Rainy Days and....

Bleh. It's all wet everywhere. Including me.
I went to the store - about a 5 mile walk there and back - fine when I left, just overcast. Then slowly, inch by inch, bit by bit. Sodden I was, I tell you.
And so it came to pass that he worked on jazz band arrangements of Blazin', and You'll Cry for Me But I'll Be Gone. Not too speedily either, I might add. But - 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.
Pfeh. Rain. Gives me cabin fever big time.

Arrangements played!?

Well yesterday AM, the "old-guys-band" played through 5 of my arrangements. Oh boy.
They love them! But they also mangle them horribly (no offense is intended - they are difficult). The 1920's style is so foreign to musicians raised on swing, that they really struggle with some of the characteristic figures (both rhythmic and tonal).
And the accidentals! Ho boy. Sharps and flats where they don't expect them (aka lots of parallels), and a type of polychoral aranging that is very foreign to the big-band swing style.
BUT, by the end of the rehearsal, they were starting to "get" some of it. Very gratifying.
Now I just need to polish, simplify, improve. Basically make them more playable, and more readable. I would like to develop arrangements that will work 60-70% on a first read-through. Not sure that's possible while retaining the style, but if it can be done, I will do it. And now I know for certain that I can do it.
BTW - I always liked the !? thingy - reminds me of chess commentators!?

Prohibition Blues Arrangement - Done.

Well, the arrangment of Prohibition Blues is done.
15 piece - 1 clarinet, 1 alto, 2 tenors, 1 bari, 4 trumpets, 3 bones, piano, bass, drums.
Pretty close to standard modenr jazz band. We'll see tomorrow when the guys give it a first sight-reading.
BTW - that makes 15 of these little suckers that are finished.

Brown Sugar - NOT the Stones!

Well, I discovered something new (for me anyway) about coffee.
I have NEVER had a knack for making coffee. Nope. No way. Most things I set my mind to - such as it is - I can usually do very well. But - not coffee. Java-making is a black art that has always evaded all my varied attempts.
So, on a whim, this week, I tried my usual cup of disgusting Instant Maxwell House with a large dollop (like that word - certainly visually interesting) of dark brown sugar. Voila! It's palatable.
Not great, but certainly a large improvmement over my usual pitiful efforts. Three guesses what my new coffeee habit will be, and the first four don't count.

Aspie tests - Oop. Ack.

Well, I took some more Asperger's recognition/diagnosis tests.
Except for the facial-recognition thingy, I scored smack in the middle of the AS population.
In fact, from the tests, I am a text-book case of high-functioning autism aka Aperger's Syndrome.
I'm not sure quite how to take that/this. But I think I am mostly relieved/happy.
I always like explanations, and this provides a whole basket-full.
But...what does it all mean? How can this help? What can I do? How does this help?

GRE Results!! (Again)

So, my son, aka Will, got his letter from ETS with his "official" results.
Hoo-rah.
His writing part was disappointing, but....
98th percentile on verbal!
OK, way to go. A decent shot at a good grad school. I was ecstatic. And if you know me, I don't get ecstatic very often. I was somewhat wired-up for several hours. Once again:
Hoo-rah.

Frosty Me

Well I went for my usual walk this AM - frost on the ground, etc., and all the bare trees. Except for one "weeping birch" (I think that's the usual term) which had all its golden leaves still in place. Very impressive looking in an odd-sort-of way. The weeping part certainly made its point, with all the branches bent over like someone's head bent over, with their face hidden. And the leaves hanging like blonde hair, hiding the sadness. Hmmmm. Nature mimics life?
Well, then I biked to the market. That's about 3 miles; not a big deal usually. But there was FOG. And I mean fog. Fog? Visibility was about 50-75 yards. And me (soooo intelligent) all dressed in black. Like the man said in The Dam Busters - "This is bloody dangerous." Well, it certainly made me aware of the fragility of life, as they say.
And here I am cycling away - well, not really very fast - and thinking away (I do that part faster). Anyhoo, when I got to the market, I realized I was frosted. On my coat and the front part of my gloves where they caught most of the wind from biking. A nice neat silver frosting. Me! Frosty!
Well, it's the little things, anyway.
The average person produces nothing but their own existence.
(That's what frosted cycling does to your mind!)

