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the grind
I am preparing to move house in a few weeks, so I have been going through and downsizing some of my things. I am very selective about the items that I choose to attach to. At least that’s what I tell myself; for the past three years I have moved at the end of the…
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Awake
We have two middle school girls coming right now, sisters, that are super into anime and manga and colored hair and weird accessories. The younger one was worked up nearly to the point of tears because All The Shit Had Gone Down in whatever manga series she is reading. Both of them gushed about whatever…
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Lasagne
I was planning on spending my morning helping my friend A move furniture, but she cancelled on me, which was so much the better because I turned out to have a hangover after Friday night. I got breakfast with RS at a family diner—because most of my social set is 20somethings with extremely narrow backgrounds…
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edgefield
On a tuesday, I woke up early enough to have a proper breakfast. L was home from work, so I got a chance to apologize for being snippy with her a couple evenings ago. When I got to work, I had the presence of mind to remember that I didn’t have that much time to…
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I almost impulse bought a piano
I don’t have any money. I don’t have any room for it. I have easy access to pianos elsewhere. But I almost bought a piano a couple of days ago. Classic Pianos, on Milwaukie and Powell here in Portland, has been having a basement sale to clear out inventory. As I was riding…
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Digging Into Schubert
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkH0cPzg-IU] Alfred Brendel playing Schubert’s Piano Sonata in B-flat, D. 960. Over the past few months, I’ve been going through a little bit of a gloomy period, and I think a big part of the reason why I was feeling melancholic was that I wasn’t playing or making as much music as I had been,…
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Sida Cheng
I had the privilege of attending Sida Cheng’s senior piano recital at Reed College this afternoon. It was a wonderful program, and, after the week I’ve been having, the perfect way to decompress. The program: Aaron Copland Variations Philip Lasser 12 Variations on a Bach Chorale Johannes Brahms Six Pieces for Piano, op. 118 Ludwig…
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The kind of performer I want to be…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoTyDD0C93U] Harpo Marx playing Rachmaninov’s C# Minor Prelude.
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Olivier Messiaen
Alex Ross has a new post about the centennial of Olivier Messiaen. I had the privelage of seeing pianist Jeff Payne perform Messiaen’s masterpiece, Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus in a (I’m told) rare complete performance. I found the experience completely disorienting. I found the lack of melody hard to deal with, and reminded me of…
