How are you doing right now ?

[jesc]

very busy... on things not related to music.

on top of that, I broke a piano string. It has been a long time since I played Chopin's revolutinary etude. Played the first few measures then suddenly "TWANG!". I lost count on how many strings I broke. I almost leapt from my seat on how loud it was... first time it did that.

I also lost count on how many times I posted on pianostreet about "breaking strings". IIRC My first post in this forum was about breaking strings. I honestly think that my last post here will also be about breaking strings... That problem never ends.

And to think I was supposedly playing soft the past few weeks. I was gonna type "stupid piano", "stupid me" but I recall typing those already when I last broke a string.

[costicina]

If it's any confort to you (as they say, "a trouble shared is a trouble halved"), the same happened to me twice this month. The first time a string in the bass register (it was like a shoot, and very expensive to replace, since I owe a Steinway), the second time about two weeks ago.
Do you really think it's our fault, I mean the way we play? Maybe they were a bit rusted, or worn out...or not?

[littletune]

Well I had another nose bleed today at night! And I'm still caughing a lot! 
I'm worried about my exam pieces!!! Only 5 or 6 weeks till exams!!! I have to start recording them and posting them!! 

[49410enrique]

Well I had another nose bleed today at night! And I'm still caughing a lot! 
I'm worried about my exam pieces!!! Only 5 or 6 weeks till exams!!! I have to start recording them and posting them!! 

i wish i had weeks, i have about 36 hours....

[newkidintown]

I'm pretty ticked off, to be honest. Just got unofficially kicked out of a school assembly band today (unofficially because they said it to one of the technical people right in front of me, but not directly to me). Yippee.

[m1469]

Woah, sneaking around in a back room at intermission.   Just made it through the Appassionata... 3 more to go.  There are about 18 or so people here.  Phweewww ... Stay focused.

[pianowolfi]

Woah, sneaking around in a back room at intermission.   Just made it through the Appassionata... 3 more to go.  There are about 18 or so people here.  Phweewww ... Stay focused.

Sounds uber fun! Good luck for the second half!!!!
I've had my student's concert today, and it was one of the best ever in my career, but I was sooo nervous before, and I thought everything might just end up in a chaos, including myself, I played 4 pieces, one of them, though in my repertoire, rather unprepared because one student was sick. And all in all I was just like wow is this real, and I can't believe! But now I'll gonna have a hard time to get my home concert ready for next Saturday  

[49410enrique]

to say i'm exhausted after today's piano marathon would be an understatement, i think exhausted imples a state of 'zero' energy, i'm most definately in the minus....Zzzz

[jesc]

If it's any confort to you (as they say, "a trouble shared is a trouble halved"), the same happened to me twice this month. The first time a string in the bass register (it was like a shoot, and very expensive to replace, since I owe a Steinway), the second time about two weeks ago.

Thanks, at least I don't feel like a freak anymore lol. I felt that way cause even my teacher who's a faculty at the college (probably already into decades of teaching) told me that breaking strings was rare.

Do you really think it's our fault, I mean the way we play? Maybe they were a bit rusted, or worn out...or not?

My last technical/mechanical discussion about the causes yielded two results. IIRC

The pressurebar on my upright Samick being a bit sharp and also my forceful playing. In my case I would like to believe that it's the quality of my piano cause I've been very harsh at the lower notes and I haven't broken any. All the strings I broke were on the high notes mostly within the two octaves from the extreme right.

And yes, my piano technician also identified the rusted strings aside from the pressurebar.

[m1469]

Sounds uber fun! Good luck for the second half!!!!
I've had my student's concert today, and it was one of the best ever in my career, but I was sooo nervous before, and I thought everything might just end up in a chaos, including myself, I played 4 pieces, one of them, though in my repertoire, rather unprepared because one student was sick. And all in all I was just like wow is this real, and I can't believe! But now I'll gonna have a hard time to get my home concert ready for next Saturday  

I'm happy for your success .  My concert was very interesting!  It felt like a real performance, but there were more distractions than probably a Hall would have.  My main goal, for today especially, was to get through functionally.  I feel I achieved this particular goal very well, and it was really interesting to observe in me the various mindsets I'd have throughout this process today.  I really learned so much from today, and it's soon enough going to be time to do it again tomorrow!  If I had to say the leading learn of the experience, it is that there is a difference between needing to grow as a pianist vs. needing to grow as a performer.  Obviously they can work hand in hand, and I can obviously continue to learn and grow as a pianist, but I feel my basic pianistic skills are better right now than my basic piano-performance skills.  And, I feel a sense though of having at least started somewhere now, and tomorrow I can perhaps improve on it.  Even during intermission, I kind of took stock of how the Appassionata went and realized I could try to get better as a performer just in the second half of the concert.  I think I felt I could take some more risks at times ... eventually, I'd like to be able to risk everything  .  

