Beff's semester finishes today, and she is due home after dark tonight. Tomorrow night we take Big Mike out for Chinese buffet
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| And back I brought them. But on Friday morning I had to get the Amester to the Bangor airport so she could return Chicagowards, and it was a pretty short drive. I got to show her our old house (so I did), which was on the way, but only if I went the way I did (which I did).Then drove I back to the house, had some of that coffee-flavored coffee drink, and drove home.
Now the previous weekend I started work on, and finished, etude number 90, a Goldietude, in honor of Marilyn Nonken's new daughter Goldie Celeste. Being that Goldie's full name is Goldie Celeste Hunka, the tood turned out to be on G-C-H, her initials. And what the heck, it's the first tood that is largely a process etude. No more details, except that some measure lengths shrink and grow by mechanical formulas much too complicated for your average platypus to understand. Plus it's got a long ostinato on the pattern where the cross accents are also the pattern. As we say in northern Tripoli, big yawn there, pardner. In any case. I finished it, you can see it via the red link to the left, and by finishing it I also finished Etudes Book X. Which has been sent to Peters, because it is what I do. Also what I do is obsess -- in a mild way -- on my faculty activity report. Which is the report that determines the raises that no one is getting for next year, but might happen in the future if we all behave and don't steal too much honey; it also involves me having to update my resume, list of compositions, and press, which is no small feat. So finally on the weekend I finished and submitted it. Then during the teaching week I learned from Elaine Wong (a Senior Associate Dean, thus making her acronym SAD) that I am to receive Brandeis's highest teaching award at the Faculty Meeting this Thursday. It is actually a, um, kind of secret until then, but you, dear reader, get advanced notice of this. See the barely visible blue "Award" link to the left. Ignore the part about a "stipend", which in a USC year is just a word. I always thought (and may have said in this space) that if I was ever offered a teaching award that I'd turn it down. But when the call happened, my tongue was tied (I had been practicing sheep shanks), so I said Phbblt Yrx ("thank you" with tongue untied) and also acceded to the dreaded thing that happens when well-meaning people give you awards: the speech. Yes, I have to say a few words at an Appreciation Dinner, and I have to go to Commencement and sit on the Dais (or the 'Deis Dais, as they might say, if they are very silly), where the award awarding is reenacted. Luckily my robe has orange stripes. MEANWHILE, that last weekend, the Assabet Tree people came over on Saturday morning to give an estimate to clear out all the very very much detritus, both from fallen limbs in the December ice storm and lots of tree trimmings from the last five or six years, plus finishing the takedown of the apple tree, and a mere two hours later the truck and the chipper were in the yard, going a-nuts. And they got it all! Plus it being spring and the truck being quite heavy, the far back yard is now textured -- it could be a teensy weensy motocross track, actually. It will be fun mowing that yard, since it will mostly feel like you're hitting turbulence. Or something. Plus, there was raking and packaging of sawdust, etc. to do. PLUS, an indentation in that yard that had been getting lower and lower got filled with extra dirt that the snowplow had left us, along with some bags of topsoil. And in it I planted grass seed. Why wouldn't I? And as to the scars left by the snowplow -- I planted grass seed there, too, and watered it. And then nature itself watered it. And then Beff got back for the weekend on Saturday. I made some of that snacky chicken stuff on the outdoor grill, and the drippings made for some bigass flamy things I like to call "flames" that charred our dinner a bit. So I must clean that gross stuff out. But meanwhile, it made me think we need a new grill, so Beff started doing the online research. A new grill. I want it. Oh yes, and since Saturday was such gorgeous weather, we spent much of it outdoors, and I spent time both on the hammock and gazebo and took my ritual yearly pictures holding a beer in both places. You will see them below, dear reader. As to the crocuses -- they are gone by now, though the bigger versions of said crocuses are multiplying in many neighbors' yards. The rhubarb is emerging, and the grass slowly greens. So Saturday was a lovely outdoor type day. Unlike Sunday, which was torrential rain (it came in torrents, hence the term). Beff decided it was time for a new vacuum cleaner (since the old one either sucked, or stopped sucking), and her sister had recommended the Bissel pet hair