music again

Thanks to Rob for solving my MIDI problem. After I posted I started pulling up old files for which I'd made instrument assignments so I could look up their numbers (narrowing the field some), but that only got me so far. Rob found the list. Thanks also to hobbitblue for pointing out that my new machine might not have come with new drivers.

Continuing the chain of strange technical foo, I just wrote a TIF file (native Windows thingy, apparently) so that I could email it to myself at work, where I can (with luck) distill it into PDF so I can in turn send it to the composer whose song I arranged in the first place, to see what he thinks of it. If he doesn't hate it, I'll give a copy to our cantorial soloist for consideration by the choir.

One of these days I should get myself some better tools. :-)

prophets

This made me giggle: "You might think of a prophet as the kind of person you would not want as your next-door neighbor... always checking your trash for recyclables, reminding you when you're mowing the lawn that Leviticus commands you not to cut all the way to the corner of your field, kvetching about your driving on Shabbat, etc. " - Rabbi David Komerofsky in a course I'm taking on the prophets.

(Aside #1: consistent with that logic test that's going around, you don't get to reverse it and argue that because you dig through my trash you're a prophet. And if you do dig through my trash, please clean up the mess. It's bad enough when the raccoons or whatever get into it...)

(Aside #2: Actually, I don't think leaving the corners of your fields would apply to lawn-mowing; it's about harvesting. But I'll grant him the rhetorical device. :-) )

The course is part of the sh'liach k'hilah program, and is internet-based. They offered two courses this spring, one on five of the prophets and another on Zionism. I'm really astonishingly weak on the prophets (and I suspect I'm not alone among Reform Jews), and it's hard for me to muster much enthusiasm for the other course, so this seemed clear. We'll be focusing on Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and Micah, a good group for social-justice lessons. This week's mailing was largely introductory, but there should be more to discuss next week.

Apropos of nothing: tangerinpenguin, I was surprised to see your boss in my office today.