It was very cute that two of my students, after I was done, were willing and wanting to get up and play for everybody there.  I loved that.  Do you know, I have a ways to grow as a performer, but I feel I can do it, and I am very happy now that finally I am doing this.

[marik1]

Today I had a first lesson with my new voice teacher and her husband.  It was ME.GA .  They said I have a lot of metal in my voice ... that's a new description for me ... what does it mean?  me don't know.

What?!!!

What do you mean?!!!

For last 3.75 years I have been telling you that and you still keep bugging me about that stupid piano??!!!??

OK, whatever works... if that metal happens to be gold (which I have no doubt) I'd like to have my share...

Best, M

[m1469]

OK, whatever works... if that metal happens to be gold (which I have no doubt) I'd like to have my share...

Best, M

Gladly

[littletune]

i wish i had weeks, i have about 36 hours....

I hope everything went great for you!! 


Well I'm not exactly the best... I don't know what's wrong this year but soooo many things are going wrong!! I'm starting to believe that our crazy neighbour is sending us bad energy!  yesterday we bought two new fish and we prepared the aquaruim and it was really beautiful and the fish are so cute there are four (two from before and two new ones) and the cleaning fish from before too, but you know what happened today? the aquarium started leaking....  so now the poor fish are in one small aquarium and we have to go buy a new aquarium tomorrow... i'm worried! and there was also some water on the floor , but I don't think it was enough to leak downstairs...  and some of my mum's papers (from work) got ruined... and that's only two days before the stupid inspection is coming!!!!! i think our stupid neighbour is wishing so bad that they would find something wrong, something leaking or whatever that she's thinking about it so much all the time that it really happens........ I mean maybe it wouldn't happen just out of nothing but it just helps a little with the things that are old anyway... cause this aquarium was about 10 yeas old already......  I just hope the fish will be ok!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[goldentone]

I'm happy for your success .  My concert was very interesting!  It felt like a real performance, but there were more distractions than probably a Hall would have.  My main goal, for today especially, was to get through functionally.  I feel I achieved this particular goal very well, and it was really interesting to observe in me the various mindsets I'd have throughout this process today.  I really learned so much from today, and it's soon enough going to be time to do it again tomorrow!  If I had to say the leading learn of the experience, it is that there is a difference between needing to grow as a pianist vs. needing to grow as a performer.  Obviously they can work hand in hand, and I can obviously continue to learn and grow as a pianist, but I feel my basic pianistic skills are better right now than my basic piano-performance skills.  And, I feel a sense though of having at least started somewhere now, and tomorrow I can perhaps improve on it.  Even during intermission, I kind of took stock of how the Appassionata went and realized I could try to get better as a performer just in the second half of the concert.  I think I felt I could take some more risks at times ... eventually, I'd like to be able to risk everything  .  

It was very cute that two of my students, after I was done, were willing and wanting to get up and play for everybody there.  I loved that.  Do you know, I have a ways to grow as a performer, but I feel I can do it, and I am very happy now that finally I am doing this.

It sounds like it was a success.  

[m1469]

It sounds like it was a success.  

Yes, thank you.  It was certainly not perfection, but perfection wasn't truly the goal, nor even A goal.  But, I needed to start on this particular path somewhere, and it felt the right time and in the right way to start.  Under the goals that I had for this, I do consider it a success (I hear critics in my head, but I'm going to ignore those and still call it a success by definition of what I wanted these concerts to be for and about).

