ROW80 4TH QTR 2014 CHECK IN – MY MUSE

                       "Anyone who tells a lie has not a pure heart and cannot make good soup."                              ~ Ludwig van Beethoven

He was born in the city of Bonn, in the Electorate of Cologne, in what would later become part of Germany, on December 15, 1770, or perhaps, December 16 of that year. His happy father had the boy's birth registered at the town hall as was customary at the times, on 16 December early, so scholars differ on the dates of his birth. As mine is the December 15, I choose to think that his was as well. His father, a musician of some renown, known more for his drinking than his singing, was determined that young Ludwig would be another Mozart. Actually, the world really didn't need the one it already had, with the exception of Mozart's “Mass in C minor” and “Don Giovanni”, the last two pieces Wolfgang wrote that are truly worth hearing; the rest is just the same piece written 600 times. But, that's a story for someone who actually cares enough to write anything more about Mozart, so we're safely done with him.

"I shall seize fate by the throat." ~Ludwig van Beethoven

Young Ludwig didn't fulfill his father's wishes of becoming the “next Mozart” nor even the “next Haydn”, which is really okay. Young Ludwig, when not busy fighting off the night terrors that his drunk father visited upon him, if he caught Ludwig trying to play piano after bedtime, took up the viola at a rather young age and played in both of the orchestras in Bonn. Like every viola player everywhere, while he was sawing his way through some boring part, written by you-know-who, he must have been thinking to himself, “Mein Gott! We must have better viola parts around here! These are terrible!” Just kidding. But, the music of the time had already seen the peak of the Classical era and the viola parts had always been awful. Haydn, who danced a merry tune to his patrons managed to write 104 symphonies, while Mozart wrote 41. Other composers wrote just as many and have been lost to history. If they're anything like any piece of music written by Louis Spohr, this is a good thing. Spohr is a bore; bland found a home when Spohr was writing music in the 19^th century.

Beethoven's viola. Vienna, Austria

Ludwig was an entirely different matter. Here, for the first time in a long time, well, really in forever, a composer had arrived in Vienna (the happening place for Classical music; very cutting-edge back then) and proceeded to turn the place on it's ear. No longer would the composer bow down to the whims and desires of the nobility. When Ludwig played piano, he was the prince and expected to be treated as such. Salon evenings would turn into competitions, with the young lion raging up and down the keyboard furiously and with a technical prowess that none had seen before. He was also lighting up the musical world with his compositions.

"To play without passion is inexcusable." ~Ludwig van Beethoven

His writing career is traditionally broken out into three periods, although that is a simplification; his first period is considered as occurring during the last years he spent in Bonn and his first years in Vienna. They mark the time when his first piano trios were written and his first two symphonies. This music is still very much in the Classical mold, although there are signs beginning with his 1^st symphony that something different is going on in his head. The first movement opens with a forte and immediately drops to a piano, unheard of at the time. This is a reaction to the “stepped” way dynamics were approached previously. It's a small distinction, but a telling one. His 2^nd symphony, like his 1^st are charming works; almost too airy for Beethoven. This was all about to change in 1803.

"I am a rock-and-roll violist. I kick ass." ~ViolaFury

Firstly, he declared to a colleague that he was unhappy with the way his writing was going; he didn't think that he was achieving the clarity and force of spirit that he was looking for. He didn't want to be thought of as just another salon artist, or have his art be trivialized. It was a higher calling to him and he wanted to bring to it the proper attention and sought to honor his own muse and he was passionate about it.

Secondly, he started the rough draft for his 3^rd symphony, and was going to dedicate it to Napoleon; it would be the “Bonaparte” symphony. Then, Napoleon got the bright idea of conquering the world, and Beethoven was furious. He said “So he is no more than a common mortal! Now, too, he will tread under foot all the rights of man, indulge only his ambition; now he will think himself superior to all men; become a tyrant!” Ludwig angrily scratched out the dedication page and renamed the mighty 3^rd, the “Eroica” or “Heroic” symphony in E♭ Major. And it is truly a magnificent work! I've known it since I was a kid and I've played it several times.

