a day in the life of piano monkey

dear gabe, the eighth month anniv of your passing was rather quiet, blanketed by the boxing day craze- in lieu of gatherings and parties on top of this commercial maelstrom, it was quite difficult to keep in mind.  i was with mr. minnow's family and thought it was important that i be engaged and interactive. sounds like a science exhibition, no? but rest assured, sadly, you were in my mind. the whole time. especially when the cold moon, the last of the full moons of 2010, was up and bright, full and blue, illuminating through the hills of england, where i wanted to bring you rather eagerly. the roads here are often swamped by the fogs.  the kind of fog that makes one a bit hesitant if one is not versed well with the local geography.  after couple days of real cold spell, we have regained the usual winter weather of england- wet and wetter.  the snow started to melt and the bit of sun that tried to crash through the blanket of clouds left the fogs rising and falli...

another end of the year is approaching, like a slow moving train across the midwest field of states- constant, graceful yet often amazingly noisy and upon close examination.  three more days, then it'll be another decade over, of twenty-first century. it seems not long ago that everyone was worried about y2k- which turned out to be a silly worry after all.  i wonder how many things we worry/fuss about share that nature of y2k- not really real, however becomes real due to the amount of attention we decided to give to the issue.  and with the imposed finality of the calendar turning, it is difficult to not to become part of the 'reflection and resolution' crowd.  what is it that urges us to make such commitment to make huge changes? i suppose different things to different people, but all i can say is that the gyms across the world are always much busier during january than april. i hear from one of my newly made acquaintance (it is a funny world of mine, often i...

*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...

i have many friends in the music field. some are performers, some are composers. some are both. but all of us take the role of the audience. in practice rooms. in transit, with our headphones.  in bed, reading a score, deciphering and recollecting the world of sound through all other senses. being a keyboard monkey, this means much of my musical sensations also involve tactile sensations.  have you ever sat down with your choice of instrument and start to bang away? the immediate joy (perhaps not your neighbours/familys) can often be so overwhelming that i often lose the sight of the practice, simply going through the fun of physical execution.  i try to do this less when i am actually practicing and playing now, but now and then, it's a great thing to play a 8-notes chords with both hands, letting it resonate through the big huge metal frame of the modern piano.  even better if i can get my hands and feet on a organ with 32-foot stops. often music comes in colou...

06 December 2010 Dr. ---- Lee To: TD Canada Trust                 Easy Line Phone Banking Customer Service   Re: Phone banking conversation on 06 December 2010 I have contacted the Easy Line Telephone Banking Service through my cell phone on the evening of 06 December 2010 as I was heading to Europe for a personal trip, planning to return on 17 January 2011 from Toronto Pearson Airport.  My intention of the call was to notify the bank that I will be making transactions in United Kingdom during the course of the trip, as I have previously made a note with the phone line agent in case of oversea trips.  The bank has been informed of this particular trip, however, the departure date have changed from 19 December to 06 December. The line was busy and I was notified with the recorded prompt that my wait time would be longer than usual, lasting about 5 minutes.  Since I had about a half hour t...

at this point, everyone who knows me would understand how i feel about the word 'incompetency.'  it is the word to be feared, abhorred and avoided with great efforts, whenever possible.  i just finished a phone conversation with the call centre agents at the government of canada and though there's nothing i could do, i am somewhat (if really) pissed. but there's nothing i could do.  so i will just vent here and pretend nothing have happened afterward.  things are always better out then in, isnt it.  if not, dont tell me otherwise at this precise moment.  i think bit of venting is a much better option than just straight outrage. ive submitted my citizenship application eons ago (or what seems like eons), to be exact, on april 2009, i believe, when i came back from the states. now one wonders, what's going on?  monkey, you arent a citizen? aha, no.  while i was growing up, my dad have explained that switching one's nationality shouldnt be a flippa...