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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| Our weekly Friday lunch at the Cast Iron Kitchen was shared last week with Seunghee, who came to see the cats and ask for various kinds of advice. I got the sliders, Beff got soup, and Seunghee got the chicken panini. And our THURSDAY lunch was take out panini from Roasted Peppers on Main Street downtown. Again, it's been there a while and was recommended to us, so I got a chicken one for Beff and the Cajun one for me, and they were both smantabustic.
This is the somewhat-rare occasion that I do NOT make the score of my recently completed piece available to the left for free download, since it's already contracted to CF Peters, i.e., is not unpublished (a double negative!). You can buy your copy outright, but not until next July. Which, by the way, is when the etude-fantasies get their official premiere(s). In Los Angeles, at their convention July 2-6. Which is where I will be, and when. Meanwhile, summer officially got here -- well, summer weather, that is. Even though temps are running about 5 degrees below seasonal averages, that's in contrast to a long span where temps were 15-20 degrees below seasonal averages. The NECN weather nerd had said that a convergence of five things -- including a Greenland block, or Greenland block party, whatever -- that happened once every 25-50 years was responsible for the cold and rainy June. Either that, or ... uh, global warming? Going out of time sequence again -- when Beff got back from Maine, we did a joint shop at the Sudbury Whole Foods, including some experimental ice tea (we like it, will get more), and plenty of dinner items from the deli counter (chicken skewers tonight, peoples), and discovered that they are no longer going to sell beer and wine. In Massachusetts, chains can only sell alcoholic stuff in three of their statewie branches, and I guess some urban Whole Foods is going to take that over -- but given that at Whole Foods the "I'm in charge of buying the beer" guy and the "I'm in charge of buying the wine" guy have both introduced themselves to me, it seems a little odd. So we got some exotic stuff at steep discounts, thus inflating the final tab. And of course the main purpose of the trip was restocking the edamame. Here's another palindrome that never caught on: Edamame Ema made. Beff also brought with her a disc of photos from the U Maine band at Symphony Hall event from last April, with the directive to do full color and full page inkjet prints of all of them, including two of some -- thirty some prints in all. Something like that not only takes the major portion of the day, but it lets you run out of ink -- twice in the yellow cartridge and once in the light magenta cartridge. For the record, a full set of the 5 color cartridges is 50 bucks, and a single cartridge, available at K-Mart is 12 bucks. Luckily, we are being reimbursed for materials. And of course all those pix are in my iPhoto library now, thus inflating the number given above. Other things include a very-slow-to-unfold refinance which has been going on since April. Our guy only does refi's with no cost to the refinancers, but there's been various dribbles of paperwork and nosy questions to deal with, and we had to resubmit recent paystubs, etc., but we're told all is set and an interest rate is waiting to be locked in. Gross. Then, there will be a closing. And of course, we are paying insurance premiums on the new Toyota, while the old one is still listed, until the Dan-Glo towing guys get the plates on the totalled Toyota (say that five times fast) to the insurance company. And geez Louise, the police report from Yonkers is takin' forfreakinever -- we don't get our settlement until that report gets to the insurance company. And then we will have steak. Not much of substance coming up in the immediate horizon. Next Wednesday, I drive to Vermont and back for the yearly beer basch(tm) with Colonel Mike. Beff goes to Maine, again, Thursday, for an amount of time to be determined. And Korean traditional instrument -- boning up time. There are so few new pictures that one actually comes from the Vermont sojourn. So -- only four. Another Vermont sunset pic, a leaf on the front porch, Sunny in the new grass area, and the cats on the porch. Bye. JULY 28 Breakfast this morning was light sausages, orange juice, and coffee. Dinner last night was leftover garlic mash and pickles. Lunch was fruit. TEMPERATURE EXTREMES SINCE LAST UPDATE 54.3 and 87.4. MUSIC GOING THROUGH MY HEAD AS I TYPE THIS Wouldn't It Be Nice by the Beach Boys. LARGE EXPENSES SINCE LAST UPDATE Re-fi $0, Web Easy Pro $60, TransType Pro $179, Beff's new glasses $295, my contact lens fitting, $150. COMPANIES THAT HAVE COVERED THEMSELVES IN GLORY Well, I guess 51 Main restaurant (guess at which address?), since I returned, unbidden, for their Buffalo wings a second time; and Trader Joes, for the lime ice