𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍 — 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐜 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫

Me? Oh well, what about both of us having pun arsenals?

Same. I remember reading somewhere that there was a piece of his that he was, um, I think he was very particular about it. One of his students asked “who else can play it beautifully other than you?”

He answered, “Liszt can.”

I also wonder how he’ll react to today’s interpretations because I feel like some players go through his pieces too quickly. Would they reach his standards? I think there should be at least one interpretation that he’d like.

EDIT: Found the source. It was in an article about my favorite nocturne.

Haha, probably not. Even if they do, it won’t be as drastic as his process.

Edin didn’t know about it until he was twenty-three years old. He was already an adult. If ever their kids are to have it, then their parents will find out while they’re still children, before the trait has already affected them as much as it affected Edin.

Oh, and I just got another idea. Remember that flashback where a young Edin refused to drink blood, and when his father found out that he sneaked out of the house he slashed open Edin’s skin? I think I’ll expand on that flashback. So his father would not only slash his skin open, but curse his own son with intense bloodlust as punishment. Not sure if I should go with it. Although, it would help explain why Edin has the bloodlust trait but Damon doesn’t.

Ooooh, I know where I can go with this. I can make it so that Edin’s bloodlust trait is the result of his father cursing him. If that’s the case, I’m not sure whether I should let Arden break the curse or make her unable to undo it because it’s been in him for more than twenty years (so by then it has already become permanent). On one hand, if she breaks the curse, then Edin will lose some of his power. He can only regain it if he directly ingests blood, which is what he’ll do before the final battle. Well, if Arden doesn’t break the curse, then he’ll still have to drink blood before the final battle anyway.

Either way, in that case she can block it from being passed down to his children. Phew. Looks like your kids are safe Arden if I decide that the trait is due to a curse than genetics.

Wait, I got another idea. So the actual trait of drinking blood is genetic. However, him becoming violent and bloodthirsty is due to a curse. I’ll go with that. I’ve already thought of a line that Damon will say to Edin in OFB, when they meet in Edin’s head.

The lust for blood is in your blood.

I’ve thought of another line, but that’ll spoil Edin’s surname

Ugh, that’s horrible! I wish you nothing but the best. You can do this!

I’ll be honest: I only put these into words when you asked me how I rated them I usually just listen for enjoyment, but when I’m actively comparing, I tend to pick at details here and there. Actually even when I’m just enjoying a recording, sometimes my brain picks up these details and compares them without me telling it to.

Wikipedia I just went to the page for the Chopin competition and saw the list of winners, and I recognized a bunch of names. Same thing with the Tchaikovsky competition.

Because I said that I’d only list my favorites, but then he was such an amazing composer that a lot of his pieces just made it I’m going to add more preludes, études, and waltzes. Maybe more polonaises.

Meanwhile Tchaikovsky and Debussy are just waiting, and waiting, and waiting…

I really want to get started on Debussy though because his pieces—the ones I’ve heard, at least—sound like my kind of thing. You know, that sparkle well it’s not that surprising. Chopin did inspire Debussy, and Debussy even claimed that “Chopin is the greatest of all.” I remember saying that Debussy might be my second-favorite composer, creating a new tier below Chopin. We’ll see

Ravel might also be a candidate. I’ve been listening to Ondine (played by Ravel himself) on repeat and it’s just it’s the sparkle that’s my kind of music.

Yup! It’s under a book called the “Etude Collection.” Oh yeah, there was no Rachmaninoff, and also no Debussy nor Tchaikovsky. I think it’s because they listed pieces that are popular, bittersweet, or happy-sounding, especially because of the context of the book. It’s about fond memories of an older brother (who’s a pianist) with his younger sister around when the brother was still alive. Rachmaninoff’s pieces might’ve been too dark for that theme

EDIT: So, this is the piano that was played during the piano club meeting.

It’s the Yamaha CLP 970. It’s also a Clavinova, like mine, but from the cheaper line and it’s a way older version. Wikipedia says that it was first released in the year 2000. It’s more than two decades old It has a very light touch but not as light as keyboards. I don’t think the keys are weighted. At least it sounds okay. Oh, and that clicking sound you hear is the sound of the keys being pressed. Yeah. It’s very clicky XD

I really miss my Yamaha CVP 501 back home it’s not as nice as the AvantGrand, but it’s way nicer than most of the uprights here on campus.

Also, out of curiosity, how would you compare the digital piano I have at home (the Yamaha Clavinova CVP 501) to the pianos my university has? If we were to compare non-acoustic pianos, I’d rank it second only to the AvantGrand in terms of sound and how nice it feels under my hands.

EDIT 2: Have you heard of the piano YouTuber WillsKeyboardSink? He’s not only talented, but he’s quite funny. He adds commentary to his interpretations and reading them made me laugh

Like this one for example:

One of the things he said in the video:

And no, Chopin…
…changing ornamentation doesn’t count as “new material”
(butttt it’s all so good that I can forgive the ctrl+c)

He’s also the YouTuber who “introduced” me to Rush E. I think his arrangement of the meme song is the best.

EDIT 3: I found a new emoji here that I can use!

:smiling_face_with_tear:

Because that emoji exists on Apple devices () but unfortunately it doesn’t show up on Windows computers nor Android phones. Now that Wacky finally has I don’t have to resort to using :’)

EDIT 4: So do you know TwoSet Violin? It’s a music channel run by two classical violinists who used to play in an orchestra. A couple of months ago, they made a video of them guessing and reacting to the top ten most viewed classical pieces on YouTube.

There was no Chopin >.> He should’ve made the list! My joint-favorite piece had more views than Moonlight Sonata yet it did not make the list >:(

I was not the only one to notice it

I just checked that specific video and holy moly, it’s at 185 million views! I knew the piece was iconic—before I dove deep into classical I was already well aware of it—but not to the point of surpassing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.

