An audio trouble

 I have had a trouble with the audio system in the bed room. It is chirring or chirpy sound on the higher audio range in loud volume. A kind of distortion on that audio range. I have been exploring the cause but not yet have reached the answer.

At first, I suspected of the speakers and later of the audio amplifier. They have been replaced to other models. It turns out the amplifier was partly responsible for that. But it won't explain all the trouble.

The rest to be explored is the music source of CD and the CD player. With rather high end CD player at my room, that noise is much less but still noticeable. So called high resolution system may augment the trouble. I am afraid it is a multifactorial issue.

Only limited number of the music sources of CD bear the trouble. Hence it might be the main cause. Such as Matthews Passion from CBS Sony or Faure's Piano Quintette from Erato, both of which were recorded around 1980. Pretty old ones. I am afraid they have been gradually degraded for the period. They say CD lasts only for 30 to 50 years mainly due to degradation of the protection material on the surface. High temp and humidity are aggravating factors as well.

I am not sure but the high end CD players may automatically modify the errors of reading and won't give rise to much trouble in audio. That may be why I don't hear much that noise when they are played at my room.

I won't pursue the cause any longer since it might be closely related with aging process of CDs. Those CDs are of much importance to me. The Matthews Passion is a rendition of Bach Collegium Stuttgart conducted by Helmut Rilling with the soprano Arleen Auger. The same members I listened to at a concert in late '70s, as I repeatedly told in this blog. The Faure's Piano Quintettes are by Jean Hubeau and Quatuor Via Nova, one of the best recording of these chamber music, which I have been familiar with my school days.

The problem is that it could get very hot in summer while we are not at home and the house is not air conditioned. It might cause or at least accelerate the degrading process of CD. I should move all the CDs to my room in the 1st floor from bed room in the 2nd floor. Another tiring task. Or should I always run the air conditioner in the bed room? It is not practical.

 I could hear some of my friends telling me why not connect the audio system to the internet and download each music from some source. I know it is the final solution. But I still would like to keep those old and memorable sources of CD. They are a kind of keepsake in my life for me.

All this event has reminded me that everything including myself is not immortal. It is needless to say that. Confronting to the fact, however, I feel it as an imminent reality. For the rest of my life, possibly for a decade or so, I should care for those things affectionately. Like colleague travelling together in the journey of life.  

Tempura repeated

Another tempura. Almost the last batchs of pumpkin, okra together with chicken were fried.

In the other cooking of tempura, as written before, I have got burns on my left foot. A few blisters have lasted for several days and are healed without any scar by now. I was not very ambitious at making tempura again but it is a way to consume all the veggies harvested.  

I have cooked them very cautiously. I learned that there had been a chair close to the gas range, which obstacled me to move the fry pan full of hot oil to another place. It has caused spilling some oil on my left foot!

I have never experienced such a trouble in the past. The chair should have been moved elsewhere. And I should have been more careful doing with such a risky material as hot oil. Unwillingly, I should admit my age was the base of this event. I should be more careful about anything risky in daily routine. 

My father used to cook often tempura at my age. Everything was fried by him. Some of them have been brought to our table. Very nice dishes. He has never got burn at all. He might be grinning at me from the heaven.

Brahms and John AC4CA

Early in the morning, it scarcely gets above 20 degrees C here. Getting up at 5 AM this morning, I went to the entrance approach and pulled the weeds spreading among the lawn and low hedge of azalea. Tiring work. Not so tortuous as in the midsummer any longer, though. Cool breeze was flowing on me.

Talking of fall, I could never forget Brahms. I guess I have written this same phrase in this season here for many times. It's still the season for his music.

I have read an interesting article on Brahms by Walter Frisch, a professor of Columbia University when he wrote it. It is titled as Musical Politics Revisited; Brahms the Liberal Modernist vs. Wagner the Reactionary Conservative, which was first published in NY Times in 1995. He had been the president of American Brahms Society for a long time. Compared with "Meister Singer" by Wagner, Brahms' "German Requiem" which was composed in the same year late in 19th century is a humanistic music to console listners not based on Christianity dogma. Wagner was a composer of populistic conservatism, as Frisch concluded. Brahms was endorsing Jewish people in Austria while Wagner was a nationalist, which Nazis has later taken advantage of for political propaganda. This aspect of Brahms was surprising to me since I thought he had been regarded as a conservativist, musically as well as socially. Now I could understand why his German Requiem sounds far from the ordinary requiem in Christianity. It has sounded to me as if an atheistic music. But it is still soothing the minds of listeners.

