ProfessorTomoe

Music world logic is a wreath of pretty flowers that smell bad.

I've put up another Disco Porn...erm, I mean, Dorico Pro rendering of one of my works. The work is a woodwind quartet (not quintet - no french horn) arrangement of a Beethoven piano sonata (#18, opus 31 no. 3 in Eb). I've arranged the whole ball of wax - all four movements, all 23 minutes worth (whew!) - and I'm looking to get someone to try and perform it in Real Life. If you'd like to hear what Dorico thinks it's supposed to sound like (it's not bad, actually), here's a WeTransfer link to the MP3: https://we.tl/t-3ocNr7egjX Please let me know what you think, and whether or not you listened through the entire composition. Thanks!

Dorico Pro is a gem, despite its proclivity to crash upon closing at times. I've managed to crank out full scores and parts for both Woodwind Quintet No.1 and "Theme and Tangents," plus I've got a full three-movement recording of Woodwind Quintet No.1 as rendered by Dorico Pro! It has all the proper instruments, slurs, articulations, dynamics, and so on. Still, it's not 100% perfect, but it's a real-ish recording nonetheless. If you'd like to hear it, here's the WeTransfer link: https://we.tl/t-aS9fZkZlAx Please let me know what you think. Thank you!

I finally have a copy of Dorico Pro 5 on my laptop! No more waiting for my legs to get better before I can use a notation program. Hopefully this means that my woodwind quintets will get put out to the real world soon!

Got something for you to listen to if you're bored. Please don't distribute. I helped out a friend with an Industrial rhythm track he was writing. Once he was done, I asked him for the stems so I could play around with the track a bit. I wound up adding a minimalistic bass line and three more minimalist "melodic" layers on the top. The end result is up on WeTransfer for your listening pleasure. Here's the link: https://we.tl/t-1uwwfkoBT1 Like I said, please don't distribute this, since the piece has not been publicly released yet. I would appreciate it if you would let me know what you think of this pseudo-Industrial track. Thanks in advance!

A perfectly ripe White Nectarine, sliced and dusted with Penzey's Cinnamon Sugar. The only thing wrong with it was that it was at room temperature. I like my nectarines chilled. Otherwise, om nom nom.

I almost spilled nearly an entire Coca-Cola on top of my laptop. What scares me more than the "what" of the situation is the "why." You see, I almost fell asleep with a can of Coca-Cola in my hands. The can was on a collision course with my laptop as I was dozing off, but I jolted and caught myself at the last moment. I'm tired, but I can't seem to get the right amount of sleep. I can't lie down on a bed due to my torn rotator cuff in my right shoulder. I have to sleep sitting up in a recliner, and that's not the most conducive environment for good sleep. For some reason, it's driving me crazy today. I go from awake to asleep and back again. Urrgh.

Sinead O'Connor has passed on. Now she'll get to finally learn if the pope really was the "real enemy," I guess.

I've had a whole Florida lobster in Florida, at a restaurant on the coast, and I must admit that what there is of it is mighty, mighty tasty. The tail stacks up pretty tall against a similar-sized Maine tail. However, it's the Maine claws that leave 'em standing at the starting line. Florida lobsters don't have much meat in that department.

Please do the same math for a certain former President, if you would.

Proof that the Earth is not flat - if it were, cats would have knocked everything off of the edges by now.

Had some quite good Maine lobster from a food truck this evening. Cousins Maine Lobster has been making the rounds of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, and they ventured into the Garland area today. Mrs. Prof, despite having a shellfish allergy, was kind enough to drive me up to the HTeaO location where they'd parked so I could procure a few prime morsels. I ordered up a Connecticut-style lobster roll (warm, with butter, as opposed to the Maine style, which is cold, with mayo), a bowl of lobster bisque, and a red velvet Whoopie Pie. The roll, while appearing small at first glance, was absolutely overflowing with tender, buttery lobster. Top grade stuff. The bisque was flavorful and meaty, but a bit too thickened for me to give it similar high praise. The Whoopie Pie was a Cousins-made pie, very large, fluffy, and with lots of creamy center. I couldn't finish it at one sitting. Cousins Maine Lobster apparently ships, so check them out, and if you're ever in the DFW area, look up their food trucks. You'll be glad you did, as long as you're not allergic to shellfish. (BTW, Mrs. Prof got her dinner from a nearby Ethiopian takeaway. She'd never had Ethiopian food before. She proclaimed it good, if a bit spicy.) https://www.cousinsmainelobster.com/locations/dallas-fort-worth-tx/

