Mad World

Woke in time for Calisthenics and with sufficient will to get out of bed, but my body emphatically said 'No. If you are going to beat this cold, you must rest.' So I set the alarm an hour further. Arrived at Trinity just barely in time for sitting. This is the first time I have missed Calisthenics and settling in the room I noticed something like the waning turbulence in the wake of a boat.

Breakfast at Vera's and then a circle of the House Team. Curt was invited to join us and we began with some listening work. Three arpeggio's (Am, F and C for those who are counting) in various sequences with an invitation to anticipate the sound of a chord before playing it. I'm trying to develop distinctions in listening, but at this point the best I can do is that one is long, the other sounds longer and the last sounds scrunched. So scrunched, in fact, that the intervals were hard to hear. I was a bit hampered in this exercise by a stabbing pain that showed up in my left forearm. I tried working through it, but no dice. So I moved up an octave and tried to work there. A little better, but not much.

Then Curt assigned bass notes to Ian, who also had the job of holding the rhythm. MB was given two chords to repeat. I was given a melody line and IgorK was given a melody that fit in between my melody notes. As I wrote in an email to Curt later:

You know, I think today is my first experience of of sharing a melody line with another player. It is a very different experience. It changed something about playing - made it three dimensional in a funny way, as if Igor's notes created a place for me to drop my notes into. And it created a sense of making something whole with another person in a way that was even more pronounced than that sense one gets when playing a part alongside other players.

Afterwards, C. sent us a link to a YouTube video that includes the whole song (with a sweet bit of video accompaniment.) Here it is. It is a beauty.





In the afternoon, we had another appointment at the Pelayo property - this time for the rest of the team to get a peek at it. Jaxie, Taylor and MB took advantage of the opportunity.


In my opinion, the physical space (with the extra green room) is entirely workable. I trust our creativity to make it work. The challenges are all contractual. First, the amount of rent for the two spaces we'd require. Plus working out a lease agreement that protects the investment we would be making in the property. There are a number of factors in that 'protection' concern that are already detectable. And probably a few that we wouldn't learn about until we would inhabit the space.

Objectives

No distractions allowed today. Two objectives. One: completely revamp my resume based on the job postings I have seen. Two: do whatever possible to keep these cold symptoms from blossoming into a full-blown cold. Moderately successful so far on both counts.

Last night I finally reached my sister K. after weeks of trying. Mentioned the poor job prospects here. She jokingly said, ‘well Richard is looking for a new assistant.’ Then – immediately - she withdrew the joking aspect.

‘Would Richard actually consider me?’ I asked. Richard is one shrewd judge of people and I am an open book to him - foibles and all. I studied with him for two years (1998-1999).

My sister’s response was that I was an ideal person for the job because it is so unusual. Richard needs someone sharp enough to be able to coordinate with the Joint Chiefs of Staff on his behalf, and yet be willing to run out and deal with an issue in the vineyard. Researching the logistics of any of Richard’s new ideas one day, and taking a cat in for spaying the next. I really am ideal for the job. It would require living in the north bay of the SF region. This is near my sister, which is a great thing. (But the area is 75-90 miles from my studio in Belmont – entirely impractical for regular use. And it is the south bay that my eyes love to see.) Still, it is a fascinating job prospect that I must give serious consideration to.

~~~~~

My resume still needs two sections re-addressed and then it will be ready for The Campaign – I will send it to everyone and anyone I know here in Seattle who might be able to help me find work. The Campaign is scheduled for Monday morning.

A grey and wet Thursday

An appointment with the dentist today. First, filling out the many forms required to establish a new medical relationship. Then x-rays. Gag! Then the examination. A cracked tooth – a tooth critical to the stability of an elaborate bit of bridge sculpture installed by Dr. Peter Greene Matthews nearly 30 years ago. Dr. Matthews had warned me that the cantilever might eventually weaken, but it was the best solution he could offer at the time. When I told Dr. Kim about the vintage of the bridge, she was very, very surprised. (I suspect my bridge is older than Dr. Kim.)

