a Weekend

A visitor on Friday...one of many neighborhood cats.


There was an Open House at the Fremont Abbey arts center on Friday evening. Dancing, music, and open canvases with paints for anyone to contribute to.


The Tuning the Air performance team played wandering minstrels for one portion of the Open House.

















Saturday began with Calisthenics. A freeform approach wherein Curt would call out a chord from C Major and we could improvise within that chord. Shortly after beginning I realized I was the only one playing with the notes ringing. I began to examine the fretboard for a different pattern. But then I noticed that I preferred what I was bringing with the ringing notes.

Sitting at Trinity – aware that this is among the last sittings in this space.

House Team began with a circulation and then we eased into ‘One of a Thousand Regrets’ by first improvising with all the parts. Each of us would work with each of the parts, trading off as the spirit moved. Then we worked on it in earnest. IgorK noticed the open A in the cross-picking pattern was often out of time, so that became of the focus of our work. In the final 20 minutes, we improvised with ‘Asturias’ as we had with ‘One of a Thousand Regrets’ – and I saw how much I’d lost my sense of the main part of that piece by playing twinkles all the time. Back into the practice rotation with that one.

Trinity cleanup from 1:30. Purging the unnecessary. Differing opinions on what is necessary. Still, the place was pretty radically transformed in a few hours. I was surprised to see the carpet go – but then again, I am perhaps the only one not averse to having cushions available to the audience.









Eve was not happy when the round carpet was cut into four pieces. She said we were 'hurting it' and staged a protest. I was inclined to agree with her.

This has really been a fabulous home for the team.

~~~~~

In the new place, the utilities (heat, lights, water) come with the cost of the rent. This is good – and one of the factors that made this place appealing. It has a corollary – there are no controls for temperature in the unit. The landlord’s unit has the thermostat, and it is the comfort level of her place that determines when the furnace turns on and off. This morning, as has been the case since moving in, the place is quite chilly.

~~~~

Walking around the yard with the landlord today to learn about the garden, I discovered that there are four lilac bushes here. This is excellent news.

No time for words tonight...

...so pictures will have to suffice. A design for a flyer I developed on Wednesday.

Playing with Tuning the Air logo ideas, I came up with these. They don't work as logos, but I found them interesting anyway.



And another image in the continuing development of the studio.

Time to go grocery shopping

Terrifically hungry tonight, but I’ve already had three peanut butter sandwiches today. The one I had for breakfast was with sliced banana, the two at lunch were the classic form: peanut butter and jelly. I’d tried to persuade someone to join me for breakfast so I could justify eating out, and though tempted, I could not successfully entice them. So peanut butter it was. Maybe some apple slices will get me through the night.

Significant unpacking progress made today. The kitchen and studio have been priorities. The kitchen– with today’s arrival of the replacement stove - is now reasonably functional. It is also the staging area for empty boxes, so it is a little cluttered. The studio’s main components are in place, now to unpack and install the printers and scanners.

for the curious

No time to post anything more than these two snaps. The new studio (notice all that light!) and the curtains I got for the door.

The day after moving day

The moving team that assembled to help was amazing! I’d done the best job I could at organizing my things to make the whole event go smoothly, and this was complemented fantastically by the teamwork and care of those who showed up to help (or stayed home to attend to children so that a spouse could be available.) Lisa, the building manager, was impressed at how efficiently the moved was executed. A fifteen-foot truck was filled in less than an hour and once we got to the new place it was emptied in even less time. Amazing when you consider how many pieces were handled. While we were unloading, Curt and IgorA disassembled the loft back at my old place. We swung back over with the truck to retrieve the lumber that formerly constituted the loft, then delivered it all to Travgor’s garage to await its transition into the future set design for a future Tuning the Air season. A pizza party followed. I stayed as long as my energy allowed, doing as many of the dishes as were available before I left - since Travgor was/were effectively hosting a party on my behalf. Already exhausted, I went to the old place to complete the cleaning. I left with the floors still to wash.

Last night was the first night in the new place. It was reasonably quiet in the bedroom, though I was able to hear the landlord’s television a little too well when I was in the living room putting things away. That is unfortunate not only because I’d prefer NOT to listen to her television, but also because it means hosting guitar circles in may not be possible in this new place.

Crawled out of bed shortly after 6am, sore and worn from yesterday’s move. Arrived at Curt’s at 7am sharp for sitting. While sitting a thought came to me about the set design for the next season. It wasn’t about specifics, it simply was this: Anyone who knows the space must walk into it for a TTA performance and say simply, ‘wow!’ It has to have that quality of transformation.