In the third movement, Beethoven completely shreds what remained of the Classical era and goes on a towering rampage of fury. The movement starts off sounding like a funeral dirge and it is dark indeed. He approaches the development with trepidation and just when you think he is going to hesitate and return to the main theme, he cuts loose with sixteen measures of unmitigated rage. It is almost Mahlerian in it's complexity and breadth. Spent, he then returns to the quiet, and ends with a syncopated, almost jazzy little fillip that ends the movement; it's almost as if he's saying “there, I got my musicrage out and I'm good, now, Nap”. But, not to be flippant and undermine the importance of this symphony and this movement and those particular 16 measures; it changed the musical world. We went from the Classical era to the Romantic era in that small amount of time.

"Music is a higher revelations than all wisdom and philosophy." ~Ludwig van Beethoven

It was also the end of Beethoven's early period and as he moved into his middle period, he would see some of his most productive and audacious work written and performed. He wrote his string quartets, along with the famous opus 18, which I love to play. Beethoven's central key is C minor, which puts him in the relative key of E♭ Major. Being a viola player, this is a natural state for us, as it encompasses our lowest register. I don't know if he thought along those lines, as he once told a violinist “What do I care about your damned fiddle, when the Spirit seizes me!?” So, there's no real indication that he favored violas, although playing anything written during and after Beethoven's lifetime is infinitely better for violas.

"Don't practice only your art, but force your way into it's secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine." ~Ludwig van Beethoven

But spirit and muse were all with him; when we think of the terrifying 5^th symphony, it really beggars belief to think that a composer would so audaciously build an entire symphony around four notes: Da-Da-Da-Dum. These notes are repeated throughout the entire work, not just the first movement. There are a few things about this symphony that once again, set it apart from so many other works, then and now. The constant interweaving of the thematic material between all sections has to flow like electricity and the entire work is in constant flux. The other thing that I find remarkable and I've played too many symphonies to count, is that the only other symphony that I've ever played that has a bridge (meaning no pause or break) between the third and fourth movements is Sibelius' 2^nd Symphony and that is just as brilliant and astounding as it is with Beethoven.

"The goosebumps start at 4:10." ~ViolaFury

Beethoven was not an easy person to like or get to know. Like many artists and composers, he lived inside his head, but he had an additional reason for doing so; he began to go deaf at the age of 23, and by age 30, was profoundly deaf. He thought nothing of standing up in a pub and yelling “So and So is a Donkey's Ass!” and he was irascible and often seemed unkind. But, through his music; through the splendor of his “Missa Solemnis” and his 9^th Symphony, with the most-cherished theme of all time, the spectacular “Ode to Joy” you know that Beethoven understood the human condition and that he tried his best to express that greatness and the humanity and heart that lie within us. There's a very good reason he is my muse and always has been, since, like age 4. He's always been a part of my life and he expresses the greatness I would love to be able to say I've tried to achieve as a human being.

For those of you who may not know, I am under treatment for essential tremor, and have been for the last year. It is inherited and my mother had it. It prevented me from playing viola for several years and I was symptomatic as long as twenty years prior, with worsening symptoms over the last five years; diagnosing was difficult and arduous, but my neat-o, keen-o neurologist figured it out. The Parkinson's Disease Foundation is paying for my treatment. 

However, being a Wallace, and more prone to kick ass, take names and make retribution four-fold when at the top of my game, I am not one to let this sort of thing stop me. Seeing as I can't really take take vengeance out on a condition, or a disease, I chose the next best thing: I undertook an audition for the Tampa Bay Symphony and am playing viola again, beginning this season. SQUEE! Our first concert includes Beethoven's 5th Symphony, which is an amazing work. We will be playing Elgar and Shostakovich later on and I am so very excited and proud to be a part of this excellent group. 

