Cup of Coffee

I was sitting across from X. I was teaching X English. I was testing him really hard. We were in a room and X had a cup of coffee in front of him, a coffee I had gotten for him. We were really working hard. I asked him a series of questions. He kept getting the answers wrong. Every time he would get an answer wrong, we would have to stop and I would have to reiterate a point. Finally, he got a crucial question correct. The moment he did, he took a sip of his coffee.

Chess win (Sicilian Defense)

Here is a nice win of mine in the Sicilian Defense. I especially liked how active my pieces where. I'm Black.

"Ditto"

One of my favorite movie scenes—matched only by the scene at the end when she says the word.

Middle Eight

So one of my hobbies is songwriting. I think I wrote my first song at 19, for a girl I was dating at the time. Over the years, I have written about 20 songs, some of them pretty good. 

One cool thing about writing songs is that you wind up becoming very aware of how a song is constructed, and having that awareness makes you appreciate music more. Also, it's fun to think about hooks, licks and other aspects of a song that make it great or not. 

One aspect of a song that I often think about a lot, both when I'm writing and listening, is the middle eight. I first learned of this term, "middle eight," through the Beatles. In interviews, John Lennon would sometimes say that he had written the middle eight to some of Paul's songs and vice versa. 

But the term itself to me was so weird—"middle eight." I knew what a chorus was, and I knew what a bridge was, but what the heck was a "middle eight"? 

Well, basically, a middle eight is a bridge. However, it's a specific type of bridge. (Just to be clear, the "bridge" is the part of the song where the melody changes. It usually occurs when the piece is three-fourths finished and literally acts as a bridge to the end of the song.) 

A middle eight is a bridge that (usually) lasts eight measures. Hence, middle eight. (Oh, and just in case you were wondering, there are four beats in one measure. So, for example, one-two-three-four, one-two-three-four would be two measures. A middle eight lasts eight of those.) 

Anyway, I love middle eights because I love the part of the song where there is a departure, a change, a release, something new. Sure, the main melody is important, and of course, a hooky refrain is important, too. But there is something special about the middle eight. 

And maybe you can come to appreciate the art of the middle eight as well? 

Each of the songs below has an excellent middle eight. 

Enjoy! 

"A Hard Day's Night." 

The middle eight begins at the part, "When I'm home everything seems to be 

right..."  

"Colors of the Wind" 

 The middle eight begins at, "Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon..." 

 "Let It Be Me" 

"Each time we meet love..."

  

More Sophisticated

The names of the openings are starting to get more sophisticated. =) =) =) The one played in this game: "The King's Indian Defense: Averbakh, Benoni, Advance Variation, 7...h6 8.Be3." I have the black pieces.

 

Bernstein

I think this is just great. I love the way Leonard Bernstein compares his work as a conductor with actors interpreting Shakespeare. So much of the arts really are connected, and I also like to think that, in a way, everything really is connected, that everything really is one river feeding the same sea. The performance is also very interesting. That guy's fingers…wow!

 

A Note on a Semicolon

Perfectly placed semicolons: 

1) He didn't have dollars; rather, he just had euros.

2) He didn't have dollars; he just had euros. 

Two Notes for Me (on Writing)

1. She was always a sarcastic girl, so I was not at all surprised when she told me that she thought my work was "amazing." [The italicized "a" works.]

2. "Hi," I said, putting my hand out for him to shake it. ... "Hi," I said. I put my hand out for him to shake it. [The second sentence is probably superior to the first.]

Getting the Win

I finally got this win. Phew.

Anyone Who Knows What Love Is

So two of my friends and I have this WhatsApp group called "Songwriting" where we share songwriting tips and discuss why we like certain songs. I thought that my last contribution to this WhatsApp group was worth sharing here.  Enjoy. 

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Hey guys,

So, like, this song, "Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)" from 1964 is my new favorite song at the moment, and I thought I'd just tell you why...like, break the piece down in terms of how I see it as a music lover and songwriter.

So, first off, I like the song because right at the beginning, there's that catchy, twinkling-like little hook with the xylophone. I feel that when writing a song, you really have to catch people at the first moment. This can be done in many different ways, and this twinkly little riff definitely does it.

Then, of course, there's that chorus of people repeating "anyone." I like that, but that's all, I just like it, nothing more. Then comes the singer's voice. In addition to being smoky and full of emotion, I like how she takes the time to enunciate, and I certainly like that her words and her story are so simple.

You can blame me

Try to shame me

And still I'll care for you.

The highlight of the song, though, I think, is the pre-chorus. You really feel a rise, a rise in tension; plus, there is so much emotion in those chords and in the melody. And speaking of the chords themselves, I think they create a poignant mixture of emotion because they are not run-of-the mill. In fact, most of the chords in the pre-chorus are what's known as achromatic, meaning they break key.

So, for example,  the song starts in the key of D major. However, in the pre-chorus, we have our first achromatic chord change with that D minor.  D minor is definitely not in the key of D major, but that's OK because music is all about breaking the rules.  All that being as it is, the pre-chorus has got a lot of chromatic chords—it almost seems to be in an entirely different key, maybe G# minor?—but then, thankfully, when we get to the refrain, "Anyone who knows what love is will understand," we return to our original key, D, and the tension is released.

And speaking of the refrain, we can't underestimate how important it is. Not only is it the title of the song, but it is also such a fantastic release of tension. It's almost like the waters have finally reached the sea, so to speak.

As for the second verse, well, I like that too because it continues on that same theme, "I may act crazy, but I'm in love, and that's what love is, whether you understand it or not."