~~~~~

Yesterday a second visit to the former Pelayo Antiques building, this time with Travis and Curt who spontaneously made themselves available. Fortunately, so did Beth, who is one of the people showing the property, so we managed to get in.

Curt & Travis assess the situation

(I checked Google to see what Pelayo means - and it turns out to be the Spanish name of a man who discovered the 'Kingdom of Asturias'. 'Asturias' being the name of a classic bit of Guitar Craft repertoire, this is kind of interesting.)

I arrived early for the house circle last night, but the room Curt unlocked for me had been nabbed by some of the other Trinity tenants. So I sat in the kitchen with guitar and metronome and worked on the A Harmonic Minor calisthenic that has eluded me. At 8pm, when Curt's lesson ended, the house circle gathered and we devoted ourselves to circulating tonight. First, your basic circulation. Then three minus one. Then a double note circulation where your first note is played with the player on your left and your second note played with the person on your right. With only five players, it is a challenge to get much going. Nonetheless, it was a good meeting. One of our better meetings, in fact.

Synchronistically, today's email includes an invitation from CG for an interesting circulation project.

~~~~

A Fresh Air interview today with Susan Sontag's son David Reiff. He's just published a memoir of his mother's death and talks about her relationship with dying. He was asked why someone who did not believe in God would fear death. It was interesting to hear him speak on a popular national radio program about death as extinction.

~~~~

A knock at the door this evening. It is one of the practitioner's from the healing arts center next door bringing two of her clients over. The clients saw the prints I'd given them as a gift last week and wanted to meet me and get cards.

MySpace

In a kind of reverse version of musical chairs, I have become the keeper of the Tuning the Air MySpace pages. One of the activities there is to accept or decline 'friend' requests. We get some reasonable requests, some pretty strange requests, and some very interesting ones. Today came one from that last category - this group requested that we be 'friends'. I suspect it is related to a friend request I'd sent out from Tuning the Air to David Hykes.

Found a tall, round casserole dish at Goodwill and tried it out with the NYTimes bread recipe (herb & garlic variation.) This one makes a taller loaf and is good for slicing.



~~~~~~~~~

Editing this late in the evening to share this little gem:

Center House Theater visit

The decision about the apartment was made for me yesterday when I learned that a tenant from a smaller unit in the same building decided to upgrade. I am disappointed and relieved.
~~~~
(This morning, a few minutes into sitting practice, there is a sensation near the tip of the right shoulder blade. It is as if someone has gently touched me. Then, again. And again. I begin to think there might be something immediately behind me that I am brushing with my body as I breath, but then I notice the pulse of the sensation doesn’t exactly match the rhythm of my breathing. After a few minutes, it stops completely and I see how I went from noticing it to ‘trying to understand’ it? Regardless of whatever superficial appearance of quiet or calm, I am torqued over in the mind toward trying to make sense of this phenomenon.)

A quiet walk up and down Phinney Ridge, then home deal with email, the State of California, and more resume tailoring. Then off to Seattle Center to look at possible performance spaces.

Center House Theater

Center House Theater

Theater 4

View of Theater 4 from the light board

In the evening, a meeting at the Wilson’s to talk about the next Tuning the Air season. The short summary: We need a performance space.

As the meeting concludes, A. steps over to me to offer a suggestion for one of the topics under discussion. Why this wasn’t offered during the meeting is one question. The other is why I was selected to be the recipient of the suggestion, particularly since someone else was designated the point person for the topic.

Decisions

Decisions. Funny how some decisions get made so easily and others are like the figurative tooth pull. This one might require Novocain.

