March 7 - Love for Three Lives

Sergei Prokofiev's

Peter and the Wolf main theme for dictation -- first four bars:

Sol Do Mi Sol La Sol Mi
Sol La Ti Do Sol Mi Do Re
Me Me Ti Me Me Ti
Me Te Te

Harmonically I I64 I I64 bVI bVI64 bIII bIII64


Off to SF again, and early again, so off to Moss Beach again, now starting at the north end of Half Moon Bay Airport, where the wildflowers are running amok time (with crows),


sometimes in a line,


or two


in a spirit ring around a pole,


or hiding between the parallels


of croppish greenery.


An airplane takes off from giant coastal chaparral,


with Pilar Point rising above the airport restaurant.


This goal is a modest one, and just opposite the closed Farmer's Daughter fruitstand


of Cabrillo Farm.


Return is again over the coastward flank of Montara Mountain -- here it is on a considerably clearer day, this past June 10, 2007.


Evening practice at Old First Church -- the dress rehearsal of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra's March Madness Concert (8pm, 3/8 -- with more pictures of tonight, and earlier exercises at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com)

March 6 - Love, Death, Taxes, Beauty

More morning merriment, then Quiz 8 for the Theoreticians, with examples drawn from Frederic Chopin, Richard Wagner (above, not exactly my favorite, but certainly musically worthy nonetheless), Guiseppe Verdi,


Georges Bizet,


Erik Satie, and Charles Ives.

Before this, find a version of III. The Hell Out of Here from Op 48 San Fernando Hub to record for Ideolexicon Boxcar Theatre show on March 10 (info at markalburgerevents.blogspot.com).



After, lab time, making instrumental recordings of the first half of Cats, Dogs, and Divas, including III. Between Depression.





Byond, arrive unexpectedly early in San Francisco for third rehearsal of March Madness (3/8 at Old First Church, SF, info also as above) concert with San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestr, so, time to head to Pacifica,


with Montara Mountain looming above,


and headlands jutting out to sea,


upslope by cranes idling for the lamentable bypass


of alarming Devil's Slide,



where the world is sometimes simplified to slope, sky, tree, and water,


perhaps graced (or marred, depending on the point of view) by abandoned bizarre coastal demented edifice (wrecks) fortifications.


The walk is a sedate one, part of a series south, roughly along the coast, from Marin's Point Reyes Peninsula (Tomales Point), to this new start on a residential street adjacent to a Mormon stake house with a view between lines of evergreens to the ocean,


past the turn-off for the Moss Beach Distillery,


to the northern reach of the Half Moon Bay Airport (the water lining the distance).


Montara Mountain still watches from afar, and


up close, the fields and flowers sail by in splendor.


Return is the Heraclitian same-is-always-different way,


with a setting sun on Montara,


and the water, and


cliffs,


sometimes forming canyons.


In the half-light, the bridge-bypass under construction,


a very distant Mount Tamalpais and a successful practice 3 for SFCCO at Potrero Hill Neighborhood House.

February 2 - Up, Up, But We'll Stay

7am, and time to take Harriet down to the airport. Look! There she goes! Not really. It's another cloudy rainy day. But perhaps she has a nice aerial view, upon takeoff, of San Bruno Mountain, just north of the airport (which is actually in San Mateo County, and separated from the city by this heroic open space).

And, OK, here are two other shots, both, one suspects, from John McLauren Park, to the north, looking south, the wideness of the mountain in evidence once again, and looking a bit likc Marin's Mt. Tamalpais.

And let's not forget those eucalyptus trees...


Stop by Goat Hall to pick up the key from Miriam

(I believe she and Doug constitute the front row in this colorful negative Fresh Voices poster from several years back -- if we can't see her very well, it's her own fault, as she is responsible for this arresting visual) so that we may rehearse tomorrow.

Then home, rendevouzing with Steve, who's here to fix the plumbing

and matters electrical.


Finish -- finally! -- publication preparation for Mice and Men, Act V, Scene 1 C "Jus' Feel that Hair."


Record On the Road, Part I, 2. "What the Hell Am I Doing Here?" and post same at myspace.com/markalburger.