a day in the life of piano monkey

this is the infamous audition week: all kinds of people auditioning at the music school- i overheard that there are more than 600 auditions to be fitted in the months of february and march.  it makes playing the piano look like a seasonal gig.  and yes, it certainly is. people are flying with their instruments, driving hours with their parents, little kiddies making their first trip alone, the nerves, excitement, forgetfulness that resulted in missing scores for the audition panel, mistaken times, the triumph of playing it 'right' for the first time during audition- it's a very colourful  time. and i, piano monkey and other pianists are very busy as on top of auditions, there all kinds of recitals, recordings and projects.  usually september is so quiet you can hear the fly sing. march, you cant hear anything since everything is roaring loud. not just the music. but of transits. logistics and... ego. five days ago, i got an email late night. someone is looking f...

*from flowmarket, designed by danish designer mad hagstrom at dansk design center;  http://www.theflowmarket.com/site.php with less than a week to christmas, there are some funny parallels i have been observing here in britain-canada-united states.  it's this thing called 'need to shop.'  i like buying things, especially if i have been looking for them with great sense of futility.  discovering amazon.com was something of a wonder and some sort of sign from god, because i would know that now, the world's merchants are on tip of my fingers!  with my first pay cheque from lincoln, i bought a tivoli raio, henry kloss model two, yes, from amazon, because there was a nil chance that i would find a tivoli dealer in the local area. the month after that, with my second pay cheque, i bought the subwooper for it.  and yep, ive been rugging them around home to home, as i traveled quite a bit since then. they have been the heart of my little dorm room, they have been...