Archive for Music
About six months ago, I started to learn how to play guitar using the Simply Guitar iOS app, made by the same people who make the excellent Simply Piano app for piano learning. I’ve been using Simply Piano for a couple years now, and I mostly love it. Unfortunately, I don’t love Simply Guitar. My […]
I’ve now finished the “Pre-Advanced I” course in the Simply Piano app—but I felt like that particular course was too easy, which is to say I felt like it came too late in the sequence. (Whereas the last two or three courses that I did were hard enough to be right at the edge of […]
I think I’ve had a couple of dreams in which I’ve tried but failed to look up info about the folksong “Oleanna.” In last night’s dream, I finally managed to do a web search on that term, but got no relevant results. But when I woke up, I did a real-world web search, and got […]
I enjoyed the vid party at WisCONline last week. Here are half a dozen of my favorites—some sweet, some thoughtful, some angry. “Come ’Round for Tea” (2014), by Garrideb Showing female friendships in Marvel comics, with all the words in word balloons replaced by hearts. (song: “Baltic Sea,” by The Social Services) (2 min) “Pipeline” […]
I noticed last night that it’s been nearly six months since I bought my electric piano and started learning more about playing it. Figured that makes this a good time for a checkin. Short version: I’m still enjoying it a lot. I’m still practicing about 20 minutes a day, with the iOS app Simply Piano. […]
Just noticed that it’s been a month since I posted here. I guess that means it’s time for another status-update post. A little less avoidant than last time I posted here. Have made progress on various things; for example, finished the ebook of Mary Anne’s cookbook, and continue to asymptotically approach being done with the […]
Books! Free to a good home. Let me know if you want any of these. Also some CDs, DVDs, and VHS tapes. (All at the end of this post.) This list contains 100+ more books than the previous list I posted (a couple months ago), so even if you’ve already looked at the other one, […]
Today is the 14th anniversary of my father’s death. I’ve been mostly okay the past few days, but kind of fragile and mood-swingy. Have gotten some important overdue stuff done at work this week, but have also had multiple instances of getting too anxious to read specific emails and thus ending up being later than […]
Jim was in town this week. Good visit—played various boardgames, went through some Puzzled Pint puzzles (you can download past puzzle sets from their archives), chatted about stuff, went to the Moffett Field Historical Society Museum, had a roundsing. Even though I’ve lived in this area for most of my life, I didn’t know the […]
This morning’s real-seeming dream: I was riding on a bus that had the ability to play a passenger’s music over its sound system. I accidentally tapped the wrong button on my phone (or maybe my laptop), and one of my music playlists started playing for all the other passengers to hear. Embarrassed, I tried to […]
I recently listened to James Keelaghan’s version of the shanty “Roll Down,” by Peter Bellamy, and was struck by this line: Then, sweet ladies of Plymouth, we’ll pay all your rent I thought, Huh, that seems like an odd thing for the sailors to do. More like a charitable foundation than like stereotypical sailors on […]
I have complicated feelings about this mashup of “Story of Tonight” (from Hamilton) with “You Will Be Found” (from the musical Dear Evan Hansen). On the one hand, it’s a lovely song, and it’s a benefit for March For Our Lives. On the other hand, I had never heard of Dear Evan Hansen before (content […]