April 8 - Magic Fire Music

No, haven't wandered off to a Beltane Festival prematurely (the celebration date tends to be May 1) -- just a process of Word Association Football, beginning with a second page of Psalm 17 ("Hear My Cry") publication-prepared, recording Psalm 16 with the Garbage Band (a few glitches re computer -- search ["spotlight"] not finding recent items beyond this past Sunday, iPod not recognized by computer [eventually solved], and iPhone-iPod insists on re-syncing everything -- rather than just recent updates, evidently due to recent software update), followed by writing up



Herb Bielawa's 80th-Birthday Composition Concert for 21st-Century Music (21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com, soon at 21st-centurymusic.com and in print), followed by yet again re-encountering of the



Wine Guy,



making the turns onto 121 and



Sonoma's



Napa Road. Late afternoon on



Leveroni and Arnold leads past views of the Sonoma



and Mayacamas Mountains,



Eldridge's



State Developmental Center (as it is now officially appelated),



Glen Ellen, back to the junction with



12. Proceeding anon, it is but a short distance to the



Trinity



Road



turn (will try better alignment next time),



beginning this walk up the



Sonoma Valley in the company of



turkey farms and



side



roads,



vineyards



and



schools



("not Dumb Bear"),



canyon



turnoffs and



Bed-and-Breakfasts,




including the one at the



Beltane Ranch --



pretty much named after the



Festival, which also brings to mind



Peter Maxell



Davies's



work. Further nonsequitur: truly amazing re this iPhone: in these last hours have been listening to music on it while driving, receiving phone calls legally thanks to the earbud, and -- while walking -- checking the weather,



taking pictures, and utilizing the google maps detailed aerials that are definitely more gainly than carting around hard-copy topos (and mostly, more useful [when working, of course] re vegetation, structures, names of roads, currency [i.e. up-to-dateness]... U.S. Geographical Survey's versions [now mostly available at topoquest.com only advantages seem to remain contour lines [a.k.a. isohypse / isoline / isarithm -- dig it, Guillaume de Machaut!] and state / regional / municipal boundaries.



The setting sun works its own



incandescence over the



Sonoma and



Mayacamas



Mountains -- framed by



oak and



pine --



at the perhaps-endangered intersection (why utilize a mere realtor, after all?) of the school's



namesake



("not Dumb Bear"), and



it is time to return for another page (4) composed re



Song of Solomon: IV. Pulchra Es ("You Are Beautiful").

February 7 - Trajectories

Out and about all day and night,



first making and sending the Sex and the Bible cast all the piano-vocal midi files of the score,



plus a new, slower version of Meanwhile Judah Left Home (The Story of Tamar) (now at mm eighth = 350, rather than 400)



then to Sex and the Bible rehearsal, where Keisuke Nakagoshi joins us for the first time,



with complete cast again, staging from Sodom and Gomorrah (Lotsa Luck) up to Shouldn't Work for Nothing, and musical rehearsal to the end (although we reserve The Sacrifice for this coming Wednesday).

Cast members respond to opportunity to put on Job, as part of Fresh Voices X in June, with

God - Nanette McGuinness
Satan - Crystal Philippa
Job - Marilyn Pratt

and Maria Mikheyenko expressing interest as well.



Rendezvous with Harriet March Page and Meghan Dibble at



Hadley's in time to hear the last impressive



Goat Hall Productions / San Francisco Cabaret Opera Fresh Voices callback auditionee (Heather Lauren Klein) of the day (singing Mozart),



then



we



break



camp for



Saul's in North Berkeley, and afterwards (again thanks to the wonder of Google Maps on the iPhone) to the Kensington Unitarian Universalist Church for



Herb Bielawa's



80th-Birthday



Retrospective concert, which will be written up soon in 21st-Century Music (21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com, 21st-centurymusic.com, and in print) -- a well-attended and



finely-performed evening, with listeners including



Ann Calloway (composer), Richard Mix (the first Creon in Antigone), Aldan Jenks (composer featured in upcoming Fresh Voices X), Werner Jepson (Fresh Voices composer of San Francisco Is Burning), Peter Josheff (Fresh Voices composer of Inferno, clarinetist of recent Yerba Buena Wozzeck), Eliza O'Malley (Pegeen Mike in The Playboy of the Western World, Vladimir in Waiting for Godot, and the second Antigone), Jules Langert (emeritus professor of composition at Dominican in the masters program), Elinor Armer (composer), Anne Basart (publisher), Steve Mobia (composer and loyal GHP/SFCO and San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra attendee); and performers



Magan Solomon (San Francisco Choral Artists),



Brooke Aird (violin), Cathy Allen (cello), Richard Matthias (clarinet), Sondra Soderlund (organ), among others. Great to hear and see everyone, and, of course, pass out some


Sex and the Bible business card promos (and gladly receive a few notices from compatriots). Home late, with another page (23) composed for Vespers: II. Psalm 109: Dixit Dominus,publication-preparation for yet again (page 6) Psalm 5, and the rest of the Pierrot ensemble version of


Job (through XI.)