Labyrinth, 12/14/08, afternoon

Posted on by Dale

It is finished.

Notice the holiday votives. I think they’ll be right purty.

Here’s a closeup of the center:

I’ve sunk the bricks into the soil and dug out a little bit of a hole to give the effect.

So, at some point I have to plant grass seed. I’m going to wait until after the rain this week just to see where the water flow issues are.

Tomorrow night I don’t have Masterworks, the dress rehearsal for Thursday’s concert is on Tuesday, so I’ll put together my drill press, finally, and work on some lighting fixtures for the area.

Labyrinth, 12/14/08, morning

Posted on by Dale

At 11:35 this morning, to the strains of the second movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection,” I finished filling in the labyrinth:

I have this much dirt left:

I think I was oversold. However, after lunch I will lay in dirt around the labyrinth so that it actually is part of the landscape rather than rising abruptly from it, and as I’ve mentioned before, shore up the carport. That ought to take the rest of the afternoon.

Labyrinth, 12/14/08, dawn

Posted on by Dale

Here, by dawn’s light, is yesterday’s work:

And here, from the side angle, you can see the northern edge finally complete. I will have to add more dirt around the edges to keep it from collapsing in the rain this week. It feels odd to have it done.

I’m now waiting until 9:00, the time at which I in good conscience can start throwing dirt into the wheelbarrow outside my neighbor’s bedroom window.

There is a distinct possibility that I have too much dirt. The only problem with that is what to do with it to get it out of the driveway today a) so Ginny can park there, and b) it doesn’t turn into mud with the rain predicted for tomorrow. I need to build up the ground next to the carport, so I can probably use all of it there, and the northern edge of the labyrinth can stand a lot more, so I may be OK in terms of having a place to put all of it.

Labyrinth, 12/13/08, afternoon

Posted on by Dale

No pictures, because it was too dark when I finished, and the camera’s battery died.

However, I accomplished exactly my goal for the day: fill in the outer three circuits, raise the outer circuit on the north side to the level of the others, and lay out the final course of paving stones.

It’s done. Tomorrow, I fill in the inner four circuits and set the compass point bricks level in the ground with the granite center.

Labyrinth, 12/13/08, morning

Posted on by Dale

Yesterday afternoon I picked up the granite pieces that form the center of the labyrinth:

After I get all the topsoil laid in, I’ll sink the bricks to the same level as the granite. (The bricks are aligned with the cardinal points of the compass.)

I love the way it reflects the sky. Later I will scoop out a hole in the center, and next summer I will make a bowl to fit in there. It will probably be blue. I like the way the bricks will hang out a little over the bowl (although I haven’t yet thought of a way to make the grooves for the bricks to fit into the bowl, accurate from 225 miles away.)

Here it is in situ:

And finally, this morning, the topsoil was delivered. We ended up dumping it in the driveway:

I began schlepping it to the back yard, after I took a few moments to construct a ramp to get the wheelbarrow down the steps to the level of the labyrinth. It’s lunchtime at the moment, and this is how much I’ve gotten done so far:

I got dirt laid out in the little center gap area, and then started with the path. I’ve done the first circuit, and this afternoon I will start pushing out from there. My goal for today is to get the outer two circuits done, which includes building up the north edge and actually getting the last course of stones laid. I might get some of the central circuits done, but I’m not making that the goal.

In any case, I should be done by Sunday evening.

Too much music

Posted on by Dale

There is too much music. Not mine, of course. Of that stuff, there’s not nearly enough. (The other day, a student asked me how much music I’ve written. According to iTunes, less than two hours worth. Feh.)

No, there’s too much music out there. I say this because as part of my fragmentary composition exercises, I went to iTunes to listen to the opening of Vaughan Williams’ 2nd Symphony, “London.” I don’t own it, and considered buying it, but then I got sidetracked by his 7th, “Sinfonia Antarctica,” a stark work. I bought it, along with his 8th. Then I got distracted by the fact that a movement from Philip Glass’s 4th Symphony, “Heroes,” was the top ringtone.

I knew I owned that, but it was not in my iTunes collection, and then I couldn’t find it on the shelf. So I bought it.

