Ciabatta

Baking bread is addictive.  It's really satisfying when it works out right.
--------
 

UPDATE:  I've had a request for the recipe, so here it is:

Sponge
1/8 tsp active dry yeast
2  tbsp warm water (105-115 deg F)
1/3  cup room-temp water
1  cup bread flour

Step 1.  Stir together warm water and yeast.  Let it stand for 5 minutes.  Transfer yeast mixture to another bowl, add room-temp water and flour.  Stir for at least 4 minutes until fully combined.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let it stand at room temperature for at least 12 hours and up to 1 day,

Bread
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
2  tbsp warm milk (105-115 deg F)
2/3  cup room-temp water
1  tbsp olive oil
2  cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt

Step 2.  Mix yeast and milk in small bowl and let stand 5 minutes.  Oil another bowl with olive oil.  In bowl of standing mixer, using dough hook, blend together milk mixture, sponge, oil, and flour on lowest speed until flour is moistened.

Beat for approximately 3 minutes.  Add salt and beat for approximately 3 more minutes.  Scrape dough into oiled bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap.  Let it set until doubled, at least 1.5 hours.

Step 3.  Cut two pieces of parchment paper, approx 12 x 6 inches.  Place on baking sheet and flour well.  Turn dough out onto a well floured surface and cut in half.  Transfer each half to paper and form irregular ovals approx 9 inches long.  Dust with flour.  Cover with dampened kitchen towel and let rise 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until almost doubled.

Step 4.  At least 45 minutes before baking bread, preheat pizza stone on lower oven rack position at 425 F.   Just before baking, score the tops of the loaf with a sharp knife.  Optionally, lightly sprinkle with coarse kosher or sea salt.

Transfer loafs, on the parchment paper, onto the stone and bake for 20 minutes or until pale golden-brown.  Remove to cooling racks.  Let rest for 30 minutes or so to allow the crust to cure.

Note that this recipe sounds a lot more difficult than it is.  There are only four steps and each one is easy.  It is also very forgiving.  You can use all-purpose flour if you don’t have bread flour.  Or you can mix flours.  Results will vary in taste and texture, but it works.  Also, if your personal schedule dictates, after completing Step 2, you can store the dough in the refrigerator and go to work (or whatever).  It will rise more slowly in the fridge, which is fine…just try to let it rise to about twice the size you started out with, probably 6-8 hours.

Rico Loop and the Boss RC-50 Looper - MBPYNHO

In this edition of Music By People You've Never Heard Of, check out this great solo performance by Rico Loop.  He's an amazing improviser and, in fact, a gifted multi-instrumentalist, this vocal piece not withstanding.  

Sure, that's undoubtedly not his real name, and yes, he's speaking German, and those are English subtitles.  And yes, it is a product demonstration featuring the also amazing Boss RC-50 Looper.  Most of the online video demos of this innovative product involve instrumentalists, typically guitarists, but Rico has something unique and very creative going on.

I like the clever way the video production emphasizes the overdubbing capabilities of this device with the picture-in-picture effect.  And I want one of those RC-50's.  Street price is around $525, I think.  Good thing I'm a Boss dealer, eh?  

Santa...you listening?

Where the Hell is Matt?

This is a creative and curious little video.  

I promise it will make you smile and put juice in your camera....watch the whole thing, though.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding.

Then go check out his website and read his story.  

h/t Peeniewallie

"The Best Little League Game EVER!"

The Mudcats vs. The Lugnuts.

Brought to you by the good folks at Improv Everywhere.

I love these guys.  Go check this out.  

You can thank me later.

---

Cabinet of Wonders

This blog regularly lives up to it's name.

I found yesterday's post completely absorbing.

Easter at FCWC

It was a great Easter weekend at our church.  In all three services, we were blessed with extraordinary attendance.  Our pastor, Dave Anderson, delivered a great message and there were many people who either recommitted their lives to Christ or took steps toward a first-time decision to accept Christ.

Among the numerous worship elements in play was a drama that featured as it's figurative and literal centerpiece a humongous cross, 38 feet tall.

The drama was an adaptation of a script and concept from Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago.  Nancy was the driving creative force behind the building of the cross, as well as most of the other artistic elements, but it's realization in our service required a huge team effort by a couple of dozen talented and gifted people.  Here are some photos.

