We've killed another radio station

Remember a few weeks back how I wrote about all the stations in Richmond that we liked had changed format? Well, we sort of found one that was a resonable substitute and apparently that was the kiss of death for yet another station. Yesterday they fired all their DJs and today they're running commercials that say "Q-94 is dead." Maybe we should switch to exclusively CDs.

Boring weblog of the day.

It's really for my use rather than as information for you, but there's no harm done in making it public, so here you go. Knock yourselves out. (And no, I actually haven't sent "Breathe on Me..." out today as it says I have, but I did put my packet together, and I will be sending it out after I get off of work at 3:00p.)

Draft number threeish.

I've been playing with "Breathe on Me, Breath of God" on and off the past couple days (before I wrote the reminder), and now I have a working copy good enough that I'm probably going to send it to someone tomorrow, since tomorrow is the last day of the month and I do not want to break further promises to myself. It is not close to the favorite piece I've written, but I suspect that no level 1 piece would ever be.

So, um, give opinions after you have looked and listened. (The listening is lame, because you cannot hear the echo technique, which would make the second time through the song sound much less unexciting. But it gives you an idea of the general feel.)

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Activity for musically-inclined Disney fans.

I was looking online to see how many 3-5 octave level 1 handbell pieces are in print (not counting lesson books and similar items, it's only about 50 -- this will be my market!) and I saw this. Now. Think about the syncopation in those songs, and think about the fact that no level 1 piece is allowed to use notes smaller than quarters, and tell me if this makes the sense.

Reminder to myself, part one.

Remember that it is the end of April, so it is time for you to start working on your April handbell composition piece, since, as you promised yourself last month, you are required to write and submit for publication one new piece a month, and even though "An April Frost" had the word "April" in the title, it actually counts as March's piece. Perhaps you could work on "Be ____ My ____" (also known as "Be Thou Still") or some of those pieces moM sent to you last week.

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Reminder to myself, part two.

Remember to go back in time two days so you can call daD to wish him a happy birthday.

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Reminder to myself, part three.

Remember to tell everyone on the blog that we went to Saturday's 5-4, 12 inning game -- where Kim got to see her first manager ejected -- rather than Sunday's.

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Reminder to myself, part four.

There is no part four of this reminder.

Crappy news of the day.

Um, yeah.

Ice cold Christian fakes turn to Frosted Flakes.

After an involved discussion yesterday between Kim and I regarding my churchgoing -- a conversation that lasted longer than many Hollywood movies (and was far more interesting) -- it has been decided that I (and thus we) am (and thus are) going to try out a new non-Catholic church every two weeks throughout the summer. Here is the tentative schedule, which you do not care about, but I am much more likely to go through with something when it has been displayed for the world (or one-600,000,000th of it) to see:

May 2nd: River Road United Methodist Church

May 16th: Epiphany Evangelical Lutheran Church

May 23rd (since we'll probably be somewhere fun for Mem. Day): Discovery United Methodist Church

June 13th: Gayton Road Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

June 27th: St. Andrew's United Methodist Church

July 11th: Christ Community Church (Evangelical Free)

July 25th: Welborne United Methodist Church

Before you ask, no, I don't have a particular yen to go to a United Methodist Church -- the denomination is more liberal than is my preference -- but they're the most ubiquitous Richmond-area denomination after Southern Baptists¹, so at least one of those four has to be close to 10 on the UM number line². Right?

Of course, this schedule will be scrapped if I find a church I love, and it will be revised if I find one I'd like to attend a few more times.

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1 e.g.: All of those four churches are closer to our house than the ELCA church I listed.³

2 See, because if the number line goes from 0 to 10, 0 is on the left hand side and 10 is...oh, forget it.

3 Also, the next-door neighbor to us who isn't selling his house is the pastor at one of those four United Methodist churches. I forget which one, however, and I cannot decide if him being my neighbor would make me more likely or less likely to attend his church, assuming I can figure out again which one it is.

We saw a Blue Jays game this weekend.

It was either this game or this game. Without me telling you which game we attended, which game would you rather have gone to, assuming you were a Blue Jays fan? Also, if you want to buy a beer at Camden Yards, you will need to pull out a five dollar bill and two quarters, which makes me happy that I do not like beer.

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Belatedly.

Because of a coworker quitting spur-of-the-momently last month, it was only today that I learned that I won my office's NCAA pool and now have an extra $14 to my name. Yay Dr. Naismith.

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House-next-door update.

Lots of people went through it yesterday (with realtors; there was no open house, alas). We told Kim's parents.

