Breakfast

Back in AK. After five days in Boston to take a five hour entrance exam for NEC, I am back and just finished my semi-midwestern breakfast. (A tofu omelet with egg product and cheddar, home made bread toasted and a double espresso). It is nice to be back, I feel relaxed and all that I have to do now is wait to hear from schools, whose choices and offers will determine my fate. Well, I make the choice and have made a lot up to this point, but it is just waiting now. The trumpet piece is nearly complete, as Bob put it, “it is at that fun place where you can play with it.” Of course that is not a direct quote, as he is far more elegant and I am far more direct and crass, but that is what I have in my head. He did make one great observation about the piece, that I have some stuff in there that could be heard in a comic manner and my intention is to present something more intense, so I need to take a look at that. He also referenced “The Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross” as Papa Haydn puts it. (I am listening to the opening as I write). He brought up the modernist expansion of Haydns technique and design principles and we spent some time considering that. It reinforced that I need to consider my intentions more thoroughly in regards to this piece and to make certain that it is evident in all that is written. Or at-least that is what I came away thinking about. His intention as a teacher, as always to raise an issue and present an example of a successful solution. For those interested, Haydn was commissioned in 1785 to write a passion for the new cathedral at Cadiz . In reading the words of Haydn, as he describes the structure and the internal situation - this picture shows the real unadorned interior, while Haydn describes, “The walls, windows and pillars of the church were hung with black cloth, and only one large lamp hanging from the center of the roof broke the solemn darkness”. I am struck by the similarity between Haydns writing and that of Morton Feldman in describing his composition “Rothko Chapel” and the circumstances surrounding each piece and there presentation.

Now that I have gone on my tangent I will get back to what I was going to write, namely that I enjoy looking at snow and sunlight.
The shadows, the angles. At first glance there seems to be such a mono chromatic simply formed shape and the more I relax and observe the more color I observe. I was reading this trashy man mag during my ten hour flight yesterday and there was an advert for Henesy Privileged, in which they listed a set of criteria by which one could qualify to be “Privileged”, personally I thought you just needed to go buy the bottle and drink it, but I am crass. Two of the criteria stuck out for me, “15 stamps in your passport” and “Never forgetting where you come from.” Well, I’ll bet a 7 year old with one stamper could far outdo fifteen, but I digress. The question I have is... what is “Never forgetting where you come from”? Biologically, that is obvious, “dust to dust...” or “worm food” if you prefer the secular flavor coating. But, the lineage issue. How do we define our lineage, it varies so greatly, as an artist I can think of countless things and people that have and continue to influence me. As a person... I guess that brings me back too thinking about snow. There is something about sunlight and snow that is quintessential midwest for me. Hence the breakfast and the staring out the window that began this ramble through my limited ability to express my thoughts. Take a look at the picture I hope it does some justice to the expansive canvas onto which I am casting and bouncing my thoughts off of.