friendship

Recently, I have been thinking about the idea of friendship and how I want to develop it as an attribute in my life. I added as one of my 43 Things "Be a friend like the ones who have changed my life." Here are my thoughts on that:

I do not forward cheesy e-mails that talk about true friendship and threaten certain death if not sent on within ten minutes. I don’t do “just thinking of you, Friend” greeting cards. I want to be a friend of the caliber of those who have found me in my dark times and helped me identify the light I was seeking.

• I would be a friend like those I have had who made work a joy and sorrow a short affair.
  
• I would be a friend who understands that the welfare of a soul is worth far more than a few extra minutes of sleep or a few extra dollars in the bank.
  
• I would be a friend who does not change people, but liberates them to change themselves for the better.
  
• I would become a friend by accident to hundreds of people one by one – standing in line at the grocery store, waiting for a bus, browsing at the library.
  
• I would be a friend to those who blatantly disagree with me. I would be a friend to those who are too much like me. These may be the same.
  
• I would be a lifelong friend, even if not in the sense of face-to-face contact. I would be the friend that old friends could call after ten years of silence and pick up the conversation as if we had never parted.

This is the friendship I would develop as a portion of my character.

syndication for the noisebox

I just created Atom and RSS feeds specifically for the Noisebox. I don't know about you, but I'm going to read the Noisebox in that little thingy above my Gmail that always shows Spam recipes I didn't request. I know this is not a big deal, but it's a good small deal for me. If you're interested, subscribe. RSS Atom

a long rant about something completely unimportant

My newest 43 Things goal is to finish the cinnamon toothpaste. I shall explain:

I bought a tube of cinnamon toothpaste a few moths before we were married, so I suppose it's been at least 9 months. It's a very big tube - family size or something. My wife hates it, so she uses another type of toothpaste that she doesn't like but also needs to finish. If we could just throw perfectly good things away, all would be well in our medicine cabinet, but as it is, we have two full-size toothpaste tubes, each about half full, slowly being emptied. They take up a lot of space in our little apartment with very little storage space. I suppose it doesn't help that I only use a small amount when brushing.

I didn't even get to the cinnamon one until a few months ago, because I was finishing a different toothpaste she also didn't like. It was one of those with two different pastes in a boxy plastic pump, and she (and I) didn't like how it's almost impossible to get equal amounts of both sides. The cinnamon tastes good, but the logistics of tube space sharing are too complicated. Toothpaste problems can put an undue strain on an otherwise harmonious and exciting marriage.

I think we may have to throw a party at our home when I finally finish the cinnamon toothpaste and we can be united as a couple in our choice of dental care products. Imagine - only one tube of some sensible mint toothpaste neatly placed in the cabinet! Some day, it will be a reality for us.

internship

On Monday, I started my internship with the music department at KUNC, our local public radio affiliate. I suppose at this point I have to admit my addiction to public radio. Yes, the news coverage is often more liberal than my personal views, but so much of what they do is well produced and expertly presented.

So I started Monday, and most of my job as an intern is opening mail and sorting through stacks of CDs, weeding out albums that definitely don't fit the station's format. I can't do this with my own CD collection - I just collect music, and the only way it leaves my collection is by being borrowed and not returned or scratched beyond repair. But at KUNC, it's fun. I like hearing all the different styles of whatever people call music, from acoustic banjo albums to "I did this myself on my $50 1985 Casio in my basement" albums, this internship is helping me to remember why I started studying music in the first place. It really is nice work if you can get it.

noisebox

Here is the latest Noisebox. I am quite excited about this recording. I did it several months ago, and it's nice to have occasion to post it.

Grate Music Noisebox
Volume 1, Issue 14
23 October, 2006: New MP3 for Emulation from Psalms of the 21st Century
_________________________________________________

We recently posted sheet music for Emulation by Nathan Howe, and even for accomplished pianists, it is difficult to get a realistic sense of the piece without hearing a choir sing it. To present it to the world, Nathan Howe has recorded Emulation with a choir composed of some of his closest friends - his alter egos. Head to the Recordings page to download and listen. Then feel free to Tell Us what you think.

a brief LDS music rant

The niche entertainment business geared toward Latter-day Saints is booming. I suppose I am part of that boom. A few big companies dominate the market - Excel Entertainment and Deseret Book (each with several subsidiaries) are the biggest for recorded music. In LDS sheet music, Jackman and Larice are big, and Deseret Book has a big segment of that market as well. Little, independent publishers have sprung up in LDS sheet music, like Sally DeFord (who offers her music for free download), Craig Petrie, Choir Works, and of course LDSmusic.us. I like many of the offerings of each source I have listed here. My problem comes when the desire for a popular style causes the music to slip into speculative doctrine, casual reference to Deity, or bad taste.