[revanyoda777]

*Bob is laughing about existential questions about life, followed by the scratching of body parts.*

Thalbergmad's timing is great

[revanyoda777]

Well  , just because I say that time and space are bound together as one entity and maybe you agree (maybe not?), doesn't mean there's only one way to percieve that or experience that!  In general though, no, I am not disagreeing with you, however, I feel that the perception of there being a point A and B is perhaps not altogether what it seems.  From earth, we try to percieve our coordinates within the solar system, and even though we have "things" that go deeper into space these days (of course, probably there is much more inside-knowledge regarding that than what I will ever know), much of our perception of where we are is very earthy.  Whereas, if we had a much grander view, say we could actually just see from way beyond the knwon Universe (say our perception includes *at least* two known "Universes"), looking into the known Universe (I got a kick out of an astronomy book's way of explaining the "Universe" ... haha ...), maybe earth could still be a point A, but we would be percieving it much differently from the grander view than from only the view of standing right upon it -- which is how MOST of mankind seems to experience it.

For the most part though, I am definitely not talking about particals and waves and such, though I realize those are part of perception and I am not saying they aren't.  But, just like I experience music as something much more than some kind of waves and particals, I can only guess that life is also much more than these, as well.  Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I don't believe in actually "empty space" in any part of the Universe (though I do comprehend that perception would argue otherwise) ... similiarly to how I believe a rest or silence in music is not empty.

Well, I believe that it is the human soul that gives breadth and width and meaning to the universe. The same is with music. The music isn't complete by itself, it needs someone to make sense of it, to relate, and admire it. There needs to be a two way dialogue or communication to have any meaning whatsoever. If a tree falls and no one hears it did it really fall? I believe the universe was predestined to contain souls in it that can comprehend its being and worth.

 "Reason is the natural order of truth, but imagination is the organ of meaning" Without reason and imagination working together you have an existence devoid of balance. I've noticed that there are usually two plains of self awareness: the realm of nature and reality where everything is bound by law and rules, and the creative, imaginative side of humanity, where anything is possible and we go outside the bounds of order. The science of things like matter, gravity, and and physics belong in the first camp. Dreams belong in the second camp, while art, and thought belong to both camps simultaneously. It takes organisation, and skill to make great art, but also something mysterious, and outside our natural biological selfs to produce art. Something within our souls to help function and fuel the creative process.

I know this probably makes no sense and is not relevant to anything else said, but I felt like spewing some ideas and thoughts out there anyway

[littletune]

Today that inspector came he was really horrible and rude!!! he was also rude to the crazy neighbour but also to my dad!    i mean really!!? people shouldn't be allowed to be that way no matter what they are!!!   

[m1469]

BOOOOOMMMM!!!    My accompanist for my (very first ever) half-and-half recital at the church just wrote back and she is IN.  Woot!  That means I have a venue, I have an accompanist, I have a plan ... I just have to set a date now ... There's a number of things I've been needing to do that are a whole other level up even from where I've been existing in the last couple of weeks with my first piano recitals in a *decade*   ... and I's been scaried to take the steps.  But, I think it's time.  At least last night I filled out the necessary paperwork for my first passport ever!  Woot!  Now I just have to submit it ... and at least I wrote to the accompanist at all about the possibility of my recital ... those were already big steps for me in the land of baby steppings.  


*inches around in life*

[ronniemilsont]

Now I experience type a tired and my abdomen hurts!  Throw Sight I don't know what's incorrect with me now. I think It might have an sensitivity to the end of vacations because the other day we had gone to low heat range place.

[oxy60]

BOOOOOMMMM!!!    My accompanist for my (very first ever) half-and-half recital at the church just wrote back and she is IN.  Woot!  That means I have a venue, I have an accompanist, I have a plan ... I just have to set a date now ... There's a number of things I've been needing to do that are a whole other level up even from where I've been existing in the last couple of weeks with my first piano recitals in a *decade*   ... and I's been scaried to take the steps.  But, I think it's time.  At least last night I filled out the necessary paperwork for my first passport ever!  Woot!  Now I just have to submit it ... and at least I wrote to the accompanist at all about the possibility of my recital ... those were already big steps for me in the land of baby steppings.  


*inches around in life*

Congratulations! There is nothing wrong with baby steps (incrementation). I like to call it the granular approach. Setting short term goals to reach a long term goal works!

Keep a copy of what you filled out for your passport. You may need to answer questions about it at the oddest times and places. I had to answer really odd questions when I drove back from Canada and once when ICE saw my address he started me on a conversation about my local sports team that he happened to follow from 100's of miles away.

