Once again, I just like to post about the weather from time to time
so that in years to come I can look back and compare. This has been one of the
coolest summers that I can remember here in Valencia. I had to close most of my
windows last night to keep out the cold, yes, cold. This morning I put on a
cotton t-shirt when I usually languish around my apartment bare to the waist
because of the heat.
I noticed the supermarket had toothpaste with “triple action.” I
asked the lady if they had quadruple action. She just stared at me like she was
waiting for someone to come along and throw a net over me but I thought it was
a legitimate question. We can put a man on Mars but we can’t make quadruple
action toothpaste? Our scientists suck.
It just seems logical that if they have quadruple action toothpaste
and you're only using triple action you are wasting your time, like doing a 30
minute work-out when you should be doing the 15 minute version.
In
the exercise of their powers, the Public Administrations shall take appropriate
measures to remove shields, insignia, plaques and other objects or mentions
commemorating the personal or collective exaltation of the military uprising,
the Civil War, and repression of the
Dictatorship. These
measures may include the withdrawal of subsidies or public aid.
The
provisions of the previous section shall not apply when the mentions are of
strict private remembrance, without exaltation of those confronted, or when
there are artistic, architectural or artistic-religious reasons protected by
law.
The
Government will collaborate with the Autonomous Communities and Local Entities
in the elaboration of a catalog of vestiges related to the Civil War and the
Dictatorship for the effects foreseen in the previous section.
Public
Administrations may withdraw subsidies or aid to private owners who do not act
in the manner provided in section 1 of this article.
Spain
knows a little about tearing down monuments that offend a good part of
their population. Across Spain there has been a race to eliminate the
exaltation of the Franco dictatorship. Not only likenesses of El Caudillo
have been torn down but also those of his henchman in his dictatorship.
Streets, plazas, and schools have been renamed to reflect public sentiment
against the 40 year reign of Franco.
Removing statues isn't rewriting history as many are
saying. We are just deciding that not all the people we once chose to exalt are worthy of our
praise, to put it lightly. The fact that we have been exalting the architects
of the Confederacy has undoubtedly contributed to the racism and ignorance that
we see rearing its ugly head today in places like Charlottesville. Praising the
leaders of the Confederacy paved the way for 100 years of the ugliest sort of
racism and segregation in the South after they were soundly defeated in the
Civil War. I think it's time once and for all to set the record straight so we
don't breed yet another generation of Southerners who think the rebel cause was
noble.
Our delusional image of the noble South has gone on
for far too long and praised by too many. Our popular culture is mostly to
blame in how Americans today view the legacy of the Confederacy. I would guess
that most of them have never read a book on the subject and many have probably
never read any book in their adult life. Or perhaps they’ve read Gone with
the Wind, one of the most popular and beloved novels in American history. I
read it in high school and was fairly appalled but its suggestion that perhaps
Black people were better off under the benevolent slavery of the gentrified
South than they were after the victory of the Northern Mongols who flooded into
the hallowed grounds of Tara.
I wish that I had kept track of every Western movie
Hollywood has cranked out over the years which portrays the Southern rebel army
as the nobler of the belligerents. The Outlaw Josey Wales, Cold
Mountain, and The Undefeated are three that I can think of off the
top of my head that fit this vile description of apologists for the slave
holders.
Freedom of expression shouldn't give you the right to
carry the flags of our sworn enemies like the Nazis and the Confederacy. Why
not just carry the ISIS banner while you’re at it? You could put all three on a single mast.
If you are unable or unwilling to distinguish between
people carrying torches while screaming racist and anti-Semitic filth from
people who are protesting against that sort of vile human garbage what does
that say about you? Contrary to the opinion of our president, people who oppose White
supremacists and Nazis are not just the other side of the same coin. If merely
saying “Black lives matter” offends you then you are no friend of mine. In
fact, this would make you my enemy.
