A Dream

I was at a huge thanksgiving dinner given by my girlfriend's family. There was much bustle and I realized that I didn't have a shirt on. It seemed to be taking place in some kind of American Legion Hall. A woman I had once been involved with, but out of context here, was present and over-enthusiastic about seeing my daughter. I passed up an opportunity to get involved in a scheme to sell something for charitable purposes, but then was roped into another. It was selling hot red peppers. I was given some cash that I stuffed in my pocket, I guess to make change though there were 100-dollar bills. What I thought was going to be a short thing turned out to be a long term commitment, that was also taking me away from the feast. A small child with a British accent was trying to teach me a sales pitch that I couldn't possibly remember. I escaped the situation by waking up.

New Year's

Two days in a row I woke up to the college radio station playing "Body and Soul." Yesterday was a Keith Jarrett version, I think.  Today's was an instrumental combo with horns which I didn't care for much, though I recognized the song right away just from the harmonies.

After yesterday morning, I began to work on my own harmonization of the tune for May's recital, so when I awoke this morning I immediately got that this was "Body and Soul." Coincidentally I have been working a lot in Db, which is the key of the tune, with a bridge that shifts to D and then C. My idea is to have a version that plays through the tune a single time, with no improvisation but with some embellishments.  It will have mostly rootless voicings.  

My other New Year's project is Chopin's Prelude in E Minor, which I have memorized, recently after beginning in the Fall.  I've been playing that every day from memory. Also, Mompou's Música callada #20 and another Chopin prelude I haven't learned well yet. I am also keeping in my repertory all the other section of Mc I have learned: 1, 3, 10, and 22.

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I've been a little sick with a cold I caught from my family the day after Xmas. Everyone got sick one after another: my daughter, my niece, my brother-in-law, then me, then after I left my sister. All my walking has fallen off, so that instead of averaging 10,000 steps, I am doing about 3 or 4.  

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My writing goal is to do the Vernacular chapter from January-April.  The Classical chapter in the next four months, and then finish the introductory material in the last four months of the year.  I have sabbatical after that in which I will mop up all the remaining work.  I also must write keynote on Lorca for February.  I have a thousand words written out of a projected 5k.  I have two classes to prepare as well.  

A Dream of Spilt Coffee

I spilled some coffee, including someone else's coffee, in a group of people. I collapsed to the floor and hid my face in my inner elbow for a while, to allow myself to recover by some strategic weeping. I felt that it was always I who was spilling the coffee in these meetings. When I sat up again at a table a genial guy in a beard began making emphatic hand gestures as if to show that spilling coffee while making gestures as you talk is the most natural thing in the world. He told me to take a breath, hold it for a second, and take away the insight from the experience as I exhaled again. As I did this the clock radio went off to a version of "Body and Soul" and I awoke from the dream of spilled coffee.  I was relieved that the coffee spilling was not real life, but at the same time grateful for the insight.  

Idioms and Proverbs

I'm giving my "Idioms and Proverbs" course in the Spring; I just found out this morning.  This will be a linguistics course rather than a literature one, so emphasis will fall on phraseology rather than "the short form" as a literary genre.

Recital

I get to play in a piano recital today. The other students are mostly younger than me by about forty years.  I am playing Mompou's Música callada # 22 and a composition of my own. I think that my playing is far better than a year ago, when I probably wouldn't have played even in a kids' recital.  I was playing at a party the other evening and got a lot of compliments.  I am still not good in the sense of being able to play very difficult music, but I am good (not yet great) at executing easy music with sensitivity.  And what would you rather hear, someone playing a simple, beautiful piece beautifully or someone butchering a difficult piece? As I like to say, I have delusions of mediocrity.

Jarrett

I was listening to a cd of Keith Jarrett that I picked up at an estate sale for a buck. It is a solo album of standards, with a lot of sensitive dynamics and chord voicings.  I am sure I can hear it better because I now play piano better than a year ago. I can just hear things that I couldn't before, with more specificity and richness.

The Concert

The concert was fun.  We sang arrangements of "Here we come a'caroling," "Deck the Halls," "Silent Night." A version of "Twinkle Twinkle."  "Stars" with a text by Sara Teasdale (Esenvalds). "Jessye's Carol." "Brightest and Best." Things like that.  And "Something like a star" by Randall Thompson.