June 23 - And the Living Is Crazy

Up early again, printing up more piano books again, arriving just on time to class such that there's no opening video and attendance is taken for the first time via sign-in, actually make it through all the first chapter of the Music History book-blog, piano class follows through Amazing Grace, lab recording of The Play of Daniel: II. Nebuchadnezzar's First Dream, coffee with Doug et al,



blitz out to U.C. Davis



Library to research Benjamin Britten's The Burning Fiery Furnace and William Walton's Belshazzar's Feast (it's the all-English Babylonian repertory...) for orchestrational inspiration, etc., re Daniel, call Harriet and Bette, head home and almost immediately zip out to the bikepath and the pool (but succeed in stepping on glass and cutting a finger beforehand...), catch up with the newspapers in the spa,


bike back in the post-solstice shadows, try to track down Daniel Pinkham's Daniel in the Lion's Den (find it only at UC's Irvine and San Diego, and San Francisco State -- although latter's library is closed for renovation with books available within 24 hours, requests made online with student I.D. ... oh, well ...), orchestrate first two pages of The Opera of Daniel: III. The Fiery Furnace.

April 10 - Good News Rain Sun Friday

It's all excellent, of course, except when it's not. But for today, after finishing the orchestration of Solomon: I. Let's Find a Young Woman, the scattered rain only heightens the intensity of the views, southwest from the Cherry Glen Range,



making a beeline for Buckhorn Peak,



past the absurd greenery of the Sulfur Springs and Chinese Wall,



to pick up recompense and hie to the Briones-to-Las-Trampas-Trail (proceeding from latter to former), beginning at Foye Park,



crossing Lafayette Creek to views of the




Ridge north



and spiky-smooth highlands south,



passing under the dangers of Bart and east-and-



westbound 24,



the returning to Mt. Diablo Boulevard and beyond by



the cars on today's fairly-calm-and-misnomered Moraga B.



Can't help but return to the lab, which is going full strong after most classes aren't (it's the frontier of Spring Break), to record Solomon I, heading home past Suisun Marshes and a distant cloud-threatened Cement Hill via



Green Valley Road's views of Buckhorn and



Twin Sisters,



eventually foregrounded by Suisun Valley Crossroad Knoll, adjacent to its



ranch views of the Vaca Mountains and



faithful foothill cows,



the light vibrant above Lagoon Valley and the



shadowy ravines north. Upon return, orchestrate Solomon: II. Have You Heard (The Coronation) and begin same late for III. You Know What to Do (The Death of David).

April 1 - La Folia

Write up two Music and the Enlightenment quizzes in the middle of the night -- perhaps not a stellar idea, particularly when alarm will not sound, printer cartridge needs changing, but somehow make it to St. Mary's anyway, the bright sun blinding amongst the palms.



More Do Re Mi in Theory and reality, record King David: XVI. Before the Arc in the lab, and begin the orchestration of XVII. Song of Appraisal upon return through the stark Poverty Hills.



Oh yes, and a flat tire beyond the North Lagoon Mountains, just a few blocks from home, so limp in and call AAA, writing above while waiting in the comfort of home, rather than some lonely outpost, on this prankster/trickster date.

February 12 - Light of an Oncoming Train

Idea bulbs are going off all over the classroom -- like rays piercing onto the Chinese Wall above, in the Sulfur Springs Mountains along I-80 -- as we take Quiz 4 in Theory, with examples drawn from late Medieval Music.



Happily, looks like just about everyone has done better on it than the day, which scores pretty low on the sun quotient on the return, approaching Cordelia Junction,



which is not to say that the dark vistas of the North Lagoon Mountains do not have their charm.



Tisha,



Jim, and



Clare arrive from Seattle, with Harriet returning from a job at about the same time, so things brighten up considerably, to downright joy, and a late evening session orchestrationg pages 4 through 8 of Saul! Saul!: III. O early Piety!.

February 7 - Cross-Cultural Return

Second Henry Purcell Dioclesian / Mark Alburger Diocletian rehearsal with members of San Francisco Cabaret Opera at Berkeley Chamber Arts House,



with Indre et al in fine voice,



then off to Moraga Boulevard (a first),



past hills and


old orchards,



up St. Mary's Road




to Syufy Hall and the Chapel. Time for another walk.



The inclined plane of Mission Road leads into the hills



above dormatories,



becoming a gravel path,



ascending to the observatory



and solitary



cross,



looking across to St. Mary's Ridge,



ahead to the Berkeley Hills,



Rheem Hill,



and even, astoundingly, our distant Vaca Mountains, of all landmarks....



From this vantage point, the campus lies map-like below,



including Syufy Hall, the Library,



and Chapel.



A friendly recent alumnus, on a visit from Dana Point, has reached the summit as well, and we chat back to the trailhead, to vistas including a compromised Las Trampas Ridge,



the Observatory,



and the general splendor of the EBMUD (what an ungracious name in all this beauty) and Open Space Districts.



Crosses seem to the order of the day, at the start of a second walk, continuing on the Lafayette-Moraga Trail at the hardly-further-modified



Christian Church,



near the trail's turnoff from St. Mary's Road.



Here the course is somewhat more prosaic, until Rheem Hill's bare, decidous, parasite-festooned oaks loom into view,



at the Leisure Estates crossing (something about that nomenclature....) and



the cows take over,



staring,



glowering,



indifferent,



as the sun streaks through (beam me up, Cowie!)



and the trampled grass is renewed.



'Nuff said, and photographed, so there's nothing for it but to get on Route 24 west, with Diablo dominating,



and make the way back to Lagoon Valley in a daylight full moon,



with the North Lagoons making their characteristic surreal showing.



Harriet returns from various SF Cabaret Opera meetings, and I return to an orchestration of Saul! Saul!: II. Eli's Sons, page 3.