remover model. So it was a morning, in the torrenting rain, to drive Tar-Zhaywards -- which in Framingham borders BJ's. So we made it a double trip -- BJ's for massive quantities of paper towels and toilet paper (or, excuse me -- bathroom tissue -- for those of you with delicate constitutions) and Campari tomatoes (a Davy weakness), and it turned out BJs also had that model of vacuum cleaner, $15 less than had been in evidence at Tar-Zhay. So that's what we got. At Tar-Zhay, we got more gel pillows, and a pair of French press coffee makers. As well as some kitty treats. Because, well, because it is what we did. And we got them back in the house, we assembled the vacuum cleaner, and Beff let 'er rip on two bits of rug she'd vacuuumed the day before: the new vacuum cleaner sucked up a pile of cat hair from them the size of two fists (or one fist, twice). The sound of the vacuum also probably made the neighbors think we'd invited the percussion ensemble to the house to rehearse. Nonetheless. Beff is currently in South Carolina at Coastal Carolina University, where she has a premiere and masterclasses. She then flies back to Boston, drives with her violin teacher colleague -- who will just have gotten off a bus from Bangor -- to New York for a festival, where she will stay with -- ka-ching! -- Hayes and Susan, and both will drive back on Friday. At which point our plan is to eat at the Cast Iron Kitchen, because -- well, you know what's coming -- because it is what we do. Saturday we plan to see the matinee performance of Hecuba at Brandeis, for which I wrote incidental music. And then next Wednesday -- is the day before Passover. I must teach, but then I have about 12 days off. Big woo hoo there, pardner. I'm getting pizza for the Theory 2 class, and talking about some Broadway tunes. Last Monday, Frank Oteri had a nice write-up of the Winged Contraption CD on New Music Box -- see "FJO" link, and sometimes the streaming audio works, and mostly it doesn't. I was also asked some questions by the Composition Today website, and I gave the best answers I could. And then I stopped. So finally. Today is a nice day, and I have no teaching to do. I have done my prep for Wednesday's teaching, so outside I go. This time, no pictures, please. Today's pictures start with outdoor kitties: Sunny under an Adironkack chair, and Cammy a-chillin' under the gazebo. Then the two ritual beer pictures. Finally, Beff in the gazebo, and the crocuses about to go on by. Bye. APRIL 13 Breafkast today was orange juice and coffee. Lunch was hot and sour soup. Dinner last night was Trader Joe's pizza, some vegan Thai dumplings purchased at the health food store in West Concord, and some sliced campari tomatoes with Good Seasonings dressing. Good Seasons has not paid a promotional fee to be mentioned on this page, and neither has Trader Joe's. TEMPERATURE EXTREMES SINCE LAST UPDATE 29.1 and 66.2. MUSIC GOING THROUGH MY HEAD AS I TYPE THIS The "Come to Jesus" track from Adam Guettel's Myths and Hymns. LARGE EXPENSES THIS LAST TEN DAYS Weber grill $419 including tax, Hohner and Schoenhut melodicas via amazon, $88. POINTLESS NOSTALGIC REMINISCENCE: My first or second time in England, I was with Martler at a pub in Romsey, and after a few, I launched my over-the-hill tenor voice singing some of the pop songs that were current at the time. After a few minutes of such singing, the bartender said, simply, "We'll 'ave a little less o' that." NUMBER OF HAIRCUTS I GOT LAST WEEK: 0. CUTE CAT THINGS TO REPORT: During this vacation week they sleep on the bed in the mornings, which has hardly ever been the case. UPDATED ON THIS SITE THIS WEEK: This page, Performances. THIS WEEK'S MADE-UP WORD: sharinole, a generic Danish word for detritus that collects in a hole or cavity. RECOMMENDATION AND PROFESSIONAL LETTERS WRITTEN THIS LAST TWO WEEKS: 2. FUN DAVY FACT YOU WON'T READ ANYWHERE ELSE I found my Yak Bak pen behind the CDs in the guest room after presuming it lost for 2 years, and it still works. Barely. WHAT THE NEXT BIG TREND WOULD BE IF I WERE IN CHARGE: Every third beer is free. PHOTOS IN MY IPHOTO LIBRARY: 13,089. WHAT I PAID FOR GASOLINE THIS WEEK: $1.97 in Maynard. THINGS YOU DON'T THINK OF LOOKING AT FROM SPACE my head, ladybugs, a tree trunk, manhole covers, 'Round Midnight. Putting our heads into the spoon was a nasty tradeoff. I couldn't find where the beads had covered his birdhouse, so three of us made ketchup well into the night, after which seven things ceased to exist. Blimey! I couldn't get that socket wrench out of my head, so a monkey showed up, sang some George M. Cohan, and made a trampoline, right on the spot. The other pigeons burped. I am on vacation. Which is not to say the same thing as I vacate. The latter might be associated with a colonoscopy, and boy, already I am making this update unreadable. Yes, I am in the midst of what is for all effects a full week plus two day