notes from the kelp

In breaking with my tradition of brand new snapshots, this photo of me waaaaay up in the air above the Santa Barbara Pacific, was taken over a year ago.
In keeping with my tradition of offering joy and beauty on this little bloglet, there’s a reason I’m posting it.

I’m over halfway through the new quartet for flute, violin, cello and piano (still maddeningly untitled), and it’s at the fun, creative puzzle-solving point that composers experience when they’ve written and largely developed the main material for the piece, and now need to find ways for various composed sections to flow organically and inevitably from one to the next.

Great joy, this part of the process is. I love strong form and motivic development; I must have been Beethoven’s chamber maid in a previous life. 🙂

Often with pieces, I go through varying degrees of “gee, this is pretty ok… wow, this is very nice… yikes, this will be awful… ok, it’s not so bad… yes, it truly is a turd, and I will be shown for the fraud that I am… well, all right, it’s actually ok.” And so on. I know for a fact that I am not alone in this schizophrenic neurosis; the internal love/hate tug of war is a common affliction among composers.

But this blossoming piece, for whatever reason, is truly resonating with me. This of course portends absolutely nothing as to its overall worth and whether the musicians and audience will be enjoying as much as I. But it’s soaring, deeply emotional, unashamedly touching music that I am so happy to be immersed in. There’s a flying, elevating, calmly euphoric quality to it that has caused my mind to wander to past similar experiences, and para-gliding over the stunning coastline pictured here was certainly one of them. From hundreds of feet up I could hear the barking of the sea lions as clearly as when I’m on our sailboat, and the sight of their bodies flowing through the ocean was beautiful. The day was cloudless and the views of the mountains stretched beyond my imagination. These photos of me could not possibly capture the complete ecstasy that raced through my heart.

No music clip for posting today, because the notes that are racing through my head right now are even better than anything I could offer. At least, to me.

Coming in, reluctantly, for the landing….

…and landing, with the grace of a cow dropped from the sky.sex mom story dadgagging fucking throatvoyeur girls pissingartistic photos teen nudegallery pissing photosfucking brother ans sistergallery teen free asianindian pissing Mapcomposing 3210 ringtonedelight afternoon ringtonesnokia ringtone free 2260 monophonictracfone 2285 ringtone free sms nokiaestate accrington agentsatt nokia ringtone 35603585i ringtones nokia alltelringtone sch verizon a650 samsung Map

…listen
…info about the music

Click on the blue music icon above to hear “Dream Vista,” an oh-so-very 80’s new age recording from my past.

Further proof that musicians can indeed live well: this magnificent view of Hayman Island in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, complete with spiritual streaming of light from on high. Oh, how I wish I could tell you that it was I who just saw this in person and took this picture. But no– it was snapped a couple of days ago by a friend of mine, Rick Kvistad. When he’s not playing principal percussion in the San Francisco Opera, he’s looking for all sorts of ways to have fun, and a trip with his chamber ensemble Adesso to perform down under (do they call us “up top”?) was the perfect excuse to extend his trip into a vacation.

There are so many gorgeous places on this planet, but for each of us, different percentages and combinations of land and water resonate personally. Some people are inland types most awed by standing in the middle of a forest, perhaps with a bucolic lake nearby. Others are moved to tears by the stark beauty of the desert. And tears are a good thing, since they’ll need a little extra water. Then there are us ocean-types, for whom the expanse and mystery of what lies beyond and below is a constant lure. Of all the photos of magnificent places I see, there are very few that I find more compelling than right where I am on the southern and central California coast. What an extraordinarily fortunate thing to be able to declare. When Charles and I ponder where we might next wish to live, we’re hard pressed to come up with any better combination of weather and geology. The exception is that every time I see images of Australia and, even more alluring, New Zealand, my spirit pulses with that personal resonation. I could indeed live in that part of our planet, happily.

…listen
…info about the music

Click on the blue music icon above to hear some of the Scherzo movement from my “Sonata for Piano,” and you’ll wonder how these guys sleep through it all.

If music soothes the savage beast, then I have apparently flogged Smudge and Moses into the depths of complete unconsciousness with my latest offering. I suppose I should take this as a good sign; if they were yowling pitifully every time I hit a note or reworked a passage, I’d know for sure that I should get out of this dot alignment business. As it is, they keep me fine (if not particularly attentive) company as I compose. Hey, any audience is a good audience.

