Deliberately boring

Ho-hum
Yawning is sometimes a symptom of repressed excitement.
Somehow this transitional season excites a certain anticipation.
An anticipation that, due to 65 years of leading nowhere, seems somehow...um...
irrational.
Sorta like the mail, which I have recently been calling "the daily disappointment".
Well, nothing ventured, nothing lost, I always say.
Of course, I don't always say that, do I?
I string lots of words together that don't say that.

I am still pondering J.Denk's use of the sobriquet "Deliberately boring".
Boredom is one of the psychological energy producers of this site.
I am yawning in part because of the excitement generated at the start of the school year.
Even though I know that, come next January, I will still be the same turkey, living the same life, telling the same jokes and writing the same pretty good but basically non-viable music.
However, if you get a little kick out of it, Carnegie Hall can just follow Benaroya into the trash bin of my delicate, bruised psyche.

Soon, I will be posting the piano, clarinet and bass piece
Soon, though subject to the same time and tide conspiracy that befouls all our best laid plans, I will post the english horn, clarinet and piano piece
Not yet, though venisoon after, I will sneak in another Finnigans Wake allusion.

Yesterday, (if Michael Jackson permits me the use of one of his copyrights) I did some important work on Fidelio. I have finally, after 20 years or so, gotten the gears lined up so that I have all 10 speeds again.
I only lost about 6 of the little (.125in) ball bearings that fell out when I took something that did not need to be taken apart, apart.

Here's an eight ball in the side pocket off the end rail kind of statement for ya.

(I think what Lane means here is that he's "calling his shots" in a kind of feeble attempt at irony. Or maybe he's even trying for sarcasm. Let's hope he doesn't hurt himself in the process)

"The bike will work perfectly when I road test it later today"

"This year my music will finally get the attention it deserves"


Anyway, back to boredom.
Boredom is really quite an exciting and dangerous activity.
It is watching the span of your life slowly dissolve while you wait for the bus.
While you look at all the activity in the shop window of life and realize that the store is closed for the weekend and your credit card has been stolen.
It's the realization that you are not getting any because you aren't wearing a tie.
It's Monty Python's Flying CirCUS!
It's the wonderfully tautologically riverrunly realization that we all probably already getting all the attention we deserve.

Love what you've done with your hair today. It looks terrific. Adds a whole new dimention to your already formidable personality.

Schooldays

Today, I go back to school. At 3:30.
Even though I'm retired and independently wealthy (independent, anyway) and don't need to learn anything and don't need to get a degree in anything, I'm still nervous,. Probably because I've been working on the string pieces and the piano trios and I'm anxious to find what David has to say.
Yesterday, I went out to the UW music dept. and put up a notice to try to find some violinists.
We'll see.
My blog muse is out getting drunk or something.
Maybe it is gone for some much needed therapy.
What is the muse of blogging anyway?
Bloggo, perhaps? Bloggore?
Has the sound of turgidity which fits (this blog, anyway)

The only one I can ever remember is Erato, of poetry.
Oh, well there's Terpsichore, of dance.
And Tripsichore, the muse of clumsiness.
The muse of music escapes me (as anyone who has ever listened to my music is aware)
And a bunch of others none of whom are here with me today.
Hibernating, I suppose.
I'm reading a book about James Triptree Jr.
An interesting girl she was.
It turns out that quite a few S.F. writers were of the chromosomally challenged persuasion.
Maybe why I lost interest in the stuff.
My wife likes S.F., but that kind of escapism hasn't appealed to me for quite a while.
Since I was in the Army.
Which is a pretty bizarre fantasy world in itself.
As is academia.
I survived both and went in search of "objective reality"
Which divorces one from the imaginary realities that the schizophrenic ape seems to take so seriously.

(I think what Lane is trying to say here is that he is sane and we are all nuts)

Which is why I'm pissed off at the SSO.
Which I seem to think is so hilariously funny and you, of course, don't
But of course it (it being "life, the universe, and everything") is all a construct of the human imagination, which in itself is a product of the brain's chemical secretions.

Warning, Inane joke alert!

