During lockdown I decided to learn to play the piano. I had a head start as I’ve played guitar since aged 10, so could benefit from some cross pollination. Now, I can accompany myself as I wail ‘Angel’ or ‘piano man’ and hymns I liked as a kid.
Oooh Tania, you played this so beautifully. I am most impressed. I'm getting back into playing the piano myself and I have started to learn Clair de Lune, I must continue. Fabulous! Well done.
I love the way you write, Tania. So rich and flowing!
Tania that was beautiful. I sent out an earnest prayer this morning that in these mad times God would show me something to focus on as I'm constantly blowing like a reed in the wind with all the thousands of causes that need to be fought. Then I read your wonderful substack, and played the link, not realising it was my hubby's favourite piece (you met him, he was in the front row of one of your comedy gigs with Alistair - big muscles, Joe from Enfield Lock.) Decided to order the sheet music, to pick up my piano playing again after 39 yrs and to focus and try and learn to play this. You're a very beautiful inspiration. Thank you.
There is a John Cheever short story called "The Piano Teacher" in which a henpecked husband is tipped off that his problems will be solved by a particular piano teacher. He subjects himself to a brusque crone who prescribes endless repetitive drills. After weeks of dutiful plinking away his nagging wife has been broken, begging him to stop.
He has come out the other side.
I think your playing is beautiful.
Of course I'm no expert, but most experts have proven themselves of limited value anyway recently, right.
^ I think that guy is a Shaolin monk. They practice Qi Gong.
Perhaps Qi Gong has something to do with where Qui-Gon Jinn in "Star Wars" got his first name; his maverick nature being something to do with the second name.
"No member of a group with a strong atmosphere, group mind, or Elemental (according to which term we prefer), is at liberty to think without bias upon the objects of group concentration and emotion."
I also read that a foreigner to the group that rejects the atmosphere… will be rejected.
Something on the creation of the masses (a consequence of utilising propaganda); cultivating their malleability; and the artificial universe that's constructed for them:
This time the quote "There is no such thing as a collective critical faculty." stands out to me. You have to be stood apart from the group in order to see it with objectivity.
It reminds me of Frithjof Schuon again, and man's capacity to "know":
"To say that man is endowed with sentiment capable of objectivity means that he possesses a subjectivity not closed in on itself, but open unto others and unto Heaven."
As a reflection of the Divine Sun, some may mistake themselves for the Sun itself. Others may mistake the group (or the People) for God himself…
During lockdown I decided to learn to play the piano. I had a head start as I’ve played guitar since aged 10, so could benefit from some cross pollination. Now, I can accompany myself as I wail ‘Angel’ or ‘piano man’ and hymns I liked as a kid.
Oooh Tania, you played this so beautifully. I am most impressed. I'm getting back into playing the piano myself and I have started to learn Clair de Lune, I must continue. Fabulous! Well done.
I love the way you write, Tania. So rich and flowing!
Thank you darling. X
Clare de Artemis moon.
Hahaha!
Tania that was beautiful. I sent out an earnest prayer this morning that in these mad times God would show me something to focus on as I'm constantly blowing like a reed in the wind with all the thousands of causes that need to be fought. Then I read your wonderful substack, and played the link, not realising it was my hubby's favourite piece (you met him, he was in the front row of one of your comedy gigs with Alistair - big muscles, Joe from Enfield Lock.) Decided to order the sheet music, to pick up my piano playing again after 39 yrs and to focus and try and learn to play this. You're a very beautiful inspiration. Thank you.
What a wonderful message. Thank you. Enjoy! XXX
I just sat down at my laptop to have another attempt at sorting out my self employed accounts and tax return.
I needed a distraction .. emails.
Had to be distracted.
Ooo one from Tarnia, a must read.
So I paused Sonia Poutins podcast of pulling apart Jimmy Sevilles completely rancid friend Esther and read on.
I’d heard about the piano lessons a while back and was wondering how it was all going. Am doing the same thing with a guitar .
Spotted the play button and pressed.
I sat back, shut my eyes and listened .
It took me out of my world and in another perfect place. Loved it all and still smiling .
I was at The Backyard Comedy Club last week and Mrs T was performing. You was deep in conversation after, did I not interrupt and ask .