Speaking of which, Waltz No. 2 by Shostakovich surprisingly made the list of “top ten most viewed classical pieces” on YouTube. Wow. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one (bonus points if you get the reference).

Reminds me of when they made a “tier list” of classical pieces. I scrolled to the comments and…

As a member of the piano gang, I feel this there were not a lot of iconic solo piano pieces on that list (not necessarily written by Chopin or Liszt). I guess it’s mainly because they’re both violinists.

And in that video, one of the guys was defending Debussy’s piece because Debussy is his favorite composer. His friend was like “You just like Debussy!” and he replied “I do love Debussy, you got a problem with that?”

I can imagine Eddie and his friend being like:

“You just like Chopin.”

“Yeah, is there a problem with that?”

great, and now Eddie’s dominating my headspace again I just keep imagining him obsessing over his favorite composer and his two best friends having to put up with him. Now I may or may not be becoming more like that

I guess I really am in a Chopin phase. How am I supposed to move on to Debussy if I keep obsessing over Chopin’s pieces? First Funeral March, then Ballade No. 1, then Piano Concerto No. 1 allegro maestoso, and now the wrong note étude. Remember when I said that someone played Chopin’s “Wrong Note” étude at the piano club? I only figured out what it was after the meeting and now I’m playing it on repeat. No joke, this is actually what I said in my head:

“Chopin, you were truly a genius! You could make ‘wrong notes’ and dissonance sound so beautiful! Dissonance! Wrong notes! And you made them sound ‘right’! Genius! You really were a masterful composer! Even after hearing the arrangement with ‘correct notes,’ somehow I ended up preferring your original composition, the one with ‘wrong notes’! You really were a maestro of the piano!”

and after that I was like “oh dear I am getting more obsessed. Eddie, what have you done”

At this point I won’t be surprised if I end up writing a poem about him

I’m getting too obsessed, aren’t I? but you might say that I’m not because I remember you ranting in your personal thread about how much you love Rachmaninoff’s music. I also rant about how good certain music is, except I usually just do it in my head or in a private chat. I think this is the first time I’m publicly showing my growing obsession with a classical composer—or any musician, for that matter

EDIT 5: So, I decided to look for some classical composer tier lists on YouTube. I watched (well, I only partially watched the videos. I just skipped to the end where they had the tier list set up ) this one and this one. To my immense delight, my favorite composer was put in the S tier in both videos

In both videos, the only person ranked higher than him was none other than Bach. Bach was in his own tier Of course. If any composer were to have his own league, it had to be Bach. Everyone else was in the same tier as Chopin or lower. Like, I knew he was legendary on the piano and stuff, but I didn’t expect both videos to rank him so highly, since he pretty much wrote only for the piano or piano + other instruments.

EDIT 6: TwoSet just released another video today. The title is “What Kind of Rachmaninoff Sheet is This?”

It was referring to this:

me with small hands: aight I’mma head out

The most I can do is a ninth. Even to play an octave is already stretching my fingers.

Yes, we pianists are finger gymnasts

EDIT 7: HAHAHA I FOUND THIS COMMENT UNDER A VIDEO I WATCHED

But in all seriousness, Liszt didn’t actually “steal” one of Chopin’s nocturnes. He simply wrote a composition dedicated to him after his death, and it sounded a lot like one of Chopin’s nocturnes.

EDIT 8: Speaking of the “Wrong Note” Étude and YouTube videos, I found some golden comments under Rousseau’s interpretation of the etude

“throws piano at another piano”

And I just realized that Waltz Op. 64 No. 1 (the Minute Waltz) was also called the Waltz of the Puppy because it was inspired by a little dog. So while he was composing music for this piece, there was a dog spinning around chasing its tail. Chopin was fond of the dog and even wrote about it in his letters. There’s a passage in the Minute Waltz that represents the sound of the bell around the dog’s neck.

My favorite composer actually wrote a piece about a little doggo I swear the more I learn about him, the more I love him

dammit Eddie look what you’ve done >.> XD

Oh, and a funny story about Rachmaninoff. So he learned that Stravinsky liked honey. A certain type of honey, if I remember correctly. Rachmaninoff wanted to be friends with Stravinsky, so you want to know what he did?

Showed up at Stravinsky’s house. In the middle of the night. With a jar of honey. No context

So if you ever feel like you’ve got terrible social skills, just remember that your favorite composer’s attempt at befriending a fellow composer involved showing up in the middle of the night with a jar of honey and no explanation

EDIT 9: So I watched some Adam Neely videos, and in one of them he explained how there was such a thing as “feminine” and “masculine” cadences. Some composers were criticized for using “weaker, feminine” cadences in their compositions.

Guess who he named as an example? Chopin one of my favorite YouTuber musicians mentioned my favorite composer man, his videos are so interesting. In one of them he debunked the myth of the tritone being banned in the Middle Ages, and during the video there was a sample of old chant being used. He was like “hey that sounds like we can make some 13th century LoFi to it.”

And then a few seconds later it happened. Imagine that. Thirteenth-century Gregorian Chant fused with LoFi? And it sounded good!

EDIT 10: Manage to record three more grands I’m going to put them all in a piano-hunting post anyway, but would you still like to hear?

EDIT 11: Nvm I already posted the recordings to my personal thread. And guess what? I went back to those other pianos (including the Kawai in the basement and the Estonia) and managed to make new recordings with little to no background noise AND DID YOU KNOW THAT MY CAMPUS HAS TWO DORMS WITH STEINWAYS! oh and remember last time when I walked into an all-male dorm by accident? This time it was on purpose they have a Young Chang that’s pretty nice. Oh and the grand piano in the classroom that I’ve told you about is a Kawai. It has wheels and it’s really nice! Gotta be one of my favorite grands.

Now that I’ve uploaded recordings of every single piano that I can access on my campus, I wanna know which one you like the most?

