Nicole Dieker Finley

It's all the same thing, though

So I ended yesterday's post with "every time you interact with a Quality teacher, it 1) teaches you something new and 2) you do not forget what you learn," which meant I had to ask myself what it might mean to teach something to someone in

Education

Gödel, Escher, Bach, and Handel

The King's song is kinging along, I love when you go in after you've written something and find all of the little bits that can be rearranged into more cohesive and/or more communicative patterns, in fact I may just show you the first draft of

Education

The informational quality of food

The deal is that I can't finish the King's song until I take some time to work out the next bit of underscoring, what are each of the pianists saying in response to what the King is saying, how does that affect what I hope to

Education

In which I develop a functional definition of "quality"

So yesterday I did this post in which I argle bargled for 1,287 words on problems I was not prepared to solve, such as: * Whether children should be allowed to spend their money as they choose (yes, also this does come down on the side of private property, oh

Education

Giving children purchasing power could rightsize college debt

I mean, maybe it couldn't, but it's an idea I'm thinking about so I might as well think it all the way through. The flip side to giving children purchasing power is obviously giving them the opportunity to earn money, and as soon as

MELISANDE

More thoughts on musicals, and a few thoughts on keeping an audience's attention

MELISANDE update! The Queen's song is final-first-drafted, which is to say that all of the musical elements except the performers are in place, and I have begun the King's song, which is to say that I've figured out how to navigate the sixteen-year-time-jump in

MELISANDE

"musical openings are like chess openings, they set the conditions of the board"

Okay. So. You might ask, if you were of an inquisitive frame of mind, why theater gets nary a mention in WHAT IT IS and WHAT TO DO NEXT. If that book was all about biography and cognition and the process of problem-solving (problems are ultimately solved by love, they

MELISANDE

Taking Yourself Seriously

First of all, the Queen's song is scored. I need to go through it as a pianist and make sure each of the parts are functionally playable – I suspect they are, since I play them as I compose them, but every time I play through an entire accompaniment

Theater

In which I get very critical about MUSICALS YOU MAY KNOW AND LOVE

MELISANDE is going very well, thank you. Scoring the Queen's song; telling Larry that each note needs both a musical and a dramaturgical reason to exist. The example and/or standard is of course INTO THE WOODS, and if you don't believe me you can watch

MELISANDE

I rewrote the song...

It was actually very easy, once it came down to understanding what was wrong with it. Also, I talked to Larry about whether it would be better to have the play play as written, with Melisande realizing that her mother had been lying about the whole "hair isn'

MELISANDE

"oh, I get it, it's the failure mode of humanism"

The thing about writer's block is that it's a signal that something you've written is wrong. Or, maybe, that the writing you've done already hasn't effectively set you up for the writing you need to do next. Or, maybe maybe,

MELISANDE

How I am adapting E. Nesbit's "Melisande"

Now that I have written about what happens when adaptation goes wrong, I might as well start writing about how to get it right. Which means it is finally time to tell you about MELISANDE. I am turning E. Nesbit's short story "Melisande: or, Long and Short

Theater

Why Tim Minchin's MATILDA makes Miss Trunchbull the hero

I am going to write more about the process through which I am adapting E. Nesbit's short story "Melisande: or, Long and Short Division" into a musical, but before we get to that – well, first, I have to continue adapting it, and second, I want to

Education

Starting conditions

It seems as if one should not begin by announcing a project, in the sense that whenever a person announces that they are doing something they are proactively pressuring themselves to do whatever it is that they said they were going to do, and in many cases this pressure actively

WHAT IT IS and WHAT TO DO NEXT

WHAT IT IS and WHAT TO DO NEXT, Volume 4: None of the Monitors Are Asleep

I am writing this, at half past seven, in the breakfast nook that used to be a mudroom. I spent a day, when winter was at its darkest, clearing out the junk that had been allowed to accumulate when we had no specific purpose for this space. Cardboard boxes; glass

WHAT IT IS and WHAT TO DO NEXT

WHAT IT IS and WHAT TO DO NEXT, Volume 3: D4, C4

I am writing this not precisely after dawn—it is the eve of the summer solstice, and although I woke with the sun I also went back to sleep—but early enough that the clock has not yet marked seven. This mantel clock has handled a weekly winding for well

WHAT IT IS and WHAT TO DO NEXT

WHAT IT IS and WHAT TO DO NEXT, Volume 2: Is It What It Is?

I am writing this shortly after dawn, in our garden. There are succulents to my right and cucumbers to my left and a pot of lemon balm not quite close enough for me to reach out and pluck one of its leaves. There are two tomato plants and three pepper

WHAT IT IS and WHAT TO DO NEXT

WHAT IT IS and WHAT TO DO NEXT, Volume 1: Down the Rabbit Hole

I am writing this shortly after dawn, in May 2022, while sitting in a rocking chair that used to belong to Larry’s grandfather. Books, alphabetical by author, are spine-smoothed in shelves to my immediate left; more immediately, at my left elbow, a rougher spine has worked its way out