Finally made it to Southern California!

Found a temporary place North of San Diego while my wife & I explore relocation options. Rome is proving to be overly chaotic & tiring…

While here, I look forward to checking out a few recording studios between San Diego, Los Angeles & Las Vegas to record my new CD (as soon as my thumb heals).
Finding the perfect piano is an important step in finalizing my new CD! (preceded only by… actually finishing the tracks!)

If you're in the area, send me a note! Would be cool to meet you!

P.S. The Pacific is amazing

Check out this interesting anecdote from the life of legendary jazz pianist Fats Waller (Source: Wikipedia):

“…His playing once put him at risk of injury. Waller was kidnapped in Chicago leaving a performance in 1926. Four men bundled him into a car and took him to the Hawthorne Inn, owned by gangster Al Capone. Fats was ordered inside the building, and found a party in full swing. Gun to his back, he was pushed towards a piano, and told to play. A terrified Waller realized he was the “surprise guest” at Al Capone's birthday party, and took comfort that the gangsters didn't intend to kill him. According to rumor, Waller played for three days. When he left the Hawthorne Inn, he was very drunk, extremely tired, and had earned thousands of dollars in cash from Capone and other party-goers as tips..”

I know the feeling of playing for three days (& nights) at the Calx Project, where I clocked in at 60 hours and 1 minute of improvising at the piano.

The only ‘thrill' that I can share with Fats Waller, though, is that I was extremely tired. But I wasn't drunk, I didn't make money nor was I held at gunpoint at any time during the event!

Check out some photos from “The Calx Project”.

Gone is the old website that contained a ton of text worthy of an encyclopedia entry and references to myself in third person. Duh!

I've gone for a very personal, minimal & clean look that draws attention to my music and how you can get a lot of it for free.

The fact is, I've changed a lot since the last website was launched in 2005. A website should reflect its owner, right?

Now – among other things – you'll be able to:

• Read about me in 9 seconds
• Learn about my Record-breaking Calx Project improvisations including a series of funny FAQs from the event!
• Listen to my piano music
• Get a free full length CD of unpublished music

Woa! Did you get that last one?

You read correctly! I'm giving away a free CD of unpublished music from my personal archives, a selection that is very meaningful to me. You get 73+ minutes of music just by registering to my free newsletter.

What's the catch?

There is no catch, really. My hopes are that by being exposed to a diverse & honest selection of my music that is available for sale, you can like what I do, follow my work and perhaps recommend it to family, co-workers & friends.

Maybe someday you may even buy one of my CDs. Maybe not. Either way, I just want you to listen to my music as I believe it can make you feel good. Nothing more (nothing less!).

What do you think of the site? (You can leave a comment below).

See you around!

Oh – one last thing – Join me in one last “rest in peace” look to the “old” website. Just one last time! And then, never look back – always forward!

Christian

Now I'll add to that Bob Parsons (GoDaddy's founder) bragging about his happy times in Zimbabwe killing animals and (in my opinion) making fun of the local populace.

In the video (it's a little graphic since it shows a dead elephant so watch it only if you want to here) Mr. Godaddy says his finest day was spent killing an evil elephant (evil because it destroyed the people's harvest). A further montage shows locals pouring over the carcass for meat; the rock music soundtrack gives me an impression of poking fun at a bunch of people who are gathering food. Bad taste, methinks…

Eco-friendly Twitterer Oreeko, raises an interesting question in their latest tweet:

“Killing elephants to save humans? Which is right or wrong?”

My viewpoint is simple: if the locals take an elephant down because it's destroying their crops and they use it for food, it's their business. Not some fat millionaire's killing-spree adventure made for the fun of it.

Also, even if this killing were necessary to preserve crops and therefore human life, boasting & bragging about it is what is truly wrong. Nothing quite like giving people ideas on how fun it is to kill an animal.

I'm switching tomorrow at the latest. I don't care if my site goes down in the process for a few days. A bragging killer doesn't deserve my business.

And don't get me wrong – I love animals but I'm not a fanatic animal extremist. I just hate people who brag about improper actions they take. What do you think?

Easy! Fire up your Mac and launch Garageband, Apple's music-making program. It has the ideal feature for broken pianists, called “musical typing”.

Essentially, it allows you to play your computer's keyboard like a piano. I loaded up a celesta sound and composed & performed the track “Broken Pianist”. Check it out & tell me what you think!

If you've read some of my recent posts or are following me on Facebook, you'll know that I had an accident and am stuck in bed for the next two months without the ability to move.

The accident happened in Dubai airport while en route to Auckland, New Zealand. That's where I was supposed to put the finishing touches to the project and record it.

The CD has been long overdue so I was really looking forward to getting it out there for you. The music will be explosive, dynamic, energizing and inspiring. A little different from the “very relaxing” you may have come to know. I'm proud to have found my “sound” and honestly look forward to letting you hear it.

Here are some of the titles:

“The choice to fight”
“PLAY”
“Eternal city”
“Ancient Tale”
“Pensiero, Azione” (Thought, Action)
“Monochrome”
“Earth”
“Winter skies”

and several more.

Well, I hope you at least like the titles!

I'm trying to set myself up with a mini keyboard and get you some new orchestral music. In fact, on my Facebook page you can even suggest some titles and I'll put them to music.