At this point, I think my iTunes collection is officially bigger than my old iPod. And I’m OK with that. The new iPod Classic will store 120GB of music, but the fact is I don’t have that kind of space on my hard drive. I could put it on my external drive, but then my music wouldn’t travel with me on my laptop.

But that’s not what I mean by “too much music.” There’s just too much to listen to and to learn and to know. Right now on my desk are two stacks of CDs, waiting for me to listen to them again and get to know them:

  • Michael Harrison, Revelation, a microtonal thing, I think.
  • Brian Eno, Discreet Music
  • Philip Glass, Symphony No. 8
  • Philip Glass, Symphony No. 3
  • Einojuhani Rautavaara, Angel of Dusk (concerto for double bass)/Symphony No. 2/A Finnish Myth/Fiddlers, one of my favorites of the Baltic group
  • Peter Sculthorpe, Sun Music, Australian composer
  • Michael Danna, Skys, new age, I think
  • Erik Satie, Homage to Satie, his greatest hits
  • Music for Quiet Listening, a “Mercury Living Presence” reissue, featuring music commissioned back in the late 50s/early 60s by one Edward B. Benjamin, the Edward B. Benjamin Award for Restful Music, who apparently like me didn’t truck with the newfangled crap being taught in conservatories at the time
  • another, untitled “Mercury Living Presence” reissue, featuring works by Colin McPhee, Roger Sessions, and Virgil Thomson
  • John Adams, Gnarly Buttons/John’s Book of Alleged Dances
  • Robert Baksa, Flute Sonata/Woodwind Quintet No.1/Quartet for Piano and Winds
  • Sergei Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No. 1 & 3/Bela Bartok, Piano Concerto No. 3

All of these I have listened to once, maybe twice. None have been imported into iTunes. And I just bought three new works to listen to. And I think there’s a small stack of CDs in my van that I’m supposed to be listening to.

The point is that I want to learn this music, especially the stuff that doesn’t appeal to me right away. I want to know it like I know the Beethoven symphonies, to anticipate what comes next. Sometimes that’s nearly impossible with the more atonal “modern” stuff, and sometimes I give up. But mostly I can learn almost anything. So why is there this huge stack on my desk? And why are there even more stacked over by my CD shelving?

It’s lunchtime.

Composing, 12//07/08

Posted on by Dale

I’m trying to get my brain back into “composer” mode, and to do that I’m putting myself back on a schedule, Sunday mornings and Tuesday evenings.

Further, as I listen to music in iTunes or elsewhere, I pay attention to structure, orchestration, etc., and make a note. I’m assigning these notes as “fragment exercises” for the duration. In other words, I’m not actually composing right now, I’m just using other people’s stuff as a model. In other other words, I’m copying. Think of it as a Renzuli phase II lesson. I certainly am.

My goal is simply to slap something up, to pour out the garbage and learn from hearing the stuff.

So, today’s fragment number 1 was “string arpeggios, agitato.” I think I was listening to the soundtrack for Pride & Prejudice.

(UPDATE: Each mp3 contains measures and measures of empty space at the end. Feel free to stop it and move on when the music stops. However, #3 does have one measure of silence after the first phrase. And I don’t know why #2 sounds so choppy.)

Here’s the mp3.

You will of course be alert to my dilemma this morning: this is actually pretty good. Do I keep working on it, only to bog down later, or just toss it aside and keep going? I worked a while on it, but decided to stop and move on. After all, the good work always waits.

Fragment number 2: “meandering chromatic piano line, high string accompaniment.” Again, I think this was the Pride & Prejudice soundtrack: mp3

Fragment number 3: “open fifths in strings, whole notes; countermelody in cellos/basses.” From the opening of Vaughan Williams’ Symphony #2, “London”: mp3

Fragments 2 and 3 are not as successful, but I think I got some interesting bits, like one measure or so in each. That’s all I’m after.

And so my morning ended.

Not that anybody asked…

Posted on by Dale

…but here’s how to organize car riders at your larger-then-average elementary school.

Actually, people have asked how we clear 200+ children out of there in 15 minutes, but they’re not likely to be reading this. Still, I set it down for posterity, because it is a marvel.

THE PROBLEM

You have an assortment of parents who for whatever reason prefer not to have their child delivered straight to their home by bus. (I cannot mock, my own son was picked up religiously by his mother or her designee all the way through 8th grade.) At Newnan Crossing, nearly a quarter of our students are car riders.

