Group photo right after dinner, at the residence!

Edan Lepucki mugs for the camera while Stephanie Ognar ignores me completely.

Manil Suri.

Ben Fountain and Shannon Fowler, deep in conversation.

Stephanie and Edan.

Travis Ivey, Shannon Fowler, Edan Lepucki, and Ben Fountain.

Edan toasts me while Ben and Stephanie Ognar chat.

Travis and Shannon in deep conversation.

Here I’m probably explaining something about my work.

The Maestro, at the piano!

Can’t you tell how stressed out we all were?

Group photo!

The remainder of my stay at Ucross was quite enjoyable, and remarkably busy. I didn’t finish the new orchestra piece, though I’m very close to the end, and very happy with what I’ve got written so far. I’m glad that I shelved what I’d attempted during my first week there – it was vastly inferior to this piece. (The aborted attempt, by the way, was to be three meditations on literary characters: Miles Malpractice from Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies, Divine from Jean Genet’s Our Lady of the Flowers, and Robert de Passavant from Andre Gide’s The Counterfeiters. The movement I scrapped was on Divine. The new piece has no literary underpinnigs. I’m waiting until I’m done, and have a satisfactory title to publicly reveal its inspiration.) The piece exists still in the form of detailed short score – I decided to leave it in manuscript form for the time being, and orchestrate it in one fell swoop at the end.

On Tuesday the 22nd, Travis Ivey, Edan Lepucki, and I participated in the Apache Foundation Tree Program by planting two Canada Red Chokecherries in the yard near the office. It was a really fun way to spend an hour: getting the trees from the Apache nursery, digging the hole, setting the tree in, filling the dirt around the base of the tree, and securing and fencing it in. I pounded in two of the poles that protect the trees from the wind, which was noisy and fun and made me shout “Hulk smash!” Now when I go back in a few years, I can check on how well my not-so-little tree is faring.

Wednesday evening, I gave a little concert in my studio after dinner at the request of some of the other residents. I played through the new piece first, and the residents who had heard the first section during our evening of open studios two weeks prior were particularly pleased by the additions. Then, "In the dark pine-wood" again for the new folk. And in between sessions of conversation, I played and sang through some pop tunes from a cabaret act that I’m working up with Darien and Danny. (We call ourselves the Bright Young Things – another Waugh reference in my life!).

Thursday after dinner, at the suggestion of Ben Fountain, we all drove into Buffalo to hear some live Bluegrass music at the Saloon at the Occidental Hotel, which was a real blast.

And Friday. The Last Day. Although I had spent the previous few days packing in small bursts, I was up early to make triple sure that I had everything packed and/or mailed off. Then a stop by the office to thank Sharon again for her invitation two years ago (again, publicly, thank you, Sharon!), and to let her know how beautiful / peaceful / amazing the area is, and how fantastic I felt about the work that I was able to do there. It really is a fantastic program, and I look forward to applying again as soon as the three year grace period between residencies is up.

Five of us left Friday morning: Edan Lepucki, Manil Suri, Shannon Fowler, and I flew out of Sheridan International, and Stephanie Ognar started her two-day drive back to Illinois. Our flight was delayed an hour because Great Lakes has a monopoly in the area and can do what it pleases while charging insane prices. They apparently made an unscheduled stop to pick up extra passengers in another town, which caused several passengers to miss their connections in Denver. Nice. The flight was at least uneventful (a little bit of a rough landing).

And there ends the tale of my residency at the Ucross Foundation. (Denver is its own story, which I’ll surely relate soon.)

I’m really happy to have gone, despite my initial misgivings about being in rural Wyoming for so long. It’s a beautiful area with lots of nature-y things to do, and some really wonderful people. The staff at Ucross are all amazing, fantastic people, and I’m so glad to have met them all! Sharon again gets singled out for thanks for her generous invitation. Cindy made the most fabulous meals – possibly the best dinners I’ve had in my entire life – she’s a real artist, herself! Kate, Mike, and Mary Ann were so friendly and great, and fun to talk with. Thanks to Tina for helping me with the various packages I sent and received, and the dozen or so off-color postcards I mailed to friends and family. And Ruthie – she did so much through the course of the four weeks that I have to limit myself to saying that she’s a really fantastic person, and a really fantastic cook, as well!

