My first question has to do with your knees.

If they are so bad, how can you continue to abuse them on those hikes you take?

2nd question -

What pieces are you working on now and how it the new teacher working out?

3rd -

How is the house search vs renovation/addition going?

quote:

Dear PK,

OK, you have 'piqued' our curiosity...

Are you going to tell all your favorite WTF friends just who this was or share that chapter with us?

i can't publicly share it with you. nor in digital format. wouldn't be fair to the tech, who was feeling VERY sensitive about it.

quote:

Originally posted by lilylady:
My first question has to do with your knees.

If they are so bad, how can you continue to abuse them on those hikes you take?

i was without an ACL for 25 years and still went on very demanding backpacking trips carrying 100 lb packs and also was on a fire crew as a volunteer.

i used to have braces i wore, but for many years i didn't even have braces.

in 98 i got the ACL reconstructed--better than new!

last week i found out the ACL in the other knee is gone. it just vanished. i'm convinced it was a side effect of cipro, taken almost three years ago. many people report spontaneous tendon ruptures from taking cipro.

i'll probably be fitted for a brace this week, do lots of PT, and then this winter, after hiking season is over, i'll get this ACL reconstructed.

it's not a fun surgery, it's expensive, but at least i have a great doc and i know what to do. (and if health care reform passes before then, even better!)

i'm blessed with very responsive muscles that build easily and act as shock absorbers for the knees. only 2 percent of the population responds to weight training like this, my doc says.

quote:

2nd question -

What pieces are you working on now and how it the new teacher working out?

new teacher is WONDERFUL! i've just started work on a mozart sonata, k. 331. most of my piano time is spent on technique. every day i do mulitutidous exercises, scales, inversions, cadences, etc. then lots of sight reading work.

i'm lucky my new teacher is willing to give me this foundation and not write me off as a hopeless case.

the rest of the repertoire i've been working on is in the royal conservatory progressive method books. an easy fugue, a cpe bach canon, a 20th century french piece. they are easy to read, but very demanding in terms of technique.

i need to get more practice time in, though. i have been procrastinating too much lately.

quote:

3rd -

How is the house search vs renovation/addition going?

*sigh*

it looks like we won't be able to get enough for our house to afford the upgrade to our friend's house, which would be so perfect for us.

it's a buyer's market here now, we are told. prices are holding, but houses are not selling. we doubt our friend will get what he plans to ask, but he is in a hurry to get out of the country and leave the house to the care of the RE agent.

we've asked him to exclude us from his contract with the agent, so if the price comes down later with can still buy it without him paying a commission.

meanwhile, we've asked my architect brother if he'd like to come for an extended visit and help us build my writing cabin. he's out of work, and we're hoping he'd fall in love with our town and stay a while.

Haven't read your book yet. Just wondering...

1. Before you decided to write “Grand Obsession”, did you do any research to see what books were already out there with the same subject matter?

2. If there were any, would you still have written your book?

3. If there weren’t any, were you concerned that someone might beat you to it and get their book published first?

QL~

1. absolutely. every book proposal has to have a "market research" section that tells the publisher what else has been published that is like your book, and how yours is different.

2. the fact that "piano shop on the left bank" was a huge success meant there was a market for my book. if there had been absolutely nothing like my book out there, it would have been probably impossible to get a book contract.

3. i was "feeling" as if there was going to be a next wave of piano autobiography/biography, and music science, and it turned out i was right. it was important to write my book in tandem with those, because that means that those readers will be more likely to know about your book. a bunch of books on similar topics helps all of them.

otoh, if i come along a bit later, the ship may have already sailed and the readership has moved onto something else. it might go out of fashion.

i did set aside another book i wanted to write because i felt the time was "now" for "grand obsession" and it turned out i was correct. look at all the related genre books published around the same time:

"piano: the making of a steinway grand"
"a romance on three legs"
"musicophilia"
"the rest is noise"
"this is your brain on music"

etc.

2007-2008 seems to have been the year of the music book.

Thanks pique.

