Tags

On mimicry and mapping

One of the things I've learned, as I've started accompanying various local choirs and community theater

31 Mar

In which I actually write a love song

There's a paragraph in The Biographies of Ordinary People in which Meredith realizes that she does not know

19 Mar

I've written this song before

I began drafting Act II of MELISANDE this morning. I'll put the roughest draft of the first song

06 Mar

Writing out MELISANDE Act II

I changed the one part of the end-of-act number, otherwise known as "Tea Sequence (and Consequence)," that hadn&

05 Mar

"deliberate attempts to understand, capture, and replicate information through observation and the application of tools"

I've started scoring the end-of-act number, and I've got this feeling like it's going

13 Feb

I fixed the overture

So I thought to myself that I could wait until I finished writing and scoring Act II, maybe some of

02 Feb

Exponential vs. expediential

So when I wrote, yesterday, that the best way to learn that you aren't half as brilliant as

01 Feb

On thought leadership and what I like to think about before I fall asleep

It troubles me that so much of the still-independent internet has devolved into what might be considered thought leadership; I&

15 Mar

The Beatitudes as they could be translated

First of all, yes I have stuck to my plan of extricating myself from the systemic internet (for lack of

19 Feb

I was wrong about Atlas Shrugged

"I don't think I can finish reading Atlas Shrugged," Larry told me. "I got to

22 Jan

I was wrong about The Grapes of Wrath

A while back I wrote a post in which I compared The Grapes of Wrath to Atlas Shrugged, noting that

18 Jan

A bit about money, plus Herbert Croly's The Promise of American Life

I have a new personal finance advice column in Vox today: I plan to retire in 2025. Am I financially

13 Jan

Games and wagers

"Exponential" is scored, which means that I am very likely to both start and finish "Enter the

08 Jan

How does this book exist

I am, unbelievably, almost finished scoring the exponential growth number for MELISANDE. Tomorrow I'm going to do the

07 Jan

Is Beast Games the final form of philanthropy?

Last night Larry and I went through all of the existing music for MELISANDE and talked about what worked and

09 Jan

I figured out the flaw in Taking Children Seriously

First of all, I finished scoring the "I Want" song for MELISANDE this morning. I am thrilled both

22 Dec

Showing my work

I'm both a pianist and an organist, which means I've played a lot of Christmas Eve

19 Dec

This kind of learning

Larry suggested that I should start writing about what both of us are doing, since we're both doing

05 Dec

"no learning gets done over the holidays"

So first of all I should mention that I did watch My Old Ass, or at least the first twenty

15 Nov

"why do we even write music anyway"

I'm going to see if I can come around to where my thoughts are taking me, starting with

05 Nov

Showing my work

I actually recorded this on Friday, but you get it today. ❤️ First is Bach Invention in C Major plus the

02 Nov

What have we learned?

I was thinking the other day, because Larry and I were watching Jerry Springer: The Opera – which was his idea,

24 Mar

Sonya isn't good

Still processing THREE HOUSES. Studying OCTET, I bought the libretto, there is so much more to the piece than the

12 Feb

Thoughts on Dave Malloy's THREE HOUSES

These thoughts are very very very unverified, since I haven't even listened to the entire piece twice through

11 Feb

Progress

Who knows what to title this one, it's a progress update, here we go: * Memorizing that Kabalevsky was

10 Feb

Assorted thoughts (mostly on intelligence)

I had some family stuff this weekend so I got a bit behind on everything else, am caught up now,

30 Jan

Blogs that have improved the way I think

I wrote last week that if you started your own blog (not a Substack, that's the metaphorical equivalent

17 Jan

More on teaching

So that piece of writing I put up yesterday, "To teach a child piano," is worth reading for

16 Jan

March 2025

Scored the Entr'acte for MELISANDE. Began writing and composing the second act of MELISANDE. Worked two MELISANDE numbers

31 Mar

February 2025

Reworked the overture for MELISANDE. Scored "Tea Sequence" (the end-of-act number) for MELISANDE. Completed one freelance assignment for

28 Feb

January 2025

Scored "Exponential" and "Enter the Princes" for MELISANDE. Did a first (unsatisfactory) pass at the overture

31 Jan

December 2024

Scored "I Want" for MELISANDE. Completed one assignment for Dwell, two assignments for Vox, and one spec assignment

30 Dec

November 2024

Scored "To a Fairy Godmother" for MELISANDE. Completed two assignments for Bankrate and one for Vox. Taught two

30 Nov

October 2024

Scored "Like You" for MELISANDE. Applied to the Illinois Creative Accelerator Fund to support MELISANDE. Completed four assignments

31 Oct

September 2024

Scored "Once Upon a Time" and "Twice Trouble" for MELISANDE. Applied to Emergent Ventures to support

30 Sep