Bartley

This was my first gig in over a year. I was new in Tacoma, and I did not have any music connections here. But the neighbor got me a job playing violin in a Choral-Union concert at the University. To get ready, I bought a used tuxedo at the local rental store. It had exaggerated lapels that made me think of bat-wings. But the price was reasonable.

They sent me the second violin part and I started practicing it. The Handel "Dixit Dominus" was pretty straightforward, but the Haydn Theresienmesse had some tricky fast parts. Only a virtuoso could play these parts up-tempo, I thought. I watched some youtube performance, and, sure-enough, the strings sounded muddled. Was this the composer's intention?

For months, my D string (the second lowest string on the violin) had been bothering me. I had had work done on the instrument to enhance the sound, and, yes, there had been improvements. But now I was hearing new things I didn't want to hear: The string seemed to have a harsh nasal, fuzzy quality rather than the round tone that I imagined it ought to have.

Visions or dreams of climbing and height represent psychological anxieties.

In drawing the picture on the right, I noticed that I could make the shadow more powerful than the light

To improve that drawing, I would want to explore the rest of the space more. If I were able to create a more comprehensive system of shadows, the dramatic effect would be more powerful.

These were drawn around the time of our trip "back" east.

In Tacoma, where I am, there's a big fat plane that comes out of McChord Airforce Base nearby, and makes a circle around the Tacoma sky about twice a day. It kinda reminds me of a horse-fly (from summers of my boyhood), big, fat, overfed, and lazily, ominously buzzing around. Some kind of transport plane, I guess. I wonder how many troops this plane can carry to unhappy places.

Speaking of ominous, Susie told me the other day -- and I don't want to forget this -- that she was visited by some folks deciding whether they wanted to show her paintings. The one lady seemed a bit odd. She said something to the effect that if Susan would paint more paintings in that color scheme, they might be inclined to host them. Susan reflected to herself that she doesn't think in terms of painting in color schemes. When the two ladies left, one of them said, "I'll be dreaming of living in your house", which seems to have spooked Susan out.

Demented, or "sicky" perceptions intrigue me. Last month one morning when we had quests for breakfast, I had the distinct perception that R. was disgusted with my pancakes. Sometimes people have a sixth sense. Maybe it was only my perception.

If people tell lies about you, that is annoying, but facing the truth about yourself can be worse. One time I remember back in the Army days (1966-70) I was having a heated political discussion with another guy in the barracks. Suddenly, he said something that didn't seem to have anything to do with what we were talking about: "You'll always be a frustrated violinist."

I was stunned by this remark. Inside I was telling myself: "Yes, he's right." Looking back on it, I think that what struck home was not the truth of the statement, but my own personal fear.

A pencil figure-drawing exercise from a newspaper photo. Despite inaccuracies, the subject-matter and rendering are interesting.

For most of the drawing I just used a cheap writing pencil.

Yesterday I took time out to start working on an arrangement of a song that involved transposing to a new key. I wanted to send my daughter Susie an MP3 copy in the new key.

I had some software that came with my computer, called Nero Wave Editor, in Ahead Nero. I had dabbled with this in the past -- to digitize vinyl recordings. Every so often, it would stop writing files, and then I could get it working again by doing a system restore.

Though I am in my sixties, I have confidence that I can just start out blogging here and gradually learn about all the bells and whistles as I go. I started out in the computer business back in 1975 when my firstborn had arrived and I needed a job. I had no direct computer background -- only some training in foreign languages which I had acquired in the Army, and at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan after my discharge.

We (I) are using this as a test site. If you got here by mistake, I apologize.