Saw my cardiologist yesterday for my approximately six-month follow-up appointment. He gave me a run down on the results from the heart monitor that they made me wear to see what was causing my heart palpitations. According to him, I have something called Premature Atrial Contractions (PACs), which is where the upper chamber of the heart beats before it should. This is in addition to the Premature Ventricular Contractions (PVCs) I've had for years, but it's worse in that it's happening more frequently and stringing together into multiple events. He also said that, since it's doing the multiple-event thing, it could lead to Atrial Fibrillations, which is where the chamber gets all out of whack, basically. That's something that could definitely land me in the Emergency Room, or worse. He was a little bit hesitant to change my medication, since my heart rate was already a bit slow, but in the end he upped my metoprolol (a beta blocker) from 50mg to 100mg. He also prescribed me a 40 mEq packet of potassium powder to dissolve in water and drink each day, since my potassium levels have been off. He tried to prescribe a potassium pill instead of the powder, but those things are big enough to choke a Clydesdale horse, so I talked him out of that. I asked him if I was still being diagnosed with HFpEF (heart failure with preserved ejection fraction), which is a situation that leads to fluids not being circulated like they should and is a partial cause of my leg edema/swelling that I'm still fighting. He said yes, as long as my edema continues, I'll be diagnosed with HFpEF. So, to summarize, I've got three diagnoses going in my heart right now: HFpEF, PACs, and PVCs. Joy. I'm not going to do any joy jumping up-and-down in response, since I don't want to find out how my heart would react if I did. I've got enough going on as it is.

Found an acceptable chinois. Extra-fine stainless steel mesh, 10 inches wide, stainless steel handle, collar, and bracing, dishwasher safe. Also got a 13 7/8" wooden pestle to go with it, unfortunately not dishwasher safe, but that's to be expected with wood. Not bad pricing, but once you figure in the shipping and tax, it gets bumped up to $66.67 for the lot. Sheesh. At least it's not over $90.

She likes it! She really likes it! {end Sally Field mode} In all seriousness, Mrs. Prof proclaimed that she liked the gazpacho after just a couple of bites. She particularly liked the cucumber flavor, and in fact desired more of it. I thought it added a touch of bitterness and gassiness (both tolerable). Next time I'll probably use 1 1/2 cucumbers. The salt most definitely mellowed out with the chill factor. Everything was decently balanced (save for the cucumber). A couple of changes were discussed for next time: 1. Using fewer tomatoes, weighing them to get closer to the recipe figure. 2. Using a plum tomato like a Roma instead of a conventional tomato to get more "meat" and less juice & seeds into the blend. 3. Using more extra virgin olive oil, to get a better emulsion. This might or might not be necessary, depending on the amount of tomatoes. 4. Adjusting the amount of sherry vinegar. Mrs. Prof doesn't want more, but it may be needed to tweak the emulsion. If not, I may just drizzle some more into my personal serving. 5. Adding a pinch of cumin, as suggested by readers on the NY Times website. 6. Somehow boosting the pepper flavor, either by using more Anaheim peppers or by using a cubanelle pepper (the first choice in the recipe, if one can be found) instead. I might also tweak the amount of garlic in the concoction. I kind of feel that it might benefit from an extra clove. Trying all of these at once would be a disaster, of course. I think I'm just going to try numbers 1, 2, 3, and maybe 5 for starters. I'll save numbers 4 and 6, plus the garlic tweak, for a future mix. One other thing I'm definitely going to have to do is get a fine-mesh chinoise (or chinois, however you spell it) with a wooden pestle so I can strain the solids out of the blend faster and more efficiently...and hopefully in a single batch. The damned things are not cheap, however. They start at $40 for a lousy one. A really good fine-mesh one with a pestle runs well over $90. I may have to get one without consulting Mrs. Prof. This will call for some very light treading. Anyway, you can draw one conclusion from all of this hot air I'm blowing over a simple recipe: the end result is awfully damned good. I would recommend that you at least give it a try. I wouldn't recommend that you go all obsessive over it like I'm doing. Just give the recipe a try, and get ready to enjoy some really good chilled Summer soup.

