Category: Uncategorized
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You know it when you hear it: A long, brief journey through classical piano
This is the second post in an audio series about classical piano. Listen to the intro post: Classical piano is awesome, and problematic and bumbling, but still, it’s awesome * * * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Fantasy in D minor is mysterious and foreboding, and you’re never quite sure what it’s building toward. Later, it suddenly…
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The mission to Mars is philosophy, the rest is fun and games
You do not need to be a science fiction fan or an aerospace engineer to be in awe of outer space. You just need to stare at the sky. Space hovers over us, like a buffer from the inhospitable infinite, yet it is also the thing itself. We cannot exist in this void, but we…
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Classical piano is awesome, and problematic and bumbling, but still, it’s awesome
This is an audio post, so I suggest listening. This is Kreisleriana, a fantasy by Robert Schumann. It’s the seventh movement, a contrast within contrasts. The first part is intensely melodic. Then it turns plush. A perfect bridge to an ineffable final movement. I begin with this piece not because I think Schumann’s creation is…
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Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: An All-American City
Growing up, I attended four public city schools. If I had to rank them by how vibrant they were, how much I enjoyed them, how much I got out of them, I would say middle school was the worst, kindergarten was kindergarten, and high school was pretty good—but my elementary school was special. The ranking…
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It never snows, until it does
Last month I wrote about murder. This month I am writing about snow. I love snow I love snow. I love the way it falls from the sky and blankets the ground. I love how trees and fields and paths and cars look when they’re covered in snow. I enjoy skiing and sledding and snowshoeing…
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The future of documentary: American Murder: The Family Next Door and the Watts family murders
Whatever you feel right now—joy, sorrow, pain, elation, cynicism, optimism—your spirits can be obliterated with a viewing of American Murder: The Family Next Door. This Netflix documentary tells the story of the Watts family murders, a crime so disturbing it gave the case investigators PTSD and prompted the presiding judge, who’d handle thousands of cases,…
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2020 year-in-review: A year we basically have to remember
At the beginning of the year, I ran into a colleague in the elevator and asked about his New Year’s. He said it went fine and well, but that he was worried about coronavirus. Ah, I said, it’s nothing, just a headline from across the globe, and anyway these things are always overblown. In mid-February,…
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You’ll never believe this is Manhattan: Fall photos of Inwood Hill Park
This summer, I did photo essay of Fort Tryon Park, the gorgeous clifftop greenery in the northern hills of Manhattan. But Fort Tryon does not represent the tip of the island. That would be Inwood Hill Park, the borough’s last remaining natural forest. Inwood’s a swath of history. Glacial potholes have been forming there for…
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Let’s get uncomfortable: A new running podcast
In recent news, I started a running podcast. Or, more specifically, Inés Bebea started a running podcast, and Jaime Chien and I joined her as hosts, and, along with others, helped get it going. And it all went down in a pandemic. The podcast is called “Let’s Get Uncomfortable,” which nods to the punishment that…
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American magical thinking: It’s all an illusion, but who cares? (Right now)
A few years ago, a former mid-level administrator at a prestigious private graduate school told me that one of their job responsibilities was to make the admissions process less corrupt. But they never got much traction. Wealth and influence, i.e., networking and future donations, were a candidate’s most valued qualifications. The dean—who came to higher…
Nathan Schiller 