Another article regarding Brahms attracted my eyes was here;

 https://interlude.hk/on-this-day-3-april-johannes-brahms-died/?fbclid=IwAR2CWekZ8T49iYnY-Aa7Ng93pPkgfjsbfY5SApICabRJ9U5Hqy7REHBwKnQ

This paper describes how he has lived the very last time of his life and how he has taken the fatal illness as it was even though the doctor on charge tried to deceive from good will. It is impressive he has accepted it as it was. In his 4th symphony, I could hear an attitude of reconciliation with life despite of passion to live. I believe he has lived as he expressed his spirit in this great music. 

Lastly, this is a medical paper speculating the cause of his death. From the former article, we could guess it had been the liver failure due to liver cancer. This paper speculates it was a neuroendocrine tumor and its metastasis to liver resulting in liver failure. Episodes of interchanging ravenous appetite and nausea seen in the last years of Brahms made the author hypothesize as written above. Brahms was extremely obese then. Neuroendocrine tumor could be the reason. Of course, it is of no use for us to understand Brahms. But this story reminded me of my good friend, John, AC4CA who sadly passed away this February.  

Whenever we met on the radio, we often talked about music. He has loved Chopin and has played some pieces of Chopin by himself. As written elsewhere in this blog, he has suffered from the same kind of rare cancer as Brahms has. In the case of Brahms, the origin seems to be speculated at pancreas. John had it in GI tract. He has not told about his illness but just said he was attending to MD Anderson in Houston. Reading of Brahms' bouts of the tumor due to intermittently secreted hormon, I just wondered if John had not had any such bout himself. He was not complaining of his health issue but always said everything was OK and he was hopeful for the treatment given at MD Anderson. He seemed more concerned about his wife with Alzheimer. He was greedy at any news of the trial or progress of treatment for that difficult illness. During the period of COVID 19, he could not see her in person but only through a window at the facility she was contained. He seemed to be sad not seeing her face to face. At least, in our conversation, he was not enthralled with his own health issue but with his wife's condition. Hasn't he had any unpleasant attack of neuroendocrine tumor? Should I have asked him about that? 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5070262/?fbclid=IwAR0yDla4faEGQopKRre-0zjXdczqAvuDP8Zaz9hNxWdDsEjg6GfuXyLzu2Q

Time flies away as if nothing has happened. I still recall both of them from time to time. As already posted, Brahms' 4th symphony is a music of reconciliation to life. The last movement of Passacaglia expresses that in most deliberate and passionate way. This recording of Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Kurt Sanderling has been the first and best of this symphony for me since I ever listened to it for the first time in my school days. 

I might have told about this before...

 

 

You have gone through right track

 Last week end, my wife has uneventfully closed her office. Now she is busy dealing with the remaining business. Giving notice to the vendors, businesses etc. There seem to be a mountain of papers to be sorted and dealt with. Most of the medical charts are as thick as small books since they are the record for over ten years. Legislation says they should be kept somewhere at least for 5 years. So there will be a lot of things for her to do in the coming couple of months.

She has been given a lot of gifts for token of gratitude and farewell by her patients. Bouquets, sweets etc. Recalling of my case 13 years ago, I was a bit jealous at her and uttered about it to her. She answered most of patients had been attending to her clinic for as long as 20 years and were like family members.

Most impressively, she told she had done best to give right therapy, medical and psychotherapeutic, to them. Against such will of her, most of them told her it had been most grateful to her that she listened what they told at the outpatient. I could see a hue of disappointment in her countenance when she told it to me.

But it was the most rewarding as well as encouraging remark to doctors from own patients, I believe. The doctor and patient relationship could be realized, needless to say, with communication between them. Communication starts with listening to others. In the doctor and patient relationship, the former should listen to what the latter, full of pain, anxiety and worry, says to the former. As the great theologist Martin Buber used to say, prayer starts with listening. It is the most important thing in clinical medicine but one of the lessons often forgotten due to the busy tasks or duties of doctors etc.

Only in her small clinic not pursuing only efficiency, it might be possible. Her attitude to listen to what they say, however, has been approved by her patients. 

So don't be discouraged but you have gone through right track as a psychiatrist.

At the waiting room, with one of the bouquets she received...

My wife's birthday

It is my wife's 71st birthday today. And a day before closing her office. She has left home as if it was another usual day this morning. Carrying a couple of big bags as usual. I have watched her driving away to the office for a while. 

Both of our parents have gone to heaven for now. Both of us are stepping into the realm of the very last part of our life journey without any suggestions by parents as our parents have done. Everything will be new to us even though time may flow in the same way. May we have peaceful days together until the end of the journey.

