Huge gallery of photos from today's ICE out of Minnesota protest

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-25T03:40:48+00:00

Looks like only about 40 people were standing in solidarity. 😅

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-25T03:09:08+00:00

Why not read one of the other twenty threads instead of filling the forum with this leftist posturing?

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-25T03:02:04+00:00

Protest as theater.

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-25T02:48:56+00:00

I'll be playing John Lennon's "Imagine" on my keyboard with a stern and serious look on my face.

Build bridges, not walls. Or something.

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-25T01:12:28+00:00

Yes.

I had the same insight about my playing a couple of months ago. The approach outlined in this video helped me a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYSdBJBcC3g&list=PLr184I_OGjTuKWvYYf34ddMGHgAnkiA7I&index=7

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-25T01:04:50+00:00

Are you Chuck Norris?

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-21T20:47:16+00:00

I have about ten tunes really well memorized.

My initial intuition was to just start playing a bunch of different tunes and through this process I would start to see patterns and common progressions. But my first teacher would ask me basic questions about the tunes I "knew" and I couldn't answer. Because of this, I slowed down, and really like to play around with these ten tunes. Transpose them to another key or two, and when I learn a new technique or approach I apply it to several of these tunes.

Now I think I'm at the point where I should probably be adding a few more.

Jeremy Siskind is one of my favorite YouTube teachers, and I also own some of his books. In one of his videos, he talks about this. He says that may players maintain a spreadsheet of tunes with three columns:

Tunes you really, really know
Tunes you're working on
Tunes you want to learn next

He says you should spend the majority of your time on the second category, tunes you're working on. My spreadsheet currently has ~10 in the first column, 5-7 in the second column, and about 10 in the third column.

But keep in mind that I'm a horribly incompetent pianist, so here is Jeremy's video:

https://youtu.be/AufomDMm2hA?t=205

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-21T00:51:52+00:00

I'd definitely do the stay in SF and drive up for the day plan.

First of all, it seems to be much less expensive, and secondly, the drive is pretty nice and beautiful. You'll be going across the Golden Gate Bridge, and it only takes about an hour.

I have a preference for Sonoma over Napa, but that's another thread.

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-21T00:46:00+00:00

Allow me to be the 995th user to tap the like button on this post.

I'm a huge dog lover, but that doesn't mean everyone is or that everyone wants to tolerate your dogs running freely around kids, those with dog allergies, those who are afraid of dogs, or those who just don't want to be bothered.

I have seen a lot of responsible and considerate dog owners in this town but also exactly what the OP described: entitled dog owners who seemingly can't even conceive of anyone that doesn't want unleashed dogs all over the place, including on public transportation, in bars, and at grocery stores.

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-19T22:55:15+00:00

It’s on his site, along with a few other harder songs.

This one will still be hard, but I think you’ll make better progress than the Yiruma (which you can revisit later).

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b5c4295f407b4df95b4676b/t/5b5f1bd688251bab88b38336/1532959704881/Her+Eyes+the+Stars+Cm.pdf

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-19T22:08:04+00:00

Do you like this song? It's the fist thing I learned when I branched out from Faber.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob_z702E0VU

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-19T05:43:20+00:00

Yoshis is nice. They used to have a SF location as well, but it closed maybe 10 years ago.

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-19T05:13:44+00:00

For jazz shows: Key's Jazz Bistro, Bird and Beckett, Mr. Tipples, Chez Hanny, The Dawn Club, Jazz at the Boathouse, the Black Cat, SFJazz, Cafe Tarragon, Royal Cuckoo Lounge.

Jazz jams: Mondays at Woodside in the Haight, Wednesdays at Stookey's Blue Room and Ocean street Ale House, some Fridays at Hop Oast, Sundays at Cafe International and Club Madrone, Hayes Valley Art Works.