Finally,  I think I like the song because it speaks to something universal, love—and, that is, I feel, love however you might interpret it.

So that's my take on the song. I thought it would be cool to write this so you guys could see how my mind works when it comes to listening to music and songwriting.

Anna Rudolf

So there's a funny story with this game. Recently, I've been taking an online endgame course. The course was created by Anna Rudolf, a prominent International Master of chess. The funny thing is, though, on chess.com, there is an Anna Rudolf bot that you can play against. The bot supposedly plays at the same strength as Rudolf (2400) and plays moves and openings that she would. 

Well...

I actually beat the Anna Rudolf bot today. I think it was the seventh time I played against "her." All the other times I lost. 

The super ironic thing is—and this is really funny—this game I won against the Anna bot today goes into the endgame, and I actually used some of the techniques that the real Anna taught me in her endgame course. 

The game is below. I've annotated it so you can see what I was thinking every step of the way.

Finally Did It

I was trying to beat this opponent all night...I finally did it. I have the black pieces. My dark-squared bishop was a monster in the end. 

Artist

Yesterday, I was researching something on the New York Times website, and I came across this really interesting article from 1964. 

The article is about an eccentric artist who never really had much success in his life. However, after he died a violent death, a gallery decided to hold an exhibition of his works. 

The guy seemed like a sort of tragic figure, but there was something very intriguing and maybe even beautiful, in one way or another, about the article. 

Nice Win with the Black Pieces

Here is a nice win of mine. I have the black pieces, and I chose to play the King's Indian Defense in response to White's opening move of pawn to d4.  

 Just so you know, in the King's Indian Defense (1. d4, Nf6 2. c4, g6 3. Nc3, Bg7, 4. e4, d6), Black cedes center control of the board to white, at least for the time being, then seeks to undermine white's position in various ways. White, for his part, tries to play on the queenside. However, if White is not careful and/or doesn't generate sharp enough queenside play, Black, if he's skilled enough, will amass his pieces on the kingside, then launch a attack.  

 In the game below, I was able to do just that—amass my pieces on the kingside and ultimately launch an pernicious attack. 

My opponent was rated 2000, which is 200 Elo points below a master. The "Elo" system is the system that's used to calculate  a chess player's strength. Enjoy! *

The Red Wheelbarrow

I'm kinda proud that I was able to teach this poem to a few of my students today. The students were teenagers, and their take on the poem was super interesting. The poem itself, I think, is mystifying. 

***

"The Red Wheelbarrow"

By William Carlos Williams  

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens

No Context

The following text was on my desktop. I'm not gonna say why. I'm just gonna post it without any context. Enjoy! 

Titanic is a love story and in it a boy, who is from the lower classes, falls in love with a girl from the higher classes. However, their love affair is cut short by the fact that they are on the Titanic. The boat hits an iceberg and the story ends in tragedy.

Endgame Knowledge

So I've been working hard on my endgame recently, and that can really be seen at the end of this game. Instead of promoting my pawn to a queen, I instead opt for a knight. This means that I will have to mate with a bishop and a knight, which is a heck of a lot harder than mating with a bishop and a queen or even a king and a queen. But I wanted to put some of the endgame knowledge I've acquired to use. The mate was difficult to achieve, but I'm happy I figured it out. My opponent (2000) has the black pieces and she played the Sicilian Defense. 

Marty Chess

So my girlfriend and I have been playing a lot of chess recently, and I have begun teaching her Philidor's Defense. Basically, Philidor's Defense is a system for Black. Anyone who plays chess knows that many games open with White pushing his king's pawn two squares forward, to e4, and Black responding by pushing his own king's pawn, also two squares, to e5. Usually—again, if you are even the least bit familiar with chess, you have probably seen this before—White will then bring his king's knight to f3, attacking Black's pawn on e5. If Black responds to this threat by moving his queen's pawn one square, to d6, in an effort, of course, to support his center pawn on e5, then the opening moves of Philidor's Defense have been played. 

Anyway, Marty and I have been playing games in the Philidor's Defense recently (with her as Black), and below is a game we played tonight. In my opinion, Marty had some great moments. Her first impressive move was 9…knight to c5. She was going after my dangerous bishop and eventually got it! 11…pawn to b5 was also new for her (with this move she grabbed some space on the queenside), and 14…queen to b6 was also impressive, as it stationed her powerful female monarch on a good attacking square. 

Marty's best move in my mind, though, was undoubtedly 19…knight to f6. Marty was under heavy attack at this point, and she had the presence of mind to ignore the threat on e6 and instead go after my queen on g4. This was a high-class move because it both attacked my queen and brought her knight to a much better square. 

In the end, I did win, but, hey, Marty put up a heck of a fight. 

Go Marty! 

Chess Rival

When I used to play chess on gamecolony.com, I had a rival, "mcrat." This guy and I, man, we used to tear it up. We would play game after game after game, and our games would always be super sharp and exciting. He was the yin to my yang or something. 

Anyway, years went by before I realized that his handle wasn't mcrat. It was mrcat. 

Two

I got up from my desk, turned on the radiator, went into the kitchen and filled the electric kettle up with water. I then went over to my bed and grabbed a bag of beef jerky that was lying among several other things that I had dumped out of my backpack earlier. As I was about to sit down at my desk again, I noticed that I had forgotten to turn on the electric kettle.  

***

I went for a run last night. The running paths were sludgy. I couldn’t see much, and I was just praying that the muck under my feet was just mud—not mud mixed with dog shit. At one point, I lept over a puddle that I swear was in the shape of Australia.