Dropped by the apartment-for-rent this morning. Bright, airy place in front, quiet and secluded in back. Windows to the east, north and west. A vegetable garden that leads on to the roof of the garage. Japanese maples out front. Roses too. A gas range! Landlord immediately liked me. But a small place – very small. I would have to scale back considerably to fit in this place. Spent an hour or so in front of the computer with a hastily-made floor plan plotting out how I might fit. The real question of course is what I wish my life to look like in the near-term, and of course, how much volition I have over this future. And what I can afford.

Sat down to practice guitar after floor plan analysis – and despite the heat being on – it is simply too cold today. Even after fifteen minutes, my fingers would not warm up.

Last night’s show (Jonathan Way / Chris DeLaurenti / Martin Bland) at Good Shepard was curious. Everyone was working with pre-recorded materials. C.D. hand-played a Stravinsky 78rpm vinyl recording on a cardboard turntable he fashioned. J.W. mixed and processed sounds recorded in the mountains and M.B. presented his ‘Randomized Control Trials, a set of randomly shuffled CDs”. Throughout the evening, I kept wondering what the role of the audience was in these performances – we seemed to be irrelevant.

And now, at the café for more job-hunting/resume work. If I must sit in my coat to work, I can do it here where the light is better.

A blurry Chris DeLaurenti at intermission.

A short week

Wednesday: Spend a considerable part of the day reading over job descriptions on Craigslist and Monster.com. Pulled a handful off and saved pdf's for further scrutiny/research. Also looking for arts opportunities for myself as well as TTA. Found a literary grant application that I forwarded along to FrankS.

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.

~~~

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

Raspberry Cake

The raspberry bundt cake I baked for the New Years Eve Party (a variation on the lemon/orange bundt cake I often make) turned out strangely -it was oddly reminiscent of PopTarts. That's a variation I won’t be trying again. Taylor’s party began at 8pm, but I couldn’t imagine 4 hours of revelry so I didn’t arrive until 10. It ended up being a bit more than three hours of revelry and the iPhone images traded with the other New Years Eve party suggests that ours was the livelier. Ours was certainly loud. After venturing out for a bit of line dancing, I was done with dancing for the evening, but M. kept trying to get me up again. Finally she blurted with a mixture of emotion and liquor, ‘I read your email!’ ‘Which email?’ I asked. It turned out it was my Tuning the Air 2008 commitment reply in which I acknowledged that my participation might be remote. For a moment we both had liquid brimming on our eyelids as the parting that was implied registered between us. And it is true that in moments during the party, I held a veil of that awareness, noting my connection to those with whom I partied and even those at the other party.

Morning guitar practice this first day of the year included all 24 variations of the First Primary at 84 on the metronome. This is the first time for all 24 patterns in a single practice session.

Dropped by the mall to make a quick purchase. Rather than return home, I headed in the general direction of Fremont. Taking that route knitted in some of the gaps in my geographical understanding of the city. It reminded me of the months of frustration and discomfort experienced when I first moved here. Similar, but more intense than the discombobulation I felt when I moved from Palo Alto to Belmont. In that case, it was simply finding the grocery store or library or post office. Here, I didn’t even know the roads, didn’t grasp the overall geography, often ran up against a canal or lake and couldn’t figure out how to get on the bridge. I was miserable. Today, while I still get lost and still find much of the area a mystery - that level of misery is rare. On the other hand, a look at the
10-day forecast for Seattle had me briefly checking rentals in the Bay Area where it is stunningly expensive. There was one ad for what can honestly only be described as a shack in a backyard. Less than 200 sq feet in total, its kitchen consists of a hotplate, microwave and refrigerator - $800 a month!

Tomorrow is a ‘Monday’ in the holiday the week – and many tasks have been put off until it arrives. Number one priority is making a dental appointment to find out what is causing this nightly pain in my jaw. I tried to make an appointment before Christmas, but every dentist I called had closed there offices until Jan 2 and would only take emergencies from existing patients.

the eve of a new year

Just before Christmas one of Curt's neighbor's tossed a poinsettia. I rescued it with a plan to make images. Today the light was right and I was home to take advantage of it.




45 minutes of guitar practice late last night devoted to 3 against 4 work. The best I was able to achieve with that investment was to count aloud in four, playing in three and give a slight emphasis to the weight of the note played on the 'one'. No foot tapping.

Today, 3 against 4 work without the guitar. Then primaries.

