i got the piano fixed on Sunday, and played on it for about an hour
yesterday, and for 2 or 3 hours today. it’s amazing how time vanishes when
i sit and play. today i rambled through some Beethoven — Waldstein, op.
111, Appassionata, Rage Over a Lost Penny, and others. Also a William
Bolcom tribute to Ernesto Nazareth, and other ragtime piece. those are
sweet pieces, hard to get into the hands.
i re-visited Fanny Mendelssohn’s pieces… i can’t
remember the names, but the good ones are really excellent. of the
under-rated woman composers from that era she is easily the most
under-rated. i tried out Bach’s Art of Fugue on the piano, having learned
it mostly using the organ sound on my piano. that was a useful experience,
using the organ sound for Bach’s keyboard music. the sustain of the notes
is the most obvious difference, but it has the effect of keeping me honest
and conforming to the genuine baroque keyboard style.
the piano, fixed up again, sounds ok, but i am
thinking of getting into a Yamaha Avant Grand. I should try it first.
not cheap but not ridiculously expensive. i pass by the showroom all the
time, the only showroom in town that has these Yamahas (Yamahii?), but i
get skeered of going in, since the hard sell thing never makes me feel
very worthy.
i didn’t realize how much i missed having a working piano, though. i
started feeling connected to my body again, my body which feels poor these
days, but will be fine. that is the meaning of piano playing to me. the
earthy, bodily connection between myself and an intellectual outlet. i
feel like i am dancing across the keys, nurturing and kneading.
today i thought about all those hours of my youth, full days’ worth of
time spent practicing, playing, hacking and thrashing. was my youth
wasted, or was it a foundation for today, when i can play for 3 hours and
connect with those days of long hours and work? others lament that they
can not play, and will never be able to play. i felt a new gratitude for
my foundation today. are not most youths wasted? i don’t think mine was.
…..
tomorrow i get a new copy of Windows 7 and commence to rebuild my desktop
computer. i decided to try the $100 option over the $2000 option, just for
gits and shiggles. should be a fun way to waste a day… another rainy
day. i’ve gotten by with just the laptop but it’s not going to be a full
desktop replacement. i love the Airdesk, though.
…..
my GF stopped by last night, unexpectedly. we talk about things. we talk
about lots of things. good things, direct things, no secrets and no
avoiding the subjects of certain things. it’s good, i think. we were
broken up for about 2 months, and have been back together for 2+
months, and it’s a lot better this time around. my
neck is sore from our last sexual encounter. i am sore all over from our
last sexual encounter. sex sore.
…..
remembering a funny joke that i shared with the last person who fixed my
piano, but who was unable to do the job this time. the joke is:
Q: What’s the difference between a pop musician and a jazz musician?
A: A pop musician plays 3 chords for 1000 people. A jazz musician plays
1000 chords for 3 people.
hah.
a few comments and asides stick in my mind for some reason. i think of
them every day. they are inconsequential, mundane, maybe mildly amusing,
but i don’t why i can’t get them out of my head. one comment was in the
context of a discussion about my web hosting company. they charge $5 for a
DNS change if you are on a virtual hosted account, but the changes can
take days because the transaction has to go through the Sales department.
you can’t just call and get the DNS change made, they have to forward the
request to Sales, which can take days to go through. the comment that for
some reason surfaces in my mind almost every fucking day is “I don’t have
a problem with the charge but I agree with you, the Sales delay is really
annoying.” i don’t know why i remember that comment every single day. the
frustration and the dismay was hilarious to me.
another exchange was when a friend was at my place, doing something on my
computer, when he asked if i had a printer online. he saw that i ahd a
printer, it was turned on,so he said “cool”. i said “yeah, you just gotta
make sure you tell it to print grayscale.” he demonstratively nodded his
head, made a concave gesture with his mouth, and I said “because there’s
no more color ink in that thing.” he kept nodding and said “gotcha.”
another exchange was between me and the bartender at a regular pub of
mine. the pub had just changed its menu, adding a cheeseburger and some
other things. the new menu had been in place for a few days, but evidently
no one among the regulars at the place had tried the new burger. i went to
the place and said to the bartender: “i was about to make some food at
home but i thought i’d come out here and try the new burger.” his response
was affirmative and engaged. he nodded his head, put out his cigarette,
and said “oh, cool. great.” another regular customer at that place,
standing nearby, said “nice.” everyone seemed to want to know how the new
burger was, how satisfying and tasty and juicy and lean. and there i was,
the first regular customer at the pub to try the new burger, and i felt
important. i felt useful.