I’m teaching species counterpoint again, but this time, in addition to teaching chant, that is Gregorian (Christian) Chant, I’m exploring all the different kinds of chanting that exists in other sacred traditions. For that matter, I’m playing whale songs and wolf howls as examples of animals’ uncontrollable urge to sing. Here is a baby wolf: she can’t help but howl, even though she doesn’t know exactly what she’s doing. I know the feeling.
Flypaper sings Rejection
After much introspection
It’ud be dereliction
Not tellin’ you what turns me on
(Baby)
Profound inspection
And sheer detection
Makes obvious what turns me on
(Baby)
Tear up my letters
Don’t return my calls
Spurn me every which way
See how this sucker crawls
Rejection!
Love it to death
Oh yeah
Rejection
Who needs crystal meth?
When he’s finished, lost the fire
And wants out, wants me to die
Planning my demise something dire
That’s the joy, that’s the high
Rejection
Planning some escape plot?
Oh, yeah
Rejection
Give me all you got
(Download me baby…)
© by Mel Shapiro and Roger Bourland
[Photo: backstage snapshot of one of Jessica’s performance]
After an intense year being chair of the music department and writing a musical, it seemed like an easy transition: just chair? no problem! All of a sudden, my TO DO list has become formidable. And having this list just sit there is very stressful knowing that I am going to have to do most of it. Yes, I delegate, and delegate wherever possible. But sometimes ya just gotta do it yourself.
I haven’t written any music all summer long. In that I wrote almost every day last year, I think it’s ok to take some time off. Recharge the batteries. I have no guilt: i feel good about it.
Ahead of me is a new orchestration of FLASHPOINT/STONEWALL for men’s chorus, soloists, and replacing four live synthesizers with piano, bass and two orchestral instrument (stay tuned).
Another piece I will be writing this year is a “companion” piece to the Goldberg Variations. This is for a solo piano recital by Lana Chwe, who will be performing the GV on the first half, and my piece on the second half. So I share the program with Bach. I can’t imagine doing another set of variations––it would probably just give everyone hiccups. I’m thinking post-Rachmaninov.
I find that after NOT composing for a while, it’s like going for a long time without sex––you get really, really horny. So, I get really horny for writing music, and BAM! i set the piece in motion. I love it!
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Today was the first day back at school. I taught a large “music theory” class–the first of a full year course with freshmen from ethnomusicology, historical musicology, and music majors, and later, individual lessons with graduate students in composition. Intense. My aloha spirit–left over from our fab vacation in Kauai–got me through it. But man, I’m beat.
zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Today we’re hosting a party for faculty, staff and families from the departments of Music, Musicology and Ethnomusicology. We’re anticipating around 80 people. Not everyone can make it but those that will be here should have a good time. A warm day is in store and there is enough shade in our backyard to keep us all happy.
Here we go!
The people in the southwest portion of the US were warned about killer bees slowly coming up from Mexico. We were all terrified. I can’t say I’ve seen any yet––just the mellow honey bees that are always hitting on one flower or another around here.
But what I HAVE seen is an amazing rise in killer ants. No, these are not really killer ants, but teeny little ants that are very good little eaters. Now, maybe I need to contact an exterminator, which I will likely do, but these little critters are out of control. These are protein seeking ants, not sweet seeking ants. If I leave out one teeny crumb of cheese or meat, there will be a superhighway on the way there within the hour. Likewise if I leave any protein-based garbage in the trash, a mega superhighway of ants is there in minutes. Calixto, our gardener, said that whenever these little ants are around, you don’t have to worry about termites––they eat all the babies and eggs. I told him that I thought they preferred protein, he disagreed: “they eat everything.”
Yesterday I was watering the yard and the ants HATE water, so they were crawling up my shoes, into my shoes, over my socks, up my legs and into, well, it was just creepy. I had to go take a shower.
There is an upside to this infestation. One of my neighbors seems to be poisoning rats. The rats then decide to come up in our basement, climb into the walls and die. This happened to us twice before with a disgusting 4 or 5 weeks of rotting rat wafting through your house. This summer, I detected that unforgettable smell wafting up from the walls. But it only lasted two days. I happened again a month later: two days and gone. The little varmints had eaten the dead rat. Halleluiah! This was confirmed when I saw the skeleton of a rat in my back yard, still covered by ants. Even the cartilage was gone! Just a fine little skeleton, splayed out across the dirt.
I bet that if I dropped dead in the kitchen, there would be very little left once someone found me.
Is this actually a cover-up by the authorities? They don’t want us to panic about a new infestation of killer ants?
Difficult times lately. The economy sucks, the earth has even MORE carbon dioxide surrounding it this year, family members with some real health challenges, budget cuts at work, but this ol’ world keeps on turning ’round and I still love you.
A mosaic of Jupiter’s ring system, acquired by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft when the Sun was behind the planet, and the spacecraft was in Jupiter’s shadow peering back toward the Sun. (NASA/JPL/Cornell University)
I just participated in one of the American dreams: to put a hundred down and buy a car. Well, it was over a thousand and I’m leasing it (2008 Acura TL, black with beige interior). I’m gambling that there will be a great selection of electric or hybrid cars at the end of the three year lease and I’m not ready to get a Prius. When Steve commented to me that he drove with a friend to Las Vegas, and with air conditioning on the Prius got 39 mpg, and his TL got 31. Mark likes his Prius but hates the seats. R&P sold their Jaguars (sic) and bought two Prii (Priuses?) with all the bells and whistles. We almost got the electric Aptera but I was nervous about its ability to handle tall people, so I’ll wait until 2.0 comes out.
