a day in the life of piano monkey

end of semester, things are done and i am almost at rest point.  almost.  well, i am chasing after the very last payment.  it's not the easiest thing to chase/being chased after and i think it is a difficult situation. i wonder how it will all turn out, probably fine... AND IT DID TURN OUT FINE! yay. one of the things i will work on is always have a written record of a verbal contract.  if contacted through a phone call or text, i will always write back to through email.  phone calls have no trace and texts are too fussy.  but email, not only it leaves tracks, it can be accessed through many different medium.   in middle of busy april, i received a call for accompanying a difficult sonata, less than two weeks go- hey if she's been having a difficult time finding a pianist, i will do it!  at this point, somehow the crucial info of fee schedule was lost inbetween- in that weird quasi-real space between the phones.  we agreed on the ...

wee rabbit always sees the world a bit different from me. and he sees loads of beauty. from the distillery. as the semester is reaching its end, ive been lucky to gain some personal 'empty' space in my life.  though i do enjoy most aspects of my work in music, there are times when 60+ hrs/wk ends up spelling: go away.  though the best perk of it is to realize that once i can move away from it, i can really see how beautiful it really is. what is 'it?' i have a hard time defining what 'it' may be- to call it music would be too simple.  it is music, yes, but it's not just any music that lifts us the mortals out of the daily grind into something special.  and one has one's own preferred genre of music as well.  one day it may be the dark side of the moon. next day perhaps a bit of bluegrass.  perhaps it may be the reminiscence of musical experience- the very song your mother sang to you when you were so small that you were held lightly in he...

http://youtu.be/zhMC-aiLvmw today is mother's day in canada.  as an average blue collar family, we decided to get together at a local buffet lunch (eliminate conflicts of preferences, prices, all sorts of problems) (and it does not break the bank)- my older brother even brought his girl friend for the first family-wide meet (she has met my parents couple weeks ago i believe).  couple laughters, varied conversations, bit of disagreements, plenty of food, it was all good. mother's day is an interesting one.  as a child, whether young or older, one often forgets things about others, including mom. life is busy and things are in constant demand.  one 'must' progress at work and make 'better' for self.  success is important and one's own happiness seems be the supreme goal of the western world- at least in my generation. as result, we often find a big surprise in may- oops, mother's day! i almost forgot! perhaps, as artificial as it may be, without mot...