What's on your mind now?

[m1469]

Just sort of contemplating my next moves in life, with regard to career.  Not that I have a huge array of choices at the moment, I mean I know I need to just keep going forward... I suppose I am just working up the courage 

Kinda been thinking about my Grandpa who recently passed.  A little sad...

Also, I just spent a little bit of time having a healthy imagination about living my life in a way that I don't currently.  I was pretending to be an Olympic Athlete... 

[cowgirl]

"What's on your mind right now"? 

1. Well, wondering how in the world am I going to get through medical school.  And, trying to pick out which college on my list to go to.

2. How am I going to stay on the next horse I am going to break.  And for those that don't know what that means.  It means that I am going to tame a wild horse, so that you can ride it.   

cowgirl

[pianistimo]

interesting, cowgirl!  i used to have a horse.  but, alas, he was not wild.  he was a retired barrel racer that tripped occasionally (thankfully, he never fell down).

but, i watched a show about this guy in new mexico that tames wild horses.  wish i remembered his name.  anyway, he would have this routine of using ropes and whispering to the horse, getting him used to the feel of the rope, then bit, then saddle or something.  suppose you already know this.  i think people are naturally talented this way from childhood.  (getting into the mind of the animal and watching their actions/reactions).  i thought i remembered something about looking directly/vs not looking directly into their eyes.  i wish i could remember - i think it was that they don't like it at first to be directly looked at - that you have to be sort of non-chalant and fairly gauged in your timing of roping and when you attempt something like the first petting of the mane/neck - shoulders - back - - and then let them have time to get used to it.  to go around many times with just the rope and no saddle.  and, then, the saddle for a while - with noone on it.

[cowgirl]

thanks for the tips.

oh and wondering if my friend is going to live.  she has a flesh eating infection.

cowgirl

[alzado]

"What's on your mind right now?"

Paris Hilton

[m1469]

I am just thinking that it is strange that we can look on this forum and see activity... movement, in a sense, but that there is no sound to it except for the sounds we make up in our mind. 

All of these musical people and generally we spend time talking to each other in silence.  It's just plain strange and kind of tripping me out right now :- .


m1469

[Mozartian]

song lyrics running through my head (thanks to my friend )

Chiquitita, tell me the truth
I’m a shoulder you can cry on
Your best friend, I’m the one you must rely on
You were always sure of yourself
Now I see you’ve broken a feather
I hope we can patch it up together

lol I love that song...

[m1469]

I LOVE seafood 

[m1469]

I have found a big reaction in me when people tell me : "it's not about the accomplishment (or the goal), but about the journey".


I disagree, in part, quite strongly.  Firstly, every step is an accomplishment if we are actually getting somewhere, and if we are not getting anywhere, we are not actually taking a "journey" but merely wandering (aimlessly).  Especially with the implied meaning that through the "journey" there would evolve individual growth, and that that is what it is "supposed" to be about.

Fundamentally, if one is not striving toward a destination, why go anywhere at all ?  In piano practice, is it not considered the best use of time to set out a specific goal to accomplish however small or great ?  Focus.  How then would this same principle not apply to life itself ? Especially since the ideas to have a focused goal during something such as piano practice have evolved from life-experience ?

How can one ignore the accomplishments as though they have no importance ?  Each arrival allows us greater views, and as we never actually learn it all, our greater view merely affords us a glimpse of greater heights beyond.  A new goal.  So, in a sense, the accomplishment is a natural part of the journey, and an important part at that.

If that is what is meant when you say "it's not about the accomplishment, but about the journey" then I will agree.  But, with all due respect, I have never sensed that kind of depth to this particular statement.

In the meantime, I will focus my attention to certain goals, and I will love the journey, and I will love the accomplishment, too; it's about both (just as "fishing" is not merely a matter of casting, but of catching the fish too; it's a complete idea).  It's just that as long as there is life, the growth is never truly over (at least not in this life-experience).

m1469 (who just had to speak her mind)

[m1469]

The Destination.