Dopamine, Serotonin, and Epinephrine were a singing trio known as the Braindrew sisters back in the forties. You often hear them on "The swing years and beyond" on NPR on Sat. nights.

I refuse to explain or apologize.
That's how you get to be a great leader.

Was that the lunch whistle!!

P.S. "99 & 44/100% pure" was (as you already know) the slogan for a soap product that was merely a bar of simple everyday soap that had been fluffed with about, lemmesee here .56% air.
It floated.
I can't imagine why anybody thought that was important.
I am simple, everyday, and puffed up with a much greater percentage of air.
I don't float, physically, intellectually, or artistically.

"99 & 44/100 pure"

Better straighten a few things out here, Lane's hyperbola is getting a little out of hand.
First, the copyright thingie.
When SSO told me to never darken...etc, I told them to take my name and my wife's name out of their data base, take any trace of my presence out of their building. This included the score of an insignificant piece for wind quartet and piano called "Six Mechanical Haiku" which someone whose name I will not mention but who was the first and most competent and capable of the teachers at Soundbridge had placed on the shelf that held the "Listening Post" computers.
They ignored me.
Kept sending me their begging letters.
So about six or seven months later I sent a letter advising them that if they desired to keep the thing they could pay me ten grand or have a copyright infraction slapped on their miserable ass.
That, they paid attention to.
I got it back post haste and post paid.
Along with the usual whining that "we didn't know Wa wa wa."

Now that I'm reliving this incident, I remember some other amusing details.
One of their original complaints had been that I stuck a hundred dollar bill in the Soundbridge begging bowl (they like to refer to it as "Donations")
They threw it back in my face, and continued to send me letters asking for my estate and further donations.
At the same time I sent a check for five hundred to refund what they had paid me for building the harpsichord display and other small payments they had made. They also sent that back with the pompous statement that they "didn't need my money"
They still kept sending their begging notices, and, as of about three months ago, my wife still was getting invitations to their mediocre productions.
They are sooo cute when they are angry.
Also I demanded that The ukulele that I had built for Patricia Kim be removed from the premises or at least have my name removed from the label.
She subsequently quit, so i don't know where that poorly constructed thing is now.

Any Seattle is a place of outstanding musicians and one mediocre orchestra.
They suffer from the usual "Peter Principal" wherein the mediocre are promoted until they are the truly incompetent. Until they become the scum, the slag, and other unmentionable floating stuff that "rises" to pollute any naive cream that might float their way.


Jeremy Denk today posted that he was beginning to visit other sites, "like a real blogger" He referred to one category of blogger as "deliberately boring"
Gosh, could it be me? Does he actually understand my art?
Ella Gray got it when she added the shots and screams to "Nightmare Prelude"

Now, I know that you regulars know and understand irony, satire, and sarcasm, so that when I post that my "head cold" is important news, you can compare and contrast with the SSO's announcement that they are going to have four rotating concertmasters.
Or that there is yet another fantastic "new recording" of some 200 year old piece of irrelevancy. Or that some new failed instrumentalist is taking over some hick town orchestra.

By the way...I just blew my nose.

A cure for the common cold?

I assume you are all on tenterhooks wondering about my head cold.
(If you are, tell me what the heck a tenterhook is)
Well, in spite of a 22.5 mile bike trip around Lake Sammamish* and a Saturday full of cutting and pasting small pieces of wood for irritating details of the cabinet project, (and all the sawdust inhalation that entails) I still have a stuffed head and a runny nose.

The salon show at Good Shepard, was a good one with a wide range of musical endeavors.
Top of my list was Hope Wechkins piece for violin and voice. Her violin and her voice. At the same time!
No "tapes" as CD's are sometimes still referred to.
I wouldn't have thought that was possible.
Unfortunately for me, the acoustics of the chapel and my deteriorating hearing kept me from hearing the words clearly. The music, however was striking in it's blending of drama and beauty.
On the other end of that scale was a piece for (three?) recorded and electronically modified pianos plus one live one. The whole thing would have been ten hours long.
Thankfully, the composer, presented an excerpt.
Whew!
Not that I'm not intrigued by the concept.