Concerning: "the illustrations for a piano action in the book, as many people have asked for, but the publisher couldn't justify the cost.":

The best illustration I ever saw of a piano action was on Mr. Land's Piano Forum. He closed down his forum about five years ago. Maybe you remember it? The piano action operated in real time. Using your mouse you could either speed it up or slow it down. If it's still out there and hosted by some other piano forum, I'd say to post a link to it because I don't see how any still life photo of an incredibly complex piano action could possibly measure up to what Mr. Land had. I still think quantum theory is easier to grasp than a piano's action.

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:
"piano: the making of a steinway grand"
"a romance on three legs"
"musicophilia"
"the rest is noise"
"this is your brain on music"

etc.

2007-2008 seems to have been the year of the music book.

Of course, of those books you mention, only the first two involve piano to any significant degree, and your focus is quite different. So, I agree, the right book at the right time!

This sort of thing happens in contemporary music too, the issue of converging on the "hot" composer or movement. It's the flip side of what I find enjoyable about contemporary music, in that it's easy to position yourself either with what's "hip" or "un-hip." But I try not to worry about that and go with what truly interests me, no matter what.

quote:

Originally posted by Qaanaaq-Liaaq:
Thanks pique.

Concerning: "the illustrations for a piano action in the book, as many people have asked for, but the publisher couldn't justify the cost.":

The best illustration I ever saw of a piano action was on Mr. Land's Piano Forum. He closed down his forum about five years ago. Maybe you remember it? The piano action operated in real time. Using your mouse you could either speed it up or slow it down. If it's still out there and hosted by some other piano forum, I'd say to post a link to it because I don't see how any still life photo of an incredibly complex piano action could possibly measure up to what Mr. Land had. I still think quantum theory is easier to grasp than a piano's action.

thanks QL! that is very helpful. i most certainly do remember mr. land's board, it's how i ended up at PW.

i will have to hunt down this animated piano action and see if i can put it on my website.

much appreciated!

quote:

But I try not to worry about that and go with what truly interests me, no matter what.

in my case, i felt that what truly interested me was part of a groundswell of interest, that i was not at all alone in it.

Have you ever considered expatriating? If so, which countries have you considered? What political or other events in the US would cause you to want to move to another country?

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel:
Have you ever considered expatriating? If so, which countries have you considered? What political or other events in the US would cause you to want to move to another country?

Maybe Texas?

In all seriousness, great thread, pique. Good to know more about you.

BC

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel:
Have you ever considered expatriating? If so, which countries have you considered? What political or other events in the US would cause you to want to move to another country?

yes. i wanted to emigrate to new zealand when i was in my 20s, because i wanted to be in a new frontier. but they have or had a very long quarantine period for dogs. i think it was a year. i was not willing to give up my dog or put him in quarantine, so i didn't go.

in 2004, when we got a second term of the shrub, i seriously considered moving to canada. i love canada, both its cities and its wild places, and i found out that the usual immigration restrictions don't apply to artists, and i would be accepted easily. but i didn't go because i believed that the election was stolen, and i still had faith in my fellow citizens.

i don't have much faith in my government, but since i am very american, in attitude and spirit, and i love the people here, i would rather stay and work to make things better, than leave.

if i ever felt that it was impossible to make positive change here, if it was no longer possible to be a force for good, and if this country ever became a totalitarian state, then as much as i love it, i would leave.

but the election of obama proves that that is far from true. i am very proud to be a citizen of this country. it has a lot of flaws, but it also has a means of addressing them. despite all of our troubles, we are very lucky to live here. the opportunities and the diversity--in people and landscapes and cultures--are incredible, and we as a people, despite all our flaws, are very good people!

i would not mind at all living abroad for an extended period. i hope to do that in the next several years.

thanks, chris. we're going to have to get you on the hot seat one of these days.

piqué, tell us about the various dogs you have had in your life over the years. Have you had any pets other than dogs?

What is your most memorable adventure?

Where do you like to hike best?

If you weren't a jounalist, what other career choice would you consider?

Have you been in a situation where you feared for your life?

Big Al

have you had any small dogs?

can you say within an order of magnitude how many of you last book were sold? 10,000 100,000?

Why did you scrupulously avoid Chicago in your tours?

since you always type in lower case, did your book publisher lose his/her mind?

If you were suddenly to become the darling of the religious right, are their incriminating photos out there that would suddenly appear?