The cross was constructed first from pieces of aluminum triangular trussing.  Then pieces of pressed foam insulation boards were cut and strapped to the trussing with heavy-duty nylon ties.  It was made in two pieces that were ultimately bolted together to form the cross.

After much work and careful fitting, our artists painted the blue foam, scoring and sculpting the face of it with a propane torch.  More painting and touch up followed.

Here is a picture of the finished cross on the stage with some preliminary lighting.  This picture was taken at the drama rehearsal on Saturday.  The basic idea of the script is that this huge cross has crashed through the roof of the house, literally through the middle of the dining room table.  But the family who lives at the house ignore it, going to great lengths to avoid discussion or mention of the cross.  One of the lines mentions something to the effect that they only take note of it at Christmas and Easter.  It was very funny, but also compelling.

Above is a picture from the Saturday night service.  For more pics and detailed info, check out Nancy's Flickr page.

Food Court Musical

This is the coolest thing you will see today. There are few forms of performance art that I dislike more than a "musical." But this, this is outstanding....it would be so much fun to do something like this.




After you watch this clip, go to their website and read about this thing. You'll be glad you did.

You can tune a piano, but you can't tune a fish

This is an interesting notion, that perfect pitch is genetic, traceable to a rare and specific gene possessed by 1 in 10, 000 people. There is still research to be done, but it is a fascinating subject.

I do not possess this gene, but in my musical life I've known a handful of people with perfect pitch. More than one of them mentioned that it is both a blessing and a curse. One of them, a friend who is a gifted bass player, said that it can be maddening at times, living in a world that wheezes, whistles, bellows, and mutters as it does. Because most sounds are no where near perfectly pitched, he would often find himself obsessively noting that this sound or that sound was almost right, but off by just so much, clashing abrasively with some other sound. The upside, though, was that he never, ever played out of tune, he could readily play numerous instruments surprisingly well without practice, and he could easily recall and analyze in detail complex melodies and chord progressions. He is a successful commercial real estate agent.

There are, in fact, teaching methods for sale that claim to be able to teach people to have perfect pitch. While that may well be possible, it is far more common among musicians to develop a heightened sense of relative pitch which, I've always believed is based on memory. My wife and son both have excellent pitch memory. When they sing a song, spontaneous and unaccompanied, they almost always nail it in the original key. I am not as good a singer as they are, but I am usually in the ballpark. These are handy skills and, while not intrinsically difficult to attain, typically come only with practice and experience.

A related skill that I have is that I can tune my guitar, both electric and acoustic, with out a pitch standard, even without being able to really hear the instrument. It is not "perfect", but it is usually close. I can sense by the way the strings feel, especially the A string. And once the A feels right, it is pretty easy to get the rest close. What my brain is doing in this case is responding to the tension of the string and the way it feels under my fingers when it vibrates, so it is more like muscle memory and less like an aural experience. I don't think this is an unusual skill, per se, and there are probably many guitarists who can do this. I developed it in my 20's when I worked in a couple of different music stores in Texas for several years. I have restrung and tuned many more guitars than most people, and I'm sure that is the source of this peculiar ability. It is all about familiarity and conditioning and I'm sure many other people in other disciplines have similar experiences.

The way we process and experience musical information and respond to sound is a never ending source of wonder and fascination, though. And it never ends. It is science, it is emotion, it is spiritual, and it is experiential. We will never figure it all out or reach the end of what there is to hear. There is infinite variety in musical expression...it is a glimpse into something beautiful, something personal, and something eternal. I understand only a few very small pieces of it, but I can't put it down. And I don't want to.

The Truth - A short video presentation

Here is a very creative video created by Granger Community Church. I'd tell you more, but it would spoil it. Watch the whole thing because it does something surprising.

I found this via Butch Whitmire's blog, which I found via Kem Meyer's blog, who I met at The Willow Creek Worship Arts Conference.

