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EDWARD JACOBS

Category: Living

  • Sunday, December 20, 2020

    The bright spots in the days, without question, come via NY. THis morning’s video call might require some narration…Jackson does give kisses, but also gets a kick out of the next best thing, “smelling noses.”

    Jackson and dad smelling noses, with Frankie looking on (top left)
    Jackson leaning in to ‘smell noses’ with Frankie
    and Jackson reaching into the phone to offer Frankie a piece of his breakfast goodies

  • Friday, December 18,2020

    A pair of fabulous, thought-provoking pieces

  • Thursday, December 10, 2020

    Some pix from last month, which I neglected to post.

    Slow motion pool throw in Naples…
    at the beach in Naples

    ____________________

    A project on the list is a collaboration with a faculty colleague choreographer. John Dixon wants to explore the idea (rather than the literal text) of a Requiem. [Perhaps I’ve noted this project in prior posts; not sure.]. This would involve dancers in the outdoors and, in my mind, sort of like a New Orleans 2nd line, but with dancers instead of musicians. I am imagining ‘speakers’ mounted on dancers limbs, and me able to control multiple speakers independently–rather than sending the same signal/sound to every speaker.

    And that’s not quite as simple as i thought it might be. Have spent the past three days researching this; yesterday consulted with an excellent resource in this sort of tech. It seems I was already on the right track, but it’s still not as simple as I’d hoped. More research necessary.

    The tech-issue is more on my mind right now than the music, which occupied me for the previous few weeks. The complicating factor is whether I can send different signals to different dancers (whether they’re on phones, or speaker, or a Raspberry Pi connected to a speaker, or whatever tech i ultimately use), or am limited to only one ‘track’ of sound sent to all speakers. Anyways, that’s what i’m trying to work out.

  • Thursday, December 3, 2020

    Here we are, surpassing the number of Covid-19 cases from the spring. As in Europe, this second wave is horrific. Our inability to take basic steps, i.e., wearing a mask and keeping distance, is just astounding. Smart enough to figure out the steps to avoid disaster, but not smart enough to implement those steps.

    ________________

    An ‘album’ of a few of my pieces seems to be nearing completion and release. The recordings took place January 28-29, 2019, the first edits made available for my review on November 7. A year later, things may be getting closer to completion.

    I’ve checked in with some friends and colleagues with more experience than I, and it seems that this is actually normal. Two reported that the only way to get an engineer to complete a project is to sit next to them in the studio until they finish the damned thing. Bizarre. It’s been a long process and, in fairness, neither I nor my dear-friend-and-supporter producer have been pushing the engineer very hard at all. So, i suppose the time-drag is no surprise.

    In preparation for this final stage, the producer, Chris Grymes of Open G Records, set up an initial meeting with Chris Glass, a designer/artist, to discuss the look of the release. It was an easy meeting, as both Chrisses are engaging, creative, and supportive. As I’d not met Chris Glass prior, this was a chance for him to ask some questions to get some ideas. Some questions were expected–about the music, influences, etc.–and some weren’t–about my workspace, where I’ve lived. We gave him two possible ‘titles’ to think about for this project, using titles of two of the included pieces: “The Line Between,” and “Addressing Wonder.” Grymes and I thought that “The Line Between” was the more evocative title, but are fine with either; we were surprised that Chris Glass was more drawn to “Addressing Wonder.” As Chris like to work with multiple possibilities, he’ll explore both paths and we’ll reconvene next week to see what he’s thinking about.

    And then there’s the ‘liner notes.’ I’ve never been a huge fan of writing ‘program notes’ for concert pamphlets, but certainly recognize the reason composers need to write them. Audiences/listeners need a way in, some frame of reference, something to hold on to as they encounter something not heard before, a logic that may be unfamiliar. So I’ve certainly written such notes for every piece, including them on the inside cover of the score, so that performers can just have them available as they prepare events.

    Trying to frame the bigger picture, i.e., a group of pieces in a ‘concert’ of multiple works, is a bit more of a challenge for me. I’m so grateful that Grymes wants to play a big role in this process. He’s just requested some basic ideas, and the aforementioned pre-written program notes about each piece, and he’ll work something for discussion/review.

