From the desk of James Reel on Monday, September 12th 2005 at 7:04

IT'S A GOOD THING I GET UP AT 3:55

    In case you assume I fritter away the day working on sodoku puzzles, here, in no particular order, are the things I need to do before crawling into bed tonight at 9:
    * Edit two art-related articles by Margaret Regan for the next edition of the Tucson Weekly.
    * Figure out a mutually agreeable day and time to interview Gidon Kremer about his new recording of Bach’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin.
    * Finish compiling the index for Nathan F. Sayre’s new book, Working Wilderness: The Malpai Borderlands Group and the Future of the Western Range, forthcoming from Rio Nuevo Publishers.
    * Complete the research for an article I’m writing about Leopold Mozart’s 1756 treatise on violin playing.
    * Write an article about a real estate investment firm for a supplement to be stuffed into Inside Tucson Business.
    * Get members of the Ciompi and Lindsay quartets to commit to interviews for an article I’m writing on the first string quartet of Nathaniel Stookey.
    * Set up a day and time to give technical advice to a friend who’s writing a biography of Ethel Merman (“Irving Berlin tailored the songs in Annie Get Your Gun to Ethel’s voice by making them loud.”)
    * Either take a 30-minute nap or guzzle some Red Bull to fortify myself for the afternoon.
    * Put on my Arizona Friends of Chamber Music cap and talk to a co-owner of the local Steinway Gallery about a piano we're thinking about buying.
    * Put off exercise and cello practice to another day.
    * Finish my air shift, doing each break as if the only thing on my mind were sitting down with you to share some wonderful music.
    * Avoid distracting myself with thoughts of things I’ll have to do tomorrow.