Willow Creek Arts Conference - Glimpses #2

The first session speaker was photographer and filmmaker DeWitt Jones. I enjoyed all of the speakers, but this session was one of my favorites. It would be a fruitless to attempt to recap all of what he said, but Jones was brimming with enthusiasm, for art, for God, and for life. We were so moved by the stories he told and by the remarkable photos and video footage that he shared, that we purchased the DVD of the session. It is currently in circulation among some of our friends at church, but I hope to see it again soon.

He told the best stories from his own life's experience, it's joys and it's sorrows, and about how God worked through him in astounding ways that he never expected. He talked about how, if we are willing to be surprised by God, to take some risks, life can be a great adventure. Our lives can be a work of art, regardless of who we are, where we are, what we do, where we come from, or what we have or don't have. It was not about merely having a forced positive mental attitude, but rather an authentic attitude that is honestly and openly engaged first vertically, with God, and then laterally, with the people and circumstances that we encounter.

It has been a few weeks now since the conference, but there are two quotes in particular that continue to resonate and encourage me:

"Ask yourself, 'Is my view of the world based on scarcity and fear, or is it based on love and possibility?'"

and

"Don't worry so much about making a difference. Just take the
responsibility to make a contribution."

Good stuff, that.

On Jennwith2ns today, I read of the passing last week of Lloyd Alexander, the author of some truly wonderful literature for children. Jenn has a beautiful homage to him, not merely as a writer, but as someone she knew personally.

I don't remember exactly when it was that I was introduced to his Prydain Chronicles, but I remember well the impact those books had on my young imagination. I am blessed in that my mother was at that time (and really still is) a children's librarian, and I distinctly recall her bringing home one of them, probably "The Book of Three," for me to read. This would be the very late 60's or early 70's. I wonder if, at her house, she still has these books on her shelf. I will look next time I'm there.

Long before I was to read The Chronicles of Narnia, The Legends of King Arthur, or The Hobbit, these books translated me into the amazing time and world of Taran, the young peasant pig-keeper who wanted so desperately to be a hero and to have great adventures. I read and reread that whole series and I, too, wanted to be a hero like that and go on a great quest. The writing is beautiful, compelling, descriptive, and rich in fantasy, but it also resonates deeply with what it means to be a young person trying to figure what kind of life may lie ahead.

I read today that Mr. Alexander wrote many other children's books but, honestly, I don't remember them. These are the titles that I loved:

• The Book of Three (1964)
• The Black Cauldron (1965) -1966 Newbery Honor Winner
• The Castle of Llyr (1966)
• Taran Wanderer (1967)
• The High King (1968) - 1969 Newbery Medal Winner

I may have to read these all again. I suspect they will hold up very well, even after all these years. RIP, Mr. Alexander.

4:00 AM and wide awake

“So what did you write about?” she asked as we walked to the car.

It was 10:00 PM and we were on the way home from Sacred Grounds, Richmond’s premier coffee shop. We had been there since 7:00, kind of an impromptu date night, with the intent of a light supper and the relaxing cup of warm joe.

She is working on fleshing out the bones of a great book idea on her laptop. I had a little BSF homework left to do, passage analysis on Romans 12:3-8, and then the freedom to read or to write as I pleased.

“Hmm.” I cleared my throat. I had anticipated this question, and had already weighed my response. I had considered the parry, perhaps the distraction or the oblique, but opted for transparency. I wanted to be honest, but I didn’t want to cast a pall on the whole evening. “Disappointment, mostly…but it was good.”

She was quiet for a moment. Not the answer she had hoped for, but she was not surprised either. She knew that I wasn’t talking about her, or about us, but about me.

“Was it something from that book?,” she inquired, very slightly peeved, wanting to know if this was just me being gratuitously morose again or if there had actually been a spark of something meaningful in my answer. She had given me a wonderful little volume several days before entitled “The Pocket Muse-Ideas and Inspirations for Writing,” by Monica Wood which I had been reading with enjoyment.

“Sort of…well, yeah, definitely,” I replied unconvincingly. But as I considered the naked inadequacy of that answer in the quiet time after that, I realized that it really had been partly a result of something I had read.

“Cleverness is not wisdom” was the quote by Euripides that had stuck with me. Wood’s intent with that quotation was to expose the fallacy of prosaic artifice that does not serve the writer’s subject or intent, but instead attempts to impress the reader with the author’s intellect or deft technical skill. But the bigger difference between cleverness and wisdom is not in technique, but in ethical depth and veracity. Wisdom is informed by truthfulness, whereas in cleverness truth is optional and sometimes an encumbrance.

