1/1/2024
My plan was to launch 2024 from a good start: get some new music done! And I
have:
Four pieces, 21 minutes each, completed just before Christmas. I'm not
sure what I think of them yet (all four 'semi-ambient'), but they
were enjoyable to do. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
1/4/2024
I had another one of those 'time-shift' moments late this afternoon.
I went over to get my RSV vaccine, and stopped in the grocery store
to pick up some milk. Coming out, the sky had turned pink in sunset,
and with the slant of the light, coupled with the 45° temperature,
I was suddenly back in high school. It was March. The feelings
all aligned.
Driving back, I was listening to the vcv-4
piece (listed in the above post), and I had a flash of how lucky
I've been. In high school, I always wanted to have access to
the synthesizers and tools to make the music I wanted to make.
Now I have them. And more. I have the freedom and instruments
I need. Then I was thinking about the sunset,
over Admiralty Inlet, the Pacific Ocean. I live on an island
in the Pacific! How did I get here?
If I had somehow been able to materialize and tell high-school Brad
what this would be like, I would not have believed any of it.
It was waaaay outside my experience. I wonder what the future
will be for our children as they grow, for Shai and Naomi, and
(new!) baby John Michael?
1/13/2024
I'm back in Indiana. About an inch of snow fell last night, and
some residual flakes are floating gently around. I love looking out
the window, the bare tree branches gently swaying, and watching
the snowflakes float this way, that way...
It's been a tough visit. There is much I don't write in this
blog anymore, personal things that are not public. Although I
doubt it hardly matters. I don't think many people read this.
I do, now and then, and it's here for me in the future (if that
future unfolds). Certainly the writing has lost it's 'urgency',
my on-going encounter with myeloma, but that's a good thing!
I'll trade 'urgency' for time spent with family and friends,
time working on music, time just being, always.
1/29/2024
I'm sitting in our Whidbey living room with a direct view of Mt. Rainier,
snow-covered and partly shrouded in clouds. Massive.
Yesterday I awoke with the song Puff the Magic Dragon
in my head. In particular, this verse was running on a loop:
A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant's rings make way for other toys
One gray night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more
And Puff, that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar
I thought it was "Dragon's wings and magic things" in
place of the "Painted wings..." line. Whatever, it made
me so profoundly sad! I could hardly bear it. Even know,
I'm tearing up a little bit. Why can't the joyous times
last forever?
But that's the paradox and tragedy of living in time. To
freeze those moments, to stop the flow of time would destroy
the very thing I want to preserve. What about the other moments,
the ones yet to come? I live in the hope that they will visit, again.
I
wrote early on
in this blog about wanting to do this.
There are things I wish I could do. I wish I could take away Mom and Dad's
dementia and make their world the place of goodness and
light that Mom desires. I wish I could
fix Daniel; take away his troubles and woes. I wish I could lessen
Lian's work-load, she is so good! While I'm at it, I wish I could solve
the world problems. I wish the best future for Shai and Naomi.
And I wish I could make Jill happy. Puff the magic dragon indeed.
2/21/2024
I haven't written much here, again, because I believe that I imagine
I should write Deep Thoughts about Big Things, and frankly I haven't
had many of those lately. Which is -- as I've observed before, I think --
probably good because (for me) those Deep Thoughts are often motivated
by bad medical news, etc. So far, knock on wood, things are good.
I'm enjoying this 'extended retirement slide' a lot. Shai and Naomi!
Oh my!
I do have some items I want to post here, since this blog is
a semi document-of-record for work I do. In addition
to the
vcvetudes
I finished at the end of last year, I knocked out some more
semi-ambient music using a signal-processing technique that stretches
sound waaaaay out:
I also got out my guitar and did another 'political rock song', with a video too!:
The presidential election is starting to really heat up, and I felt I
had to do something. Seriously, though? My little anti-Trump music
video won't do much at all, if anything. However, if it reminds even
one person just how awful Trump is, and convinces them to go vote for
Biden instead of some idiotic third-party candidate, or vote Biden
instead of sitting-out
the election, then I'm happy I did it. There is too much at stake.
I'll bet I'll be writing more about this in the coming months.
2/29/2024
It's leap year again! Leap day, too. Jill and I are out in Indiana,
because Mom is celebrating her 90th birthday tomorrow. Brenda and John
are arriving late tonight. It will be quite a thing (more later).
I've been working on some new music; will finish when I return to
Whidbey. Then I have a bit more traveling to do through the first part
of April. Life, oh life.
