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HOME PAGE CLASSICAL PIANO/REPERTOIRE: Recordings THOUGHTS OF A CLASSICAL PIANIST: My Classical Piano Blog MY ULTIMATE / NEW PLAYLIST Archived Entries: 2023 JANUARY-DECEMBER 2023 2022 JANUARY-DECEMBER 2022 2021 JANUARY-DECEMBER 2021 2020 JANUARY-DECEMBER 2020 2019 JANUARY-DECEMBER 2019 |
Sunday, April 28, 2024 When a layover becomes a stopover, and you can enjoy delicious, cultural foods as in Fiji. Such is the traveling life of my guy Mikey Chen. His videos always gets me hungry or induces cravings haha. Not the traveling part however. Unless I can magically appear in a country (I have "Beam-Me-Up, Scotty" phobia as well so that wouldn't work. Fortunately, the technology is pure sci-fi only). What a treat to see snippets from an old AWC game - where Cloud9 enjoyed sniping Trill within 30 seconds of the match haha (some hefty, unexpected crit or proc that induced laughter I think). Is Chanimal preparing his Druid. Balance / Boomies have been OP all expansion. If there is time, why not I guess. Or is Chan is "just" preparing now. We're comin' after you Trill, you McLovin'-lookin', hahaha. Saturday, April 27, 2024 Sometimes, it's only about down-to-earth videos or vlogs - such as Sungwon Cho's home cooking with his mother or Steebee Weebee taking his mother Costco shopping. And by the way - I hate raisins. Haha. More please. Friday The 13th Part 20: Ricky Berwick Takes Manhattan Actually. Hahaha. I think Diss Tracks are hilarious - as long as they are real. Hahaha. Parodies can be a form of a diss, but it is more light-hearted. Andrew Huang / Rob Scallon's new track - "Dead To Me". Nice title haha. As sadistic / dark as it is. Friday, April 26, 2024 *I have to settle for Microsoft Clipchamp. It's a very basic video editing software, but it does its job. For OS being over-priced, they better have included bunch of software. I've noticed that a lot of software companies (overseas HQ ones) have contact support listed, but never bother to actually answer or never bother to pick up their lines. As if no one is actually doing their jobs there. They are businesses to completely avoid, as they have shit products to begin with. I'll settle for Microsoft I guess. For now. Youtube is another media platform that needs replacing. Unfortunately, none of any startup media platforms have gained any traction. It's only a matter of time before they flop completely (or they already have). Sort of like a sour burrito not digesting well haha. Youtube Shorts are the only saving grace - I usually focus on them, since they'll have snippets of interest. "Choe Shorts" are the Go-To shorts. They say more than the entire Youtube trends combined. I'm happy for Arnold Chun, his new short doc / film has been funded and has found a sponsor. We need more of these quality, educational projects. Thursday, April 25, 2024 I'm happy whenever the Video Game Pianist uploads, although it's been few and far between now. I think he's training extensively (as well as other endeavors in Music not pertaining to Youtube). He is legitimately cultivating a second career as a Pro Marathon runner. The piece before "The Hut On Hen's Legs" has a very morbid / dissonant sound, I might include this. Again - these pieces depicts pictures or paintings / imagery (sort of like "Night Gallery" in classical music form). Wednesday, April 24, 2024 I think the "The Hut On Hen's Legs" (sort of describing some grotesque contraption) is the most difficult of the "Pictures At An Exhibition" pieces. It'll be a fun one (including "The Marketplace"). With the start of WoW DF PvP Season 4, queue times for Battleground Blitz have come down somewhat - and it appears Horde PvP'ers have returned somewhat. Randoms have been more competitive. Even though going into 1 vs 2 or 1 vs 3 is a sure-fire beatdown, I still do it. If the opposition is terrible, I'll win however haha. I'm "fired up" for returning to Fire Mage. Although they have the highest burst, they are the squishiest of the 3 specs. Frost has been fun, with the most slows / snares and survivability. Arcane has been Arena players' choice, perhaps because of better mobility and sustained damage. For me - I consider defensives and survivability more important than outright damage (crucial for any 1 vs. 1 since you don't have a pocket healer). Tuesday, April 23, 2024 *Should Watcher Entertainment be forgiven. I don't know - but it no longer matters. There were only a few shows I was interested in, nothing else so it doesn't matter. All follow-up videos that are disguised as "apologies" are just "damage control" and nothing else. I think the Just Kidding News crew (with special guest Dante Basco haha) nailed it in their assessments. Daniel Dae Kim's "Butterfly" is shaping up to be one helluva show. It is filming in Korea, and takes place there (only appropriate). And they were able to hire some K-Drama stars. Right now, this is the only