Massless

Apropos of nothing are the following links:

Why are human beings so terrible? (sometimes this site is hard to reach...)

Ah, Jack... How did I miss this story? And how come I'm still trying to write and perform music in a city that is clearly inhospitable to the effort...?

Mom: "You would place your head right up to the speaker, close your eyes, and listen very, very carefully. And rock back and forth. What was that one record you liked? Oh right, that song from SHAFT. (laughs) What a weird, little kid..."

Oh yeah. Sometimes I forget.

I wasn't the first to do the create-a-small-bitmap-font-then-use-scripting-to-generate-alphabet thing, and probably neither was Derek, but check out his cool bitbet font...

And then, a Christmas eve story: Be warned, it meanders.

I needed to find someplace with noise and people. Decided to head into Berkeley, CA. As memory served, it was crowded; near the university this time every year the streets are closed for a holiday street bazaar. I entered a music store, The Musical Offering, that specialized in classical music.

Dad would put on music Christmas morning when it was time. For presents and all. The music? Terrific and cheesy. Johnny Mathis, Lawrence Welk-like arrangements of popular Christmas tunes, some choral arrangements...

I browsed a bit. Passing by Brahms, I remembered that I'd lost/given-up/sold my CD of his fourth symphony. My favorite piece of his. Maybe my favorite piece of music ever. Maybe. No matter. I bought a couple CDs with his 4th on them. They sound good. But not as good as the one I originally had. A Czech conductor I believe. I'll never find it.

Every day for a year, I would return home to an apartment where I lived with my girlfriend after long days at my job washing cars...The rent was astronomical...and every day, I felt I could see accusation and a struggle to accept this low-wage loser. Sometimes when she would take a shower, and with the volume on low, I would put on Brahms' 4th and escape...

Leaving the store, my phone rang. Dad. He'd heard about the W32.KRIZ virus. To be safe, he wanted anti-virus protection. He tried to download and buy the Family Edition of Norton. Between 3 or 4 calls between us as I walked around Berkeley, we couldn't do it. The web interface and the Windows dialog boxes were confusing for him. We were able to talk through most of it though, especially the Windows interface, but in the end he still wound up buying an upgrade which, of course, is uselsess for someone who doesn't have a prior version of Norton. I was/am furious with Symantec. Scare newbies into buying your product while not providing a newbie-friendly interface. Lazy developers.

I wish there were a place to look at music scores online. Happy holidays, everyone.