Don't feel so bad. I wore my bushings out putting this together. The construction is complete. I had to pour some of the blend out of the blender in order to get the olive oil to fit for the emulsification step. Straining out the solids was rather strength-consuming, since I had to do it in two batches (note to self: investigate getting a chinoise, or some sort of larger strainer if I'm going to do this on a semi-regular basis). It's all done now, though. The strained gazpacho is in the fridge, the fridge is on "rapid cool" cycle so we don't have to wait the full 6 hours for the stuff to cool down, and the dishes are rinsed and ready to go into the dishwasher. I've taken a good preliminary dose of the gazpacho, and I'm intrigued. It's a very interesting blend of flavors. I think I may have put in a skosh too much salt, but I can't say for sure - once the concoction cools down, my mind might change on that matter, Flavors tend to dull out when chilled, so the salt taste might get muted to where it's not so salty. I can say that the overall taste lingers on the tongue in a most pleasant way, leaving one wanting more. The recipe didn't make as much as I thought it would (only partially due to the "dump-out," since I didn't dump out that much), so I have a feeling that there might not be any left for lunch tomorrow. While I was groaning during the second straining batch, I questioned whether I would make this recipe again. After just the little taste I've had right now, my thinking is changing. If it turns out as good as I think it might once cold, I might be making it semi-regularly. I mean, the vegetable ingredients are cheap (tomatoes/onion/Anaheim or cubanelle pepper/garlic/cucumber) and are available at any grocery store, and I've got the other ingredients (salt/sherry vinegar/extra virgin olive oil) in my pantry, so money is no object when it comes to putting it together. I need to invest in a strainer that'll cut down the job to one batch, and I need to be more careful in weighing my tomatoes so that I don't overfill the blender, but those are easy adjustments. This may very well become a semi-regular menu item in the Tomoe household, as long as Mrs. Prof decides she likes the stuff. That's the one variable I can't control.

I have gathered up my strength and am in the process of putting together what the New York Times calls their "Best Gazpacho" recipe. I've cut up all of the vegetation and am taking a break to get the sweat to stop flowing. Once I get my strength back, I'll fire up the blender and sieve to complete the construction process. Now, I've only rarely had gazpacho (maybe once or twice in my life), but from what I remember of it, this recipe is kind of unique in that it has no bread in it. Just tomatoes, an onion, a cucumber, an Anaheim pepper, and a clove of garlic, along with some sherry vinegar and some salt. Oh, and a half cup of extra virgin olive oil, plus a bit more to drizzle on top. The recipe is here, but since it's on the New York Times' cooking website, you might get prompted to make a free account in order to look at it. Once I get the gazpacho all strained out, I'm supposed to let it chill in the fridge for at least 6 hours (preferably overnight, in a glass jug no less). I think we'll probably have some for dinner tonight, and maybe have whatever is left tomorrow (if it's any good, and if any is left). (I should tell you my real motivation behind whipping this stuff up. You see, I'm a little bit of a Red Dwarf fan. Not much, but enough of one to know the old episodes. One of my best friends, however, is a Red Dwarf cognoscenti. He can quote chapter and verse. So, he, another Red Dwarf nut, and I get together every year for a big Super Bowl party, and when I go next year, I plan on bringing a jug of...you guessed it if you know Arnold Rimmer's dying words - gazpacho soup. If you know, you know.)

Cleanliness is next to...something.

This year, I have taken advantage of my Recording Academy membership and done something I haven't done since 1998: enter a song for consideration for a GRAMMY® Award. The song in question is from the "Lady Tygress' Suite and Other Commissions" album, and I've chosen to enter track 1, "Lady Tygress' Suite - 1. Intro." I filled out all the online forms and submitted the song today. The next step in the process is the song gets reviewed by the Awards Committee to see if it meets eligibility requirements (and to see if I filled out everything correctly). If everything is hunky-dory, the song goes onto the list for First Round Voting along with a whole crapload of other songs. I have to clear First Round Voting in order to become Nominated. The last song I submitted that made the voting list was Lo Wang's Rap, back in 1998. I think it probably got one vote (mine). I'm hoping to get more this time around. In case you haven't listened to the song I'm submitting this time around, here it is: Wish me luck, and watch this space! Thanks!

I woke up this morning with a snootful of mucus. It took me a couple of hours to blow it all out. I'm left with inflamed and sore sinuses through which I can barely breathe. At least what I blew out wasn't colorized, or I'd really be worried about a sinus infection right now. I've either got a cold, or my allergies are going into overdrive.

The first rule of European Fight Club is, for God's Sake, please don't tell Germany.

My sinuses absolutely refuse to clear up. I don't think I'm infected anymore, just clogged as all hell. I've tried sudafed pills, antihistamine sprays, saline mists, and the only thing that works is Afrin spray, but I can't take that for more than 3 days at a time. I'm on a forced break from it now since I've already taken it for 3 straight days. I'm currently on Mucinex-D, and it's not working. Whatever is in the air around here is driving me farking insane.

I'm done with the fourth movement of the Beethoven piano sonata. Now, if I can just get myself well enough to get over to the big Music Computer again so I can enter the MIDI files into Dorico. In the meanwhile, I'm toying with another Woodwind Quartet, this one original. Problem is, I'm not sure if I'm writing a first movement or a third movement. Classical music's weird that way, at least the modern stuff is. Did anyone mess around with the UIL PML? If you did, what did you think?

I know from whence you speak. This has solved that particular problem for me.

I recommend the following: https://www.vitacost.com/codeage-sbo-probiotics-100-billion-cfu-vegan-multi-strain-soil-based-prebiotics