3/1/2024
HAPPY
BIRTHDAY
MOM!!!!!!!
Nintey(90!!!!!!!!) years old today! Brenda/John/Jill and I were
there; we had quite a celebration! More in future posts here.
3/10/2024
There is so much to write! So much to record for recollection! Shai
with the 'bird' costume Jill created (what a Grandma!), Naomi barreling
down the ski-slopes in Austria, I'm crankin' out more and more music,
heading to visit Doug Scott in San Jose in two days, springtime flowers
are blooming, and then we get ice.snow... all this and
more! I need to catch up, somehow.
3/16/2024
Spring has definitely sprung! It's been creeping in, but the majority of the
time we've had cold/rain here in the Pacific Northwest. The weird thing
is how the climate does 'jump ahead' sometimes of where I expect it to be.
For example, I took these pictures the third week of February:
February! I remember the snowdrops about this time of the year
peeking up in New Jersey, sometimes
even late January. But they were snowdrops! The climate,
I think she is a-changin'...
Today, however, was full-on springtime. High around 72, and a nice
cool low tonight. I even feel, sort-of, optimistic. I had a wonderful
visit with Doug and Julie in Mountain View (we even went out to Napa Valley
to taste some wine!), and things are going ok here. And in Indiana,
again, sort-of. Happy Ides of March! Happy St. Patrick's Day! Happy
Spring!
3/25/2024
I just watched a bald eagle glide slowly past. Yesterday I noticed
that the trees are beginning to 'green'. There always seems to be
that day when it happens. It's cloudy and cool today, but our good
friend Sharlene is arriving later to look at properties on Whidbey.
Exciting times!
I also finished another new piece:
I actually completed it about two weeks ago, just before I flew down to
see Doug. I wanted to have it ready for him to audition. I hadn't done the
final tweaking until this past weekend. It was better than I had
thought at the time I finished. Or at least that's how I think about it
now!
4/2/2024
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAI NEEMAN!!!!!!!
Eight years old! What a wonderful thing!!!!!!!
4/3/2024
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAOMI NEEMAN!!!!!!!
The big THREE!!!!!!! These two days are amazing. Really, they are.
4/8/2024
I'm in Indiana, visiting with Mom and Dad.
And...
I saw an eclipse today!
Mom and Dad ready on the front porch
pinhole 'camera' showing the moon starting through
fun "eclipse" crescent shadows
run-up to the MAIN EVENT
the MAIN EVENT!
It was amazing, breathtaking, astounding, marvelous, thrilling...
yeah, words can't do it justice. I'm still processing it (and will be
for awhile, I think).
4/14/2024
Today is my birthday! I am sixty-seven years old. Not a big 'round number'
birthday, but still a year-gone-by nonetheless.
I took this (panoramic) picture shortly after breakfast:
It's not one of the painterly-like sunrises or sunsets we get here on
Whidbey Island, but it shows the promise of a lovely day ahead. And in
fact it was -- I'm violating one of my 'premises' for this blog and posting
this text a few days after it happened. Hey, I'm getting lazy in
my old age!
4/18/2024
HAPPY
BIRTHDAY
DANIEL!!!!!!!
Wow, THIRTY years! What an adventrure! What a familiy! What
a Daniel!!!!
4/29/2024
The world, the world, the world the world. Oh my. I don't even know
where to begin. I will say that we had a wonderful Passover Seder
with Lian and family + friends this past weekend.
I'm heading to New York in two days. Columbia. Oh my. There is so
much to say, but so many are saying, and it's just overwhelming. I
really, really hope that peace can be achieved. Given how
people are now acting, I'm pessimistic about that. But there is
hope.
5/19/2024
It's a gorgeous spring day today. The forecast was for clouds and rain,
but -- as often happens here on Whidbey Island -- it was (nicely!) wrong.
Maybe later.
Oh so much is happening! Jill and I had a good trip to NYC, had a
grand time museum- and restaurant-hopping with Jeff Ellentuck,
and I got to meet colleagues/students/friends at Columbia (not
on main campus!). As I said in my previous (several weeks ago!) post
here: the world, the world, the world... What can we do? How
can we make things better? I have a bunch of new electronic music
gear, end of the fiscal year budget-spending, and I think I'll just
hide out with it for awhile. Maybe a long while.
5/26/2024
It's been cool and rainy for the past several days, and it looks like it
will continue through the coming week. Some good friends from NY
are visiting for a few days
(Michael Gogins
and his wife Heidi) and we'll have to deal with the weather, but
the real annoyance is that our Scatchet
Head area is under severe water restrictions. One of our well pumps
failed, and it was supposed to be replaced several days ago. However,
some of the needed pump-parts didn't arrive in time, so we're still
taking severe conservation measures until next Friday.
