Life Is Hard But Good

OK. Suna blogged this one, too. But it’s such a nice picture. Photo by: Jon Montgomery

Well, I’m still not blogging with the consistency that I was earlier this year, but maybe that’s a good thing. Work is good, and it’s been taking most, if not all, of my writing energy lately. So I’ll keep this Grateful Monday short.

This week I’m grateful that our family economics are to the point where both Suna and I can start investing some of our energies outside the home. Tonight, Suna is leading a meeting at church. I cooked a nice sausage dinner—Suna and Beccano picked out the sausage yesterday—and had it ready when Suna got home.

Suna, the boys, and I sat down to dinner and conversation, something else to be grateful for. In spite of the dreadful manipulation of paranoid souls in which the Right continues to engage, I have some hope for the future. With Trackgrease, Tubaboy, and Beccano putting their energies into making the world a better place, how can we fail? Again.

Music This Weekend

I don’t have a picture of Rebecca’s recital, but here she is conducting our choir a couple of weeks ago. We are so blessed to have her.Photo by John Phelps

There was a lot of music this weekend, starting with a rehearsal on Saturday morning at the church. Jan, Jo, and I ran through a rather drab piece called “Bittersweet.” J&J are big fans of playing what is written, and swing doesn’t really swing that way. Well, I wouldn’t really call “Bittersweet” swing. It’t more like someone who has never had the blues trying to transcribe a blues piece.

We performed this piece Sunday morning. Nobody died, but it was not my proudest moment as a musician. Luckily, we have a very kind congregation, and many of them were congratulatory. Jan was honest when she said that it had a few “rough spots.”

That afternoon the choir director gave a piano recital. She opened with “French Suite #2” by JS Bach, then moved on to Beethoven. She concluded with a Chopin piano concerto. (I lost the program, so these are mostly guesses based on a failing memory.) Rebbecca played really well and raised a little money for the Bill Sauber Memorial Fund, which supports music infrastructure at the church.

Finally, I went to jam with the new rock band I’m kinda playing with. It was our first practice with a new guitarist after the guy who asked me to join left. The singer was out of town, so the new guitarist and I faked our way through the songs we do. And I have to say we rocked. It was a great time, and I think will shape my mood for the week. I love playing loud and strong music with a deep pocket.

Although I wasn’t that into it at the time, I have come to think of Jailbreak as one of the best rock albums ever. Just driving, good-time music that’s as fun to play as it is to listen to.Photo source: Rock God Cred

If you can play rock music and stand still, you ain’t doing it right. If you do it right, it’s a fun way to get a decent cardiovascular workout.

So that’s what I’m grateful for this week: music, especially rock music. Give me a deep, throbbing bass line and a wall of sound. Give me a good drummer and a strong beat. That makes me too happy to stand still! Like the song says:

Roll me over and turn me around.

Let me keep spinnin’ ’till I hit the ground.

—Phil Lynott & Brian Downey

Diffusion and Diversity

This red rose is one of the success stories of building the side yard bed last year.

I may ramble a bit today, because I’m not really focused on what I want to say. It was a nice day of catching up on chores, watching TV, and recuperating from the stresses of the work week. Suna and I went to a party this evening while the boys went to eat pizza and listen to Jeff play.

I didn’t do much in the garden today, except to enjoy its progress. Suna and I sat on the front patio for a little while watching the wrens and other neighbors. The wildflower garden is making good progress, but the shade garden is having problems. The ginger, which looked for awhile as if it might wilt, seems to be making a comeback. But many of the coleuses, which seemed to be flourishing, have turned to mush. Still, I’d rather replace a dozen plants that cost a couple of bucks than one that cost nearly forty.

Then I made salsa for the party. G & R have a beautiful house near the church, and many of the people I only know passingly from church were there. It was refreshing to see Republicans mingling with gay people instead of bashing them. I had a nice long conversation with two of the most right-wing members of the church while enjoying the sunset on a deck that was probably ten feet above a back yard that falls away rapidly toward a greenspace. I was impressed with the house, its appointments, and color scheme. And it was a pleasant evening getting to know people better.