EDIT 12: So remember when I said that I shared “The Letter” by Sakuzyo and Katali on the piano club Discord server and someone reacted with fire? Make that three people like, I didn’t expect that that many people would react that way! I shared that here on the “rate the song above you” thread and someone gave like a 7/10 and said that it was chaotic. Yet, when I shared it with pianists (mainly prodigies and classical pianists), they really liked it.

EDIT 13: I just learned that the piano club will hold an informal recital at the end of the semester I wonder what they mean by informal because there’s no way I’m good enough to make it unless I master the mystery piece by then

EDIT 14: So I had another informal hangout with some friends from the piano club. First we got dinner, then boba, then the rest of us went to the Sohmer & Co piano to just play pieces and chat. This guy wanted to show us his progress with Chopin’s Étude Op. 10 No. 4 and man, am I just blown away! It wasn’t perfect. He didn’t play it in full. But still. He could get that far with just 1.5 months of practice. I’ve been working on the mystery piece for nearly six months and I haven’t finished it I also requested him to play my favorite waltz. He has never heard of it before, but he still got through the entire thing. Granted, he played it really slowly and had often had to repeat passages, but he still sight-read the whole thing on his first try! I just tried the first two bars and then gave up

Ooooh, and I also showed them the mystery piece in one of the counting threads, I told you and Muse about the pianist-composer that’s part of our club and what he said about it. Guess who also saw it? Some girls from my residence hall

After church I dropped by the Steinway to practice, but there were already a few people in the lobby so I just sat and played on my phone. I think they had an event to make cards or something? I overheard them talking about the pianos and how the ones in my residence hall aren’t top quality, with the Baldwin being just plain broken. I was nodding my head and then one of them noticed and I was like “yeah, I tried it as soon as I found out about it, and then I was disappointed. But I’m in a music course so I practice in the music building instead.”

Then they were wondering if the Steinway in my dorm had a rack to hold sheet music. I found out just today that there was a rack to hold up sheet music! It’s just that you have to open the lid first I’ve never opened the lid because I was afraid that it’d make the sound louder, and you know how I feel about volume so I asked if I could practice and they were like “yeah sure! Is it okay if we’d listen?” and of course I told them that I was really bad, just a beginner, and always made mistakes when playing. I sat down. Another girl came and said that she heard someone playing the piano every night.

as soon as I heard that I had a strong feeling she was referring to me, because I would practice almost every night (especially recently) so I was like “did you hear this?” and played the mystery piece. She was like “yeah” and another girl was like “I’ve heard this” and I was like “yeah, that was me” so they went back to whatever they were doing and I just practiced the mystery piece. After that they asked if I memorized it, and I explained how I learned. Then I went back to playing other pieces: Vindicta, the prelude, Gymnopédie No. 1, and Safe and Sound. Then I practiced the mystery piece for one last time before I left. As I was leaving one of them was like “You sounded good!” and another echoed that thought, so I was like “thanks”

I’m almost done with the mystery piece I’m literally at the end. I just hope that I’ll be able to release it soon. Maybe even before December. No promises though and now I’m a bit scared to go back and practice on the Steinway, because now there are people who know who’s the mystery pianist

EDIT 15: I recently realized that I’ve been playing the bass notes of the mystery piece wrong the whole time I played them an octave lower than they should be. Oh well.

So, I got my library card and checked to see if the public library had a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray. I’ll show you the book cover of one of them.

Does the guy in the picture ring a bell? Look familiar? Well…

IT’S FRANZ LISZT HAHAHAHA

Sorry, I just found it so amusing that they used a portrait of Franz Liszt to portray Dorian Gray. As soon as I saw it I was like “THAT LOOKS LIKE LISZT, WAIT, IT IS LISZT” idk but I’ve always pictured (haha) Dorian Gray as having black hair and, idk, being more handsome? Not to say that Liszt is ugly because I don’t think he is. I mean, he was able to drive women into a frenzy for a reason but yeah. Really neat find.

I’ve also requested a bunch of books that they didn’t have, so hopefully they’ll be able to get them.

EDIT 16: So originally I made Arden a violinist and Loren a pianist. Well, Loren’s still going to be a pianist. However, I felt that 1) I have too many violinists and 2) perhaps the viola suited Arden more. I asked in the piano club server for any piano-viola duet recommendations. Someone recommended me this:

It’s really nice! After hearing that I was like “Okay, Arden, you’re going to be a violist.” I think it suits her more because the viola has a darker sound. Arden also has a low voice.

EDIT 17: Yooo so remember the piano in my residence hall that had a broken damper pedal? I filed a report saying that it was broken. A few weeks later I checked to see if they fixed it, and what do you know, they fixed it! now I can practice in private without having to walk all the way to the music building.

Also I was thinking of moving to the residence hall with the Boston and Estonia next year because of the really nice private piano they have, but now that they’ve fixed the piano in my residence hall, I guess I’ll stay my current residence hall has a really good location and good facilities. The one with the Boston and Estonia is quite far. When I told some of my piano club friends that I was thinking of moving there they were like “but that’s so far!” and “(insert dorm name here) already has a good location!” and I was like “but they have a really nice piano in a private room whereas the one in (insert dorm name here) has broken pedals” and one of them was like “the long walk is not worth the piano”

EDIT 18: So I got a new pair of headphones it’s the Sony WH-1000 XM4. If you’re an audiophile, you’d instantly recognize it as one of the best noise-cancelling wireless headphones right now. I bought it as an early birthday present.

So I was planning on buying the Beoplay H9i. I’ve always wanted a pair of Bang and Olufsen headphones. I remember when my family went around comparing wireless noise-cancelling headphones, and my dad said that the best one he’s tried out so far is the Beoplay H9i, and he’s an audiophile (sort of) so he knows his stuff. We didn’t end up getting them because they were very pricey, and my mom settled for the Bowers and Wilkins PX.

