more Labyrinth, 9/12/09

Posted on by Dale

That was such a lovely end to the previous post, I had to end it there. But I had more.

The periphery of the labyrinth is a wild mess of green: ivy, ferns, vinca, various “volunteer” organisms, a couple of things I’ve actually planted, all tumbled together and only moderately managed by me.

This spot struck me this morning. It is only partially deliberate, which makes it in a very Zen way quite lovely indeed.

The photo, of course, cannot replace the experience. You will have to come do that yourself.

Labyrinth, 9/12/09

Posted on by Dale

I spent last night, and now this morning, out in the labyrinth. I had only the fire and the labyrinth, no music, which is unusual for me. I listened to the sounds instead.

This is such an amazingly peaceful spot, and even in its recovery phase, an essentially beautiful one. Now the leaves are beginning to drift down, and unlike the pecans, which are a metaphorical as well as a literal nuisance, they are lovely as well.

I’m watching a hummingbird wander apparently aimlessly through the branches of the trees. Surely she can remember where the feeder is?

I’m also watching a lone candle still flickering from last night. It is my practice, after finishing up for the night, to leave the rainbow/chakra candles burning, as well as the four clear candles around the center. It’s a wonderful sight in the night.

Often many of them are still burning the next morning. But now, way more than fifteen hours later, one is still going.

You can just see it there, the indigo candle, the “third eye” chakra. Our inner eye, our sense of judgment, of wisdom. If we seek an answer, it is here we must find it.

Maybe if I sit here the rest of the day, I can hear what the question is.

Random listening

Posted on by Dale

One of the benefits of tripling my hard drive space is that I can now add more of my CD collection to my iTunes. The fact that I long ago exceeded my old iPod’s actual capacity frees me up to add whatever I like, and now I have room to do so.

So until I can get over to the dark and cluttered corner that is my old CD collection and go through to see what I’ve been missing, Handel’s Water Music springs to mind, I simply snatched up a stack of CDs from the floor and transferred them to my van. I figure I need to at least listen to them again before deciding I need them on tap.

I seem to have purchased a great deal of Havergal Brian. I know I got his huge “Gothic” Symphony back in the day, and it begins well. And I think I had a few of his smaller symphonies on LP even, from the estimable Music Heritage Society.

Who is he? He has his own website and his own Wikipedia page: a composer more respected than loved (although his Society seems fairly idolatrous), and whose music tends to exasperate more than clarify.

Anyway, this particular CD is of the “Fantastic Variations on an Old Rhyme” and the Symphonies No. 20 and 25. Performance is by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, conducted by Andrew Penny. So there.

His music is challenging to say the least. It’s nominally tonal, but without a diatonic center. Themes tend to be dark and noodling, and there is nothing like development, just constant exploration, never looking back. Mood swings are precipitous and neverending. Suddenly, we’ll swing round a corner and hit a major chord, and then just dissolve away into the next vista. Movements don’t end, they just stop.

This might be fascinating, but it’s not, at least not so far.

I do have to say that the “Fantastical Variations” is a lot of fun, but it’s easier to hear because it is weaving incredible elaborations on a very familiar tune. (I won’t say what. Ask me to play it for you next time you’re around the fire.) The man had a gift of invention and of orchestration, to be sure.

And one has to admire his doggedness. Almost none of his music was performed, and none of it very often. He lived to be 96, and eight of his 32 symphonies were written after he was 90. None of his symphonies were recorded until he was 95. It is history such as this that makes me wonder whether I should hang it up, like Charles Ives, or keep going, as poor Havergal Brian did.

Portraits

Posted on by Dale

All right, I’m not promising a new self-portrait every day.

But here are two from Wednesday.

Pretty good portrait of what I hope I look like in another 25 years. Am I vain to think that I don’t really look this old? Several portraits like this seem to me to look more like my late grandmother than me.

Getting all sketchy. In terms of portraiture, I think you can tell it’s me, but it doesn’t look like me. This is my main goal in working on this: verisimilitude.

A simple plan

Posted on by Dale

That’s what it was, a simple plan.

I had ordered a new 500GB hard drive for my laptop, since I’m down to less that 5GB remaining space on my original hard drive. It came on Wednesday. All I had to do was:

  1. Install Mac OS X on the new drive.
  2. Migrate all my files to the new drive.
  3. Test boot the new drive
  4. Switch the old and new drives.

I’ll start the process on Friday, the start of the holiday weekend, plenty of time to do a pretty long task. So I go to One World Computing’s website to look at the video about installing the hard drive. Not even scary, but I realized I didn’t have any of the tools required. Should have watched the video first, I suppose, and then I could have ordered the 11-piece toolkit.

Not a problem, other than OWC not having it in stock. I order it from another company, and it arrives on Saturday. Fine, I’ll start this on Sunday.

Only I can’t find my Leopard install disk. I think it’s at school, where I’ve been trying to figure out how to install OS X on an old blue-and-white G3 that doesn’t have an internal DVD drive and doesn’t want to boot off an external drive.

Not a problem. I ask Marc to load me his install disk. He brings it to me this morning, Monday.

Only my DVD drive isn’t functioning. It’s been wonky its whole life, but now it’s failing utterly to read disks. I should have known this last weekend when I planned to play a new HD music DVD for the Lichtenbergians, but the computer kept rejecting the disk. Hm, bad disk, I thought. Nope: bad drive.

So now I have an appointment at the Genius Bar at Lenox Mall on Tuesday, 5:00 pm. My AppleCare plan is still in force, so perhaps they can just switch one out right there on the spot. Perhaps.

Arrgh.

And after spreading all that wheat straw on the labyrinth yesterday, my allergies have kicked in full force. I am miserable. Poor me, all round. I’m blaming Glenn Beck. And James Inhofe.