I tried to record it. Will listen back later to see if I captured the musical rhythms created by rain drops making their popping noises as they hit the window sill and the fire escape. It sounded like a rhythm in the real but playback via recording device sometimes loses the magic. It’s like the way some people hear music coming out of an air conditioner or an air purifier (raises hand) but attempts to capture it in recording never seem to work. Something about the acoutics and the mental space that creates a lot of the illusion.
I managed to do what I had to do outdoors whilst avoiding yeterday’s rain but it still felt torrential from indoors. Typically I cannot even tell when it is raining outside, such is the acoutical muffling of the building in which I live and will probably die. Yesterday felt like rapid-fire gunshots at times. I felt cranky and irritable much of the day. I shat three times, which is unusual. At the piano I felt good. Journeyed through Scarlatti, Bach, Glass, Joplin, Liszt, and even a little Rimsky-Korsakoff. He wrote a mazurka that is pretty strong stuff. Too bad about that little piano concerto, though.
I don’t have the money but if I did I would buy a new piano. The latest Roland is said to be the best digital yet, and after I finally got my hands on one I can see where the sentiment arises. It’s a fine-feeling instrument. I could even take it with me, with proper gear. I have never had particular interest in playing solo on the streets or subways but it’s something I could do for the life experience. I hear so many bad musicians out there. Why can’t I be one of them?
I spent more energies at archive.org yesterday, backing up, among other things, a book that actually means a lot to me. It is called “The Faces of Laos”. It is a picture book by George Archer, an American in Laos before we were there, who we never knew except for his book. I found the book in my father’s desk drawer after he died. Along with pictures of my sister and me, and along with his grade school report cards, was this book. Given the opany it kept the book obviously meant something to hi, though my memories of it before finding it in that desk are scarce. It is posted to my website but I think it looks better at archive. Behold in all its glory. I also tried to post a 100-page 1986 New Music Distribution Service catalogue but, for the first time in my experience, archive said the content was spam. I’m like, what? I don’t know if archive.org is truly a place for eternal backup. I believe YouTube will one day disappear, or else become a shell of its former self, jusst like MySpace which “accidentally” deleted everybody’s videos from before a certain year. Something like that is already overdue at YT.