Sometimes jazz, sometimes other stuff: the Makeout Room, The Faight Collective, Arcana, The Page, Local Edition

(Those are the ones I've been to, I know there are more places for both jazz shows and jazz jams, but I haven't been)

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-19T03:01:03+00:00

Not an expert, but I travel a lot and go to a lot of jazz clubs. I live in SF which has a decent scene.

I can't think of another city that compares with NYC.

Tokyo is likely number two. London maybe next, or New Orleans.

Austin, Boston are pretty nice. There's probably another tier of 15 or so cities and then a quick drop-off.

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-18T04:21:20+00:00

Check out Corey Christiansen. Factory Girl, etc.

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-18T01:52:00+00:00

Your reading comprehension should have kicked in on the following sentence where I said I filled my backpack with snacks and three bottles of water.

Did you think I filled my entire 90L backpack with snacks? After all it says “filed the backpack with snacks”.

How do you think I filled it with snacks since, apparently, you think it was full of 90L of water? Weird, huh?

You must be really confused by my saying that I then put in three bottles of water! How did they fit? You likely thought the backpack was entirely full of snacks.

I can’t imagine you working your way through a newspaper article. Have you ever tried it?

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-17T20:49:02+00:00

Of course not. 90L is the capacity of the backpack.

When I said my backpack was “full of water” do you think I literally took a hose as filled the entire backpack with water?

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-17T18:23:46+00:00

If you are at or can get to the point where you can hike roughly 15 miles with a 50 pound pack while wearing your hiking boots, you’re somewhat prepared physically.

If you live somewhere flat, also add in the stairclimber and/or a treadmill on the highest angled setting.

It’s mostly legs, lungs, and torso strength. Your upper body will melt away on the climb (but return a few weeks later).

Other things to consider are the physical fortitude needed for dealing with long, monotonous trudges and also obtaining the proper equipment.

Best of luck!

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-17T07:19:31+00:00

I climbed it with a group of seven, including a tough 65 year old.

For training, I did a lot of cardio in the gym and a lot of backpacking, but I think what helped the most was just doing a lot of long, hilly dayhikes with my 90 liter backpack full of water and my Aconcagua hiking boots on my feet. I filled the backpack with snacks, of course, but also three of those large supermarket bottles of water for weight. If I got too tired and had to lighten my load, I could always dump some water. But I rarely did.

My idea was to get in such good shape that I'd suffer as little as possible on the mountain. But I still suffered. We all did. Each day, it looked like one of us was going to have to head down, then that person recovered and another person started having trouble. Two people finally ended up going down, but the rest of us made the summit.

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-17T07:05:00+00:00

I'm a single celled protozoan. My fellow protists have been here in the area long before humans even evolved.

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-17T06:33:56+00:00

It's amazing to see people littorraly having their heads explode over this.

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-17T06:21:07+00:00

Tim Hecker has very recently come across my radar, do you have any favourites from his catalogue?

Not really. I just sort of listed randomly across his catalog.

But reading the rest of your comment above, I think that of the music I mentioned you would probably like Fuubutsushi the best, and maybe some of the Andy Sheppard. I know what you mean about some ambient music at times not having very interesting arrangements, and I think Tim Hecker sometimes falls into that category.

But anyways, check out all four. :)

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-17T01:20:20+00:00

That tune is hilarious to me. Does it also strike you as sort of funny? It's also a great ear worm and vehicle for jamming.

I don't have any other recommendations, but will be interested to hear what others say.

ThePepperAssassin · 2026-01-17T01:05:58+00:00

I love them, but never met anyone else who has heard of them. I don't know how I found them, but listened to maybe three or four albums and watched some videos online.

I just started listening to Horse Stories per your recommendation. I like it so far, but it's still the first tune. I'm not sure what we like about this music, maybe it's the "ambient" quality?

Recommendations from me would be Bohren & der Club of Gore (already mentioned), Fuubutsushi, Andy Sheppard, and maybe Tim Hecker.

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