Because the worst thing webloggers can do is repeat themselves.

Thus, I will not mention that I believe I need to find a new church -- or at least a supplemental bonus church -- and I will not mention that in the next few weekends I am probably going to try out a few other churches: a United Methodist, an ELCA, an E-Free¹. Because then you would look at a post a year ago today and see that absolutely nothing has changed.

In fact, as I told Kim yesterday, in my current mood, I would ideally like to ditch about 90 percent of my social responsibilities -- writing film reviews, directing bells, singing in a choir, some small-group handbell ringing I'm doing, my job, et al. -- and do something more constructive with the time that I feel like I'm wasting. (Obviously, I get money for doing my job, so it's not completely "wasteful," per se, but I don't feel a particular yen for the work I'm doing, nor do I know what sort of job -- outside of Rich Handbell Composer and Arranger -- I have much of a yen for.) I get into these moods occasionally. I do not know if they are good or bad moods.

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1 Since I am not mentioning those churches, I should point out I am doubly not mentioning the Evangelical Presbyterian church I mentioned in year-ago post, because even though it is only about a mile from our new house, I know two people who are going to it, and although they are both nice people and such, I just don't want to know people who are going to churches I'm trying out for one or two Sundays, because I do not to be in the position to have to tell them why their church sucks.

Um.

Despite a couple small problems that have in total cost us a few hundred dollars, Kim and I have had a sneaking suspicion that we got an incredibly good deal on our house, based on the prices of other houses we saw during our year-long house hunt. We never had any good way to verify that information, however, since in the few months we've been living in our house, no other dwelling in our 80-home neighborhood has been put up for sale.

Now there is a house for sale. It is our next-door neighbor¹. It is built the same year our house was built, and it is within a few square feet of the lower estimate of our house's size². It has one fewer bathroom. It is for sale for about three Honda Element DXs more than what we paid for our house (or if you're Kimberly, one Corvette Z06. That is wack, and I am assuming that (a) they're massively overpricing and will never sell it at the current number and/or (b) the house is full of solid gold countertops or diamond sink knobs or something and/or (c) we got an amazing deal on our house.

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1 Please do not give this information to Kimberly's parents³. Thank you.

2 There was about 100 sq. ft. difference between the number the former owner gave us and the number the appraiser from our lender; surprisingly, it was the latter number that was higher.

3 Although I'm sure they'd never buy it at the current price. But still. Please.

One sick, two sick, red sick, blue sick.

Kim and I are both feeling yucky. We do not like feeling yucky. Help us stop feeling yucky.

Please help us choose our summer vacation.

We are waffling; however, we have reduced our wish list to four choices, and we would like opinions on what would be really cool and what would be really lame. These will be listed in the order of approximate expensiveness, decending:

Hawaii.

London plus (Dublin or Paris or some other cool European city).

The CARE-uh-BEE-an or cuh-RIB-ee-AN, via a cruise.

The City of Angels plus Saint Diego.

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Oh, just as a general rule, in case you hadn't gotten that impression from various posts over the years, Kim and I are both quite

indecisive.

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Speaking of which, help us choose something to do this weekend.

From this list.

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Speaking of which, help us choose a movie to see tonight.

Except that all movies out in wide release look stupidder than stupidd. Except of course this one.

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But at least we know what we will be doing next weekend.

Assuming it does not rain.

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Recliner update.

Kim talked to the clerk we were working with at the store where we won it, and she does not know the color, but she is looking it up for us.

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Phlem update.

I have less. Kim has more.

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Digital projector update.

There is no digital projector update.

Fact I do not believe of the week.

From the AP: "To cope with the burden, taxpayers flock to a professional or turn to a software program to do the work, the National Taxpayers Union study said. More than 88 percent of taxpayers have used a paid professional or purchased tax software so far this year." I'm sorry, but there's no way.

I suppose I should clarify

I thought I had already posted photos of our new bedroom, but from recent comment postings it's obvious I never did that. My apologies for being so remiss.

Those who have been to our old house will recognize both the furniture and the green walls. One of the first things I did after we bought this house was to paint our bedroom. We really liked the green we had in our old bedroom, so we pulled out that paint chip and went for the same color again. Now that the other bedroom looks so well put together, though, we've been wanting a new comforter set for our bedroom. We're keeping our eyes open for something that will go well with our green walls and our sleigh bed, but not be overly flowery or overly modern. We're also waiting for a few more pieces of bedroom furniture to come in that we ordered on our North Carolina adventures. I'll have to post more photos after we make those final changes.