And now for tree planting photos, after the jump!

The tree that Edan Lepucki and I planted together.

It’s just so photogenic!

Mike Latham preparing the fencing while Travis Ivey and a member of the regular tree planting initiative fill in around the base of their tree. Edan supervises.

Same, with Mary Ann taking photos in the background.

More photos of the rest of my residency coming soon!

The creek, toward the Kocur studios.

“How does this newfangled contraption work?”

I totally have a thing for this creek!

In training for the Hipster Olympics.

The turkeys that like to poop on the front porch of my studio.

This is a shot of the parking lot we left from, and was taken 15 or so minutes into the hike – we got high fast!

The cliff-face from the same point.

After 20 minutes or more of the same sorts of views, we rounded a bend, and saw this. Stephanie had the lead on the way out, and shouted, “That’s what I’m talking about!”

Stephanie and I taking photos of each other taking photos of each other. She stood on the path, and I stood on an outcropping.

Stephanie being pensive again, standing on the outcropping.

A bunch of houses between the highway and Ten Sleep Creek. Notice how steep!

The path at one point. For this whole portion, I had “In the dark pine-wood” stuck in my head.

More of the path.

And more. Stupid lens cover!

Some cool rock formations.

The cliff on our way back.

This past week was fairly productive. I started the week doing my VCCA re-application for the Spring, and being reminded that I already applied to MacDowell in January, so I have to wait a few more months ro apply again (which saved me considerable time and aggravation).

I got through the second section of the orchestra piece, which still remains title-less, and started in on the third major section. I’m particularly happy with the piece so far, but I also feel as though it will fall completely into place once I find a suitable title.

Thursday, I went with Stephanie and another of the residents to Ten Sleep to do some hiking (and painting, in the case of Travis) and general sight-seeing. The drive out was particularly beautiful – the Big Horn Mountains looming closer, the terrain seeming to change constantly. We only stayed in Ten Sleep long enough for Travis to buy a milkshake at Dirty Sally’s, and turned aorund to find a hiking trail with a good view. We settled on Saltlick Trail, maybe 10 minutes outside of Ten Sleep. After a quick lunch, Travis set up his easel, and Stephanie and I hiked off into the wilderness. It was a good 2 hour hike, and we got nearly to the top of the mountain before deciding that to go any further would leave us far too exhausted to make it back.

Much of the trail was incredibly narrow, and bordered a steep dropoff that was more than a little vertigo-inducing at times. Walking uphill, although tiring, was never much of a problem; but walking downhill, because of the sandiness of the trail, and the many loose rocks, proved to be a bit nerve-wracking on occasion. The sun was what made the whole thing so tiring (in the best of all possible ways) – the trees were generally sparse, so the sun beat down on us all day. Afterward, we were forced to cool off in Ten Sleep Creek, which was absolutely frigid, but also absolutely refreshing.

The only thing that wasn’t compltely fantastic about the day was the fact that my camera decided to make life difficult for me. The lens cover, which opens and retracts automatically, suddenly stopped opening all the way, so I was forced to help it open every time I turned it on or I took it out of power save mode. Consequently, if I forgot to open the cover, photos turned out like this:

Friday was the weekly town run, and once again I was the only person to go. This time, my main necessity was a new camera. The Kodak EasyShare Z730 was no longer worthwhile with its poor battery life, semi-broken function wheel, and barely-working lens cover. I spent Thursday evening and some of Friday morning looking up new cameras (ok, admittedly, I’d been looking for days already, but this brought things to a head), and had narrowed my choices down to a few good point-and-shoots. The clincher would be whatever was available at the Sheridan Wal-Mart (*shudder*).

I spent about 40 minutes staring at the few available cameras that were on my list: a couple of Canons and a Nikon or two. The Nikons were eliminated from the running based on the lack of viewfinder – the best way for me to steady the camera is to hold it to my face, and the Nikons didn’t allow for that. My other options were the Canon PowerShot A1100 IS or the SD1200 Digital ELPH. The former seemed to be the better camera, and was the ideal price. But it was pink. Pink! No thank you. I did some asking around, and I could get a non-pink camera to the store in 2-4 business days if I paid extra, but I was given the runaround on where to make such a thing happen, so I gave up. I never like giving my money to Wal-Mart anyway, so I had that little consolation.