Back to the old apartment to wash the floors, then a trip to a department store for minor items, the hardware store, dropping off a load at the goodwill and then a visit to Trinity to leave boxes for our work next Saturday. Back home to learn that my phone was installed, but the DSL is not working – so no internet access yet. Forty-five minutes on the phone with customer support. Then my first shower in the new place allows a discovery about the plumbing. I’d been warned about a slow bathtub, but it is really slow! An hour after my shower, there was still two inches of water standing. That, and learning that only one of the four telephone jacks in the apartment is in working order has put a damper on the first day in my new place.

At the hardware store, Tom, the handyman consultant extraordinaire was there (Tom helped me design the loft last spring) and helped me select a replacement saw blade. He kindly offered to replace the blade on the saw for me. As he took the old one off (possibly the original blade for this 20-year old saw) he said, ‘You sure burned that one up.’ I explained that the new blade he was installing would be used to build the set for the music production that brought me to town.

Later, when I walked into the department store, My eyes caught the beautiful gem-like colors of a display in the make-up/fragrances section. I saw how artfully they’d designed the products and the display to dazzle a passer-by – even one with no interest in the products! It reminded me of a moment a few years back when I rounded a turn on the freeway and came across a hillside of California poppies. That encounter with brilliant orange color in the landscape felt direct, un-mediated. What is the role of color in our lives – what potential is there in a relationship with color? How can this be studied?

The 'day before the move' day

Several successive days of packing has me pretty worn. Nonetheless (or perhaps due to this) I was looking forward to working at Trinity today, for the chance to engage with music. When I walked in the door for calisthenics, Curt was working with Ian on a form employing the root, 3rd, 5th and 7th of each note - in C Major, (later in the hour we moved to C Harmonic Minor (Flat A and F). It was at a tempo that was beyond me, so Curt suggested I drone the root of each chord in the progression. He then suggested - for a little variety - that I try the 3rd, then the 5th and eventually the 7th. I added my own variations by moving into octaves higher and lower, and then added a double drone by playing the root and its octave. Given how little energy I possessed, this was just about the right level of work for me. I used the simplicity of this exercise to see if I could notice how a change in the left hand has a habit of disrupting the right hand - even though the right hand's work is unchanged.

After sitting, the team gathered to hear the news about the new 'trial' venue. We may have a season by mid-April. I didn't bother complaining about the short lead time. I have enough work just to get through my move, and find a job. I hope my last poster/postcard design is accepted by the producers so that my work on that front is manageable. Exciting and daunting.

The house team began with a circulation. It sounded pretty perfunctory and mechanical to me. We weren't playing with each other. So I asked if we could do it again, this time with some attention given to the person passing a note to us, and then to the person we were passing a note to. It began somewhat forced and stilted - but we endured. It was probably the longest circulation we have ever played by far. We then followed up on Ian's request from Wednesday - to play Eye of the Needle. We butchered it. We tried it again with the metronome. This time, we didn't butcher it, but it was still pretty bad. Ian was ready to let it go, but I pointed out that it wasn't going to get any better until we gave it some attention. So we worked on the 4/4 section. When it wasn't getting any better, I suggested we play only the first note of each measure, then after a while, the notes of the first measure were added, then the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in succession. We looked at left-hand fingerings and found improvement possible there too.

During the hour between the house team's work and the beginning of the Monthly Open Circle, I took a break to drop a load of boxes off at the new place and grab my lunch which I'd left at home. Loaded up the car again and returned for the Open Circle.

We were fortunate to have exactly 12 in attendance - so we became a tone clock for much of what we worked on. I was lucky enough to be the root! Curt had us divide the clock in half, into 4ths, into 3rds, into 6ths, and it was only as we got near the end of the thirds that I began to understand how we were moving through the chords. In the last few minutes, Curt distributed notes that resulted in a sweet, circulated arrangement of Gary Jules 'Mad World' . As soon as recognition hit my ears, I let out a 'yesssssss!' - which coincided with a need to play my note.

Another stop at the new place to unload the boxes I picked up with my lunch - and then home to meet with someone who answered my Craigslist posting to sell my dry mount press. One less thing to move!

The end of February is nearly here

Sunday morning skies:




The new digs:






Packing, packing and more packing. Took a few things over to the new place today. Taking a bit of a cafe break now to pay bills and acknowledge that there is a world out there.


It appears Tuning the Air may have found a venue for the 'Spring' season. Tested a space out on Monday evening and it is promising. Lots of new challenges too.

