Acted the Spartan coach this weekend and went to a chess tourney in San Francisco’s Mechanic’s Library with a couple of neighborhood apprentices – Piledriver and Gardener. While they were playing rounds I worked through some chess book of mine and did some musical homework on a pitch array squiggling out some sparce matrix [...]

Continue reading " Chess Tourney Weekend "

Mostly listening to the usual this week. Bit busy with the day gig, but arranged to listen to those classics while looking through my notes and journals. Improvised around what I found in them on the piano. Playing with ideas to see how they might work in the larger context of the [...]

Continue reading " Composing Status Update #34 "

Not much time yesterday for indulgence in Ear Worming – light listen to Walton’s concerto. I hardly ever listen to it – perhaps because he starts with a W, so he is always last on my list – first and last name. No stress there. Then it was off to StarF**Ks to [...]

Continue reading " Listen Light "

Ok, not much else happening except listening. Creativity wanes, so might as well listen to some…stuff. Heard a bit of Knussen’s Violin Concerto on BBC3 yesterday. Hard to beat that intimidation. Certainly flushed the ears a bit. Then the usual stuff on iTunes – a bit of Korngold; a bit of [...]

Continue reading " Listen "

Monday’s are just not my days for thinking – just can’t get used to this early morning crap. Train chasing in the dark to get to some hole for the day. So, least to say, I didn’t progress much yesterday on creative tasks. Whittled through some chess opening preparations as I usually [...]

Continue reading " Brain Fried "

After a rather strange spring weekend, I thought we would kick it off by trolling for videos at YouTube. Here, lets watch Midori kick off some Tchaikovsky. Compare her work against Hilary. Is she a more interesting artist? I think so…

Continue reading " Violin Monday "

This is in response to KW’s Post which you can find here:
With respect to orthodoxies, I’m not sure what you mean, for it seems to me, if I take orthodoxy to mean a particular rooted group of processes or axioms, that musical history is full of such touch points, at least until another new orthodox [...]

Continue reading " Taboo Orgies "

Have to pass on this good news worth a reblog. Kenneth Woods and Suzanne have started a family.
Click here
Congrads to KW and S. I don’t expect KW will be around much these next few weeks. He’s gonna be busy, shell shocked, or perhaps just staring at this infant for hours on end. [...]

Continue reading " Conductor ^2 "