Notes

The Daily News

Jerry Randal Bauer


Across the starry velvet sky, the moon is slowly, surely creeping.
And full it is and bright it shines
through leafless branches shadows casting garden haunting.
Jack-o’Lantern porch-bound glowing
three-point eyes glowing grinning fire within fire within, within,
and bright it shines shadows casting shapes of three-point eyes
and random teeth around the doorway.

And upon the moonlit walkway,
trailing in the Radio Flyer comes the princess and the dragon,
following their weary father.
Past the craggy shadow branches creeping, reaching, stretching,
racing the moonfire.

And the motion-action porchlight flickers on with purple bulb
to bathe the bright-white moonlight
and the yellow-orange pumpkin-head with ultraviolet radiation.
And the ghost of Uncle Jed is sitting in the folding lawn-chair,
overalls and plaid shirt gorged on last week’s daily news,
with pillowcase head and old mop hair and magic-marker face and old straw hat.

Princess and Dragon have no fear,
for of what are princesses and dragons but courage?
Didn’t they and mom eviscerate Jack and replace his slimy brains with flame?
And didn’t they tear and crumple and fill the ghost of Uncle Jed
with truly frightful stories they could not yet read?

And in the pale-bright moonlight
and flickering triangle-featured face
and purple incandescent glowing grinning creeping there is no fear in them.
But in their weary father, therein lies the ancient dread
the ancient fear the ancient ancient primal love and fear.
That maybe next year,
or the year after,
or the year after that,
Princess and Dragon will no longer follow in the Radio Flyer,
that then they will know,
and in that knowing,
they too will be afraid.

Jerry learned a new word.

Last Friday (2008-09-12), at 2:00 a.m., our neighbor's car alarm went off. Out here in the suburban jungle, such an event usually means nothing, and a short time later, it stopped. At dawn, when I got up, there were sheriffs' cars parked in front of my house, and my neighbor was vacuuming broken glass from his truck. This time, the alarm hadn't meant nothing.

A short time later, as I was getting in my van to go to work, I noticed that the door to my Explorer was ajar. (The Explorer is my son's vehicle; I own it, he uses it.) I checked, and saw that it had been burglarized, too. The thieves had taken the only thing of value, the stereo.

My wife called the sheriff, and a deputy came and took the information and dusted for prints. He told her that there were sixteen car break-ins in our neighborhood that night.

Earlier that week, my son had informed us that the automatic transmission in the Explorer was acting up. It would cost us about $1500 to get it fixed. The truck wasn't worth much more than that, and we'd already discussed getting rid of it.

I'd been using the van (1991 Dodge B250) as a commute vehicle. It gets 13 mpg pretty consistently, and with fuel prices as they are, the 24 mile round-trip commute wasn't as cheap as it used to me. The van is a good vehicle, but it is showing its age.

We had been batting around the idea of getting a smaller vehicle for my commute, obsoleting the Explorer, and letting my son use the van. I'd had my eye on the Subaru Baja for some time, and had already found a couple for sale on the internet.

So, Friday evening, we decided to take the leap. Saturday morning, with some internet searches and some telephone calls, we found one in Redwood City for $18k. We drove up there and bought it.

It's a 2005 with 52k miles, in great shape. The only defects are some very minor scratches. So far, I like it a lot.

We're donating the Explorer to a charity (Habitat for Humanity). The van now sees much less use. My son borrows the Subaru or my wife's PT Cruiser to drive to San Mateo (where his girlfriend lives).

The Baja is a cross between a Subaru Legacy and a pickup truck. It has four seats and a small pickup-type bed. There is a door between the passenger compartment and the bed; by folding the back seat down and opening the door to the bed, longer items can be accommodated. It also has a bed extender. It won't accommodate a 4'x8' piece of plywood, though. I guess I'd have to tie that to the roof.

Every year, on Labor Day weekend, The Caledonian Club of San Francisco stages their annual Highland Games, at the Alameda County Fairgrounds, in Pleasanton. The harp club I participate in, "Harpers Hall and Culinary Society", performs there. I've attended for four of the past five years, including this year.

Here's a video of part of one of our sets. (That's me, in the hat, behind the big harp with the decorated holes in the soundboard, in the back.)

The announcer and ensemble leader is Verlene Schermer. Verlene is a wonderful musician, performer, and teacher. For more information about her, see her site at: www.verlene.com

This year, Pleasanton lived up to its name; it was very pleasant. The weather was beautiful, in the high seventies and low eighties. (Some years it has been over one hundred degrees.)

Harpers Hall sets up a booth at the games, where we provide information about harps and harping. We let people touch and play the harps, and tell them about teachers and harp rentals. Some of the members offer CDs and music books for sale. I sold a copy of "Sapphire Eyes"!

I took my motorhome and camped at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. The "full hookups" area is in a paved parking lot; not very scenic. The "dry camping" area is on grass, with trees -- a much nicer place. I stayed in the "full hookups" area, because I anticipated high temperatures and wanted to be able to run my air conditioner (without the generator). As it turned out, I didn't need the air conditioner. Oh, well, I didn't spend much daylight time there anyway, so the view and ambiance weren't that important. Still, it would be nice if they'd add hookups to the grassy area.