floes. COMPANIES THAT HAVE NOT COVERED THEMSELVES IN GLORY Whole Foods -- the gooseberries I got there were overripe. POINTLESS NOSTALGIC REMINISCENCE: After my first year at Columbia, Beff got a one-year full-time gig at Holy Cross College in Worcester, and I had a year leave. So we looked at rental houses in the area -- including one that obviously the agent couldn't unload, a 6-bedroom Victorian with silver door handles and a kitchen the size of the grand canyon -- it had once been a restaurant, evidently. We settled on a 3-bedroom in Spencer, on a lake. After it was clear we'd stay there a while, we went to THE FAIR -- back when it was possible for local companies that could be K-Mart ripoffs -- and got a red Coleman RAM-X15 canoe for $350, $100 off. On Easter Sunday, we took it out for its first spin from the communal dock. We knew nothing of getting into, balancing, and starting a canoe (though after many months of using a blow-up raf and plastic oars, it seemed pretty deluxe), so naturally we fell out, in waist-deep water. The next day, we tried again, and were far more careful, and eventually we became experts, doing as many as three canoe rides a day. NUMBER OF HAIRCUTS I GOT LAST WEEK: 0. CUTE CAT THINGS TO REPORT: Sunny ensconced himself under the cedars in the way back and bolted out as I was photographing him. See below. Plus both cats are very needy in the mornings. UPDATED ON THIS SITE THIS WEEK: This page, Compositions, Recordings, Home, Reviews 4. THIS WEEK'S MADE-UP WORD: torquemeedle, the first bun you put on the grill but don't use because it gets too burnt. RECOMMENDATION AND PROFESSIONAL LETTERS WRITTEN THIS LAST TWO WEEKS: 0 (woo hoo!). FUN DAVY FACT YOU WON'T READ ANYWHERE ELSE I use "boat shoes" for mowing the lawn and bicycling. Not when we use the canoe, because we don't. And I have four pairs of them. WHAT THE NEXT BIG TREND WOULD BE IF I WERE IN CHARGE: Police, particularly in Cambridge, remember that yelling isn't a crime. PHOTOS IN MY IPHOTO LIBRARY: 13,681. WHAT I PAID FOR GASOLINE RECENTLY $2.54 in Maynard, $2.59 in Sheldon, Vermont, $2.49 in Maynard. WOULDN'T IT BE NICE my head, ladybugs, a tree trunk, manhole covers, 'Round Midnight. "Trickle, trickle, trickle." Thus spake the spoon, once it was given its own mouse. The tenth time the clock tolled (all told), it was decided that the tree would make its own pasta, so we gave the eggs to the peasants, who promptly turned into starch. When we got the camera back, my head made a little clicking noise, but that didn't mean we would have to eat Post-Its. On the contrary, we counted to seven and barked. Finally the summer has arrived with a vengeance. First time the air conditioners were turned on: April 29. Second time the air conditioners were turned on: this most recent Saturday. And they've been going fairly constantly since. As they say, but in the wrong order, it's the humidity, not the heat. It's wilty outside, but scrumptious inside in the computer room and master bedroom, thanks to that which will be costing us in electricity. The dining room-cum-composing room is usually fine, since it doesn't get sunned on, so I have been writing up a storm. Structurally, there is a sound A-B-A form in this update, since Beff was in Maine last we heard, she returned, and now is back there again. She returns tomorrow night, and then things shift. Indeed. So what's been up? There have been the Friday lunches at the Cast Iron Kitchen. There have been bike rides, and mine have gotten progressively longer -- until the humidity kicked in, that is. I made it up to the third most difficult of the rides (nature viewing area, two strenuous hills) before several days of pooful rain got me off schedule. Then heat and humidity arrived, which I like, and a new ride opened up -- the former Army Reserve area in Stow/Maynard/Sudbury that was decommissioned and turned into a nature reserve has very recently been opened up -- except for the Air Force weather station -- to bicycle riding, and yesterday I did my first ride through the reserve. It's lovely, steamy, has a frog pond with those rubber-band froggies. And since my rides have been at around 6:30 in the morning, I've had to bring the face net to keep the bugs away -- and even at that, the bigass flies don't mind landing on my t-shirt and biting right through it (Jumanja, anyone?). But it's a lovely way to spend the very first part of the morning, when the air temperature is almost exactly the dew point (speaking of which -- lately the dew point has been between 68 and 72, so there. That's "oppressive"). The most semi-poopified event of this period -- not because it's literally poopified, or because it's made of semi-poop, but it does knock out a large portion of the day -- was my yearly physical, which was fine. Even with the prostate exam, which males reading this will know about -- it's kind of a reach. I was one pound lighter than my last physical. And blood tests were normal. My celebratory