Weekend Update—Not SNL

Buddy and Rose often have head-on collisions at the doggy door.

I got to work in the garden a bit this weekend. I also had some time to myself. I tremendously enjoyed both.

Then yesterday, I played in the Dixieland-ish band at church, and the people seemed to genuinely enjoy it. We stayed late for a Music Committee meeting, which I think went really well.

Last night, I put together a cheap stand so the bird can move up to the media room and rejoin the family. I’ve missed that bird since we started using our portables in the media room so I could transform the old office into a music room. (That hasn't even really got started yet, but it will.)

As I was walking around campus today, I saw a fat pigeon go after a bug only to get picked off by a hawk. I wondered if the insect were aware of the pigeon’s fate, would it see the incident as divine intervention or a lucky coincidence.

So that is what I am grateful for this week: life in all its permutations, varieties, and plot twists.

Life is what we make it. Let’s choose to make it good.

Song Played Blues

I get a chance to “rock out” on the blues at church.

Camera Photo by: Suna

But when you take the blues and make a song,

You sing them out again.

—Neil Diamond

Just a quick mention here about church. Joe, Scott, and I played a ’12 bar blues” piece for the postlude. This came after a sermon from one of our lay leaders that ran the gamut among uplifting, humorous, and soporific. I always enjoy playing the blues, and I got to play lead guitar—something I enjoy and am competent at, but at which I do not really excel.

I had considered taking an electric and a small amp to make my solo grittier, but I decided at the last moment that it was too much work. Still, I enjoy playing at church and am grateful to Joe and Scott for asking me to join in. When I get a chance to play music, all the other problems go away for a little while. It’ts almost a “Zen thing.”

In other news, the roses in the ground are all growing and are either blooming or getting ready to bloom. That is really good since we bought them at half-price and planted them so late in the season.

The hanging roses are not as happy. They initially put on a bunch of new growth, but now they are neither growing nor blooming. At least they don’t seem to be dying back. Maybe they just don’t bloom this time of year. They appear to be more “antique” varieties, some of which only bloom at certain times of year.

A Society in Decline

To stop the violence, we must end religious and political intollerance.

Photo source: PeaceMonger

It’s hard to be grateful today, in light of the news of yet another church shooting, this one at a UU church in Knoxville, TN.

My gut reaction was that this was a Republican fascist attacking a liberal church that works for social justice, but that is my own prejudice speaking. The truth is we still don’t know why a man would walk into a church with a shotgun. And it’s the fourth time in 15 months people have committed murder at a church in the US, desecrating a wide range of belief systems. That doesn’t count the numerous church burnings, bombings, and desecrations where nobody died.

What I can be grateful for is this. Only two people were killed before the congregation subdued that assailant. One of those reportedly took the full shotgun blast to shield others. I honestly don’t know if I would be brave enough to do that—probably not, but I hope so.

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Evening Update: I hate being right. The linked article has been updated. It now says, “Jim David Adkisson told investigators all liberals should be killed and admitted he shot people Sunday morning at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church…”

Suna and I went to a candlelight vigil tonight at Live Oak. We commiserated with friends and met a really nice woman whose father is the membership director at the church that was attacked. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those affected, especially the children and those still in hospital.

To those like GW, Rush, and Fox News who profit by selling this absurd brand of “conservatism,” This blood is on you. I hope you like the taste. It’s time we liberals stopped using the preferred word of these right-wing bigots. We should no longer call them conservatives. They are fascists. We won’t be able to stop the death squads until we convince good people to take a stand against their evil. We can start down that road by using the correct terms.

Good Luck, Aaron

Aaron White, our newly ordained former intern

Photo source: Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Church

Yesterday, our intern minister bade us farewell. It was his last sermon as an intern. I waited until today to blog about it so that I could say, “Thank you, Aaron. It has been a real privilege getting to know you while you finished your internship. You are a great speaker and your future is bright, especially in these uncertain times.”

The church hasn’t posted the sermon yet. When they do, I will link to it.

Choir Service

I am feeling much better, thank you. The choir rehearsed on Saturday to make sure we were ready to perform the service on Sunday. Last Wednesday, I had nothing over a C#. Saturday, I had an F# back. Unfortunately, we practiced so much that I only had a D on Sunday.

