Nah

[Parsifal]

After my computer kept loosing wifi connection I clicked the "diagnose the problem" button in the Microsoft network settings dialog . For the first time in my lifetime, it actually claimed to have found a problem and now it works better. Now I have some statistics. It works approximately 0.5% of the time.

Problem's back. Maybe that $6 Wifi adapter wasn't such a great choice.

[kishnevi]

Well, we all hope you are well, and all the circumstances improve!

Let the cool be maintained.

Ditto.
And if /when you manage contact with John (MI) please let us know.

[Parsifal]

Well I'm back. Things have been going on in my personal life that I'm not even willing to talk about here, I'm getting counselling now and will hopefully be getting better soon

Hoping for a quick resolution of difficulties.

[NikF]

Today has been about going to the gym. It was nominally a back day. I got home and ordered an Indian takeaway (palak paneer with steamed basmati rice) and then had a nap. When I woke I continued the task I've been attending to recently, that of decorating the house in preparation for sale.

An aside: when I was walking home from the gym a woman sitting in her car waiting for the lights to change turned my head by turning her head to smile at me. She had dark hair styled perfectly for the shape of her face and so for a moment a frame within a frame.

[NikF]

I'm now well into my first week back at Uni and loving the shit out of it.

You know all the contemporary and modernist music I passionately rave on about every day? well some of it is being taught here 

Good stuff.

[ritter]

An aside: when I was walking home from the gym a woman sitting in her car waiting for the lights to change turned my head by turning her head to smile at me. She had dark hair styled perfectly for the shape of her face and so for a moment a frame within a frame.

Good stuff... you're quite a master in poetically catching the magic of an instant. Keep 'em coming! 

[NikF]

Good stuff... you're quite a master in poetically catching the magic of an instant. Keep 'em coming! 

Thanks. It''s just that even when I'm not behind a camera I still love seeing and making pictures.

[Crudblud]

I am approved to adopt me a pup. Will probably be paying next week.

[NikF]

I am approved to adopt me a pup. Will probably be paying next week.

Good stuff. I'm happy for you and for whoever you adopt.

[Karl Henning]

If this is an imposition here, I can relocate it to the HQ's.

I finished my Symphony in January (just before the inauguration which, reliable sources relate, enjoyed the Largest Crowd Ever).  Also, just before a Greater Boston Choral Consortium 'speed-dating' event where I was to be part of the Triad delegation.  Since Triad is a collective of composer-conductors, it was going to be entirely appropriate for me to present myself as a composer.

Of course, people would ask, "What have you been working on?"  And I should have the enormous pleasure of saying, "In fact, I have just finished my Symphony № 1."

Well, now:  what if I should meet an orchestra conductor, who might then follow up with, "Really?  Do you have a score?  I should like to see it."  What if that should happen, and I, sorry enough not to have brought hard copy with me?  Insupportable.  So of course, I brought a copy with me.

And I did meet an orchestra conductor (Channing Yu of the Mercury Orchestra);  and he did ask what my recent work was, and I said, "A Symphony."  And lo! he did indeed ask to have a look.

Now, maybe he was being polite (and no fault at all to him).  Absolutely true it is, that the 'speed-dating' event was not the time for him to curl up with my score and study it.  So he was going to pass it back across the table to me, when I said, "No, please – do take it with you, and have a look at your convenience."  In any case, there was no need for me to take the score back home with me.  In the flurry of the table-touring of that event, Channing did not furnish me with any contact info.  Perhaps he told me, "Check my website";  or, perhaps, that was my own problem-solving.

However, on his website, I did not manage to find more than one e-mail address to which to send (as distinct, probably, from a webpage message form), and that address began with "info@..." Well, to that address I did (the very evening that we met) send a "Hi, nice to have met you" message.  The conductor is a busy chap, so I did not take it as significant when a few days passed and I heard nothing;  and, well, I am often somewhat busy myself, so beyond that initial buffer, this particular contact drifted to the edge of my radar, and at some imperceptible time, off the scanner entirely.

In April, I am not sure just what prompted me to think of it, and I sent a second message on 7 April.

