Tag: Glee

Just banging on my old piano

Thought I might periodically start writing about “a few of my favorite thing”—my own, narcissistic version of Stuff White People Like, I suppose. So I’ll get to PVRs, chocolate, and Zomig eventually, but I’d like to just start with my piano. Which I’ve talked about before, but now I have pictures!

Electronic piano that looks like a regular piano, in a corner, with a black and white painting of Paris above it, a lamp on the side, and sheet music. And a piano bench.

It’s gorgeous to look at. It finishes off the living room very nicely. (That room’s come a long way from its empty desolation when we first moved in with only condo contents.)

But more important, it sounds great. Even though I’m the one playing it, and I’m hardly the world’s most gifted player. When we were shopping for it, I also tried out the smaller, cheaper version in the same brand (the one I’d walked in expecting to buy), and the larger, more expensive one with a million complicated doo-dads. Of the three, this one just had the nicest tones. The piano player’s piano, the salesman said.

So I love playing the thing. I’m having no trouble motivating myself for twice weekly practice sessions, which of course is also contributing to it not sound too bad when I play. I wish I had even more time for it.

In shopping for it, we discovered that we get could  a real piano for less than we paid for this digital one. Not a grand, of course. An upright. A “starter” upright, whatever that means. But we stuck with digital, mainly for not having to tune it, for it being so much lighter and more portable, and for being able to get the look of a grand, without the expense.

But I also like some of the digital features. For example, though I do mostly play in “piano” mode, I can choose between Piano 1 and Piano 2. And though I can’t explain to you the difference between the two, I can hear it, and some songs sound better in one or the other. I also occasionally use the more exotic sounds, like harpsichord for Bach, or strings+piano for, say, The Beatles, or electric piano for Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend”. The one thing I’m actually missing a bit from my old keyboard are the synthesizer sounds, but I can somewhat approximate that with some of the weird vibraphone mixes included.

You can also fine-tune things. Like I was finding the touch a little too resistant (after years of playing on a keyboard with no touch sensitivity at all), so I was able to lower that. I can increase the resonance, so the sounds is fuller and richer without me playing any better. And I can take songs in impossible keys, like “Love Reign O’er Me”, which has six (!) flats, and transpose them into another key. Allowing me to play the song as written, except with only three flats (it somehow feels like a song that needs some flats), but it comes out sounding OK, and I can actually get through it.

So yeah, my piano is definitely on the list of things I like.

Something else I like? That Glee is back soon. With Madonna! And Joss! And Neil Patrick Harris! And The Beatles! Squee…

Full-time job

I can’t believe we were on vacation a total three days and somehow have an overflowing PVR again, after finally catching up from our last vacation.

Clearly, being a TV couch potato is a full-time job that allows for no time off. At least not during sweeps month.

So I officially hate So You Think You Can Dance (US) being on in the fall, when it’s so busy, instead of the summer, when it’s almost the only thing on and you can bask in it. Now I can’t keep up with it and can’t get into it. And having the judges make the selections for the first two weeks (due to the gods of baseball) was just weird.

What I have managed to get into? Battle of the Blades! I thought it would be sort of a joke, but those guys have turned into pretty decent figure skaters there. I’m impressed.

And it was very nice to see Ron Duguay again. Very nice.

And on Being Erica—is the idea that she is going to turn into a therapist? Because it sure seems as though everyone around her is a lot more messed up than she is, now. Well, except for that apparent sexual incompatibility she’s having with Ethan. Which I must say I found incredibly frank for a network show. (Or even a cable show—I don’t recall that even Sex and the City dealt with quite that situation…)

And the Glee soundtrack turns out to be best in smaller doses, or you end up feeling sort of overwhelmed by the cheese. It’s also missing some of the best stuff, like the two mash-ups, and “Push It”. (Of course, you can buy those songs individually.) But with some nice chasers of authentic music in between (a little Who, a little Joni, a little Johnny Cash), it’s kind of great. Though still a bit alarming to get such warm feelings about songs like “Can’t Fight This Feeling”.

TVTV

A hazard of going on vacation when all the new fall shows are starting, and the summer fill-in shows aren’t quite done, is that you come home to heck of a lot of recordings on the PVR. We’re still trying to catch up, not much aided by the fact that every day, new episodes get added.

But here are a few thoughts on what we have managed to watch.

Best new show: Glee

Of course, this post will also reveal Glee is almost the only new show we’ve managed to watch, which perhaps diminishing that “Best” label. Still, we do like it a lot. Both of us, which is getting rare. It’s funny, wonderfully absurd (I particularly like that the cheerleaders always wear their cheerleading outfits to everything, no matter what), often touching, and will have a great soundtrack album.

New show I intended to watch but haven’t: Flashback

Though if I ever get around to it, I’ll be able to see all episodes in one marathon weekend, as they’re all stacked up on the PVR there. Anyone see this? Worth my time at all?

New show I was supposed to be offended by, but wasn’t: Cougartown

I don’t know; I just thought it was kind of funny. But after the first episode, just haven’t had the time or space to tape it again.

Old show I finally managed to drop: Grey’s Anatomy

Thank you, Katherine Heigl, for coming back to work on this show, thus freeing up my Thursday nights. Though I have to admit to being a little intrigued by the commercial for tonight’s episode. Who’s getting fired? Wait, who are all those characters? I don’t recognize half of them.

Show I’ve dropped for the time being: So You Think You Can Dance [USA]

Couldn’t do it—couldn’t watch both this and So You Think You Can Dance Canada. And since the US one is dragging out the audition episodes (to free up people for the Canadian show?), and since I can actually vote in the Canadian one, that’s the only one I’m watching now.

I’ve actually been pretty impressed at Canada’s voting taste. I’m OK with whoever wins the title. There is no Evan (or Cody) here.

Show we’re wondering about dropping: Bones

I watch for the characters; Jean watches for the plots; we’re both feeling kind of disappointed. Me, I’m particularly tired of them thinking that I’m desperate for Bones and Booth to get together. Get together, don’t get together; I don’t care—just stop dealing with it so much. I find the other characters more interesting, anyway.

Most strangely addictive show: Mad Men

It’s slow and understated and most of the characters are awful and some of the best characters have left the firm and… I love it. I’m totally drawn in. Three more episodes this season. Where do we go from here?