Hey, a good violin lesson

All those finger practices are paying off. Our usual thing is he sez, "let's play this scale in two octaves," and then we go. I'm having to think less and less about what the 'notes' are, and more and more about where my fingers are supposed to be. Next week I'm going to ask him to try doing that in 2nd, 3rd or 4th position to make it harder. (plus then I learn the geography of THOSE positions too)

We're working on this Bach piece, that's actually pretty neat for the amount of things you can learn to do well -- the various positions and shifting -- I've almost never used 1/2 position on the violin before, so that's a bit of a challenge, as well as crazy bowing (what do you mean I have to play 17 notes in one stroke??)

But I did it well! Which then led into our weekly philosophical discussion about violin playing in general -- that getting it right the first time isnt enough and about not having attachment to having done it perfectly in the past, but working on doing it perfectly in the moment AND not getting stressed when one doesnt get it right...

I didnt want to go to work today! I wanted to stay home and play my violin all day.

Childhood dreams

My parents immigrated to the USofA when I was less then 1 years old. For all intents and purposes, I was raised here as an American. Since 9/11 in particular, I've been questioning a lot about the cultural uprooting of growing up here -- I'm not quite Desi enough for the indian community and my skin color is never going to change for the dominant culture of where I live.

That being said, I remember being a kid and reading comic books. We had our indian comic books Amar Chitra Katha, and of course, Marvel and others. One of my favorites was Captain America.

RIP, Captain America -- you were my childhood symbol of Truth, Justice and the American Way -- things that are still very strong for me, and why I'm often so appalled at where my country has been going.

As P sez to me when we watch the news together, "Remember, when we were the good guys?"