We also have a nice bathroom with a great tub in our bedroom. Eventually I'd like to paint it to complement the green of the bedroom, but since it looks pretty good as is that will just have to wait until some other projects are finished.

What I am doing with my lunch break, besides coughing up phlem.

Preparing a proposal so my church will pay for me to go here for two days. Also, despite the subject line, I am coughing up substantially less phlem than I did on Monday and Tuesday. I believe that is a good thing.

Here we go a decorating

It is finally time to unveil the latest round of decorating in our house. We've had a flurry of activity getting the house ready for my family's Easter visit, and now the Prinsiana community is the beneficiary of that cleaning and decorating binge.

First, we have the upstairs master bedroom. One could say that Laura Ashley exploded in this room. I fell in love with the curtains (which actually still need to be hung) and then just had to have the rest of the coordinating pieces. I'm sure Matthew has loved going to every Linens 'N Things and Bed Bath and Beyond we could find, including ones in northern Virginia and North Carolina looking for the matching (and discontinued) pieces. But I really love the end result. Hopefully you will all agree:





While I've been working on the Laura Ashley room, Matthew has been busy with the IKEA rooms. Some time ago I posted a picture of our living room with no furniture and our Christmas tree. Now our living room is known as the music room and is the home to all of Matthew's instruments. We brought home two IKEA chairs so I can sit and listen to Matthew serenade me on one of his many instruments. Matthew has also finished assembling a wall of glass-shelved bookcases for books, sheet music, and various collectables of mine. I'm really pleased with the overall look and can't wait for my first personal concert.

The quickest rejection letter in the history of rejection letters.

I sent out "An April Frost" on Wednesday, which means the handbell editor at Lorenz couldn't have possibly received it before Friday, but yet, on Saturday he reviewed the piece and on Easter Sunday he sent me this e-mail: "Thanks for sending along your finely crafted original work, 'An April Frost,' scored for three octaves. I took the time yesterday afternoon to carefully evaluate the composition, and although it has obvious merit, we will have to take a pass on publishing it....[U]nfortunately the nature of our market (or at least the Lorenz share of it) does not support a positive enough environment for strong sales of works of this ilk. Our bread and butter (and that of successful writers for the idiom) depends on music that is directly related to liturgical use....Please don't be discouraged. This decision has no negative bearing on the integrity of your work. It is purely market-based."

Given the promptness of his response and the nice things he had to say about my composition, he'll be high on my list of people I send my religious works to (after some final revisions or, in the case of "Be ____ My ____," a whole second section). For now, however, before I wimp out, I need to send "An April Frost" to a second publisher. Today.

I'll pick one out in the next couple hours.

Weird wording of the week.

From a press release paid for by our tax dollars: "The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said this week that primary care clinicians should screen all adults and pregnant women for alcohol misuse[.]" Because, of course, pregnant women aren't adults.

If you are still looking for a birthday present for me, I have two ideas.

This. Or this.

Your birthday present to me, unless you are moM or daD, in which case you have already given me a very cool loud shirt.

If I am serious about making handbell composition a career, or at least a semi-career, I need to write pieces other than the "An April Frost"s of the world -- y'know, pieces that people might actually wish to purchase. Specifically, it was mentioned in the article that started this newfound passion of mine that there is a dearth of level 1 music in three-to-five-octave range, so I am thinking to myself, "Self, I need to compose some level 1 music in the three-to-five-octave range."

The two rules you need to know for level 1 music:

a) No accidentals (unless they're in the key signature).
b) No notes quicker than a quarter note¹.

Idea me, please.

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Two words that Microsoft's spell-checker believes "puchase" should be, as opposed to "purchase."

"Pushers." "Pooches."

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1 I can fake around parts of (b): There's a dotted quarter/eighth rhythm in parts of "Fairest Lord Jesus" that I could work around with two quarters, for example.

We must now all wish Matthew "Happy Birthday"

Happy Birthday!

My birthday present to myself.

I sent out the for-now-titled "An April Frost" to Lorenz Publishing. Yay me. I hope.

The greatest idea I have ever had of the week.

So I am running behind on the whole get-handbell-music-published goals I have set for myself, in that I have sent in zed pieces for submission (although yesterday, by pure chance, I found a publisher who (a) publishes a fair amount of ensemble music and (b) has published a Scott Joplin piece in the past, so I sent her off an e-mail asking if she'd be potentially interested in my "Bethena" quartet, but since I didn't send her the music [because there was no address to do so] that does not count in my book). But this morning, on the way to work, I had a lovely thought: Take "Spring Flowerness" -- which is my favorite of the original bell pieces I've written, but is too short -- and add in a slow, meditative middle section that sounds suspiciously like "Eileen Score No. 4" (the score underneath Kim's, moM's, and me's segments). I bet I can put this together in no more than an hour, and since I have just about exactly an hour between getting home from work and going to bell practice, well, yeah. And then I will pick a publisher tonight and send it off tomorrow.

