July is turning out to be rather humid, and rather warm. Not a lot of rain here at the Homestead, but some surrounding areas have been drenched several times. We have had no pleasure outings in quite some time. However, the July piano performance group met last Sunday evening. There were seven of us playing. Paula and I played a duet. She went on to play two pieces, Chopin and Oscar Peterson, but I had nothing prepared yet for solo repertoire. We are tackling another duet for August's meet up. I may relearn a short piece by Mendelssohn, a Venetian Gondola Song.
My own repertoire is now entering its second month of practice. I am (slowly) memorizing the first movement of Beethoven's Op. 10 #3. I can (mostly) play the 2nd and 3rd movements with music, but the 4th has a long way to go. It has some very tricky and fast finger work, not my main strength as a pianist (if I even have a main strength). The Bach Prelude and Fugue (Bk. 2, Eb+) is grinding along, with weekly improvement. It should be playable in another month. The Chopin Nocturne Op 15 #1 is still in a very early stage. The middle section is a virtuoso fast section with some painful wrist work to master. The slower first and last parts are almost within sight reading range, and pose no technical problems, though the long musical lines require skillful shaping. Someday, hopefully. Next month's duet has been started, too, a ragtime piece by George Gershwin, which Paula and I have played before.
The floor in the music room has now been completely redone. Deb laid down peel and stick tiles after we removed the old carpet, then she continued on and did all the trim. Right now the old U1 Yamaha is sitting on top of cardboard so as not to scratch the new flooring, while the harpsichord currently has pride of place atop an area rug in the centre of the room. The new piano will go there (in three weeks!!). We do not yet know where the harpsichord will go.
My third Iaido class was Monday, so I had outings both Sunday night and Monday night. Training is going well, and I am working on relearning my techniques below the black belt level first. Wednesday I was back into Windsor for my annual ear check up with Dr. Ling. Dr. Ling is also one of our monthly piano performers. As usual at my appointment we talked mostly about piano. My hearing test showed normal hearing. He did say that as far as recovery from Meniere's attacks go, I am one of the lucky ones. Quite often people do not recover much of their hearing after severe attacks. I have been attack free for almost three years now. I still carry my meds with me whenever I leave the house, however. Caffeine might have been a trigger for my onsets. Since reducing my intake of the drug, things have been going well.
And now I turn to film watching news. We began a new mini-series showing on AMC+. It is called New Gold Mountain, released in 2022 from Australia. A gold rush in Australia brings about a thousand Chinese gold miners to town. Culture clash, racism, murder, and suspense seem to mix well so far. We have watched two episodes of five. More to come this weekend. Deb chose the first two episodes as her main film choice.
Her leaving this month choice was another Anthony Mann directed western with James Stewart called The Man From Laramie. Stewart goes hunting the person or persons who sold high powered repeating rifles to the Apache, who in turn killed his brother. From 1955, it was all filmed in New Mexico, in locations that are totally unfamiliar to western movie fans. We did recognize some of the distant mountain shapes. A psychological character study as much as anything else.
Mapman Mike
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