MartinFAIL « Martin Spitznagel

27
Mar/103

Try Harder or Quit

I need to become this person.

My French teacher in high school had a thing. Whenever a student would come to talk to him about late homework, he would curtly ask, “Is this a big long story ending with ‘I don’t have it’?” And invariably, if the student (usually me) indicated that yes, this was indeed a story ending with “I don’t have it,” he would quickly go, “Okay, sorry. Better luck next time.”

My point: Hi. Sorry. I’ve been a negligent blogger. The reason why? A big long story ending with “I don’t have it.” Moving on.

There are few things more pleasurable for a person interested in ragtime, stride, and early jazz than finding other, ridiculously talented people who are also into it. The internet is more adept at causing this phenomenon than any technology ever, and helped me discover this guy. His name is Bernd Lohtzky. He’s a German. And he might be one of the best interpreters of this style of music I’ve ever heard.

To wit:

It’s hard to communicate how watching something like this makes me feel. To be honest, it elicits a mountain of self-doubt. First, I’ve been thinking about ragging/striding this etude for a long time. It lends itself to it very well. And then I see this and… I quit. I mean, I cannot do what this guy does. I don’t think I ever will be able to. His playing is nearly flawless. He has no trouble keeping rhythm. It’s effortless and beautiful and sparkling. Listen to some of his other videos on YouTube. He plays Jimmy Johnson’s “Caprice Rag” like it’s a piece for children. My playing sounds sodden and weak in comparison.

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Tagged as: MartinFAIL, oh the humanity, Ragtime

3 Comments

26
Jan/102

(Lack of) Organization

I think I’m in need of an intervention. I went through all of my CDs this weekend. Not a single disc matched the case that it was in.

If Bryan were a character in a video game, he would be called "The Archivist"

Josh Groban was in Jo Ann Castle. The Chieftains lived with Dave Matthews. Scott Joplin lay with John Williams. Bon Jovi was stuffed inside Michael Jackson. Honest to God it looked like someone had deliberately gone through my stuff and messed it up to screw with me but, no, this is my natural state. When it comes to organization I am, as the French say, a hot mess.

They say opposites attract, which is why I’m friends with Bryan Wright. His CD collection is alphabetized, prioritized, cataloged, categorized, displayed, diagrammed, digitized, duplicated, researched, registered on the list of Historic Landmarks, and indexed by Google. He can find any CD, record, recording, research paper, picture, piano roll, or page of information in a manner of seconds and tell you exactly what it is, where he got it, why he owns it, how much it’s worth, who collects it, and which needle to use on his record player to play it. He’s like RoboCop with a spreadsheet. He might as well have x-ray vision, because being that organized seems like a superpower to me.

I don’t know why I’m so afflicted. I don’t come from messy people. I clean up well, when I dedicate myself to it, but inevitably it’s going to plunge into disarray again because the behavior that causes the calamity, my je ne sais quois, is hard to change.

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