I talk a little more in this one. Weber’s Concertino is a major staple of the clarinet repertoire. When it’s done right, it’s so much fun to listen to/watch. Even practicing this is a lot of fun. It’ll be nice when this piece sounds better.
Kay Ryan’s imagery has always made me think. I’ve enjoyed her poetry, and she knows how to describe the human experience. And then her poems become a part of the human experience. She’s definitely made my life more robust.
I just finished a book of poems by Joy Harjo, called An American Sunrise. She adds commentary to her poem “Story Wheel”: “Until the passage of the Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978, . . . to write or create as a Native person was essentially illegal.”
Sometimes I work on passages of various clarinet pieces.
I’m thinking of starting a video series that includes my playing clarinet and talking about poems. This is the pilot, haha. Unfocused, yes. But two things I love.
We’re working on some things around the house, which is pretty exciting in the summer doldrums. Or dog days of summer. July might be the February of this time of year, as far as long stretches of meh go.
It’s nice to have a goal to work on, and it’s especially cool when an actual product arises, materializes, from that goal. There was a plan, which took the longest to nail down. And now we’re following the plan. Seems to be coming together nicely.
A thing I love about home painting: peeling dried paint from the roller tray. Like, when the paint all comes out in one layer. SO. SATISFYING.
We started working on a project over the weekend. Should be pretty cool.
This evening I went outside to take a picture of our apple tree, which currently has 77 billion little apples on it, and just before took the photo, a friend texted me, saying that the National Spelling Bee was on.
YES.
I did take a picture, then I ran inside and talked into my remote control to turn the tv to the spelling bee. The first result was on ESPN3, a Zoom type situation with 16 boxes with a different kid in each of them. I couldn’t tell if they were watching the bee or this was an earlier stage of the bee or whatever. I finally asked my friend which channel it was on, and she said ESPN2.
When I got to that channel, they had declared a winner, but I got to see the confetti explosion and the immediate post-bee interview.
It was amazing. The young lady was incredible. Made history. From the five minutes I saw her it was easy to see how cool she was. A bright personality. I’ll have to catch a rebroadcast of the bee soon.
I’m glad they had it, even if it was six weeks later than usual. And that they were safe during the event. And it was good they didn’t have it last year.
What a fun night.
TV: Mad Men Season 6; Superstore Season 6
Music: Birds of Chicago
Books: Radium Girls
Podcasts: Cold, Season 2
Clarinet: About an hour of practice that included reed adjusting.
Exercise: Digging around and chopping at some stumps in the yard with an axe for about 30 minutes
I wonder if I can keep this up. I mean, I even squeezed in a nap.
There’s so much to watch. And listen to. And read. I need to find a way to get to it all. Let me try to break this down.
| Sun | Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | Sat | |
| Books | 1 hour | 1 hour | 1 hour | 1 hour | 1 hour | 1 hour | 1 hour |
| Music | 1 hour | 2 hours | 1 hour | 2 hours | 1 hour | 2 hours | 1 hour |
| TV/Mov | 1 hour | 2 hours | 2 hours | 2 hours | 2 hours | 2 hours | 2 hours |
| Podc | 1 hour | 1 hour | 1 hour | ||||
| Exer | 30 min | 30 min | 30 min | 30 min | 30 min |
There are definitely more hours in the day than I have scheduled here, but these are minimum amounts.
My brain just wants to rest for now, so I’m going to let it. Instead, here’s a clarinet practice video.
Yesterday Reilly told me that Z was asking to see a picture of Nana. We have a little cloth book with family photos glued to the pages. Reilly found that book and told Z to find a picture of Nana.
So she did.
I love when Z outwardly remembers her.
Some powerful thoughts:
1. Feminism that encompasses all the issues that impact women, from poverty to criminal justice reform to living wages to better protections for immigrants to LGBTQIA issues, is feminism that ensures voting rights for all as a foundational issue.
2. For marginalized people, feminism is failing them by being so focused on whether middle-class white women have what they need and want, but not on protecting voting rights for everyone else.
3. Because institutions are not designed to help parents raise high-needs children, it becomes much easier to argue that children with disabilities are a burden to be avoided instead of addressing the paucity of resources.
4. Anger can be cathartic, motivating, and above all else an expression of the innate humanity of any community. Demands that the oppressed be calm and polite and that forgiveness come before all else are fundamentally dehumanizing.
Please read Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot, by Mikki Kendall. Straightforward, practical; applies ideas to real actions for including everyone in building feminist momentum for all marginalized communities.
A Little Thinking 