[49410enrique]

i'm pooped. i feel like i spent the day doing math homework then decided to drill long division in my head, all from reading through new repertoire, normally it doesn't wreck me like this i think it's a combination of the extreme chromaticism in one piece's intro, it is dense, all over the place.....

i'm letting my mind rest by looking at some cosplay. really like it when it is done right. this is is pretty spot on, wow.

[m1469]

I'm gettin' my high D naturals on, boooooiiiiii ... and I didn't even know it!  Woot! 

[m1469]

YIP!  I've now officially submitted my passport application and all is in the works!  A very good and freeing step!!  More steps to take, but that was a biggish one in the preparations .  OH!  And I got Thank You cards and will begin mailing those  ... soon I will build a spot on my professional blog for photos and posts about my studies and such ... YIP!

[m1469]

Well, I've actually booked my flights ... I haven't made all travel arrangements yet, but I've booked the stuff that is the biggest deal ... now I have to work out *some* stuff on the insides of it.  I can't believe it!

[ahinton]

last night I filled out the necessary paperwork for my first passport ever!

It never ceases to amaze me how few Americans (compared to those from elsewhere) actually possess passports and how some others delay their first applications for them for as long as they do; I believe that this has been the case for quite some time.

Good luck with the recital, anyway.

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

It never ceases to amaze me how few Americans (compared to those from elsewhere) actually possess passports

Unlike us Brits, they can still travel 3,000 miles and not leave their Country, so I guess they have so much more to explore before they get the urge to go further afield.

Thal

[49410enrique]

i think we should all just get multipass. and call it good.

[m1469]

It never ceases to amaze me how few Americans (compared to those from elsewhere) actually possess passports and how some others delay their first applications for them for as long as they do; I believe that this has been the case for quite some time.

Good luck with the recital, anyway.

Best,

Alistair

I think this is supposed to be one of those "you stupid, ignorant, uncultured American" posts, but I don't care.  That's not why I haven't traveled, and I honestly can't believe the number of people who live in privileged families and go traveling throughout their growing up and entire lives.  I'm not bored with the US, btw (I haven't seen and/or experienced MOST of it),  I wasn't some little bank account baby, where some fund was set up for me to go to college or anything like that, OK?  SO, what I am doing now in my life is a BIG deal (yet somehow entirely natural-feeling) and we're talking serious bucket-list territory.  Like, I've wanted to do this for a very, very long time, deeply, and it's never been right or possible-seeming.  Even this experience that I will have has been a deep meditation, and I've not wanted to get my hopes up (plus, it's been a little daunting), so unlike other people who might have the luxury of doing something like this at the drop of a hat, when it seemed like a possibility, I didn't just go out and spend $150 on a passport as though that's all that needed to happen.  This has been and still is an evolving experience.

BUT, now that I've booked my flights with a general plan, I'm going to start getting some details squared away.  My very being is a wanderer, I think, to a large degree (there's plenty within me that likes a regular home, as well).  I've deeply wanted to experience other cultures and places, but Germany, Italy, Austria have been tiptop on my list.  I'm not really going to "experience" Germany (I'm mainly just flying there), but think I am definitely finding my way to Vienna (and Salzburg with the Festival!  WOOT!).  There are Hostels and I feel so deeply about it, I'll sleep on the streets (outside of somewhere Beethoven-related) if I have to.  That's nearly honestly how I feel.  

My primary focus is Music and the Festival, of course (GLADLY!), but for me, being in these areas along with my primary focus is all part of the musical experience.  It's as though I'll have a full experience that my entire being can participate and live in.

But here's what my soul is like:  Germany, Italy (I'd also very much like/need to see Rome, specifically, but that's nowhere on the radar), Austria, Switzerland, Spain, France ... I'm pretty sure Russia and seeing the Moscow Conservatory are very high up on my list (maybe higher than those other places, I'm not sure) ... China, Japan, Africa, Antarctica, I'd love to see South America ... Brazil, Argentina ...  and then pretty much anywhere else possible.  Of course, I'd like to see major destinations, but I'd also just like to be in these small, little, secret places and just quietly take it in that way.  

[oxy60]

That's great m1469. I don't think that Alistair meant to offend.

In the US we do have a lot to explore but it is only to look at. We don't experience a different culture from one city to another. Yes there may be some local customs that we might encounter. For example, my wife is a member of an international exercise gym and some facilities have different rules. Otherwise, our lodging, restaurants and road conditions were very much the same.