The Beoplay H9i’s quite old. They’ve already released the latest ones, but I wanted the H9i because it has a replaceable battery and was far cheaper. I asked my parents if I could buy my birthday and Christmas presents early, and they said yes. I tried to buy it from eBay, and… there was an error during checkout, yet the card I was using was charged twice. I knew because my dad got notifications. Now I can’t use that credit card when I want to buy stuff online, but I can use it if I’m going to buy stuff in person. I don’t have enough money in my debit to buy those headphones, so I couldn’t get them.

Enter me going to Target to buy some dryer sheets, or whatever you call the sheets you put in dryers to remove the static. I saw they had the flagship Sony headphones. I knew I was going to use my dad’s card but I wasn’t sure if I wanted those headphones because they were over $300, but I got them anyway. It turned out that they were having a Black Friday discount so I got $100 off, plus a new pair of really good headphones they also come with a flight adapter which is perfect because I’m a frequent flyer—at least I was, before the pandemic—so I don’t have to rely on the free ones they have.

Man, I miss listening to music in really nice noise-cancelling headphones. It’s so cool. It’s so quiet when I put it on and the music sounds really good. I was listening to Sandglass by M2U, the song that describes Loren telling Arden to let go of him and move on, and I was literally crying. I guess that’s one downside of having really nice headphones: when a sad song comes on, it sounds even sadder somehow, and it makes you more emotional, haha, at least it does for me.

Oof, sorry, you probably weren’t interested in that, but I had to tell someone I’m still keeping my Pioneer earphones but I’ll just keep them as a backup.

Oh, and Edin’s Diary is up now the first post is a slideshow btw, and the last slide contains links. Took me a while to code it. @/Novel_Worm said it’s really interesting, and I managed to gain a new reader for BWT thanks to it XD I haven’t reached the part where Edin writes the first love letter, though one of his entries so far does mention him feeling warm and fuzzy inside every time Arden smiles.

I’ve just realized that I’m giving major spoilers for the last two-thirds of BWT but you already know what’s gonna happen anyway. But still. And, idk, but it feels like I’m uploading an entire story. Well, some books have been written in diary form. Oh wow. I’m technically posting an entire story to Wacky

EDIT 19: So they managed to fix the damper pedals for the Baldwin in my residence hall, but they’ve yet to tune the Steinway. I got an email saying that they’ve done maintenance, because I filed a report saying that it needs to be tuned. I rushed towards the Steinway and saw two of my piano club friends, the Chopin fan and the club president. The latter was practicing and they were like “hey” and I was like “hi!”

It turns out that the Steinway’s still not tuned I asked them about it but then they said that it’s not tuned. I showed them the email and they were like “oh, they were lying to you” but I did hang out with them there. The Chopin fan said that he can’t play the piano anymore; he’s part of the violin gang now, and he joked that he’s a fake member of our club. But he won in a contest though when he played a Chopin waltz >.> it’s Op. 69 No. 2. I then checked my Chopin playlist to see if I had it, but it wasn’t listed, so I was like “maybe I should add more, but there’s like 123 pieces already.” He showed me a playlist and was like “this playlist doesn’t have any classical music but it’s 40 hours long, c’mon you gotta step it up.”

So now I’m going to expand the Chopin Selection again

I also requested the club head if she could play Waltz on the brink of the cliff by Sakuzyo. Their first reaction upon seeing the sheet music was like “what is this” XD this is what the club president said while she was sight-reading the piece:

This melody is nice

I probably got a lot wrong

So many sharps, might as well change the key

I’ve never been so happy to see naturals, and then you give me flats

Yeah, it’s hard then after that they were talking about how they worked on pieces that were above their level. The club president was like “Yeah I actually worked on Scarbo. I shouldn’t have”

I don’t think I’ll ever touch Scarbo. I’d rather learn to play Ondine, but that’s still way above my level, haha.

EDIT 20: Med lost in the finals to Zverev >.> Well, I’m fine with it, since it’s not Djokovic but yeah, I watched starting the second set and it was so painful. Med couldn’t do anything ;-; Man, Peak Sascha is just unstoppable on Bo3 on hard courts. There’s a reason why he was World No. 3 at one point, right below Fedal. I didn’t finish the match because I couldn’t bear to watch it anymore. Well, he made it to the finals undefeated, so that’s still something.

Oh and the off season has started, so we won’t be seeing any tennis until January next year (unless you count Davis Cup). So yeah. No live tennis. The players do deserve a break though, because the tennis season is long. Out of 365 days, they only get about a month off. That’s brutal.

Also did you know that Med and his wife graced the cover of the Tatler Russia? When I saw that I was like “neat, he’s on the cover of a fancy magazine!” I mean, it’s Tatler.

But then I took a closer look at the cover and I was like “why are they posing that way?” they were both fully clothed and all but like the pose and the way his wife rested her knee on him while he was sitting down and… From the comments section on the Reddit post, people were like “why does this look so dominant-submissive” and “does he want his kinks to be known”

I checked out the other pictures they had and they were… “hot.” There was no nudity but some of the pics did have that vibe. Now I’m wondering what people were thinking when they got the couple to pose that way, or if it was their idea I mean I shouldn’t be surprised because he’s 25 and married but still.

Those pictures reminded me of Edin and Arden’s relationship

He’s uploaded some pictures to his Twitter account if you’re curious, but they’re the more tame ones. The ones that are… eh, kinkier are linked in one of the comments of the Reddit post. I didn’t expect him to participate in this kind of photoshoot. Maybe if it was another ATP player, then yeah, but him? And he also posted the more tame pics to his Instagram. He captioned it “A different side of me”

At least it’s not like Rafa in Shakira’s music video. Just don’t look it up. I accidentally saw the music video in Hard Rock Café, and boy, was it raunchy. Shakira was scantily clad and then Rafa was shirtless and they were kissing on bed and I was like looking away, but I had no idea it was him. When I realized that it was Rafael Nadal who starred in that Shakira music video I burst out laughing and I was like “THAT’S HIM?! THAT’S RAFA?”