Casual Reference to Deity
Maybe I'm a stick in the mud, but I don't remember any stipulation in the scriptures where lowering the status of God or Jesus Christ is allowed for artistic purposes. Yet culturally we have become accustomed to songs referring to Deity as "you" instead of "Thee" or "Thou." I understand that it's harder to fit the formal references into the flow of a song. That is the necessary challenge of the skilled songwriter. Of course, many songs have been written that teach principles of truth without referring to God in the second person at all. I prefer that. It's easier. But when I do include a literal prayer, I make an effort to be formal in addressing Him.

Speculative Doctrine
This is going to make me unpopular. I don't like songs like the ever-popular "O Lord, My Redeemer" and "I Heard Him Come." Why not? They have nice tunes and nice messages. There is plenty to like about them. But I am uncomfortable inserting fictitious characters and situations into the scriptures. I am fine with expounding on the truths found in scripture and recounting the events and parables used therein, but I feel like some songs treat those stories as just stories, open to free and careless interpretation.

Of course, some songs take the speculation much farther, such as the show Saturday's Warrior. This includes some blatant doctrinal mistakes as well as sketchy speculations. For example, a concept of predestination is presented in which there is only one "right one" for a certain man or woman to marry, chosen before birth. This is clearly unsupported by scripture and modern revelation.

Bad Taste
Finally, this boom in the popularity of LDS media has brought with it some reeking examples of bad taste. Taking phrases from religious service and mocking them in song may entertain momentarily, but often crosses the line to mock the sacred. Consider the soundtrack to Sons of Provo, a movie about a fictitious LDS boy band. In one rap, the background singers shout repeatedly "Will all those in favor please make it manifest?" a la Eminem. Sure, it's for fun in a film parody of Mormon culture. But isn't the process of sustaining our leaders vitally important in a religious sense? If a teenager listens to the song only a few times (it only took once for it to get stuck in my head), will he think when he hears that phrase in Church about sustaining people who have been called of God, or will he smirk and remember the mocking song?

Another genre of bad taste which is currently popular is to take a hymn or Primary song and remix it in a modern style. Some of these are really good and tastefully done. Some of them cross the line. For example, one version of the Primary song "I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" has been recorded in a sort of punk style with a grinding voice and driving guitars and percussion. To hear the name of the Savior and the Church as performed in this recording grates my nerves. The name of Christ is holy, and should not be yelled for entertainment purposes.

After saying all this, there is much of good in the LDS music world. I am just disappointed in some of the offerings of our "best and brightest" who know better and can do better in creating music of faith. The major LDS music companies should encourage this. We as consumers should encourage this. We are getting to the point where we as LDS consumers do not need to buy a CD or DVD just because it's made by members of the Church - many entertainment offerings by Latter-day Saints are now available. We can afford to use discretion and decide even within the so-called LDS music market what is appropriate and what is not, and when something is not, leave it alone.

that said...

I know I've been down on Internet Explorer 7 the past couple of days. I'm not trying to make undue peace with it, but here are some things I like:

• DevToolBar. It's something you can download from Microsoft, and it's in a Beta version right now. It gives some nice tools most casual surfers don't need. You can get some similar addons for Firefox, but I like the way these are grouped.
• The zoom tool on the bottom right. Very handy for viewing ill-designed sites with too-small stuff.
• The Anti-phishing thang. I always look at the URL to make sure I'm at the right place before entering personal information, but this will help quite a few people who aren't terribly savvy.

So I'm keeping it. I won't be using it much, but I'm keeping it so I can be sure gratemusic.com and LDSmusic.us don't look too dumb in it. I just care that much.

i.e. 7 again

I still don't like it. OK, it's been less than 48 hours, but a few things drive me nuts about Windows Internet Explorer 7:

Most notably, the text menu bar is gone (you think). You actually have to press ALT to get it to pop up. You have to do this to get to some of the features. And when you click anywhere besides the text menu bar itself? Yes, it closes. This was obviously not designed with mouse klutzes like me in mind. I hear that you can make it "sticky" so it displays all the time (rumor only - I have not done this yet), but either way, it still displays below the address bar, which is wrong.

