Was on my way to an appointment when I passed a sidewalk busker at Pioneer Place playing guitar and singing Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer.”
Though I had little time, I couldn’t help but stop and sing harmony with him through a couple verses and choruses.
What a delightful impromptu and transient musical communion…
I just returned from a weekend in Newport full of music, laughter and friendship. What a great time!
The weather was beautiful. For November, it was delightfully clear and not cold.
I was in town to play viola in the Newport Symphony. Our program consisted of two marvelous works: Ernest Bloch’s Concerto Grosso, and Schubert’s Great Symphony in C. I’d like to share some thoughts about the latter.
Franz Schubert is one of my favorites composers. He died at age 31, yet left us a prodigious amount of music, some of which was not discovered and appreciated until well after his death; Such was the case for the Symphony in C.
Consider this photograph of the last measures of the last page of the viola part:
Those who read music may notice the number of measures: 1154 in total! Considering several lengthy repeats in the work, performing it can take nearly an hour. Some sections (e.g. wind and brass) may enjoy lengthy periods where they don’t play – called “rests,” which is especially appropriate for and appreciated by musicians in this work – string players such as myself enjoyed very few. We were exhausted by the sheer magnitude of the work, but played it with joy because it is such a rapturous work.
Although there are pages of repeated ideas and phrases within a section, I don’t find the work as a whole repetitive or overly long from a listener’s perspective. That being said, some enthusiastic audience members told me afterwards that they were exhausted – so emotional and great was the lengthy musical journey.
What boggles my mind is the thought of writing this thing, by hand – over 1100 measures’ worth of music. Now multiply that by the number of individual parts: 5 string parts, 8 woodwind parts, 7 brass parts, and timpani – 21 parts in total. That amounts to over 24,000 measures. So first you write the score. Then you have to write out the individual parts (for which you need multiple copies). Today, using computer transcription software that will still be a Herculean task. Hearing all that music in one’s head and writing it down by hand – I cannot imagine it.
I cannot find a photo of Schubert’s manuscript for this work, but here’s an image from his Symphony No. 8 (“Unfinished”):
There is a dual tragedy of Schubert’s brief life.
First, he never got to hear this great work performed. He struggled in relative obscurity and suffered poor health and poverty most of his short life. Appreciation for his musical genius didn’t arrive until he was already gone. Ten years after his death, Schubert’s brother showed Robert Schumann a copy of the work, and Schumann took the copy back to Leipzig where it was performed by none other than Felix Mendelssohn. Just imagine how much music Schubert wrote that was lost forever.
Moreover, one can only imagine what wondrous more music Schubert would have composed had he lived another 5 or 10 years.
Several have tried to convince me to reconsider my departure from Facebook. It’s not an easy decision and I sometimes question myself. Then I am reminded of the corporate hypocrisy and darker side of social media:
We don’t tolerate bullying and harassment
– Facebook
She was called the n-word and given instructions to slit her wrists. What did Facebook do?
As a person of multi-racial heritage, I am particularly sensitive to and tired of whitewashing and yellowface in film. Whether it is Scarlett Johansson’s Major in “Ghost in the Shell,” Emma Stone’s Allison Ng in “Aloha,” Liam Neeson’s Ra’s al Ghul in “Batman Begins,” the cringe-worthy casting of John Wayne’s Genghis Kahn in “The Conqueror” and the truly despicable caricature of Mickey Rooney’s Mr. Yunioshi in “Breakfast of Tiffany’s,” this history is a long trail of racial ignorance and insensitivity.
One recent case of whitewashing was Tilda Swindon’s role as The Ancient One, a Tibetan monk who teaches and guides Dr. Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). In the movies, The Ancient One is changed into a Celtic woman. Now, according to an article in CNET, that change may have been made to appease Chinese censors.
Read about how the lucrative Chinese movie market – second only to the North American market – exerts such pressure that Hollywood movies are being altered and censored to ensure access to that market:
Marvel is censoring films for China, and you probably didn’t even notice
– Jennifer Bisset for CNET, November 1, 2019
As I continue to slog through removing pictures and videos from my Facebook account, the memories inevitably come rushing back. Here are three videos from a trip I made to Vietnam back in 2010:
When turning left, you just do it, regardless of the oncoming traffic. The oncoming traffic merely flows around you like water diverted around a rock or log in a stream. As a passenger, it’s pretty unsettling.
Motorbikes are the most efficient mode of transportation in large cities. They can navigate the narrow alleyways and clogged traffic better than anything with four wheels.
The central region of Vietnam, the narrow strip stretching from Nghe An (about 40 miles from Hanoi) to Bình Thuận (within 30 miles of Ho Chi Minh City), suffers major flooding almost every year. We got caught in this when attempting to drive the length of Vietnam from Hanoi all the way down to Ho Chi Minh City.
Eventually our van stalled out when the air filter became saturated, and we had to backtrack and seek refuge for a few days in Hà Tĩnh to wait for the high waters to subside. Losing those days meant we ended up flying from Vinh to Ho Chi Minh City. Thus I did not get to see the ancient Imperial City of Huế, Da Nang, or any of the other cities of Central Vietnam.
It is well known the we in the U.S. pay the highest prices for medication in the world. May I emphatically recommend you use GoodRx?
