WTF-Beta

As the saying goes, "All's fair in love and war." These are not peaceful times. The DOJ managed to elevate Hunter's case to a level that seems inappropriate. At the same time, they avoided prosecuting Trump until it was too late. (Justice in America? What justice?) In the grand scheme of things, that is the real crime. It is angering that on the one hand we have corruption going unchecked, and on the other a president who has to be taken to task for protecting his son. Compared to Trump's pardons, Biden's pardon seems benign (except for the blanket part). The optics of Biden's pardon are horrible and he does come across as aloof at times. It's not the first time he's reneged on a promise and the price to pay for both reversals is steep. That's also aggravating.

Perhaps it wasn't right. . . but are these normal times? The good guys are going to be held to higher standard than the bad, I'm afraid. I am happy at the poke in the eye to the republicans, but enormously frustrated at the palaver of it all.

I will remain of mixed mind over it for now.

Hi, @Jodi !

@RealPlayer Oops. Yes, TPM, Talking Points Memo.

I still have my Yamaha G1R and I still love it. It was my first piano and we've spent a lot of time together.

Ax, that was beautiful!

I cancelled my WaPo subscription when Bezos decided to censor his editorial board. Lost all respect. I have a NYTimes subscription but have only checked in once or twice since the election.... 24/7 news requires a lot of constantly talking heads and I just can't cope with it right now. In lieu of WaPo, I've gone over to The Guardian to see how that goes. I also follow TMP, and Robert Reich's substack. Need to check out MeidasTouch one of these days, I hear good things about it. I get snippets of news (small doses for now, thank you) from a gay site that has an overnight open thread.

Perhaps it's more of a wish than a prediction, but I won't be surprise if the new administration oversteps and shoot themselves in the foot. I think they're going to self implode.

SK, the recording is beautiful and there's so much there to be happy with. I suspect the same can be said of the other two pieces you played. We do tend to inflate glitches to unworldly proportions, when to any sane person the playing probably delivered a lot of pleasure.

I got the feeling you were being a bit unfair by comparing yourself to two music students. I'm assuming they're majoring in music, correct? If so, they've had opportunities that you haven't. Specifically: Playing for others... a lot.

Which brings me to my final point. I never felt more comfortable playing in front of people than when I was taking lessons, and a weekly group class. In the first weeks of class I'd be a nervous wreck when it was my time to solo something I had worked on and was "ready" to perform. It was awful. But, the advantage of being able to go through the process repeatedly took the edge off "mistakes" and I slowly gained confidence. It is quite true that performing needs practice just as much as technique of the instruments.

Thanks for posting the recording. I really enjoyed it.