Thursday fog

Saturday: Four for calisthenics this morning. Some investment in the BillR exercise and then we turned to the A Harmonic Minor arpeggios. Some trouble with fingering a few transitions. Taylor suggested we move back and forth between them – which I found a very useful way of addressing this difficulty.

In the afternoon, home to begin packing - something I will be doing a lot of this week.

In the evening, Chris and Howard were playing at Yanni’s. (Travis is still neck-deep in his day-job activities.) I dropped in to provide moral support.


Friday: IgorA and I visited yet another property today. Somehow, the realtor failed to note the beam in the middle of this room:

Afterwards, Igor and I enjoyed lunch at an Indian restaurant.Thursday:
A good circle meeting last night. All present and accounted for but for G.M. We revisited the work on One of a Thousand Regrets with Curt on Saturday, sharing it with I.B. and A.M. Spent a good portion of the meeting looping the coda with each of us getting a chance to work on one of the four parts. There were moments when it almost sounded like music.

Intensely foggy this morning.




A morning meeting with a man SteveB has connected me with in support of my job search. BuzzB is the epitome of the networker. It is more than a little intimidating, though Buzz is a nice enough fellow. He invited me to an event at Google in the evening to get an opportunity to network with people. I made two contacts at this event.

Later to Ballard with the two Igors to Hear AndrewB play in his new ensemble.

A Harmonic Minor arpeggio’s before bedtime.

Wednesday:

3:35AM wake up. Pulled clothes on and transformed into an airport taxi. At 5AM sharp, I pulled away from the curb at SeaTac, my two passengers safely discharged for their journey to Snowshoe.

At 9AM I was seated in the waiting room of the Endodontic clinic at the UofW Dental School. Three and a half hours later - nearly 3 of those hours spent in the dentist chair - I drove home thoroughly drained by the experience. Bad news; despite all the work, it appears the tooth may not be restorable.

Christmas tree becomes Valentine tree becomes St Patty's tree- what next?

Kashmir on the café stereo.

The walk up Phinney Ridge this morning took me past a house I have passed several times before. During the Christmas season, the tree in front of this house was decked out with silver ornaments and lights, in a manner just outside the boundary of tasteful and into gaudy – but only just barely gaudy. In early February I passed this house again and found the tree covered with small valentine hearts. Today, it was prepared for St Patrick’s Day. I'm interested in what this tree will look like in April.




Last week, following up with the UofW Dental school, I learned that my case was accepted but that the next appointment would be in April! My exact words are lost on me, but I said I was distressed to learn only now (after investing several weeks in applying) the timeframe for this process. I made clear that pain was a daily reality. The woman offered to put me on a waiting list for cancellations.

This morning the phone rang and I was informed a cancellation had opened up an appointment for tomorrow morning at 9am. Not perfect timing since I’m making an airport run at 4am, but I’m gladly taking it.

February Frost

A walk up Phinney Ridge again this morning....


frosty leaves and automobiles




Saturday was another long day at Trinity. Essentially a freeform calisthenic session revolving around a droning open A string. You could stay with the drone (80 bpm,) or get adventurous. I tried to work in a few of the 2nd Primary variations.

DevR, visiting from Connecticut, dropped by at the end of rehearsal...

The house circle met with Curt after the TTA rehearsal. We started out working on One of a Thousand Regrets and then moved onto a circulation. It was one of those exercises that reminds me how amazingly Curt's mind works. Three bars of four. He gave MB the first note - to be played on the 'three of three' then he gave IK a note to be played on the 2 of 2, then GM on the four of four, finally I got the one of one. More notes were given - and eventually we were circulating the long melody run in Trapiche. Listening as the piece grew in our hands with notes seemingly randomly issued - but not random at all. How he can - so quickly and spontaneously - organize the notes for distribution amazes me.

The Daily Practice of....