So what I had written in my journal was truthful. Painful, confessional, self-accusatory, lacking in cleverness, and with no pretense at wisdom, but definitely truthful.

And truth can set a man free.

Refractions: Being a Child of the Creative Age

I read the transcript of an inspiring speech by artist Mako Fujimura to the recent International Arts Movement (IAM) conference, an organization I had never heard of until yesterday.

"If you asked a room full of kindergarteners "Raise your hand if you are an artist!" Almost every child would raise his hand. But if you ask a room full of adults, almost every adult would not."

Quoting Bronte's Jane Eyre, and holding it up as a model, Fujimura calls on artists to “create the world that ought to be.” It is a stirring and fascinating piece.

Please go read it.

And I need to go find a copy of Jane Eyre. I know, don't say it...

Triangulation Adulation - The small, the mighty

Last night I finished the track for my spoken word thing that I'm doing for my church this weekend. It is pretty simple, really, composed mostly of loops and effects from Garageband (the program, not the previously mentioned website), which is, of course, a standard fixture on my wife's Mac laptop.

As a composer, one of my very favorite instruments is the triangle. It is a very unassuming, seemingly simple device. It looks like it would be easy to play and is just about as uncomplicated in design as anything one could imagine.

Even a caveman could play the triangle!

This is not true, however. The triangle, like the humble shaker, actually requires great physical skill, keen sense of rhythm, and zen master-like powers of concentration. It is capable of a tremendous variety of subtle tonalities. In an orchestral setting, the triangle is sometimes played in a manner as shown in the picture above. In more rhythmic applications, i.e. Latin or other "world" musics, it is typically held in a way that enables the player to use his palm to alternately mute and unmute the triangle as he strikes it. It is only very occasionally played in the style of the chuck wagon cook who is calling the ranch hands in to dinner.

The triangle completely and absolutely dominates in the frequency spectrum that it performs in. There are a few other noteworthy cymbal-type percussion devices that also thrive in that part of the spectrum, but they do not rule the kingdom like the triangle does. It is really an especially powerful sound when played in a driving, rhythmic beat. It creates a relentless, irresistable pace to the beat, energizing a groove like nothing else. It adds a special kind of shiny high-gloss sheen to the sound, but it can also be the glue that fuses together the various elements of a groove. From a compositional standpoint, much of this is true of electronic, sampled triangle sounds, as well, although I always prefer the real thing when possible.

This is the kind of thing that makes me happy.

Short Riffs Given Short Shrift

Here are some random thoughts. Drive-by blogging.

1) I could be in Orlando, but I'm not. In my job I am not required to travel much on behalf of my company. I actually like to travel for fun, but typically, when you're profession is sales or marketing, regardless of your industry, travelling for work is exactly that. Work, and a lot of it. Now, having said that, the one trade show for which I am customarily responsible happens to be one that I very much enjoy, the National Religious Broadcaster's convention, being held this weekend in Florida. This convention is a fascinating convergence of radio/tv, publishing, technology, engineering, programming, media, church ministry, and music. Folks come from all over the planet, from every imaginable background. My company usually has a booth and a display, underwritten by a handfull of the more 300+ manufacturers we represent. It is a lot of work, but it is a lot of fun, too, especially when my wife accompanies me which she often has.

I've met some interesting folks, famous, notorious, and unknown. And I've heard some wonderful music and amazing preaching by some of the best. I heard President Bush speak there shortly after 9/11, and got to see the pre-release version of Passion Of The Christ another year. There is always something cool going on, plus I always get to see some of my best customers and good friends. But I'm glad I'm home this year.

-------------

2) Below is something my wife sort of gave me last year. Actually, she bought it to sell in her antique store, but she made the mistake of bringing it home first, and so I, uhm, appropriated it. It is a very small, very old 4-string banjo. It is 21" long from stem to stern and the head is a mere 7.5" across, about the size of a mandolin.



