July 24 - Up and Gone

Up at 4:30am and out by 5:15 with the half-glow on the area's picture palace,




the local Micky D's / Chevron aglow (only place in town this early to pick up NYT),




Mt. Diablo coming into view.


By 6, park with a view of palms and the Briones Hills


at a fronded beanery to grade remainder of papers before Theory (which turns out to feature last day's fine final compositions).



Music History class includes nice extra credit presentations from Mark Pagel



and Alan Buckley,



Then off to Marin to check on banking (Mission San Rafael / St. Raphael's looking diminuative against the Hill)


and postbox (with Red H [looking more Green and Golde] dominating the scene).



Home over the Marinwood / Novato divide,



past the north wall of American Canyon on I-80,



diverting up Rockville (past hay bales)



and Abernathy Roads (adjacent to Gomer School and



Fairvield Vineyard Foothills. More diverting behavior in evening vis-a-vis Mice and Men V 2 F 8 publication preparation.

July 23 - Last Dictation Show

This is the last job. The last one. Andrew Lloyd Webber's Hosanna from Jesus Christ Superstar, with its G Major lurch temporarilly into Eb Major -- more beyond, but this is enough for now for Tyler, Melissa, Ashley, Ryan (welcome back!),


Shane, Lauren (hard to see), Tom, Suzanne, Kavah, Conrad, Robert, Allison, Nate, Bianca, Dominick, and


Cristina -- oh, oh, better move that tenor part from D to C in the second chord, and lower the soprano an octave in the final collection....



Next up, it's the Music History class, with many early arrivers -- five minutes from now, lights will go off for short film clips from a variety of musical styles for starts, and most (sometimes all) of the 40 desks will be occupied. Home thereafter, occupied by Mice and Men Act V Scene 2 F Page 7 publication preparation, plus putting fairly recent items on markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com (including myself, Tan Dun, and Erling Wold), which will have to suffice for now.

July 22 - ...of Theorei (and Historei)

...to where Theory students are harmonizing the C section of Part I (Psalm 23 - boy soprano solo) Movement II Leonard Bernstein Chichester Psalms -- Suzanne, Julian, Tom, Shane, Clinton, Dominick, and Kavah left to right at Boards 4-2 (yes, named counterclockwise for some reason -- perhaps from near to far distance from the dictation piano), with Allison and Melissa (front) and Conrad, Rob, and Nate (back) having already finished their contributions to boardwork. It's 9:20 -- perhaps we've already taken our break -- possibly ran over, due to sight-singing / performing the first part of Terry Riley's In C projected on big screen in front of classroom (Board 1 area).



The wide angle shot didn't take in Lauren, so here she is, again with other Board 4 denizens.



And somehow, Kristina didn't get in the mix, until this photo, where she is studiously hovering over her laptop.



Perhaps she was at Board 1, where Tyler and Shekiba still labor -- forshadowing my labors on Mice and Men Act V Scene 2 F Page 6 publication preparation upon return.

July 21 - Last Days...

Finished. Nearly finished. It must be nearly finished [page 5 MM A5 S2 F pfp]. Day upon day until there's a heap. The substantial heap. The possible heap. Heading off as the fog lingers over the Sulfur Springs Mountains west of Long Barn,


and Eden...

July 20 - Mice Sweet

Print up Mice Suites No. 1-3 (the half-hour version of Mice and Men) piano-vocal scores, then 680 t0 24 past Mt. Diablo, to Chamber Arts (on a cloudy that-side-of the mountain day) for read-through of same, whatever it's called, with cast as follows:

Curley's Wife - Suzanna Mizell
Offstage Soprano - Marilyn Pratt
Candy - Alix Jerenic
Whit - Erin Lamm
Boss / Carlson - Megan Cullen
Adam Broner - Crooks

In a week or two, to be joined by

George - Wayne Wong
Lennie - Matthew McCombs
Curley - William Loney
Slim - Maria Mikeyenko

Returning home, yes, page 4 of Act V Scene 2 F of MM prepared for publication.

July 19 - Mercy, Mercy

Return again, again, to DVC, the one errant MIDI file transferred to the laptop from the desktop via wireless before even heading to school, then placed in school computer via CD burn, recording the last of the instrumental version of Mice Suite No. 1-3. More wrestling with the Triton, which initially doesn't initialize on seemingly any of the lab's computers (at least not the PC's adjecent and across the room from my favorite or the Mac across from station), then finally does (realize that nothing has probably changed since yesterday -- no classes taught, etc., so whatever way I stumbled into yesterday solving this problem eventually occurs again today). After all this, also record a provisional vocal version of same (the mercy-kiling of Lennie -- finale to entire opera), and am moved, right out the door to Mt. Diablo in the evening light, and


sunset over the Sulfur Springs Mountains.

July 18 - Of Mice and Malfunctions

Back to DVC to record instrumental versions of the Mice and Men excerpts that correspond to Mice Suites No. 1-3, and record 12 movements, after a bit of struggle trying to get the Triton initialized, and sans sound effects due to a power outage, evidently between yesterday and today. As well, internet is out in the lab, but not via ethernet in classroom, so another workaround is needed to get the online MIDI file sent last night, then turns out wrong selection was sent -- oh, well... Return with vigorously moving traffic before the distant, tan Concord-Pittsburg divide (not very Californiany names...),


blitzing past the vegetation at the Cordelia truckstop to Lord-Knows-Where.