Oh and also one of the Reddit comments say that Rublev might be married, because his partner’s credited as Nastya Rubleva! Awww I didn’t know he had an S. O. idk why but I just find him cute. No, not “physically attractive” cute but more like “dorky smiley emo good guy who’s friends with everybody” cute. I’ve never seen her in his box when he played. Maybe she was there, but nobody recognized her or pointed her out. I guess he’s very private about that kind of stuff.

Someone on the subreddit dove deep into the Instagram accounts of the next gen players while they were younger, and their interactions are priceless these are one of my favorites:

image960×966 94.9 KB

Khachanov: Your looking cool, is that a new hairstyle?
Our favorite octopus-pretzel: IT’S YOU’RE!!! YOU ILLITERATE FOOL

I swear the more I learn about this guy the more I love him.

Oh and this one between Rublev and Bublik

image960×850 89 KB

EDIT 21: LOOK WHAT I FOUND ON WIKIPEDIA AHAHAHA

To be fair his actual first name is Achille BUT STILL I was like “imagine if there was a composer with that name” and there was!

EDIT 22: So remember when I told you that I’ve managed to borrow two books, one of them being Chopin’s Letters? The guy was hilarious! I didn’t know he had such a sense of humor. His letters make me laugh. I’m only a few pages in and there’s already gold. Here’s the first part of his sixth letter:

He described himself horse-riding as a monkey on a bear

Oh and he actually wrote this:

Chopin I had no idea you’d be this relatable

It’s weird because I’ve always imagined him to be skinny, but ever since I began reading his letters, the image of a fat Chopin rolling around on bed, too lazy to do anything, has been popping up in my head from time to time and it’s making me laugh.

As I’ve said before, the more I learn about my favorite composer the more I love him. I think I’ll actually buy a copy after I return it to the library. His letters are fascinating! They’re one of those things that I’d love to reread.

I have to say that I don’t think I’m in a Chopin phase anymore. Well, that lasted quite long: a few months. I’m sort of in a Sakuzyo/Feryquitous phase, but I’ve also listened to some classical music. Eh. I’ve finally made some progress on A Dose of Debussy.

EDIT 23: I saw this online and I am so hyped to read this part of the book

Chopin thought Liszt was a terrible composer. Ouch. According to the next paragraph I guess Liszt had never read that part, because if he did

Although Chopin did have his nocturnes dismissed by John Field, the composer he admired.

It’s ironic since Chopin’s nocturnes are now way more popular than Field’s But imagine meeting your idol and showing him the pieces you wrote that he inspired, only for him to dismiss them and call you “sickroom talent.” Interesting how Chopin still admired him after that incident

Yeah, never meet your idols. Even the great Chopin got roasted when he met his.

EDIT 24: Alright, I’m sorry, but I’ve got to let a part of this out somehow. I will spare you from my full rant because I’ll unleash it in my private chat. WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT EXPAND THIS PART, AND DO NOT UNBLUR IT. Unless you want to read paragraphs of pure rage. Seriously. Skip this edit

WARNING: IF YOU UNBLUR THE PARTS BELOW, YOU MIGHT WANT TO END OUR FRIENDSHIP BECAUSE IT MIGHT BE OFFENSIVE, BUT I’VE BEEN HOLDING IT INSIDE FOR FAR TOO LONG.

NO SERIOUSLY DO NOT OPEN THIS

DO NOT OPEN THIS

Uh, you sure you wanna read a bunch of rage?

This has a ton of fury inside, you know that right?

This contains rage against something you like.

Hint: book. You should turn away.

Welp. Uh, brace yourself.

IT WAS MORE UNBEARABLE THAN I EXPECTED!

Whoops, sorry, I’m trying to contain the rage within me right now. Anyway…

I did. The entire book. All 800+ pages.

Frankly the POV made the entire thing a hard read. It adds to the experience of torture, yeah it does.

I get this one. The plot was heartbreaking, but also the whole book was heartbreaking because I just wish I was able to appreciate it. But I can’t. I was physically clenching my jaw almost the entire time. Even as I’m typing this I still am. So, even though plot-wise I think it’s worth it, the whole experience-wise I wish I was ignorant of that POV that shall not be named. Also that’s nine hours of my life (plus about three hours of sleep and including several hours I could’ve devoted to studying or reading stuff I actually enjoyed) I’ll never get back, so, you owe me a part of my sanity because it’s occupying my headspace in a negative way XD joking, for the most part

I swear I wish it was in third past but it wasn’t.

Frankly the beginning was more interesting than many parts of the book for me. I only pushed myself to read it just because I know you like it so much, and you recommended it, and if I didn’t read the whole thing it would be unfair. After all, you were in the same position as I was. I thought maybe if I read the whole thing, I would go through the same process as you and appreciate this POV.

This POV is unpopular and I see why. It should stay that way—no, it should not even be used, unless you’re doing it as a narrator directly talking to the reader a la The Hobbit or The Book Thief. The only way I can see the effect being brought out is “When you are dead, you are silent.” Or something like that. That’s the only time I can see the effect working. Everything else just made me feel like throwing the book out the window, but then people would be able to pick it up and read it still, so perhaps a fireplace with an open flame that’s not surrounded by glass would be better. Oh, I wish I could just chuck all of what I’ve read of it through a window and forget you even mentioned that book or that POV in the first place.

Okay, this opinion is completely subjective, but I stand by it.

It reads like a movie script in the bad way. I can understand first person present because when you’re writing a diary, which uses first person, you tend to write in present tense. I can understand second present because it mimics a player going on an adventure, and there are choose-your-own adventure books out there. Since you don’t know the ending and you are the character, present tense makes sense in second person.