…listen
…info about the music

Click on the blue music icon above to hear “Plasma”.

It’s fun to look straight down from the bluff past the ice plant, and watch as the waves churn the brown, sandy sea floor. I like watching things from the bottom rise to the top. The round designs remind me of when I was a kid, and loved to close my eyes, rub them with my fists, and then– keeping my eyes shut– watch layers and layers of “clouds” appear and disappear against a dark backdrop. I could create an entire, alternate world, any time I wished.

Just like writing music!

…listen
…info about the music

Click on the blue music icon above to hear a clip from “Journey” for 5-string electric violin and electronics.

I like to escape the dark, cave-like confines of my project studio down the hall whenever possible, and bring my laptop to the dining table. There, in a large open space that includes the living room and kitchen as well, I can work surrounded by lots of light and expanse. Walls with more windows than framing steal my attention away from the pixels at hand, out in one direction to the sea and Catalina Island, and in another across the deck and to the Santa Monica mountains, beyond. Today I was focused intently on an adaptation of a piece, and as if tapped on the shoulder at 5:30, I suddenly lifted my head. And this is what I saw. I stepped on to the deck and had to share this view gazing northeast and up… up… up. It made me smile. A big storm is coming tomorrow, but for now, it’s clear and fluffy outside.

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…info about the music

Click on the blue music icon above to hear a movement from my “Evensong Suite” titled “Phos Hilaron,” to accompany this photo of the way light reflects color on the waves.

There is so much color and form here, everywhere I look! Dark green kelp and eel grass get cycled within the other-greenly green of a wave’s last curl. Blue-ness is followed by more and deeper blue-ness of oncoming tides. The vibrancy is mirrored in a clear, brisk air that smells like these colors. Just think of it. Ahhhhh.

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…info about the music

Click on the blue music icon above to hear a clip from my cello sonata, “Of Wood and Touch.”

Stones and footsteps strewn at the shoreline. A dance, perhaps, between them, with the waves always cutting in.

Some days just look blue, no matter how happy you may be. We had a good thunder and lightning storm late last night, and it blew brisk, clear air across the sea. Even though the buffalo-spotted land on Catalina is actually green and brown, gazing across the ocean to it, everything is pale azure and beckons like a lost, magical place. In fact, it’s a found magical place.

My trips there over the years, by commercial ferry and by my own sailboat, have all been wonderful discoveries that fill me thoughts of what it might be like to live in such a place, so close to a major city, and yet remote in significant ways. Not unlike our community in Paradise Cove, most natives get around in electric golf carts. And those buffalo I mentioned– I wasn’t kidding. In the 1920’s, a herd of the huge animals was brought over to the island for a film shoot. When the director was done, he didn’t bother to have the [highly non-native!] beasts returned to wherever they came from. Until the buffalo arrived, the largest animal roaming around was the island fox. But the big beasts just love the climate and the food offered up on the grass and scrub brush hillsides, and have bred so well over the past century that now it’s impossible not to see them any time you venture across the little island, grazing on the mountainside or standing right next to the road. Quite a sight!

On a clear day like today, it would seem that my zoom lens could almost make them out on Catalina’s silhouette, 22 miles away…

…listen
…info about the music

Click on the blue music icon above to hear a taste of “Deep,” to accompany these views of Catalina Island and our Big Blue.

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…listen
…info about the music

Click on the blue music icon above to hear a little from one of my tunes, “Dorian Mood,” to give this surfer something to accompany his nice ride.

I don’t watch much TV, because I don’t find much of what’s on terribly fascinating, and also because during peak prime time TV hours I’m either at a concert in town, or composing here in my studio. Evenings and nights are my work days. But there’s one great pleasure I can enjoy 24/7 on cable: an alternative, extreme sports station called FUEL that’s MTV for the board sport crowd. Surfing, skate boarding, snowboarding, X games, motocross, it’s all there, and most of it’s pretty riveting. I love to watch it for a few minutes when I finally hit the sack at 5 or 6 in the morning. I’ve got the TV programmed to start there when I turn on the power, and it rarely leaves that station. It’s just beautiful to watch these athletes bathed in so much joy and exuberance.

