Happen to notice our beautiful, friendly postwoman deliver the mail and -- yes! -- the yearly ASCAP Standard Award recompense has arrived. So, drop everything and head out to the institutions of higher finance,
swinging round the library, then home to catch up on the day-to-day, actually getting a bit ahead in a variety of respects (but most decidedly not all) as
Harriet holds forth on her recent job adventures. Also make progress on a variety of fronts re 21st-Century Music and the daily pdf / compositional adventures (34 for pdf Street Songs [beginning VIII. I See You] and 3rd page of the Brahmsian-tangoic Psalm 84 -- still decided learning curves continue, such as finding out how to deal with tone clusters).
Another errand run in the early evening; upon return, discover that the health plan is still intact, say goodbye to the land line, and make preparations to discontinue the old aol account by reviewing the incredible number of more-or-less non-essential emails that have piled up therein: c. 31,500 since 2007. Learn how to multiply delete in that arena (really should have figured this out earlier), and take the plunge at least giving a nominal glimpse at it all before deleting and cancelling. Actually make the way through about 1,500, so, over the next month.... Among'em all, transfer some key email addresses, listservs, etc. for eventual placement in gmail -- happen upon Steve Pemberton's recent missive with photos of our boating adventure, so this leads back to a bit more picture posting, etc. on Facebook. Then, while plowing through the actual physical inbox adjacent to the computer (yes, we're talking non-virtual envelopes, postcards, and the like), come across the Swarthmore annual fund, and decide it's time to become active again. Of course, seems appropriate to write something for the alumni publication, and that notion results in reviewing the past year's blog (markalburger2011.blogspot.com, my, all that can happen in 365-- and not...). Is this all a bit reminiscent of the Samuel Beckett Krapp's Last Tape? Sure. And here's the piece for S-more...
***
In 2011, Mark Alburger wrote 13 articles for Grove Online and The Grove Dictionary of American Music (2nd ed.), including updated essays on John Adams and Philip Glass -- and also became a subject for Grove, with Jonas Westover commissioned to write his biography. He additionally composed opus numbers 187 (Psalms, Book II) through 199 (The Inner Circles), had the mini-oratorio Regime Change (Op. 196) premiered by the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, and performed a new video version of the one-man-show Business As Usual (Op. 49) to inner-city and general concert audiences.
***
And while we're on the subject of even-more-egregious-than-usual-self-aggrandisement,
also
discover
this
online at http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Alburger-Mark.htm.
