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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| Trollops repeat, ships don't sink, I didn't have the idea to be freedom's muse. Barcaloungers are called that because of the stork. Whenever they made pie, they made more, and that reminded me to find a mosquito for cassette spooking. Then everything became one, and we pronounced it to rhyme with "bone". Which itself rhymes with "zmurp". Except Fridays, monsterbaby. Not Gil Harel, though.
When last this intrepid typist was seen intrepidly typing, he was typing in first person. Why third person now? No reason. At the time I was gearing up for the last stuff in Theory 2, and that I did teach. In fact, on that last Monday in April it was a nice sunny warm forecast, while all the rest of the class days were predicted rainy or coldish (the prediction turned out to be wrong, oh them what make). So I always promise one class outdoors in the spring, and that day was the day. It was atonal and twelve-tone day, so I brought our 100-foot extension cord, our Bose acoustic wave thing for playback, I brought out my battery-powered 5-octave keyboard, and several students (not Gil Harel, though) retrieved the rolling blackboard -- and chalk -- from the basement of Slosberg. And there I talked, and made points about combinatoriality and derivation, and played my only 12-tone piece -- Overderive. Which received the customary comment "it doesn't sound 12-tone". Which of course is always my cue to make a larger point, and just what that point is changes every year. This year the larger point was fish. Or, should I say, ghoti? Wednesday in class was student-motivated (Prokofiev and Vaughan Williams), and the following Monday was performances of the class's final projects -- everything from rap with a soft-listening backdrop to jazz to complex piano stylings. And back. And of course the final day of classes -- May 5! -- we did pizza and stuff, I reviewed augmented triads for them what wanted it, played some Gabriel Kahane, then put my red death mask and blue wig on and launched into a bunch of a cappella Jesus Christ Superstar. I mean -- wouldn't you? The reason for the disguise, of course, was deniability. Since I'm sure everyone with video on their phone (not Gil Harel, though) was making a document of the occurrence. And then ... class was over, save for the final papers. Also during that first week was the Pacific Rim Festival's go at Brandeis, so Hi Kyung Kim and the Contemporary Ensemble of Korea and the Del Sol String Quartet (but not Gil Harel), and some students from USCS were around for two days of madcap funness! And the Lyds were there, too, paired with the Korean players on the Monday night show -- Laurie San Martin had an uncommonly good piece on that show. My piece was done by the HaeGeum person and a trio from the Del Sol on Tuesday night, and it was good. I actually got to coach it, and it didn't suck anywhere near as much as it could have. In fact, it's pretty nice in the parts that don't suck. The HaeGeum player gave me a gift of red ginseng tea, and the Del Sol performers were fantastic. See the red "AhChim AnGae"link to the left below -- it's had the 60-cycle hum digitally removed by a computer owned and operated by me. Gil Harel (not Gil Harel, though) very nicely gave me the performance recording almost immediately, in return for plenty of mentions in this space. Meanwhile, those red PLS links to the left are still the 2009 Collage performances of Phillis Levin Songs, as the NYNME hasn't sent me their performance recording yet. I mean, come on. Come on, I mean. Mean on, come I. Not Gil Harel, though. If I do get the recording, I will replace the Collage ones with the NYNME ones over there. And in the meantime, Our 3-year old lawnmower started leaking oil profusely, leaving behind some messy stains on the floor of the storage shed which I had to wipe up pretty frequently. So, given how cheap lawnmowers are to buy compared to how expensive they are to fix -- I up and got a new one, for less than the cost of fixing the old one. This one was -- even cheaper than the last one, and works better -- even has adjustable wheel height, unlike the last one, and the gas pumping thing that actually works. And it's yellow. I never owned a yellow lawnmower before. Neither have you, dear reader. Possibly Gil Harel, though. I finally got some time, again, to work on my styling of Ladies Who Lunch, so instead of going to the Festival of the Arts events, I up and worked on that, finally finishing it about half a week ago. Now our long national nightmare is over. Not Gil Harel, though. Finale plays the sucker in about five and a half minutes, which means that with proper rubato it's more like six to six and a half. Now I can do some real composition, whatever that is. And in the meantime, Beff's school finished and she even did her commencement -- robe is back, since I'm doing the Brandeis commencement with that same silly black and orange Princeton robe, but not until the 23rd. I mean, really. Oh yes, and the