Lisa had an emergency appendectomy in Curacao.
Our trip there was plan B with Nat and Frank instead of plan A to Grenada with them and a group of their friends. We went with them two Saturdays ago to one of the ABC islands (I learned that!) for a week of snorkeling and caves and hiking. Things happened.
Continue reading The hospital in CuracaoSix months. It feels like a milestone.
I wanted to work through a sonorist piece that emphasized texture over melody. Threnody is the canonical example, but there are many directions you can go by subverting the concept of harmony or rhythm. I couldn’t get close to there and probably never would but the ideal gives you creativity to find your route.
The idea of the opening bright harmonic declaration was there from the start. I don’t think I had an overall structure in mind but rather some germinal ideas, many of which didn’t make it into the final score. Honestly, I’m not sure the final structure holds together because I walked around through so many different themes so inconsistently, but it still feels like a whole. There’s an inconstant consistency.
This is the first time I ran against limitations of the scoring software’s playback not matching the intent of the score. I need to get high quality samples and maybe move on to mixing each part. This is a long way from Study #1.
Much of this grew very naturally and I feel like I could be more expressive in this style. There were several ideas that just-did-not-work, but the immersiveness felt natural. I didn’t go far enough.
The fact that felt more acute this month: with a fixed time frame, it’s difficult to know when you are done, when the piece is done. It makes an artificial constraint on the arc of emotion you’re trying to achieve and may rush any interesting sequences that could be elaborated on. Obvious. But each instance of compromise is different.
Six months?
Next up is uncertain; the other months were not. Previous months I had a task queued up (variations or vivace or lyric) but not now. I’m out of the country for a week, so maybe it’s good to turn off and wait for the next impulse.
orchestral-study-6The bill would allow China to extradite Hong Kong citizens wanted for crimes, but could be abused to silence critics.
Sun 9 Jun 2019 – Protests start.
Sat 15 Jun 2019 – Bill is shelved (for now).
Last Friday, Trump said that he would impose increasing tariffs starting at 5% on Wednesday and increasing over time. He called that off on Sunday.
Cages on dirt called the “Dog Pound”. Extreme temperatures. Rooms kept at 55 called “The Freezer”. Concrete, no beds, moldy food, uncleaned or clogged toilets. Infants suffering. There are shelters available but the are not used.
Migrants being moved to a military installation which will be able to block reporter access completely.
Wed 12 Jun 2019 – During an interview with George Stephanopolous.
Thu 13 Jun 2019 – Two oil tankers were attacked with mines. A similar attack occurred a month previously. US released a video that neither proves nor disproves but Trump and Pompeo blame Iran. References to the Gulf of Tonkin incident abound.
Tue 4 May 2019 – 30th anniversary of the Chinese army marching on Tienanmen Square to suppress protests.
Tue 4 May 2019 – Hope Hicks is subpoenaed to provide documents from the 2016 presidential campaign to House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler. She agrees even though the White House told her and Don McGahn to not cooperate.
Tue 4 May 2019 – DOJ refuses to provide transcripts of conversations former national security adviser Michael Flynn had with Russian officials, including Sergey Kislyak. This follows from the released transcript of a voicemail from a Trump lawyer (John Dowd) to a Flynn lawyer (Robert Kelner) that suggested obstruction.
Wed 5 May 2019 – The daughter of a GOP lobbyist (Thomas Hofeller, a Republican redistricting specialist) looked through her father’s computer after he died. In it, she found plans for gerrymandering designed explicitly to limit voting access to minorities. The Supreme Court is currently determining whether a proposed citizenship question should be added to the 2020 census and will have a decision before the end of June.
Thu 6 May 2019 – 75th anniversary of D-Day, when the Allies landed on the Normandy coast (Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword). During the visit, Trump held up the ceremony for 15 min to have an interview with Laura Ingraham (which she later lied about not happening). During the interview he called Pelosi “nervous Nancy” and said that Mueller–a veteran–“made a fool of himself.” When asked about Trump, Pelosi said: “I don’t talk about the president while I’m out of the country. That’s my principle.”
Trump in the UK: there were major protests but he said that they were cheering for him, Boris Johnson would not meet with him even though Trump supports him, most of the royal family avoided meeting him and joining photo ops, the Trumps were not invited to stay at Windsor castle, when asked why they are spending tax dollars out at a bar the Trump sons replied “we’re just trying to have a good time.”
U.S. District Court Judge Jesse Furman has delayed the gerrymandering case until after the census case is decided. In January, Judge Furman had blocked the census question.
Thu 6 May 2019 – The House of Representatives passed a $19.1B disaster relief bill. The article below list ~ $6B of that:
Trump signs long-stalled $19.1B disaster relief bill (Politico)
Bikini Kill reunited and is touring. I had Pussy Whipped and Reject All American on CD back in post-college apt in Smyrna, probably some double-CD re-release [ed. yes! it exists], and they were in heavy rotation for a while. A few years back I went to see The Punk Singer at Plaza Theatre and was just blown away by how not just punk Kathleen Hanna is but just how leftist intellectual she is. So the tour came about and although I think they’ll be performing nearby this was a good excuse for an NYC trip. Last one was ~3 years ago for my niece’s b-day. So let’s go.
Continue reading Where was I?