I think that what is more accurate about the desire to not get "hung up" on the "accomplishment" is that it often does not look like what we thought it would look like. Also, it often does not lead us to the places we would outline for it to have lead us to.

There is a very simple explanation for this : We have never been there before -- and there is not an actual map in the world which tells us precisely what we will find once we get there (nor will it tell us exactly how to get there, either).

When we travel somewhere new, the reality of the situation will almost always be different than one's expectations in arriving there. And, I think one must learn to have the flexibility and humility to accept what one may find. The view looks different, perhaps, than one thought it would. Maybe one can see further than one initially thought they would be able to see (so the next trip looks longer than was planned for). Or, maybe one cannot see any further at all... perhaps there is heavy foliage or a mist and cloud. Either way, one must learn to navigate and at least eventually, to move forward.

I suppose that for me, I have thought that eventually I would make it out of the mountain range and into some great plateau at the top of it all... I think this is not true. And, more than it being true or not, it is not desireable to me -- I find liberation within accomplishing the very act of moving.


m1469

[abell88]

I am thinking about my daughter, who is on a 20-hour bus trip north to her summer job of tree-planting, where she will be paid 10 cents/tree planted, trying to earn money to pay for the equipment she had to buy for the job and earn some money for next year's tuition, all while being eaten by mosquitos, blackflies and deerflies...and who won't be here for Mother's Day, for the first time. 

[pianistimo]

did you say in a previous post that you were in canada recently?  orhave you moved there from cunningham pianos in philadelphia?  and, what the heck is your daughter planting ten cent trees, twenty hours away, when she could be borrowing money from you both on mother's day?  and, is this wood going to be used to make pianos?  are you secretely urging her on to a really good career later on down the road (secret forest of some kind, just for pianos?)  i believe the last time we spoke, you were trying to convince me that you were andre watts.

what's on my mind?  well, i just got a message from gonzalo asking about a specific aria 'marten aller arten' from the 'abduction from the seraglio' of which i'm not familiar.  can anyone give me a lead in as to what this aria is about and why (if i am a mozart lover) that it is a litmus test of fake mozart lovers to real mozart lovers?  unfortunately, i had to refer him to dennis pajot - because my husband is a baritone and would never be able to pass for 'constanze' if he sang her aria.  what is this aria about?  why should i know this?  will i now be disgraced in the music world of mozart lovers?  where can one find a good free copy of this aria?  preferably the authentic or urtext version for free?  what are the words saying? 

why was i surprised that dennis pajot had such a sense of humor - and much different than his role on mozartforum.  i read a very funny blog by him (scroll down to 'lake michigan' - and mozart)  at www.musiclassical.blogspot.com

[m1469]

I am just thinking about how the way I feel about you inspires me and makes me feel like I want to play the piano... and it makes me feel like I understand music.  I have a whole different focus about my music when I think about really playing for you... or even singing for you.  And then, I wonder if I should be worried about that  ... maybe I am not a pure enough musician.

[abell88]

did you say in a previous post that you were in canada recently?  orhave you moved there from cunningham pianos in philadelphia?  and, what the heck is your daughter planting ten cent trees, twenty hours away, when she could be borrowing money from you both on mother's day?  and, is this wood going to be used to make pianos?

I've lived in Canada for many years...the trees are planted (on contract) for forestry companies, who must plant 2 trees for every one they cut...in another 10 or 20 years they'll be cut again.

My daughter came home after a week...her tent rolled over in the middle of the night (with her in it) from a windstorm, and then there was too much snow to plant...the snow melted but she just couldn't take the job (get up at 5:30, eat breakfast, leave to start planting at 7, back to camp at 7 or 7:30, eat supper, go to bed).