week before all of that it was nice weather, so bike rides were done by us. We discovered a new medium-length route through the wildlife preserve -- which has a new pristine visitor's center! -- but had bits of sand on some of the paths. Beff fell off her bike at one point in the sand and got a big boo-boo. So things that were fun were now less fun. Not Gil Harel, though. The new cappuccino/espresso maker arrived, and we have had some nice coffee and steamed milk from it. I haven't located any really good coffee beans for espresso the way I like it yet -- Illy and Lavazza just ain't doin' it for me. I got some espresso stuff at Trader Joe's that is better than those, but I'm not where I want to be yet. So I am on the prowl for good stuff. Not Gil Harel, though. On the day after the last day of classes, I taught nonetheless, to make up for the day I was at Eastman. Then on Friday I up and drove to Burke, Virginia, to stay with Ultimate Colonel Colburn and the family, as I had a part in a gig with the Marine Chamber Orchestra. Indeed, it was a children's concert with a very sophisticated structure, and it was played to the hilt by those who even know what a hilt is (I was privy to rehearsal recordings on the intertubes, and it was sounding hot, hot, hot). But first things first. After my arrival, Mike and I had the usual conversations about music and composers, Jack and Claire tried to entertain me and I said they didn't have to, Mike made steak on the grill for dinner, and we watched the DVD of The Fabulous Mr. Fox. Not Gil Harel, though. On Saturday there was a thunderstorm in the morning, after which it became brightly sunny and very windy. We took the opportunity to do a tourist thing and check out the old town of Alexandria. Including getting to climb on and about a tall ship. I had a salmon sandwich. Then we watched some planes take off from Reagan Airport from the neighboring park, and came home. And I took the whole family out to Famous Dave's Barbecue, which included me having two excellent, excellent Bloody Maries -- and Nancy having two big, big margaritas. Not Gil Harel, though. And then we stopped. Sunday was the day of the gig, and I was to come on stage toward the end wearing my blue wig, and I had a few lines with some very long sentences to say. So let me explain the setup. It sounds hackneyed, but it was anything but. There were programs and "Clue Books" handed out. The clue books showed the VICTIM -- Beethoven -- and six SUSPECTS: Bach, Haydn, Tchakovsky, Stravinsky, Bernstein, and Rakowski, representing 230 years of classical music. Jason Fettig conducted and narrated (he also seems to have written the whole thing). For the first half, I sat with the Colburge and -- Carolyn Davies! (ka-ching!) -- but not Gil Harel. And I might add it was great to see Carolyn and catch up. Or to see Carolyn and Ketchup, sort of a conceptual thing. So the concert starts with the Beethoven 5 and about 25 seconds in the light go out, gasps and commotions, stands go down and music is tossed in the air. Lights back, Jason says let's start again, concertmistress says they don't have music. Uh oh. Thief. So ... six suspects and their motives are brought up, with excerpts from music by all of them. All of them while a Power Point thing is project on screen behind them. And Beethoven, played in silhouette and with a German accent, helps out. And he is hard of hearing. Thus music by the six suspects. The last half of the first movement of Stolen Moments represented the style of Rakowski -- On the Town represented Bernstein, The Sixth represented Tchaik, Surprise Symphony for Haydn, and shit. The kids were meant to write down the clues, and the aspects that identify the music of each suspect. Excellent, Gil Harel, you're coming along. Then intermission. After intermission, a review. Then -- six pieces. Mine was fifth, and has the quote from the Beethoven that's pretty obvious. Then there's Jason's back and forth with the audience, and the answers revealed on screen, and as Jason is coming to a conclusion, I walk out on stage carrying the Beethoven score as if to return it to Jason's stand and I'm wearing a blue wig. In the back and forth I reveal that the Beethoven melody is famous, great, and efficient; that dead people don't fight back when you steal from them; and that I hid the piece in my own piece, which the audience is now told was a world premiere (that evinced much more of an audience reaction than I thought it would). I go offstage, and they perform Beethoven 5 first movement, and I get a curtain call. Not Gil Harel, though. Afterwards, many autographs to sign (everyone's got a Clue Book with my picture), and eight hours to drive to get back and do my Monday morning teaching. I got back a bit before 1 and boy was my back tired. And did I mention how much I hate the New Jersey Turnpike? Not Gil Harel, though. I promise to put recordings of Current Conditions (my piece that steals Beethoven) and the Marine Chamber Orchestra's rendition of Stolen Moments I. -- with a full string section! -- up there