Fortunately, Kate knew of a photo shop just down the street, so we tried there. I was in luck! They had the A1100 in silver (exactly what I wanted) at the same price as Wal-Mart! Plus, they had better service, and it was a local business, to boot. Win!

So, now I’m the proud owner of a Canon PowerShot A1100 IS (silver). So far so good, though I should have picked up more rechargable batteries (I left all of my AAs at home, though I have an overabundance of AAAs for my BodyBugg), because the pair of alkalines that came with it are already nearly dead.

Stay tuned for photos from the hike, and from the new camera!

In the early evening, Stephanie (one of the visual artists here) and I decided to go for a walk up toward the Tepee Circles. Her walks usually take her in that direction, but she explained that she usually takes the path that leads away from them when she’s walked on her own. So, we hiked up there, and I got some pretty cool pictures of the area, even though I already took some photos when I was there on the ranch tour.

Today’s been a pleasantly productive day thus far. This morning was devoted to filling out applications to MacDowell and VCCA for 2010, as well as writing postcards to friends and family. In between that and figuring out which films I’d like to see when Darien and I go to the Woodstock Film Festival a few days after I get back to NYC (I intend to go up a few days late so that I can take a moment to breathe when I step off the plane at LaGuardia on the 28th), I’ve also managed another two solid pages of sketches for the ‘violent’ section of the orchestra piece. I scrapped the few measures that I’d sketched out last week, and started over in a new vein, which has been quite fruitful, and seems very promising.

I suspect I’ll be working up until 5:00 today, unlike a few days last week when I couldn’t wait to leave my studio and get back to the residence, so I’m feeling particularly good about the start of Week 3. Also, the new people arrive today, one of whom I’ve already met, so a fresh feeling of creativity has been injected into the atmosphere – always welcome!

The only negative thus far is a new wariness – almost jumpiness – I have while walking along certain paths. Late last week, I encountered a very large snake on one of the routes to the studios. I’m not terribly frightened of snakes (unlike my father), but this was almost certainly a rattlesnake, so I had plenty of reason to shout and run away. But although I’ve been a little jumpy (the next afternoon, some wild turkeys startled me in a really big way), I’m still quite keen on doing more exploring and walking around the countryside.

Here are a few of the photos from yesterday’s walk to the Tepee Circles:

A receding storm cloud.

Me! Photo by Stephanie Ognar.

One of the tepee circles – the rocks were used to hold down the edges of the tepees in heavy winds. This was a hunting camp that would have been used every year.

Irrigation in one of the alfalfa fields.

Stephanie looking pensive.

The trail that leads up to the Tepee Circles. To have missed this shot would have been criminal.

I’ve officially scrapped the work I did during my first week on the orchestra piece in favor of the work I did this past week. This newer material still makes sense to me after a few days, unlike the earlier stuff, and feels so much better. I’ve managed a good introductory section, and am now working at first major chunk of the ‘meat’ of the piece.

Thursday evening, all of us gave brief presentations of our work in preparation for the departure of half of the residents. There were no slouches in this bunch, that’s for darned sure! I presented the extant bits of the orchestra piece, “Take All My Loves”, and “In the dark pine-wood”, the latter of which is the only song in my oeuvre that I can play and sing with anything approaching ease. The rest are far too involved for me to do more than just sing – the piano accompaniments are light-years beyond my meagre abilities!

Friday morning was the weekly trip into Sheridan for supplies, and I was the only resident who went. It was a really nice opportunity to bond further with Ruthie – we explored the newer health food store together (well-stocked, and reasonably priced!), and had a fun time telling stories on the car ride home. The trip took up a significant portion of the day, so I didn’t manage much work, which is a pity, but an acceptable trade-off for going into town.

Today was a quiet, semi-lonely sort of day since only four of us are here until the next batch of resident arrives on Monday. The weather only added to the sense of quietness and loneliness – it was the first consistently overcast day since I arrived nearly two weeks ago. Add to that the coolness, and intermittent light sprinklings of rain, and it was a quiet day, indeed! I spent the day alternately taking photos around the grounds, and doing a bit of web design (always therapeutic and kind of fun) for Darien’s new site, which should be a relatively quick site to put together since he’s already given me the vast majority of material for the site.