~~~~

Meditation practice up in the loft this morning rather than my usual spot. That is because the large machines of destruction were at it early this morning still gnawing away at the carcass of the bowling alley.

Spent two hours today re-crafting my cover letter/resume for yet another job posting and submitted it through MonsterJobs - a few moments letter I get a confirmation that my posting went through - and then a 'MAILER-DAEMON' message saying it hadn't - that the email address MonsterJobs had forwarded it to did not exist. Frustrating.

~~~~~

New Years Eve festivities over at Taylor's this evening, though I suspect the bigger bash will be at the Van Burien's. I'm probably better off.

~~~~~

Quite by accident, I discovered Abdullah Chhadeh today.

Patchwork post

I mention in an email to D.E. that I'm planning to visit soon and he asks if I will be bringing my guitar. Is it possible that there may be someone out there who might actually want to play with me!?! Lordy!


~~~~

Intense guitar work at Trinity on Saturday. Alternately invigorating and frustrating. Fortunately, the frustration never dominated. At times, confusion did dominate.

I seem unable to retain – in body memory or mental memory – the patterns in this work. We worked on three successive phrases, and then we returned to the first, and it was already gone. Completely. Five measly notes - gone in about 30 minutes despite many, many repetitions.

~~~~

Saturday evening I spent more than an hour and a half with the metronome, separately working on the right and left hand of the B.R. exercise. Finally managed successive executions of the exercise with the metronome. This exercise employs the 2nd through 5th strings, so after recognizing my difficulty this morning with the 1st and 2nd strings, I move the exercise over to the 1st thru 4th strings. It was like moving to another continent.

~~~~

I do not know how to use my hands. Morning guitar practice today in the new continent was a little more within reach. Still, I don’t know how to use my hands. It astonishes how often I repeat the same mistake. Not only that - an immediate effort to attempt the note still results in the same mistake – somehow the needed adjustment isn’t made. Of course, the reality is that I don’t understand how it works when I play ‘properly’ either. I am reminded of something the physicist David Bolhm said at a talk I attended some 30 years ago. He spoke of how awkward he was as a child, how once he approached a stream wanting to get across. He recognized he would not get across, making every step from stone to stone, by thinking about each movement that was required. He simply needed to move. It seems something similar is needed – yet, at the same time, accurate and precise relaxed adherence to the pattern. I don’t know how it is achieved. And the manner in which I work/practice doesn’t seem to be bringing me any closer.

~~~~

Went to see a house for rent in Ballard today. I’d called on it earlier in the day and the landlord said he already had enough appointments, but he’d take my name & number. A little later as I readied to go to the café, I decided to drop by and check the place out from the outside at least. He was out in front with one of his appointments when I came by. I stood by until he was done and then introduced myself, acknowledged I was there without an appointment, but asked if I could see the place anyway. He said sure. Nice, though small place. A bonus, is that it has a basement which I could use. The kitchen is the largest room in the place, which would make it the center of the home. It is just a stone’s throw from the Ballard Market and perhaps a generous mile from Trinity. The landlord acknowledged that the place gets hot in the summer. I believe him because it has several large south-facing windows. It has garden space all over the south side of the property. In other words, it has plusses and minuses. The landlord said that he got a good feeling from me and would give me the place, but wanted to honor that others were in front of me in the queue. Where would I put the behemoth?

~~~~

While looking for something else today, I found this.

"It's love," they say. You touch the right one and a whole half of the universe wakes up, a new half. -William Stafford

Returning to roots

Looking in a new/old way again.

The delightful Z!

On the job hunting front....

One of the many temp/employment agencies, just sent me a decline email and suggested I check their website for other jobs I may be interested in applying for. So I checked, and found this promising posting: Seeking Entry Level Project Manager

Now, I'm not an entry level project manager, having significant experience, but when I checked the qualifications - which included this warning: (If you do not have ALL of the following below please do not apply)! - I found I probably don't qualify:

· MSOffice Suite Expert
· Business Requirements Expert
· Technical Requirements Expert
· Rational Suite Expert Required
· Identity Management Desired
· Project Management Required

I am trying to wrap my mind around an 'entry level' role that requires 'expert' level skill - and since I don't even know what they mean by 'Rational Suite' I guess I am not an expert. (Turns out this is IBM's project management tool.)

Job hunting is so much fun!