A principle of good design is that you don't move something from a familiar location unless there is a really good reason. How did Microsoft do?

Suddenly the icon to access the Favorites menu has moved from top center to second row left.

The reload button looks different and now lives where the Go button was. You can't find it by muscle memory anymore.

Go is gone. Oh, wait. When you type an address, Reload becomes Go. Confusing.

The Home icon has moved from left to far right along with Print.

Where is help? You don't have the text menu bar right at your fingertips, and there is no help icon. Of course it's there, Silly! If you need help, all you need to do is go through TWO drop-down menus easily accessible through the 2-millimeter double-arrow thingy (>>) on the FAR RIGHT of the screen. Don't worry that it doesn't look like a button (or anything, for that matter) until you roll your mouse over it. When you try to drag that little help icon onto the bar with Home and Print where it belongs, of course it is not allowed. Asking for assistance is harshly discouraged.

i.e. 7 - watch out!

After my post about IE7, Dieter sent me a message on my Vox account about a security vulnerability in it. Already. Frightening, no? I am not an alarmist, and I don't believe that Internet Exploder Explorer will be the end of society as we know it, but I am less than pleased with it at the moment. You can read about the vulnerability here. If you don't have Firefox, you can download it at the bottom of this page.

i.e. 7

I just upgraded (not positive about that term) to Internet Explorer 7. It seems like everything new about it that is good and useful on the consumer end has been essentially copied from Firefox. Tabbed browsing, for example. I don't like that the menus at the top of the window are gone - it just doesn't seem right without File, Edit, Tools, etc., but maybe I'll get used to it.

I'm not an expert on the security side of things, but since IE supports ActiveX and Firefox doesn't, that automatically makes IE more vulnerable. Maybe the new version will be better, but when I'm surfing around on sites I hadn't previously known (like when doing research), I still always use Firefox.

I was also quite happy to discover that gratemusic.com and LDSmusic.us still work fine in IE7. No emergency redesign! Woohoo!

noisebox

Here's the latest Noisebox. I really like this piece, although I am obviously biased.

Grate Music Noisebox
Volume 1, Issue 13
14 October, 2006: Emulation from Psalms of the 21st Century
_________________________________________________

This modern choral setting of an original text by Nathan Howe is designed for concert performance. First in a new set of songs called Psalms of the 21st Century, Emulation features rich 6-part harmonies. Emulation is intended for use by advanced choirs. Get it through our Choral page.

my 43 things

Well, I've restarted my page on 43 Things. Hopefully with the whole world holding me accountable, I'll be pressured to overcome procrastination and reach some of my less immediate goals. If you have suggestions for what some of my 43 Things should be, e-mail me.

national novel writing month

I must say, I take on too many projects. This is an established truth. However, I am completely intrigued by National Novel Writing Month, (NaNoWriMo, affectionately) which is November. The basic idea is that you write a novel of 50,000 words or more entirely in November. I am actually thinking about doing it. After seeing some things that get printed and sold as books these days, I'll bet I could spit out 50,000 words with some degree of coherence, even if most of my writing was done at 2:00 in the morning. Most of my writing on this blog is done at 2:00 in the morning, and it's completely coherent, right? Don't answer that.

Also, I think it would be good to have a similar event designed for musicians - say, a National Musical Writing Month, or a National Oratorio Writing Month, or a National Album Writing Month. Maybe I'll look into starting one of these after I finish my novel. And start it.

challenge

David and I throw challenges back and forth. For example, several weeks ago, the challenge was to write a hymn with the following attributes:

• In the meter 87887 (like Adam-ondi-Ahman)
  
• In the key of F
  
• Addressing some topic related to the Restoration

What came of it was Come to the Mountain of the Lord. Now, I've had another challenge on my plate for a few weeks, and I haven't done anything with it. David has challenged me to write a hymn

• In the meter 7676D (like If you could Hie to Kolob)
• In the key of G
• Addressing the topic of Joseph Smith

My goal is to write this hymn within the next three weeks.

noisebox

We just sent out a new Noisebox. It represents hours of labor - it took ages to get Finale to do what I wanted with this piece. It was really a good learning experience. Anyway, check out the piece. I'm going to bed.