on the left when I have them. Not Gil Harel, though. So now I've gotten all 32 final papers required of Theory 2, and I have read some of them. More reading of them will continue. And typically, while I was away, no fewer than six requests for recommendation letters came my way. D'oh! It's Fromm Foundation commission season! And we've had a dead red pine in the backyard for a number of years now, and I started calling Assabet Tree about it last November, noting that there was no rush. Over the weekend, they came by and left an estimate for the job of removing the tree and the shrub against which it was rubbing. Yesterday morning I called them and said we accept the offer, no rush. Call if you're going to come. And at about 3 in the afternoon I heard a bunch of loud motor sounds, and up the driveway came -- the tree cutting stuff! They set it up in the backyard so that the ladder was above the shed, and boy did the guy doing the cutting look professional. The job went pretty quickly -- the only slow stuff being the taking of the big pieces of tree, which they seem to keep for themselve to sell to others. Or something -- since they went on a truck full of very large logs. Cammy was minused (or, at least, nonplussed). And they were done cutting at quitting time before they got around to grinding the stumps. Which I hope they'll do soon, since I want to plant grass seed. Well, I don't WANT to plant grass seed, but I do want for there to be grass growing over where the tree once was. I do, I do. That would mean planting grass seed. I also finally got some catnip plants at K-Mart -- which didn't have them for sale until last week. So I got six and installed them in various places to join the rosemary and basil already there. The basil plants, by the way -- not doing very well. Gil Harel, though -- he's doing fine. This morning Papalia Plumbing & Heating sent someone by to assemble a quote for replacing our oil furnace and boiler, and water heater, and the radiator in the upstairs bathroom, with a gas furnace, boiler, water heater, etc. About $13,000, of course. And we are so worth it. It'll take two days, sometime before the end of the month. The Maids came to clean today also, so we went to lunch at the River Rock Grill -- seeing as the Cast Iron Kitchen doesn't do lunch no mo' -- and they never did on Tuesdays anyway -- and it was pretty good. The orange fennel which was the context for Beff's crab cakes was very nice. We may actually be -- gasp -- returning there in the future. And hey -- they've got Rapscallion on tap now. And what do I have coming up in the next two weeks? Not Gil Harel. Some writing, though. Next event is BMOP May 28, and Beff's trio and my trio using hymn tunes in Hudson, New York, the next day. We are going in separate cars for reasons that Gil Harel won't explain. Then we will be doing some tourist stuff in Hudson, to the extent that that is possible. After all of that -- stuff. This week's pictures include the new espresso maker, a bad reduction of the final throes of Ladies Who Lunch, a commemorative plate of the Slosberg Music Center (thanks Rebecca), Cammy on the side porch being curious about the tree people, 4 stages in the total annihilation of the red pine, and Winifred (the Colburns' dog) wearing my blue wig. Bye. MAY 24 Breakfast was grapefruit, potato pancakes, orange juice and coffee. Lunch was part of a Trader Joe's flatbread pesto thingie and some boneless Buffalo wings. Dinner last night was steak tip sandwiches, Trader Joes fire roasted vegetables, and Brunello. TEMPERATURE EXTREMES SINCE LAST UPDATE 37.4 and 82.8. MUSIC GOING THROUGH MY HEAD AS I TYPE THIS the battuto section of AhChim AnGae. LARGE EXPENSES SINCE LAST UPDATE Down payment for new furnace, $4000; new GPS unit for Beff and dashboard stand for both of us, $279; construction permit for furnace, $125; drivers license renewal $50. COMPANIES THAT HAVE NOT COVERED THEMSELVES IN GLORY New Hampshire E-Z Pass for accusing Beff of trying to skirt a toll (she has an EZ Pass transponder, which their cheapass hardware didn't detect) COMPANIES THAT HAVE COVERED THEMSELVES IN GLORY Trader Joes, for the frozen fire roasted vegetables we just discovered. PET PEEVE Even more than ever, left-turning cars that don't leave room for others to pass. POINTLESS NOSTALGIC REMINISCENCE: I and some of my friends often played with the family's 1964 vintage reel-to-reel, which had a pause function. One game was to ask questions and hold down the pause for some of the questions and answered so that the final tape had a lot of left-out stuff, and hilarity potentially ensued. Example: I asked four questions that ended up in the final as "What does...used...toilet paper...taste like?" Seventh grade humor. Later, we made up a second game that took advantage of the multitrack capabilities. On Channel 1, one of us would interview the other and leave gaps for answering. The other would then hear that which was recorded and answer. It was occasionally surreal. NUMBER OF HAIRCUTS I GOT LAST WEEK: 0. CUTE CAT THINGS TO REPORT: Actually, it's