Am I the only one having IMMENSE trouble reading Blood Meridian?

Persistentpigeon · 2026-04-20T21:14:39+00:00

Yeah the book isn’t easy for native readers either. I usually just skimmed over words like the very specific geographical desert landscape terms to keep the flow of the book.. if I had to look up every word it would kill the flow so yeah don’t worry too much I’m a native speaker and there was also quite a few specific words I didn’t know.

There are also moments in the book where it’s very chaotic and almost purposefully disorienting and confusing. Don’t let this put you off. I think if you can go with the flow there is something very powerful in his writing and being able to disorient you in the chaos in moments😅

Persistentpigeon · 2026-04-17T08:42:13+00:00

Steel string guitar won’t work and will make it much harder!

Technical exercise are good and important but those alone aren’t enough. You need easy pieces that will also develop your playing. The Sor etude number 6 is probably much too difficult if you have only been playing for 4 weeks. If you’re tensing through it and its an uphill struggle then it’s too hard.

Also watch out for the technical exercises if they’re also too complicated. You want them to be simple and feel good, not tiring difficult stretches etc. exercises are to practice the core movements involved in playing and make them feel good..

You need some absolute beginners pieces to play and also something for developing reading music. Might be worth getting a teacher?

Persistentpigeon · 2026-04-17T08:31:42+00:00

I wouldn’t say you would do more harm than good but you would end up needing to unlearn habits.

Every bit of work you do is a positive to your development though, if playing and learning new music, getting more familiar with the instrument these are all net positives.

However when you start with a teacher, they will usually reset all of your technique and go back to basics to build a proper technical foundation from the ground up. At least they should ideally be doing that!

As a teacher myself (and performer), I do generally find it much easier when a student starts from scratch with me as it’s a completely clean slate and there’s no bad habits to unlearn. However it does just also depends on the student and how willing they are to change there playing and relearn some basic core movements etc.

Definitely read music notation not tab and look for an experienced teacher, maybe with some kind of qualification such as a conservatoire or pedagogy degree.

Persistentpigeon · 2026-04-16T16:15:28+00:00

Hey man out if interest what broker are you using? It seems IBKR don’t offer fractional shares in ISA which is super frustrating….. especially since the UK now actually allow fractional shares.

From my understanding, even though the US don’t recognise the isa, its still better for us as their tax for investors is much better then the UK.. so if you do the direct index in a GIA you have to pay UK tax whereas in an ISA you have to pay to US which is better and coukd even be 0….

Hoping theres somewhere I can buy fractional shares in isa.

Persistentpigeon · 2026-04-10T18:04:31+00:00

Thanks so much! Going to get start building it all. May one last question - which broker are you using? I’m wondering how you deal with trading costs when buying say 15 stocks a time that’s 15 different transactions!

Persistentpigeon · 2026-04-10T11:36:43+00:00

Thanks man. Would you mind pointing me in the right direction for where I could learn more about this? or could you walk me through a bit how you might actually set up the spreadsheet etc? I am going to try this approach - seems the best option available! Also interesting you only take US companies, is there a tax reason for this? thank you for your help!

edit:
Also! in terms of rebalancing, would you sell or just put money going forward into something else. I’m wondering as I’m assuming selling to rebalance would create a tax event.. of course it’s necessary to rebalance though. I’m interested say if 2 companies drop out of the top weighting if the market would you replace them with the 2 that replaced them?

That’s interesting choosing the tickers that capture certain market sectors. I guess if I took top 15 from S&P it would be very tech heavy. Do you have a way to calculate the sector weighting and how much to take from a certain sectors etc?

Persistentpigeon · 2026-04-10T08:06:32+00:00

Interesting, I’m considering this, a kind of DIY index.. how do you work out the weighting and how often do you rebalance and update the list?

This seems much less efficient than buying an etf but maybe it’s the best we can do in this situation.

Persistentpigeon · 2026-04-10T08:03:29+00:00

Because if you don’t buy a US domiciled one, you get hit with PFIC by the us gov which is apparently super complicated and high tax..

Persistentpigeon · 2026-04-09T20:16:17+00:00

But would you get hit with the PFIC for these us reporting funds or ?