Until then, I can talk on the phone and shout commands to my car and it minds me completely. Sigh, I guess I’m finally an adult.
School starts for UCLA on Thursday. I’ve been planning my big class and getting ready for the year to begin. I hope to get my blogging rhythm back up to speed and subscribe to the paper all week instead of just the weekend.
Sung by Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, and Teddy Thompson (2001),
I keep forgetting how to do this. This should help me remember. Mmmm Mangoes!
Here is a new take on the song by Grammy nominated artist Amy Hanaiali from the album Nostalgia produced by Jon de Mello for the Mountain Apple Company.
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Aloha Oe
Haʻaheo ka ua i nā pali — Proudly swept the rain by the cliffs
Ke nihi aʻela i ka nahele — As it glided through the trees
E hahai (uhai) ana paha i ka liko — Still following ever the bud
Pua ʻāhihi lehua o uka — The ʻāhihi lehua of the vale
Hui: Chorus:
Aloha ʻoe, aloha ʻoe — Farewell to you, farewell to you
E ke onaona noho i ka lipo — The charming one who dwells in the shaded bowers
One fond embrace, — One fond embrace,
A hoʻi aʻe au — ‘Ere I depart
Until we meet again — Until we meet again
ʻO ka haliʻa aloha i hiki mai — Sweet memories come back to me
Ke hone aʻe nei i — Bringing fresh remembrances
Kuʻu manawa — Of the past
ʻO ʻoe nō kaʻu ipo aloha — Dearest one, yes, you are mine own
A loko e hana nei — From you, true love shall never depart
Maopopo kuʻu ʻike i ka nani — I have seen and watched your loveliness
Nā pua rose o Maunawili — The sweet rose of Maunawili
I laila hiaʻia nā manu — And ’tis there the birds of love dwell
Mikiʻala i ka nani o ka lipo — And sip the honey from your lips
Here is some fun news about and a video tribute to the composer.
Transition back to LA has been difficult, mostly because Delta has planes with cool monitors in the seat in front of you. But if you have a long torso, as I do, your head flops over the “headrest” and sleeping is impossible, even with a Nyquil swig. So I only had a half hour of sleep. Having taken the red-eye (never again unless in first class) I was wiped out on my return to LA and cancelled my appointments. Our new Chancellor’s expertise is in Circadian rhythms and a colleague told me that travelling from west to east is harder on the body than the opposite. [I have not confirmed that Gene Block actually said/wrote/reported this.] Boy, it is true, and add no-sleep to that equation and it’s a deadly cocktail. I was a zombie.
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For the last two days, I have been back in the saddle as Chair doing all kinds of cool stuff and dealing with insane budget cuts (I assume you’ve read all about it in the papers) but making terrific new plans.
I flash back to Kauai. So beautiful and peaceful and little and VERY humid. Fabulous to visit: not ready to move there. Maybe a time-share. Hawaii, and likelly Kauai itself is one of the most dangerous places on earth according the Atlas of Hawaii, 3rd edition. Volcanoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, variation in sea levels, and millions of years from now, the collapse of the porous stuff the island is actually built upon. All that doesn’t keep us away. It is such a great and magical place.
A friend accused Kauai of becoming over-commercialized. Maybe the south part of the island, but there is still a well protected majority of the island that is raw island. After a heavy rain the other day, four amazing waterfalls came streaming down the mountain as we had fish and chips in Hanalei Center. A lovely memory.
It is such an amazing experience to fly over water, water, water, water for six hours and finally you see teeny little set of islands and you land on one. In the middle of nowhere. An amazing experience for me every time I visit.
Mangosteen
Daniel and Mitchell went to the farmers market twice and we continually ate local fruits and vegetables. Mangos, papaya, bananas, coconut and coconut water (filter, boiled and cooled:mmm!), mangosteen, jackfruit (yuk), avocado, kalamansi, rambutan, atis, and more.. I actually lost weight. We ate out at terrific restaurants. Prices on Kauai are not that different from LA.
We swam everyday. I haven’t swam in the ocean since Hurricane Olaf knocked me around, scraping me all over rocks in Will Roger State Beach––I barely got out alive. A very cute lifeguard tended my cuts. When I emerged from the surf, I was covered with blood. It was like Carrie coming from the sea. So, I’ve had issues with swimming in the ocean for a long time.
The sun is so intense in Hawaii from 10-4 that you can really scald yourself. We fragile school teachers limited our beach activity outside that brilliant time. I have nightmares these days about being trapped in an open field, exposed to full sun with nowhere to escape. Golf is just out for me. Sunbathing, while being boring, is not even an option for me. Bicycling in full sun: no more. Both of my parents have had cancers removed from their faces. I’ve been lucky so far but am getting a few biopsies Oct.1.
Some of my colleagues chastised me for doing UCLA work on my vacation. I love my job and taking a vacation 2 weeks before school starts (when children are back in school) carries with it some putting out fires from time to time. And interrupting my vacation from time to time did not ruin it.
The stock market is crashing, but the world is still spinning ’round.
I try to keep the aloha spirit alive. I wore my boar’s tusk necklace to my Moodle class today. Yes, I’m using Moodle for my course online syllabus and resource center.
We’re planning a huge party for the beginning of term and have invited the entire faculties of all three music departments at UCLA and the staff. It’s a potluck, and most of these people are amazing chefs and bring the coolest dishes. The mix will be fab.
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In my blogging pattern, I tend to write less in September as that month is often my vacation month. I read a book once that advised to NOT blog if you don’t feel like it or if it is forced. I’m sure you understand.
I am excited about the upcoming year. The vacation was a terrific battery recharger.
Mahalo Kaua’i. Mahalo!
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