[pianistimo]

richgalassini confused me with his being both andre watts and abel88.  i am now just as confused as i was before i went to cunningham pianos.  in any case, resolving questions just keeps me coming back to the store - which is what he probably wants.  i'd say it's a mild case of identity theft.  he wants to live in canada i guess.

your daughter is brave to camp in snowy ? weather.  and get up so early and plant trees all day long.  that is really a service to the next generation!

i want to plant trees, too.  i think i'll plant one in the back yard (takes an acorn and stuffs it int he ground) . does anyone need some acorns?  i've got a whole lot of them in the backyard.  there are so many types of trees here in pa that i'm still confused what's what. we have mostly white ash, maple, and other 'broad leaved' trees and not so many 'coniferous' where i am.  i think those are the piney ones, right?  does coniferous mean having cones?  just curious.  must look in my 'trees of pennsylvania' book.  it has pictures so you dont' get confused.  sort of like audubons bird book except trees.

what's on my mind?  hmmm. besides trees, flowers.  i planted some more impatiens - which grow like wildfire from one little plant.  you can also break the plants up and make more.  planted some marigolds, too.  and, i like going around lifting wildflowers once in a while from the backyard and putting them all in one spot.  then, when the lawn is mowed - they aren't cut down.

[thalbergmad]

I am just thinking of new ways of upsetting the pregnant dog i work for.

This week it was inviting eveyone to my birthday party and leaving her out on purpose. I told her i would have her thrown out if she turned up.

Next week, i think i will arrange for a wreath to be delivered with her name on it.

[Kassaa]

I am just thinking of new ways of upsetting the pregnant dog i work for.

This week it was inviting eveyone to my birthday party and leaving her out on purpose. I told her i would have her thrown out if she turned up.

Next week, i think i will arrange for a wreath to be delivered with her name on it.

What if she kicks you out?

Anyway, Beethoven pastorale sonata first movement is on my mind right now, have to fix everything up for my exam in five weeks.

[thalbergmad]

What if she kicks you out?

Then i will hunt her down.

[klavierkonzerte]

should i do a project on ralph lauren or hsbc bank?

& am i being used by my best friend?

[johnny-boy]

My little girl, Dagny.


John

[emmdoubleew]

History homework 

Girls 

[pianolearner]

Like the "What are you listening to right now" thread...

What's the most pressing concern on your mind at the moment?

Things you are working on now, things you "must remember to do today or this week,"  etc.  not necessarily piano.

Have you ever walked into a thread and then forgotten what you came in for?

[henrah]

I'm thinking about working up the courage to ask out this girl I'm friends with, and have been for a long time. The thing is, she confessed her love for me last summer, and I pleasantly (atleast I hope it came across pleasantly) turned her down because it just wasn't the right time in my life to be seeing someone, but now I'm starting to like her more and more but I don't know if she still feels the same. Also I don't want to hurt her if it wouldn't work out, as I feel she might get just a little bit too attached....


My mind is wretching with 'do' or 'don't


And I'm also starting to like this other girl too, but I'm thinking that seeing her will upset the first girl, and I really don't want to do that! So it's either her or no one really....


....damn you females

[thalbergmad]

I'm thinking about working up the courage to ask out this girl I'm friends with, and have been for a long time. The thing is, she confessed her love for me last summer, and I pleasantly (atleast I hope it came across pleasantly) turned her down because it just wasn't the right time in my life to be seeing someone, but now I'm starting to like her more and more but I don't know if she still feels the same. Also I don't want to hurt her if it wouldn't work out, as I feel she might get just a little bit too attached....


My mind is wretching with 'do' or 'don't


And I'm also starting to like this other girl too, but I'm thinking that seeing her will upset the first girl, and I really don't want to do that! So it's either her or no one really....


....*** you females

Don't waste your time with any of them.

Piano is more important than women.

[henrah]

But I can't have 'intimate relations' (atleast not with pain or some discomfort) with a piano, and I can't play Chopin on a girl.


Well, I don't think I can... I've never really tried his 4th prelude on a female, could be fairly interesting, though where would I play.... her teeth maybe?

[thalbergmad]

But I can't have 'intimate relations' (atleast not with pain or some discomfort) with a piano, and I can't play Chopin on a girl.


