sing-song schloss sonnenuntergang

(the title is a rhyming german-english hybrid: schloss is castle and sonnenuntergang is sunset)

Monday night Rick, Babsi and I wandered up to the Schlossgarten to play music, drink wine, and watch the sunset. Once we huffed and puffed our way all the way up, we settled into a nice bench and toasted (prost!) the sunset. I broke out the guitar and started singing while the other two wandered around. As you can see the sunset was pretty spectacular, and the view from up there of Heidelberg and beyond is quite nice. I then broke out the tea candles I brought along- at Ikea we somehow decided in October that I'd need 500 tea candles, and I don't want the remaining 350 to go to waste, so I made the mood even more romantic. The sing-song then went into full swing with the Beatles being yelled loudly from the railing towards the sleeping herd of sheep below. My highlight of the night was learning all the words to the Gambler:
you gotta know when to hold em. know when to fold em, know when to walk away, know when to run. you never count your money when youre sitting at the table, there'll be time enough for counting, when the dealins done.
Life lessons abound.
Anywho, a great night, with great people, what more could you ask for?

Love al.

oh, art.

Bob Dylan in a recent interview:

Q:Say you wake up in a hotel room in Wichita and look out the window.
A little girl is walking along the train tracks dragging a big statue of
Buddha in a wooden wagon with a three-legged dog following
behind. Do you reach for your guitar or your drawing pad?

A:Oh wow. It would depend on a lot of things. The environment mostly; like what
kind of day is it. Is it a cloudless blue-gray sky or does it look like rain? A little
girl dragging a wagon with a statue in it? I’d probably put that in last. The
three-legged dog - what type? A spaniel, a bulldog, a retriever? That would
make a difference. I’d have to think about that. Depends what angle I’m seeing
it all from. Second floor, third floor, eighth floor. I don’t know. Maybe I’d want to
go down there. The train tracks too. I’d have to find a way to connect it all up. I
guess I would be thinking about if this was an omen or a harbinger of something.

Here's the whole interview.

good friday thoughts

Today is the saddest day of the Catholic calendar, but it couldn't have been more beautiful. It's the 8th or 9th perfect day in a row, weather wise. The trees have taken note and are awakening, the birds are real loud, and love is in the air- yesterday in the Schlossgarten I kept being distracted form my reading by the wild amount of ladybug lovemaking going on next to me. Was it rude to watch?
But the beauty and romanticism of Heidelberg has literally reached fairy-tale levels. The only thing that snapped me out of the trance yesterday at the castle were the American jet-fighters zooming overhead, returning from the desert. But as it's silly beauty increases, so does its choking volume of annoying American and Japanese tourists, so I guess there's no real net gain in coolness. But I've found some quiet spots and am not doubting the possibilities for this semester.
I was lucky enough to attend a performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion today in the Heiliggeistkirche. I sang the piece with the Chicago Chorale last year, and it was by far the most rewarding and enjoyable choral work I've had the pleasure of performing. The piece is incredibly demanding, for everyone involved, including the audience- 3.5 hrs in uncomfortable church pews, being told arguably the most heartbreaking story every told. Luckily it is hauntingly beautiful and powerful. The performance today was good, but not great. Granted I payed only 8 euro for the super-nose-bleed seats, in the back of the church and at the very top, with only a view to the other side of the church. I thought a few times that the acoustics would be better in a cafe outside of the church, but you get what you pay for. My critique is short and unprofessional, as I really only know the piece from the choir stands. But it seemed that the director simply was not aware of its gravitas. I think the main strength of our Chorale performance (under the brilliant Bruce Tammen) was the fact that Bruce was fully aware of how beautiful the notes Bach wrote are, and that their beauty must be given air to breathe in and pauses in which to bloom. Today's performance seemed to rush through, trusting that its audience already knew its beauty and haunting story. We all know the story, and thats exactly why we enjoy the self-aware, almost egotistical dramatic pauses. It's comfortingly heartwrenching. For example, after Jesus dies the Evangelist (narrator) describes the curtain in the temple tearing in two and the storms raging above. The chorus, or the crowd, then exclaims: "Wahrlich, dieser ist Gottes Sohn gewesen." [Truly, this was the Son of God.] With Bruce, we took our time on this and truly dug into the regret and pain that this line entails, coming from the crowd which moments earlier cried for his execution. Today this seemed a sidenote- blink and you missed it. Let us have our moment of Catholic guilt!
Also lacking today was the absolutely sublime Bass aria, called "Komm, süßes Kreuz" [Come, sweet Cross. Starts at 1:38 in this clip]. Accompanied by a searching, swirling viola da gamba, the soloist begs Jesus to allow him to help him carry his cross. It was omitted today, sadly.
I hope to attend (or sing) a performance of the St Matthew Passion each year. I've got two in a row now.
Tomorrow I'm headed to Köln for Easter. It's always good to see the relatives- they're always so kind and generous, and home cooking sounds wonderful.

