The completion of a cycle puts one at peace

L and I completed three projects recently.

1. Brian Greene's string theory documentary The Elegant Universe which I first saw on NOVA in 2003. We watched it online across several days, completing it last night. It's three hours long and there's no math to speak of, but it's fun and the production value is high and you get a rounded overview of the sociological history of string theory by the time you're through.

The two strongest impressions I came away with:

1. the idea that the Big Bang may have been caused by the collision of two higher dimensional membranes.
2. my own sense that we have a new generation of conspicuously precocious mathematicians - almost like a mathematical leisure-class - so comfortable with such a high level of competence that they seem at some point to have become almost bored.

Q: What to do with all this useless brilliance?
A: Let the physicists worry about experimental verification. We'll do their calculations for them when they need us to, but in our spare time we're going to hang out with our bored and brilliant friends and create mathematical art.

And eventually the new art project - string theory - is so rich and beautiful that it's very depth and consistency become "proof" of it's truth.

And we've all been there before, haven't we?

2. Dexter, season 4. Entertaining television. The surprise at the end of the last episode was as satisfying as almost anything I've seen on tv.

3. Creative Thinking by J.G. Bennett. I read it first in 1995, and again several times since. The less said about this book the better.

Bach

Lots of Bach lately. From the last few weeks:

* The Brandenburg Concertos, several different versions, my current favorite being the Consortium Musicum. But I still want the 1982 Trevor Pinnock.
* The Art of Fugue, not on harpsichord or piano or organ, but as a chamber work performed by the Musica Antiqua Koln. I'm new to Bach's last work and, unsurprisingly, it's a very good time.
* The Musical Offering, with Chiyoko Arita at the harpsichord (out of print, I believe) is one of the most beautiful things in my music library.
* all six harpsichord concertos by Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra. Just okay.
* some of the Keyboard Partitas, performed by Igor Kipnis on harpsichord. I have a great weakness for solo baroque harpsichord (as somewhere Scarlatti's ears begin to burn).
* various Glenn Gould, including The Well-Tempered Clavier (Book I), the Toccatas, the 2- and 3-part Inventions, and the 1955 Goldberg Variations.

Last night during dinner, I had the Brandenburg Concertos playing in the music room and The Art of Fugue simultaneously shuffle-mixed on my nearby phone. Both Bachs were audible, and overlapping. Waves of baroque beauty, long interweaving lines of lovingly patterned self-reference, each meeting and lapping warmly at the feet of the other. Even when the two pieces were in contrasting keys there was no disharmony, leading me to suggest that Bach contains no internal contradictions.

L's birthday as photojournal

L's birthday was Saturday. Friday I sent flowers to her work, when they arrived the card said they were from somebody called "Davis".


I don't know Davis, but I admit he has robust taste in floral arrangements.

We drove north after work to a house on Lake Lanier we rented for the weekend. We ate at a noisy restaurant on the way and arrived long after sunset. Here's the porch at night.


From the porch, lights line the path as it winds down to the lake.



The house during the day, looking up to the car and the road beyond.


This picture of the lake path...


... is also the 5000th photograph my camera has taken. The completion of a cycle brings one peace. Here's the first picture I took with this camera:


Which brings us back to the path...


... and from there the dock.


We swam and dock-sat and drank absinthe and listened to Boards of Canada and talked and swam some more. Then we walked back to the house.


The house is three stories, has four bedrooms and two baths and feels like it could sleep 26.

L knitting on the porch as I type:


bathroom 1


The ground floor bedroom:


the kitchen:


the basement bedroom, for children:


The author's workstation:


The livingroom 1


The livingroom 2


L's bedroom:


The master bedroom 1


The master bedroom 2


jacuzzi in the bath off the master bedroom:


the shower in the bath off the master bedroom. There were options for water to spray from any combination of four different shower heads.


Back to the living room where L has moved her knitting:


And this is the porch, where we eat. We came downstairs Saturday morning and found water raining from the porch ceiling into our glasses left out the night before. I felt like I was in a Tarkovsky film.


L's birthday dinner:


L's sparkling wine glass, and also her favourite glass in the house:


Breakfast Sunday was French toast and scrambled eggs, prepared by the author.


Another day on the dock. The iphone played Shine on you crazy diamond live from Los Angeles in 1975. We put on lots of sunscreen and played on the raft, seen below, until it was time to head back in.


And here we are.

L's birthday as list

Friday

* L got a promotion/new job
* L received flowers from "Davis"
* Ash asked me to conduct Pachelbel's Canon at his wedding
* L visited me at work
* we packed and drove to the lakehouse
* sat on the dock and drank absinthe and watched heat lightning flash under heavy clouds

Saturday

* the birthday
* french toast for breakfast, prepared by the author
* lots of Bach
* lake swimming, part the first
* a reading from Ender's Game
* a voicemail from Ash asking me to conduct a second piece at his wedding, this one from the Princess Bride
* yes, more absinthe
* also, there was a summery sparkling wine with dinner
* lake swimming again

Sunday

* Author's breakfast
* lake swimming, part the third
* house cleaning

and here we are.

it's in the trees! it's coming!

Music School begins again Monday. Work is getting busy.

Preparations are underway for L's birthday this weekend. The current plan: a lakehouse.

painting by Jacek Yerka.

Netflix

In joyful preparation for tomorrow night's inaugural meeting of The Now Today Film Appreciation Society (which I will be attending virtually, via the magic of the interweb), I have finally joined the Netflix nation.

The Visitor

Number Six's visit was a right creative time. He likes to work efficiently for extended periods, which is always nice, and something which happened several times during his stay.

On Saturday we ate at the now-even-more-famous Carrol Street Cafe before heading right back to the Nunnery for a several hours long seed-sowing recording session.


Any questions?

The recording session rollicked and veered dangerously from Yer Blues and two Rolling Stones songs to a strange new version of The Satyrical Way, and even to some good-times recitation of Aristotle explaining how to respond to the critics of poetry, read in a continuum of different outrageous theatrical accents, over crosspicked bass. Very 22nd century.

Dinner was my favorite by L, from a recipe by Luba Gurdjieff.

A virtual social event followed with Number Six, L, and myself in the Nunnery, and Vlindinhauer Haverhast joining us via computerly magic from the nghbts 1000 mile away. We even played a version of The Narrow Way Part III together. Good times.

some photos of the band

eyedrum

The opening act - Sensitive Chaos - soundchecking.


The bar:


Sabitathica communicating the band's needs to the soundman:


Eyedrum:

The Darkness of Stars at Eyedrum

Number Six came to visit at the Nunnery, and Friday night we played our gig at Eyedrum, which was fun and intense. It was also hazardous, meaning the situation contained both significance and uncertainty as to the outcome. The task was clear and failure was a real possibility.

The quintet:

Number Six: voice, autoharp
Sabitathica: guitar
L: drones, samples
Ash: upright bass
Mont: drums

The first time we played together as a group was the afternoon of the gig, when we ran through the set once.

The show was broadcast live to a limited internet audience, which might be a first for Eyedrum. And I have the multitrack audio, which I'm mixing later tonight.

The event was a success. We held together as a group. And everyone who came, stayed.

Musical events don't organize themselves and, except in rare situations, entropy and apathy rule the day. (But The Now Today Ensemble is never far from go-mode.)

On Friday night the Darkness of Stars met their challenge with grace and good spirit. The performance had qualities I didn't anticipate. A fine time was had by all.