American Gaijin
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Artists Don’t Think
How’s that for a clickbaity headline? Well, it’s a general statement, but I think it’s defensible, and I’m going to try to do so, here. I related the story here, a couple of times, how my highly educated, doctorate degree, former piano teacher in college couldn’t understand how the escapement mechanism of a piano utterly precludes…
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Making Sense of the Past
I took my first piano lesson in twenty years. In that lesson, I relayed to her a story I might have mentioned here. How there was a masterclass in my college thirty years ago, I went up on stage, and played just a few bars of a Mozart sonata. She stopped me, said “you have…
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Gaijin Buying Kotatsu
I don’t know if this makes me an appreciator of Japanese culture, a weeb, or just someone who wastes money. Maybe any combination of the above, or all three. But I bought a kotatsu. (It’s a little messy, I just put it together. I’ll post another pic when it’s fully integrated into my house. All…
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Why degrees don’t matter.
When I was a college student, I was a piano performance major, and one of my classes was piano, of course. I was studying under a guy with a doctorate who styled himself a “doctor”, who had graduated from Juilliard, and was somewhat celebrated in his field. Of course, he was a professor at a…
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Transcending Failure
I have failed at almost everything in my life. Even the things I’ve succeeded at, I mostly consider a failure. When I was a child, growing up in a cult, I was a very driven, and extremely intelligent, person. Even at seven or eight years old I had it in mind that I wanted to…
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Back in the dating pool – and maybe drowning in it
Lately, after a little over twelve years, I’ve been thinking of getting back into dating. My reasons for that are somewhat personal and I won’t outline them here, but let’s just say that I think it may be time and I think I may be ready for that. And I may not, but only one…
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Reproductive Roles Matter
I’ve been thinking about how I want to approach this topic for a while. Let’s be honest, there be dragons. People tend to have very strong opinions on this matter and are usually very quick to, well, share them. Vociferously, loudly, and ignorantly. But I’m going to say what I want anyway, because that’s what…
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My Composition Setup
Today I’m going to pull back the curtain, just a bit, on my “personal life”, and show you the setup I use for composing. I’ll explain how everything’s set up and routed too… On the left is a maybe ten year old Roland RD-700NX stage piano. I have a (nearly eight year old now) Korg…
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Why Fox News Commenters are Idiots: Part 2
There is a certain kind of person who is impossible to talk to or reason with. These people tend to be very religious, though the type of religion they can be an adherent to can be secular. They see the world in utter black and white, and to them, there are no shades of grey…
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Israel: A Country of Unresolved Trauma
There’s a lot going on in the middle east right now, and a lot of strong feelings on a lot of topics. So first, let me tell you what I will not do in this post. I will not defend Hamas. Their actions are beyond the pale, and they (to some level) deserve everything they…