Prohibition Blues

No. Nothing is being prohibited here. That's just the name of latest tune I'm arranging.
At first, I was not interested in it at all - kind of a tuneful piece of nothing, really. But then I realized I have been doing two things - arranging fast tunes, because they sound impressive (and look that way on the page also), and arranging difficult tunes. The difficult part especially. I guess for the personal challenge.
But that means the band can't really play them well enough. They're a technical challenge for me with all the counterpoint, but that sort-of misses the ultimate point.
Which is: I want these arrangements to be playable. And I want them to be played, aka saleable, aka sold to amateur and school bands.
Soooooo - Prohibition Blues it is. In fact, the last two have been "easy". As in playable by a decent university ensemble.
Starting to get a decent stock of material too. This will make 15 of them that are in-the-can.
Starting to think now about how to market them.
Of course it would help if I could figure out how to make a decent recording of them, so potential users could actually hear how they sound!

Windows Bah (No not the Microsoft kind...)

Well yesterday was my attempt at windows again. And a good one it was. But not to be.
Frustration (a): Don't ever buy exterior white latex paint (on sale) at Canadian Tire. Trash, traaaash. Thin, no coverage, no body. Jeez. Close to useless. I was trying to put a protective coat on the outside of the wooden sashes that I had just reglazed. Phooey. Canadian Tire Paint = total waste of time. Maybe I can use it up later on the front porch or something. Anyway, lesson learned. Buy paint from paint people. Duh. I knew that.
Frustration (b): Sash cords are mostly broken (OK, no surprise there, they are 82 years old - the originals that were installed with the house. How do I know? Funny you should ask.) So - take the sashes (plural!) out and look for the covering for that "access hatch" to the counterweights. Nope. No such animal. The original builders didn't bother with that little improvement. I guess in 1922 everything lasted forever and din't need replacing. So. Pull off the outer frame of the window, assuming that there will be access behind the mouldings. This usually works. Nope. Deal? NO DEAL! Slab of wood, slab of palster. Very nice plaster job too. But no space, no access. No counterweights, no new sash cords. So now what, you ask. (Thought you'ld never ask.) Three alternatives - 1) fuggetaboudit, 2) smash some of the plaster to get access, 3) pry off some more of the frame to get at them. Hobson's choice. Pfeh.
Not done yet....
Frustration (c): I reversed my "labels" on the window glasses, so I "uninstalled" the 3rd floor sash just in time to find out the glass didn't fit. What the? okokokok. I recognize my mistake, so I'll just tape off the window temporarily and put the glass in the other window, where it fits (yay). Nope. I pull off the mouldings (it's an exterior multi-pane storm, and it isn't puttied, the glass is just held in place by the mouldings) and the brads that held the mouldings, and the glass, can't be removed, because I did NOT bring the pliers along (afraid they might get stolen by the tenant). Anyway, they must be removed, because the new glass is thicker than the old glass, and it WILL NOT FIT unless I remove the brads. Aargh.
Solution: A little hand-flapping followed by 3 bags of garbage out the door to make me feel that I had actually not totally wasted my time.
Rats.
Double Rats.

BTW - this post was originally 3 run-on sentences. I did some decent editing, yes?

Fluorescent Lights - Bah!

So I forgot to mention...
That stupid election work took place in a room, a small room mind you, entirely lit by fluorescents.
Very Nice, Very Bright.
Except that after an hour I had a headache the size of Kansas.
Certain types of fluorescents I react to VERY strongly. Ordinarily I would just leave. But the job of R.O. (see previous post) entailed staying put for the entire 10 hours that the polls were open.
OTOH, walking home afterwards, the headache decreased to the environs of Kansas City within 5 minutes of leaving. But it took me most of yesterday to get really recovered. Drat.

Sometimes I wish I was normal. I know, I know, be careful what you wish for...