Best of all, I’m blessed to live somewhere where I can walk outside of my house, and see a line up of guys (and a few gals) waiting for the sets to roll in. And roll in, they do. Some days here at Paradise Cove are moderate and good, like this one I snapped, above. We’ve got nice breaks here, but they’re really for experienced surfers because of all the rocks and sea urchins (see some of my low tide evidence, farther down on this page). And then there are a few really spectacular days every year when the sets come in with waves topping 20 feet, that curl in such a way that you can get a really long ride. I can sit and watch the surfers forever; it never gets boring and no two sets are alike. There’s the drama of the individuals and their styles, and then there’s the drama of the sea which keeps me guessing about what the next wave is going to look and feel like. Ahhhhh. Far more stimulus than any TV show. And smells better, too.

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Beach art. Looking straight down as I walk, there are random, colorful offerings like this pink lichen (even brighter in person) among a few remnants of surf grass, stones and mussel shells. Spread joy like a fungus with algae! Dude!

…listen
…info about the music

Click on the blue music icon above to hear a movement from “At the Abyss” titled “Act.”

This sea anemone is not a plant. It’s an animal! And a predatory one, at that. They eat fish, mussels and even some crustaceans. Usually small ones like tiny shrimp, but not always. Hands down, the most amazing Wild Kingdom moment I’ve had at this particular beach was a couple of years ago, when a friend and I came upon an anemone about this size– maybe 5 or 6 inches in diameter– eating a small lobster. All that was sticking out were the last few inches of the lobster’s head and antennae. Oh, how I wish I had had a camera with me that day! I haven’t seen anything like that since.

On the sides of the anemone’s stalk-like body you can see all sorts of shell detritus that adheres to form a protective covering for this squishy fella. There’s no skeleton; it looks like this when extended, and then collapses on itself into a donut shaped blob as it waits for whatever the tides bring it for lunch that day.

Because this particular anemone is in a tidepool under water, it was challenging for me to capture the bright green-blue of it’s tentacles; I think the angle of the sun has to be just right, and it was… just left, perhaps. Nonetheless, I wanted to share the photo with you, because this animal is so beautiful and exposed.

…listen
…info about the music

Click on the blue music icon above to hear a movement from “At the Abyss” titled “Reflect.”

Ok, you’ll just have to wait one more day for the sea creatures. I made suitable headway on a challenging section of this new quartet, and experienced that most wonderful phenomenon when 2:15 in the afternoon turns to 6:40 in the evening without any sense of time passing. So I stepped outside by my front door to stretch and breathe some air that didn’t smell like eau de studio (yes, I showered today, so I swear, it wasn’t me, just the mustiness of too many hard drives humming along). And there was my green cheese friend rising up again in front of me. So I thought you might like this evocative little photo of tonight’s full moon gracing the Malibu hills and the Santa Monica Bay.movies quicktime shemalemovies tawny peaksmovie the script notebookfree of free and thumbnails large boobs movies tits moviestotally movies free pornwomen nude movies of uncensoreddownload maker window moviesex movies young Map

…listen
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Click on the blue music icon above to hear a clip of “Shiny Kiss,” to accompany the moon kissing the mountain ridge.

Look up wherever you happen to be this evening: our local rocky satellite in the sky will be reflecting lots of sunlight back to us at night. How cool is that?
Paradise Cove is a south-facing beach, and we get some very wonderful sun- and moon-rises. Charles and I stood on the damp sand at twilight and as we watched all that green cheese rapidly come into view over the Santa Monica mountains, we allowed ourselves to really feel the earth spinning forward.

Living here, I am profoundly aware of existing on a constantly moving object. Growing up in New York City those first 21 years, I never saw moonrises or stars or too much sky at one time. I didn’t have a sense of living on a planet; my dominant perception of the world was geared toward All Things Man-Made. And it all gave me great comfort. My world and values were reflected in the mica mixed into the sidewalk concrete as I looked downward and walked fast through the city streets on my way to somewhere that must have been important to me at the time.

Now, the most important place for me to be is right here. My values are reflected in a very shiny place inside my heart that is connected to everything I see around me.

Coming soon to a computer screen near you: small sea creatures captured in action today. Stay tuned!teen Vagina Behaarte BilderSex Geschichten UrduHerrin peeingOrgasmus Soundclip Weiblicheinterrassisch porn Nina HartleyMädchen oben Minderjährige ohneGalerie Mütter hässlich FettFrau Cheaten Kameras versteckteATK behaarte MariamTS sex Fuck Video trannypersonal 500 loana loan countrywide homeadvance loan payday andloan com payday advancecar for age loansloans $1.2 billiontrust deed loans 1stbankruptcy loan a after Map