chipmunks -- which, instead of running away when Sunny has caught them and is playing with them, jump straight up and down. Also, both cats when they've been into the catnip patch. UPDATED ON THIS SITE THIS WEEK: This page, Home, Performances, Compositions, Bio, Lexicon. THIS WEEK'S MADE-UP WORD: laroack, thought to be a fourth type of rock somewhere between igneous and sedimentary. RECOMMENDATION AND PROFESSIONAL LETTERS WRITTEN THIS LAST TWO WEEKS: 4. FUN DAVY FACT YOU WON'T READ ANYWHERE ELSE I have two little stripes on my arm that don't tan or burn -- wood stove incidents from 20 years ago. WHAT THE NEXT BIG TREND WOULD BE IF I WERE IN CHARGE: Hot sauce on everything. PHOTOS IN MY IPHOTO LIBRARY: 14,647. WHAT I PAID FOR GASOLINE RECENTLY $2.93 in Maynard. A LIST OF LISTS DOESN'T LIST THESE sticky gold stars, the corner of the bedroom, some wainscotting I forgot about, a head of steam. My official service to Brandeis is thereby finito until about August 25 of 2011. Though I *will* come in to teach a special class on Tension and Release this June 11 for an "alumni return to the Brandeis classroom" thing that they have ... uh, duh, for alumni. My little class will be an extension of the "Rubber Bands" teach-in I gave a few times back when there were teach-ins for frosh during the week before classes. As I recall (I haven't been over my notes for about 5 years now), I show that there is a long-term structure under the tune of Steve Winwood's "Valerie", reaching ever upward for the top octave tonic, which by then is harmonized with the subdominant several times -- meaning the song is not finished even though the tune is. But that's fodder for another day. Hello fodder. And what really has there been to do since I got back from my blue-haired gig in DC? Actually, in Alexandria, Virginia, but I'll forgive me. Well, besides tapping my toes waiting around for the recordings to show up, not much. I did read a full thirty-two final theory papers, being thus amused at an analysis of Girl Wit' da Flaxen Hair that consistently named pitches a half-step higher than actually in the piece, and another that placed Ich Grolle Nicht in the Op. 39 Liederkreis. But it was also interesting reading all the 'chatty' papers about compositional processes and realizing there were 16 different approaches. Which, for all intents and purposes, means infinity approaches. And "Infinity Approaches" would be a good title. Dear reader, you can have that title. After all that reading, I returned the papers to the extent that I could, and did my last grade entry online, as infinity fast approached. My last makeup lesson for the time I was in New York was Jared, which happened at my own house, and which was end-punctuated by malt beverage. What a way to end the teaching season! And there was a surreal moment during the inside part of the lesson in which a census worker came to the door to ask if anyone lived in the uglyass blue ranch next door. It's not important what my answer was ("yes"). During other non-composeness times, I went further in search of the perfect espresso beans, and came closest with some purchased at Whole Foods. Now my espresso is good. Before, it was okay. Beff, meantime, was here a long time and then wasn't here a long time. She's now here. She had been in Maine to be one of the few grownups with responsibility at the Maine All-State Festival, and she resisted the temptation to take euphonium lessons on the side. Well, not a temptation so much as a concept. And now she's back, doing her non-euphonium thing with the vacuum cleaner, etc., some more. I, on the other hand, took advantage of the terminus of classesness to do something about finishing off that etude project thing. Well, actually, etude project is what other people call it -- as in, when 100 are written the "etude project" will finally be finished after more than 22 years (22!). Me 'n' Amy, we just call it like it is. Doin' the toods. In any case, during this reporting period I decreased the distance to the finish by two-fifths. If I do the same in the next reporting period, I will have thus decreased the remaining distance by two-thirds. What is this, an SAT prep course? But yes. But no. Five whole days were spent on a new cross-accent etude, and that one is wickid had. The incipit is simply a bunch o' major seconds, which got so earwormed (whatever that would mean) that by the time I reached the finish, the only way to get them out o' my head was to quote Golliwog's Cakewalk. And I did, Oscar, I did. But only very subtly, if that can be believed. After I saw what I had done, I took the sixth day to rest. Up on Ye Olde Facebook, I initiated a title sweepstakes, which was won by (but which was not one with) Adam Marks: Double Cross. After which I decided it was time to write the *one* simple etude for Book X -- as each book has a simple one that I can play, sort of. And I raided my own playbook, which itself was stolen from Martler, and wrote a slow, soft etude using only dominant seventh chords as the available sonorities. Yee doggie, I shonuff