Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare eat a peach?

At long last, the Queen Anne branch of the public library has reopened. I've never been here before. It's an old-fashioned kind of space, with high ceilings and wooden shelves. I'm a bit relieved to have it here; one can feel at home in a library, and this one is much closer to our apartment than the ghastly downtown branch.

Today- often- I am plagued by the basic problem: why do people do things? Where does all this will come from, and what difference does it make if we have existed or not? Is hedonism the answer? We believe that our lives matter, we try to do things well (or not) and then we get old and die. I don't think posterity exists.

Lion in Wait

I am hatching a concert based on a medieval German narrative. The story I want to tell is about Iwein, one of King Arthur's knights, who travels around with a lion as his companion. He does boneheaded things as well as heroic ones, which is part of his appeal, I guess. The lion, I confess, is the best part. So now it's a question of deciding which snippets of text to recite (over some kind of beat poetry accompaniment) and finding music to highlight events in the story. I'm now of the opinion that the spoken part should be in English (the other possibility being Middle High German with supertitles....highbrow, yes, but more technical hassle and expense, and probably less fun for most audience members.) Learning enough about the German repertory to fill in the story falls under the category of "fun challenge," I believe, but oh how I wish I had the IU library with me now! The good news is that I'll be looking for poems based on their topic. One thing that might bring me good fortune is the fact that there are many strong female characters in the story, and I have found a bunch of sad love poems (Neidhart von Reuenthal, I think) in the feminine voice. This is good, because my singers are women. Not that is matters ultra much, but it's nice when things jive that way.

Listen to the Flower People

Yesterday was my triumphant Seattle premier! Sure, it was a modest venue, but the crowd was warm and more people trickled in than out. Also, they stood up and asked for more when we finished playing, and I call that a triumph.

The act before us was even quieter- and earlier- than the the so-called early music. Their act involved six people sitting on the floor with piles of rocks, shells and sticks. The leader informed us that they had endured rigorous rehearsals to do what we were about to witness. Then they took turns rolling the rocks, shells and sticks around in their hands. One at a time. Playing quietly with the rocks, shells and sticks. The high point came when the leader gave each of us a pine cone to mess with, and then he took them away and it was over. No problem, man; I can get my OWN pine cone!


In other news, I had a dream about a really catchy pop song that went like this:

I knew that you wanted me!
What did you want me for?

That's about it for now.