gurdonark

My front yard in artificial Autumn colors, originally uploaded by gurdonark.

Today the rains returned, which I very much applauded. October should include rain, and perhaps, by month's end, a subtle but unmistakeable slight chill in the air.

We went to see the movie "The Seeker" today, and enjoyed it. Alhtough the movie accomplishes so much that I presume some subtlety from the book is lost (I have not read the book), it nonetheless makes an efficient use of cinematography to create an evocative, allusive fantasy universe. I was pleased ,too, to see that a PG movie can be made without pulling too many punches.

Tonight we went to the bookstore to choose books as presents for our young toddler niece in Missouri. I love most childrens' books, and could have sent bushels, but we finally settled on a manageable number. Then I picked up this month's Virtual Instruments magazine and a spate of science fiction. I find that genre fiction is an anti-depressant for me.

Calendar Girl was kind enough to send me MIDI tracks for her "March" a capella. I've had great fun running them through a softsynth, and then writing accompanying tracks for a March remix. I am always wary of the term "experimental" because people use it far too often to describe ideas people had exhausted forty years ago (using cumbersome tape technology and cool phrases like "musique concrete"). Still, as I near a very rapid completion of a remix(after many hours today working on this rather slowly), I am pleased that the result is pleasing and yet not conventional.

Today painted lady butterflies congregated all around the little blue native flowers that grow so copiiously in our front garden bed. There is the sense of passing Summer, and no time to lose. We ate St. Louis style pizza at a place called 5th Avenue Pizza not far from us--thin crusts and multiple cheeses--and a woman who, like my wife, grew up in Kansas City, said to us the thing about living each day as if it were the last day. It's all melodramatic, but the staying has a point.

At the Michael's art store, where we stopped to buy fancy wrapping ribbon, they offered a class on mum design for homecoming. Every day is indeed the last.