In Europe it's really different even between towns in the same country. I've been and lived all over Europe. You will enjoy it. Be open and embrace the differences!

[m1469]

That's great m1469. I don't think that Alistair meant to offend.

In the US we do have a lot to explore but it is only to look at. We don't experience a different culture from one city to another. Yes there may be some local customs that we might encounter. For example, my wife is a member of an international exercise gym and some facilities have different rules. Otherwise, our lodging, restaurants and road conditions were very much the same.

In Europe it's really different even between towns in the same country. I've been and lived all over Europe. You will enjoy it. Be open and embrace the differences!

Well, I have all of these mixed thoughts about it ... like, what if I go somewhere and it was this huge effort and huge desire for years, and then it's just underwhelming and looks/behaves very much the same as my own little town?  I guess I figure in that case, at least now I will know and perhaps something in me will still be quenched and can move forward and be free about that.  Also, I'm not really going to experience *that* much, I'll be in Germany one night on my way home from the Festival, and I'll figure out what to do with that, and even though I'm flying into Germany, I'm arriving pretty early in the day and will probably get straight on a train to Vienna.  And, I think other than what I see from my train(s), I'm going to mainly experience Vienna and Vols am Schlern, Italy.  That is GREAT, but I don't know that I'll have an experience anything close to the sense of what you describe.  That is, unless I decide to just take my backpack (with whatever silks I have to perform in, rolled up inside of it  ) and start walking ... or if I decide against my plan at the moment.

I'm assuming Vienna is majorly touristized, and that makes me a little sad because I know my desire to see this place and somehow catch a glimpse of the life of these composers will be a little (or extremely) commercialized.  But, something in me feels still that I can FEEL something there that isn't the same as imagining what it's like to be there.  And, even though touring these places and things of composers'/musicians' is very relicy, and I don't see power, exactly, in just these places or things, I guess I feel there will still be something about it where I can take myself out of being a tourist, out of being some person from some other place looking at some historical thing, and somehow get some kind of sense about it all that goes beyond all of the outward stuff.  Then again, maybe I will just be hugely disappointed?  Even so, as like what I wrote above, at least something in me will be quenched on some very deep level, and I can move forward.  There has been so much stagnation in my life, and moving forward, progressing, is just a very important thing to me.

Regarding the US, though, I get your point precisely.  I suppose that is part of what I am craving ... my little town is very known as not having much in the way of diversity, and I find myself appreciating very much the diversity I experience in bigger cities.  But, I haven't tried deep-fried twinkies or snickers bars, like they have in the South (or wherever that is!).  I guess that's some serious US culture right there  .

[ahinton]

Unlike us Brits, they can still travel 3,000 miles and not leave their Country, so I guess they have so much more to explore before they get the urge to go further afield.

Well, that's true, of course, but one could as easily say that people in Europe can do the same (substuting continent for country, which is reasonable in the context of a country with as many widely divergent states as US has), but rather more of them tend to travel outside Europe rather more frequently than Americans travel ouside America.

Best,

Alistair

[oxy60]

Well, that's true, of course, but one could as easily say that people in Europe can do the same (substuting continent for country, which is reasonable in the context of a country with as many widely divergent states as US has), but rather more of them tend to travel outside Europe rather more frequently than Americans travel ouside America.

Best,

Alistair

It may come as a shock but America is not as divergent as it is portrayed. Yes, in magazines and on TV in Europe you see some pretty wild aspects of life but those reports are from assignments to look for those types of stories. As a matter of fact the European media won't buy/run any other story than one featuring the abnormal aspects of American life.

Now with the internet things are changing and one can read US news unfiltered.

[littletune]

Now I experience type a tired and my abdomen hurts!  Throw Sight I don't know what's incorrect with me now. I think It might have an sensitivity to the end of vacations because the other day we had gone to low heat range place.

Yes and I recognize this one too... not really sure how but I do! and I guess I should be horoured that you like my posts so much that you make so many different variations on them... 

I'm ok right now I guess.... just never enough time!   

[49410enrique]

i'm confused. what am i supposed to do?

[zezhyrule]

Blehy and sick, like I have been the past four days u___u

[oxy60]

i'm confused. what am i supposed to do?