It is presently strung with nylon strings and I may leave it that way. It is difficult to keep in tune and the action is decent only down in first position near the headstock, but it has a really cool sound. The head is genuine cowhide and, although the quality of the construction and condition is quite good, there is no identifying maker's mark.

-------------

3) This is a little bit of found art in my office. As I walked in today, what normally would pass for clutter and mess struck me more as a collage.



It consists of a framed poster that we got at the Leopold Museum in Vienna a couple of years ago, featuring one of Egon Schiele's landscapes. I also have a Gustav Klimt poster downstairs which we got at the same exhibition. We had the most wonderful time in Vienna and visiting the art museums there was one of the highlights.

Propped up against this poster is an interesting primitivist original work entitled The Winter Lands (how appropriate!) by an artist named Dick Shoemaker. It is dated 1965 and, I'm sorry to say, I don't know the name of the technique used to created it. Most of the image appears to have been first drawn on the paper with some kind of sharp object, perhaps a stylus, and then filled in and expanded with some kind of thick black ink. Perhaps I will scan this and dedicate a separate post to it, soliciting an expert opinion, perhaps, to tell me what might be known about this technique.

Below that is a map taken from a 1959 National Geographic entitled "Lands of the Mediterranean". It includes the Holy Lands, Turkey, most of northern Africa, and the Middle East. I love maps. I keep meaning to frame and hang this one.

There is also a book of Vineyard worship music and an audio cable in the lower right hand corner. The whole mess is atop an antique glass case that houses my modest collection of (mostly) antique knives.

---------

4) The coolest thing we did, musically, at church this weekend was a song called Bread by Ginny Owens, from her album Beautiful. A very simple, very funky, sparsely orchestrated tune. My wife sang it beautifully, nuanced and soulful. One of the coolest things about it was the fact that the whole song required that I play no more than 4 simple two-note chords...unbelievably minimalistic, but a very fun, expressive vehicle for some great R&B poetry about Jesus as the Bread of Life, and what that means. We got to hear Ginny Owens play piano and sing at the NRB convention in Nashville a couple of years ago. Exceptional. Here are the lyrics:

Man cannot live
By bread alone,
He needs something stronger
To feed his hungry soul,
So he'll try everything
Under the sun,
But nothing will end his hunger
Nothing but Your love.

He'll acquire treasure,
But it won't amount to much,
He'll fall in love with pleasure,
But none will fill him up,
And when he has exhausted
All this world can give to him,
Still he'll not grow weary of chasing after the wind-
I looked in the mirror,
Just the other day,
I was so surprised,
I hardly recognized the change,
So restless and so hurried,
I've spent so much time,
Running after things
I'm gonna have to leave behind

Good stuff, that. My son, JLP, played keys with us this weekend, too, which is always great. The kid's got it goin' on. He sounds better every time I hear him. Even though he never updates his blog these days .

--------

5) Heather has an interesting, thought-provoking post on her website about how certain books, music, film, and art experiences seem to resonate with us in an especially personal way, while others do not. And I left one of my annoyingly long comments over there already so I'm not going to elaborate. Just go check it out.

Listening: "Old Wells...New Wine", an album of contemporary piano improvisations on classic hymns by my friend, Mark Bovee. Mark is a world class jazz and gospel pianist as well as a gifted arranger, composer, and worship leader. While I hate making these kinds of comparisons because its just soooo lame, if you like George Winston or Jim Brickman, you will like MB's album. Guaranteed.

Hugh MacLeod (of the Clan MacLeod, no doubt)

I have been enjoying this post, entitled How To Be Creative, from Hugh MacLeod's bloggish website, gapingvoid.com. It's not a brand-spanking new thing, I guess, and no doubt many have already read it. But it was new to me, so maybe it will be new to you, too. I don't agree with completely every single thing he says, which he would no doubt think was healthy, but he offers many, many valuable, edifying insights into living a creative life.

I really do like his "Sex & Cash Theory". It is an overly provocative name, but then Hugh is in the advertising biz, so that's that. So much of what he says makes a lot of sense to me. Some of his other ideas challenge me, in a good way.

Go read the whole thing, as Glenn would say. Its rated PG, as is most of life, I think. It's long, but well worth it.

Why you should keep practicing

Here is a fascinating article about learning and virtuosity from this month's Scientific American.