gesture for having had to fast before the blood work was to ride, in the driving rain (almost ironically), for those Buffalo wings at 51 Main. I was worth it. They were worth it. And the day following the exam, as if I got to exhale after sucking in my gut for a while, was my yearly beer morning with Colonel (formerly Major, formerly Captain, formerly Lieutenant, formerly Sergeant) Colburn in far northern Vermont. How far north in Vermont? Cell phone calls either happen such that you hear them and they don't hear you, OR are interrupted by a voice in French saying you don't have the right service, please go away. So around 6ish, I set off in Mr. Blue (a name for my new car that I hope doesn't stick), encountering several bits of rain ranging from pissy to delugy, and didn't have to distract myself with the stunning views that weren't there. My arrival was around 10:30 after I filled up at a service station in Sheldon whose restroom had a sink but no running water. I brought sour candy (CryBaby Tears and Toxic Waste) plus nine bags of super hot Utz chips, and was rewarded with a nice lunch and some home brew. It was family reunion week for the Colburn clan, of which there are many, and Colonel Mikey's nephew was there with a large collection of home brews -- 6 or 7 varieties, if I recall right -- and so we had the customary beer plus lunch until 1, the usual conversation about composers the Marine Band should be aware of, and then the sitting and looking at the lake part. When I set off, I went directly to Warner's Snack bar for some of their lovely burgers, and made it home in (not literally) no time. On the way back, there was no rain, and a bit of sun. So there. Meanwhile, Beff got back, and went back. To Maine, that is. She put finishing touches on her bass clarinet and video piece ("Stand Facing the Stove"), which has cameos in it by Susan Orzel (stirring gravy) and me (making pasta, making chicken). Just as it was finished, she decided she needed a different ending gesture, and that I would make another cameo -- taking silverware out of the silverware drawer and placing it on the counter. Out came the Flip Video, and believe it or don't, we rehearsed that take. Then we did it in one, and the piece was finished. Massive production ensued -- some of it possibly related to the never-ending collection of documentation related to her promotion to full professor, currently in progress. Beff had also gotten some Flash/HTML code from Albany Records. Which may be the first time in the history of the English language that that sentence was uttered, or typed. It's something to put some e-commerce on your website that would link to Albany to buy your stuff. It seemed sexy enough for Beff's website (I also have an Albany CD and didn't get this e-mail, which makes me go "Blorf"), but we weren't sure that with the vintage 2002 program we use for our websites that we knew how to embed it. I knew there was a "pro" version of Web Easy (said program) and that V-Com had been bought by somebody, so we up and looked for it online, found it at Avanquest on special for 50 bucks (no upgrade path from the cheap-o version, alas), and downloaded and installed it. The interface isn't much different, and the data file format is the same, but it does have some nice extra bells and whistles -- including the ability to embed YouTube videos (SPECIFICALLY YouTube videos, nobody else's). So once I figured that out, I embedded one on the HOME page of my own website because I could, and we made vague plans for Beff to establish a YouTube account, upload some of her videos, and embed them in HER home page. Alas, the HTML files that Web Easy Pro generates have a different filename protocol (I've never used the phrase "filename protocol" before -- hee hee), so it's a bit of work generating them and then renaming them in order to FTP them -- oh, this is getting boring. We can do sexy stuff with a little extra work. So there. Plus, and reassuringly, it bombs just as frequently as Web Easy non-pro. And of course I couldn't figure out how/where to embed the sexy Flash/Java html. And I've been using my days to write -- except for Vermont beer and yearly checkup days, that is. Two new piano etudes have joined the collection, leaving only eight left to write all time. Alexa Glane piped in with etude ideas, which I have filed, and one of which I was going to do anyway, and ... DID. I finally overcame my tremolophobia and did the tremolo etude -- see Whole Lotta Shakin' link to the left -- and continued my piano-with-other-keyboard series with a melodica. Indeed, I have a picture below of my setup for writing that piece. See "You Blew It" links to the left. There is NO MIDI for the tremolotood, not because I wouldn't release it, but because Finale 2010 bombs when trying to do "Human Playback" on that file, thus it also bombs when generating a MIDI file. Finalemusic is aware of the problem and may or may not fix it (I bet the latter). But