This Pilgrim's Progress

"The Prayers I Make"

Today in church we had a special offertory,"The Prayers I Make", that was composed by one of our musically talented members, John Watt.  The words were from a sonnet, "To the Supreme Being",  by Michelangelo that was translated by William Wordsworth, and I found them very moving, and descriptive of my own spiritual walk.  Only through Christ is there any way I can overcome my sin and strive to be better than I am.

The Prayers I Make

The prayers I make will then be sweet indeed,
If Thou the spirit give by which I pray;
My unassisted heart is barren clay,
That of its native self can nothing feed:
Of good and pious works Thou art the seed,
That quickens only where Thou sayest it may;
Unless Thou show to us Thy own true way,
No Man can find it: Father! Thou must lead.
Do Thou then breathe those thoughts into my mind
By which such virtue may in me be bred
That in Thy holy footsteps I may tread;
The fetters of my tongue do Thou unbind,
That I may have the power to sing of Thee,
And Sound Thy praises everlastingly!

Sonnet by Michelangelo
Translated by William Wordsworth
Music by John Watt, Feb. 2005

The Miro Quartet

Last night my daughter and I had the privilege to attend a concert by the Miro Quartet at the UCSD Mandeville Auditorium. They were joined by pianist Pei-Yao Wang to present three wonderful piano quartets.  The first selection was the Piano Quartet in E-Flat Major, K.493 by Mozart. This was followed by a wonderful early work by William Walton, Quartet for Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano. The evening was finished off with the Piano Quartet in G Minor, Opus 25 by Brahms. My daughter and I especially enjoyed the Walton and Brahms pieces, and the last movement of the Brahms, with it's emotional gypsy fire, was a real "barn-burner"!!

I have not had the opportunity to listen to many live quartets, and especially not by a group of this high caliber. These young musicians played perfectly together, sounding at times like one large instrument. We had seats at the front, just a few feet from the quartet, which made the music even more exciting and immediate. They were perfectly balanced,  maintaining the musical dialog through both the quiet and energetic movements. Pei-Yao Wang did a wonderful job making the piano a partner in the quartet and not overwhelming the strings with its size or power, but complementing and taking part in the conversation.   The quartet communicated wonderfully with each other through body language, posture and expressions which added to the performance rather than being a distraction. They even breathed together, which sounds funny out of the context, but made them seem like part of the same musical organism!

We arrived a little early before the concert and got to listen to the "meet the artist"  interview and questions from the audience. It was fun to hear these musicians talk about their music, and how they go about making music together.  After the concert, Heidi and two friends who had taken a master class from the quartet, got to go backstage and greet them. The violist recognized the girls from the class which gave them a thrill. During the pre-concert discussion, they mentioned that in August of 2005 they will have a new cd release, the first six Beethoven string quartets. This is part of a project to record all of Beethoven's  string quartets.

I highly recommend this wonderful group of young musicians to all lovers of  chamber music. Be sure to look for that new Beethoven release in August!!

"Lonely Runs Both Ways"

"Lonely Runs Both Ways" is the latest cd from Alison Krauss and the Union Station.  Overall I found it a very pleasing and satisfying album, although I don't think it is as good as their "Live" album.  Of course I love this group's sound and Alison's voice, so it would be hard for them to come up with something that I would hate. Jerry Douglas' dobro is very much in evidence and gives AKUS it's distinctive sound.
Some favorite cuts: The instrumental  "Unionhouse Branch"  (written by Jerry Douglas) was very good and new to my ears. I'm getting to really love Dan Tyminski's voice and the very distinctive quality it brings to every song. This was especially true with Woody Guthrie's "Pastures of Plenty",  a real treat to hear Dan sing. I also enjoyed Dan's vocal in "Rain Please Go Away."
One problem I'm starting to have with Alison's vocals is that they are starting to sound like the same song!! This is especially true of songs that they don't play very "bluegrassy".  Much of this cd is not bluegrass in sound, although very acoustic and pleasing otherwise. Dan's voice is much more country/mountain/bluegrass because he emphasis the distinctive qualities of his voice that give the song that character or color.  I thought "A Living Prayer" one of Alison's best songs on this album, mainly because the emotion was communicated well, perhaps out of a true faith and dependence on her Savior in her life, giving the song a real warmth and personality.
I thought the liner notes were adequate, although I wish they would include the words to the songs.
Overall I think fans of AKUS will enjoy this album, and won't offend the ears of those who don't like twangy bluegrass or country.

"Brand New Strings"

"Brand New Strings" is the latest cd from Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. This is a very satisfying listen for a bluegrass music fan. I enjoyed all the cuts, and in a lot of ways I thought this was a better album then their live album from last year. There's a pleasing mix of vocals and instrumentals, all with that distinctive bluegrass sound but with very polished musicianship and production.  The instrumental "1st Corinthians 1:18" was especially pleasing and a real toe tapping pleasure. The liner notes were excellent with words included and a short intro paragraph to each one that enhanced my enjoyment of this cd.  A lot of the songs had an undercurrent of  Christian faith in them that was also very meaningful to me and I think is expressed with heartfelt warmth in Ricky's vocals. If you have to choose between this cd and AKUS  "Lonely Runs Both Ways" cd, get "Brand New Strings" first, it will be more enjoyable to the true 'grass devotee.  If you are not a big fan of bluegrass, you will probably enjoy the AKUS offering. But don't just take my word for  it, if you click on the links to the albums on the right in my "favorite cd's" section, it will take you to Amazon and you can listen to samples of tracks from both albums.

