Music in the House

One of the pluses of being a musician (in my case a composer) is living in a constant environment of music. It’s everywhere, even when the stereo is turned off. In fact, I don’t play CDs as often as some people think, and that’s because music is in my head 24/7.

Throughout the day I’m constantly turning musical phrases over this way and that in my mind, even when I don’t mean to, playing with harmonies and contrapuntal lines, as well as the voices, or “colors,” of the individual instruments, or human voices. I think it could drive some people mad, but as a composer I’d go mad if my daily life wasn’t full of this. However, everything changes when Nettl begins working on a piece at the piano.

Then the buzz in my head fades and both my conscious and subconscious attention is drawn to what she’s doing. I don’t think even she knows what a respite this creates for me. As she works on the Mozart K.505, my mind creates the entire piece for me — the orchestration, the piano obbligato — the entire score. It’s like living in a concert hall. What a delightful accompaniment to my Saturday blogging!

Tonight we’re going to Ville and Beau’s house to play board games. Meantime, I have some work for Rhombus to get done and emailed.

Happy Weirds Day

A few years ago the kids started celebrating my role in their life on Fathers Day because (due to my gender androgyny) Mothers Day didn’t quite fit our situation. Of course, qualifying for what the Native Americans call Two Spirited, Fathers Day didn’t exactly fit either. Their solution? It’s Weirds Day! I love that. When you’re a person like me you have to have a healthy sense of humor. Anyway, the kids are in Wichita with their dad, so Nettl got up early this morning and got me a Weirds Day present from her and the kids: a fully-fitted aquarium and some fish.

This fish thing went exactly as I predicted last month when I bought a regular gold fish (Abercrombie), a calico gold fish (Fitch) and an Algae-Eater — a Plecosaurus, or something like that — (Algernon) for the patio fountain. We were happy with those three, but then I went out and got four Neon Tetras. Bad idea. Fitch, who we now call Caligula, had a feeding frenzy after we went to bed that night, leaving only one (not really a Neon at all, but an Albino Tetra) the only living survivor. I moved him indoors into a fishbowl and named him Claudius. It was at that time that I told Nettl, “I know what’s going to happen. We’ll have an aquarium within the month. Wait and see. I’ve done this before.” Sure enough, Claudius looked really lonely, so I bought three more Neons and kept them all in bowl on top of the piano.

Fishbowls are a lot of work. You have to change the water every day. I moved Algernon to the bowl, but it didn’t really help. Thus, this morning we have an aquarium, another Pleco who we named Hoover, and five more Neons. We now have a total of 13 fish. Now I want some Ghost Shrimp and a couple of water snails. Nettl wants to get two Black Moors. This is exactly how it works.

Love Cats?

My Cat Hates You

It's Ville's Birthday!

• Wow, are you getting old! I was probably smoking pot on the very day you were born. That’s how old you are! Think about that.

• I remember when we first met and I came to your 20th birthday party. In fact, I remember it like it was only a couple of years ago. Actually, I’m kidding about you getting old, because no matter how old you get I’ll always be 16 years older than you. And I have a birthday coming up in September.

• All kidding aside, I love you, Ville. It’s funny how we relate to each other as if you’re my older sister and I’m your little weird. We have a real history behind us. Unfortunately, we’ve kept journals so our antecedents will find out exactly what that history is! At least we won’t be here to live that down—or up.

• I know we’re celebrating your birthday on Saturday, but I just wanted to let Blogsville know how much I love you and how happy I am that we met. The gift you gave me? You taught me that it’s never too late to have a happy childhood.

And now, for my readers, a classic Ville quote (in other words, you would have had to be there to understand it):

“How would you like to be walking around

with your teeth taped to your ankle?”

Rare Maladies

I thought I should alert my readers to some newly discovered ailments...