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JUNE 9. JUNE 16 supplement below pictures. Lunch today is supermarket sushi. Breakfast was orange juice and ice coffee. Dinner last night was salmon fillets, asparagus, salad, apple pie, black and tan ice cream from Ericksons, and much beer. TEMPERATURE EXTREMES SINCE LAST UPDATE 42.3 and 92.8. MUSIC GOING THROUGH MY HEAD AS I TYPE THIS A little bit of Mary's piccolo demos, but it had been something else I can't identify. LARGE EXPENSES THIS LAST TWO WEEKS Filling up the tank, more than $35 now, shopping in Chicago $47, various dinners with Mike and Mary, ca. $70, down payment on new siding, $15,741.50. POINTLESS NOSTALGIC REMINISCENCE: When the family had a tent trailer, we got into the pattern of camping at the Island Pond campsites every year; in the latter part of this tradition, we had the "extra room" that zips onto the side of the sleeper part of the tent trailer, where we could sit and read while it rained. Every year we went I'd go to campsite 29 and yell to hear echoes and was hoarse the rest of the week. It was at the Island Pond beach where I first learned how to float, and quickly thereafter how to swim -- after having taking a summer's worth of swimming lessons and never getting beyond "rhythmic breathing". NUMBER OF HAIRCUTS I GOT LAST WEEK: 0. CUTE CAT THINGS TO REPORT: With the hot weather, they sleep at the end of the bed and get all stretchy. Sunny likes to jump for dragonflies outside. THIS WEEK'S MADE-UP WORD: crumbot (origin obscure, but it means the gap between threads on a screweye). RECOMMENDATION AND PROFESSIONAL LETTERS WRITTEN THIS LAST TWO WEEKS: 7 (Fromm commissions). FUN DAVY FACT YOU WON'T READ ANYWHERE ELSE I was once on WVMT radio when waiting to meet Santa Claus in Burlington, Vermont. WHAT THE NEXT BIG TREND WOULD BE IF I WERE IN CHARGE: Woodwind quintet is easy to write for. PHOTOS IN MY IPHOTO LIBRARY: 11,267. WHAT I PAID FOR GASOLINE THIS WEEK: $3.93 in Maynard, $4.25 in Connecticut, $3.97 in Maynard. OTHER INANIMATE OBJECTS THAT WOULD BE A BETTER PRESIDENT THAN THE CURRENT ONE brass knuckles, a collection of baby pictures that includes a lock of hair, some of the pollen running down the side of the back windshield, the time spent waiting for the next distant clap of thunder.
Instead of gyrating with our cupcakes, we found the place inside my head that makes motor oil seem less expensive -- so that meant we could spell the word "intransigence" any way we wanted to, although when we told that to the police they had to scratch their elbows. On the way to the bend, we found some meaning in the way that the Philips head screwdrivers uncorked their big ones, so we stopped and made philosophical pie.
Dear reader, I was just at Brandeis, for reasons to be explained later, and I was confronted by one of my colleagues for not having recently updated here. It was suggested that I put in a link to "Nag Davy About His Blog", but I think that's too hard to do with this cheap software, not to mention kind of silly. But one thing is for certain. This is the last update until the end of July, since I will be way, way away for the better part of valor, and for the better part of the intervening time. Which I find to be nutty.
Hey, it's even less than two weeks since the last one! So I average pretty goodly here. So what I bain doing? Stuff! Some of it nutty stuff! The day OF the last update, I did my update. Beff went to Maine and conferred with the guy doing work on that house (who also plays trumpet in the Bangor Symphony, and that's something I want to rub over my whole body). Meanwhile, the next morning I up and drove real early to the airport for a 6:30 flight. Alas, by 2:50 I was wide awake, so a bit of cleaning up was done in the dark, and so on, and then I drove to the tune of precious little traffic, and parked at the airport. Then, guess what -- I got on a plane! Yes, an Airbus 320 to Chicago, after which I got on the CTA and got off in the loop at Jackson, where Amy D (Amy B-D, really) picked me up. I was there so we could work together on the 24 toods she was to record the following week. Amy' has a silver Cooper Mini, and I rode in it. The dashboard is futuristic -- or at least it's big -- and in the time I spent waiting to be picked up, I got some packs of giant Smarties at a little Walgreens across from Chicago City Hall. Because it's what I do.