So, how do you get the right kid in the right car quickly, safely, and securely?

The first few days of school, when every kindergartener and preschooler is picked up and many of the older kids as well, the problem is especially acute, and we have often joked that we could just turn the 300 kids loose in the great river of cars waiting outside the lunchroom and let them find their own ride home. It’s tempting.

However, we’ve developed a system that is the envy of all who see it.

THE BASICS

First, you have to have a database. In the database, you need an entry layout with the kid’s first name, last name, homeroom, and grade. You will also want a checkbox for “new,” which I’ll explain anon.

You will also have another layout with this info writ large, preferably with a non-reproducible school kind of logo screened in behind it. This is your “car rider sign.”

The day before school starts, you get a data dump from the student database and import it into your database. (Perhaps your school/student database will allow you to set up the car rider sign layout in it, lucky you.) Print out two car rider signs for each student.

Prior to printing these out, you have printed the backs of them. In big letters, it says:

Have this sign in your window for us to call your child out to put in the car.
Keep it in your window until your child is loaded.
We cannot load your child without this sign.
Thanks!

In a small box at the bottom, it says:

Parents may copy this sign if they need to.
Please keep this sign even if your child is not regularly a car rider, you will need it if you ever need to pick your student after school.

You print two of them for a) two parents, or b) regular pickup person and a spare.

When you get new students, or parents lose their signs, or the first name of the kid in the computer is not what they’re called and the little darling just sits in the cafeteria while his real name is being yelled out, you will want to print new signs. That’s what the “new” checkbox is for. When you create a new one or find an old one, you check the “new” box, then search and print the “new” ones. This keeps you from thinking you’re printing the one new one you’ve made and actually sending all 873 to the printer. Again.

Some database advice: create a script to find and print the new ones, and another one to clear the “new” box. Also, when you’re printing out the 800+ signs for the first day of school, print the back once and print the screened in logo once, then run those through a copier for your 1600+ templates. Waiting for a printer to print 1600+ pages with screened in graphics is not fun. Also, remember to uncheck the “collate” box in your print dialog, otherwise you’ll find yourself sorting 1600+ car rider signs. Also also, remember to sort by grade and homeroom before you print.

THE STRUCTURE

There are four components to the actual loading of kids.

First, there’s the holding area. For us, this is the lunchroom. It used to be the front of the school, but then we got big overnight and went from 30 car riders to over 100. We actually had to switch the bus and car rider areas.

So all the car riders are delivered to the lunchroom by the teachers or their surrogates. In the holding area you will have enough staff to a) keep them quietish, and b) call their names. Advice for the holding area: everything stays in the bookbag, and coats stay on. One or two of the staffers have walkie-talkies.

Outside, you have two areas: the calling area and the loading area.

We use three lanes of traffic. You may choose to use fewer. Do not use more. We tried that one year. “It was decided” we could move more kids through faster, but because the traffic director couldn’t readily see when all the cars were loaded, it was not a good thing.

The cars immediately in front of the portico, and you need a portico, are the loading area. You will need one staff person for every car you load. We load nine cars at a time, i.e., three cars in three lines.

The cars next in line are the calling area. You will need one caller for each line. Each has a walkie-talkie.

The final component is the traffic director, the brave and alert person who stands in front of the lines of traffic and bids them stop and go. That would be me.

THE PROCESS

Every car must have its car rider sign displayed in the dashboard. No sign, no kid. If you don’t have your sign, you have to go park and come into the office and sign your kid out, photo ID and all. Even if you’re the PTO president who spends most of every day volunteering, no sign, no kid. This is our security measure.

Every day, before I even get to the lunchroom, the loaders have already scoped out the first nine cars and lined up the kids. When I get there, the callers swing into action and begin calling the next nine cars in the calling area.

The loaders take out the first bunch of kids. The second bunch of kids begin to trickle out to the portico, where they are told by the first line loaders to stay up against the wall, i.e., no mucking about.

The loaders load the kids, I pull out the lines one by one, the next nine pull up. Repeat.

THEORY & PRACTICE

The theory is that while we’re loading nine cars, the callers will be reading the car rider signs and calling the next nine kids, who will be coming out and getting ready. Then the loaders just have to escort them out and pop them in the car. Some days, this happens.