I have purchased a gorgeous sushi set on a big plate at a restaurant for the dinner. The dessert is a piece of cake, which I bouthgt at a cake store whose owner's daughters had been my patients for a couple of decades until I closed my office 11 years ago. The girls were only toddler when I saw them first. One of them was working at the store today and was told to greet to me by her mother. A grown up beautiful girl was there. I felt time has flown away steadily.

Last night, my wife has whispered that it would be the last day in her career as a doctor in a couple of days. She has been invited to work at a clinic outpatient as a parttime by a doctor friend. It had been what I did in semiretirement and I thought it would be a good transition for her from full time to complete retirement. She didn't want, however, to be responsible for patients any longer. She might feel aging has been gradually depriving her of her capabilities as a psychiatrist, even if old age makes us sympathize others better. Being a psychiatrist is to share the patients' lives and would require good memories as well as the ability of empathy. I won't tell her to go on working part time any longer. A new life of retirement will start for her soon.

She will attend to the office for the coming couple of months and arrange things for complete closure. 

Again her same photo taken in the honey moon. Brilliant and happy girl. I should support her until end of our lives in order to report to her parents that I did it.  

COVID 19 is not over yet

It is finally getting cooler here at night. We could go without air conditioning while sleeping. After having worked hard at garden/farm in the daytime, I could sleep so well that I recalled the feeling of "awakening daybreak", a phrase in the Old Testament, when waking up the day after. I always woke up that way when I was younger. 

There are new findings on COVID 19 published lately. They invariably conclude COVID 19 is not past yet but still in ourbreak at certain interval. There could be a serious issue of long COVID in as many as 20% of all cases including mild or even asymptomatic cases, in which 20% of them are unable to work or study for a long time after being acutely morbid. 

In the US, they won't examine suspected cases with PCR and it seems as if the out break has already gone away. Actually, it is still surging like with the ancestral, alpha, delta strain. The waste water studies show it.

https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1700282023447834898

In our country, only sentinel surveillance is done at limited number of facilities and it shows we are in the 9th outbreak wave right now. The xbb strain seems to be the main at present. But recently, a new strain B.2.26 has been reported by various laboratories around the world at the same time. It is derived from an Omicron strain B2 but has a lot of mutations from it. Being not so toxic nor invasice, it is still more transmissible with higher real reproductive number than previous strains.

It is noteworthy that this new strain has been found at various places at the same time. Any strain of the virus would infect those with immunodeficient individuals and may undergo massive proliferation in them which could bring a lot of chances of mutation to such as B.2.26. Who knows there could be a more toxic as well as transmissible strain appearing through this mechanism in the future.

There is a report that tells among patients, not diagnosed as COVID 19, still with postviral syndrome symptoms, 41% have been infected with COVID 19. This may imply there are much more infected cases than correctly diagnosed who eventually develop complications later.  

　

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37612134/

This postviral syndrome or long COVID cases could be a burden not only to themselves but also to the social security in the future or it is already present in the society. In addition, there have been reports telling autoimmune diseases or neurodegenrative diseases like Alzheimer's disease could be increased by the hazard ratio of 2.0 to 3.0 after infection to COVID 19.

At least, we could say the pandemic of COVID 19 has not been finished at all and could leave us serious problems in the future once infected. Let's take personal protection like wearing mask etc when going into crowd of people. The vaccines and early treatment with antiviral medicines could ameriolate the sequellae. The governments won't protect us but they are concerned only at running the economy in the society.

Going back to the garden, I would carry on pulling the weeds before they shed seeds on the ground. 

Mass B minor by JS Bach and related memories

A few days ago, I have listened to Mass B minor of JS Bach performed by Stuttgart Bach Ensemble and Choir with dirigent of Helmut Rilling. It has been some time since I did with the recording.

As well known, before the composer's death, this mass was completed together with the Art of Fugue. The former for vocal music while the latter for instrumental. Both have been a monumental work in classical music. Bach is told to reach a deadlock for Cantata or other genres with the lyrics written in German and was heading to orthodoxical ritual music written in Latin. Such mass pieces were sung at the Lutheran churches. He was trying to reach eternity in music style, they say.

Whenever listening to Rilling, I always feel warmth in expression. I don't know what brings such emotion to me. It is still a characteristic of his conducting for me. It may be related with my experience of Matthew's Passion by Rilling conducting the same ensemble and choir in Tokyo in '70s. It makes me feel as if I went back to those days whenever I listen to his Matthew's Passion or this mass.

