Wanted: a Digital Piano for the Apartment

Posted on August 4, 2008 by Evan

digital piano

I learned in December that I still love playing the piano. I hadn’t played in years but the many feet of snow outside inspired me to sit in the warm basement and remember how to play. Since then I’ve been thinking more about it and recently a few piano playing friends pointed me in this direction for buying a digital piano:

Pianos need all 88 keys.
Pianos need to make beautiful music and must handle 32 notes polyphony.
Pianos need weighted keys.

I’ve started to narrow my search for the brands and models that I want to try. If you have any extra digital pianos around the house you no longer play or if you have recommendations (and I know family members and friends who play are reading this) please let me know.

Chopin Announces Your Call But I Had No Idea

Posted on June 11, 2008 by Evan

I have a custom ring tone setup on my cell phone when my bride Amanda calls (all the rest of you get the sound of an old phone ringing). Yesterday at work I heard her calling but the phone was in the cabinet so I turned down the radio and got up to grab the phone. And suddenly she hung up on me. I sat down and turned up the speakers again and there was her ring again. What was going on? The computer can’t receive calls so it had to be that the music playing was same song as the ring tone.

The song that Last.fm was playing at the time was Chopin’s Étude No. 5 in G-Flat Major “Black Keys. All I knew about the ring tone was that it was the only pleasing music that would suit a call from Amanda and that it was named melody07.mid.

Think I am going crazy and hearing things? You be the judge. Continue reading →

Listen to Music Heard on iPod Ads

Posted on November 28, 2007 by Evan

I don’t own an iPod but I do love discovering new music. If you love music and have enjoyed some of the songs featured on iPod ads you’re going to appreciate my playlist of songs featured in iPod and iPhone commercials.

Apple’s iPod Commercials Music, a playlist on Yahoo Music Jukebox

You don’t need an iPod to enjoy these songs. You can listen to 30-second samples from the web site or if you are a subscriber to Yahoo Music Jukebox you can listen to the full versions in near CD quality.

Don’t worry, I’m not keeping track of every song on every ad — that’s what Wikipedia is for. What I did do was take the list of tracks and make them easy to listen to.

Family History: Caryl Wilder Volunteers in Selma, Alabama

Posted on October 5, 2007 by Evan

taowee 200 px high In the fall of 2004 my grandmother Caryl (Taowee) Wilder told me the story of her involvement with the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965. The recording sat dormant until today when I finally transferred it to my computer and uploaded it to Wild.er for you to hear.

Listen to a story of a fascinating time in this nation’s history and a wonderful portrait of my grandmother’s engagement with the issues of the day (29 minutes total).

On her return to her church community in Illinois she said:

It was strange how upset people got. People would come up to me and say, “Are you the person who went to Selma?”
and I said, “Yes” and they would get very upset as if I had done anything unusual. I was one amongst thousands, that’s all. It was odd to be earmarked that way.