The week ahead

Looks like a busy week. The toughest day will be Wednesday with a pile of first draft scripts to evaluate. Thursday, discussing same in class, follows. Tuesday we watch most of Sideways in class, an easy day, and I have only a few scripts to read this afternoon. Thursday night is the opera, Norma ... and I realized our LA matinee opera is on Oscar night, so coming out maybe we'll be in traffic with some movie stars.

I'm at a new plateau in my piano studies, on the verge of getting down something that actually sounds pretty good, even though it is a simplified version of Pachelbel's "Canon in D" -- the authentic version is being studied at the moment by third-year students, as it turns out. But this simple version in C sounds better than anything else I've yet played, so I'm excited about mastering it. I downloaded this off a music professor's excellent website. A wealth of material to learn is there.



Piano Lessons: Music, Love & True Adventures by Noah Adams (of NPR fame) is a delightful memoir about his own adventures learning the piano as an adult. Full of great piano stories, history and fine personal sentiment.

Another fascinating book is
Love from Gracie. Sinclair Lewis: 1912-25., a memoir by Lewis' first wife, Grace Hegger Lewis. Full of insights into his character and writing methods, and the ex has a frank yet loving tone that makes her believable.