Yesterday was a wonderful day.

Anton Miller, the violinist preparing Six Humors for an ACA Shelter Recording, had sent questions which indicated he was really getting down to the fine details. The questions he asked will help me, alot, in preparing an undated edition for ACA. He has also been very positive in his comments about the piece, which he clearly likes, and is enjoying getting to know. I will save his emails to look at when I’m feeling unsure, as they’re more than encouraging.

After a few productive hours of work on the living space here–slowly but surely checking chores off the list (which is still quite long)–I connected with Chris Nappi. [My favorite picture of Chris is below; from about the time we met, ~1986, with John Cage. Several lifetimes ago.] I wrote Anima/Animus for Chris, and he’s now prepping it for a Shelter Recording. I gave him the music about two years ago, before a number of events caused some major tremors in Chris’ life, and the pandemic and loss of regular gigs has given him some time to dig in to it. As I was trying a few ‘different’ things, we agreed I’d give him the piece 98% finished, and he’d be the resource to expertly guide me through a few technical decisions. And the call we had yesterday was a big step in that direction. We may only need one more such consult, likely via email now, to focus on some notational details.

Then a return to work on the condo, and soon the arrival of Tara and Tim for an overnight visit. Great to have them here, both also a huge help in organizing things here; Tim handling–in about an hour–a particular task that would likely have taken me most of a day. Interesting, too, that Tim noticed that we’re one of three waterfront units which are occupied. The other 13 are still in various states of disrepair. As long as it’s been for us (more than 21 months), most of our neighbors are still waiting.

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The news this morning continues to be abysmal. The bubble we’ve been in the past few days, as we work to re-establish this place for living, has been a balm, for sure. But today brings another report of a police killings; what’s notable in this case is the response to this event.

“While there may be debate as to whether this was an appropriate use of deadly force, I firmly believe that there is a clear distinction between what you can do and what you should do,” (Mayor Keisha Lance) Bottoms said. “I do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force.” The officer was fired, his partner on leave, the police chief resigns. This within hours of the shooting.

The use of deadly force by the police is so often beyond reason, and the readily available phone-video now makes this unmistakable, unavoidable, and so very painful to too many. The militarization of police, the idea of training police to deal with too many types of problems in our neighborhoods and in our society…it has never been clearer and more evident that the role of policing needs examination and restructuring.

On top of this is covid-19’s continued expansion, globally and locally. Countries and U.S. states which have ‘opened’ are now seeing surges in cases; areas without outbreaks, its residents complaining that many states were pursuing unnecessarily restrictive measures, are finally now seeing their own outbreaks. This isn’t going anywhere good; really not getting better; and fatigue is bringing too many people to ignore basic measures (masks, distancing) as we see crowds at restaurants and bars. Really hoping some treatments come soon, if not a vaccine.

Pattie’s awake and joining me for coffee, so let the day begin…