So so good to hear and it has given me energy to get back to my accounts .
thank you for posting x
Thank you for posting! And you can always interrupt. XX
There is a John Cheever short story called "The Piano Teacher" in which a henpecked husband is tipped off that his problems will be solved by a particular piano teacher. He subjects himself to a brusque crone who prescribes endless repetitive drills. After weeks of dutiful plinking away his nagging wife has been broken, begging him to stop.
He has come out the other side.
I think your playing is beautiful.
Of course I'm no expert, but most experts have proven themselves of limited value anyway recently, right.
Congratulations and keep it up!
I have a joke about my (ex)husband begging me to stop!
Lovely.
Here's another piece with a melancholic vibe which takes me by Erik Satie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLFVGwGQcB0
^ The video features "The Escape", a picture by Remedios Varo from a triptych entitled "Embroidering the Earth's Mantle".
Oh, both pieces feature on this same album "Romantic French Piano Music":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GefgfmblX9M&list=OLAK5uy_llMKQaMqZMYtZvVrVujRr5hiKxy5ey2Vs&index=6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYfoxZMU2As&list=OLAK5uy_llMKQaMqZMYtZvVrVujRr5hiKxy5ey2Vs&index=12
Love you x
Beautiful..
Wow. In the attention (atomising) economy you achieved this?! What a wonderful act of resistance.
I was inpired to find another movie clip from "Dune"…
Muad'Dib teaches how thoughts are things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Twmc6jUrNw
To be of any use, they need focus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j1IZoxXqc0
^ I think that guy is a Shaolin monk. They practice Qi Gong.
Perhaps Qi Gong has something to do with where Qui-Gon Jinn in "Star Wars" got his first name; his maverick nature being something to do with the second name.
I wonder if I can find any Star Wars clips…
Are your thoughts really yours?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XieOdyVThLU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGDLcEIEx3A
There.
How to know what you "must"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s28rwnz18j4
Seven minutes on Parsifal the "pure fool" finding his way:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysTBkwVVigg
Knowledge of this is where one can draw strength.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wsbvoLmZqY&t=185s
Qui-Gon does not confuse Emissary for Master.
https://thehumandivine.org/2022/01/02/miltons-satan-and-the-fall-of-the-left-hemisphere-by-jordan-peterson/
David Lynch expressing his idea of ideas…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2RFMCmfRmc
Interesting to hear Howard Bloom talk about what happens when there is a joint focus of attention.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4ifiB7IeTY&t=145s
You could relate that back to what Alan Moore says about art and writing:
https://taniaedwards.substack.com/p/o-unhappy-dreamer/comment/245286943
Basically I think you could say that, consciously or not, when you are on stage working a crowd – you are performing magic.
The "forces of history" Howard talks about – they are occult.
Which could also be taken back to Joseph Campbell's "music of the spheres":
https://taniaedwards.substack.com/p/o-unhappy-dreamer/comment/229517156
"Music we dance to even when we cannot name the tune."
https://archive.org/details/powerofmyth0000camp
Doctor Who clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wy_uh2a8rA&t=80s
An occultist on the irrationality of men in mass:
https://archive.org/details/47-applied-magic-by-dion-fortune/page/22/mode/2up
"No member of a group with a strong atmosphere, group mind, or Elemental (according to which term we prefer), is at liberty to think without bias upon the objects of group concentration and emotion."
I also read that a foreigner to the group that rejects the atmosphere… will be rejected.
Let's just not be with the lemmings when they go off the cliff?
Something on the creation of the masses (a consequence of utilising propaganda); cultivating their malleability; and the artificial universe that's constructed for them:
https://archive.org/details/JacquesEllulTheTechnologicalSociety/page/n405/mode/2up
I think I've been here before:
https://taniaedwards.substack.com/p/on-welly-wangling/comment/59669947
This time the quote "There is no such thing as a collective critical faculty." stands out to me. You have to be stood apart from the group in order to see it with objectivity.
It reminds me of Frithjof Schuon again, and man's capacity to "know":
https://taniaedwards.substack.com/p/o-unhappy-dreamer/comment/253025577
"To say that man is endowed with sentiment capable of objectivity means that he possesses a subjectivity not closed in on itself, but open unto others and unto Heaven."
As a reflection of the Divine Sun, some may mistake themselves for the Sun itself. Others may mistake the group (or the People) for God himself…
❤️
We all have a theory: https://www.northstokelife.com/2026/05/we-all-have-theory.html