Stop tweeting! Stop checking Facebook! Step outside and take a walk.

[49410enrique]

Stop tweeting! Stop checking Facebook! Step outside and take a walk.

i was just joking. im an oddball of sorts among young people i do not have a facebook accout, or a twiittter account. etc. just an email, vimeo/youtube for piano viddys, and a pianostreet that's it.

my friends all think im strange, they're like , what you don't have a facebook? what's wrong with you? lol


to be fair i am strange.

[oxy60]

i was just joking. im an oddball of sorts among young people i do not have a facebook accout, or a twiittter account. etc. just an email, vimeo/youtube for piano viddys, and a pianostreet that's it.

my friends all think im strange, they're like , what you don't have a facebook? what's wrong with you? lol


to be fair i am strange.

No you're not.

Facebook is about Facebook, not about you. The same applies to every other of those media. Everyone seems to have been roped in to using them. Some businesses discovered very quickly that those media are not searchable. If a potential customer is looking for something your page on Facebook won't come up in the search results! Further, often Facebook won't show you a page unless you become a member.

[costicina]

i was just joking. im an oddball of sorts among young people i do not have a facebook accout, or a twiittter account. etc. just an email, vimeo/youtube for piano viddys, and a pianostreet that's it.

my friends all think im strange, they're like , what you don't have a facebook? what's wrong with you? lol
to be fair i am strange.

What a relief!!!!  :DI was going to feel, well, if not strange, senile fornot having a facebook and/or twitter account....They are so boring, judging from what I see on my daughter's one  (yes, she is on facebook  )

[thalbergmad]

I felt a bit senile for not having a facebook account a couple of years back, so I took the bold step and opened one. Sometimes it can be fun, but people do tell you the most mundane things as well.

Dougs has also got his own facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dougs/157974927551341

I think he spends more time on it than me.

Thal

[oxy60]

Not to belabor the point but Facebook is exploiting something they get for free; your attention and your email address. Then they sell those eyeballs to advertisers. If tomorrow the company needed to be liquidated, only the name and the software would have any value. Even the names and addresses would only work for a short time.

Some employees who got some stock from the IPO have already cashed out...

[49410enrique]

i'm doing better than this guy. 

[oxy60]

Well at least he stayed on his feet. We had to call paramedics last week for a woman who couldn't get up.

The guy who helped him could have been his son. It's looks pretty cloudy on that beach. Maybe his problem wasn't the sun?

[m1469]

I watched a solo piano recital a little bit ago and it actually really made me shed a few tears ... that might be the first time, I'm not positive.  But, then, do you know what?  The tears burned my face, actually it felt a little burny but even besides that, it left a red mark for at least a good half-hour afterwards (I haven't checked in a while) on my face where it "streamed" down my cheek (I didn't wipe it off because I didn't want to look like I was crying).  People write and talk about burning tears, and this one really burned me, it seems!  Hopefully the red mark is gone by now.

[Derek]

I'm excited at the recent activity in the Improvisations room, and the attempt to provide a guide for newcomers to the room. There's a certain individual near to this post who is a very good improviser who is missed there. 

[costicina]

I felt a bit senile for not having a facebook account a couple of years back, so I took the bold step and opened one. Sometimes it can be fun, but people do tell you the most mundane things as well.

Dougs has also got his own facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dougs/157974927551341

I think he spends more time on it than me.

Thal

Thal, my daughter Costanza fell immediatly in love with Dougs (and Dougs' girlfriend). She whishes to see more photos. For once, mother and daughter think the same 

[thalbergmad]

No probs, I will ask Dougs to upload some more photos

Thal

[49410enrique]

i'm feeling sorry for whoever paid more for succulent ass. i mean it's on sale, so why pay more for succulent ass? (some sorry sap prob spent 3.99 for 2 oz. of succulent ass before seeing this. sorry man.)

still price is not everything i suppose.  i mean you just can't put a limit on the value of high quality succulent ass you know?

this post says succulent ass 6 times.

[m1469]

No, this is not abstract art, it is the start of my day; my carpet completely (and hugely) stained now, right in the entryway, after I spilled my entire (large) mug of coffee onto it - pretty much 16 ounces.  Then the day got worse, a lot worse, then it got better.  I really don't have any idea how to get this stain out, but I tried a few things.