vacation, and I have been accomplishing stuff. All in good time, my dear (for those of you who wonder why I type that a lot, it's a line from the Millay poem in the first of my Sex Songs). Teaching has been teaching, and even though that seems commutative, it is not. I went to the faculty meeting to get my teaching award, which is a check and a hand-calligraphed certificate in a classy frame. The certificate hangs in my office. The check does not. A few times after said meeting, I burped in class, and then remarked, "I have tenure AND a teaching award. I get to burp whenever I want." If someone had had one of those rim-shot programs up, such a sound would have been entirely appropriate. So my teaching from last Wednesday -- the Schumann fantasy pieces in Theory 2, which came after I served three large pizzas (which cost about the same as one of my new melodicas -- more to come on that). The web of relationships inter- and intra-piece is complicated, and getting through it I knew was a) tedious and b) the only thing between the students and the beginning of their vacations. As it turned out, my vacation was in play, too. Nonetheless, there was eventually the Eureka! look on two students' faces, and that made the class worthwhile. So at 3:30 on Wednesday, home I came, and collapsed. Figuratively, that is. This is weekend-strangeness time for Beff because of her own extracurricular activities, which means her Maynardwards time is very bendy in relation to what is usual. Because she'd done a big complicated trip, taking her away from her job for a full teaching week (the only possible response to that situation is "woo hoo!"), this past weekend was one where she had to stay in Maine for her job, makeup lessons, etc. Meanwhile, this coming weekend begins Tuesday night (relative to when I type this, "tomorrow" night) because the U of Maine band or something is playing in Symphony Hall (that's in Boston -- at least the Boston one is) and as Chair she has to be there. As for moi (that's a French word -- we cultured people sometimes sprinkle everyday conversation with parole esterne -- that's Italian -- and it means "me"), I'll be a-drivin' her in and a-parkin' her, since the area is my old stomping ground. Though being bored out of my mind for about three hours prior to the show is definitely on the docket. And then Beff will have Thursday through half of Sunday in town. And just in time, since this is a sunny week, set to get nice and mild by Friday. So Beff's previous weekend here was a bit cold and the like, but we were able to do our usual walks, etc. We had been shopping around for a new grill for the back porch for a while -- since the last time I used it there were big flames that charred the chicken I was grilling before it was actually cooked -- and Beff looked up Weber grills on many various web pages. We had even looked at one in person at the local Aubuchon hardware store, so we knew it was the right size, not too large, for the porch. Beff found it online for $70 less than it was selling at Aubuchon, and even though that meant assembling it ourselves (or actually, myself), it was a good savings. So Beff filled out the form to order online, and then it was shown: SHIPPING: $186. Hmm. Not much of a bargain. So this last weekend, we went back to Aubuchon and said we'd like said grill, how much was assembly and delivery. The answer: it's already assembled, and we'll deliver it for free, right now! Durned if the grill wasn't already in our driveway when we got back home. So I took the propane out of the old grill, along with the grease catchers (known to mere mortals as empty soup cans -- or, formerly empty soup cans) and swiveled it sideways, thus revealing a path of grease that took us both 15 minutes to clean off the porch floor -- at which point we were glad we had replaced the old wood floor with fiber cement. I wheeled the old greasamundo grill to the back of the garage, wheeled the new one up, set it up, and -- I had forgotten that some grills have automatic lighters, as this one does, so no going into the kitchen for a lighter (the old starter on the old grill hasn't worked for about 4 years), and it worked! PLUS, there's a thermometer on the grill hood (bonnet if you're of the limey persuasion), and while I have no idea what a good temperature is for grilling, well, there it is. Plus, most of the inside pieces come out for cleaning (this was a real issue with the old one, which is part of the reason why we never did (laziness being another one) -- by the way, made by Sunbeam), the propane tank goes into the FRONT (which makes turning on and off easy). Immediately I went to Ace hardware and the Dollar store for grill paraphernalia (a scraper, a scrubber, and two sizes of spatula -- I believe in mathematical completion), hung them on the side (there are six places to hang stuff). And almost immediately therafter, Beff had to drive to