Not with this. At least for me. I know movie scripts are written in third present, but this is a novel we’re talking about. Third person has a storyteller effect, and as far as I’m concerned storytellers talk about events that happened in the past.

Well, news anchors talk about present events.

There’s a disconnect because it’s in present tense, but I know it’s not happening now. And also when telling someone else what happened, it’s more natural to use third past. Like imagine a bank robbery happened and the police are asking what happened. Which one sounds more natural?

“Where’d he go?”

“He went that way!”

or…

“Where’s he going?”

“He’s going that way!”

The former sounds more natural. Another example, using the same bank robbery scenario. If the police ask you what happened just one second ago, which of the choices below would you say?

“The alarms go off and three men barge through the exit carrying sacks. A car pulls up and they get in. They go that way.”

“The alarms went off and three men barged through the exit carrying sacks. A car pulled up and they got in. They went that way.”

Come on, don’t tell me you’re going to default to the present tense one if a policeman asked you what happened even if it just happened a second ago.

First and second person get a pass for using present tense, because we actually use them in present tense sometimes. Not third person. It’s just unnatural to use it in prose.

And some people say that that POV has the feeling of “immediacy” because it’s in present tense. Yeah, no. I didn’t feel that at all.

I REALLY tried, but I just couldn’t. It was so glaring. I love to just sink into a story and get caught up in the events, but this POV just keeps me out of it.

Plus all the flashbacks are easier to do in past tense. Doing the flashbacks in present tense is confusing, and even if I knew it was a flashback, still.

I almost always (if not always) borrow only one book at a time. In this case, I borrowed two books at once just in case I needed to wash off the taste of that POV by reading another book I actually enjoyed, and thankfully I did. I still have that other book with me. Meanwhile, as soon as I finished that book, I celebrated and the first thing I did was walk all the way from my dorm to the library and drop it into the return box. I will be brutally honest: if you didn’t recommend me that, I would’ve quit after a few pages. At least I managed to read a few chapters of Twilight before dropping it out of frustration.

Oh and you will almost certainly hate me for this:

True. I was thinking about it while reading the book.

And I abhorred the comparison.

I’m not saying one character is superior than the other (if ever it is, it’s not mine; if I said so I’d be delusional). I’m not saying one suffered more than the other. For some reason as I thought about this comparison, I just clenched my jaw even tighter and I was speeding through the pages like a madwoman, just trying to forget it. I don’t know why. I can see the comparison, but… I just think it’s too different to compare, or it feels so wrong to compare their experiences. I don’t know why but it makes my blood boil… sorry, sublimate.

sigh

AND THE DIALOGUE! THE COMMAS ARE OUTSIDE OF THE QUOTATION MARKS 99% OF THE TIME! It drove me insane. I can’t find a single page on the internet that states where it’s allowed to have commas outside of the quotation marks! And this is a published book too. I know you talked about grammar mistakes in the Hunger Games but how were you able to tolerate this glaring and deliberate punctuation discrepancy?! At least when I read the Hunger Games the errors were far less noticeable, but this one?! IT’S THE MOST BASIC RULE OF PUNCTUATING DIALOGUE AND IT GETS BROKEN 99% OF THE TIME, AND SOMETIMES IT DOESN’T. AND I FIND IT HARD TO BELIEVE THE “BRITISH ENGLISH” EXCUSE BECAUSE I WAS EDUCATED UNDER THE BRITISH SYSTEM FOR TWELVE YEARS, AND WHEN I MEAN BRITISH SYSTEM, I MEAN MY EXAMS WERE FREAKING FLOWN ALL THE WAY TO THE UK, HALFWAY ACROSS THE WORLD, TO BE GRADED BY BRITISH PEOPLE. NOT GRADED IN ASIA. GRADED BY BRITISH PEOPLE IN THE UK. THEY FREAKING SEALED OUR EXAM PAPERS, PUT THEM ON A PLANE, AND FLEW THEM TO THE UK TO BE GRADED. I KNOW BRITISH ENGLISH. THEY TAUGHT US SINGLE QUOTATION MARKS. EN DASHES WITH SPACES. THOUGHTS SPELLED OUT WITHOUT ITALICS. THEY ALSO TAUGHT US TO PUT THE COMMA INSIDE. I CAN GIVE A DOZEN LINKS TO THE EXAM PAPERS, INCLUDING THE ONES I ACTUALLY TOOK, AND YOU WILL SEE THAT THE COMMA IS INSIDE AND NOT OUTSIDE.

My roommate saw me reading it and was laughing when she saw me reading it, saying she would’ve dropped it and told her friend that it was terrible. Well I didn’t.

You don’t need to reply to this.

You don’t need to reply to all of this in fact because it will just make me think about the book more and I’ll become even more furious.

And I’m suspicious of the fact that it doesn’t mention the act of contrition at the end of the confession scene, only penance. Actually, why doesn’t any media that uses a confession scene show the act of contrition? It’s an essential part of the sacrament! Especially considering the author’s background I was perplexed and disappointed. You don’t even need to say the whole thing. But, man, I just didn’t see it. If you’re going to include a confession, include the whole thing! I swear what do I have to do to see the act of contrition being depicted, whether in its full form or through a simple mention, during a confession scene in a piece of media. I know for a fact that it can’t be a cultural thing because I’ve confessed in my home country and in the US and it’s still a vital part of the sacrament. At least it’s not like that sacrilegious scene in The Nun (the movie).

Even if this book was in past tense, I wouldn’t put it on my favorites list. There was some clever writing with the repetition and all, and heartbreaking moments (that barely moved me to be honest, if at all) but the writing as a whole… I just didn’t find it very noteworthy.