By the way, if you want to subscribe to the Noisebox, details are here.

Grate Music Noisebox
Volume 1, Issue 12
10 October, 2006: Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
_________________________________________________

Sheet music for Nathan Howe's new choral arrangement of the beloved hymn Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing is now available on gratemusic.com and LDSmusic.us. This arrangement is designed for more advanced choirs, and features optional solo sections for bass and soprano and an advanced piano or organ accompaniment. This is an updated version of an arrangement made in 2001 by Nathan Howe. Access it through our Choral Music page.

Sorry for the delay on this week's update - we have been ironing out a few technical difficulties and planning some excellent things for the coming months on gratemusic.com and LDSmusic.us. If you know of anybody who would want to know about our new music, feel free to forward this Noisebox.

just a visitor

For the past couple of days, I've been listening to music from Ellis Hadlock's newest CD, Just a Visitor. I'll say up front that my listening preferences often have very little to do with my songwriting style. I don't think it's healthy to like my own work too much, and if I listen too much to other artists who have a similar sound to mine, I tend to get either jealous or annoyed. That, my friends, is human frailty. So that explains why I like to listen to other types of music in my recreational time.

Anyway, back to Ellis. He is a great guy and a great musician. Some of his songs sound like they belong on soundtracks. Some sound like they belong on Echoes from Public Radio International. I suppose people file him under Electronic Ambient, Light Rock, World, New Age, or one of those other titles that doesn't mean anything. I suppose if I were to file him in a category, I'd just put him under Instrumental Miscellaneous and leave it at that. Every piece has a different charater, most of them telling some kind of story.

Just a Visitor is full of well-conceived soundscapes. I was surprised at the changes in my mood and stress level as I listened to each track. As a musician, I liked the various synth effects combined with some live instrumentals. As a listener, I liked that it didn't require me to be a musician to enjoy it. There is something just likeable about this music.

I suppose that the best review I can give is this: Hadlock's Just a Visitor helped me forget about my pressing deadlines for a few minutes. That's saying something.

You can check it out at http://cdbaby.com/cd/ellishadlock5

the briefcase

I've been struggling the past few days to finish Miracle of Faith, a newly commissioned recording. In the process, I have had ample opportunity to explore the struggles associated with the use of older recording equipment. I am truly amazed at the quality of recordings made before the advent of virtually silent digital recording devices.

I have been using a Yamaha 4-track cassette recorder - a very nice, fairly professional model at the time it was made. I have used this device several times, and I can always hear the hum of the motor in the background. Arrgh! So this time, I devised a plan.

The room in which I was recording did not afford the opportunity to set the recorder outside the door to minimize the noise, so I stuck the whole unit inside a leather briefcase I found at a thrift store. I pressed record, slammed the briefcase shut, and played my parts. It worked remarkably well, although it looked like I was smuggling a bomb or something - there were wires and cords sticking out three of the sides. Wearing the headphones attached to this contraption, I felt like someone in an old spy movie.

finally, a music post

Today, I've been scrambling to get together a new piece for a promotional video. It's called Miracle of Faith, and it's about the legacy of religious pioneers. My current modus operandi for recording is to use a borrowed four-track recorder and a Radio Shack microphone, and then to import from that into Cakewalk on my desktop computer. The MP3s on gratemusic.com and LDSmusic.us were produced with more sophisticated equipment, but I'm hoping I can make this work. In a way, it feels great to start out small. That is, we can be small in capital without being substandard in the quality of music we produce.

So far in this project, I have written most of a song (by written, I mean scrawled a few words in a notebook), and I have made a lo-fi demo recording with a handheld digital voice recorder. However, the entire supposedly CD-quality project is due in 45 hours, so I'll let you know how the mad rushing goes and what the fruits are. I think Miracle of Faith may be the song for LDSmusic.us this week, but I'm not actually sure what we'll do.

what's in a name?

I suppose that fluent in mumble is a stupid name for a blog. I suppose it would be an even worse name for a child, but that's not the point. fluent in mumble describes me fairly well, I suppose. I coach speech and debate (forensics) at a local high school, and in that position, I am quite well-versed in Mumble, the universal language of teenagers everywhere. Does it have anything to do with music, the ostensible focus of this blog? Not directly. Sorry.