I've published a book!

It is a collection of songs, tunes, and hymns, arranged for the lever harp.

You can buy it at: //http:www.lulu.com/JRBauer

It's also available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Eyes-Jerry-Randal-Bauer/dp/B002ACXY90

Here's a list of the contents:

Always Remember This Time
Blessed Assurance
Brave Marin
The Butterfly
Sapphire Eyes
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Leslie’s Dragon
The Coventry Carol
The Road to Lisdoonvarna
Flee as a Bird
May Song
As Men of Old, In Ancient Days
Most Highly Favored Lady
Chì Mi Na Mórbheanna
O’Connell’s Lamentation
Shortsong
Skye Boat Song
Spancil Hill
What Child Is This?
Silkie Song
When the Stars Were Bright and Clear
A Winter’s Dawn

Whew, it's been a couple of weeks since my last post. I'll try to do better.

My wife and each of my sons have songs. I don't know how it happened, but these songs came into my head and became attached to these people. This is my wife's song:

The church choir that I sing in is on summer hiatus, except for a couple of Sundays. Today is one of those Sundays. We got together at 8:45 (for a 9:30 service) and prepared the anthem from scratch, having never seen it before. Granted, it was an easy piece; only two parts. We learned it and did some polishing of it in about a half-hour, and sang it in the service. I think we've got a pretty good choir.

A great deal of the credit for that goes to our music director, who is an excellent musician, singer, instructor, and director. We all really appreciate him.

People have asked me how I compose music. Well, the simple answer is "I don't know." The less simple answer is that I hear music in my head all the time, wonderful music. Any time I want to, I can hear a new piece of music. I can direct it and shape it, and if I like it, I can remember it. The hard part, the part the requires discipline and patience, is writing it down.

This is a piece I composed last June. Like all my works, it just popped into my head. Unlike most of them, I chose to write it down. In this posting, I've included two arrangements: as a hymn, and as a solo harp piece.

Here it is as a hymn. Hymns are probably my most comfortable idiom, because I have been exposed to them all my life.

And here it is arranged for harp. I like to do harp arrangements, because I know a lot of people who play harp, and I can sometimes get one of them to play my pieces for me.

...

Here's another American carol. This is "Brightest and Best", words by Reginald Heber, tune from "Southern Harmony, #16". In this arrangement, I've tried to retain a kind of "primitive" feel with open fifths.  (The audio was generated by Sibelius software.)

Brightest and Best
(words: Reginald Heber, 1811)

Hail the blest morn, see the great Mediator,
Down from the regions of glory descend;
Shepherds, go worship the babe in the manger,
Lo, for his guard, the bright angels attend.

Brightest and best of the sons of the morning,
Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid,
Star in the east, the horizon adorning,
Guide where our infant Redeemer was laid.

Cold on his cradle the dew drops are shining;
Low lies his bed with the beasts of the stall;
Angels adore him, in slumber reclining,
Wise men and shepherds before him do fall.

Say, shall we yield him, in costly devotion,
Odors of Eden, and offerings divine,
Gems from the mountains, and pearls from the ocean;
Myrrh from the forest, and gold from the mine.

Vainly we offer each ample oblation,
Vainly with gold we his favor secure;
Richer by far is the heart's adoration;
Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.

Low at his feet we in humble prostration,
Lose all our sorrow and trouble and strife;
There we receive his divine consolation,
Flowing afresh from the fountain of life.

He is our friend in the midst of temptation,
Faithful supporter whose love cannot fail;
Rock of our refuge, and hope of salvation,
Light to direct us through death's gloomy vale.

Star of the morning, thy brightness declining,
Shortly must fade when the sun doth arise;
Beaming refulgent, his glory eternal
Shines on the children of love in the skies.

Brightest and best of the sons of the morning,
Dawn on our darkness, and lend us thine aid,
Star in the east, the horizon adorning,
Guide where our infant Redeemer was laid.

Last Friday, the eleventh, was my birthday. I took off early from work and my wife and I drove to San Luis Obispo, where we checked into a motel. The next morning, we had breakfast, checked out, and drove to the south side of the city, to the manufacturing facility of Triplett Harps. There, we met Deb, who introduced me to my new harp.

She gave us a tour of the facilities, showing:
- the metal-casting shop, where nameplates and blades are cast and finished
- the woodworking shop, where cutting and shaping is done
- the CNC router, where wood is precisely cut
- the CNC laser engraver, where neck, pillar, and soundboard carvings are made
- the string area, where strings are made
- the stringing and assembly area, where harps are finally assembled

Then she took my credit card. She gave it back, a little worse for wear.

My new harp is a Triplett Luna, a thirty-five string wire-strung neo-celtic harp.  It has a bubinga neck, pillar, and box, and a figured maple soundboard.