Poor Jill! She became commissioner of our water district shortly
after we moved here because she was able to see that the water plant
needed some serious work. She put together a set of funding initiatives,
and we were just about to go out to bid when the pump failed.
And we're not alone in the US with our infrastructure woes (hey,
Roosevelt!). What was I saying about "the world, the world, the world"
above?
6/6/2024
We have water in our town! And the weather is glorious! I've been able
to get work done on some new pieces, exercising the new gear I got last
month. We're also getting set to go to Sorrento (Italy) next week
to visit with Brenda as she does her 'cultural reporting' class.
Summer seems finally to be arriving. I hope everything -- everything --
goes well. Just in general; I have no deep thoughts or hidden agendas
here. It seems like all should on a day like this. The birds are
tweeting!
6/21/2024
Happy Summer Solstice today!
(or maybe one day late -- it seems the solstice gets a little messed-up by
leap year and the earth's travels.)
But anyhow. There is a glorious sunset in New York, and we're headed back
to Whidbey Island tomorrow. What a trip this has been! To cap it off,
we've been experiencing temperatures in the mid-90's here. They are
continuing, but we are leaving. I've started reading Barry Lopez' posthumous
book of essays
Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World
and I think/hope I'll have some things to say about it. His writing reminds
me of when I first read some of Annie Dillard's work, like prose and
poetry mished together. Lopez is (was) writing in a time of
global climate catastrophe, though. Gives it a different spin. yeah.
6/28/2024
I had planned to write a little about our wonderful Sorrento trip here, now
(with photos!), but last night was the first Biden/Trump debate. I am
really discouraged. I honestly believe that Biden was ill. He
shuffled onto stage, was coughing, and could barely raise his voice
above a whisper. Trump just lied and lied and lied again, and Biden
rarely acknowledged the scale of Trump's untruths. But Trump was
in 'attack' mode (does he have any others?), and he was by far the
more aggressive debater. I am very, very worried about our election
now. It was a disaster. Please, everyone, WAKE UP and realize
exactly what Trump is. I'm not sure we can survive otherwise.
6/30/2024
Happy Birthday Nephew Stefan!
Life is good for you! A new Dad, a great little grand-nephew, a lovely and
accomplished wife, a good life indeed!
The weather here can really spin me around. One morning I might go
out on our back deck, and it's a crystal-clear day, like in the mountains
in springtime. Then it will seem to be cold and wet October. Today
it was foggy and humid, after a sunny and almost hot day yesterday.
From June to late September, all just outside the door.
I'm working on a new piece. I hope to get it done today.
7/2/2024
After the first six months, I decided to divide this blog up into
chunks to keep it from growing into a huge load/scroll mess.
But I decided a bit late, and it results in an ASYMMETRY! OH NO!
Each year has two chunks -- January through the end of July, and then
August through December. The symmetric divide-line should be now,
but what the heck. Keeps me on my toes!
Our trip to Sorrento to spend time with Brenda was wonderful. It
sort-of snuck up on us; we had things going on, and then all of a sudden
we were on a flight to Italy. The people were genuinely nice,
the food was amazing, the climate, swimming from the "VIP beach" that
Brenda arranged, my oh my. Here are a few random photos of Sorrento
and the side-trip to Herculaneum
Jill and I did with new friend Sheri (WNE faculty
member whose husband Dennis is helping Brenda with the students).
I also dashed off another rock/political piece. After the horrible debate,
I had to do something (I keep saying that...) to give expression to my
dismay at the scale of lies told by Trump. Truth no longer seems
to matter, at least to that awful excuse for a human being. I really,
really, really dislike that man. And now the Supreme Court has given
him almost unlimited license -- should he win -- to do whatever
benighted idea seeps into his tiny brain.
Here is the link to the web site (with a video, too!):
Jill said it sounded too angry. Well, yeah...
7/24/2024
Wow, things happening! The political scene has radically shifted (Biden
just announced his stepping-down), I've been listening to lots of music --
live even! -- and working on a fair amount. Kids are doing well, Brenda and
nephew Bo came for a wonderful visit (oh the weather was grand!), Jill and
I bought a new car (all-electric Hyundai Ioniq 6), and much more
that I am sure I have forgotten. Maybe when I read this years from now
(hopefully) I will recall things. Probably not.