had to pull out some fourth species trickery to make that one interesting. It's also crafted whole cloth from Schumannesque downward arpeggios, which means the delay in hearing the full sonorities makes for some possible ear trickery. Plenty of faking left and going right, but also plenty of faking left and going left. That sentence needs a verb. At the end of the day, I dedicated it to Gusty Thomas, who, after all, had dedicated one of her etudes to me. And the title? "Quietude". So for those of you who have figured out that this page really ISN'T a how-to-study-for-the-SAT lesson, I now have 97 etudes. Which is, I believe, how many achievement awards were offered by the woodchucks on the Beverly Hillbillies episode with Wally Cox. Man, the pop culture references are ... obscure. So, being that most of my time was spent at the piano looking for pretty-notes(TM), not much else is reportable here. There were plenty of bike rides. There was a meeting at Brandeis to vote on honors for our students followed by me giving a campus tour to and buying lunch for the Vincent family of Zephyr Lake (Karissa Vincent, whom I had mentored for the MacDowell at 100 thing back in '07, is now college-shopping, so there you have it). There was a trip to the DMV, always a pleasure, to renew my license, which was to expire next month on my birthday. And since my birthday is next month, that's when it was going to expire. And every five years you have to renew, and every other time you can do it online. This was not one of those times. And, and, and ... I got to play with my shipment of comp scores from Peters -- a few Etudes Book IX's and several of the Etude-Fantasies, with that target demographic of 11-13 year olds. Which brings me to L.A. in July, and what it is, too. So besides all of that, there was very strenuous yard work to normalize the area where the red pine and in-weaved shrub had been taken down. Assabet Tree came by a week later (whilst I was with the family Vincent) and ground (grinded?) the stumps, thus leaving a few big holes and plenty of wood pieces in their wake. Raking, piling, and refilling the holes was my task, and five wheelbarrows full of the wood crap got carted to the leaf discard area -- which was also where the amazing proliferation of acorns from last fall got dumped, and where maybe a hundred new baby oak trees had already sprouted). I then covered the area with topsoil, planted some miracle grass, got out the big hose and sprinkler, and started watering all dat stuff. And so it goes. Yesterday was my last official service to Brandeis for a while -- commencement. A quarter of the faculty are asked to be at commencement each year, meaning we are expected to attend one at least one every fourth year. Being that this one was my third in a row, that means officially I can skip commencement for the next nine years without penalty. Some guilt, maybe, but no penalty. Actually, no guilt. No guilt whatsoever. MWA ha ha ha! So I got to wear my Halloweeny regalia (see below), march, and sit in uncomfortable chairs while it was too hot, and sit close to the speaker system meaning I had to cover my ears a lot -- for two hours -- but I got to see Paul Simon, an honorary degree recipient, sing "The Boxer" while wearing a fedora. Then, sweat pouring out of every orifice (especially the sweat glands), I got to march out, high-five a bunch of music graduates, and skedaddle. And today the guy from Papalia Plumbing & Heating came over to do a whole bunch of measuring, and to make me sign a release form acknowledging that I know the chimney is no longer going to be a chimney, and that the vent for the boiler will be on the west side of the house about six feet up. Woo hoo -- it will be like you can our house's breath all the time! And so on. On Wednesday and Thursday they'll be here putting in the new stuff, while Beff is ... in New York for a premiere! And a premiere! More on that in a moment. Today I went to Staples and Trader Joes in the morning. Staples, because Beff's GPS conked out and she wanted a new one before the New York trip. Trader Joes because it is right next door. I got salad. And other stuff. And we took a bike ride through the Wildlife Preserve, and it's WARM today (hot tomorrow!). So ... on Wednesday Beff leaves to stay with Hayes and Susan, and to go to a preview concert where both of our piano trios -- the ones built around hymns -- are being done at a Harlem salon. Friday is the official premiere of those and other trios built on the same premise, and I'm staying here to go to BMOP. 'cause I promised Marty Boykan a long time ago I'd go to the BMOP performance of his Symphony. On Saturday, though, we will both be at a runout performance at the Hudson (New York) opera house, so we are both going to Hudson, staying at the St. Charles Hotel, and then going to see Olanna on Sunday morning. And we drive back. Then, on Memorial Day, we go briefly to Bangor and come back Wednesday. Stuff! Stuff! Download 2.79 Mb. Share with your friends:
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