WTF-Beta

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Some friends from college contacted me about getting together. I thought - sure, great. I'm assuming we'll get together at a nice restaurant. Nope...it's at a mediocre diner that my parents used to frequent - i.e. not quite as nice as Denny's. My first thought, "that's a restaurant for old people." Second thought..."you are old people."

Yup - similar to stuff with back and other injuries. Gentle, but specific movements can aid recovery. I've moved away from Ibuprofen and all other such drugs.

Happy Birthday to my fellow Canadian! Enjoy!

I've been running for decades. It's a remarkable equalizer. In a running group you'll have all kinds of people - but we see each other as "runners". There are people from all backgrounds - CEOs, lawyers, physicians, UPS drivers, accountants, students, etc.

Into my 60s, I felt like everyone was a peer - partly because I could keep up with pretty much everyone when we did a long run pace. Now, I can't do the group pace for as long - just seemed to slip in the past 3 years - a big decline over a relatively short time. I hope to see a doc about it in the fall - just to make sure it's just normal wear and tear - and not symptomatic of something else

Still, I see a lot of the 30 somethings I run with as younger - and I'm feeling like they're seeing me as parent's age - which is a bit disqualifying for feeling like a peer. Still, I hope to fight - what I know is a struggle I won't win in the long run.

As a child I remember my older sister who worked for the Veterans Administration speaking about how there were soldiers at the VA hospital who had been there since WWI. It seemed incredible to me that a person could remain in a hospital for nearly 50 years.

Everything is going just according to plan. If not, change the plan.

What a blessing!! That's wonderful to have such a friend - and for him to show up with such a great message.

I look forward to the day they can take early recordings and better reproduce the original sound. They attempted that with old Caruso recordings but AI may be better able to accomplish that. I say that even as i enjoy the muted sound of old recordings.

Chicago has a tradition of poor leadership at the mayoral level. Both Mayor Daleys did some good things - but left the city in poor financial shape. Rahm did a reasonably decent job of improving the image of the city, focused on tech and education - and made some hard calls to address the financial situation in the city - but the city is still struggling in that area. Daley's giving away the parking meter business really f'd the city long-term, a legacy that perhaps no one can fix. He's smart, tough, articulate, disciplined, strategic -but I'm not sure how well he does with unifying as suggested by Bernard - some parts of the coalition might not show up for him.

One thing that would be interesting is he has no love for Netanyahu - that could be a deal breaker or maker for some.

Good here as well

I was just thinking of him last week - and wondering why he hadn't been posting. He always seemed very outgoing - and asked if I traveled to SD to stop in. He has a lovely family - sad.

You da best Keep celebrating your birthday

Performance classes are great. I haven't been in one since my 20s - and understand your dual feelings of joy/angst over the class. I hope you make a recording - love to hear you.

When I was learning Bach's First Contrapunctus from the Art of Fugue, I listened to various recordings - and after I had it in my hands, I started playing the piece while listening to recordings. It was illuminating - and helpful. I learned how different artists phrased and accented the piece - and tempo variations that I didn't fully appreciate while listening to them perform the work. It was VERY helpful.

My teacher who chaired the piano department at the American Conservatory liked for us to listen to performances and recordings of works we're working on. The best it can do is give on some ideas. As for "imitating" a master, that would require having their technique.

On the other hand, one of my favorite pieces is Albeniz's "Evocation". I play it more luxuriously than any recording I've ever heard. Decades ago, I played it for a pro classical pianist - and she told me she loved what I did with it. Nice thing about not having to perform for a competition - is one can occasionally break the rules a bit.

More recently, I learned "Standchen" by Schubert/Liszt. I fell in love with the way that Khatia Buniatshvili plays it. Still, I again have played along while listening to her through headphones - and gotten some ideas. No one will confuse my performance with hers - but I have stolen some of her ideas.

@DougG said:

yeah, I pretty much download books to my iPad and that’s it.

But that’s just me, I can’t speak for the older set…

Yeah, and I remember you telling us about when all the tablets you read were made of clay.

And here I thought you were talking about when Adam and Eve were showing the fence around the Garden of Eve to Doug.

The quest for a piano is fun - do try them all. If you've got it in your budget, NYC is a great place to see everything even if you don't buy in NYC. If you'd like an upright and unconstrained by price, do include Bosendorfer in your quest. But frankly, Yamaha and Kawai make some very fine uprights.

If you go to high end grands, you're talking some big money - and value can often be found in the previously owned inventory - especially in down markets.

Wish you both the best in the coming days - do take care of yourself as well.

They were making money delivering Amazon packages but a certain President threatened them helping to build the case for Amazon to develop their own network for delivery