Take care for now & thanks for your support!

Christian

While en route to Auckland, NZ to – among other things – record my new CD, what was to be a 5 hour layover in Dubai, UAE into an ordeal, ending in a fractured right hip and micro fractures on the left hip. Here is a summary of all the actions that led to that moment. I cannot but wonder if anyone of these steps would have taken a little less (or a little more) how things would have been different.

(The time-stamp is purely indicative and does not represent the exact time this all happened)

5:05 – Emirates flight 96 from Rome lands on schedule in Dubai
5:15 – The Boing 777 docks to the gate; we let everyone get out before us because we're in no rush – we have about 5 hours to spare in Dubai.
5:30 – We come out of the plane with our carry-ons and start the long walk to the main terminal.
5:55 – We have to go through a security check to access the departure area. The line seems to be moving fast.
6:09 – The security agent was eager to finish his duty and didn't request us to remove our laptops from our bags. I was traveling with a heavy music computer in my carryon, the amazing Muse Receptor. At the Rome security checkpoint I had to remove it out of the bag for screening as if it were a weapon. Not in Dubai. Minutes saved!
6:13 - We're thru! Welcome to the Dubai International.
6:20 – We start walking towards our departure gate 232 and check out the myriads of shops.
6:29 - Stopped at an electronics store – found a Nikon D3100 on sale. Let's think about it.
6:31 – We get stopped by a sales person with an iPod in hand advertising a hip place to eat open 24/7. Nice but… no thanks! Only want a simple breakfast for now!
6:39 - Spotted the first Starbucks! We're ready to attack it when we see that it's small and crammed. Hmm… Let's wait a little.
6:44 – We find these super cool chairs – you can sit and actually extend your legs – really cool! Plus there's free wi-fi!
6:51 – Comparing prices for the Nikon D3100. Bestbuy.com has it discounted 50% with its Black Friday deal. No way!
6:59 – Mind made up: we're not buying the camera in Dubai!
7:08 – While heading back to Starbucks, we find a local cafe' that has some really nice chairs and the same menu. We order two cappuccinos and two butter croissants. The cashier tells us to wait at the table…
7:29 - Breakfast finally arrives! Delicious! We start chatting and fantasize about how cool it would be to travel business class to NZ. I promise Susie that someday we will.
8:11 - Breakfast is over. We start heading ‘con calma' towards our departure gate.
8:25 – We arrive at the gate, pull out our laptops and start checking our email.
8:47 - Boarding soon! I decide to go to the restroom and buy a bottle of water for the flight.
8:48 – The restroom near the gate is crowded with people – no thanks!
8:51 – Can't find water anywhere. I keep on walking and find another bathroom brimming with people. Nope! I decide to leave it all for the plane!
8:54 – Walking back to the gate, I see that the first restroom I passed has now less people. Let's give it a try…
8:56 - Entered the restroom
8:58 - Opening the door to come out.
8:58 - My right foot lays on a wet surface
8:58 - I fly for a few nanoseconds, landing on my hip. As I lay there unable to move, the cleaner is in front of me, mop in hands, starring at me in terror.
10:10 – Emirates flight # to Auckland, NZ takes off. We're just not on it.

From here on we'll spend a full day in the ER ultimately being erroneously diagnosed with a hip contusion. Only four days later, after a bunch of medical exams and fights (no one made our life easier in this ordeal) will we find out that the right hip is fractured and the left has a few microfractures.

Two days after that (for a total of a full week later) I keep my promise to my wife that “someday” we'll be flying business. It's just the wrong situation and destination: on a plane in pain headed back to Rome, where two months of strict bed time await me.

CONCLUSION
My brain delights in thinking about our “sliding doors” situation. How would things have gone differently if any one of those 20-some individual actions were different?

- What if our breakfast didn't take so long to be served? It was just 2 cappuccinos after all!
- What if we joined the primordial stampede to be the first to exit the aircraft from Rome?
- What if my music computer was searched as it was in Rome?
- What if I bought that Nikon?
- What if Susie & I had chatted a few seconds more or a few seconds less at any given point?

Chances are the outcome would have been the same: we would have been seated on an 18-hour flight to NZ and lots of beautiful things would have come out of it. But as each of those actions kicked in, life's highway came up to an unexpected “Exit” in Dubai.

Each one of those steps raises a potentially unlimited number of variables that is impossible to calculate.

And of course add to this already complex equation the variables associated with the lives of any other person transiting at the airport – including the employee of the year who had the bright idea to wash the restroom with people in it and no warning signs – and you have a frightening, yet beautiful result:

Life.

Life changes direction with every step we take (at times even literally!).
Life is beautiful because no matter what happens you are in a position to pull out the best and see the best in others.
Life dignifies us with being able to decide how to deal with a situation no matter what it entails.
Life is a unique gift because you never know what happens next., but we have the freedom to try to make it happen, whatever it may be.

Time for some lemonade from all these lemons and to make some beautiful music. Who needs a piano anyways when you can write it all in your head?

C!

There's lots of cool content on Apple's website: videos, history & more. Even if you don't like the Beatles, they're cool to watch if not for the fact that they're so… ancient!

Enjoy!

Infographic by computer school.org