    In honesty, of course, this is a means to record my ideas, to make those ideas easily accessible/available to anyone who might be interested. Perhaps it’s really just a vanity project, but this is really the way one distributes musical ideas now (and for the past 70 years). There are certainly more works I’d like to record (when this recording released, this will be eight pieces), but it’s quite a process, from finding the right performers to fund-raising, etc. We’ll see about the next collection of pieces, as I’ve eight-ten I wouldn’t mind getting out there…

    Those notes for Chris have been sent out, some lessons/recruiting done, a few home projects. complete…today’s about writing some recommendation letters, and finishing up that song for Dan Shirley, which he’s liking thus far, but which I’ve been remiss at completing to date.

  • Tuesday, December 1, 2020

    ’tis the season

    how time flies

  • Friday, November 27, 2020

    Hoping you enjoyed a reasonable day yesterday, wherever you were. As large gatherings aren’t really something I particularly enjoy, our day here was quite relaxing. Joe, Cristin, Jackson, and Ellie departed before 10am; clearly it was a good idea to travel on t-day, as they were home before 6pm. Less than 8 hours is quick, so. that worked out well.

    Just a sheer joy to have them visiting. All day fun with Jackson, a pleasure to get to see him growing. One of the biggest treats was when we all just leave him alone and watch him play on his own. He’s enjoying time on his own–of course, at his age, wanting to know that someone was nearby. He’s doing great.

    November 25, 2020
    early July, 2020
    just hanging out in the dog-toy. basket

    We pretty much spent the day giving the house a bit of a deep clean, and got to an early bedtime.

    Today, back to writing!

    And, of course, the daily presidential idiocy; if you’ve not seen this Turkey Pardon from 2018, it’s an absolute must-see.

  • Wednesday, November 25, 2020

    One final day with our special guests, as Joe, Cristin, Jackson, and Ellie will try to avoid traffic by driving back north on t-day. They’ll have been on the road more than three weeks; similar to what they did in early July. Really glad they’re able to get these trips in, and just hope they find a way to get closer to us sooner, rather than later.

    Enjoying some evening reading together with dad
    …and with mom…
    …and Jackson discovering the doggy door.

  • Sunday, November 22, 2020

    A few shots from Crystal Beach, Jackson’s first visit to see the clan there.

    _____________________

    Feeling a bit defeated this morning, so it’s good that Jackson, et al, will reach us at some point this evening.

    Defeated and deflated as it now seems Surf City will remain out of reach until well into January; and flights to Bonaire (3-week scuba diving trip booked in February) are cancelled. So, in short, feeling just like the rest of the world.

  • Saturday, November 21, 2020

    The headlines continue to make one thing so very clear to me: Trump and his minions are vile. Absolutely vile. I truly wish I understood how 70 million people find him a good leader, a good person to hold the seat of POTUS. It seems obvious to me that it’ll take decades for US politics to straighten out, and it’ll take a major crisis to bring the country together; likely a war. I don’t believe I’ll see a day when the country comes together.

    ___________________

    I’m fascinated by this idea of “silent meetings.” I’d like to find a way to use this in teaching. I’ll continue to read up on the role of facilitator of such meetings, and see if I can come up with a way to execute this in a solid pedagogical setting–either remote or in-person.

    __________________

    Joe, et al, are heading north from the Naples visit. I think they had a great time, and certainly Greg and Cathy really enjoyed having these weeks to get to know Jackson at 15 months.

    They’ll make the trip up to NC in two days, today starting with a side trip to visit Bob, Brigitte, Daniel, hopefully Aaron, for lunch. This will be Jackson’s first meeting with them, and I know they’ll all enjoy each other, and it’ll be too short a visit.

    The’ll reach us Sunday evening, I imagine. Not sure if they’ll stay through T-day, but perhaps so. We’ve no real plans for the day, but we’ll see.

    Wishing you a healthy and relatively happy week ahead.

  • Wed., November 18, 2020

    Yesterday was our end-of-semester conference day for composition students. The four comp faculty gather to chat with each young composer, individually. While these sessions are brief (15′ for most, 30′ for grad students), it’s a chance for students to talk about the term’s highlights, how things went relative to their expectations; and for faculty to try to prod them in new directions. Mostly, it’s a chance for faculty who’re not familiar with a particular student to gain some acquaintance, and for students to meet and engage all of us.

    The conferences went ok, about the same as usual, though done virtually, of course. This 4 hour slice of the day is by far the most time I’ve spent with my colleagues this term. In the absence of off-the-cuff meetings that typically happen all through the semester, people stopping in for coffee, just to chat, etc., this was really the only time for us as a comp faculty. In all honesty, it was the only moment during the entire semester that i realized how much i really missed the more typically semester-long engagement.