Everyone and I mean everyone is complaining about how hot it is
lately. It seems like it isn’t as hot as it’s been in years past and certainly
not among the hottest of summers that I have experienced. This is completely
tolerable for me although I don’t go out much at mid day. I sleep well with
only a fan which is a good thing because I don’t have AC. I have to admit that when
I walk into the supermarket below my flat I really enjoy how cold it is there. As far as I can remember this has been the most pleasant August since I have lived here.
After a ten year absence I finally returned to playing piano.
Without a bit of false modesty I have to admit that I was always crap. I began
very late in life and when you add to this handicap the fact that I’m not
exactly bursting with musical talent you end up with mediocrity…on a very good
day. This time around I have a lot more hope of achieving a lot more on the
instrument thanks to a few new items in the mix.
First on this list of my new advantages is my Yamaha P45
electric piano. It’s an amazing instrument and infinitely better than almost
any keyboard available back when I used to play. I had an upright acoustic piano
in my apartment in Seattle and back then I swore that I'd never have
anything but a “real” piano. Times change and technology changes at an
astounding pace. My new piano is light and portable, two essential things when
you live in an apartment building sometimes without a lift. If you're lucky enough to have a lift it probably won’t be big enough to accommodate
even a very small piano. Moving a piano with a mechanical lift from outside the
building will add at least 150€ to the purchase price.
My snobbery about the superiority of "real" pianos kept me from buying a keyboard so I lived without music. I didn't even listen to music.I finally reached a point back in February of this year (2017) in which
not playing became intolerable. I shopped around and bought the Yamaha. I'm
thrilled with it so far and I think that I made a very wise and lucky
investment. So far I have one very minor complaint in that the force necessary
to play keys between the black keys is a bit harder that it should be. The
sustain pedal is pretty crappy but I can buy a better one. Another huge advantage
is that I can play it wearing headphones so my neighbors won’t be disturbed.
This means that I can bang away in the early morning or late at night which
greatly increases my hours of practice.
The next new thing which has helped my progress immensely is
YouTube, something that didn’t exist when I played back in Seattle over ten
years ago. YouTube has been an amazing resource for finding new music to play
as well as instruction. The videos posted by Brian Trobee (his video below) have steered me in
the right direction at every step of the way. His explanations of technique, rhythm,
and everything else musical have helped me to gain a much deeper understanding
of just what it is that I’m trying to do when I sit down to play. I used to pay
a lot of money for private lessons where I learned very little except that I
was crappy.
Because of YouTube I now have a much better idea of what is
necessary to become some sort of musician. I have learned how to make the most
out of my practice time. I know how to practice and just how long I need to play
if I want to see some improvement. I never lacked discipline before but I
honestly didn’t know that if I was really serious I needed to practice a hell
of a lot more. I’m practicing a hell of a lot more now. I also practice fingering
exercises from The Virtuoso Pianist book by Hanon. I knew about these when I
played before but I just thought that they were some technique developed to
torture students. I can’t say if they are helping my technique or not but I can
say that I’ve improved a lot in playing these exercises. They can also be fun,
believe it or not.
When I played piano before almost everything I played was in the
classical genre, simple pieces that most new students learn. I always admired
ragtime piano but felt that it was much too difficult for me to ever think
about learning. This time around I have discovered a composer of piano music
especially intended for students. Martha
Mier is an American composer who has written perhaps dozens of books of
original songs intended for instructional purposes. She has a special emphasis
on easier pieces to introduce students to ragtime, jazz, and blues styles.
These short pieces are so much funner to play than the classical stuff
I suffered through before. I don’t even know why but they're just a blast to
learn and play. I love the fact that this time around on the piano I’m
exploring boogie, jazz, blues, and especially ragtime. Many years ago I
was in some bar somewhere in Seattle that had a piano. My friends asked me to
play something so I sat down and plucked out some classical piece. Someone
asked, “Can you play something a little livelier?” I couldn’t. Now I can.
Perhaps you've never heard of Martha Mier but if you're learning
the piano you probably know her work. If you take a look on YouTube you’ll find
thousands of videos of people playing her music, and not just hacks like me but
quite a few accomplished pianists as well. Her music is so cool.