To put this into a better historical context, I am playing on my wonderful Italian viola that was built only ten years after Beethoven's death, in 1827! I'll be writing on the other concerts that we will be performing as time comes closer and I'll put up links as they will be broadcast, as well. I'm also taking 2 programming classes through the good ol' University of Michigan, and this is a lot of fun as well and am looking forward to #NaNoWriMo, where we will continue "Music of the Spheres, Again." No, really, that's the title of the sequel. If they can get away with that in "Sharknado" I figure I can pull it off here. Happy #ROWing!

#NANOWRIMO UPDATE & T-DAY LEFTOVERS

I finished "Music of the Spheres" at 20:00 E.S.T. on Friday, November 29, 2013, with 50,971 words total and a right "hot mess" it is, too! As Andi-Roo would say, "slam shit down and get that shit on paper". Or some shit. 

  

I love the HuzzaaH!!

Seriously? I hope to never have to press a <backspace> key again. I know, dream on. T-day rocked. I cooked for my menfolk and we ate loads and loads of everything we shouldn't. Instead of turkey, I baked a chicken, with lots of dressing, mashed potatoes, my signature giblet gravy and two different kinds of green bean casserole, plus a ham. I got everything cooked and done. We ate and ate, fed Robert, the homeless guy, only one guy this year, as Kevin has passed on and I got the kitchen cleaned up and done by 8:15. 

My sugar dropped to 39 at 8:45 and I had some orange juice and went to bed at 9:15. Today, I finished my novel. By way of Ernest Hemingway's instructions, that there are three things a man should do; they are: write a book, have a child and plant a tree. I've done two of the three and I have multiple "children" through the students I've taught privately, and the many, many young men I've met in SpiritZ, who I've based some of my characters on in my book. None of this is a solitary effort, nor is life. Although I am by nature a solitary creature and a contrary one. Anyway, for now, NaNoWriMo is done and won! Yippee!

#ROW80 4TH QTR WEDNESDAY CHECK IN - NANO UPDATE & WHO'S SPYING ON WHO

First the good news; for #NaNoWriMo, I've managed to spit out 44,013 words into something that resembles a manuscript, but that I would more likely refer to as a "hot mess". If you don't believe me, here's visual proof:

I feel like I've been underground since November 1, 2013. This cannot be so, as I've typed eleventy-billion words it seems, AND I've actually played Wolf. This is going to be a mostly graphical update, because of. . . Runescape?

Wait! What? No, that's not what I meant to say at all! I wanted to tell you that all that yammering I did last summer about the NSA and FBI really, really paid off! If any of you read my ground-breaking post on how to fuc-I mean totally encrypt every day conversations on Facebook and Twitter and just waste everyone's time by running all of your stupid lolcats and chain letters that say "teh quick brown jackal jumped over the lazy capitalist" through Bing translators ten times with 10 different languages, you'd know that I am on the cutting edge of spy bullshit! Take a look at this! Apparently, I have the HOMELAND SECURITY FOLKS recruiting me for THIS: 

God knows what in the hell they want me to do, but it looks totally legit, right? I can't wait to start. I am so excited! This must have been in response to a couple of letters I sent to the FBI and the SEC when I got this:

So everyone now knows I'm on my toes and fighting for the little guy or some shit out here in cyberland. I just knew if I kept pestering these people they'd offer me a job when they saw what kind of cyber-sleuthing chops I have!

Of course, I'll have to work from home. That Imaginary Trotsky fellow-traveler probably isn't going to rate me much in the way of a very high security clearance. 

Anyway, 6,000 words from the finish line, at least for this draft of "Music of the Spheres". I like the title and I think it fitting for the subject. I sure couldn't have gotten here without my #ROW80 crew mates and everyone else in this new endeavor. What a great couple of years it's been. The Primodone is working wonders and I've put on over 40 pounds, since I first went into the homeless shelter. Who'd a thunk it? As my late Ma used to say. Thank you everyone! 