Well, I don't think I can... I've never really tried his 4th prelude on a female, could be fairly interesting, though where would I play.... her teeth maybe?

Girls are very much like pianos.

Both capable of beautiful music, but both have strings attached.

Choose wrongly at your doom.

[pianistimo]

strings attached to our teeth?  what?  are you dating girls that floss too much?

[johnny-boy]

Girls are like pianos; they go out of tune after a while.

John

[pianistimo]

out of tune, ehh.  *screetches

[johnny-boy]

Women on the other hand are like fine crafted violins; they get better with age.

John

[henrah]

I want both, and I want each to satisfy the other.
Henrah


EDIT: Hehehe, after reading what I just wrote I'm getting images of a girl and a piano getting off together lol Thought that's not what I meant... obviously...

[johnny-boy]

I can't really say what's on my mind. I will tell you I work for the Government. If I told you any more, I'd have to kill you.

Best, John

[thalbergmad]

Women on the other hand are like fine crafted violins; they get better with age.

John

Women are like a game of chess.

You start off with an early Knight and end up with a stale mate.

[pianistimo]

just went to the shriner's circus.  gotta wonder what's the thrill in riding an elephant.   what if the entire saddle just slipped around under the elephant?  and, how do those proficient riders hang on with their knees right behind the elephants ears?  that's still a pretty wide neck.  must be tough to hang on.

somebody help me get 'funiculi-funicula' out of my head.

oh.  i forgot to tell about the hula hoop girl.  she twirled about 20 at one time.  and, the swirling silk girl - she climbed these two silk panels 10 to 15 feet up whilst smiling and twirling around and in and out.  could have been a las vegas act - but, you know the shriners (1/2 the circus is based around what these old guys want to see and not the kids).  if my husband had known the silk swirling girls would be there, he'd have worn tighter pants.  as it was, he had to just pretend she didn't exist and read a book.   

[leahcim]

gotta wonder what's the thrill in riding an elephant.

I think you probably have to be another elephant to appreciate it.

[lilypiano]

thinking about what the last few years would have been like had I been in a mental institution.  I'm not in one. I'm taking classes, I share an apartment with other girls, and I am making progress toward having a life beyond my existence now.  I'm not trapped in a hospital with people other than me telling me I'm crazy. I  still have freedom and opportunities, even if I have tainted the best  opportunity I've ever had.  I've created an interruption for myself.  people that commit themselves do that.  They take a break from the real world they're not sure they can handle. 
 

"One moment made to stand still and stand for all other moments, whatever they would be or might have been. "
"The girl at her music sits at another sort of light, the fitful, overcast light of life, by which we see ourselves and others only imperfectly, and seldom. "

"It'll be okay, won't it?" I asked. My voice was far away from me and I hadn't said what I meant.  What I meant was that now I was safe, now I was really crazy, and nobody could take me out of there.
-Susanna Kaysen

[thalbergmad]

thinking about what the last few years would have been like had I been in a mental institution. 

6 months was enough for me.

Some of it was funny.

Thalx

[nanabush]

I'm f*ing screwd, that's what's on my mind 

I have two essays each worth 15 % of my overall mark in their respective classes, a presentation next week worth 10% and one the following week worth 25%, and IM GONE THIS WEEKEND TO A PAINTBALL TOURNY, AND IM NOT THAT INTO THE GAME IN THE FIRST PLACE!  blaaaaa I have no time to work on this stuff!@!

[ada]

thinking about.... my friend who has just been around for dinner after splitting with his partner in the ugliest of circumstances, two kids involved...and seven degrees of separation.

... students with essays to write...spare a thought for your poor lecturers who have 18 papers to mark....

[henrah]

I'm wondering why Sergio Tiempo had to butcher 25/6 with the bass run of 10/12, when it already has a wonderful bass line. I'd never heard 25/6 before hearing Tiempo's, and I loved it; but after hearing the proper bass line, there is no other!!


Pffft on him and pffft on his hands.