Amy had 3 hours worth of piano students that day, of all sizes and abilities, and I was amused to hear a bit of stuff from the Denes Agay Joy of Jazz and Joy of Boogie Woogie books I played from when *I* was a kid ("haul it 'cross the river 'fore the boss comes 'round" stuck in my head). Amy was sort of amazingly energetic in these lessons -- and me? I was in the dining room, web surfing, doing e-mail, etc., on my Mac Book Pro. Amy cooked, and it was all good -- including some pizza with clams and clam sauce. On my second day there, we made a shop to Treasure Island, which was pretty much a deluxe little Stop and Shop that billed itself as America's "most European" supermarket. Which apparently was not the decor, but how far the dollar went there. Rim shot. I got myself snacking pickles, olives, more big Smarties, etc. and even lemon juice. Why? Because I could. I even got Temptations cat treats! Why? Because it's something you don't see every day. Incidentally, it happened that on the way to the supermarket we passed Obama's house. Cool.
On Thursday Amy had no students and on Friday just two. So we spent that time video-recording 21 of the toods on the Flip, and I learned the new incarnation of iMovie that ships with Leopard on Intel Macs. The interface was not what I was used to, but this version has options to upload directly to YouTube, and since that was my intent with these videos, that's how I did it. You can see these movies by clicking on the blue links down and to the left (20 on one page, another (Third in the Hand) on the second page). During my time there I bonded with the cats (Ranjith and Reena), who make a few cameo appearances in the videos (especially Rick's Mood, Accents of Malice and Pink Tab). Much of our recording time was actually spent editing the videos and figuring out the "project" format in the software, but lots were up there by the time I went back Saturday morning. Much time was spent with the windows open, so traffic noise and birds are also occasionally evident in the videos.
We got up *very* early for my 7 am flight, and even with non-weekday traffic, there was at least one construction delay near O'Hare airport, but otherwise, I was there in plenty of time. My parking cost $84, and I hightailed it out of Logan to home. Geoffy was here when I got back, since he was in town for a gig, and the three of us went to the Blue Coyote in Maynard for lunch. It was very good. It was also threatening to rain, so I up and mowed as much lawn as I could before it started, and it turned out that before the afternoon was done, I got it ALL mowed. That's a big job, especially if you are a chipmunk. Which I am not. That night we had grilled salmon, and what it is, too.
Sunday was the next leg of this complicated summer, and after breakfast and packing, I put the older Schoenhut toy piano in the car along with its bench, got in the car, and off I went. To New York. For you see, I was going to New York for the tood sessions, and the first stop was Marilyn's NYU office to give her said toy piano. It was finally quite warm out, and sunny, so it was a good drive overall, though it was four hours door-to-door, once you factored in three stops, including one for gas. Immediately I took a circuitous route back to the west side (circuitous because who knows what's up with those Greenwich Village streets?), got on the West Side highway and was in Bronxville with Hayes and Susan before 5. When Hayes got back from wherever he was, I took them to dinner in Bronxville at an Asian fusion restaurant, followed by a beer at a sports bar (the Yankees were playing, and the game was on two monitors, though about 5 seconds later in one monitor than in the other. That's nutty!).
Next morning I up and got on the 7:46 train from Bronxville and went with Susan, we exited Grand Central in the back, and I got me a sandwich and lemonade for $11 at Pret-a-Manger. I was kind of early, so I walked around a bit, then got on the 1, and got off at 157th Street, because we were recording at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Broadway and 154th. I hadn't been in that area since the June '03 sessions, and more is now there -- including McDonalds (coffee) and subway ($5 instead of $11 for lunch), so I made note. Amy was there and ready to roll, and the tuner yielded the piano -- a much, much gorgeous one -- around 9:50. Amy warmed up, Judy Sherman soundchecked, and we started to roll. We started with "Pedal to the Metal" and did several of the easy slow ones that day, ending up with 11 in the can by 4:50 when we quit. During the day, I had to swat at least (actually, exactly) one flie, midair, with my flip flop. Otherwise it would have gotten into the hall and onto the recording. After that I did dinner at Charley O's (must to have Buffalo wings, I said to myself, and then I did) and got back to Bronxville, alas, on a peak train (more money). Then I bonded some more with Rasia and Fritz, the cats with five-letter names. And at night it got strangely cold.
For Tuesday, I took the 8:15 train instead, got on the S to Times Square, took the 1, stood in line forever at MacDonald's waiting for coffee, which they put into a paper bag, which broke a block and a half away from MacDonald's, and some coffee got on my flip flops, but most of it got on the sidewalk. Crap. Then I got a roast beef sub at Subway and was ready for Day 2. Which ended by a little after 3 with only four left to go the next day. I had scheduled a dinner with Harold Meltzer that night, and a tentatively also with Mindy Wagner, and when I got downtown to a bar with wi-fi, I had an e-mail from Mindy asking if we were on, and I called her. Harold had already done so, so we were ready. Mindy and I met at Manhattan School and Harold cabbed up to us, and we ate at a new (new since 1994, at least) Asian Fusion place next to Ollie's across from Columbia. And giggle we did, very much, and heartily so. Mindy was very nice to give me a ride back to Bronxville -- which she was glad to do 'cause it meant she got to see her old 'hood from the early days of her marriage -- and when I got back I bonded with Rasia and Fritz, the cats with five-letter names.