#ROW80 – 4TH QTR 2013 – SUNDAY CHECK IN

Sometimes I wonder about this whole writing thing. I'm participating in NaNoWriMo this year and unlike last year, I'm doing well. I have over 30,000 words or 30k as we used to say in the computer biz. I'm enjoying it and I believe that I have a pretty intriguing story to tell and that I will be able to find a publisher, or, what is more likely, with more hard work and or, doing possibly my least favorite thing in the whole world, “social networking,” (gah!) will be able to do it on the cheap. I will have done something many people will have not been able to do, but wish they could do. So, that being the case, why am I so just, I even hate to say it, but not excited, yet? Will that happen?

Or, is it because, I still have my heart in a sheet of music or in an orchestra some where, playing and singing along with all of the great harmonies that God intended us to give voice to, sounds that are at once angelic and in the next instance brutally harsh and cold? Were I still able to drive and not reliant on someone else for transportation, I believe I would be playing in just about any orchestra that would have me, especially now, that I have my tremors under control. Pig-headed and stubborn to a fault I am; I should be grateful as I had two very successful careers and both were doing things that I loved. Not everyone can say that.

This apparently ended up in a garage sale or jumble sale, or garbage heap. I couldn't tell. I had my hacker vision on.

I do love to create and writing is another way of creating. I do not denigrate the art of writing, because it is so exceedingly difficult to write beautiful prose and to write it meaningfully. It is hard to write stories for entertainment and in different genres, as I am finding out. I am such a newbie, or n00b, as my gamer pals call me at this, although I did win awards for writing in university, but that is so very different than this. This is about writing something that people actually want to read and are willing to pay for, I guess. Although, people do buy and read some execrable crap, witness the publication of Paris Hilton's biography, “Paris Hilton: A Biography,” by someone I never heard of, for 35.00 19.25. I know people must buy it and read it, but who? Maybe the deeper question is, why? Why would anyone care about this no-talent mediocrity? Because she's rich? Or is it because her sex tape ended up on the Internet? How salacious are we as a society that we pander to this?

Maybe that's one reason I write. I enjoy holding a mirror up, so we can see ourselves as we are, not as we think we are. Because there is so much self-righteousness in this world and so much wrong done, in the name of right. I really like to write for fun and just write silly articles about my life. But I, as so many others around me here, have had to deal with judgments against them that were perceptions based on personal agendas, preconceived notions of how we all should behave and just plain meanness against the weak and poor. If there is no one to stand up for these souls, they are lost. Once they are lost, then, as the German Protestant Reverend Martin Niemöller, who eventually emerged as a public spokesman against Adolf Hitler and spent the last seven years lf the Third Reich in concentration camps, said so famously, after his release:

 “First the came for the Socialists, but I did not speak out—because I was not a Socialist.

“Then, they came for the Trade Unionists and I did not speak out—because I was not a Trade Unionist.

“Then, they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

“Then, they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.

 Martin Niemöller, postwar

The thing about being in among the "writing crowd” if you will, is I get to have a seat at the table here and rub elbows with all of you. I may never sell or publish a book or an article, but I'm having a wonderful time and I have all of you to thank for this, my "seat" at the table. For the #ROW80 crew and all of the other people I've been led to and met, I want to thank you all. Because of you, I will finish NaNoWriMo this year. Maybe, next year, I'll be able to say I've published a book! If not, I'll still have had a ball at #ROW80! 

#ROW80 SUNDAY CHECK IN – SATURDAY NIGHT ON NEBRASKA AVENUE, 33605, 33602, 33604

I've been so busy lately, what with #NaNoWriMo and once again, doctors, that it seems ages since I've written a new post for #ROW80. Oh, I've had an inspiration here or there, but writing prompts have been overlooked. Until tonight, and I cannot for the life of my understand why I haven't written about this before. Before I get into all that, I want to talk about my “goals.” I've written 18,811 words for #NaNoWriMo as of Saturday, November 9. So, yay about that. My outline and 3 events and 30 whatsis have been a tremendous help. Anyway, back to Sa-tur-day nights on the Avenue of Nebraska!