In the commentary brochure with the CD, Rilling seemed to have recorded this music for 3 times, 1977, 1988 and lastly 1999. Since 2000 was the 250th anniversary of Bach's death, he might have a lot of chances to play his music. Rilling says he has learned a lot about it. In the 3rd recording, he was conscious of the articulation, the dynamics and so forth for this music. The orchestra seemed to be downsized in player number. The choir sounds translucent with almost no vibrato. Rilling seemed to head to the authentic style while Karl Richter apparently returnd to romanticism in performance. This authentic style or near authentic may make the music sound more intimate.

I could not help mentioning about Bob Warmke, W6CYX, recently ceased. As wrote elsewhere in this blog, he used to attend the Carmel Bach Festival held in summer at Carmel. It was during 2000', I believe. I was astonished to hear from Bob about Rilling's name as the director of the festival because of my experience with him back in '70s. What a coincidence! Bob told me to visit the festival together a few times. Our trip to the West Coast in 2012 was the last chance for us. But it was lost forever for now. From that memory of Bob, Rilling and his performances have special meaning to me. 

I ran across with a video of Helmut Rilling's materclass for Mass B minor. He was a good educator for young musicians. We could see an aspect of his personality from this video.

 https://youtu.be/6FBBLsF2ZuI?si=xMI8wFnw1dTIYe5q

In a book titled as the same name of this music by Christoph Wolff says Bach would go on his life as a composer since he has undergone the surgery for cataract at age of 65 years, which seemed to be risky and eventually lead to his death. Even in the last chapter of our lives, Bach may teach us, we should keep studying and trying to do something whatever for our goal. 

Garden, farm and my wife's work

 A couple of days ago, we have had a storm. It has become cooler since then. It is not necessary for us to run air conditioner at night any longer. It has been a fiercely hot summer this year. 

It is the time for us to sow seeds and plant seedlings for the fall winter vegetables. A lot of works ahead. If planting them too early, they could be damaged by insects which are very active for the coming weeks. Without using any insecticides, it is a kind of art to decide when to plant them.

I have cropped some 30 pumpkins, a bit too many for us to consume. Tomatoes are ending the season soon. I am trying to go on harvesting them with the sauvage style cultivation, which turned out to be successful this year. Sweet potatoes are waiting for harvesting very soon.

 Mowing lawn and pulling weeds have literally kept me busy. Hopefully, they will get slower growing for now. Whack a hole at garden seems to end in a month or so. Preparing for the next season, that is, not having weeds seed too much, I should do my best for this last race in gardening. With the heat wave ready to go away, it is not too bad torture to stay there working hard for now.

Only 10 days are left before my wife shuts down her office. It seems the number of patients she should do with won't be decreased until the very end of work. It is a very small office with a loyal and proficinet employee having worked there since the beginning, that is, almost a quarter century. At closing such a tiny business, the owner should be put an enormous burden, doing with a lot of paper works, negotiating with public institutions or an accountant, making payments at banks by herself and so forth. Dissolution of the medical corporation has been a tough procedure as well. Even after the closing date, she would attend to the office for another couple of months to do with the remaining business even if not working a whole day every day.

Like it or not, there are only 10 days left.  

   

Behind the coup detat

The coup detat in Nijer is causing military tension in the Central Western Africa. It follows the military coup in Bukina Faso, Mali and Guinea. The countries of Economic Community of West Africa States, ECOWAS, supported by France are against the coup forces in those countries and are willing to send military forces against the coup. The military coups in those military governments are supported by Russian Wagner as you may know from recent news. There could be a war between France and allied countries vs the military coups supported by Russia in the area.

They say the universal currency, CFA, is used in trading or financial settlements in ECOWAS countries. CFA is controlled at higher value than it really is worth. Poor countries could hardly improve the trade balance with currency depriciation. Together with the history of colonization of those countries by France, the peoples seem to have complaints against the governments and France on their back.

The problem involves in natural resources in the area, such as uranium, gold or diamond. They say France has been importing 25% of uranium necessary to run the nuclear power plants from Niger. Russia must be interested in it also. We should remember the big countries outside there are causing or, at least, facilitating the military tension or even war. 

Even though it is an absolute crime that Russia has invaded Ukraine, there seems to be a struggle between Russia and the western countries for the interest in natural gas of enourmous amount in the Black Sea as well as inland of Ukraine.  

It is not clear what and how we could do with those problems. At least, we should keep ourselves concerned about such a problem, which is often less informed and overlooked.