Maine, where she's been since. All I've cooked on the grill so far are hot dogs and hot dog buns, but they were the best ones ever to come off of that grill. So far. On the day BEFORE the grill-getting, we took the afternoon to drive in the wet to Brandeis to catch the Saturday matinee of Hecuba. I had written about 20 or 25 minutes of cues for the Lydian Quartet and piano, played by Yu-Hui, to be used in this production, and durned if J, the sound designer, didn't find a use for almost all of them. Indeed, before the show, there was a loop of seagull sounds (it happens in a coastal town, dontcha know), occasionally embroidered with some upward arpeggio cues that I wrote. And so forth, and so on. It is a fabulously depressing play, with lots of over-the-top grief, well acted and choreographed, and the singing cues for the one chorus member were welcome where they came. Indeed, the "Disaster Chorus" got repeated later as part of a big montage, and it was cool. Strangely enough, the curtain calls came to the sound of the overture -- a noisy bit -- and when it was all done, we drove back home. Because it is what we do. Meantime. In the week of "harp and seldom used instruments" in Orchestration class, one student -- we will call him "Adam" because that is his name -- asked about the melodica. I'm sure no one else in class had any idea what that was (a mouth-powered little folk keyboard that sounds like an accordion with a really bad cold), and I immediately replied that Lee Hyla used one in his Polish folk songs, and that it was a feasible instrument to use to evoke (or evince) folk quality if you didn't mind its out of tuneness. But this got me a-searchin' on amazon, and they had a bunch of rather inexpensive melodicas for sale. I settled on a 32-key Hohner (for the cost of three large pizzas) and a 37-key Schoenhut (for the cost of three large pizzas and a steak and cheese sub), and they got here rather quickly. They were fun, silly, and borderline dumb, and for that reason I decided I had to incorporate them (or at least one of them) into the piece I have to write now. Really. Speaking of which. I started said piece late on Friday of my vacation. It's a Pierrot-plus-percussion piece for Boston Musica Viva, and I have come to dislike that ensemble a lot. Indeed, last time I wrote for Musica Viva, in 1996, it was Pierrot plus percussion. And the Collage piece with Judy was for Pierrot, and ... well, I am tired of this group. So putting in a melodica is at least a bit of a challenge, and even if the music sucks, people afterwards will say to me, "So. You used a melodica." And I'll say yes, and I used saffron on the last pizza I made. Then they will, likely, walk away without saying anything. So I started it, and have three days work in the books, and it's ... okay. It takes off where "Stolen Moments" left off, and I am currently agonizing over the next thing to happen. But that's par for the course. Water under the bridge. Two shakes of the stick. A Post-It without borders. But back to the yard. Thursday and Friday here were warm days. So when I got back from school, I started THE YARD PROJECT OF MY VACATION. I now seem to do one of these every Passover vacation we have -- last year the project was filling holes, planting grass seed and getting rid of the apple tree, and the year before it was taking down the backyard fence. This year, with the new foresty bit of yard that was behind what was left of the fence being exposed by the falling branches from the ice storm taking out three fence sections (go ahead and parse THAT, you stupid sentence diagrammers!), Beff had the idea that some of the piled-up foresty floor could become yard, and in an organic shape that mirrored where there was actually some sun during the morning. So, I started with the raking, and then shoveling of detritusy stuff into a wheelbarrow, where I carted it into the newly vacated way-back detritus space. Such stuff is fairly hard work for someone more than halfway to a century in age (that would be me), so it was two fairly grueling days of work. I also got fertilizer and topsoil at the hardware store, spread some of it into this cleared area, and planted grass seed. Now, we wait. Why? Because grass is not planted fully grown. Unless you get sod. Which I don't. So with the rest of the week ahead of us, there is included a trip to the MacDowell Colony tomorrow for lunch with Yotam. Why? Who? I've known Yotam about six years but have never met him. So, lunch is a good idea, and a very pleasing drive during vacation. And of course, there is music to write, and bike rides to take. This we shall do. Incidentally, I did take a nice short bike ride on Friday, the first of the season, and felt disappointingly out of shape. This will get better, one would hope. Easter was yesterday, and I went back onto Facebook, after having "given Facebook up for Lent". My first status update was "David Rakowski