August 9 - Adventuresome Antigones

Print up ten piano-vocal scores to Antigone (John Thorne [Page], Micah Epps [Creon], Laeticia C. Page [Antigone], and chamber orchestra members from the 2001 production, above) for tomorrow's composer/performer event (we're still having a Mice and Men abreviated rehearsal, too),



then off past an eccentric display on Rockville Road,



before Eden, to the Lab to record instrumental versions of Anti 6, 6a, 7, 8, and 9 --



followed (via the basic same route as yesterday) by a wonderful rendezvous with Crystal and Kristina, which happens to coincide with a bike race, with a parallelogram raceway through the heart of town.

June 20 - Crystal Reflections

Over the Napa River marsh farmlands and



through the Sears Point Hills to Crystal's out-of-house rendezvous



in San Rafael we go.


Another marathon chat -- about four hours, rife with universal everythings, before driving out of the parking lot



into the palmy night,



brightening for a palming off of publication preparation: Mice and Men, ActV, Scene II B, page 5.

June 8 - Crystal Mystic Marathon

Meet Crystal at Amici's in San Rafael, to catch up about



Uganda and life in general, and we have a great time, talking for about six hours




(she also spent a bit of time in Dubai, while the best exotica I could manage was little more than Fairfield, CA, with a distant view of Mt. Diablo...oh, well...).



Upon return, page 15 of Mice and Men, Act V, Scene 2, prepared for publication.

May 29 - Happy Creative Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Crystal!, who turns 21 today -- so... A toast! A toast! -- and who has, in the last couple of months, been on an incredible pilgrimage (superbly chronicled at crystal-uganda-2008.blogspot.com)



to Uganda



specifically, Kampala, with side trips north-east to



Mbale,



Sipi Falls,



Soroti,



Lira; and west to



Mbarara



Bushenyi,



Queen Elizabeth National Park



in the Great Rift Valley



up against the Ruwenzori Mountains



whose foothills include Semuliki National Park,



home to some of the Batwa people.... before coming back to her own home -- today! --



in San Rafael! So, as well, Happy Homecoming!



Meanwhile, two rehearsals this evening, first getting the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra going at Potrero Hill Neighborhood House Theater. As John Kendell Bailey is welcomely conducting the first half of the program, am able to head several blocks downhill (both venues being along De Haro Street on Potrero Hill in SF) to



St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church for the first rehearsal, beyond excellent works of others in the ensemble, of Blake House: 1. To the Muses with Sanford Dole and sons and daughters of the choir -- just a quick double reading from 7:30-7:40pm -- and a good start, though challenging, somewhat due to meter, but more particularly in light of the second strain's accidentals: 5/8 alternating with 7/8, octatonic melody harmonized such that the mode is

E: Do Re Me Fi Sol Le La Te Do... Dorian-Lydian-Minor, one supposes!




From here, a race back up to the Nabe for Camino Real: Block Four and Variations on Americana, as part of The Sousa Variations collaboration, to be given 8pm, Staruday, June 7, at Old First Church (Van Ness and Sacramento Streets, SF, with co-collaborators contributing movements to the latter as follows

Harry Bernstein - Stars and Stripes Quodlibet
Alexis Alrich - MinSu
David Graves - Sousa Variant
Mark Alburger - Variations on Americana
Erling Wold - On the Death of David Blakely
Michael Cooke - Stripes and Stars
Loren Jones - Stars and Stripes for Desert

with more info at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com.



Returning home, cannot resist doing an instrumental recording of the choral To the Muses, so here it is...

May 26 - In To Africa

Home all day, mostly editing items on African Music for markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.com -- reorganizing the world music selections into a general historical framework.



And on the African front -- glad that Crystal is back in the U.S. after her Uganda semester (and, as it turns out, a brief visit to Dubai as well... she has become quite the amazing adventure traveler!). Her whole amazing blog can be read at crystal-uganda-2008.blogspot.com.




And on a more pedestrian take, finish page 9 publication preparation of Mice and Men: Act V, Scene 2.