An accordion solo that went a long way toward relieving that instrument's undeserved reputation as an infra dig noisemaker. Some beautiful sounds can be made with that arm-powered harmonica. A bit like Jerry(?) Murad's "Harmonicats" (I'm guessing on those names) It's not all Lawerence Welk and "Lady of Spain"
Although...I wouldn't be surprised to see "The New Lawrence Welk Orchestra" playing a major gig at the ever artistically declining Benaroya Hall.

And a soft sweet guitar solo.

So....Saturday meant aforementioned woodworking followed by a steak dinner at The Whistlestop in Renton, where we finished our meal and left just as the Polka band was setting up. I would have liked to stay and listen but the chemical equation that I added up to at the time was encouraging belligerence, something I prefer experiencing in the abstract.

Besides there was an accordion.


*22.3 miles, 1:47:46 time, 12.4 average speed, 33.1 maximum speed.

Falling

It's turning cold. Put the quilt my wife made for me on my bed. Days are getting shorter. It's dark when I get up. Time to go back to school. Time to go back to work.
Time to tend to the harvest. Time to prepare for the winter festivals and celebrations. Time for the depressions, the blues, and all the res mortae that the change in weather brings up. I've picked up some kind of head cold that is stuffing up my nose and my ears a bit, very minor thing, but my mind wants to sleep. All the rest of myself wants to sleep too. My ability to make a joke out of all this rests in the bed my body left two hours ago.
Maybe later.
Maybe later.

Hah, I was about to log off, when I got a message that one "wr" wanted to talk to me.
I checked the site and found a picture of a hot looking young woman who told me
"I AM ALL YOURS , GET ME , GARB ME , HOLF ME, KEEP ME SAFE IN YOUR ARMS"

What a pity I've outlived my sex life. I guess I'll never get a chance to either Garb or Holf.

Downtown

O.K, I'm in the library checking out the new mp3's. After visiting Caffe Ladro, I walked to Pike Place to use the rest room. (Really the only thing I miss about Soundbridge is the bathroom. I still keep in touch with the friends I made, so screw the little ankle biters that run the place.
Walking back towards the Library I saw a cat in a winter jacket watching a dangerous looking pack of pigeons. The pigeons didn't seem to be very annoyed at this observation. The cat's human partner seemed to think that the cat preferred it's usual home cooked cuisine to any gamy pigeon.
As I passed the Art museum I noticed a bunch of derelict cars on display some were hanging from the ceiling, one was just parked in the atrium and one was half a van up ended on the side walk.
I had some art displays like that when I had my shop.
One day some city dufus with a clipboard showed up with that usual scowl that little officious twinky-dinks like to think is intimidating.
"I have a report that someone is running a business here", she announces
No foolin' little girly, every building for eight blocks houses a business.
Anyway the idiots downtown harassed my land lord for six months before they actually had the courage to state the complaint.
There were inoperable cars on my lot.
That's when I quit.
Now it's a coffee shop called Cloud City. Go there if you're in town.
Also this Friday at the Good Shepard Chapel the Composers Salon will be presented music you can't hear any where else.
None of mine this time, but I'm doing what I can about that.

Shopping lists

Here's a new link. It's to David Mesler's site. David is the composition teacher I've told you about. Great guy, Great teacher, Great Music. Check 'im out!

David Mesler

Other than that, It's been a quiet day here in lake Washbeside. After checking out my usual suspect sites, I realized that I hadn't had breakfast, so I went to my old neighborhood for a waffle, sausage, bacon, and egg plate at the Queen Anne Cafe.
I know, My brother in law just had surgery for a clogged artery, but What'm I gonna do?
While I was there I walked across the street to the local Safeway and bought, milk,lemon juice, chicken breasts, chicken thighs, shrimp (that's for tonight), cheerios, wheat chex, 6 assorted freezer bags of heat and serve pasta dinners (Bertolli).
You think J.Denk's life is exciting?

Hasn't a patch.

New MP3's

Check out the latest from the pen (keyboard) of yours truely.
Violin Duet is the piece I need the violinists for.
"Mask" I have no idea where that working title came from
"Shotglass" I am even more befuddled as to the genesis of that one.
I will make today's post short, gotta work on the cabinets.