obviously those pieces existed to put off the inevitable writing for string trio and a Korean instrument -- in my case, the haegeum, a 2-string bowed fiddle type thing. With Beff safely back in Maine, I was able to go through the materials I'd been sent -- the vast majority of it with text in Korean, thank you very much -- to figure out how to write for it. Yesterday, I started the piece. So far, I'd say this about it -- the haegeum does pentatonic collections against a chromatic accompaniment, and the intrepid composer tries to notate it in a way that forms a middle ground between Eastern and Western inflections. Davy put himself into third person there, and, here. And of course there is more work to be done on that piece. I won't stop writing it until it's finished. Then there might be a bit of cardinality left over for everyone else to share. Hayes finished the Etudes Vol. 3 notes, which I forwarded to Bridge Records, who got on the case in record time. Becky at Bridge wrote to ask for some "highly personal" images for the CD cover, and I sent a bunch of closeup pictures of the etudes -- both the prism shots of the toods on this volume from "Prismetudes" and some extreme closeups of the sketches for Stutter Stab -- plus my multi-keyboard picture from the BMOP CD, and a newly composed shot of my writing area as I was doing the with-melodica piece. The melodica shot made it to the cover and the sketch closeups to the back cover of the booklet. Doug, the graphics guy, even moved the piano bench off to the side for the cover, thus meaning a bit of work filling in the part of the piano covered by the bench in the original shot. So you can see my original shot below, and the cover when it comes out. Things happen. Oh yeah. And last Saturday we had the opportunity to meet up with Soooozie Narucki and David Rutherford, the husband of her, and we chose the Northampton Brewery -- unsurprisingly located in Northampton. It was old home week, since David had been a Rome Prize fellow same time as I (guess how Soozie met him). We talked about music and drywall -- don't everybody? And had sandwiches and shared wings. Then we came home. Last time I made mention of a re-fi that was going on forever. How forever? Our guy finally found a rate he liked, and we will be three-quarters of a point lower while also paying zero for closing costs. We said the only possible closing date was this Thursday, which he said was fine. But apparently this thing has dragged on for so long that the appraisal expires on Thursday. So we moved the closing to Wednesday EVENING -- since Beff can't get back from Maine until about 8, that's when the closing will be. Think of Beff here -- four hours of driving, possibly through a thunderstorm, and IMMEDIATELY she has to sit down and sign thirty documents only cursorily explained by people trained to make cursory explanations of complicated stuff. Our reward: about $400 less a month in mortgage payments. And then on Friday we go to Vermont for our August sojourn, staying till about the 23rd. Within that sojourn is plenty else, including Beff's week at Vermont Youth Orchestra camp -- the first Troyless (insert Crisseda joke here) one. Almost immediately I return to Maynard, to fly to Utah for Barlow stuff, and immediately upon return I do an eye doctor thing to make sure the incredibly permeable lenses are doing fine, and I drive to Tanglewood for my etude performances -- apparently I am staying that night at Serenak, where I last stayed in 1984. Then right after my piece, I say my regrets and drive back to Vermont to begin the relaxing part of the summer. At least for me, one would hope. Today's pictures include Sunny in the cedars and the bolting from them, both cats on the bit of fence that is left, two closeups of the Stutter Stab sketches, the work area shot with melodica, a flower pic from this morning, the Assabet (looking west) this morning, a canoer on the Assabet (looking east) this morning, and a shot of my car and a big tree this morning. Bye. AUGUST 25 Breakfast this morning was light sausages, orange juice, and coffee. Dinner last was Chef Boy-Ar-Dee reduced fat beef ravioli from a can. Lunch was ... it turns out, nothing. TEMPERATURE EXTREMES SINCE LAST UPDATE 52.8 and 92.5 (97 in Utah). MUSIC GOING THROUGH MY HEAD AS I TYPE THIS The Kyrie Eleison from Bernstein's Mass. LARGE EXPENSES SINCE LAST Mattress for Vermont place ca. $350, 20th anniversary dinner exactly $150 with tip, re-shop at Shaws for staples $133; buncha stuff from The Pickle Guys, $131. COMPANIES THAT HAVE COVERED THEMSELVES IN GLORY Bluebird Cafe in Winooski, for the marinated vegetables and Hennepin beer on tap. COMPANIES THAT HAVE NOT COVERED THEMSELVES IN GLORY Bluebird Cafe in Winooski, for the deviled egg with pork thing that apparently gave Beff some mild food poisoning; American Airlines, who takes Chrysler's old slogan "Nobody sweats the details like us" and leaves out the last two words. POINTLESS