~~~~
David and Z. came to visit today!


This one reminds me of that double mask - Comedy and Tragedy - symbol for the theater:


~~~~~~

And while they were visiting, my cellphone went off. I pulled it from my pocket, planning to simply silence it - something I have only recently figured out how to do - and saw who was calling. Glancing at the clock, I decided that a call from this person at this time could only be urgent. Not sure how urgent it really was, but it certainly was good news. The Stranger, Seattle's entertainment/culture/and counter culture weekly publication, mentioned Tuning the Air!

Snow descends on Seattle this Christmas Day

Sitting in my place today, I noticed that the sounds of cars outside had a different quality, similar too, but not exactly like the sound of cars on rainy pavement. I peered out the window and saw this:

My car slowly being covered by a layer of snow.

My neighborhood must be significantly higher in elevation, because the snow sticks so readily. Just a few blocks away at Sandel playground, snow is giving way to slush...

...at at Green Lake, only a few miles away, the snow is barely sticking.


Still, my first White Christmas since 1975.

Phinney Ridge

I'm still cat sitting over at Curt's place. One of the pleasures of doing this is getting to take walks over in his neighborhood. This is the view from Phinney Ridge where I took my walk again this morning.


And this is the same rose from yesterday - without the rain.

It is quiet in Seattle this week. Many of my friends have left to visit relatives in various places around the country. And my sister's family is visiting Montana to fulfill Kelly's wish to spend some time in the snow.

Still working on the job hunt. I'd expected things to cool down considerably during the holidays, but two interesting prospects have turned up.

The Lelani Pin comes down.

Yesterday, as I pulled out to head over for my cat sitting gig, I saw the crane set up to nab the giant bowling pin as a workman dis-attached it from the pole it has hung from for many years. For some locals, this is quite a momentous event.

Yesterday, IgorA invited me over to watch a gift he'd been recently given - the 10th anniversary edition DVD of Toy Story. I'd never seen it (and neither had he) and we had a great time. I brought over a quart of chocolate ice cream and banana, and with walnuts he had, made banana splits for both of us.

~~~~

This morning, taking advantage of my temporary digs as a cat sitter, I took a walk up to the top of Phinney Ridge in a light rain. Brought my camera along with me and found this rose.

Tuning the Air - final show of the Fall 2007 season

The largest Tuning the Air audience so far. BillR counted 83. The house team, which has only had to contend with audiences of less than 25. was scrambling. Assisted (thank god!) by BillR himself. The set design was conceived to accommodate 40 - max! You can imagine what it was like. Fortunately, with the recently introduced sound re-inforcement, everyone heard a good show even if they were in an unfortunately position visually.

Images from Monday's performance

This was the last chance to get the whole team together this season as Howard and Diana leave for Mexico on Saturday.




BillR brought his ears to help balancing the sound reinforcement that has been in place for several shows.

Godfrey Reggio

Last night I pulled the DVD Koyaanisqatsi from the shelf and watched a bit of it. That sent me to the web to see if I could find out what Godfrey Reggio was up to these days. I found an interview from last year (where, coincidentally, GR is being interviewed by someone I know from the SF, Richard Whittaker.) Here is a portion of that interview.

