasket, followed by the refrigerator with the full complement of magnets on it. Next we see the Adirondack chairs on Monday (by Wednesday all that snow was long gone) and on Friday night. Next we compare a closeup of crocuses to a picture Beff took of me shoveling this morning (that's me, with the shovel, hence the "me shoveling" thing there). Then there is how Iarranged the egg storage space in the fridge, the Powell Flute Factory as seen this morning, and the open freezer and open refrigerator so all can see what we have there. Yes, there are THREE airtight drawers, and the bottom one has become the default beer storage place.

Upcoming? Grad composer concert next weekend, lunch with Anna Schuleit to talk about a MacDowell 100 project a week from Tuesday, and vacation, late in the day on a week from Thursday.

MARCH 25. Breakfast today was fake eggs, grapefruit, orange juice and coffee. Lunch was a pesto chicken and tomato sandwich. Dinner last night was a salmon entree, ice cream and espresso at the Tuscan Grill. TEMPERATURE EXTREMES THIS LAST WEEK: 14.5 and 56.5. MUSIC GOING THROUGH MY HEAD AS I TYPE THIS One of the songs from MUS 103. LARGE EXPENSES this last week are dinner at the Tuscan Grill, $132 and a lame-ass hammock, $45. BIRDS HEARD RECENTLY: NEWLY heard this week for the first time this spring are a mockingbird (it perched just outside the front door of the Slosberg building, not more than 15 feet in the air) and Phoebes (in the woods near the local dam). POINTLESS NOSTALGIC REMINISCENCE: From about the time I was 8 to the time I was 12, the family took a 1- or 2-week camping trip every summer to a place with campsites, most often to Island Pond, Vermont. This involved a trailer that had two foldout beds and an extra room that zipped to the front. Always on the first day I would do echos on the lake and by the second day be too hoarse to talk. And usually I would have repeated dreams of visits of my friends from the planet Jupiter. THIS WEEK'S MADE-UP WORD: triundate. THINGS I HAVE GROWN WEARY OF TMJ, variable New England weather, PurgeGate. RECENT GASTRONOMIC OBSESSIONS: Edy's Lime bars, Real Pickles. DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK The name of the two little pieces you put on the window to latch it closed. THIS WEEK'S NUMBER BETWEEN 1 AND 10: 2. REVISIONS TO THIS SITE: This page, Reviews 4, Performances. NUMBER OF HAIRCUTS I GOT LAST WEEK: 0. DENTIST VISITS SINCE SEPTEMBER: 12. CUTE CAT THINGS TO REPORT: They really like sitting in the windowsill of any window that is open. RECOMMENDATION AND PROFESSIONAL LETTERS WRITTEN THIS LAST WEEK: 2. FUN DAVY FACT YOU WON'T READ ANYWHERE ELSE: I prefer laceless sneakers to laced sneakers. WHAT THE NEXT BIG TREND WOULD BE IF I WERE IN CHARGE: Snowing not allowed after March 21, and especially not at night. PHOTOS IN MY IPHOTO LIBRARY: 10,332. WHAT I PAID FOR GASOLINE THIS WEEK: $2.55. OTHER INANIMATE OBJECTS THAT WOULD BE A BETTER PRESIDENT THAN THE CURRENT ONE a mass of burning tires, a leaf that survived the winter without falling off the tree, the battery you forgot to buy for your flashlight, an old recording of "Maniac" by Michael Sembello.