    I’d thought that this semester was really ok, as I didn’t experience regular interruptions by colleagues who stopped in. Over the past years I’ve actually established a schedule that has no holes in it, at all, so that such meetings can only happen by appt., or when a student cancels their lesson. But, in truth, I realize that I do miss my colleagues. We’ve all got our crap, and I’m generally so intolerant that I’m sure many don’t want to deal with me (though they do keep stopping in…), but my colleagues are truly (almost) as important as our students.

    It’s the students I miss terribly. The challenge of the first eight-week term online at least let me look forward to seeing them three times each week. Meeting comp students and e-comp students over the remainder of the semester (theirs a 15-wk term) was good, but not having them in my office/studio is just so odd. The absence of “this is our bubble for an hour,” our space to go anywhere together, perhaps prompted by something on my desk, perhaps by a score lying on a music stand, or a file open on my computer; I really miss that.

    The teaching/learning just isn’t at all the same experience for any of us, at any level of education, at any school.

    Next semester? I really want to teach in person. But I just don’t think circumstances are going to allow it. It’s possible I may be able to get a vaccine a bit earlier than the students, due to my likely status as ‘high risk’, but I don’t think it’ll be available before the term begins January 19.

    ___________________

    ECU, like so very many other universities, colleges, and community colleges, is looking ahead to some horrid budget cuts. We’ve heard the latest numbers, which make unmistakably clear that the cuts are far beyond our operating budget and will force significant personnel cuts. This will create a very difficult situation for those whose positions are cut, and of course their families, and also for the faculty who remain but will need to somehow cover extra courses and/or larger classes. The staff throughout the university, those who haven’t ever been fairly compensated, will be cut or furloughed; and they’re not likely to have any fat/savings in their personal budgets. In short, so many more will be added to the unemployment rolls, to the casualties of this pandemic and its shameful mishandling by both the current administration, and the congressional reticence to act and provide relief.

    As part of dealing with the enormous budget cuts, the UNC governing body has asked the state legislature for permission to pursue means to encourage retirements, etc. There are many rumors about what that might mean, if anything does actually happen, so no one’s making any plans at this point.

    But Pattie and I did have a meeting last week with our TIAA-CREF retirement advisor. It was a typical ‘annual check-up’, which usually begins with an important question: “any idea of your retirement time-line?” I usually respond to this with estimating age 65. And while that’s a pretty likely age for me (~5 years), I proposed we run a hypothetical of my retiring at the end of this year, spring 2021–just as a thought-experiment, so to speak. The result is that such an action would allow us to maintain our lifestyle for 25+ years (longer than I expect to live, to be honest).

    I don’t expect to retire at the conclusion of this year, unless an incentive arises which is just too good to turn down. But the ideas of a phased retirement (3-years at half-time), or just 3-year timeline (age 63) sure do seem enticing.

    So I’ve brought up our “what would we do if I retired this spring” question with Pattie. More thought-experimenting. Move? Where to? So much depends on what happens with Joe/Cristin and their pursuit to come south. We know they want to come this way, also have incentive in her sis’s family planning to move to Richmond next fall. And with Pattie’s folks here, Christine/Stephen in VA, Tim/Tara here (for now), Pattie’s two sisters in Raleigh, her bro at the coast, there’s lots of gravitational pull to this area if Joe/Cristin are able to get here. My sibs are too geographically dispersed to help in any decision about moving; Indiana, Boston, NY, Florida…we know we don’t want to move to the cold, and we really haven’t found any place in FL that appeals to us. Discussions continue, but perhaps with the awareness that looking at things in the Raleigh area might provide occasional distraction.

    ____________________

    Monday brought another session with the h.s. musicians in Fayetteville, and I’ll have another next Monday. This time with them always reminds me of what gives me a good jolt–young minds, curious and open, exploring the potential of their own ideas, hungry to do so more, to build, to try things. These particular students are really wonderful; their teacher clearly loves them, and they her. There’s so very much support and encouragement during these sessions, and it’s such a gift to be a small part of their curriculum. I do hope that interactions like this, wherever I am after retirement, will continue both in person and virtually. Perhaps the silver lining from all of these past months is the awareness of what is possible via remote-connecting.

    Looking forward, it seems. And hope to keep eyes on these matters, rather than the discouraging headlines, in the days to come.

    Jackson’s got it right, still enjoying his Florida time.