0810

August 10, 2022 

Down @ 10, up @5, 3 pss, no vino.  Had a dream I spoke with Paul McCartney about how much I enjoyed Beatles music and learned that the Beatles wanted my friends and me to do some collaboration (non-musical) on "Lovely Rita Meter Maid" and some other tunes.

    Michels beat Kleefisch by @ 5 points, 47% to 42%.  I thought Scott Walker was bad, but it's looking like Michels will make him look like Lee Dreyfuss or Warren Knowles.  Michels has Fascist written all over him.

    7:30 Wednesday morning, the lawn service crew arrives.  Chickadees and nuthatches stopping by the seed feeders, female downy woodpecker working on the disappearing suet cake, and sparrows chasing away chickadees from feeders.  Sparrows look huge compared to chickadees, white-bellied nuthatches look huge compared to red-bellied nuthatches, and occasional not-very-welcome bluejays appear as Godzillas or King Kongs.

    I picked up a recording of Shostakovich's 13th Symphony 2 days ago, "Babi Yar," and have been listening to it on my car radio.  It starts with a reading of Yevgeny's poem "Babi Yar" by the poet, in Russian.  Very dramatic,  It ends with the poet reading another of his poems which I haven't heard yet.  The music is very Russian sounding, the only soloist a bass, and the chorus all male, so the music tone is, not surprisingly, very dark.  With Russia itself conjuring up such dark thoughts throughout most of the world, including in me, right now, it's not surprising that I can't say I enjoy the music very much, not that I expected much from a work inspired by Babi Yar.  I listened and kept wondering what would move an artist to try in any way to capture the reality, the meaning, of Babi Yar.

    I spent some time in the basement playing around with glazing liquid, more than a little time, just trying it out, seeing how it works, what works, what doesn't, how to thin paint too much, how to just sploosh it on and see how it looks.  Received a quart container of the glazing liquid from Amazon this afternoon and will probably mess around with it tomorrow, maybe with clumsy Rothko-ish color fields.

    Watched several Brandi Carlisle videos on YouTube at night, including as always her rendition of John Prine's "Hello in There."