There is a website and a smartphone app. It costs you nothing, and you don’t have to sign up or create an account. Simply type in the drug, dosage, and count/amount, and GoodRx will tell you the price at various pharmacies in your area.
You will be surprised how big a difference in price there can be!
GoodRx will even tell you if you can use a coupon (often presented on your smartphone) or whether a special membership with the pharmacy (typically $20-40 per year) will save you money. You may find that another pharmacy often offers better prices than your regular pharmacy and may want to switch your default pharmacy.
Think you have a good prescription plan through your insurance? Think you are saving money receiving your drugs through a mail-order pharmacy (like SureScripts or ExpressScripts)? I still saved money over my insurance plan simply by using GoodRx.
I don’t have pets, but I understand GoodRx can be used for pet medication, too.
Here’s what I do:
Whenever I go in to pick up a prescription, I ask what the drug is, the dosage, and the amount (number of pills). I plug it all into the GoodRx app on my cell phone, and check to see whether the price listed is lower than what the pharmacy was going to charge. Often it is. The pharmacists are used to it and quickly print out a new receipt.
I just saw a friend post a complaint about a mail-order pharmacy on social media. I sent him a message to try GoodRx. A couple hours later he messaged me that he saved $150 the first time they used it!
If this sounds like a paid testimonial, I’m sorry. Anyone who knows me knows how much I loath advertisements. I receive no benefit from promoting GoodRx beyond the good feeling of knowing I saved my friends money.
So what have I been cleaning and removing from my Facebook account? Currently I am backing up removing pictures and removing all my Facebook Ad “likes.”
Regardless of whether you plan to #DeleteFacebook, backing up pictures, deleting pictures, and deleting Facebook Ads is something you probably should know how to do.
I. Backup and Delete Photo Albums
This is a semi-tedious task. Fortunately, Facebook makes it easy to backup and download each photo album, but I have many albums created over the past 11 years. Here’s how:
II. Removing all Facebook Ad “Likes”
Facebook continually adds advertisement “likes” behind the scenes based on what you post, share, and like. It is a tedious process to go through and delete them. I find it easier/quicker to do on a computer than on a mobile device. Here’s how:
Having deleted all of my ad likes, I’m watching to see if and when Facebook creates new ones for me. Having stopped posting, commenting and liking stuff, nothing has appeared…yet.
My staggeringly gifted poet friend, Anna George Meek, wrote this poem fitting for Halloween:
https://thesonnetproject.blogspot.com/2010/08/draculas-housecat-by-anna-george-meek.html
I was behind the 8-ball and didn’t prepare a costume to wear to work today. Over the years I’ve come up with some decent costumes, some requiring very little work, others a lot. Here are some of my costumes from Halloweens’ past:
Rorschach (from “The Watchmen“): I am really proud of this costume, and it won me a prize last year. I purchased heat-sensitive powder (really cool stuff, btw), mixed it with glue, and painted a Rorschach design on a white t-shirt. Worn over the head, the heat from my breath caused the pattern to change. A cheap raincoat, hat, and gloves completed the look.
Dryer Sock Monster: This was the simplest, easiest costume I’ve ever made, and it was still very successful. I simply took a black raincoat and safety-pinned one of every sock in my drawer. People looked at me with confusion for a minute, then when the realization hit, pointed at me and shouted, “you’re the one who stole my socks!”
Golf Accident: This took some work. I carefully sawed a golf ball in half with a hacksaw. I stuck it to my forehead with band-aids and tape. I made fake blood mixing creamy peanut butter and green food coloring and smeared it around the golf ball. I then dressed in really tacky golf clothes I found at thrift stores (pink sweater vest, white pants, etc.) and carried a bent golf club.
Biking Accident: (am I sensing a theme here?) I dressed in biking clothes, smeared grease on my bare legs and arms, locked a Kryptonite U-lock around my neck, tied bike tire tubes around my arms, and hung a bike chain over my neck. I believe I also tied some loose bike pedals to my shoelaces. This may have happened within a year of a spectacular bike wreck I had mountain biking that cut and bruised my face, but, extremely fortunately, did no more damage.
Leisure Suit Dating Horror: Purchased some really cheesy 70s clothes at a thriftstore, a fake gold chain necklace, and some fake fur from a fabric store. I hung the fur on my bare chest, and unbuttoned my shirt to my navel, and hung the chain over my neck. Some tinted glasses completed the look.
Phantom of the Opera: I own white tie and tails, which somehow still barely fit. I purchased a half-mask, donned my tails, set up an electronic keyboard at my door, and when the trick-or-treaters arrived, played the opening lines of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue.
Today is Halloween, the holiday in the U.S. during which the most candy is purchased. If you, like me, have leftover candy, there are options other than just keeping it and forcing yourself (with varying degrees of gusto or resistance) to consume the sugary remains.
I was delighted to hear that my workplace will collect extra candy and ship it to Operation Shoebox, a non-profit that prepares care packages for people serving overseas.
I did a quick check and there are other charities that will gladly accept your leftover candy:
Soldiers Angels will ship your donated candy to deployed service members around the world or distribute to veterans in VA Hospitals.
Operation Gratitude will donate sweet treats for our Deployed Troops and First Responders.
Want to donate locally? Contact nearby nursing homes and homeless shelters to see if they’ll accept such donations. You can also try programs like Big Brother Big Sister and the Ronald McDonald House Charities, too.
Blatant Calm 