Progress Report

Well I had today off because I worked last Friday (my normal  bi-weekly Friday off),  and the sun actually shined and there was NO rain!!!!  First thing I pumped out Mold Mansion's crawlspace which had about a foot of water in the lowest quadrant. Took me about 90 minutes. Not the most exciting way to spend time, watching the water level recede under your house!!!  My son started to practice his drums which were right above me. With the wooden floors it sounded like I was inside his bass drum. He graciously refrained for an hour after I asked him.  Then I changed into some less muddy clothing and pruned the roses in our back yard. That kept me occupied until about 2:30 p.m.  The yard is still so sodden it's like walking in a swamp. You hear the water squishing underfoot as you walk. Finishing up the rose pruning gave me a real sense of accomplishment. It's one of my major yard chores to get done in the new year, and I finally feel well enough.

I'm feeling pretty good and I think I'm starting to get better and even fight off the sinus infection.

We've got a busy weekend ahead. Andrew is swimming in the JO's this weekend, so that will occupy a lot of our time.  Heidi wanted to go see the Miro Quartet Saturday night, so I just finished buying a couple of tickets online. Hopefully we'll have sunshine for the swim meet. It's hard enough waiting all day on the pool deck, but if it's raining it becomes real misery. This might be Andrew's last JO, so we are looking forward to seeing him compete. These are important meets and it's a lot of fun for the swimmers to be competing at that level. I know Andrew trained hard to get the qualifying time in the 200 fly, so he's very motivated for the meet.  I'm going to try and get on tape for the family archives!!

Wednesday is "mo-bedda"!!

Today I at least was able to do some real work. My pc is undergoing diagnostics...no telling what the problem is at this point. The rain stopped for most of the day, so we've had a bit of a respite. The kids went off to the mountains to play in the snow today. I'm using a borrowed laptop, so all of my blog and news urls aren't readily available. I've been googling to get to most of them. I'm doing pretty well health-wise. I'm feeling better, but it's still too soon to tell whether or not I'm kicking the sinus infection. I miss the birds, but at least I know they are being well cared for by our friends.

Terrible Tuesday

Well, my PC workstation at work decided to go flakey this morning.  I've been pretty much idle all day waiting while our PC tech guru struggled to diagnose and treat my PC's ills.  Finally I got a temp replacement around 5:00 p.m. and did an hour's worth of work!!!  Oh well.  And it's still raining!!!! Tomorrow's a new day, hopefully I can be a bit more productive.

Moldy Manor

We are getting very tired of the rain. It came down steadily all day today. There was a break mid-afternoon, long enough for me to go out and finish pruning the roses in the front yard. Since October San Diego has had more rain (17 inches) than Seattle (only 15 inches)!!!  I've been researching gutters and yard drainage on the net this afternoon.  The main solution to getting rid of the mold is to improve the drainage and keep the water away from our foundation footings.  But as long as we get these monsoon-like rains it will be impossible to do much about it.  Even if my sinus problems aren't mold related, we really need to improve the yard drainage to prevent damage to our house.  At least we aren't being flooded or afftected by landslides or mudslides. There have been 3 deaths from that alone in the last few days in Southern California.

The birds left today. Friends are looking after our two cockatiels and parakeet  for a few weeks. We'll see if this makes any difference. I'm sort of hoping it doesn't, because I really like those little guys!!!  They are so cheerful and noisy, I miss them already.

It's been a strange weekend, I'm sort of looking forward to going back to work...getting back into some sort of normal routine where I don't have to think about the slowly rising pond under our house.

Progress Report

Health-wise I'm doing ok. I feel pretty good and I'm breathing better.  I still have the sinusitis (of course), so something is till triggering that.  We are slowly trying to get the birds to another temporary location and getting rid of the visible mold in our home's interior.  I've spent a number of hours underneath our house this weekend pumping out the foot of water that's accumulating under there from our constant rain.  Saturday I managed to mangle the cable connections under the house that connect our cable TV and Cable internet access. So we've been without cable TV or Internet since Saturday morning. We just got it repaired this morning (Monday) around 11:00 a.m.  I've been in a dark mood ever since....it's amazing how dependent I am on TV and the Internet these days...have I raised another idol to worship and serve?? Lord I hope not, but it sure put a real damper on the weekend!! We really need to get gutters and some french drains around the house, if we are going to have any chance of controlling the mold. I guess I'll need to start researching contractors and getting some bids, I'm not look forward to that at all!!

Progress Report

I just got back from the chest specialist. He said I did well on the treadmill test, but the other test indicated I has some sort of asthma/bronchitis  causing some blockage in my lungs. He's weaning me off the prednisone and on to an Advair inhaler for the lungs. And then a round of tests and a visit a month from now. He still thinks its the birds, and I mentioned the mold he said that was a possibility too.  We'll just have to see how it goes. I am feeling better, about 60 or 70 percent better than a couple of weeks ago. 

It's raining again today, so I don't know how much short term progress we'll be able to make on the mold. But I guess we need to move the birds this weekend and give it a try.