I wish everyone a happy and comfortable Easter weekend.

Love, Al.

thursday nights

It's a night at the desk tonight- I've got 350 pages to read for Monday. I missed this.
After spending half an hour wondering how to combine eggs and noodles, I've decided to leave the noodles uncooked for another evening. They won't go bad.

Listening to an iTunes library of 9500 songs on shuffle can be rewarding but dangerous:

1. If you're feeling sinister, Belle & Sebastian
2. A minor incident, Badly Drawn Boy
3. Driving in the dark, Saves the Day
4. Lowercase west thomas, The Get Up Kids
5. Cicatriz E.S.P, The Mars Volta
6. Italo, Anathallo
7. It's only love, the Beatles
8. Climbing texas, Belltower
9. Until I die, Ben Kweller
10. Last night I had the strangest dream, Simon & Garfunkel.

Actually, a shockingly rewarding session. It could've been worse.

Tomorrow we're playing soccer on the bank of the river, then barbecuing. Dreamy.

Hope all is well!

home for the last time

new song

new music!

I've written less music then I'd have liked to have in the last couple years. But I've been making more attempts recently and I came up with one today. I literally wrote it in the last 20 minutes, it's very very incomplete and rough, but I recorded it so I don't forget it. That's my biggest issue most often- that I come up with a cool jam or words or something, but don't write it down or record it and the idea is lost. I am going to make more of an effort to sit and write songs, as well as to record some version of them for future work.
I was kind of inspired to write today by a band I stumbled across: I saw them twice in Chicago in 2007, once at an acoustic open mic (which I played as well) and again at a coffee-shop/restaurant setting with a full band. I'm happy for their success- but at the same time it makes me think I really ought to write more songs and crash the Chicago open mic circuit next year. Who knows what could happen?
Here's the song I recorded today: again, rough, but enjoy anyway-



Also, high speed rail in the United States? 8 billion is headed toward building its infrastructure in the stimulus plan.

m. ward

M. Ward may be the best present-day songwriter I've come across. I like this article.

I'm listening to his album Transistor Radio on repeat these days.

Last night was good-bye party to a good friend from Australia- his time in romantic Heidelberg has sadly come to an end. I wish him the best.

Tomorrow I am going hiking! It will be an adventure. Exciting!

Paper is still stalled, but I feel better about it. Not sure how that works, but the logic calms me down at least.

Take care out there!

'everything that ends once began... what comes down once went up.'

missing lukas

When Luke came to visit, we jammed very well. Played alot of music, sang some songs (including Auld Lang Syne quite loudly at midnight 1/1/09...) and I realized, once again, how nice our voices are together. He's got some serious talent, and I really believe that if we recorded a demo (which we will do this summer when I'm back in Chicago), we could spread it around and maybe get some interest going. So this one goes to Lukas- you better not leave for college before August 3rd.