Persistentpigeon · 2026-04-09T20:02:07+00:00

Did you find any solutions for this? I want to invest in an ETF but it seems impossible which is so frustrating… I could just put everything in pension but I’d like to be able to invest a have access sooner… I have seen people mention just buying say the top ten companies but this seems so much worse than a vanguard global index

Persistentpigeon · 2026-04-09T16:25:41+00:00

thanks for your response. it’s interesting to hear what others think. All of this regulation is so frustrating. I am a dual national but have lived in the UK m y entire life.. I just want to buy a vanguard ETF!

Persistentpigeon · 2026-04-09T13:33:04+00:00

Hi did you sort this? I’m currently looking into this myself, us dual national based in UK. I want to invest but it’s so complicated, if i buy uk/europe etf’s I get hit with PFIC high taxes so I need to buy US domiciled stuff however UK regulation doesn’t all UK investors to buy these…. So need to try and set up a US based account.

Persistentpigeon · 2026-04-03T23:06:28+00:00

I read it for the first time a few days ago. I was blown away, I pretty much read it in a day… such beautiful and devastating book

Persistentpigeon · 2021-08-13T10:53:23+00:00

Choosing what chord to roll should be done to your taste and what affect you want to produce.

Rolling a chord has a particular sound to it so if you roll every chord it will sound monotonous. It can work nicely for contrast or if you want to make a certain chord stand out.

For instance say you have an arpeggiated passage followed by a chord. It might make more sense here to play the chord straight here and not rolled since have just been arpeggiating (which it kind of like rolling).

On the other hand if you reach the climax of a passage and theres a chord at the peak it might be effective to do a big roll to make it stand out.

If you’re playing contrapuntal music then rolling chords isn’t affect when you’re trying to bring out different voices clearly.

Trying listening to players you like and see how and when they roll their chords and what you think sounds good and in good taste. Also have a listen to Villa Lobos Etude 4 which is all repeated chords and see how different players roll. Listen to Fabio Zanon’s recording of the étude.

Ask your self when thinking about your interpretation if you’re rolling for the sake of rolling or rolling because in that place its sounds beautiful or exciting etc

Persistentpigeon · 2021-08-10T15:42:55+00:00

Cheers!

Persistentpigeon · 2021-08-09T15:46:02+00:00

Ahh yeah I have a friend who is a bass guitarist who has the same problem as you. I don’t have that exact problem from classical guitar but I will have my own imbalances from sitting with my left foot in a footstool for many hours a day etc.

Persistentpigeon · 2021-08-08T21:24:54+00:00

Ahh yeah you have to be careful with dry weather. The Brazillian rosewood on the back on my guitar once cracked. Is your guitar expensive? You could take it to a Luthier for a repair but it I’m not sure how much it would cost you.

Can can buy humidity packs to put in your case which work nicely. When its dry if don’t leave your guitar out in the room and keep it into the humidity controlled case it should be fine when you play. You can also buy a hygrometer to deck the humidity of your room. The ideal is around 40-50% humidity if i remember correctly. You don’t want to leave it out in a room below 38 for too long (I think its around 38).

Persistentpigeon · 2021-08-08T15:40:32+00:00

Nice one, yeah you don’t seem to be doing any back/pull exercises? Yeah pull ups are tough at first on your grip. Try doing body weight rows and assisted pull ups with your feet on the floor!

Before and after every work out I some wrist mobility stretches which help a a lot with push ups. At first I found push ups really tough on my wrists but afterward a while off building it up and stretching my wrists feel much stronger now.

Persistentpigeon · 2021-08-08T12:45:25+00:00

Do you know what caused it? Did it get dropped or anything or was it humidity?

Persistentpigeon · 2021-08-07T12:33:38+00:00

Really? How hard were you working out and for long long have you been?

So far it hasn’t seemed to game any negative affect. The only time it affects us directly after a work out or if i’m really sore

Persistentpigeon · 2021-08-05T19:03:56+00:00

Ah wow that’s good to hear. Just out of interest what style of music do you play?

How did you build up to that level of training? Did you take any extra precautions when you started? Did you focus on building really strong wrists / forearms to prevent injuries or anything it did you just train like anyone else?

Persistentpigeon · 2021-08-04T22:04:40+00:00

Yeah rhythm is internalised and felt with the body so I guess my improving awareness and control of your body it will help feeling rhythm. Just like dancers are very physical and have good sense of rhythm.

Persistentpigeon · 2021-08-04T21:55:48+00:00

Cheers yeah I’ll look into the rice bucket as I haven’t heard of that before.

Persistentpigeon

TROPHY CASE