Still we sounded good. I loved the way the final chords rang in the sanctuary when we finished loudly.

I hope to get a copy of the recording of the service. I know people were taking pictures. If anyone is kind enough to forward one to me, I’ll post it here, too.

We performed several numbers in a variety of styles, and there was only one that I really detest. “I Sing of Brooks” (The version we did even left out the references to Mab and the fairy king.) is a stitch craft sampler. It is as if the composer wanted to write a piece to show all of the techniques he knew—regardless of if they made musical sense. He throws polyrhythms, key changes, and meter changes together in a migraine-inducing hodgepodge that would have been better left forgotten.

Thankfully, most of the numbers we performed were at least listenable, and some were very good. A couple were even interesting.

Grateful Monday

So that brings me to Grateful Monday. Today I am grateful once again for music—even music I don’t care for. I am glad to be able to sing well enough to participate in the choir (even if not everyone agrees) where I am exposed to all kinds of music. Only by listening to enough music can we define what we like by understanding what we don’t. We have to listen to a lot of music to understand what we like, as opposed to what we are merely accustomed to.

Celebrating Our Birthdays

Suna looks at a birthday card from TubaBoy while he is busy texting his friends. The card features a large biker-type wearing hotpants he doesn’t have the butt for.

The Prince came with us to church. After a rough night (my sinuses closed completely down after dinner), I finally took half a Benadryl at about 6:00. I slept through most of Rev. K’s sermon.

We spent the afternoon working on the house. The Prince and Suna pulled up vines and other weeds in the back flower beds. They have them looking very good. I finally got around to cutting a couple of fence boards that a tree had grown into. They no longer make that annoying creaking in a wind. The only other thing I got accomplished was to trim a shelf so that it fits in the cabinet with the new brackets. One shattered the other day, and we realized that another had been missing for a while. I had wanted to make a tennoning jig, but I realized that the piece of scrap I wanted to use was too badly warped. Looks like I’ll have to buy a little MDF. It’s more stable and will last longer, anyway.

The Prince treated us to dinner at Artz Rib House, where we enjoyed the music of Danny Santos and Eddie Collins, who asked me if I would be interested in playing bass with him, assuming his current bass player actually quits. The boys ate a lot of meat. The Prince seemed to enjoy the meal and the music. Jeff Tveraas also showed up and played part of the break set, the 20 minutes between sets.

When we came home, we celebrated our respective birthdays. Mine is on Tuesday. Suna’s was last Wednesday. The Prince’s was in February. TubaBoy got me a 4G USB key. Suna got me a collector’s edition of The Long Way Home, a collection of the first “episode” of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8. The Prince and Princess gave Suna a bracelet. It had been a gift from The Prince to The Princess that they had planned to bequeath to Suna. But they decided to give it to her when they could enjoy her reaction.

Back in the USSR

A mixed review for American Airlines’ customer service: exceptionally bad followed by extraordinarily good.

Photo source: American Airlines

Flew in from Miami Beach BOAC

Didn’t get to bed last night

Oh, the way the paper bag was on my knee

Man, I had a dreadful flight

John Lennon & Paul McCartney

Suna’s dad arrived late this evening after a long day fighting the airlines. We picked up The Prince at the airport. He had a long day of it. His wonderful flight that would have had him here at 11:30 AM was canceled because the plane never left Dallas for NC the previous day. We knew that ahead of time, and he had called American Airlines to have them make a change.

Unfortunately, he got a trainee who completely screwed up. Apparently, instead of rerouting him as she had said, she just canceled everything. To their credit, AA took care of him today. They paid for a limo to take him half-way across NC to catch another flight and a cab to take him from one Dallas airport to the other for the connection to Austin. Even that extraordinary measure left him in airports or on a plane for almost 15 hours. He may never want to visit us again.

After picking him up, we took him to Mesa Rosa, which has almost become a second dining room for us. A good meal and a few beers later, we were all in a much better frame of mind—ready to come home and go to bed.