Now, by a curious coincidence, it was not at that January meeting that I was first aware of Channing.  A few days before, I had shared the good news of the Symphony's completion with a violinist friend – and, yes, I asked him if he knew of anyone to whom it might be a goodish idea to forward the score.  And in his reply, Stephen told me of the Mercury Orchestra, directed by Channing Yu.

Well, perhaps two weeks ago, Stephen sent email inviting me to a brace of concerts which the Mercurials were to play.  And I decided that I would go to Wednesday evening's free concert at the Hatch Shell on the Charles River Esplanade, for it would be an excellent opportunity to visit with Stephen in person (the first time in some few years, really), and possibly to see Channing again.

The concert was to begin at 19:00, and was publicized as running until 20:45.  But there was introductory yammer from (I think) Ron Della Chiesa (a radio fixture, quite handily typified by his weekly Strictly Sinatra Saturday broadcast);  and then Channing took some minutes to greet the audience, to speak in general terms about the program, and about the plot of Die Meistersinger, and then to walk them through the concert suite.  Between the pre-performance chat buffer, and (quite possibly) a slower reading of the music (though not absolutely languorous, by any means!), it was half past 8 by the time the intermission started.  I did manage to get Stephen's attention, and he clambered down from the stage, and we caught up very nicely;  it was not just we two, as a couple from his home neighborhood soon joined, and it was a more generally social chat.

The time having drawn already to 20:45 I was regretfully unable to linger for the Strauss (Der Rosenkavalier Suite), and thus double-plus-regretfully unable to try to get Channing's ear – for I needed to get me back home (about 20 minutes of walking, 20 minutes on the 'T', 20 minutes driving), as my alarm typically goes off at 04:30.

So in my message of the next morning to Stephen, to say, "How nice to see you again!," I added a postscript explaining the silence from the "info@..." address, and asking if he knew of a better?  He did . . . and I have sent a message thither . . . and . . . we wait again.

[NikF]

I believe that easily belongs in this thread. And as an account it's both interesting and intriguing . I hope your latest email does the trick. Do keep us informed? But in the meantime, as my auld granny was fond of reminding people  - "Whit's fur ye'll no go by ye!"

[Karl Henning]

Thanks!  Will follow up as may chance.

[kishnevi]

I am approved to adopt me a pup. Will probably be paying next week.

Yeah!  Please pictures when pup finally makes it to your hearth.

[Karl Henning]

Yeah!  Please pictures when pup finally makes it to your hearth.

+1

[Karl Henning]

At the moment it also seems that all I want or can listen to is Lassus, Machaut, Josquin, Bach and Webern for some reason.

Anything else and I feel the sudden urge to turn it off 

Go with the musical flow.

[BasilValentine]

I saw a bear! After seeing many piles of bear scat on a ridge with frequent open ledges, I spotted this feller on the next ledge down:

It was hard to get a sense of scale but I think he was a youngster, maybe 150 to 200 lbs? He — and I — were there looking for blueberries. He seemed to have eaten most of them.

[NikF]

I saw a bear! After seeing many piles of bear scat on a ridge with frequent open ledges, I spotted this feller on the next ledge down:

It was hard to get a sense of scale but I think he was a youngster, maybe 150 to 200 lbs? He — and I — were there looking for blueberries. He seemed to have eaten most of them.

Good stuff.

[NikF]

Today I'm going to lunch with friends. Our small circle increasingly decreases with the latest regular absentee being Iain, who has been dating a beautiful young woman he worked with months ago on a fashion shoot. So that's us reduced in number to three. But it'll still be fun. Think of it as a meeting similar to the 'Algonquin Round Table', only our version has none of the sophistication, talent, charm, or wit.

[Karl Henning]

What did you have? 

[NikF]

What did you have? 

I had pan fried fillet of sea bass with salsa verde, roast potatoes and greens.  
And I believe that for an instant, the spirit of Woollcott looked down over the proceedings and struggled to produce even a soupçon of a pithy remark, before sadly shaking his head and evaporating into the ether.