GR: ....I’ll use a reference to Joseph Brodsky, the expatriate from the old Soviet Union. He was an American poet laureate in 1991, I think. I’m a big, big fan of his poetry and books, and especially his essays, one in particular Less Than One which begins with his explanation of the great conundrum of Marx: is it your mind that determines your behavior or your behavior that determines your mind?

Brodsky knew that for most people, clearly, it’s our behavior that determines the content of our mind, because we’re creatures of habituation. So Brodsky’s brilliant insight on how to change one’s mind is to change one’s behavior, and his response to that conundrum of Marx’s was to step outside of the world and yet be in it. That echoes, of course, Christ’s statements of being in the world, but not of the world—very meaningful to me. So I’m referring to the Middle Ages in that sense, of being outside of contemporary American life.

What I learned is that it’s what I did every day that determined what I was going to think. I’ve never forgotten that. Every now and then I’ll give a convocation address at a university and I try to always caution the students to not let their diplomas become their death certificates. If you give up your imagination, if you give up your ability to create for the wages of a good job, then you might give up that which predicates us as human beings, the ability to create our own lives. So I felt that stepping out of this world, yet being in it would be a way of achieving some relative degree of freedom. I’ve tried to live that way and I’m grateful to the church for that experience.

RW: I’m struck by your discovery of the importance of the things you do every day. Can you say more about that?

GR: I’ll give you an anecdote. I was in Albuquerque in the early 90s and the Dalai Lama was at the university of New Mexico giving a talk. The place was packed. He’d just finished giving his talk and said he’d take questions. A woman jumped up and asked, “Your Holiness, what is the single most important thing that I could give attention to?” Without even a thought, he answered, “Routine.”

Now I understood that immediately. In my order, the rule, or routine, was the highest order of attention, that is, being attentive to what one did every day—because what we do is what we become. It’s not just what’s in our minds. That’s an illusion. Our minds are a very small part of who we are. Although we consider our brain our largest organ, it’s vastly humiliated when compared to our behavior.

RW: The attentiveness, that’s the thing, right? Because my routine is usually just a place for daydreaming.

GR: Exactly. In Sanskrit there’s a word ekagrata, which means one-pointedness. Let’s give it a free form translation. It means the ability to focus on something. That ability to focus unrelentingly is what gives one the ability to walk on water, move mountains and do things that are beyond our wildest imagination. But that’s not something we learn. It’s something we have to struggle to acquire. We’re going to have to go upstream to do that.

A crazy-enchanting experience

Last night, the house team met to circle up. The last meeting we had was - as described by one participant - 'a disaster'. So a few of us had email and face to face discussions about this circle and developed a plan. The result was a pretty successful circle. I opted to adopt a Four Quarter Maintainer position during the session. Primarily, we worked on alternating triplets and 16th notes with the metronome, eventually employing some short sections from Eye of the Needle for this work.

After our circle, Ian and I headed over to Travgor's to meet up with the other grant team members and arived early enough to drop in at The Wilson's to catch the last few minutes of the performance team's rehearsal. They were working on a double, reversed circulation of a short Bach piece. That is, the right hand notes (of the piano arrangement) were circulated to the right and the left hand notes were circulated to the left. A crazy-enchanting experience inside the circle where Curt had invited us to sit.

Snow in Seattle!

After a productive Tuning the Air rehearsal and a pretty good apprentice circle, we had our first Monthly Open Circle. Just before it began, I noticed wisps of snow. 'How quaint,' I thought to myself.


Then the flakes got bigger and even began to stick.


And here's what my car looked like after about 2 hours...

I believe this is the first time I have ever driven in the snow. Very strange! Looks like I may need to get a scraper for the car.


Up in my neighborhood, the snow persisted even more:








It is supposed to rain tomorrow - which means this all turns to slush. Fun!