Friday’s Feast

Appetizer: If you could be any current celebrity for one whole week, who would you want to be?

If I could, I would want to be Al Stewart, I guess. I’ve always wanted to write as well as he does. And it might be nice to have his wine cellar.

Soup: On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being highest), how much do you enjoy talking on the phone?

-1.

Salad: Name a charitable organization to which you have donated (or would like to).

The church.

Main Course: What is a food you like so much you could eat it every single day for a month?

There isn’t one I would want to eat every day. Variety is the spice of life.

Dessert: Have you or anyone in your family had the flu this year?

I did. It wasn’t that bad, but the pneumonia that followed on its heels was a killer.

You’ve Got a Friend

Susaphone Sunset

Photo by Suna

When you’re down and troubled

And you need a helping hand

Carole King

UIL Competition

TubaBoy and Beccano competed with the rest of the McNeil band in UIL on Saturday. They earned a Division 1.

Church Fund Raising

We played two songs (Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend” and somebody’s “Teach Your Children”) for the church’s pledge drive dinner on Sunday. Almost everyone who stayed to listen to the speeches and music was a performer. It is sad, in a way.

Grateful Monday

Today I am grateful for music—the music I play and the music I listen to. Music is integral to human spirituality, I think. Someone at church yesterday quoted someone else as saying that musicians and poets are the true prophets. While I won’t go that far, I believe that music gives us a glimpse at the mind of God.

Tolkien based his creation mythos on music. The Greeks talked of the music of the spheres. Music can inspire tears and leave us breathless. It can make us feel the pain of others or take our own pain away. It can intrude on our most private selves and lay them bare to the world, and it can protect us from prying.

Music is our link to the eternal. It is holy, even when it is profane. I would not want to live in a world without music.

Box of Rain

Suna and I Play at Church
Photo by: John Montgommery

Guitar Bill asked Suna and I to accompany him in three Grateful Dead songs at church today.

• Eyes of the World, a long song that features a choppy America-esque rhythm guitar line with the Dead’s disregard for key.
• Broke Down Palace, song that I thought was longer than appropriate.
• Box of Rain, the most enjoyable of the three songs—and the most commercial.

Even though I thought the songs were interminable—or maybe just terminal—many of the congregation seemed to enjoy them. They were at least polite. The Choirmaster even complimented me on my bass playing and said I had to do more of it some time.

Shows what I know.

So what were we doing playing these tunes at church? Search me. The only thing I can figure is that they all have at least one vaguely spiritual moment without ever mentioning God or any other divinity, power, principality, essence, or spirit by name. They were not inconsistent with the sermon, which was about how an atheist came to join a Christian church.

Interesting Game at Church

It is frightening how easy it is to fall into dangerous behaviors. Image Source: The Wasp Box

After church today (where Bob Keeshan was nominated to be Saint Kangeroo even though he hasn’t been dead the requisite five years yet) we played an interesting reality-based role playing game. We divided into four teams, each of which was to build a community within a large metropolitan area. My team, named for ice cream, was chocolate, and we were economically and socially oppressed. So, I took on the character of a scheming, self-serving politician who operates in the name of the oppressed.

It was interesting to watch everyone react to the demands of social unrest and not-so-passive aggression. In the end, my team got everything we demanded without having to pay for it. And my team mate and I were able to retire in the Bahamas.

This exercise teaches a scary lesson about the American political reality, a lesson I did not point out in the game. I am sure my fellow players would have denied it even though complicitous.

Weekend in New England

OK. So it wasn’t a weekend in New England. It was a weekend in Central Texas.

And it was a real Wheel of Fortune. Friday was Imbolc, and we ritualed and taroted. Saturday we rehearsed new sad songs in choir and went to see Rimi. Sunday we sang sad songs in church for a friend of EW who died. Then we went to Granger, where EW washed some dishes the X2B used and left in the sink. I think that was mighty big of her, cleaning up after X2B while I packed some music gear for the choir director (CD) to use.

Then it was off to CD’s house for a WhoCares Bowl party. I rooted for Dad’s team, which (luckily) was the right one. CD’s husband is a man of strong football opinions. He reminds me of X1 in the way he watches football.