Reformation Day

I always thought Reformation Day was some thing invented by modern conservative Christians as an alternative to Halloween.  Actually, I was wrong.  It's been observed since the mid-to-late 1500's.  October 31st was the date in 1517 on which Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door.

We heard a thought-provoking presentation about Luther and the process of reformation, given today by the father of two of our students and a boy from our church who is in high school.  I learned several things I did not know.

The first thing I learned was about a dream Elector Frederick III had the morning of October 31st just hours before Luther nailed up his theses.  I will provide you with a link to an excerpt from J.A. Wylie's 1878 work The History of Protestantism in which he quotes Frederick's dream.  Here it is.  If you want to learn more about Wylie, here is the brief Wikipedia bit about him.

The other thing of interest was the brief outline of a book called Operation Blueprint, which I would be curious to read about how the history of the Protestant Reformation is tied to the symbols of the Old Testament Sanctuary, and the rather mysterious/obscure bit of Daniel 8:13-14 which says:

Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking, “How long will the vision be, concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?”

And he said to me, “For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.”

Tetris

I never played Tetris, but Jared did on occasion as a child.  This might be why he is amazing when it comes to loading the dishwasher or getting the leftovers into the fridge.  Lately, it's been my turn to play Tetris... with the furniture.  My goal was to put a toddler bed I got off Craigslist next to our queen-sized bed so that we'd have a little more sleeping space in the bedroom (and alas, less floor space.)  Mind you, we are three people and three cats living in an 850 square foot space, and we have students and their families hanging out in our other two rooms (the living room/dining room) and the piano room/office/second bedroom.

In order to make this work, I first needed to move the chifferobe from its spot directly next to my side of the bed, to the opposite wall.  (The photo is sideways, and I cannot do anything about it - blogger has this issue sometimes.)

However, in that target space was a full-height book shelf and a doll bed piled with stuffed animals, not to mention a big mirror, a stool, and a photo collage.  The mirror and collage switched walls with the chifferobe, the stool went to Goodwill, and the doll bed is now at the foot of Anne's toddler bed.

The full-height book shelf moved to the living room.  There was only one spot for it, and that was where the short bookshelf filled Anne's toys and books was standing.  So away from the wall it came, and it's going to Jared's mom, who needs some more book shelves.  I cleaned off some of the things from that full-height bookshelf, and collated Anne's items in the living room.  That entailed taking the toy baskets to Goodwill and pulling some fabric storage cubes out of the closet.  However, the closet items needed storage containers, so some larger fabric cubes were procured from Craigslist.

There were still a number of books from that full-height bookshelf which had moved to the living room that I wasn't ready to part with, and they needed a home.  In our bedroom next to the door we had another short bookshelf full of books.  So that was the logical place, but they wouldn't all fit.  So despite some cleaning out, it was back to Craigslist and another full-height bookshelf was procured.  Problem solved.  And that second shorter shelf is also going to Jared's mom.

And there was one more stool which was fun but not serving enough function in the piano room, so off to Goodwill with it.  Except as I was loading it in the car, the mom of two of Jared's students offered Anne a little purple chair she had in her van.  And she took the stool, because it fit perfectly into her kitchen.  So we swapped those out.  The purple chair is a big hit, because it is light enough to carry around, and Anne can now reach the bathroom sink, the light switches in every room, and drawers she couldn't get into before, like her out-grown/not yet grown-into shoe drawer.  So she's been hauling all kinds of shoes into the living room for a non-stop fashion parade.

The only piece missing now is a reliable propping system to put Anne's new bed six inches higher to match our height.  This is going to be key to encouraging her to sleep in it regularly.  My visit to Home Depot's cement block aisle was a bust -everything was too tall or too short.  We're going to try another hardware store the next day I have an opening to run some errands.

Hello Weekend

It's going to be a very full and very musical one.

Friday morning I'm teaching a lesson and then driving out to Ellensburg for an afternoon workshop with Christie Felsing.

Saturday morning we're playing for church.  Jared and I and two of our students are playing three variations I arranged from the final movement of Beethoven 9, otherwise known in hymn-singing circles as "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee."  That's going to be the special music.  Jared and I are also playing three of the Bach Two-Part Inventions for the offertory.  In case you wanted to know, it will be the C Major, the A Minor, and the F Major.

Saturday night we're going to the first of the Seattle Symphony concerts that my parents gave me for my birthday.  This is the program:  http://www.seattlesymphony.org/concerttickets/calendar/2015-2016/concerts/seattlesymphony/strauss-zarathustra

Sunday afternoon I'm teaching the lessons I will have missed on Friday afternoon.

And Monday morning, I'm going up to Newcastle to rehearse the Bach Double with my small friend who is going to perform it with me on my recital in January.  She has the day off from school, so it is a rare time our schedules coincide.

Also, I'm in the midst of a game of tetris involving the furniture in our apartment.  It's a bit-by-bit scheduled around nap times and teaching and everything else deal.  It will deserve its own post when I'm done with it.

Bach Bach Bach

Last night Jared and I went to hear Johnny Gandelsman play the complete Bach solo violin works at Town Hall in Seattle.  It was quite wonderful and quirky in all sorts of good ways.  When there was a road less travelled, he took it.  His bow was like water - he did things up I would do down, and things down I would do up.  And it was beautiful and it flowed and spun.  Here is a video of his Biber Passacaglia.

I ended up finding a pencil and jotting a few notes in my program about notes he played differently that I remembered hearing and about some fun bowing and interpretive choices.

And it seems no matter who's playing, my heart rate goes up whenever I hear the Corrente Double in the B Minor Partita.  That's the one that takes endurance beyond what you can imagine.  I'm always so glad the E Major Partita is last, because it is so much easier on the whole that what comes before.  What a relief!