gave up Facebook for Lent", which got five "Likes." Weird. And this morning I made our plane reservations for the Auvillar thing in France this June. $1888 for both of us, but doesn't count as an expense, since we're being reimbursed. Or at least I hope we are. Then when this vacation ends, there are eight school days left. Many office hours for final projects, many recitals to attend, and I've even been asked to play my toy piano at a "happening" for the Festival of the Arts. Hmm, this level of planning seems like being asked to be spontaneous, on my count, three, two, one, right ... NOW! This week's snaps include the beginning of new piece (which is being conceived as a micro-concerto for Geoffy, the pianist) and the organic shape of the new bit of future yard, followed by two snaps of the second round of crocuses (the "large"), the new grill, and the new melodicas, and me mugging with one using the "tube". Bye. APRIL 28 (with April 30 revisions) Breafkast today was orange juice and coffee. Lunch was a tomato, cheese and pepperoncini sandwich on a whole wheat bulkie. Dinner last night was a half rack of ribs, Buffalo sliders, and onion strings. TEMPERATURE EXTREMES SINCE LAST UPDATE 29.7 and 88.9. MUSIC GOING THROUGH MY HEAD AS I TYPE THIS Dixie. Dunno why. LARGE EXPENSES THIS LAST TEN DAYS Canon SX2000 IS camera with extra battery, card reader, carrying case, 8 gig data card, data card sleeve, $389.70 including shipping. POINTLESS NOSTALGIC REMINISCENCE: The first composition judging panel I ever served on, prolly about 22-23 years ago, was a very inconsequential one for a Boston performance on an ISCM series. Pieces were submitted anonymously, which usually meant that correction tape was put over the composers' names. Some of the other judging types were pretty pompous (as in, "if you can't grab me in the first 15 seconds, I'm not interested"), but more disturbingly, many of us (moi-meme (that's French) included) held the cover pages up to bright lights to see if we could read the names of the composers. So much for anonymity. And the statute of limitations on that foul deed has expired, anyway, so you can't touch this. NUMBER OF HAIRCUTS I GOT LAST WEEK: 0. CUTE CAT THINGS TO REPORT: Now that it's hot, they simply lie prostrate on the floor, on the furniture, on the lawn whenever and wherever they feel like it. UPDATED ON THIS SITE THIS WEEK: This page, Compositions, Performances. THIS WEEK'S MADE-UP WORD: goulardo, an especially tasty concoction of macaroni, beef, tomato sauce, and dandelion wine made once in Bavaria and then lost to history. RECOMMENDATION AND PROFESSIONAL LETTERS WRITTEN THIS LAST TWO WEEKS: 5. FUN DAVY FACT YOU WON'T READ ANYWHERE ELSE Beff and I now own 5 functional digital cameras and 3 card readers. WHAT THE NEXT BIG TREND WOULD BE IF I WERE IN CHARGE: Onion rings have half the grease and twice the taste. PHOTOS IN MY IPHOTO LIBRARY: 13,117. WHAT I PAID FOR GASOLINE THIS WEEK: $1.99 in Maynard and $2.03 at the Shell station in Waltham. WORDS AND PHRASES THAT DON'T RHYME WITH EACH OTHER my head, ladybugs, a tree trunk, manhole covers, 'Round Midnight. Intransigence. The word stared at me like puke being given to the Queen for the first time. After the fact, the fact was after, and before that we put extra syllables onto every glass harmonica we could find. Did the sun have a sentient presence when we asked it about our socks? Frankly, I think that we couldn't have put more jell-o into the fish's mouth than we had legs for. Beff has discovered online that there is now a variant to your porn name. Mine, by the way (your first pet and the street up on which you grew) is Mercury Messenger. On the other hand, your NPR name is your first name with your middle initial inserted into it somewhere, followed by the smallest foreign town you have visited. So in my case, I am Davcid Castelluccio. Ask for me by name. Last time I wrote here I was on vacation. Now I am very nearly on vacation again, this time school being out for the summer, school being out forever and all that. Since that last update, a little bit of microconcerto was written, Beff was around an inordinate amount of weekend time, and then she wasn't, and I have returned to that little ol' vocation of mine I like to call "teaching". Because that is its name. Today is a Tuesday, which means I have no classes to teach, and tomorrow is a Wednesday, which is my busy day -- AND the last day of classes. Though my long string of preparing for my classes is over. For you see, Orchestration carries with it three pizzas (the cost of a small melodica, shall we say) and Theory 2 comes with performances of final composition projects which I will record and make available to the Theory 2 students. But let me backtrack towards the rear of the time of this update kind of thing. Please. Download 2.79 Mb. Share with your friends:
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