I went from not knowing that POV is actually, not ironically, being used in prose, to loathing it after reading the preview, and later to full-on, indescribable, burning contempt that not even the heat of a million suns can compare. I swear I didn’t expect to hate it this much. I mean I like second person present which is way weirder so why would I loathe a present version of my favorite POV?

It’s literally the only POV I despise. I’d rather give up writing than write in that POV, and considering how I’ve been writing for fun since I was six and have experimented with first past, first past changing to first present, and second present, that’s saying something.

I’d rather give up reading than read that POV that shall not be named.

The only places where I don’t mind that POV are if they are used when the narrator wants to directly tell the reader something a la The Hobbit or The Book Thief but the actual story itself is in third person past, or if it’s used in blurbs. Or in movie scripts or inside dialogue, as in, inside the quotation marks.

I won’t say that it’s a bad book. I hate it beyond description, but I won’t say it’s bad. I’m unbiased enough to admit that it’s not a bad book even though I despise it with an unimaginable passion. It’s not a bad book. It’s decent, I guess. But I still hate it. Hate is a strong word, and frankly it’s not strong enough.

Yeah, I know it must suck severely to have one of your favorite books being bashed. Is it your all-time favorite above every single other book you’ve read to date? If so, then what I’ve done must’ve been even more criminal. Then again you did tell me to my online face that you disliked the Hunger Games even when I said I liked it and criticized its use of the “children with traits from both parents” trope (which I myself will sort of be guilty of). Then again, the Hunger Games isn’t my favorite book/series.

You know what, you can take up my favorite book and figuratively (and literally) rip it to shreds to get back at me. I’ll accept that. You can open it, peek at the first page, and quit reading it and nitpick it just to get back at me.

You can also just pretend I don’t exist anymore. I’ll accept that too.

EDIT 25: I hope you didn’t read EDIT 24. If you did… yikes. Sorry I bet you absolutely hate me now >.<

And if you didn’t, great! Because look

I GOT TWO CUSTOM EMOJIS!

I think people are way more likely to use the latter emoji

I mean look at it!

If this looks familiar, that’s because I first saw it in a meme and I was like “I wish that emoji is real”

Now it is! On Wacky, at least

This might be my new favorite emoji

EDIT 26: So, this must be a record… 26 edits this is what happens when I’m left hanging for a few months: I cram the last reply with a ton of edits because I don’t want to spam the thread every time I think of something to tell you XD

But anyway, I’m reading The Book Thief right now, and I LOVE IT! I’m not yet finished and I know what happens at the end, but still.

Oh and I found this cool website you might want to use: doesthedogdie.com. It tells you whether a certain piece of media—whether a book, tv show, or movie—has some sensitive content. It’s more focused on TV shows and movies, but still! It helps. If you don’t want to go to Wikipedia to read the synopsis but still want to make sure that you won’t read stuff you don’t like—like graphic bed scenes, for example—you can search it there. It may show spoilers related to the sensitive content, but not the entire plot, so at least you’ll be prepared.

I probably won’t use that because I’ll just check on Wikipedia anyway. Just thought you might find it useful.

And I’m having more progress with Debussy. I thought he was going to be my second favorite, but after going through his preludes and etudes, I think he’s not creating a new tier between Chopin and the rest for me. Actually, my second-favorite composer might actually be Sakuzyo. Huh. My favorite composer is the (arguably) greatest composer for piano and the pioneer of Romanticism (although he disliked being called a romantic) while my second-favorite is an obscure Japanese composer who also composes heavily in other genres.

Also, now that I’ve finally finished Chopin’s Letters, I can share some of my favorite bits

I finally got to that part about the waltzes!

And I also read this in another letter:

And this one from another letter genuinely made me laugh out loud:

And then there was a footnote: Franz Liszt

And he signs off his letters differently. One time, he ended his letter like this:

I LOVE THIS GUY

And then in some of those letters he wrote to George Sand, his most notable lover, he called himself her “most fossilized fossil.”

Oh, and this is from one of his earlier letters:

Aww

And then this is from when he was older and really weak, as in near death:

THAT LAST SENTENCE THOUGH and then later in the letter he says that even if he does fall in love, he wouldn’t want to marry, because he’s poor and sickly and women want a young, rich, and healthy husband. And then even later, he says that he’s closer to a coffin than a marriage bed.

It’s funny because some of his letters are pages long, and then there’s one letter that’s literally a sentence long. It was something along the lines of “May God help you in your endeavors” or something like that.

Just a fair warning: there are bits of it that sound a teeny tiny bit erotic, but that’s just him using flowery language. I read in some articles that it’s just how people from that place and time period wrote. Although I do remember this part where he wrote something along the lines of “Can you imagine that? I, as a seducteur!” that was written in a joking manner, and when I read it I imagined a younger version of him playing the piano while flashing a mischievous smile at someone.

There were also some letters that were business-related or transactional, like sending his compositions to publishers or something similar.

I also found out that he liked hot chocolate!

I really hope that the library finds that copy of the book I put into the dropbox, because I distinctly remember putting it inside, yet it still looks like it’s checked out. Hmmm. I mean I wish it’s still with me but it’s not so…

Oh, and I found out that he’s part of the small hand gang! His old lover’s son-in-law made a death mask and a cast of his hand. So this is what his hand’s shaped like:

I was comparing it with my left hand I was like “My left hand looks like my favorite composer’s?” but it’s not as flexible though. There were accounts of his hands being small, unlike Liszt, but they were unusually flexible. One person wrote that his hands even “expanded to swallow a third of the keyboard” o.O

And meanwhile I can’t reach a tenth ;-;

I’ve also watched a YouTube video that mentioned that the hands are the second-most attractive thing girls find about guys, after the face. I was like “no wonder I find pianists attractive” well, I still look at the face first and overall body size, but smooth and slender hands are like

And after that video I kept on thinking about Eddie’s hands especially when he’s playing the piano. Slender, long, flexible. He can reach at least a twelfth. I can’t reach a tenth

EDIT 27: I’ve recently listened to Thierry de Brunhoff’s interpretation of the complete Chopin nocturnes (except for No. 21, which wasn’t in the video), and he has to be my second-favorite interpreter of those pieces, if not joint favorite. Have you listened to them? It’s beautiful *chef's kiss* I know Arrau’s recording of my all-time favorite is our favorite interpretation, but Thierry’s is just… honestly his has to be my second-favorite or joint-favorite. It’s that good—to me, at least.

