Out of the corner of my eye, also keep tabs on rentals. I want to know what is out there and what the going rates are. Actually took a spin down 3rd Ave to see the outside of a unit in a 4-plex. It is an old building (circa 1910 - old for these parts) and decidedly worn - but charming in a way. The property owner will be showing it in Sunday and I may go check it out.
Dinner: butternut squash soup and homemade garlic-herb bread. This was my first chance to sample the garlic version of this recipe, though I made a loaf a week ago. I'd planned to have it as part of a pasta dinner with a friend and ended up making a gift of it.
Thursday: Good circle work last night. It has been quite awhile since the five of us have been together, and CG stuck around to work with us. I still don’t know how to use my hands in any coordinated fashion.
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An opportunity for daily group sitting practice has opened up, so I sat with C and D this morning. Afterwards - finding myself in prime walking territory - I climbed Phinney Ridge for a brisk early walk in a light rain.
Home to ready myself for the day’s appointments. Dropped a selection of prints off with my neighbors. (I’ve decided to give them a few prints for their healing arts office and want them to make a selection.) Then pulled together the paperwork and questions I’d worked out for the 4Culture grant and drove downtown for the workshop. There were only three of us there (plus an utterly clueless artist who thought this was a workshop geared to opportunities for individual artists.) I stayed after the presentation to pour over the previous year’s applications and see what I could learn. Back home, I wrote up a summary of the workshop and sent it out to the grant team.
This grant activity is turning into a crash course in the non-profit arts world. This is a tricky business for tthis particular team. On the one hand one needs to demonstrate reliability, continuity, fiscal security, etc, etc. Yet, also be free to disappear if we find we have served our purpose. There is the question of how ‘firm’ and ‘stable’ and ‘official’ we wish to be, and yet still court resources that are necessary for the work we are engaged with now. I wonder how many of us who are involved in this are aware of this contradiction we inhabit?
Friday: Yesterday I dropped off prints for my ‘healing arts’ neighbors to review –intending to make a gift of one or two of them - and already have two contacts with interior designers! I know not to get too excited, but it is nice to have interest generated.
More job-hunting activities – tailoring resumes/cover letters for the jobs I found earlier this week.
When I arrived at the café for an afternoon of resume revising, the sky was brilliant with blue sky and fluffy clouds. Grabbed my camera for a few frames since I may need such images for the next Tuning the Air poster and such skies are pretty rare these days.
Today I discovered that the Good Shepard Chapel website now mentions the ‘Seattle Circle’ gig coming up in July. The problem of what to call the performance team when they do ‘away’ performances now rears its head. Tuning the Air Performance Ensemble? “The Portable Tuning the Air?’ The Tuning the Air Envoy? (Emissary?)
A call to friends in California to hear how my studio there is faring in the storms there. Lots of flooding, but my studio seems to be in good shape.
After an hour of guitar practice this evening, I have doubts that I will ever develop any competence with this instrument. Six notes. I am unable to play six notes, in time, with quality.
Saturday: Early rising to calisthenics. Curt offers an exercise of octaves in response to my request for right-hand help. It proves to be a good balance of left and right hand work, not to mention a nice test of one’s grasp of the C major scale in this tuning.. In a manner similar to the observations made about metronomes (they inexplicably speed up or slow down) I find the fret board shrinks between the highest three strings and I also seem to find that the first string suddenly disappears entirely when cross-picking.
Seven for sitting practice . Afterwards a few of us went to Vera’s for breakfast and afterwards, MB, IB, IK and I circled up. We began with the 6-note melody Curt employed with us for our study of Eye of the Needle. Then we began breaking down Asturias, eventually looping the first section to count and pay attention to the dynamics.
Around noon, we broke up to give IB and IK a chance to have lunch. MB and I traded guitar exercises and got a few yoga stretches in. Then MB wanted to relax with a book, so I retired to the green room for solo practice. Around 1:15, I began to prepare for the Open Circle, reviewing the room for readiness. There were a handful who would require help with tunings and such. I tuned up Jaxie’s guitar for Deb. Ian helped set up a new player – Colleen. When her G string broke in tuning, I realized the House Circle was unprepared for our role as hosts – no one had wirecutters/plyers or a stringwinder. Something to remember next month. Fortunately, Curt had what was needed in his gig bag.
This is the second Open Circle of this series. Good circulation work and an architecture exercise. It is unfortunate that it will be another month before we all get to circle up again – it would be very interesting to see what would be possible if we met tomorrow morning to pick up where we left off.
Exhausted. But I have a notion to go to Good Shepard Chapel fortonight's phonographer's show.
Rain on the Trinity windows
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