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About myself

Selfish self-deprecation

Fairly recently, I had an opportunity to play the prelude from Bach’s cello suite VI on the violoncello da spalla to a small crowd in a modest suburban church.  The pressure was almost non-existent; I’d played some cello duets there in the past and I was already familiar with this sanctuary.  Not many classically trained musicians and experienced listeners were there.  Many of them were just kids…! It was a very good chance to start playing Bach solos on the spalla for someone.  I was even going with five full synthetic strings to make some technical elements more forgiving, although my preference to gut strings hadn’t diminished a bit. But […]

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I’m back.

Writing blogs is, for me, like yapping away with someone.  It is storytelling.  It is sometimes recording of my own critical thinking, but more often than not, it is a good distraction from unwanted thoughts.  It had been procrastination. I just went through a phase where I needed to face those unwanted thoughts and do something about it.  I needed to prioritize the process of crawling through this phase and be done with it.  I had put off so many things in order to focus on the process, and I missed out a lot during that time…  That is why I didn’t blog for almost 14 months. But that phase

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I’m opinionated

The people in my circle think that I’m opinionated.  Well, my circle is very small— it really means something when someone tells you in your face that you are opinionated.  Not good.  I may seem like a dogmatic, inflexible, arrogant, pompous, stubborn and perhaps even prejudiced son of a gun.  And I shouldn’t even deny that— trying to deny that is by itself a pompous act. But… I rarely provide my opinions on anything.  I’m just too ignorant to be with those people around me in Philadelphia who all belong in the higher socio-economic class than I.  Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the self-deprecation for which I’m wrongly known.

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Moving complete

So, finally I made the move from the MobileMe website to this blog-oriented content management system.  Not that I’ll be blogging more often or anything, but I like the idea of being mobile and able to post a blog from anywhere, on any Internet-connected devices.  And finally I’ve made my old domain name bachpeople.com more than just an e-mail address— it’s nice to be able to use it as a URL. Since my last blog entry to my old site at MobileMe, I’ve moved from Bloomington to Philadelphia.  Another big thing that happened to me since then is that I was given the opportunity to direct St. John Passion in

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Project Apollo

(Originally posted on March 11, 2011) There are a few things that I always go back to when I need to uplift my spirit.  When I need to motivate and encourage myself about life, humanity, and goodness of the people, those are the things I get the help from.  I suppose everyone has those “things”— they may be some feel-good movies and/or books.  Good sermons and speeches can do that too.  Usually we take them for granted and we don’t always remember them, but when you revisit them, you sense your spirit soars. I’ve already talked about a few of those here already.  Believe it or not, I get inspired

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Long absence

(Originally posted on February 18, 2011) Now I see that I had been away from this blog for more than three months.  The reason isn’t as trite as you think it is— I won’t say that I was too busy or I forgot that I had this blog.  Simply that my mind had been occupied with one important thing: my own health. I have a few pituitary hormone deficiencies.  My pituitary got damaged at birth, and I don’t have some important hormones your body usually needs.  It seems that my body is weaker than normal (don’t know for sure as I never borrowed somebody else’s body), and my metabolism had

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September in Japan

(Originally posted on October 3, 2010) I was in Japan during the most of September.  It was nice to be back in Japan for a while— seeing familiar faces and having some Japanese goodies were priceless.  But some would wonder (well, I did) why I wanted to go to Japan when not going to Japan might have been a smarter choice from a couple of standpoints; one: I just went through a financial hardship after my wrist fracture and I would need to save the money I just earned during summer; and two: I’m preparing for my first qualifying exam and I should be studying for it if I wanted

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The 2010 Marlboro Season

(Originally posted on August 19, 2010) The 2010 Marlboro season has ended.  This morning, for the first time in 8+ weeks, I woke up in a room that was not Random North 7.  I’m no longer in Marlboro— and I don’t even want to think what that means to me.  I know, I’ll just have to face the harsh reality. This season was a difficult one for me.  Not only that I had heavier loads this year as head librarian, but also that especially earlier I had been always physically exhausted, probably because of the lifestyle-shift from inactive and calm one in the plaster cast before the season to very

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The first day-off of the season

(Originally posted on June 29, 2010) What season, you ask?  It’s the festival season.  I’m here in southern Vermont, working for the Marlboro Music Festival as a music librarian.  This is my 12th summer working for the festival, and my 7th summer as a full-season staffer.  Even while I was in Japan studying Bach, I worked on the festival’s scheduling database…  I can say I maintain a good relationship with the organization, and it is a relationship I cherish very much. I’ve been driving to Marlboro in recent years.  And when I drive into South Road for the first time each year, I usually get excited or relieved that I

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So I broke my wrist

(Originally posted on June 9, 2010) It has been 40 days since I broke my left wrist.  My plaster cast is near completion of its purpose.  Am I looking forward to going out of the cast?  Absolutely.  But the crazy part is that I think I may miss it a little bit. I broke my wrist when I tripped over the arm of a floor jack, shortly after I removed the muffler from my car.  My friend Banri took me to the ER, and on that day, my ordinary yet out-of-the-ordinary life of the present began. Early on, it had been an emotional roller coaster ride, with strong physical and

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