Applicatio in C Major, BWV 994, by JS Bach
Posted on December 30th, 2020
This is the first piece in “Introduction to the Performance of Bach”, by Rosalyn Tureck. I’ve worked on it for years — only blew one trill. After a decent short pause the recording transitions to “Cat on the Keyboard” improvisation, and continues for a couple more minutes.
I should note that there is a youtube video of Tureck playing this (just the Bach), to which you should by all means listen.
The Great Conjunction of 2020
Posted on December 25th, 2020
I have a little telescope:
As astronomical telescopes go, it’s pretty small: a Celestron NexStar 5 SE. If the seeing is extremely good, I can see the rings of Saturn with it. Unfortunately, where I live the seeing is almost never very good. I tried my best to get pictures of Jupiter and Saturn as they danced close to each other.
December 18
December 19
December 20 was the night with the best seeing; through the eyepiece I could see the rings clearly, but I couldn’t capture it on camera.
December 20. If I try hard, I can imagine that there is a hint of banding in the disk of Jupiter…
December 21 was the night of closest approach. Unfortunately the air wasn’t very clear; drifting clouds sometimes blocked the view entirely.
Dec 21 — a photo taken with my regular camera and a telephoto lens.
Dec 21 Through the telescope, again.
On December 22 I tried again:
Final image — they are drifting apart.
In passing I sometimes tried to get pictures of the Andromeda Galaxy, but I had difficulty with the targeting:
Andromeda Galaxy in the upper left. The telescope really isn’t set up for long exposure deep sky images…
Merry Christmas 2020
Posted on December 25th, 2020
Towel Rack in the dark, Olympus “Live Time” picture
100th Birthday
Posted on December 9th, 2020
Nyan-Nyan at 100, through a window with a reflection of Christina.
2020-12-09. Wednesday. Christina’s Mom died this morning at 0310. There was a 100th birthday celebration for her a little while ago, on 2020-11-28. “Celebration” in quotes — socially distanced masked small groups from different family units took turns standing in front of the lobby window waving to her. She was in her wheelchair, eyes almost closed.
Two days ago she tested positive for COVID.
Celebration in front of the Nursing Home.
I didn’t get pictures of everyone — there were 30 some people all together.
Great-grand children
Old Coffee (2)
Posted on December 2nd, 2020
I have a love/can’t-stand relationship with coffee. I bought a new bag of Peet’s “Major Dickason’s Blend” beans at my local Peet’s a few days ago that fell firmly into the can’t-stand bin. I’ve consumed many bags of the Major’s blend in the past, and generally considered it OK, so this is an unexplained change.
Do I have crypto-covid with the only symptom being deranged taste buds? No, that can’t be, because toast tastes the same. More likely, I think, is that Covid has affected the Peet’s delivery chain, and the beans that were supposedly roasted on 2020-11-02 were actually very old. In any case, the flavor was virtually identical to the year-old beans I wrote about yesterday. Eeew de old boot.
Today I am trying a bag of Peet’s ‘Espresso Blend’, which, while not great, at least isn’t foul…