Too mush Mike's?

Anonymous writes:
Lane, your last comment on "Coalface" was as long as your posts. And now this post is like the comments section. What gives?

Ann Ominous writes:
It's like the second chapter of the second book of Finnegans Wake where the text and the footnotes change place. Is this deliberate?.......unonominous.

Lane Savant writes:
No, actually, I just intended to answer some of Butch's questions but I got rolling and let 'er rip.

Emily writes:
Come on Dougie dear, you just want to brag that you've read so much Joyce.

Seneca writes:
Are you ever going to give us the translations?

Lane Savant writes:
I misplaced the book I got the Latin from. Soon.....soon.

Cicero writes:
No need for any translations here.

Scriptus Plautus:
Hic astabo tantisper cum hac forma et factis frustra is from my own Miles Gloriosus;
It means, "Am I to stand, idle and unnoticed, so handsome and so heroic, all for nothing?"

Lane Savant scriptus
Gee, Plaut...Thanks a lot, I wanted to do that.

Plautus ecrit;
Timing you fool, is the most important thing. You were dragging it out too long.

Cicero chimes in again:
I agree with Plautie, "Quid de utilitate loquar stercorandi?" is from my "De Senectute"
It means "What can I say about the usefulness of spreading manure?

El Savant cries in his cerevesium:
Be that way, but I get "Bibamus, moriendum est". It means "life is short, let's have a drink" Hah!. Put it together with the spell-check version about "Bigamous Miranda" and we've got a party goin'on.

Doug types merrily:
"Ave Amicae" means "hello friends" "Vale Lacerte" means "See ya later alligator"

Vale Amicae

The coalface of creation

Hah! I'll translate latin later. Today I'll talk about my music

Responding to Hooverific's comment on "More bike stuff"
I appreciate your comments about my music.
I try to avoid obvious structure.
I try to write "organically". The "bones" are there but I strive not to hide them but to integrate them into a unified whole.
What I want to achieve is musically that reveals itself slowly over the course of it's performance.
One could argue that the length of performance is structure enough and that it's the listener's duty to find music in whatever is presented.
This is nonsense, of course, there is much more to communication of music than just listening to 5 minutes of whatever sounds happen to your ear.
Yes, the music is contained in the noise, but it is the composer's duty to find and make available his own idiosyncratic insights.
Otherwise, who needs him?

Consider all your most inspired music played at once, it would be "noise" but it would still contain all your most inspired music.

Imagine all nine and a half Beethoven symphonies played at once.

The deeper into this unknown I can trick you into following me the better.

I don't remember where I read the comment about "the coalface" but it is a perfect visualization of the creative conundrum. How to make something that has never existed sound like an obvious truth.

It's also similar to being in the crow's nest of a sailing ship searching through the fog for something of significance. Is that a whale? A rock? Another ship? A reef?

Where was I? Oh yeah, structure. There is some buzz on other sites concerning Beethoven's 33 Variations on a theme of Diabelli. The Diabelli waltz is rigidly and obviously structured. Beethoven takes it to the further edge of that structure without actually losing same.

Now we return to the tonic of this post by talking again about MY music.
"Nightmare Prelude" which I have linked for your enjoyment and education, is the first of my "36 variations on a theme of Diabelli" (anything Beethoven can do, I can do more of)
Diabelli's original structure is still there, but it is buried in the melodramatic fullness of the chords.
The gunshots, sirens and screams are not my doing, but I am more than pleased that I could inspire that kind of creative participation.

As long as I have your attention here, I want also to tell you that the piece is modeled on Chopin's prelude. I don't know the opus number, but you should be able to recognise it.

Also, I have to admit that it is a bit of satire, poking fun at the pompous march that opens Ludwig's set.

Foof! Trying to be serious is work!

For other posts about my contretemps with the SSO, search for "Chutzpa" and "Talvi Agoniste". I am interested in your opinions. Have I ever told you about the copyright infraction I claimed again the SSO?

Ave, Amicae

Hic astabo tantisper cum hac forma et factis frustra?

Quid de utilitate loquar stercorrandi?