I discovered that a book I was ready to purge from my bookshelf might be worth about $100. (One bookseller had it listed for nearly $400.) I put it up on Ebay today with a $10 minimum. We'll see what I manage to get...

~~~~~

Last week I was given a suggestion to support my preparation for my self-assigned aim to play the BillR exercise without looking at the fret board. The suggestion included playing the 1243 pattern from the First Primary and something called the ‘anchor exercise’. So far, I can do neither without tensing my jaw, sometimes painfully so.

Tonight, a birthday party for D. I made a vegan chocolate cake for the occasion.

Apple Pie

It has been a long, long time since I baked an apple pie. I needed to deliver one, so I had to make one. Always a tricky business. Unlike cookies, where you get to taste one, a pie is turned over whole. I hope it came out well.
Good progress on the resume/portfolio this morning. It all feels weird to create a whole of my patchwork quilt of experience. Good weird, but weird nonetheless.

Choosing the sun.

The sun is actually shining this afternoon. Where I sit, I have a choice of seeing the iBook monitor clearly - or enjoying the sensation of the sun over my shoulder. So far, I am still choosing the sun.

Yesterday, Jax and I visited another Tuning the Air venue possibility - the Fremont Abbey. A nice large space, with its own unique set of challenges. The first of these is the weekly samba dance currently scheduled every Monday evening.


Whenever my minds wanders now, it wanders over to the challenge of organizing the new digs into useable living and studio spaces. Though there are two bedrooms, they are both small. And that utility room has a furnace, water heater, washer and dryer in it, so it provides little additional room. I have printed out a floorplan and prepared little post-it note 'paper doll' versions of the significant items in my studio & home to see what will fit and where.
On the jobfront: still working on the resume and portfolio -and getting anxious about overdue followup commitments I have made.

A move is in your future

Late guitar practice the last two nights. Part of the practice was devoted to learning my part of the Bach circulation. Very strange to be learning a series of unrelated notes. While some of the intervals have a natural flow, many do not. Mostly, it does not sound like music.

My first face-to-face interview today. This one for a garden design position with a high-end landscape design company. I’m definitely a long shot candidate for this job since my professional experience in garden design is limited and they have several good candidates. Still, I bring a mix of skills they could make use of – and they know this. And I could tell they were surprised that I could articulate many of the challenges they are facing even without experience. They still have a number of interviews to go before they make a decision so there will be no word on this gig until late next week.

On the housing front: I meet with Liz (the owner of the property I looked at yesterday) this evening to sign a rental agreement.

The basement of this house will be my new digs.

~~~~~

A convergence of efforts (looking for work, learning guitar, working with others in the intense soup of Tuning the Air, etc.) is shedding light on something for me. It seems that for most of my life ‘learning’ has come easy. It doesn’t usually take much for me to develop a passing facility with most things I undertake. I am bright and clever. As a result, I haven’t needed to learn how to learn when the undertaking is difficult. Taking up the guitar within the rigor offered by Guitar Craft casts a harsh light on my learning skills.

Sunday at Golden Gardens

A new coffeeshop! I met JanetteR for coffee at Cafe Fiore on N 85th St. and 32nd Ave NW...


...and then we took a walk down by Golden Gardens. A strange blustery day in Seattle. Snowcapped mountains of the Olympic peninsula in the distance and sailboats.


Noticed an interesting building - that immediately suggested itself as a performance location. I have no idea what this building is or if it is available, but I plan to investigate. Like many things, it is a longshot.





Since it is a near-certainty that my stay in Seattle is extended (income production pending...) I decided it was silly to postpone moving given how unhappy I am in this place. So I spent an hour on Craigslist last night and found a number of places to check out. After visiting with JR I took my sheave of printouts, and began looking at places. Two of the stumped me - I couldn't find the addresses where I thought they should be. It turns out there is a mysterious anomaly in the otherwise elegant order of streets/addresses in Seattle. It forced me to go home and engage Googlemaps. On a lark, I checked Craigslist again to see if there were any new listings that met my criteria - and there was one with an open house today. I printed the new listing and headed out. My route took me to the other addresses first and then I stopped at this new listing. A basement apartment underneath an owner-occupied house. On the border of Ballard and Crown Hill. Not exactly where I wanted to be, but not far off the mark either. About the same amount of space I have now (without the loft) for a little less money. A barely technical 2-bedroom. No lease commitment. Utilities are included, which makes it even more of a bargain. Gardening space available, off-street parking. A utility room. Apparently good sound/climate insulation. And the owner immediately liked me.

I should have an answer tomorrow.

As always when I consider moving, the behemoth is the biggest challenge.

Saturday

So much to catch up with this week.

Monday night the Tuning the Air team visited Theater4. The space was very cold and after a short break Bob returned with his gloves on. We had a good laugh when he attempted to play with them.

Bob demonstrates a new picking/fretting technique

The team had a mixed response to Theater4 - ultimately resulting in a hastily called meeting on Wednesday to make a decision about the space. A good beginning of a necessary conversation for the team. While we agreed NOT to pursue Theater 4 - leaving us without a venue for the impending season - I think a new energy and sense of ourselves emerged from the meeting. We'll meet again this coming Monday to continue the conversation.

Venue or no venue, work on the poster continued.

The most recent draft of the TTA poster draft.

