WTF-Beta

@Mik said:

Are we really that willfully ignorant and unwilling to look for the truth

Apparently yes, sadly.

@Axtremus said:

ave for counting all you weirdos as friends

Hey! I resemble that remark!

eccentrically skilled

I feel like this expression could come in handy for me as well...

I think we need some photos of all these lamps, or at least any interesting ones! Starting with the oil lamps, @realplayer !

Two pianos is definitely not excessive. I had a digital and an upright for a while. I never played the digital though, so when I got my grand (and got rid of the upright) I sold the digital as well.

@jon-nyc what is your second piano? I assume a digital or hybrid? What kind?

@kluurs the more I think about it, the more I think 24 is a lot of lamps for one room....

@AndyD said:

When does a collector become an obsessive?

I don't think we need to move into the realm of value judgments here....

Oh are we talking about lamps? I feel like at one point (in an earlier rental) we had a million lamps in one room, but now things are relatively calm. One lamp in the living room, one lamp by the piano... three lamps in our bedroom because one on each side of the bed, and one on a dresser that's hooked up to a wall switch. One lamp in the guest room, one lamp in my home office.... and one or actually maybe two lamps in Mr. SK's studio.

@AndyD said:

9 pairs of binoculars on top of it and a sword inside it

wait what??

reset

I'm pretty sure we have something (many things, probably) that put us in the weird category.... let me think here....

I think we probably have some items that serve a limited, specialized purpose....

Like, we have guest slippers because we don't allow indoor shoes in our house. That wouldn't make us weird in Japan, and in fact most of our guest slippers are from Japan. Did I mention that we have over 20 pairs of guest slippers?

We also have mini spoons and forks, demitasse or dessert size, that I like to use for... you know, dessert-like things. Like, if I'm having yogurt, I like to put a dollop of homemade jam in it, in a little bowl, and eat it with a little spoon. (When I say it that way, it sounds really weird...)

I also like to peel my apple to take to work for lunch, and then I eat it with one of those little forks. My mom thinks that's weird.

I'm sure there's more but this is probably a good stopping point. (I miss that "who me" emoji from PW...)

Fudge

plate

@Jodi said:

But the art gallery and the ceramics studio (which are in the same building) have become meeting place for me. We do first friday openings every month, so now when I go places uptown (like the farmer’s market) I run into a lot of people I know.

That's really nice! My problem is, all I do is work and play the piano...

We've lived here since summer 2023, and really have very few local connections. Thankfully there are people we've connected with through my job, but lately I've really been feeling the lack of a community. Work friends aren't quite the same...

Much harder in larger cities unless you have some sort of neighborhood gathering place.

Yeah, this town's not that big, but it's certainly bigger than 4000 people!

@Jodi Yes same town, I'll PM you the HS name (I don't like to share too much out in the open internet

@jon-nyc yes, well not “from from,” but that’s where I graduated from HS.

@AndyD also she’s married to Elvis Costello, right? He’s another singer with a very original style.

What an interesting couple, musically!

@AndyD LOVE it!!!

I always love her phrasing, piano and voice btw! I wanted the piano solo to be longer !

@AndyD said:

he first is a recent Diana Krall transcription of Pick yourself up; the second a transcription of Carole King You've got a friend as she played in NY Central Park 1973.

Nice! I don't recognize that title from Krall, but I love her music.

And Carole King's singing and piano are great! I have the full scorebook for Tapestry but have never played anything from it. Yet!

BTW my voice is kind of right in the range for her songs. When I used to sing a lot, I thought I would sing "So Far Away" and accompany myself. It fits my voice really well. But I was living in Japan at the time, and I couldn't really sing it without getting choked up!

@AndyD said:

It's one thing being able to play faltering through it, and quite another to get it to a musical level.

So, so true!!

The thing that bugs me is that, I haven't been distracted. I work on CdL every day, in the same systematic way I work on all my pieces. And right now, I'm only working on 3 pieces, and not spending much time on maintenance of rep pieces, no sightreading practice etc. My practice time is very focused on these three pieces.

And I'm zooming through the other two, but CdL moves at a snail's pace.

Ah well, moving at a snail's pace is still moving...

Yikes! Those domain names are pretty sketchy aren’t they!

@Bernard I look forward to both!