program worth looking forward to since it's been quiet out there (or there has not been any news at all nowadays). Do talk shows still exist. Podcasts have taken over in this era. I haven't given them a second thought since 20+ years ago. With that said - Fallon still looks boyish even with his hairy face. I have never seen the guy with facial hair - always boyish / clean-shaven haha. Sunday, April 21, 2024 Doesn't Tim Chantarangsu kinda look like Dante Basco up there on the stage haha. I think Tim might have a career in standup - it sure ain't easy. You just can't crack jokes and elicit laughs. Sometimes, most of the funny stuff are completely unintentional. All Tim needs to do is go with his mastery of Puns, and imitate the Jello Pudding Guy. Recipe for success. Hahaha. I have one more Mendelssohn, and it'll be complete. "The Marketplace" from "Pictures At An Exhibition" is a dynamic piece. You can picture the hustle and bustle of a market or even a mall (for modern times), customers quarrelling with each other or with merchants. Customers frantic in purchasing stuff and in a hurry. This might take some time. There are a few more pieces - certainly not all of them. The dissonant, non-melodic sounds takes getting use to. But they are all thematic, encompassing an underlying theme as a whole. Saturday, April 20, 2024 The greatest intrigue right now, is where in the world is Raymond Yu (aka C-Mac, Mac Eats, Mac-Venturer). He's also a true humanitarian - taking time in his videos to give back to the needy or the less fortunate. I think this is why he goes to the poor areas, or areas "tourists" would avoid. Hell - I prefer "avoiding" these goddamn "tourists" to begin with haha. I'd like to see C-Mac travel around Asia more, although I doubt he can go to the Far East countries nor would they have the temperament to handle C-Mac. Who is DOA? He's the "Defenders Of Ants"! He ain't Ant-Man but even better - Ant-Man ain't got nuthin' on DOA haha. Forget about "Defenders Of The Universe" haha. Let our inner weirdness take over, because there is no such thing as normalcy anymore. Steebee Weebee as Conehead, Bobby Lee as Fat Powdered Toast Man, and Ricky Berwick as the new Handi-Man haha. It was about time I upgraded my system (fortunately, found a decent deal). Taking it to a repair shop over and over, the labor costs and over-priced maintenance fees sure adds up and was no longer an option. I had the same system since I moved here with a few upgraded parts (due to system crashes / infections) with an obsolete Windows 7 - probably one of the last few who still had it, because too lazy to upgrade and the operating systems are completely over-priced. Plus, I hate windows systems - now they require you to have an account with them just to log in. What a buttload of crap. Create an OS that can take over the market, and I'll gladly be your personal slave. It might never happen. Friday, April 19, 2024 *Good luck to Watcher Entertainment - they were interesting and humorous. But a resounding "Hell No" for me. I don't pay to watch stuff (except for the occasional renting a movie) - what we "making ends meet" folks do is having to "pay our bills" first. This is why we cancelled our network TV from xfinity months ago. Nothing worth watching there. I personally think that subscription-based content should be premium content, while at least upload some stuff at the basic level for free. But of course - everything has become a business model. Even blizzard is in the business of transforming WoW into a Microtransactional game with nothing to show for it. I enjoyed "Ghost Files" for what it's worth, but in the end - it's always about "money talks and bullshit walks". The reality is there is always new content creators out there, or ones just waiting to be found. It's how I found Watcher to begin with. Nothing lasts forever, or in this case, not even a year haha. Tuesday, April 16, 2024 *I just recently found Bart Kwan's vlog adventures. It's interesting how he claims that the main purpose of the trip was to visit the Blue Pool falls area, yet most of the excitement comes from eating all the delicious foods haha. How many scenes of pancakes, snacks, etc. Countless. Wasn't Bart Kwan supposed to help pack instead of recording haha. I guess that's why Geo gave that stare and "Chaos is coming" look. Or Geo might have been just pissed that she had to shave again. I'm glad to hear Tomo Nakayama is collaborating / playing with his colleague again - they made a nice duo. When he returns, he has that anniversary concert for his first album at the locale where he produced and recorded it in its entirety. The acoustics at some places rivals that of concert halls or even better. Other than Lang Lang's recording / performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations at the church / chapel or whatever that place was (Bach's resting place), there isn't any better acoustics nor greater