Weekend Wrapup

Mark Wein

Mark Wein

Grand Poobah
Staff member
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Friday - Chilled out with the family after work. Went to bed early to try and shake an ear infection.

Saturday - Worked in the morning and cleaned the garage in the afternoon. Then we hung out and went to bed early. Discovered that I was in the same round for the HCGJ as Micwalt and that my entry was grossly underwritten and underproduced. There's always next year :facepalm:

Sunday - hung out, cleaned the garage some more, took a bunch of stuff to the very rude people at Goodwill, hung some drapes and (as you can see from the picture above) did some babysitting :embarrassed:
 
Friday - worked, did some grocery shopping, roasted a couple of chickens, worked some more.

Saturday - took my daughter to the park and to the aquarium (she loves watching the beluga whales)... defrosted some beef stock and made French Onion soup in the afternoon... my wife momentarily forgot that she was 6 months pregnant and uncorked a bottle of merlot, which she then more or less forced me to down on my own while we watched movies.

Sunday - took my daughter out for breakfast, came home, played piano... I'm getting really sick of the stage piano. Can't wait until we find a house so that I can finally get the grand out of storage. Did a lot of reading, as well.

I think that this is my first weekend wrap-up post on any forum.
 
Flamencology said:
Friday - worked, did some grocery shopping, roasted a couple of chickens, worked some more.

Saturday - took my daughter to the park and to the aquarium (she loves watching the beluga whales)... defrosted some beef stock and made French Onion soup in the afternoon... my wife momentarily forgot that she was 6 months pregnant and uncorked a bottle of merlot, which she then more or less forced me to down on my own while we watched movies.

Sunday - took my daughter out for breakfast, came home, played piano... I'm getting really sick of the stage piano. Can't wait until we find a house so that I can finally get the grand out of storage. Did a lot of reading, as well.

I think that this is my first weekend wrap-up post on any forum.
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biggrin

How big (tall) is the stage piano? Or is it one of those Yamaha electric ones?
 
markwein said:
biggrin

How big (tall) is the stage piano? Or is it one of those Yamaha electric ones?
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It's a Yamaha CP300.

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It's a great instrument, but it'll only take me so far - I'd be having the same issues with an acoustic upright, honestly.

But of course, a 9-foot is pretty useless when it comes to things like portability and MIDI. And it's nice having a MIDI controller with decent action, instead of your average M-Audio MIDI keyboard.

And it sounds great - even the built-in speakers. I'd recommend one in a heartbeat.
 
Friday, spent most of the evening shoe shopping. Its insane to me how these manufacturers make obnoxiously expensive shoes but barely any of them are really comfortable, and ALL of them are ugly. So after finding out that Foot Locker was having a 30 percent off sale, I decided I shoul dtake advantage of that and tried on pretty much every pair in the store. I'm too old to give a crap about style anymore but I did manage to find a pair that is extremely comfotable and has fantastic cushioning. But, they are flat out hideous, of course.

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Went home and played some guitar. Didnt come up with anything cool.

Saturday, again played lots of guitar. Again didnt come up with anything cool. Messing with some covers though. Layed around, watched TV, watched the Pens get beat with my wife. Nice chill day.

Sunday, grilled up some steaks which were thin and tough, played with the dog, watched the Pens lose with the wife, watched The Shawshank Redemption which was a better movie than I remember. So I basically just spaced out this weekend which was nice afterthe week I had, I was pretty strung out.
 
Flamencology said:
It's a Yamaha CP300.

403737.jpg


It's a great instrument, but it'll only take me so far - I'd be having the same issues with an acoustic upright, honestly.

But of course, a 9-foot is pretty useless when it comes to things like portability and MIDI. And it's nice having a MIDI controller with decent action, instead of your average M-Audio MIDI keyboard.

And it sounds great - even the built-in speakers. I'd recommend one in a heartbeat.
Click to expand...

Aha....I have 3 pianos in the studio, all uprights. My favorite one is a very tall (not quite upright grand but getting there) 1923 Griffin Bros. I'd be happy having it in my house.

There is something physical missing from playing an electric piano or keyboard, though. There is definitely a tangible difference to playing a larger piano that the digital stuff can't replace yet....
 
Friday - worked, hung out with the kids, watched "Quantum of Solace" after the kids went to bed.

Saturday - Got the kids' hair cut, hung out with my folks for a bit, remixed "Let Me Breathe", and watched "Twilight". Mrs Aahzz was funny during "Twilight" - she said her inner teenage girl was swooning and her adult self wanted to smack her for it. I was amused, I could picture all the girls swooning over the cute vampires. Really, it was so bad it was almost good...

Sunday - got to work on the new tune, currerntly titled "Project 2", as I have no lyrics yet :). Took the kids to a playground, and did the weekly grocery run.
 
Mine was pretty much a carbon copy of last weekend. Hung out with Mom and the brother and sister most of the time, went home both days to work on some stuff, tried to do some recording with no luck, didn't talk to anyone else. Only difference was I skipped the gym both Saturday and Sunday, but going in to hit it hard today. Only going home once or twice a week makes it a little hard to catch up on everything.
 
The most exciting things are already documented in my picture thread.

Friday: Took 1/2 day off work. Went bike shopping for Mrs. P (her old mountain bike was a little too small for her.) I found a bike that seemed like it was a better fit for her, and I bought it. Went home, electricity was out. Came back on right before Mrs. P got home. She brough Calzones home for dinner. We did a very quick bike ride just to see if she liked the bike, then ate dinner. Then I believe we watched a movie and went to bed.

