Before and After

Doug is in the process of updating our teak deck chairs.
BEFORE PHOTO: The chair on the right has been pressure washed.
AFTER PHOTO: The chair on the left and the small table have been waterproof sealed.

They will now look beautiful all summer long!

Jackie sings a World Premier Piece!

Jackie sang this song a couple weeks ago for the SHSU Contemporary Music Festival. The featured composer for this year's festival was Kyle Gann. (read his bio below!)

The piece was called "In the Busy Streets". Per Jackie "This piece was a note nightmare!! It had accidental signs and note changes and weird chords everywhere! Trying to sing on top of that in the piano was CRAZY, but do-able."

"It was hard, but really fun and it was a real honor to sing this song. The teacher who organized the concert told me that this song was the world premier of this piece. HOLY MOLY!!"

"After checking his website a week later, he posted my recording on his website of me singing his piece! YAY!! I'm super stoked that he thought I sang well enough to post my recording...what an honor!"

You can listen to Jackie's recording at his website http://www.kylegann.com/
Click on the Index of PDF scores, recordings and program notes.
Find "In the Busy Streets" and click on the MP3 file to play

- - - - - - - - - - -

Kyle Gann, born 1955 in Dallas, Texas, is a composer and was new-music critic for the Village Voice from 1986 to 2005. Since 1997 he has taught music theory, history, and composition at Bard College. He is the author of The Music of Conlon Nancarrow (Cambridge University Press, 1995), American Music in the 20th Century (Schirmer Books, 1997), Music Downtown: Writings from the Village Voice (University of California Press, 2006), No Such Thing as Silence: John Cage's 4'33" (Yale University Press, 2010), and Robert Ashley (University of Illinois Press, 2010; forthcoming).

Gann studied composition with Ben Johnston, Morton Feldman, and Peter Gena, and his music is often microtonal, using up to 37 pitches per octave. His rhythmic language, based on differing successive and simultaneous tempos, was developed from his study of Hopi, Zuni, and Pueblo Indian musics. His music has been performed on the New Music America, Bang on a Can, and Spoleto festivals. His major works include Sunken City, a piano concerto commissioned by the Orkest de Volharding in Amsterdam; Transcendental Sonnets, a 35-minute work for choir and orchestra commissioned by the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir; Custer and Sitting Bull, a microtonal, one-man music theater work he's performed more than 30 times from Brisbane to Moscow;The Planets, commissioned by the Relache ensemble via Music in Motion and continued under a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artists' Fellowship; and The Hudson River Trilogy, a trio of microtonal chamber operas written with librettist Jeffrey Sichel, the first of which, Cinderella's Bad Magic, was premiered in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 2007, choreographer Mark Morris made a large-ensemble dance, Looky, from five of Gann's works for Disklavier (computerized player piano).

Up For Sale

$28,500

Well, my parents have finally done it ... they are selling their house!
They have lived in this house since the summer of 1984.

3 bedroom, 1 bath one story home
Garage with an extra shed behind the garage.
The house has a large kitchen and a very large backyard.

House listing at Manson Iowa Realty.

Recuperating

Doug is shown here recuperating (resting comfortably) from his oral surgery this morning. He only had the three wisdom teeth removed. The oral surgeon, felt there was a good chance to save the other two molars.

Doug was anxious about being put out for the surgery, but did very well. He has enjoyed one pudding cup and one applesauce cup. He is currently on Lortab 10 for pain as well as the antibiotic, Clindamycin.

He will have a follow-up with the oral surgeon next week.

Junior Achievement - Bowl-A-Thon

Karl is a member of "The Cat Crackers" bowling team for GE Energy that will be participating in the 24th Annual Junior Achievement Bowl-A-Thon.

Junior Achievement programs help prepare young people for the real world by showing them how to generate wealth and effectively manage it, how to create jobs which make their communities more robust, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace. Students put these lessons into action and learn the value of contributing to their communites.

Bowler Home Page of Karl Kuklenz

The link above will take you to Karl's secure donation transaction window where you can support his endeavors. He would really appreciate the valued support of his friends and family.

More Oral Surgery

Monday, April 19th; Doug went to the dentist for his 6 month preventative visit.
Dr Hamilton told Doug he needed to have 4 teeth removed.
All four teeth are on the left side
(2 on the top, 2 on the bottom-the wisdom teeth and the tooth next to the wisdom tooth)
He was told he would probably need dental implants for the two molars.
Implants cost up to $2700 per tooth and are not usually covered by most insurances.
YIKES!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, April 20th; Doug had an appointment with the oral surgeon, Dr Oneacre.
He states Doug is definately a poster patient for advocating wisdom teeth out at a younger age. Doug will have three wisdom teeth removed on the morning of Thursday, April 22nd.
(He has already had one wisdom tooth removed more than 10 yrs ago)

Guess I better dig my soft foods list out again.

Hope the tooth fairy will be extra nice to him!!!

Josh & Jill - Samsung 500

Jill & Josh came to Dallas this weekend to attend the Samsung-Mobile 500 Sprint Cup Race @ Texas Motor Speedway. These tickets were gifts to Jill & Josh for Christmas 2009.
So barring any more rain delays they should experience some great racing.

If you can't tell by their shirts they are fans of #48 - Jimmie Johnson.

LET'S GO RACING!!!

Back from the Bahamas

Doug had a business trip to Nassau, Bahamas last week and I was fortunate enough to tag along.

This is the hotel where we stayed - British Colonial Hilton.
This view was taken from the beach.

The hotel had high-speed internet so I was able to work from the Bahamas on Mon, Wed & Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday I had some play time.
Tuesday, I sat out on the beach and worked on my tan, watching the big cruise ships come in and drinking strawberry daiquiris.

The below photo is where Doug went to work everyday.
Central Bank of the Bahamas

This is the Bay Street - Straw Market.
This is the open air shopping on the pier where the Bahamians sell their wares.

Thursday, Gingerbread Baby and me took the City Island tour.
In the photo below, you will note a couple of cruise liners and the Atlantis Hotel on Paradise Island in the background. This photo was taken at Fort Charlotte.

During the tour, I visited Fort Charlotte, Fort Fincastle, Queens Staircase and also toured the island homes and government buildings.



Here is the link for all the photos taken during the week.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all our family and friends!

This is the easter lily we purchased from the church.
It was noted in the bulletin "In Memory of Bob Kennedy - Doug & Dee Kuklenz"

Audrey & Karl came for the Easter weekend.
This is a photo of them after church this morning.

TV Installed

The new Sony television and tv stand.

Re-wiring
Putting holes in the new tv stand for ventilation

Crazy Temperatures

This is a screen shot of our home computer desktop.

Temp in Pomeroy, Iowa = 86

Temp in The Colony, Texas = 77