A birthday, reading, and preparations

Today is mom's birthday, which also means it's one day short of mine. Good wishes sent flying her direction during the morning sitting, to be followed with a phone call later.

I was forwarded an article from the NYT Sunday magazine, called The Case For Working With Your Hands, by a Matthew B. Crawford, who has a book being released this week called “Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work”, which, if the article is any indication, will be a very interesting read. The title has echos of the Pirsig classic, of course (and the author even runs a motorcycle repair business), but this seems more generally about the idea of learning "through the hands". It strikes me that this is what musicians do as a matter of course, which might go a ways toward explaining what has attracted me about piano technology; I've spent a great deal of time in focused practice, gathering information from my hands, eyes and ears in order to increase my facility at a task. Part of his thesis also seems to be directed against the established m.o. of colleges, which more and more is to prepare student for employment, and less and less about actual learning. He speaks fairly strongly against the management field in particular, as being populated by double-speakers who don't actually produce anything. The general tone against college education rankles a bit; I don't think all colleges and teachers are out to brainwash students, but there is certainly a fair amount of that going on. The article can be found here.

Otherwise, my time is being spent in preparations for my temporary relocation to western Massachusetts. There is an awful lot to do, when one is going to be away from home for 10 weeks. The living arrangements sound adequate, if not as comfortable as those to which I am used, and the work will keep me very busy, I'm sure. But little logistical things such as packing clothing for varying temperatures, deciding what tools to take, arranging for mail to be sent to the proper place, bills to be paid, and ensuring that communication lines remain open are all significant tasks. And then there are other little quality-of-life issues, such as deciding what music, books, and instruments will make the trip with me to occupy my relatively few leisure hours. Of course, as with any large undertaking, there is a dose of anxiety as well; last night included a dream of arriving at Tanglewood without any of my tools! All in all, though, I'm starting to feel very excited about the summer.