Now, lets run that through the spell checker.

Hick stab tintype cum hack for ma ET fact is frustrate?
Quid DE utility liquor strand?

Bibamus, moriendum est.

Bigamous, Miranda est

And we'll all have a wonderful time, tra la.

Vale, Lacerte

More bike stuff

My ex-wife has a friend who rode the STP. We got together yesterday and rode. From Kenmore to Marymore park and partially along the connection to Lake Sammamish.
32.3 miles, avg spd 12.3, max spd 29.2, trip time 2 hr 36 min 17 seconds.

I've been trying to link what used to be titled "The Story" (it's now called "Origins Issue") but it doesn't seem to work. I was inspired to do this by a picture of Stravinsky posted on Soho the dog. It's Igor's mug shot from when he was arrested for fooling with the national anthem.




We artists must suffer.

My "Origins Issue" is the chronicle of the Seattle Symphony's criminal case against me.

You can search for the archived post if you want, or you can push this button

Link don't work, just go to Sept 2006 archive

All this physical stuff is eating into my creative time.
Exercise causes muscle-building steroids.
Steroids diminish irony, one tends to take oneself seriously.
Sense of humor diminishes.
This is exactly what is wrong with the world.
It's ridiculous.

I know I have promised to post some new work and I will.
It's not ridiculous.
The music's not.
This post undoubtedly is.
See what I mean about taking one's self seriously?

ACLU, don't bother unless you are sombody important

I read in The Stranger where their "public intern" was harassed for holding a sign on the street in front of an establishment that I will not name.
My point is that the ACLU was called. And they responded!!
I contacted them over a year ago to complain about the Seattle Symphonies harassment of me for merely being on the their side of the street.
I have yet to receive any response at all.
My guess is that the ACLU is only interested in the rights of people with media access.

Santa Claus, Easter bunny, God, now the ACLU !
All I have left to believe in is you good people.

Yesterday

Visit from a friend (you know who you are) French dip Sandwich and a Guinness at the Whistle stop. later Birthday celebration at Romeos restaurant in Lynwood.
A chance to see sister, nephew, other nephew's wife (niece-in -law?) and the cutest kid in the world, Ruby. The name of that relational connection escapes me.
celebration marred by the lack of Ruby's dad, and others whom it would have been nice to see.
The real blemish on the evening was the news that my brother-in-law was in the hospital with a malfunctioning artery. Thanks to rapid response by the 911 crew, he will be alright. Probably recovering from minor surgery as we speak.
Poor sister seemed very tired from dealing with the incident, hope she caught up on her sleep last night.

So, my bicycle exploits seem even more minor than usual.
I have solved one of the major annoyances by remounting the front sprocket on the outside of the drive hub where it is now back in line with the derailleur.
After years of having only five speeds, I now have ten again.

What to answer when I am asked "what kind of music do you write" is still a dilemma.

From Marc Geelhoed's Deceptively Simple

In response, the League of American Orchestras (ASOL), decided that classical music is heretofore to be known as "Ancient Music," and Early Music America prefers "Music on Parchment" to "early music." Also to be thrown out are Baroque, Romantic (who makes out to that stuff, anyway?), and Modern. "Chamber music" was issued a stay of execution, since it describes a place and not a prescribed era. It's only a matter of time before that's dumped, since so few new homes are constructed with chambers. They have rooms.

I guess, at the moment, I'm writing "room music".

Addio Luciano

Inasmuch as I am little more than a smartass, I don't feel it fitting that I should comment on the passing of this truly great singer.
Omniscient Mussel has put my feelings into a post that says it perfectly.

Omniscient Mussel

He was lucky to have had his voice.
We were lucky to have had him.

