Even in Kyoto

Saturday evening, after the guests left*, I somehow got to thinking about my Dad and that one point while I was in college where he commented about how he missed hearing me practice the piano while he was washing the dishes in the evening.**

I guess that was the impetus behind opening up the Moonlight Sonata again. When I was at the absolute peak of playing, halfway through Freshman year of college, I had almost perfected the third movement. Saturday night, I only played through the first movement, clumsily reading the sheet music. Sunday night, I didn't bother trying to play, what with the fatigue from rowing and the rest of the day. I just thought my way through as much of the third movement as I could. Last night, I got through the first two movements, and was able to start the third movement again.

Freshman year of college was - what - 1999? Nearly twenty years ago? But extensive psychological experiments show that procedural memory lasts far longer than declarative memory. There are still a whole lot of cobwebs to clear, but some part of my mind feels that itch again.

I never made it very far beyond the classic classical music pieces on the piano, but then again, those are the songs I tend to like anyway.

Playing inevitably raises a lot of emotions associated with ageing, futility, expertise (or lack thereof), and death.


*securechannel hosted an afternoon gathering to celebrate the 4th anniversary of the chickens' hatching.

**I tried to make a tape recording for him, but of course the audio quality wasn't ideal. I sort of figured that was my only shot to capture things while at my peak, as I ran out of time and money for piano lessons after that first semester.

Today has been an "organize the calendar" sort of day. I'm not big on New Year's resolutions, but at the same time this is a good time of year to take stock of things and think about plans for the upcoming year, including changes. I am not sure about how to organize this list of things I am wanting to organize, but here it is:

-Short-term: Finish bike hook installation (probably the weekend I get back to town - Jan 8).

-Schedule a piano tuner (S gave me the Gift of Tuning, hurrah!)

-Figure out rowing in the Bay Area. A big thank-you to dichroic for passing along a couple of lists of the area rowing clubs. Starting point: Berkeley Paddling and Rowing Club (closer), if not that then Lake Merritt (8.7 mile bike ride one-way).

-Finish out an R-12 award (i.e. ride at least a 200km brevet each month for 12 consecutive months; I have 3 more months to go). Once I finish this, I plan to focus more on rowing, with occasional recreational bicycling thrown in for fun and profit (e.g. more picnics and bike camping).

-Come up with a plan for creative projects. sytharin and the housemates are somewhat keen to get ceramics operations up and running, which is something that makes me dream of gas-fired kilns and learning to mix up glazes. These two dreams are impractical for the here-and-now, plus I have other, non-ceramic creative projects that I wish to attend to (specifically, quilting and knitting). Hence the need for more of a plan for creative projects. The best solution may be just to schedule Crafternoons with RAC. That should also help us figure out how I can best help her with gardening projects, too. I can see why people use shareable calendar goop for this stuff, although I am tempted to continue rebelling with my paper and text files.

-Academic to do (condensed version): make a schedule for the conference in Portland next week; push forward the leafcutter manuscript (which doom level have I reached, again?); make a semester plan; analyze data and write manuscripts; start new experiments; polish job application materials.

-Get back on track with tracking spending. As mentioned elsejournal, I'm particularly interested in doing some detailed grocery accounting. In part this should help me figure out which items I wish to buy where in the grocery landscape of the Bay Area, and in part I am intrigued by the idea of comparing grocery spending here against grocery spending elsewhere (Lincoln in particular), and in seeing what I eat over the course of a year. Lincoln groceries won't include the occasional foray to the farmer's market, but those trips were pretty occasional and mostly for pecans and fruit bonanzas, because the grocery co-op did such an awesome job of selling locally-produced foods.

Edited to add:
-Develop the Bike-Friendly Fridays coffeeshop agenda for the East Bay.

I think that covers the major bases.

The last time I had ready access to a piano was my senior year of high school, a good eleven years ago. When I moved away to college, I continued to take lessons for one semester, but they cost additional money that I didn't have and I reached the point where I had to ask myself, "What's the use?" and I couldn't come up with a reasonable answer.

But my mind and my hands have always itched to get back in front of a piano. The rust is starting to come off, and I'm remembering things. I'm remembering the second movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, and fragments of the third movement, one of my favorite pieces. It takes so much concentration that it's impossible to think any other thoughts while playing it. I'm mostly remembering Claire de Lune, though there are still the usual sketchy sections that I muddle through when I haven't practiced in a while. I must practice, I tell myself.

This piano has seen better days. One of the bass clef C's does not silence after it's played - its damper seems to get stuck. When I play some of the treble clef keys kind of quickly, they clatter (though they still play better than my parents' half-"repaired" piano that needs replacement springs - it's vexing to try playing it). And there are some keys that are so far out of tune that certain chords are cringe-worthy. I've never been particularly fussy about tuning (I've never personally had to tune my instrument, mind you), but it's enough that I notice the difference. I don't have perfect pitch, but I'm pretty close - you just have to give me a starting key and I can go from there (I always think I'm remembering middle C and it always turns out to be A). There's a very high treble clef key that's missing its hammer. The damper pedal doesn't seem to function quite right, either - only catches a selective range of keys.

And the aesthetics leave a thing or two to be desired. I find the dusty mirror in front of the keys quite tacky, and the black paint job makes me sad and makes me wonder what's hidden underneath.

But it's a piano, and it plays, and my fingers clearly remember the feeling of the keys, and I tell you, it just feels so GOOD to play, to feel all those small but coordinated muscles in my forearms and hands work hard, to feel my pinky fingers stretch out. Nothing else is like it. Ahh. Some of the best money I've spent recently.

I had a dream last night/this morning about buying a piano. I miss playing the piano.

There was also a furniture segment, wherein my mother got rid of a lot of furniture and asked me if I wanted any, but I wasn' t interested in any of it.

Aren't dreams fun?

Okay, well, I've been a bit of a slacker. So here you are, gfrancie:

What five things do you enjoy doing to help lower your stress/blood pressure/anxiety level?
Make a list, post it to your journal... and then tag 5 friends and ask them to post it to theirs

1. Go rowing. It's always peaceful and quiet in the mornings on the water. This worked better when I lived in Seattle, though.
2a. (warning: snarky, smart-ass answer): Figure out what's stressing me out and fix it.
2b. Read a book while drinking some espresso or tea.
3. Tell corny jokes (okay, I do that even when I'm not stressed out).
4. Create art (painting, pottery, etc.)
5. Play the piano (assuming that I have access to one). This is really the best one. Damn I miss having a piano around. :/ Now I'm sad. And no, don't tell me that keyboards are just as good, 'cause they aren't. I just have to save up my spending money or something.


And sorry. I'm not going to tag anybody. That just contributes to the whole pyramid scheme business.