Wednesday was a short day, and the early part of the schedule was the same as Tuesday's. All that was left was four of the trickiest ones -- including Wound Tight (Judy pronounced "Wound" to rhyme with "tuned") and Absofunkinlutely, and we got them in in record time. Absofunkinlutely had to be saved for last because it is so bass heavy that when Amy ran it on Monday there was no definition in the counterpoint (and yes, dear reader, I am one of those composers who uses counterpoint, which doesn't get me into any bars for free. Yet). So we made it last so that the microphones could be moved closer to get more piano sound as compared to room and echo sound. Meanwhile, I made Flip videos of Absofunkinlutely, Stutter Stab, and Moody's Blues and got Jeanne "d'Arc" Velonis to burn me CDs of the takes I videoed -- those I put together when I got back, and are now the first three in the "New etude YouToobs" page. So when we finished, I simply trained it to Grand Central to Bronxville and drove home, arriving just before 5. We had salmon fillets for dinner, and they were good. And more was yet to come.
For on Friday, Mike and Mary were coming. Mike and Mary who, you might ask, and I would have an answer -- the Gli Uccelli people, getting maried in Breckenridge, Colorado this month, I am writing her some pieces, and Mary got a travel grant to come here, drink beer, and show me the cool stuff she likes to play on flute. So anyway, their plane was late, which meant that it was too late for me to meet them for dinner, but they nonetheless had dinner at Watch City in Waltham, and drove there in their CONVERTIBLE rental -- an upgrade they got because Mike guessed the number of peanuts in a jar at the rental car place. And meanwhile, Beff was in New York for an ACA festival. And by the way, feel free to listen to Mike and Mary (and Nathanael May) doing the premiere of Gli Uccelli, blue link to the left and above.
So in the absence of Beff, it was up to me to drive to their hotel (Homestead, in Hotel Hell in Waltham) to meet them on Saturday and show them the way to Brandeis, where Mike had to practice (the piano). Then Mary and I came to Maynard, with a detour to Staples and Trader Joe's, to make flip videos of the stuff she so digs playing on the flute, piccolo, and alto flute. And by the way, apparently she only owns a piccolo because I wrote for it in Gli Uccelli. Which is totally nutty. So we made our movies, Mary enjoyed the relaxing apparatuses we have, including the Adirondack chairs, gazebo and hammock, and we also took a short bike ride on the Assabet rail trail path. When Mike arrived, convertible (metaphorically) in hand, we went to the Blue Coyote so Mary could have some clam chowder, then did the sightseeing drive -- including Bolton Farms, where I got me some spicy pickles, and they got apple pie, etc. We saw scenic things in Harvard, looked at graveyards, and came home, after which we walked to downtown Maynard for Thai. And Beff got home late that night.
Yesterday was another day, and Mike did some practicing on the Klavinova, Mary ran on the bike path, we had some light lunch, and then they went to do the Transcendentalist tourism day -- the Alcott House, Concord burial ground, Walden Pond, Emerson's house, Hawthorne house, and all that stuff. When they came back, they took the bikes for a short ride, and then had salmon and asparagus and salad and apple pie for dinner. And meanwhile, it has been rather hot. Yes, hot. Yes, yes, HOT.
Today is their last full day here, and the morning is spent with them practicing at Brandeis. I went in to make more movies of Mary -- I had some questions about tongue rams and double tonguing and slap tonguing, and we made movies in Slosberg Hall, Slosberg 212 and Slosberg 227. Later today Beff and I are meeting them in the North End at Forno Antico, where we plan on dinner. We also plan on buying some Amaro in one of the liquor stores, so there, nosy. Tomorrow Mike and Mary leave, and it's on to the next big things. Details shortly. So check out the green "Mary's Demos" link for some excerpts from the movies we made.
Ah. And later this week, some pieces at Mannes, so I'm going back to NYC where I'm bound to bind with the five-letter cats again, as well as their five-letter owners. As I drive back from NYC I will turn fifty. And then there's a big party for Ken's hiring on Saturday, and I go to Italy the following Tuesday. All of which is totally nutty.
And meanwhile, it is now known that I am writing for the North Country Chamber Players, a kid's piece, in Franconia, New Hampshire. Not sure how that's going to take shape, but everything is now in place. Now it's time to think of responding to jazz (Beff thinks it just consists of saying, in an Ed Norton voice, "Hello, jazz!", and so far that's all I've got. But as I point out each of the three or so times per day Beff tells that joke, that's addressing jazz, not responding to it). Ah, to go to Italy to respond to jazz. It's what we do. Oh yes.
