And again, it’s a blog post where I start with “wow, it’s been a long time since I updated the blog. I’ll try to do better.” It’s the internet equivalent of “I hit you ’cause I love you, and it hurts me more than it hurts you,” or some such BS.

Friend-of-the-blog-and-Facebook-friend-and-even-real-life-friend David Rakowski has a brilliant blog – I think the best composer blog on the Internets – and I’ve mentioned it many times in the past. He then started a separate blog where he could post videos of people performing his music. But then Davy decided that he wanted to post shorter, more random things — things that didn’t fit into the large essay structure of his primary blog, nor the video blog — so he started a third blog, with posts that tend to be short, photo-heavy, and on some occasions, Google Map videos of his bike rides. (Here’s Rakowski wearing my new sunglasses. He needs these to go with his “I’m Not Steve Reich” baseball cap.)

I tend to use Facebook for those latter purposes — videos of concerts, like this video of the Australian premiere of the orchestra version of Redline Tango :

… and pictures of random things, like Loki and his round belly.

When I have even less to share, I turn to my Twitter account.

I generally feel that I need substantial content to generate a full blog post, but maybe Rakowski’s latest blog should be an example. I’m going to try to update more often, even if the posts are short. We’ll see how that goes.

First, though, here, in brief, is what’s been happening here over the past several months.

I finished a new piece, “The Frozen Cathedral.” It was commissioned by UNCG, and they’ll give the official premiere at the CBDNA national convention in March. It’s a big ol’ piece with antiphonal percussionists, loud trombones marked “bright, epic, bell up,” and a plagal (“Amen”) cadence at the end. The MIDI is online right now, but I’ll be taking it down soon so that people get it out of their heads in advance of hearing the “real” version in a few months.

We made pizza. A bunch of times.

I updated the Performance Database. There’s still a lot missing — this really only shows the rental performances, not performances of pieces like “Sheltering Sky” or “Foundry” (which, at the moment, are likely my most-performed pieces), but you’ll get an idea of what’s coming up – like some exciting performances at this year’s Midwest Clinic.

We spent a few days visiting the Rakowski/Wiemann summer house in Vermont.

Oh right — I got a new ultra-wide-angle lens : the Canon EF 8-15mm f/4 L Fisheye. And did I mention that we made pizzas?

I took the new lens out on a walk in my neighborhood.

The leaves on our street started turning. I love fall.

Loki got a new toy.  It’s watching you.

I went to several farmers’ markets, like this one at Harvard Square.

They had heirloom tomatoes. I love heirloom tomatoes.

They had hot peppers.

And green, er, red, er… gred peppers.

I bought some green onions.

I decided to make gazpacho. (Gazpacho with fresh local heirloom tomatoes and local gred – g’red? – peppers: good stuff.)

We went to brunch. There was an orchid in the restaurant lobby.

Oh, and we visited NYC. It rained.

Okay, I think we’re caught up.  See?  You really didn’t miss that much.