October 10 - Skeletons Everywhere

Well, at least the weather's beautiful, part II. Harriet off to the city to meet Vicki, while musical editing of Psalm 31, with the new Encore at least still behaving, is finished (10 pages total), and videos for Deploration Passacaglias: I. Ockeghem



and II. Josquin made, but, again, sometime during the early evening, computer screen goes black again. This time, at least, know the drill: turning it off at the source (despite the fact it sure looks off) then turning back on. Make an appointment at the Apple Store tomorrow, and fitfully sleep with lingering cold very present.

October 9 - Bending to the Tasks

Well, at least the weather's beautiful.

New Encore behaves for edited page 6 of Psalm 31, and computer for video of Some Stuff: VI. Pastoral Adagio, but, during dinner with Harriet, notice that the Mac is not powering back to 100% (steadily descending to 97-86-95 when being transported powerless from room-to-room before replugging). Google the issue, and evidently no big deal, but then when looking at full screen playback of



VII. Postlude in iMovie before "sharing" computer just turns itself off. Remember this "random shut down syndrome" with old Mac last year and definitely not ready to have it happen again. Not pleased. Fan still runs while everything is dead, suggesting that something is still alive in there. Change computer chord to the old reliable-but-frayed one, just in case that's the issue, and said power cable indicates recharging (yellow vs. green). Try to turn it back on. No good, although white light in front comes on briefly. Wait a few minutes. Call Erling, who's unavailable. Look on the back for charging-up lights. Try again, and this time computer makes the sound of itself turning off, as if it had been on with a dead screan. Try again and it comes back on. Feel like it's playing with my mind. Felt that way last summer, too, with the power-drain-on-sleep problem.... No further problems in the evening, though on edge, prepared for it to happen anytime. Google the random-shutdown syndrome, but posts seem to reference earlier MacBook in 2006.

What will become of us, came the question on bended knee....

October 8 - Hope Deferred...

A welcome day at home with Harriet, wherein Some Stuff: IV. Several Aborigines and



V. The Lonely Trombonist are produced for YouTube uploading. While editing Page 5 of Psalm 31 the newer Encore program crashes... as it did when used quite a while back. Back to old version, but that crashes even more, and further, display of palette and toolbar -- while temporarilly fixed -- reverts to a weird array. Seems like there's nothing to do but try the update yet again, and it behaves better... by now have edited piece in both programs up to this point... Late in the evening, feel a cold coming on, picked up, no doubt, from the beloved...

October 7 - Straight Ahead

Page 4 of Psalm 31 edited in the newer version of Encore -- tried awhile back unsuccessfully, but now seeming to work -- will hope for the best (older variety has suddenly developed a bug, where the palette highlighting is askew... leading one to wonder what else may go wrong). Quiz 8 follows for the Theoreticians, with musical examples drawn from Frederic Chopin, Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi, Georges Bizet, Eric Satie, and Charles Ives; then, after lingering with students, head south to the Walnut Creek Apple Store, where (this time) they have cords in stock so that chords can still be written (have forgotten my dicey spare, and the main one has shorted out). Close to a surreal shopping experience: greeted at the door, they fetch the merchandise and do the point of sale with handheld gadget and card. Have barely walked into the store and the deal is done.



Zipping through the tunnel and streets of Berkeley, drop off belated Journal at CopyWorld, fixing the Alex Shapiro interview edits before turning it over, trying to transfer pdf data via the Passport external hard-drive before defaulting to a CD, then over the bridge to Celia's for paper grading, postbox for financial greetings, and home for more Some Stuff videos:



I. Prelude and



II. Urban Scherzo.

October 4 - Fresh Chances

Atmospheric conditions within the Music Building require a mise-en-scene en plein air, so we do the Frederic Chopin (how appropriate) E Minor Prelude dictation in the brisk al fresco, changing cultures as we go, and sing and "mind's eye" our way through classwork including 7th chords, the C chromatic and F natural and harmonic minor scales -- and it seems like a



good time is had by all.



Before this, begin editing Psalm 31 -- setting Wagnerian



fire to Josquin des Pres's In Te Domine Sparavi (text said to have been Savaranola's favorite, recalling Robert Ashley's lines about Giordano Bruno: "I think they burned him... He was too... positive.") -- and



appropriately proceeding through



similar (almost Mt. Sinai-esian) conditions to



Diablo. After, record both parts of Psalm



30 in the lab



then return over the

Benicia



Bridge



beyond



the



Sulfur Springs for



supplies



in the



sunset, more Job: A Masque video editing



(I. "What You Been Doing?" and



IV. "Curse God and Die"), and additional embedding of Baroque videos for tomorrow evening's class.