I just bicycled to Maynard Door and Window in the HOT to give them the down payment for our new siding, colored Pelican, to be installed in August. We're on our way.
Today's pix begin with an extreme closeup of the some of our pitiful lilac bush from before I went Chicagowards -- all the rest relate to the NYC recording sessions. First, the mike and piano placements, me and Judy Sherman wearing each other on our t-shirts on Tuesday, three shots of Amy in the hall, and the recording setup with Jeanne "d'Arc Nouvelle" Velonis in the green room. Bye.
Supplementale June 16. The efficacy (how you would spell that? F-E-K-C?) of titles is upon us. "Pedal to the Metal" on UToob, with pretty much the same graphic as "Madam I'm Adam" has more than 500 views. As of June 16, "Madam I'm Adam" has 18. Either I'm a genius or UToobers are shallow, or maybe I'm a shallow toober and U are a genius, or maybe, or maybe, or maybe.
News to report? I went to and returned from NYC on the same day, sort of -- June 12, as Danny called it, "the last day of my 40s." I was to go in on the 11th, but no call forthcame from the players about a rehearsal -- but actually, yes, Rolf called my cell 2 hours before the rehearsal to tell me where it was. Of course, assuming I was already on my way in, since it's four hours to Manhattan including parking. He probably didn't register it when I told him earlier "my cell is .... and I never turn it on". And I got the message about the rehearsal about 21 hours after it started. No matter. I drove to NYC on the 12th then, not having to stay with the five-letter HayesSusanRasiaFritz, parked on 83rd Street, found a parking garage, parked, found Mannes, ran into Curt Macomber and Jennifer Grim, ate, walked around, and went to my dress rehearsal. Meanwhile, I found Danny F and we were to have the last meal of my 40s together, but the players did a lot of rehearsing, so we got out of there with only 25 minutes for dinner. So I'm glad to say that the last meal of my 40s was a Weihenstephan Weiss Bier and French fries. Healthy.
The concert was a real trip -- the first half was good pieces by Leo Kraft (was there), Lou Karchin (was there) and Andrew Violette (was there) that I liked. Before that was a conversation with composer David Rakowski, and I played the part of ... me. Marc Ponthus asked about humor (being French, he dropped the "h") and my website, I asked the crowd how many people had seen my website, and a sea of hands went up. Three giggly young woman sat in the front row just to my right, giggling, and they made a great audience -- I presume they were participants in the Mannes Institute for Contemporary Performance, of which this was but one concert. And, and, and ... I was the entire second half: solo violin piece played by Rolf, Gli Uccelli, and Attitude Problem -- all of them spanticulartastic. Two of the players in Gli were students in the Institute, and they have very bright futures -- Steve Gosling anchored that performance on Piano I, and he was ... an anchor. When I heard what I had done, I got to my car and drove back to Maynard. Exit: 10:15; arrival: 1:30. I turned 50 on Route 91 near the Cromwell/Berlin exit, and I knew enough to go speed limit once I crossed the Massachusetts border -- as I saw at least 3 darkened State Police cars laying in wait for trollops like me. Hah! I'm not a trollop.
On my 50th, lots of cool e-cards came in, Beff and I went to John Harvard's Brew House in Framingham for dinner, and I started wearing some of the "over the hill" stuff my sister sent me for my birthday. Note to self: avoid parts of the world where wearing an "Over the Hill" t-shirt and hat are considered humorous. When I wore them, I was a tragic figure. Tragic, I tell you, tragic. And the two birthday calls were from women: Mindy, and my sister. Plenty of cards, though, and a bit of loot, too (one hundred iTunes tracks, HERE I COME!).
Flag Day, which is the day after my birthday (don't everybodee?), was a day we hosted a gigantaparty for Ken Ueno to celebrate his new job on the west coast and his exit from this time zone and climate. Much more food than was necessary was made, but much of it was consumed. Moi-meme (that's French, 'cept a circomflexe is missing), I made pizza and hamburgers, and the leftover wine will keep Beff happy for weeks. At a certain point (dusk), the gazebo became the in place to be, and it was roundly overoccupied. Max brought his dog Mingus, other people I used to not know came, and plenty of people I know came along. Ken stayed overnight and in the morning cleanup was surprisingly a breeze.
Today we had a goodbye lunch in Burlington (Massachusetts) with Carolyn, of the ka-ching twins. SHE is moving on to a job in DC, so this was bye-bye-bye-bye-bye-bye-bye. We were VERY redundant. Tomorrow night I take Swiss Air to Rome, then Sulga Bus Lines to Perugia, and then get ferried to Umbertide. I have been spending the day packing the harder to remember to bring items -- not to mention bringing 43 of every kind of pill and vitamin I ingest daily.
It just got strangely warm and humid and a little sunny, so out I go to enjoy the weather with Beff. Again, I say. Bye.