June 30 - Absence Makes the Heart On Target

Harriet is off to Seattle for a month to visit Tisha, Clare, Joe, Marek, et. al (above is from the 19th Avenue post-Tisha concert this past May -- H, T, and Douglas Mandell).



On the local front, it's south -- approaching the fog hanging over the Sulfur Springs Mountains,



threatening Long Barn and the Chinese Wall,



Eden,



and Horse Farm -- beyond to



Mt. Diablo looking suspiciously hazy (another fire?),



to a very sleepy classroom (session doesn't start for another 15 minutes, one trusts there will be more [and more alert] students by that point).....



Loop home past the Hercules Oil Field Open Space -- just how many pages of Mice and Men Act V Scene 2 C can there be? 8 prepared for publication, and counting...

June 29 - Audition Time and the Singing Is Easy

Here's Keisuke Nakagoshi all ready to begin round two auditions for the 2008-2009 Goat Hall / San Francisco Cabaret Opera season.


Many talented singers -- an even larger number of auditionees than last week, with more to come.


Meanwhile, here are Eliza O'Malley, Kat Cornelius, Harriet March Page, and Keisuke at ease at the end.


A swing up through Marin, past fog clearing from Mt. Tamalpais, and publication preparation of page 7 Mice and Men Act V Scene 2 C upon return.

June 28 - Falling All Over the Work

[Spencer Tunick (b. 1967) - Venus and Adonis, after Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1649) -- O.K. maybe a little early for this entry...]

Continuing inside with Baroque, finish entries in Music History (markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com) provisionally through that 1685 triumvirate of J.S. Bach, G.F. Handel, and D. Scarlatti. Perhaps a few images of Peter Paul Rubens (sometimes abbrieviated names simply will not work), but nothing like above.



[Huelya Esart - Untitled]

Harriet and I keep the happening on an intimate scale, but plan ambitiously for the 2008-2009 season, additionally producing a two-minute Camino Real excerpt cut for grants and laying out an Antigone strategy. Mice and Men Act V Scene 2 C page 6 publication preparation, too.

June 27 - If It Ain't Baroque Augment 'Em

Home all day working on the Early Baroque section of the Music History text at markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com.



Page 5 Mice and Men Act V Scene 2 C prepared for publication before we head out for bike and pool, atmosphere continuing to clear. The local music station is out for awhile, but alas some zealot reconnects the line, and it's night once more.

June 26 - Darkest Before Oncoming Train

Through the Renaissance in History (at least up to birth of opera, which really occurred before the traditional reckoning of the Baroque -- 1600), and Louis Bourgeois Old Hundreth for dictation and harmony in Theory, then home with the smokiest skies yet. Rather surreal -- sun still visible and casting enough light to be reflected off passing autos,



yet all headlights on -- oops, that didn't work -- let's try again..




yet all headlights on (somewhat visible even through a rearview window screaming "wash me, please"),



firetrucks perhaps redeploying,



transport vehicles mebbe maybe, too, the local hills waiting,





waiting,


waiting --



some have waited long enough -- and waiting upon page 4 Mice and Men, Act V, Scene 2 C publication preparation.



With Harriet at the pool, after the requisite bike, lo the upper atmosphere bears a few high tropical puffs and suggestions of blue (remotely resembling above Iowa sky), so perhaps the worst has past.

June 25 - Renaissance Trial by Fire

Make it almost up to Josquin des Pres in the Renaissance in the History class,



through Conrad Pauman (i.e. not so far) and beginning triadic harmony in Theory.


Skies smokier (which doesn't prevent another bike to the pool -- not surprisingly totally absent of other clientele), more placement of sound files in late Renaissance Music History blog pages (markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com), + page 3 Mice and Men Act V Scene 2 C prepared for publication.

June 24 - Hovel Hills and Smoky Haze Paeon

On the way to work, notice with consternation that the two houses and barn of Hovel Hills have been destroyed.


Teaching logistics proceed reasonably smoothly, second day of totally-on-the- markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com-Music History-book-blog, getting up through the parallel-thirds Orkney-Island dictation in the Theory class and Guillaume de Machaut in the Lit.


Returning to the scene of the crime, barn is gone,



destroyer (at least the physical means of deproduction -- whoever had the idea remains at large) is idle.


OK, so maybe the site wasn't completely beautiful in former days. Let's say picturesque. Or piccaresque. A certain humble balance with the land.



Can't imagine anything built will be a visual improvement. May be wrong, of course. And, then again, if the land is to be returned to its natural state, a definite improvement. And access? O wouldn't it be loverly?



Meanwhile the fires are taking their visual toll, sometimes surreally emphasizing the sere season,



with the Chinese Wall looming mastaba-like above Rohan.



Beyond, Long Barn --



quite a contrast from last March



and the fogs of spring.



The Chinese Wall in its entirety and



north are pastel, and



Four-Tree Hill is a flat panel. Home, it's a bike-and-pool jaunt, despite the potential health advisory, and page 2 Mice and Men, Act V C prepared for publication

June 23 - The Fiery Devil on the Whole

Running a bit late today (comparatively speaking -- still early for class nonetheless -- actually every day after the first have been incrementally later, such that a half-hour before start is more like 15 minutes), and upon arriving at parking lot, it is blocked off and we are diverted due to a "crime scene." Yes, the bomb scare several semesters back, but this is a new one. Park remotely, am now just 10 minutes from class start and notice (it's hard not to) that the relatively new police services building has had fire and a hole (at least one). Not that the building was much to look at anyway, but still, it was convenient, when needed. Hate mail from some parking-ticket-receiving flounder? Such can be frustrating, but moderation in all things, and from a purely local standpoint, glad the music building (only several stone's throws, depending on the thrower) was not affected.



Upon entering the hallowed hall, wonder if the internet connection is still up. Will there be obstacles today? But no, all works very well, and indeed this is the first day presenting material totally on the Music History bookblog (markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com), for which I'm grateful. Home in due time, putting up more material virtually each day as we go along (theory notation material and recorded examples), and, of course, producing another publication page of Mice and Men: Act II, Scene 2 -- now first page of section C.



Passing tropical scattered clouds (always looking like stowaways from Mexico or further afield) have produced lightning remotely (nothing within sight and/or sound) setting off wildfires (at least one close enough -- Napa, Highway 12 area, spine of the Vaca Mountains between there and Solano -- that the scent is in the air).

June 22 - Singing Byrds of a Feather

Byrd is the word (Renaissance William's Sanctus from the Mass for Four Voices) at St. Gregory's today in SF today, then To Everything There Is an Audition at Chamber Arts for Goat Hall San Francisco Cabaret Opera auditions with



Meghan Dibble,



Suzanna Mizell,



Alix Jerinic, Alex Katzman, and Harriet March Page. Lots of wonderful singing -- from auditionees Suzanna, Alix, Jillian Boye, Sasha Joggerst (Tiger Brown down in Santa Cruz, as noted a while back), Erin Lahm, Allison Collins, Annemarie Ballinger, Robin Hansen, Ayelet Cohen, Elizabeth Russ (Polly Peachum in same), and Shauna Fallihee -- and more next week at the same time, as we begin casting for



Mice and Men (Act V, Scene 2 B page 6 prepared for publication, incidentally)



Antigone,



Diocletian,



The Countess Cathleen, and fine works by the likes of Henry Purcell, Peter Josheff, and others.