Here, then, are a few photos from Thursday and from today.

Just a nice little view.

The driveway, walking toward the highway.

One of three herds of deer in the space of two alfalfa fields! So many!!

The sunset on Thursday evening.

An different view toward Labrador Beach.

Me! Sitting in front of the baby grand in the Barn.

The awesomest little shack near the ‘other composer’s studio’.

Friday evening, two of the residents gave readings in a dance studio in Sheridan. Collier Nogues read some of her poetry, and Kenneth Lin presented an early draft of his latest play, read by Collier and three Sheridan natives (one of whom is also a current resident in filmmaking). Both were quite fantastic. They’re clearly very talented writers, and their readings (as they should) made me want to read more of their work.

After the readings, we had a night on the town, and met some colorful characters, indeed. One particularly drunk middle-aged fellow at the Mint Bar decided that one of the female residents was his girlfriend, and offerent to step outside with her "boyfriend" when he arrived. He was too far gone to realize that she had implied that I was her "boyfriend" in order to avoid his advances. Fortunately, she managed to politely escape when he turned away to guzzle more beer. And apparently (so I was told later in the weekend back at the Foundation), some local young homophobes were doing their best to get my attention with flamboyant, fey gestures. Again, fortunately, I was too engrossed in conversation with another of the residents to take notice. I don’t know what’s wrong that sort of person. Scum of the earth, though. That much I’m sure of.

On Saturday, I was given a broader tour of the area by Darien’s friend’s cousin and his wife, who we met at a wedding just a few weeks ago in Boston. Small world! We had some delicious meals around town, and visited a few really interesting museums: the Bradford Brinton Memorial & Museum and the Don King Saddle Museum.

In keeping with my personal rule of not working on weekends or after 5 o’clock at colonies, I spent all of Sunday relaxing. I went nowhere. I did nothing. I puttered on the internets, and ate leftovers from the week’s delicious meals. Then I went to bed.

Yesterday was an odd feeling sort of day. The Foundation was half-open – meals were prepared as usual, but the office wasn’t open – so I took that as my cue to only half work. I slept in and knocked off early, but also managed to finish "Take All My Loves": I set the last three lines of the poem and finished most of the engraving. All that remains to be done is to let it set for a week before I consider revisions, and to put in dynamics (which I have set in my mind, but always save until the very end).

And today: back to the usual grind. I set aside the orchestral movement that I started last week (I’m not convinced of it yet, and become less so as days go by – it seems destined for the scrap heap), and began sketching another. The opening of the movement came to me in a flash of inspiration as I stood on Labrador Beach this morning. I ran back to the studio to get it all down on paper before I’d lost it. Only tomorrow will tell if it’s any good.

And here are some deer standing in the field and stream near my studio that I photographed today. Stupid creatures, but pretty.

Then, back to the studio for more writing.

Yesterday, I managed to come up with the theme for the Theme & Variations movement of the new orchestral piece, as well as map out the general idea for each variation. The middle of the afternoon suddenly brought on a powerful need to nap, which urge I obeyed at length. Today felt slightly more productive, working on "Take All My Loves". I hammered out a few more lines of the poem, which leaves me with five to go.

I also took an early-afternoon walk through my usual stomping grounds (I do actually sort of stomp so as to avoid startling any snakes that might be in my path – so far there have been none) and took some photos, presented below.

This first shot was taken near Piney Creek, directly across the gravel driveway from my studio’s front door.

A full view of my studio/cabin from the same spot.

Closer to the creek, near a little wooden bridge.

Two creeks meeting, taken from the bridge.

Further downstream across the bridge. My studio is barely visible between the trees; the bridge also glimpse-able to the far right.

The opposite view from the same spot. I love the little islands in the creek!

This has been dubbed Labrador Beach because Kate takes her dogs here to swim in the creek. I love to stand on the little ‘beach’ and watch the water and minnows.

Taken from the ‘beach’. These are the Kocur studios, where some of the writers stay.

This is my little friend who I meet every day on the beach. We stare at each other. Sometimes I talk to him.

On my way back, I snapped this of a little picnic area near the beach (the tiremarks in the grass lead down there).

And this is on my way back to my studio, from near the bridge again.