[m1469]

I am just kind of tired of letting myself be dragged down by the same petty things... I wonder how long it takes to grow out of some things ?  I am talking about stuff that I have seen through for years now, yet sometimes, it still seems essential enough in my life to dupe me into giving it power.  And then it just leaves me... there

I would just like my being to be operating at an entirely different level.

Lately, I have found that when these petty things are dragging me down... the thought enters my mind to ponder bigger concepts.  So, I find myself going and thinking about things like the infinitey of the universe... the rotation of the celestial spheres... grains of sand on the beaches I used to walk on as a child... being under water in the sea.... surrounded by fish... and surrounded by that beautiful sound.  And I find myself listening with much more awareness to everything I can hear.

Strangely enough, I don't feel particularly poetic of late.  I just don't feel like it.  I don't feel like posting a what if... I just feel like being me... plainly, simply.... if that is possible.

I have felt quite thrilled to be practicing regularly again... I guess you could say I am finding myself again... there, at the piano.  I have been obsessed, lately, with Chopin's etude Op 25, no 10.... I can't stop listening to it.  I imagine it is what a hurricane is like, or a tornado.  I imagine it is what it feels like to be in the middle of one... so stormy and bigger than oneself in many respects... and then the eye.  So beautiful and calm.... like heaven maybe... and then back through to the storm.  How did he do that ?

One of my newest students drew this for me and gave it to me today :




It made me happy  .

[thalbergmad]

Deep m1469, very deep.

[m1469]

I just got out of the bath after deciding to let my ears be under water for awhile.  Not the same as being in the ocean, but, I will take it.

I was thinking... probably a person's insecurities play a big role in what exactly is their being's life-demonstration at any one point in time.  So, I thought, to demonstrate a different life, I must cultivate different thought patterns.  I started thinking further though, too... and realized that it is not only a matter of a person's insecurities, but one's strengths.  If a person's strength or courage is greater than a person's fear, the individual's life-demonstration will be different because of it, and vice versa.

So, I started wondering... in general, which more clearly defines a person's demonstration of being ?  Strengths, or insecurities ?  Where does "the decision" end up getting made ... based on which ?

I think it will be a new little project for me for a while... and something interesting to observe while practicing.... and making musical decisions.


m1469

[m1469]

Whatever you *think* are my curiousities and questions... whatever you *think* or want to make me search for... unless you are actuallly looking for and finding the same thing... you are wrong about me.

Whatever you *think* is going to push me forward and make me grow, that is merely your own perception of the matter.  Don't forget to take your own advice and try something different... don't be so ignorant to let your mind create a rut in the way you live your life and try to help others live theirs. 

Whatever you *think* is working about it all... it's not the whole picture, because it's not all about you, nor does it come from you... you are not the cause, nor the affect.

My drive in life is to rip all of the BS apart, and find what's left.  That's what moves me forward, THAT and THAT ALONE is what makes me grow... my desire to know... and life's demand on me to do so.   I simply cannot escape it.

In the meantime, bare in mind that you only know of me what I choose to let you know... and most of those things are mere surfacing "outfits" that I feel I can do without... they are no longer me.  *I* am forever "behind" them, not in them. 

[thalbergmad]

Wow, what does all of that mean.

[johnny-boy]

My drive in life is to rip all of the BS apart, and find what's left.  That's what moves me forward, THAT and THAT ALONE is what makes me grow... my desire to know... and life's demand on me to do so.   I simply cannot escape it-m1469

Hi m1469,

In the movie "Hero" staring Dustin Hoffman, Andy Garcia, and Geena Davis, Hoffman gave this advice to his son: (Talking about life/and the World)  "It's all BS, you just have to find the layer of BS you want to live in".

Best, John

[m1469]

"It's all BS, you just have to find the layer of BS you want to live in".

BS 

[johnny-boy]

BS 

Very good reply m1469.

John

[Tash]

i think i'm gonna write and illustrate a story based on carnival of the animals for my class on tuesday. hmmm need to organise my thoughts....

[princessdecadence]

harps!