NOSTALGIC REMINISCENCE: After our wedding (at a chapel in the Harvard Divinity School) and before we embarked on our honeymoon (Bermuda -- in August!!) we agreed to co-write a fanfare thing for an event at the Wang Center for the Performing Arts. The rain was coming down in buckets, and we were driving Alison Carver's car from Cambridge to Princeton, and we took turns driving. Whichever one of us wasn't driving was assigned to write brass quintet music. The co-author nature is wildly evident in the piece, and in the press for the event itself, Richard Dyer characterized what we did as "postponing our honeymoon" in order to write the piece. Which we called Fan-Fair. NUMBER OF HAIRCUTS I GOT LAST WEEK: 0. CUTE CAT THINGS TO REPORT: While we were in Vermont, the cats slept on a totally different floor from us; back in Maynard, they sleep at the end of the bed and stretch wa-a-a-ay out. They also are glad to be able to go outside again, and since the grass hasn't been mowed in three weeks, it's fun to watch them high-step through the grass. UPDATED ON THIS SITE THIS WEEK: This page, Compositions, Recordings, Bio. THIS WEEK'S MADE-UP WORD: driskle, an ancient word derived from Sumerian, meaning to drool long strings of saliva. RECOMMENDATION AND PROFESSIONAL LETTERS WRITTEN THIS LAST TWO WEEKS: 2. FUN DAVY FACT YOU WON'T READ ANYWHERE ELSE the local Roche Brothers uses a fake chalkboard font for their signage in the produce department -- EraserDust, which I created in 1992. The same font is used in South Park when characters write on the blackboard. WHAT THE NEXT BIG TREND WOULD BE IF I WERE IN CHARGE: More words in common usage that are intrinsically funny -- "traipse", for instance. PHOTOS IN MY IPHOTO LIBRARY: 13,876. WHAT I PAID FOR GASOLINE RECENTLY $2.54 in Maynard, $2.59 in Lee, Massachusetts, $2.67 in Burlington, Vermont. THINGS THAT DON'T LOOK ANY FUNNIER UPSIDE DOWN my head, ladybugs, a tree trunk, manhole covers, 'Round Midnight. FOUR WEEKS since the last update, and do I hear anyone complaining? Whoa, I guess I got so nostalgic about writing (typing, actually) into this space that I actually started entertaining the idea of creating a blog on blogspot. For you see -- that I can update just about anywhere, whereas I'm constrained to the computer room of my own house for this one. Which is not a blog, but an "update". Which also makes me think -- is there such a thing as a downdate, and if there were (I OWN the subjunctive!), what would it be? But in any case, I started to think (in my apparent delirium) of what kind of blog posts I would do. Well....there's the rant about making professional applications look professional, the rant about track listings for CDs in applications (closely related to the first), various who-cares stuff about music, etc. Since I haven't finished THIS thingy-dingy (my "update"), the idea of Blog remains headwards. Once I finish it, I may feel slaked. Who knows? Chi sa? Chi conosce? Qui connait? When last our intrepid me-ness typed into this space, the me-ness that is totally me had just mowed lawns and was readying for Beff to get back from Maine so we could ready (boy, are we ready -- an intrinsically funny word, to boot) ourselves for our three-week-plus time in Vermont. And here's where we pick up the story. Beff got back, and rather late in the day. We refinanced the house, got a lower rate PLUS a bunch o' cash back instead of paying in, but the appraisal on the house was only good till the end of Wednesday, and Beff couldn't leave Maine until 3 in the afternoon. So a company that has a motto "call us for your closing" or something like that, sent a rep to our house at 8 with a huge pile of paperwork -- in duplicate, natch -- for us to sign, etc. At 7:20 I got a call from Beff, "I'm near Lowell and there's a traffic jam". Aieee! Well, Beff made it in just in time. And we closed, got the lower rate and paid no closing costs. Indeed, in a week we got Fedex'ed a check for $1006 for reasons that I'd rather not know. Plus we got the leftover escrow from the old mortgage back. The comical side: our old mortgage was with Countryside, now owned by Bank of America. The new mortgage is with -- of course, Bank of America. So I guess it bought a mortgage from itself? We spent the next day, Thursday, not going to Vermont, but we did pack. In the afternoon, Johnny A and MJ came for a visit, and they brought mucho strong beer and we ate picklage in excess. The beer was strong enough that I thought it would be a neat idea to give them a gallon of Picklelicious hot pickles and a quart of Picklelicious spicy olives to take back with them, and they did. Then the next day we went to Vermont with the cats. This was on a Friday. We set up there, and I took YASP (Yet Another Sunset Picture). Saturday afternoon I drove back, for you see, on Sunday I was to get on a plane (two of them, actually, in succession) to go to Utah. 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