It's sort of like this, only without the slide, order and apparent polite behavior seen here. Other than that, Cross of Mercy, neon lights, huddled confusion. Yeah, it looks like one of Nebraska Avenue's more celebrated Saturday evenings.

Maybe, it's because in a way, it's always Saturday night on Nebraska Avenue, even on Sunday morning. Jimmy Buffet's line about “it's a thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning” doesn't apply here. There are no lines. Nope, no sir, no sirree bob, no how and no way.

As my good, good pal Andi-Roo, over at The World 4 Realz says about Twitter, mostly I think, but mentions Facebook, so none of those babies get their widdle feewings hurt, in one of my favorite posts, Cotton Swab Causes Emergency Room Visit and the Fourth of July, “We turned to Twitter and Facebook, that ever-present crowd of parties and advice.” With Nebraska Avenue and “ever-present” and “parties” (loosely defined – a party of one or two is quite common behind the dumpsters and bushes, here) and “advice” – questionable, as I had a roommate in the homeless shelter, who upon discovering that I had not one, but two computers stashed under my bunk, wanted to know why I wasn't on the internet. 

The "Make-Believe" help desk. I think I worked for this dolt at IBM. I jumped ship and went to Verizon, just before the mutiny.

I explained that I had no external antenna, so that I could “steal” someone else's internet (a popular pastime around here, and not just bandwidth.) Said roommate told me she was a computer “expert” and I could just download the wifi device. I kept a straight face and ran to tell my friends who had more than 2 working brain cells about my latest conversation with the newest representative from the Planet Mongo. My good friend Matt, another homie from Choate and Boston University (how the hell do people with such stunning backgrounds become homeless?) said to me, “Great, let's download dinner and save time!” So, the term “expert” around here is used with much abandon and means whatever the hell the “expert” wants it to mean.

. . . Is A Glorious Waste of Time

It's like those idiots who play video games (Runescape) for 5 minutes, decide they now know everything there is to know about the game (Runescape) and can level up to 99 in 15 minutes. They then proceed to write the most meaningless guide to _________ (fish to 99, cook to 99, mine to 99, etc. It's like a job, only with better benefits, and lots more color, too.) Here, from mithos23132, is his guide, called, fittingly, "How to Write Very Bad Guides," from the Tip.it forums and it is hilarious. He so hits the nail on the head. The irony here is, as I was hunting up this guide, I ran across one of the the last posters, who doesn't get it. He's just furious about this horrible guide. 

Lulz. "Way to miss the point." Pwn3d

So, what does this have to do with Saturday night? Why, not a damned thing! It just amused me and I had started out with all the fun we have here on Nebraska Avenue, 33605, 33602, 33604 and I'm always kind of random like that and digress anyway. Andi's ever-present party is a happening thing, but on Saturday nights, it takes on that extra-special meaning. If the Saturday also happens to fall on the day after SSI checks are distributed, well, good times, good times! It's a combination party-riot-search-and-rescue kinda night.

It's about this disco-y and bright, with the neighbors and their disco ball in the living room. Is this a new thing? Am I missing out here? 

Throw in some apocalyptic meltdown music, kind of a Bulgarian hip-hop rap-off, a little hostage situation bull-horn shouting and drive by broken woofers. Probably hooked up to 18 12-volt batteries. Why the hell not 20 or 22 batteries? Can't they hear ya already in Moscow? I happened to look outside one night, and saw in the upstairs apartment to my right, a disco inferno happening complete with disco ball and fire, it looks like inside the apartment. Dude in doorway has tin foil wrapped up in his hair like yo' momma used to do spit curls. He's a-boppin' to the sound and movin' to the beat. Tha's just a lightnin' waitin' to happen! Won't have to pay no electric this month. And it's just nothin' but a thang, chicken wang. On the Avenue, Nebraska Avenue, 33602, 33605, 33604. 

This was supposed to be my Sunday Check in, but I figured I'd try to do a little soft-shoe and put some seltzer down my pants for y'all! Happy Nano-ing and #ROW80ing!