Election work

Well, yesterday was municipal election day here, and I worked as a Voter Registration Officer.
Interesting with the variety of people that come through.
But, gee whiz, only about a 25% voter turnout. That's terrible. What has happened to civic duty? What has happened to "making a difference"?
Abdication of choice means that others choose for you. Is that really what you want?
OTOH, it is somewhat stressful for me with all those people. But not too bad, since I have done it several times before, and feel pretty much in control all the time. No handflapping.
And I get to tell my bad jokes to the other workers, who of course have never heard them before.
There are no new jokes, just new audiences.
Aah, the virtues of many years in show-biz!

Guitar Player's Album

So, the guitar player who I play with some weeks has his new album almost completed.
And I'm on a couple of tracks (playing acoustic bass). So we'll see when it is pressed - from what I have heard of the scratch tracks and partials, it should be quite good.
All acoustic, too. We shall see, we shall see.

Armistice/Rememberance Day Service

I stood, and it was cold.
Not much of an offering to those who gave everything they had.
But I stood. And it was cold.

Rememberance Day - Evidently not.

So it seems that our local city council is taking Friday the 10th off as a holiday; for Rememberance Day (aka Armistice Day, aka if you don't know why it's a special day, you probably will engage in the same stupid behaviour that made the holiday occur in the first place).
Very well, take a holiday on the wrong day because it so happens you aren't working on the correct day. Just an excuse for a free day. Bah.
But that's just quasi-bad. Here's what really got me.
The public libraries are also taking the Friday off; but they are open on Saturday the 11th!
Very nice.
Politicians. I hope the ghost of George Patton infests your armpits on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, every year from now until eternity.
(And YES, I spelled it that way on purpose.)

The Moon Was Yellow

Not.
Actually, the moon yesterday morning (6:50Am local time, just before sunrise) was a brilliant WHITE.
I don't think I have ever seen it so white, pristine, clear. It was near the Western horizon, and in that area, the industrial smog tends to discolor everything. But not yesterday - maybe because it was a Monday, and the air was clearer than usual. (Strange word that - clear-er.)
But the reference in the title is to an old song by that name - the juxtaposition just seemed right.

9mm dies.

Hah. Much to my surprise, I won a set of reloading dies on Ebay!
Nice RCBS tungsten-carbide set of 3 dies. And cheap.
Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win.
I don't even like to play.
But this time,
I won.

I hope this formats as nicely on the blog as it does in the window; so artiste. But it probably won't, so what the heck.

Back to arranging Down and Out Blues.

Comments - DUH

So here I am saying YMBAAI can leave comments, and I would like that, and I forget to turn on the comments thingy.
OKOKOKOK - done.

GRE GREAT

William (No.2 son) took his GRE this morning. Aargh.
NO AARGH!
Scores were Verbal 720, Quantitative 710.
Good enough for a lot of good schools. I believe I am pleased. What's more I believe he is pleased/relieved.
Onward to Grad school! Yay! (Of course WHICH one now becomes the issue at hand.)

Leaves Falling Rain

So I took my usual walk this morning about 6:30, before sunrise, when it's quiet, with my usual hot tea with sugar and milk. Routine that pleases.
And all the yellow maple trees were disrobing.
There were so many leaves falling all at once; under one tree it sounded just like light rain.

Aspie?

If any of you bloggers out there are Aspie's (you know who you are), I would like to hear from you.(About blogging and....)

WMD (and population explosion)

I find it interesting (and somewhat unsettling) that the ability of weapons to kill people in quantity has nicely kept up with the rapidly increasing population of this planet. IOW, as the population has begun to increase exponentially (over the last several hundred years or so), our ability to kill each other in mass quantities has also kept pace.
Swords, clubs and knives kill individuals; cannons kill small groups; bombs kill dozens or hundreds. A nuke can kill millions.
Now the human race is in a situation where the planet has questionable ability to support all of us, and we also have the ability to, within minutes, wipe most of the population that the earth cannot support.
An economist friend of mine always said that the Earth cannot support more than 2 billion humans. Do we now have tha capacity to eliminate 4-5 billion humans with weaponry? Properly targeted, with NBC weapons, I suspect so.
With the proliferation of WMD's, the probability rises exponentially, along with the population.
Will Charles Darwin, or Thomas Malthus (or Gaia, or whoever) win this one again?