quote:

Originally posted by lilylady:

Why do you live where you live?

Compromise, trade off between opportunities to make money, consideration for the family, real estate prices, and services offered by the township. There is no one single overriding factor.

quote:

If not there, then where would you choose?

If everything else remain the same, I wouldn't choose any where else. If something is different, then where else I'd choose would depend on what that difference is. If there is no constraint whatsoever on what I can choose, the Playboy Mansion would be nice.

quote:

How did you choose your profession? Some of us fall into it, some of us fall into our dreams, some choose because relatives are in it, some choose to earn the best living they can....

Combination of luck, education/training (or the lack thereof), ambition, market condition, and youthful ignorance. "Luck," while didn't put a silver spoon in my mouth or a series of winning lottery numbers in my dreams (either of which would likely have profoundly influenced how I chose my profession), did put me in an environment where I could get education/training that subsequently made me qualified to choose from many opportunities. Market conditions partly determined which opportunities appear at what times in my life. I also saw trends and had ideas that could have profited from those trends, but couldn't turn those ideas into action for lack of education/training necessary to execute those ideas. What I chose and did not choose, all of those were driven by ambition yet based on one fashion of ignorance or another (game theorists may politely call that "imperfect information"). C'est la vie.

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Would you choose another if you could and what?

Master of the Universe, though I'm not sure if such a profession actually exists.

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel:
Ax, your Christmas in July, August, September, October, November December Santa Claus hat intrigues me.

Should we assume that your hat is a permanent part of your avatar now?

We usually answer these questions in order.

Last month, I asked PA if she had a favorite color and she exclaimed, "Blue. No! ... Aghhhh!" an answer which confused me to say the least.

I'm not doing very well asking these questions apparently.

Are you taking the 5th on my question?

Oops! My apologies for skipping over your question, Daniel.

I have just been too lazy to change the avatar in the last 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 months.

Now that Christmas will soon be upon us again, it seems procrastination in this area is again a timely strategy.

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel:
Last month, I asked PA if she had a favorite color and she exclaimed, "Blue. No! ... Aghhhh!" an answer which confused me to say the least.

Hmp. Culturally deprived.

Monty Python and the Bridge of Death

quote:

Originally posted by Piano Again:

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel:
Last month, I asked PA if she had a favorite color and she exclaimed, "Blue. No! ... Aghhhh!" an answer which confused me to say the least.

Hmp. Culturally deprived.

Monty Python and the Bridge of Death

I believe the word is "illiterate," dear PA.

quote:

Originally posted by Axtremus:
Oops! My apologies for skipping over your question, Daniel.

I have just been too lazy to change the avatar in the last 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 months.

Now that Christmas will soon be upon us again, it seems procrastination in this area is again a timely strategy.

Oh, I see. You've been procrastinating. I never do that.

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel:

quote:

Originally posted by Piano Again:

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel:
Last month, I asked PA if she had a favorite color and she exclaimed, "Blue. No! ... Aghhhh!" an answer which confused me to say the least.

Hmp. Culturally deprived.

Monty Python and the Bridge of Death

I believe the word is "illiterate," dear PA.

well, no, since MPAHG is a movie, not a book.

haven't you seen it?

Nope.

omg. first he hasn't heard the late beethoven quartets.

now he's never seen "monty python and the holy grail"

culturally deprived indeed!

ax, where are you living now? i thought you lived in NH. then it seems you live near philly?

would you clear up the geographical confusion?

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:

would you clear up the geographical confusion?

No; see my response to big al.

How much time do you spend on the piano every day or week? Do you have a regular practice routine? If so, would you be willing to share it with us? I'm always very interested in how other people approach learning music.

quote:

Originally posted by Piano Again:

[1] How much time do you spend on the piano every day or week? [2] Do you have a regular practice routine? [3] If so, would you be willing to share it with us? I'm always very interested in how other people approach learning music.

[1] Averaging about 30 minutes a day, 4 or 5 days a week.

[2] Nothing vigorous ...

[3] Don't mind sharing my non-routine at all. These days, I am revisiting the basics -- making up simple accompaniments to simple tunes around the simple I, IV, V chord shells and transposing to a few popular major and minor keys on the fly. One of the fun things I did, just a few days ago at the piano, was making up a song and its accompaniment on the fly based on the text in a simple children's book that I saw for the first time. Just sang and played and making stuff up as I flipped through the pages. Mostly doing practical theory exercises on the keyboard, not building technique or repertoire.

If you could live anywhere else, where would it be, and why?

Who is your favorite living pianist?

Does musical talent run in your family?

Do you spend time online with other interest communities (forums)?

quote:

Originally posted by Matt G.:

If you could live anywhere else, where would it be, and why?

The Playboy Mansion, because it seems classier than the Penthouse.

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Who is your favorite living pianist?

Don't really have one, to be honest. I'm not particularly critical when it comes to pianists and piano performance. I enjoy streaming the young guns working their way through the Van Cliburn competition as much as I enjoy playing Lang Lang and Stephen Drury on CDs; I find as much amusement in the young dude playing the Mario Brothers theme song blindfolded as I do in watching that chat roulette dude improvising his way from chat to chat. I just like to see/listen to fun stuff and a lot of the fun is in the diversity -- the diversity in style, repertoire, approach to and philosophy of music making using the piano. As long as the music does not stand in my way (e.g. "flash mob" in my presence), 'ol Ax is easily amused by just about any creative and/or competent rendition of music.

quote:

Does musical talent run in your family?

Some in my family would like to think so, some I suspect are clinically tone deaf, and the two groups intersect. Personally, I do not believe there is any higher concentration of musical talent in my family than that in the general population.

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Do you spend time online with other interest communities (forums)?

Outside of WTF/TNCR/PW, no. I used to be quite active on an online Macintosh user's group and a school alumni mailing list, but that was a long time ago.