A 365-Day Project
"We Are All Mozart"
A project to create
new works and change
the perception of the
music of our time.
February 10, 2008 
Time for another picture album. The CD and DVD archives storage boxes are done -- in fact, they have been in use for a few days. Here's how it started. From there it was mostly decoration ... it had already been partly filled.
Another eleven drawers had to be made, but these were easy. Two sides out of 1x8, one bottom out of 1x6, and identical front and back out of scrap one-by, all fastened with sheet-rock screws. This is #2 pine, not furniture grade, because it will be painted.
The final eleven drawers were made, and the original storage box -- from the days when I thought one would be enough -- had to be adjusted. It was a touch too wide, having been made with a bottom of 1x8. So it was trimmed and refastened. You can just make out the grain difference in the bottom drawer in the first column. I kind of like the feel of this raw wood, with the fresh-cut pine edges and the old wood scraps in different colors. But paint it would be.
The paint choice was a tavern yellow, again an old paint color like the barn red sides and trim. Almost all the painted wood in our house, a 1900-era cape, is done in old paint colors. I'm a plain wood fancier, but Stevie likes paint. Our compromise is the unpainted desktop, as the feel of wood is something I like very much in a workspace. For most of this project, I used a trim roller instead of a brush, as a roller works nicely with latex paints (yes, the old colors do come in latex). This yellow has a little bit of green in it that is emphasized under incandescent (or compact fluorescent) light.
The inside and outside hidden parts of the drawers are unpainted; that will keep them sliding easily. And it's filling up already. The exposed drawer here contains composition archives (mostly electroacoustic) in alphabetical order. The cabinets also contain all my client work, including engraving, recording, and restoration, as well as writing and book design ... plus the originals of these photos, and lots of scans.
The bin pulls arrived mid-week from Van Dyke's Restorers, and were exactly as described, and came with rusty screws to go with the rusty pulls. They were stamped and rusted metal made in India. The only anomaly was the middle screw, whose hole was placed a tad low, causing the screw head to hit and scratch the metal pull. Putting them in at a very slight angle kept that from happening -- but one can always count on rust to restore itself.
The results don't look so bad -- even somewhat classic, like an old country storage cabinet. And the desk, though without a place to slide one's legs underneath, is still a good work surface -- and at excellent typing height. This is my laptop, which acts as a backup computer at home, with a split screen. Three drives to the left total 1TB of external storage, plus there's an M-Audio sound interface box and a seven-port USB expander hiding behind the laptop. When I have to go on the road, four items unplug and it's ready to go.
The post-partum depression after "We Are All Mozart" has begun to set in, which partly accounts for old projects being finished up. The demands of a piece due every few days are missed, and the way it pressed on the imagination. I really enjoyed it, and since writing for the 'shelf' is not something I've done in years, it feels empty not to have music to deliver now. The score to Fanfare:Heat for the Vermont Youth Orchestra was in need of some revision, though. Conductor Troy Peters needed some adjustments to the beaming for consistency, wanted a transposed score (normally my scores are at concert pitch -- it's a religious issue), and there is a wonderful violinist who just had to have a solo. So another thirty seconds were added in the middle, the beaming was fixed up (along with a bucketload of other small typos, courtesy accidentals, etc.), the transpositions were done, and parts were extracted. There's a new score here and you can listen to the new demo here.
And it snowed. For those in the snow belt, it's not remarkable, but Vermont sees far more cold than snow. This year's winter has been warm so far, with just a few days below zero (yes, I shouldn't say that out loud ... there's still a lot of winter left). It snowed a foot, then another. It's snowed a little or a lot almost every day for a week. It's snowing right now. So here's another picture tour, this around our house. It's all so monochromatic, isn't it?
The view from the front door yesterday, after the second storm and after some shoveling. That's our barn that looks so far away.
Stevie stands between the snowbanks in front of the barn to give the size of the banks some perspective.
Our neighbor time clears out the space in front of the mailboxes. The snow is dirty as the plows and cars have now gone through. The magic of a white road doesn't last once you're behind the wheel.
Snow puffs in the oriental plum tree. This sticky snow, also unusual for our area, brought down power lines and old trees.
Snow in the crabapple. This was my (step)father's day gift about ten years ago, and there's a photo of it in every season of every year.
The view of our stream from the road in front of the covered bridge. Normally this far into the season the ice would be a foot thick. Instead there are snow-covered islands.
Snow curls off the roof of the Falls General Store just past the covered bridges.
The creemie stand is definitely not open at the moment.
Vanishing point. I love trains. The Vermonter has gone through, clearing the tracks heading south to Northfield village and onward to White River Junction and New York.
There's a book to write. I need to get to it.
