Life in the Time of Coronavirus Nr. 2

It's difficult to describe the atmosphere right now. Even on sunny days, there is grey day energy; that is one way I could put it. There's a sensation both of urgency and of stillness: I am sitting at home, at my computer, typing this. Yet, out there in the world, people are dying, or they are on their balconies, trying to figure out a way to keep their spirits up when they can not leave their apartments.

St. Patrick's Day ended up a muted affair. I made a corned beef brisket, which was delicious; it was fully eaten within twenty-four hours of its making. (It was a small brisket. Only four pounds, probably less after I trimmed off some of the fat.)

The governor of Michigan, at least, has responded with (pleasantly) surprising competence - so much so that Trump even attacked her over it! I expect little of elected officials in general, whether they are ostensibly on my side or not, and Whitmer (who, to be clear, is on mine) is a pleasant surprise. Things have been shut down with rapidity.

The federal government, naturally, continues to be simultaneously blisteringly incompetent and assumptive of its own brilliance; it as at once totally failing to react the way it should to the coronavirus and claiming that its response is effective, immaculate, and indeed, great. (If not outright tremendous.)

The coronavirus is a complex, complex problem. Both Democrats and Republicans are horribly unequipped to handle this: the Republican worldview literally can not handle this. Ronald Reagan said that the scariest words in the English language were "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." He was wrong. "You've got coronavirus" is much scarier. No, the most Republicans will do is make sure their rich friends don't lost too much money and maybe give a pittance to the poors.

The Democrats are little better. For decades, their philosophy has been to start with a small-scale, incremental plan and then to observe its dilution and call it a triumph of bipartisanship. We live in a time that needs bold and radical plans, and the past year has been spent on crushing the candidate of the one Democratic presidential candidate that could do that. (Meanwhile, Joe Biden is being praised for not being dead.)

Ultimately, though, we're still past the tipping point. President Trump wants to return everything to normal by Easter, it should not need saying that this is incomparably evil. It doesn't take a genius to observe that Trump is far and away the worst possible president to handle this crisis. It takes a little more thought to realize that, however better his predecessors may've been, neither Obama or Bush would've handled this crisis as it needs to be handled. Both, I assure you, would still be talking about the need to re-open the country. The difference would be that of effectiveness of initial response (and it still would not have been enough, I promise you) and of framing.

Over on my end of the world, I continue. I'm working on an arrangement of two pieces from Lufia II, brutally conjoining them together.

In fact, I even tweeted indirectly about it. "Watchtowers of the Seal" is in A minor, you see, and I needed to enact a modulation to A-flat major. Here's the first tweet of the thread.

Fun fact: passing tones can help smooth out a modulation. #composing #composition #music

— T. Fairchild (@tfairchildmusic) March 20, 2020

I'm also taking this valuable time to educate myself. Improve my virtual orchestrations, improve the structure of my compositions, and work on deepening and complexifying my sense of harmony. I've set for myself a few things to work on my understand of and to use in my compositions more: modulation, augmented chords, diminished chords, and extended chords.

Composing. Along with baking delicious foods, it's how I'm avoiding madness.