Commission

I have commissioned my first piece of music! It is a trio by Andrew List, a Boston composer who teaches at the Berklee College of Music, and it is for the Montage Music Society (www.montagemusicsociety.org). You might know their pianist, Debra Ayers. The piece is based on a Gaugain painting at the Boston MFA and will become part of Montage's repetoire related to the visual arts. Montage is working is on recording these pieces, hopefully this year, and support of this project is most welcome! I heard Montage play a preview of the piece in Boston and it is wonderful. The official premiere will be at the St. Botolph arts club in March (an organization with quite a history and membership).

Hooray! -- Updated

Jessica made it safe and sound from The Quest! I talked with her briefly and she said, "I never thought I'd be glad to be back at this school, but I am! This was the hardest thing I've ever done, even harder than wilderness." That's saying something, since she spent 40 days camping & backpacking in Oregon last winter in sub-freezing temperatures. Hopefully a stronger, more self-aware and self-confident young woman came down from the mountain! The details: backpacked 30 miles up the mountains on telemark skis, climbing 12,000 feet. It snowed everyday, including 30 inches during the 3 day solo.They carried all their gear, cooked all their meals in the snow, & slept in tents and hand-made shelters. We can guess on the hygiene!!

Architectural coincidence

Just finished reading Female Ruins by Geoff Nicholson, the story of the daughter of the deceased "most famous British architect never to have built a building". She ends up on a quest to see the one building he actually did build, which is unknown to scholars. Many years ago dad abandoned his family and stayed in contact with them, ....a la Louis Kahn, the American architect featured in the film My Architect (see below). Strange to stumble on both accidentally. If you like architecture, you might enjoy this quirky book, a fast read.

Quest

Jessica is in the middle of her eleven day Quest trip into the Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia. The photo is from the area they will be in, taken by the guy who is leading them. She and nine other students are backpacking on telemark skis and eating & sleeping in tents. They get one night in a yurt in the middle of the trip! She is doing a three day solo, which would give anyone plenty to time to reflect on life and on staying warm! Today's high there is five degrees! We understand that the scenery is spectacular, and the only way to see it is to ski in. We hope she is having fun in addition to building self-awarness and a large amount of self-confidence.

Christmas With Bebe

Jessica has been away, so I was going to cancel Christmas. Debbie vetoed that idea, which was good, since no Christmas was even more depressing. So I put up most of my decorations, but not the big tree. Even that was depressing so, I bought a tiny pre-lit artificial tree, and decorated that. Much better. But, for the first time ever I did not want to be at home. So, our friend Bebe invited us to stay with her, and there wasn't anywhere else I'd rather have been for Christmas. She is a true joy, and we had a ball. She just got a new gallery, a really good one, and a show in April. So, for the first time, she let me help her in her studio, WOW! It was great! Bebe is amazing. So much energy, passion, fun, and a huge heart. Thanks for a great Christmas!

Another cool indie

We recently watched two cool indie films. Guaranteed Enlightenment is a quirky, hand-held video, natural light film. Two very different brothers head off from Germany to a Zen monastary in Tokyo. The first half of the movie explored how annoying & self absorbed they both were, although in completely different ways. It was so effective that Debbie walked out of the "theater"! The second half was filmed in the monastary. I was going to say "staged", but it wasn't staged at all. We see how the brothers slowly collide with the disciplines of this world, adapt to it, and learn a lot about themselves. The film gives a very real picture of a novice's experience in the monastary, as opposed to the glossy portrayals one might see in prettier films or coffee table books. Watching the sweating, overweight Gustav polish the hallways on his hands and knees really honed in on a big part of the monastary's message. Test your quirkiness and give it a look!

Delightful Movies

My Architect is a documentary by the "illegitimate" son of the renowned architect Louis Kahn. You could not have written a stranger and more touching tale, in the truth is stranger than fiction category. Kahn was 5'6" tall, had an odd voice, and his face was covered with scars from a childhood burn. He was a terrible businessman, had few clients, and few buildings despite enormous talent and vision. Knowing all of this, it seems unlikely that in addition to his marriage with one child, he also had two other families, with women who worked with him. Despite the odd, and seemingly heartless, treatment by Kahn, the women were still totally in love with him thirty years after his death. The film is his son's attempt to discover his father, his art, and his life. For architecture buff's there are some fabulous interviews with biggie 20th century architects and clients. The film is touching, beautifully photographed, and very much worth seeing.