But kids don’t listen, kids go to sleep, kids forget and get on the bus or go to after school. There are glitches every day. So here are some observations from the guy whose job it is not to run over kids.

First of all, I’m not paying attention to the kids. Memorizing 200+ cars/parents and which kid goes with which car, and then recalling that info flawlessly in seconds every afternoon, is not a recommendation I would make.

I watch the loaders. Each loader is assigned a specific spot, and I watch to make sure each one has walked out there with a kid before I start pulling lines out. Obviously, no one can pull out until the loaders have finished crossing through.

I pull out the lines one by one. Otherwise, we’d have three lanes of traffic trying to merge into one to exit the campus, and that would inevitably slow us down.

As you’re stepping back to pull out line two, then line three, keep an eye on line 1, which will probably already be loaded by the time line 3 begins to move. Keep an especial eye on that first car, especially if it’s a new person or a grandparent or someone who doesn’t know the drill, i.e., they are to sit there and wait for your direction. Because that’s the person who, having their kid, just pulls away, causing the next person to think they’re leaving, and then all kinds of disasters can ensue as loaders are trying to make their way back out to lines 2 and 3.

Watch for the parents who have not developed a system for twisting around and getting their kid strapped into the car seat within a reasonable amount of time. (Grandparents who are picking up for the day are especially bad at this.) You have to decide whether to make everyone wait, or to pull out the other lines and load them and just stop that parent where they are until the next loading is done.

If the kid is not there to be loaded, that’s a problem. Hundreds of people are being held up while we search for the kid. The first few days, of course, everyone has to be patient, but after a month or so, I’m not inclined to wait for the kid. I pull everyone out and direct the parent to pull over to the end of the sidewalk while we retrieve the kid who was not paying attention to his name being called. If a little intergenerational friction results, I’m OK with that.

When loaders are out, others take up the slack, and it’s important for me to know who’s loading which car, because again, I don’t watch the kids, I watch the loaders.

It’s an excellent system: quick, clean, with enough slack built into it to help it survive glitches but rigorous enough that everyone knows what to expect. We rarely have problems with parents. Even people new to the school catch on very quickly, especially after I step in front of their car to keep them from just pulling out. (I don’t know why, but new people always end up first in line.) Every afternoon, my heart swells with pride at our cheerful, efficient team as we get rid of the kids in record time.

Labyrinth, change of plans

Posted on by Dale

I went to Amazon Stone over on the bypass today to see if they could trim my pavers to make the central circle. Yes, they could. But I also asked about getting a piece of granite cut for the center, and it turns out that it’s within in my price range, i.e., another month’s payment on the credit card.

So next Saturday morning I will go pick up the black granite quarter-circles to install around the compass-point bricks in the center. I think this is better in many ways. The stones which I would have had trimmed would never have been very stable to walk on, so we’d always be dealing with people slipping right at the center of the path. That cannot be good juju.

Also, the granite will be gorgeous. I’ll have to rethink the color of the bowl I plan on making next summer in the ceramics studio. I was going to make it black, but now I don’t know.

In other news, I got some new votive candle holders today:

Someone will have to explain to me how to use the rainbow/chakra configuration as part of the labyrinth. I just like the connection: 7 circuits of the labyrinth, 7 colors of the rainbow.

UPDATE:

Here’s what it looks like. Iffy picture of course, but it’s quite striking in real life:

SECOND UPDATE:

Here they are in the daytime:

Labyrinth, 12/3/08

Posted on by Dale

I finished the curved areas of the labyrinth’s pathway this afternoon. Next up, getting the center stones cut so that the center area is round, with a round hole; getting soil to a) build up the northern edge so I can complete the outer circuit, and b) fill in the pathway; spreading seed over the new soil; spreading straw over the new seed; and creating all kinds of interesting lighting fixtures to hold candles everywhere.

I have ordered red and green votive holders, so for Christmas I can outline the whole thing with seasonal lights. It’ll be real purty. I also ordered a set of colored votive holders the colors of the chakras, just for the mysticism of it all.

Here are the rest of the photos. It’s a proud moment.

Here are the central stones, all marked and ready for someone to cut them. Where are the stone fairies when you need them?

And a closeup: