Once when I was in Alabama, I was looking for a famous blues bar.

I asked this guy who was standing next to a run down building where the place might be.

I could have sworn he told me "red chair"

Records falling like the rane in Spokain

I got my most rides in a year record at 775.1 Now I'm going for 800.

  It was a nice blue sky and I needed 12 miles for a best year for bike distance. At 12 miles I was sitting outside at Madison Park Bakery with a large coffee and a maple bar when I felt some drops of rain. 

I got my most rides in a year record at 775.1 Now I'm going for 800. 

Ten miles to home hope the rain holds back, knocked back the coffee and split

With about 6 miles away from home I was soaked. 

That was Monday

I've got five weeks to get the next 24.9 miles and Monday next looks to be a nice day.

Is there a point to this story? 

 

A moral? 

 

No.

 Decided to not be such a wimp and ride my bike in the rain 

Only did ten miles 

On the way, I saw a couple models posing for a picture 

I hadn't intended to splash them but I had to stick to the curb due to passing cars 

Anyway a bike doesn't splash much 

So I don't think that was the problem 

Maybe it was getting my leg caught on the umbrella knocking them off balance 

guy ended up sitting with his butt off the curb in the street 

Camera guy called me an asshole 

gave me the finger 

Should ride more often

So my hair is going all Einsteiny on me, thought I'd go get a haircut. Stopped at my favorite Queen Anne Starbucks first. Guy looks at my Michelle button and says "You actually gonna vote for those commies?" .  Hah, I said "I just like to look at hot babes, but, sure, why not", says I. 

"You spending your welfare check on a five buck cuppa coffee, then?. 

Actually, sez I, I am worth several million all my real estate is paid for and provides me with more than enough moolah to afford to drink here . But, if you people want to vote for Romney, it's fine with me. Your taxes will go up and I'll get richer. If you like that scenario, why not cut out the middle man and pay for my short drip and a yoghurt cup?
That was so much fun I forgot the haircut.

"Attitude"
For piano and Cello.
I call it "Chamber Bop"
Sort of inspired by Charles Mingus

http://snd.sc/Xpq6dq

 

 

 

 

My wife complains that my hearing is going

She gets tired of me saying "huh" all the time

I more or less fall into a chair when I sit down

And it takes some grunting to rise from there.

I have a persistent pain in my left hip 

I walk with a sort of rolling hopalong gait

I forget things

Hell I've always forgotten things

 

But

Dammit!

I can still see as good as ever

Hank Williams - Cool Water.wmv

Rode the lake today, fifty miles. Took 2.5 pints of Gatorade and a refillable pint of cool clear. Bought another litre seven miles from home and this song came to mind







A little opera and a deeply brilliant poem. One of the great songs of the last century.
Dan is his mule and the devil is a mirage that Dan wants to follow.
Have any of you ever struggled to find something vitally important?
How about cool clear Obama?

Little wind sprint

5.98 miles
10.3 average speed
34.1 maximum speed
00:34.11 trip time
2669.6 odometer

PianoCello

PianoCello

Loosely based on "Moanin'" by Charles Mingus
Planning to present this live next time I get the opportunity

Negative numbers

Had a dream this morning, got out of bed, went to make coffee. The wife asks to be driven to her volunteer job with the Democrats. Got her halfway there when something odd struck me. The road stayed the same road and didn't veer off in strange impossible directions. Then some Mozart happened on the radio. at least I thought it was Mozart. Sounded familiar, but what was it? Upon closer listening, I decided it was early Beethoven. But which early Beethoven? We had a earnest discussion about Ludwig's early symphonies but couldn't come to any conclusion. Soon after I dropped her off, the man comes on the radio telling me more and more that "That was symphony number forty-one by Mozart,  the Jupiter".
So I was right.
It was Beethoven's symphony number minus-one!

Little while later I awoke to find myself in the Queen Anne Cafe with a coffee cup in my hand and a waffle in front of me.

Sexy

Dr. Sarah Goldstein - Schultz

Regrets making a commitment to attend the award ceremony

when she is so close to publication.

It will not be a pleasant evening

</div>

Tour de Madison Park

23.72 miles

10.7 average

33.5 max speed

2:11:53 hours

2663.6 odometer

Those hands are sapient creatures.
I can well imagine the piano wanting to follow them home.
  
Valentina Lisitsa plays Beethoven

Alas, my love...

Ophelia, Ophelia

What's the deal ya

Left me all alone

Beside the telephone

Waitin' for your call 

Don'cha know your all 

I long for in a world 

Won'cha be my girl 

Ophelia, Ophelia, 

WHAT MAKES YOUR BIG HEAD SO HARD?

Link to my latest work in progress

A concerto for horn and orchestra

 click here

More bike ride stuff

34:92 miles 10.1 average speed 3:27.23 hours 2639.9 odometer. splog

Click on the link below and read about my adventure with a bicycle, a girl, and a dog. And a guitar.

Seventy freakin' miles!

70.63 miles
10.3 average speed
34.5 maximum speed
2604.9 odometer
6:50.49 riding hours
9:15 real hours

Rainier Beach to Marymore Park and back.

Music

String quintet

 Click on the link above and listen to the string quarter live.
It's called Frustration

Bikeapocolypse

I am getting old, or sick. Tried to do 30 miles yesterday. Started out to do 20, would have been satisfied with 10 but felt O.K. at 15 and decided to try for 30. Didn't make it. Checked out the new addition to the ship canal trail and found myself 17 miles away from home at the Ballard bridge. By the time I got back to UW I was feeling weak by the time I got almost to Leschi I was walking even on the flat. Dragged my sorry ass to Leschi and called Meredith to come and get me. Got 26.18 miles (including the walking) which seems to be my limit these days So phooey! 26.18 miles 9.0 average speed 34.4 maximum speed, don't know where that happened. 2:54:16 hours on the trail. 2534.16 miles on the odometer. Splog

Folklife.

Had an interesting time at Folklife this weekend. Saturday, got there early for some French Canadian foot stomping dance music. Then after wandering around listening to jazz, rock, marimba, violin, cello, saxophone, banjo, guitar, ukulele playing musicians in bands, trios, duets, and soloists, around the center, I settled on the grass for a set of rockabilly bands. Was a wonderful warm day, I left before the gunfights. Got home to find my house keys not in my pocket. Good excuse to go back Sunday. Sunday, I went to the lost and found, but they didn't have the keys, so I decided I might as well listen to some tunes to take my mind off my loss. Noticed in the program that there was an exhibition of "Shape-Note" singing. Always wondered what that was about, so I headed in that direction. As I closed in on the event I heard massed voices that didn't sound any different than any other massed voices, those massed for the purpose of singing anyway. Quite different than voiced massed for yelling at sporting events, and very very different than 10'000 massed voices making blood curdling howl as the rush down slope at you with bayonets. Turns out the "Shape-Note" refers to the shape of the notes on the score, little squares, triangles, circles, and squares. Leaves me out of the choir, cause I flunked geometry in high school. Not true, I got a good grade in geometry in high school. I got the same as the teachers cheer leader pet. Teacher's name was Eisele or something. She embarrassed me in class by telling me I shouldn't "hide my (something or other) under a bushel I have to this day no idea what she was talking about, but I knew she didn't appreciate me messing up her prejudices. Or her thing for miss pom-pom. What we didn't know about puberty back then. Anyway, the singing was very nice, reminded me however of church and its sinister seduction. I'm not planning on going to church however, I've learned my lesson there. Their strange rituals, this weird "prayer" thing, and their blood thirsty Bible stories put my back hairs up and I do not feel welcome there. And since my run in with Meighan Pritchard I don't feel safe. Found I had left the keys in a pie shop when I made change. Day ended up with Sousa's "Star Spangled Banner" march played by the Ballard Sedentary Sousa Band. Always a good closer.

Walking sixty second street

A neurotic stroll in  a  dangerous part of town.

For piano and Tenor Saxophone

Walking sixty second street

Gone from me

She gets this way sometimes
Kind of sad, really

 I don't know what brings it on
 I want to help

When it's not too bad, she says there is
Nothing I can do

 Mostly, she is happy
She is really sweet

In public, she is always cheerful 
Vivacious, some say

Funny, thoughtful, caring 
You would never know

But it scares me
What do I do without her

HouseDivided

One minute memorial for the 150th anniversary of the Civil War
For Wind Quintet; Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn

HouseDivided

Vanilla Milk Shake

Orchestral elaboration of a 50's rockabilly song.


Vanilla Milk Shake

Waiting

Now

I know it is too late.

If she was going to come it would have been by now
The flowers I brought are going limp
Turning brown
Yet I wait
As I have waited before
As I wait now for all those who
Hover In my dreams

Thought I wuz gonna DIE!

26.91 miles
3:18:00 hours
8.9 avg speed
29 max speed
2508.1 odo
splog

Must be getting sick for this ride do kick my ass like it did.

Second and Union Blues.mpg

Bike ride splog

25.09 miles
9.9 average
28.8 max speed
2:31:54 time
2481.1 odometer

sticks, twigs, bits of string

Safe in a fortress built from the skeletons of my meatless memories
Surrounded by the stories I have accumulated.
Protected by the escarpment of my wise investments.
Invisible to my enemies.

I no longer need shoes.

Doctors without space - time coordinates

On my last bike ride, I rode by a Tardis (English call box) outside a small shop near the lake in Magnolia Park. I thought I might post a picture of it and make some silly ass of a joke about the Doctor visiting us to save us from these GOP turkeys who are trying to destroy everything we true Americans were trying to stand for. So today I grabbed a camera and was halfway out the door when I realized I could find a picture much easier on line.



It was a stupid idea anyway

I'm not going to do it.

And a cup of coffee

This is a bike ride log - containing the word "SPLOG" to distinguish it so I can locate older ones in case I ever want to put them all together and make a graph of my muscular degeneration over the years.
So far, I haven't wanted to do that.

Anyway...

Splog

20.10 miles
11:58:25 minutes
10.1 average
37.2 maximum speed
2456.1 on the odometer.

Thank you for listening to this broadcast. Tune in again sometime.

The Madison Park Bakery is a reeeley good place for maple bars and such.

Marche arrière

When you look through a magnifying glass, the image distorts as you move in and out of focus.
At one point, the image inverts.
I often wonder exactly what the image is at that precise point.
Perhaps a portal into another world?
A world where there is no concept of "up" or "down"?

Perhaps an omnidimensional galaxy free of motion sickness?
Or an nondimensional infinity free of positional prejudice?
Maybe an extradimensional film of pure nothingness?
A Heisenbergian bipolar dilemma?
An chimerical world of passive agressionality?
A paradoxical praxomatic pumpkin shell?

A dream of blessed oblivion?

Captain Beefheart wondered once about the black paper between a mirror.
Was this what he was talking about?
Is blackness the same as nothingness?
If so, can we sneak up behind it and shoot it in the back?

When the cabbage boils down, it's up to you.

Nantucket

There once was a girl from Nantucket

.................

Who brought home lollipops by the bucket
They were quite sweet
And she thought it a treat
To take one out and suck it
.................
Whose job it was to scrape muck, it
It was quite a bore
To do this odd chore
But she could think of no way to duck it
.................
Who said if an eyebrow offends one should pluck it
She was quite vain
But I thought it insane
When she took a botox filled needle and stuck it
.................
Who found a big bell and struck it
The people from town
Came running around
They thought someone had kicked the bucket
.................
Who had a exceedingly ancient old truck, it
Wouldn't run right
So late one night
She took a baseball bat and struck it
.................
Whose favorite composer was Gluck, it
Seemed the right thing
To give him a ring
But Willibald had, alas, kicked the bucket
.................
Who was advised to read a book about Huck, it
Was a tale 'bout a river
That someone had give her
It was darn good advise , so she tuck it
.................
Who picked up a guitar to pluck it
Her fingers got sore
So she finally swore
To take her musical career and chuck it
.................
Who bought a new truck, it
Was gone the next morn
And she was forlorn
Someone just came up and tuck it
.................
Who had a little too much pluck, it
Was late in the night
When she went out to fight
The cops brought her home in a bucket
.................
Who had unusually bad luck, it
Seemed like the thing
To learn how to sing

But her voice hit a window and bruck it

Splog

Got a little ride in today. In spite of a winter spent on my ass, My wierd legs seem to be stronger than ever.
Go figger.

10.62 miles
58.48 minnits
10.8 average speed
35.3 max speed
2435.9 miles accumulated since I started measuring these statistics.

Work in progress

Got a call for scores; French horn an impossible job.
Checked out Mozart's horn concerto for inspiration...I need a drink.
I thought of writing a joky piece using only notes out of the horn's range
BUT THERE AREN'T ANY!!
So I wrote this instead, it's terrible, it's impossible.
At least I think it probably is.

Horny

Wish I could play horn so's I know for sure this was impossible

Memory

I remember -
She said she was going to walk down by the lake
That's the last I ever saw her

Orpheus and Eurydice

Orpheus and Eurydice;
All during the opening heartbreaker scene in which Eurydice is already dead and Orpheus is lamenting his heart out, I couldn't keep Roy Orbison's "Unchained Melody" out of my head.



Then Deus showed up ex bicycle...

Later after a quick trip to hell, Orphy visited a hippie commune distinct for the odd fact that everyone there had found their "own true love".

Takes all kinds.

So whilst trying to drag Eurie out of hell they have this wonderful cross-purpose conversation that I swear I've heard many times on Dr.Phil, Oprah, Jerry Springer and in my VERY OWN HOME! Anyway, She dies again and everything ends happily.

(Not that I actually aver watch any of those shows, but I have heard about them)

Until the honeymoon is over.

I can hear it now; "Sure you were willing to sacrifice everything that gave any meaning to your life and descend into hell to bring me back to the world of the living, but you never do that anymore".

On the road again

Out of shape ever since I won a bronze in the the cookie toss at the toilet bowl last Oct, still managed 12.25 miles

splog

12.25 miles
1:22:01 hours
8.9 average speed
38.5 maximum speed
2425.4 on the odometer.

Our Oregon vacation

A bit of winter storm along the Oregon Coast near Yachats.

First three are of rock park across form the cabin we stayed in.










































The others are at Devil's churn, just a bit south of Yachats

































When we arrived in Yachats, the wind was howling, the wind was moaning, the wind was shrieking, screaming, and screeching.The wind was whistling Dixie.

We missed the big winds, but it was a joy to behold nonetheless.

Day before we got there the winds got up to 120 mph.
We only got some 70's and 80's
Still a thrill to walk around in.