achievement than that. I'm just beginning to find articles on Justin H. Min's involvement in his new film, "The Greatest Hits". There are some interviews with them. Music evokes emotions, but evoking memories. That's a new one. For me, it's only about emotions. Because my life is devoid of memories - only leftover / generic or vague emotions of being treated invisible or used (of course - some of us Asian Guys were too plain, ugly and never stood out at that time. Even now - understandable, so Have A Nice Life, Have A Nice Death. Let the world end. Hahaha). Music is just a medium for expression or as an outlet. There is nothing else. Back to "The Greatest Hits" - I hate love triangles, but I can relate to themes involving music. It's fortunate I guess that I'm mildly autistic - I cannot feel that emotion nor sympathize any longer. My focus for the rest of my life, is to just improve as a parent and find more energy to devote myself to my family. It's just going to get more tiring and overwhelming otherwise. Saturday, April 13, 2024 "Local Adventurer" are fun Youtubers who are of course, adventurous and vlog their travels / experiences to interesting places. They also review travel gear and other equipment. I'm also enjoying the new "Mac-ventures". Speaking of Youtubers or content creators, I'm glad that Jimmy Zhang is switching gears and doing something different. He's quitting what's been trending (there's too much out there, and it's all the same shit. They have been stale and dull for awhile, but loyalists and followers are going to always watch). He has been doing it for quite some time, and sometimes - you gotta do what you gotta do to get established or make profit. Now that he is established, he can create stuff that actually makes him happy. And of course - settling down. Another "I Want More Sauce" situation. Please - is there any sane reason to throw a tantrum about "Getting Only 1 Packet Of Sauce" at Popeyes of all places haha. You can politely or quietly go about it, and if they still don't give more - quit going there, or take your business elsewhere. Friday, April 12, 2024 *Tim Chantarangu's son is already 1 years old. Babys and toddlers throw tantrums. He seems "well-behaved", at least on camera haha. Who can resist them chubby cheeks and curious, roving eyeballs - the definition of adorably cute. I think his vlogs are genuine. The "Dudes Behind The Foods" guys were talkin' about how parents were using their children for clout or views. Shame on you, "Cry For the Camera" lady haha. Which D-So character is your favorite - Ball Handles, Mr. Wuhan Steve (or ask Careful Boyz Steve about that), or Jose Kim haha. For 20+ / hr, I'd work at McDonald's in a heartbeat haha. I don't see any Asians working in the fast food or service industry however (except in our own businesses). It's just as well, considering the increase in karens. Instead of pretending to be a werewolf, goddamn - just tell the driver to pull over cause you gotta take a shit. Hahaha. Thursday, April 11, 2024 I didn't find Andrew Huang until he become known for creating / composing songs with unique requirements to them, or creating songs out of ordinary sounds. This kind of unique talent does not exist these days. I wouldn't say Andrew Huang is One Of A Kind, but he's up there. It was refreshing to watch Andrew go back and roast or reflect on his old songs when he first started out. This was back in the day when the internet was in its infancy. Where knowing traditional HTML and other dynamic coding was required. I still maintain the traditional style - it allows to have a layout to my intention (and no crappy, pre-existing layouts such as today). Congratulations to Maestro Lang Lang on his Walk Of Fame. His success story has been inspiring, and play style has inspired a lot of young pianists to learn more pieces. Also - congratulations to Billy Joel's 100th show at MSG. Has it been that many - all sold out from what I hear. The longevity has been astounding, and still going strong. Unfortunately, it comes to an end in the summer. Who is Eric Wei - Venture Capitalist and Financial Advisor / Planner for social media gurus or celebrities. Another articulate, highly intelligent youngster - makes most everyday folks look too ordinary. Even myself. Finances and numbers are just too much for me haha. Entrepreneurship or startups are some of the most difficult endeavors in life. But it might be the only way to bypass / dismantle the "gatekeepers". Who is Stephen Oyoung - need to find out more. Wednesday, April 10, 2024 Daniel Dae Kim has been made an honorary citizen of Seoul (definitely noteworthy) - https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20240320050738 He is also in Korea as his new show "Butterfly" is in production / currently filming. For sure, he ain't there to sight-see Cherry Blossoms haha. In honor of the show "Butterfly", here is Chopin's Butterfly Etude awhile back: Page 2 |