His Wolfeness emailed me about the contrail in the cloud photo, so I took it out. Also swapped out a few of the player images, tightened up the type and included more of the guitar neck so that the overall ratio of the design was balanced. This required going back to the original guitar and cloud photos and re-creating the effect. I think the design is ready. Now, to locate a venue so I can add dates and an address.

~~~~

On Tuesday, I met with SteveB to discuss my job search. He provided excellent resume advice - though I'm having a difficult time implementing it. It requires yet another thorough revamping of the resume. It will include an online portfolio that I have begun to draft. A huge undertaking, but necessary. I may enlist some help in reviewing it before making the link live.

~~~~~

Kelly's birthday was this week. I decided to send the budding baker some of my favorite baking tools as a birthday gift. This week also marks the 50th anniversary of a personal event of great significance.

~~~~~

Eight for morning sitting at Trinity. During calisthenics, we worked on (what I call) the double arpeggio exercise at my request. It has been awhile since it had been included, and I wanted to understand it better.

The House Circle was an arduous affair for me today. I was struggling with fatigue, which didn’t help the situation. The actual work we did was good and worthwhile (studying and practicing the individual beats of Asturias.) Yet, the session was labored. I found myself asking myself how much longer I can endure it. Later, when a subset of this team met with Curt, we were not ready for him. We were unprepared to really make use of the time with him. Partly this is because there doesn’t seem to be any ‘we’. This isn’t just a matter of the participation changing from meeting to meeting, as will happen with coordinating the schedules of six people. There seems to me a lack of coherence and shared aim. The performance project lost steam as target dates came and went without much comment. It would be easy to say the group lacks leadership, but it is more than that. I have an opinion, but not necessarily an insight about this.

A baked potato and steamed broccoli with a bit of grated parmesan became a late lunch/early dinner. Then, a much needed nap.

A grand Stop!

Little sleep last night. Inexplicably intense pain that defied aspirin, then defied the pain medication the dentist prescribed. It eventually gave way to naproxen sodium, the very compound that paid my salary for more than 20 years. Being very careful about not taking too many things at once, I waited hours between each, which means I didn't get to fall asleep until well after 4am. (It was 4:15 the last time I checked the clock.)

A full 'to-do list' this morning. Mid-way through the list, my wireless network stops working. A simple reboot of the device doesn't fix it. After locating cables, I connect the wireless box directly to my iBook and get a signal. OK - that means I'm getting a good signal from Qwest and that my router is working and that at least part of my wireless box is working. I dig out my HP laptop (since the wireless router doesn't support Mac/OSX) and fireup Firefox. It immediately connects to the setup and asks for my password. I give it the login and password I used when I set up the security on the box a few months ago and it accepts it. OK, that means it hasn't lost any of my old set up info. So I change NOTHING and simply hit 'apply' to in effect re-apply the configuration. Checking back over on the iMac - I now have a wireless signal through my private wireless network. It is 'fixed' though I 'fixed' nothing, only nudged it. Technology is such a mystery. Now to put away the cables and laptop....

More poster tweaking:


...and more job hunt activities. Nearly all the applications I made over the last few weeks are still active and in review.

And tonight a test rehearsal at a potential new venue in Seattle Center.

~~~~~~

A grand Stop!

Poster update

And of the recent drafts of the poster design (of which tehre are many more) ths is my favorite:

A cold February Sunday.

During the Monthly Open Circle on Saturday, Curt gave us the smallest taste of the double reversed circulation. In this exercise, we each had two notes; one in the major scale (mine was the 3rd note), the other in the minor scale (here mine was the 8th.) The ascending scale traveled in one direction and the descending scale circled around in the opposite direction.

Last night I carefully worked out my notes in the Bach Circulation score Curt passed out to the 12 of us who agreed to work on this project. (In a circle of twelve guitarists, I will be playing every 3rd note (over 2 bars of 6 beats each) of the right hand of this piano score and every 10th note of the left hand. To someone listening from the center of this circle, the melody line will pass around counterclock-wise and the bass line will travel around clockwise.) This morning, on waking, I saw the score in my mind's eye and remembered the work in the circle yesterday and realized I’d annotated the score incorrectly; I’d marked all my notes from the melody line and forgotten to take my 10th notes from the bass clef. Email conferring with the musical director reveal that I also misunderstood my notes in a handful of bars where I thought I played a rest, and instead I’m playing part of a trill. So now I’m in possession of a properly annotated score – now I simply need to learn to play my notes. A bit of a challenge because in practicing, the other eleven guitarists will not be with me so I must learn to place my notes only in time, and without the context of the rest of the piece.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My friend Max sent me a link to this remarkably moving video for Obama. (I recognize almost no one in this video, being so out of the pop culture loop.)