Saturday: I got up and went to the gravel yard to get more gravel for the sinkhole. Got that filled in. Then we took the bikes to Cedar Lakes and rode for a few hours. Came home and spent some time working on a song.

Sunday: Watched TV, got a haircut, went for a bike ride, brushed the dogs, grilled some pork chops, spent some time working on a song.

That's pretty much it.
 
Oh, and it was beautiful all weekend. High 60s on Saturday, high 70s on Sunday.

Today's high is 53, which is what the temp was at 6 am. It's supposed to drop all day and snow tonight. :facepalm:
 
markwein said:
Aha....I have 3 pianos in the studio, all uprights. My favorite one is a very tall (not quite upright grand but getting there) 1923 Griffin Bros. I'd be happy having it in my house.

There is something physical missing from playing an electric piano or keyboard, though. There is definitely a tangible difference to playing a larger piano that the digital stuff can't replace yet....
Click to expand...

It'll never get there; even the best recordings played on the best audio systems are no substitute for an unamplified live performance in a good acoustic space; say Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Village Vanguard, Carnegie, Wigmore Hall, etc.

I really don't mind using stage pianos for playing pop music (I use that term in its broadest sense), gigging, banging out chords, MIDI work, etc.

But, honestly, trying to play advanced repertoire, there's a breaking point.

I was working on this score yesterday:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8KAo3vbNa8"]YouTube - Salonen Piano Concerto (Bronfman) 1st Mvmt (1/2)[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjNvQUBiO8Q"]YouTube - Salonen Piano Concerto (Bronfman) 1st Mvmt (2/2)[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjlXsqQ-wyI"]YouTube - Salonen Piano Concerto (Bronfman) 2nd Mvmt[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1POKO6V7PE"]YouTube - Salonen Piano Concerto (Bronfman) 3rd Mvmt[/ame]

It's a very demanding piece, both mentally and physically, and it's no good if your instrument isn't working with you; it was like trying to drive a minivan in an drag race.
 
Flamencology said:
It'll never get there; even the best recordings played on the best audio systems are no substitute for an unamplified live performance in a good acoustic space; say Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Village Vanguard, Carnegie, Wigmore Hall, etc.

I really don't mind using stage pianos for playing pop music (I use that term in its broadest sense), gigging, banging out chords, MIDI work, etc.

But, honestly, trying to play advanced repertoire, there's a breaking point.

I was working on this score yesterday:

It's a very demanding piece, both mentally and physically, and it's no good if your instrument isn't working with you; it was like trying to drive a minivan in an drag race.
Click to expand...

I can see that, especially listening to the first movement right now. My piano playing has never been close to that but a good piano in a good room can be magic....
 
Friday - Ran a bunch of errands because were we supposed to get nailed by a snow storm around midnight. Played some Wii in the evening and listened to the round 4 songs on HC. I was very glad my song was NOT in round 4....

Saturday - Woke up expecting about 6 inches of snow and high winds. Nope - but there was about an inch of snow and moderate winds. I ran my son off to his HS to be a judge for a kids competition. Then went to a 4 hour band practice w/out a drummer :)facepalm: - he is on a two week tour backing some other guy). We actually accomplished a lot, but scheduling everyone is already getting to be a pain. We will just have to gig with music stands a show or two I guess. It was spitting snow most of the day. The evening was pretty lazy

Sunday - Led the band at church which went pretty well. After a nap we went cloths shopping for my daughter who keeps growing out of everything she owns (she turns 13 tomorrow!). We spent about 1 1/2 hours at a pretty nice consignment store that specializes in teen and young womens clothing. We managed to leave with at least one or two dollars left to our name. I spent about two hours in the evening sitting in front of the laptop, cruising the net and playing guitar at the same time. I came up with a couple cool licks....
 
Friday - Started the weekend early. Way early
Saturday - LAX practice - then afternoon family nieces and nephew B-day party. Sacked out on the couch with the family that night and watche the mummy
Sunday - Did some stuff around the house (hung blinds) and then headed to a soccer game were we lost 0-1. Came home - cooked london broil on the grill - ate it - went to band practice.
 
Friday...wife and I watched Hitchcocks "Lifeboat".

Saturday...went and saw HR of the Bad Brains at the Larimer Lounge downtown...the opening band reminded me of Sublime, the were called Lionize. HR was, um...interesting. His band was good. I talked to the guitar player after the show. He played a double cut LP with P-90s that sounded freaking incredible. We talked about how he liked his PUs mounted and other gear related stuff...really nice guy. A girl talked to me at the bar and then introduced herself to me out in the crowd...I couldn't tell if she was hitting on me or if she was making sure her dad hadn't sent out a spy to keep an eye on her :facepalm: It was a fun show. I didn't get home until 3 am...

Sunday: Slept...played multiple games of Trivial Pursuit with the family and made wontons and salmon for dinner.

Good weekend.
 
cfgsteak said:
A girl talked to me at the bar and then introduced herself to me out in the crowd...I couldn't tell if she was hitting on me or if she was making sure her dad hadn't sent out a spy to keep an eye on her :facepalm:
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Ahh....

The joys of getting older.....

:facepalm:
 
Here's a picture I took of my backyard Saturday morning:

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Here's a picture I took this morning:

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I spent the whole weekend digging a trench, laying a base of crushed limestone, sand and then pea pebbles to put in this walkway. I also put down a bunch of grass seed. About four o'clock it started snowing like a mother fucker so the last hour of work was awesome.

It was fun but now I'm really tired.

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