It's always a relief when you finally get to the point where you've collected all the necessary information to work on your taxes and have them turn out the way you thought they might without unnecessary gyration or number crunching. As it now stands, I will get some money back from Federal while the amount I owe Oregon is around the estimate I gave myself about 6 months ago. After taking care to save my work, I took a deep breath and then a nice hot shower...and while I probably won't actually file them until next week, just having them done to that point took an enormous load off my mind.
Among the other things I've meant to talk about but haven't yet because of work, travel, or just getting my head around them...
I'm sorry to see Anne Kaneko's Fukushima blog come to an end. Having discovered it about 6 months about the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, I always liked its candid first-person observance of life in a part of Japan that is still trying to come to grips with the ramifications of what happened there three years ago. Then too, it also helped to hear a western perspective on events and news that often seemed at odds with what logic or common sense dictated...even though Japan's culture is worlds apart from that of the United States, the political backroom dealing and bureaucracy are, sad to say, not all that different, and the candor with which she viewed things was all the more discouraging for the legacy that part of Japan has not only for the rest of its country, but for the effects it is having on the rest of its Pacific neighbors.
I wish her the very best in her new life closer to Tokyo, and will miss her clean, spare reporting of news and events, accompanied as they often were by wondrously beautiful photography, most of the time focusing on something simple, basic and part of everyday life.
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As I write this, the voting in Crimea has ended with over 95% voting for secession and incorporation with Russia. I continue to wonder if the clandestine methods Russia employed to take over that part of Crimea will continue bit by bit throughout areas of Ukraine, or if Putin will see in the posturing and weakness displayed by the EU and United States an opportunity to move boldly and defy the world to do anything definitive in terms of sanctions after the deed has been done. While Germany's statements at week's end were sterner than I had expected, I just don't see the kind of coordinated countermove anywhere that would not only give the Russians pause or surprise them.
About the biggest surprise I had over the last several days was downloading Season 21 of Top Gear and realizing with a start that their second episode race involving small high-mileage cars took place in the exact place where all the tension and standoffs are now occurring! (they began at Yalta and ended up north of Kiev in the middle of Chernobyl where Jeremy supposedly succumbed to the radiation, he but still made it to the episode's end)
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I wonder how many others have experienced the sheer ecstasy that comes with hearing (or playing?) certain seminal compositions...for me, there will always be a sense of magical wonder whenever I hear the following works and performances:
Bach Brandenburg Concerto no. 3, first movement (Collegium Aureum)
Bach Clavier Concerto no. 5, second movement (my 'Slaughterhouse Five' moment played by Glenn Gould)
Chopin: Piano Concerto no. 2, second movement (Martha Argerich, Charles Dutoit/Montreal Symphony Orchestra)
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe, introduction (Pierre Boulez/New York Philharmonic)
Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings (Robert Irving/New York City Ballet Orchestra)
Tchaikovsky: Sleeping Beauty Ballet, introduction (Gennadi Rozhdestvensky/BBC Symphony Orchestra)
Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis (Sir Adrian Boult/London Philharmonic with inspired solo violin playing by Rodney Friend)
In the days to come, I will try to describe why these particular pieces have such special significance to me...in some cases, it's because of the music's connection to other special memories (Tchaikovsky Serenade)...in others, it's because the music reminds me of other special irreplaceable moments (Argerich's temperament and poise reminds me of virtuosi I saw in person; Rubinstein, Horowitz, Serkin, Pollini)...but regardless of the reason, they never fail to remind me of all the positive reasons why I fell under the spell of music so long ago and never wanted to leave.
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