The problem: "Spring Flowerness" is the suckiest title that ever sucked. I've been trying, while writing a letter asking medical directors to attend a genomics conference, to think of a title that includes both (a) springtime and (b) the happy-sad-happy nature of the piece, but all I've been able to come up with is "Two Roses, One Thorn" which sounds more like the title for a bittersweet love song.

So. If you are the person who comes up with the best title by about 9:00p today Eastern, this piece, if published under that title, will be dedicated to you. In print. And you will be able to take this piece to parties, and you can show it to everyone you meet, and you can say, "Yes, I am the Beth-Annie that this song is dedicated to. Do you have any handbell compositions dedicated to you? I thought not." If I come up with the title, I will be boring and dedicate it to Kim.

I am completely serious about this dedication.

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Word that Microsoft's spell-checker believes "suckiest" should actually be.

"Sulkiest."

Considering how much money we've spent there, I'm not surprised.

The former owner of Ikea may have surpassed Mr. Gates as the world's richest man. Also, he is to blame for how much my hands hurt this morning because yesterday I manually screwed about 150 screws in the creation of our (very nice looking) music-room bookcase.

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Sacrilegious mispronunciation of the week.

As y'all northerners may or may not know, native residents of the south often pronounce the word "idea" as "idear." Nine straight years of living near to or south of the Mason-Dixon line has made me immune to laughing fits when I hear this, but it took all my self-control not to giggle when the deacon at church yesterday said that a particular passage was from "Isaiahr."

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Proof that your handbell director hates you.

You have never done four-in-hand before, and you mention to her that you'd like to give it a go sometime, and she throws you into this. Playing C5 through Eb5. How in the world do you four-in-hand low fives at the speed that song needs to be played at? Huh?

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Proof that your handbell director likes you.

She lets you make up your own bass line to turn trios into quartets.

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Counting church services, church handbell practices, and community handbell practices (both full and small ensemble), the number of different times I will be playing handbells in the five days from yesterday through Thursday.

Seven, not including the practice I skipped on Saturday.

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And Kim?

Three. Plus one more for each of us on Easter.

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Word that Microsoft's spell-checker believes "handbell" should actually be.

"Handball."

I am sure they intentionally waited until April 2nd to make this call.

So you know about our whole dining room set search, but while we were in The Furniture Capital of the World, we had a few other items that we were looking for. Foremost on that list was getting a couple smaller items for our bedroom set from the same manufacturer: a mirror, a nightstand, something to put our TV on. There was only one store in TFCotW that sold that brand, so we went there, pointed to what we wanted, got a price quote about 20 percent less than we would have paid in Richmond (shipping inclusive), put in the order, and that was that.

Oh. Also while we were there we apparently entered a drawing for a recliner, and apparently we won.

Help me make a decision.

As some of you know, I sent out my "Be _____ My _____" hybrid piece to Beckenhorst Press late last week. I got an e-mail from them on Tuesday saying, essentially, hey, great piece, loved how you intertwined "Soul" and "Vision," we'll let you know about acceptance in a couple days, can you send us anything original you have. So I faxed over copies of the four original compositions I'd written for the bell choir I direct, and I got a call back from a Mr. Courtney at Beckenhorst who said yes, they were willing to publish "Be Thou/Be Still," but could I do something else for them as well.

Apparently, the Rocky Mountain Ringers, one of the best West Coast handbell ensembles (and one I'd never heard of 'till then), was looking to have someone write for them a "mini-symphony" -- not something 75 minutes long like Beethoven's 9th, but something that would run about 15 or 20 minutes, with a few different movements. (Most handbell pieces, if you don't know, are lucky to run five or six minutes.) The plus side: I would get a $3000 advance from Beckenhorst to write this (to be applied against any future royalties), plus $1250 from the Rocky Mountain Ringers. The minus side: It would need to be completed by June 8th (eight weeks prior to the first of their summer concerts), and I'm not sure I could write a piece of that magnitude in two months without taking off substantial time from work (which I couldn't due, since we're coming up on conference season). So, what do I do? Quit my job? Turn down the composition opportunity? What?