They don’t have it on YouTube music ;-; but at least they have it on the actual YouTube! Oh, and he didn’t record Nocturne No. 21. Oh well.

I read his Wikipedia page out of curiosity, and apparently he became a monk. Sort of reminds me of Liszt—did you know that Liszt eventually became a monk? Except, unlike Liszt, he was never a promiscuous superstar at some point of his life I think he was devout his whole life and then ended up choosing the religious life. On the other hand, Liszt went from a concert-loving virtuoso who impregnated his mistress more than once to a monk who composed religious music If that’s not a drastic jump, then I don’t know what is. Oh, and de Brunhoff was a student of Alfred Cortot! If you’ve forgotten who Cortot is, he’s the interpreter of the Chopin etudes I put in the Chopin Selection—well, was, until YouTube removed those recordings there are still some Cortot recordings, but most of the etudes are now Perahia recordings.

Here’s the YouTube video:

It ends on your favorite nocturne if only he recorded No. 21 in C Minor though ;-;

Speaking of which, as much as I like No. 20, I’ve started listening to it less and sort of avoiding it because now there’s an image associated with it, which is sad because I love it, but then it keeps on popping up and making me a bit uncomfortable I can tell you what it is, but I’m afraid it might spoil your enjoyment of the piece, unless you have the power to dissociate an image from a song/piece.

EDIT 28: NAOMI OSAKA IS HEADING TO AUSTRALIA RIGHT NOW AND I AM SO PUMPED FOR HER TO PLAY IN THE AO! I CAN’T WAIT FOR HER TO RETURN TO TENNIS BECAUSE I MISS HER SO MUCH AND AAAAAAAH

Sorry I can’t help it but she’s back! Man, do I miss her. It’s about time that women’s tennis have more dominant players. The field’s been weak. I mean, Ash Barty’s managed to snag more weeks as No. 1 than a lot of legends, but she’s nowhere as good as them. Put Ash Barty in the WTA scene ten years ago, and she wouldn’t even be Top 5. Other WTA players in the past would win grand slams but still end up as World No. 2, or even No. 3! I’d like to see some consistency, at least man, the old WTA really spoiled us.

Anyway, on a darker note, some players tested positive for COVID most of them, if not all, were playing at a tournament in Abu Dhabi—or were supposed to play there—and they tested positive there. Nadal, Shapovalov, Bencic, Jabeur, BWEH, and your favorite. Well at least they’re all fully vaxxed, to my knowledge. They should be able to recover in time for the AO.

And I saw a picture of Iga learning to apply makeup, as in actually learning, with a pencil in hand and a sheet of paper on her lap XD someone commented that she and Danya should play mixed doubles and I was like “YASSS” I just love their banter, especially when she called him a pretzel XD

And Djokovic may or may not play in the AO. You see, he’s antivaxx or a vaccine skeptic it all started years ago, when he was skinny and didn’t have as much stamina. He was known for retiring from losing matches instead of closing it out. One time a quack doctor put a slice of bread on his body—forgot the exact details, but it’s something like that—and said that he should cut out gluten. And then boom. Gluten-free Novak ended up becoming one of the tennis GOATs. Now he’s consumed by all this pseudoscience and spiritual healing stuff. Some say he’s vaccinated because he’s playing in the ATP Cup, and considering Australia’s entry requirements he should be vaccinated. Others say he might be, but with an unapproved vaccine like Sputnik. Others say he’s not. Well the guy himself has yet to tell us whether he’s vaccinated or not. Makes me glad that I’m a Fed fan, because he not only got the shots, but publicly said that he got them to protect those around him and prevent transmission. Nadal also said something similar. As for Med, he literally can’t take the vaccine because of medical issues. Someone from Australia, I forgot whether it was Tennis Australia or part of the government there, said that there are one/two players with medical exemptions who will be allowed to play, and I’m pretty sure he was referring to Med.

Also, have you seen this?

I LOVE KARAMERU VIDEOS I made an entire post about them on my personal thread because I’m addicted to them, haha

EDIT 29: SIMONA HALEP WON THE ADELAIDE TOURNAMENT AND DJOKOVIC OFFICIALLY GOT DEPORTED FROM AUSTRALIA AND NOW MEDVEDEV IS THE TOP SEED AND ALSO NAOMI WON HER FIRST MATCH AT THE AO 6-3 6-3 AND I REALLY HOPE SHE MAKES IT AND AAAAAAAAAAAH

Sorry just the tennis fan in me

Also I’m not sure if the thread will still be around by the time you’re back, but I’ve been having fun talking about OCs with @/korralistic in the “Tell me about your OCs! I wanna ask questions” thread. Her reactions to it are hilarious and I literally pulled an all-nighter because it was so fun I’ll post the best ones here:

So now we have new nicknames: Edin and Damon’s dad is “mr murder man,” Damon is “mr murder junior,” and Edin is “mr murder jr the second” and Arden is “miss oh no i can’t have bursting vaults of my shiny money in one of my 574638475747 castles”

Also I’ve made a poll about which of the three E/A\D characters has the most epic battle theme. It’s here. I won’t tell you the results because I’m afraid of swaying your decision, but I just want you to be completely honest if you do happen to vote on it.

Edin’s surprisingly gaining new fans