Solvitur ambulando

Hah, I snuck this ride in on you without the usual bragging beforehand.
From here to MOHAI 10.8 mi on the Volvo odo, 10.8 on Fidelio's.
The thing that needed some solvitur was a flat tire which is what caused the ambulanderie. It was the new one too, I'll have to do something about it.
Got a chance to measure my walking pace, however; 3.5 mph.
Overall avg for trip 7.8. Max speed 35.1
Other measurements ht-6ft, wt-195, IQ-150, smarts-not much, belt-37in, max speed without bicycle-once timed at 18 mph, fastest ever driven 130 mph at S.I.R. in a Ferrari 250 LM (Le Mans)
Fastest ride as a passenger-240 km in a Maserati Ghibli on the freeway downtown Seattle in heavy traffic (it might have been moderate traffic, but when they seem to be going backwards at 80, it's heavy)
So, today I will rip out the old cabinets and patch the wall behind, then set the new cabinets in place. Unless it starts to seem like work.
On the music front, I'm writing piano trios. Piano, bass, and some sort of wind thingie. Inspired by nostalgia for the piano, bass, and flute thing I did at Soundbridge so long ago. Ah the good old days, when Meighan was just a good musician with an exquisite sense of musical timing.
Oh, tempos, Oh, amores

Got a nice one for clarinet, and starting on something for Eng. horn, clarinet and piano.
This post is on the "new" computer, when I get a faster whachacallit, I should be able to set up a website and post more mp3s.

I can post pictures from here again.

I'd complain about a dearth of violinists again but Anonomann has ordered me to quit whining about it, so I will say no more.

Later that same day

Even though I had two excuses, some Ives scores came in the mail and it
was wet out, I rode anyway. Stats follow (they're measures of time,
speed, and distance, shouldn't they be called dyns?)
The odometer is nailed, maybe not precisely, some ducct dape may be involved, but where the Volvo said 8.75, Fidelio claimed 8.8. So that't near as we can get, I suppose.
They do take slightly different routes traffic being what it is.

Dangerous is what it is.

40:18 min, 13.1 avg, 24.4 max spd.

I'm going to study my Ives scores now.

Today...

is the last day of the first of your life.
I've got a new (used)computer. Keth and I are setting it up, well, Keth is, I just stand around and fret.
I am going to ride today, more odometer check.
I know I've promised this before and failed to deliver, so I wouldn't place any bets.
The intentions of the best of us (a group to which I do not belong) are aft ganging a gley. I'm so glad my ancestors came to this country.
So, once again our brief union is rent asunder by the exigencies of a cruel fate.

As bugs bunny once said.......'bye

Tonight

I am full of spaghetti. Today we harvested the blackberries that infest the slope on the lake side of the house. Meredith made two pies. When the spaghetti calms down, I just might have a piece.

There are news articles roaming about claiming that Beethoven died because hit doctor dosed him with poison (lead).
That's what medicine is, carefully monitored doses of poison that, theoretically, destroys the disease befor destroying the patient. Think of chemotherapy.
Those chemos are much worse than a little bit of lead. So, the doctor did what he could according to the medical science of the day.
As we all do, according to our own sciences. It is impossible to say whether Ludwig's life was shortened or lengthend by the medical attention he recieved.
They didn't even know there were such things as germs, bacteria, or viruses.
Medicine is a delicate balance between killing the illness and killing the patient.
Sometimes, the disease is just stronger.
Furthermore it does not necessarily follow that he would have been able to keep his genius alive. let alone better it.
One could argue that the final moments of the ninth symphony indicate an artist who was losing touch.
Both J.S. Bach and G.F.Handel died of infection due to eye surgery administered by the same doctor. Not Beethoven', of course

A hundred years before Dr. Lister.

Before the notion that the doctor was at fault could be a rational one, one would have to compare with all other sicknesses and all other people.
Not just the famous, rich, and powerful.

Beethoven was 57 years old, he led a long and painful life

As do we all.

Remember, we're all in this alone.

So eat your greens, excercise, regularly, cut down on the fatty stuff, etc.

Your Daddy loves you.

bored

nothing happened today nothing happened yesterday took the vespa to the shop for a scheduled service ate a pizza at stellars drank a guinness at stellars fell asleep reading a semi fundamental mystery book watched barefoot contessa on the teevee i want to go for a ride now if i felt anything at all it would be a profound love for all of you lovely people music seems lame today wish something exciting would happen hope something exciting doesnt happen hope the most debilitating of drugs need a haircut if a thing like that could be classified as need goodbye