Simon’s Diary
Jan 29 '10
England Hey Everybody! It's all change here at website headquarters, where a new site will soon be launched. The new SimonMulligan.com will be super-slick and will contain oodles more content: more photos, recordings, video etc with download links to iTunes, YouTube, Amazon and all that clever stuff. You can now reach me on Facebook and Twitter, and I'll soon be posting a Mulliblog, as well as travel pictures on Flickr. This multitasking could not happen without my MulliClone as well as my brand new liquid-titanium iPad Hologram, (HD limited edition model), which allows you to put the teabag in your cup in mid-air.
Dec 04 '08
New York City Hi Everybody,
You have all been so kind this past week! Thank you, Mulligang for my Birthday wishes. I am very touched and PROMISE that I will keep more in the loop on the site. I also PROMISE that this beloved website will have a few more tunes to listen to and better navigation to get around. Any ideas or suggestions, do let me know! Am back now in New York after spending my Birthday and Thanksgiving in St Louis with Megan and her family. Jasper is a fan of filling his chipmunk cheeks with turkey stuffing and today he started school! Yes, I know he is only 18 months old, and it's really called 'day-care', but to me, he's finally getting to learn from similar-aged waddling toddlers, and is not just hanging out all the time on the road with his waddling Dad! The poor little guy has been across the Atlantic with me 14 times already and we're slowly gearing up for the three of us spending Christmas with my Mum and Dad in the UK. It was great to catch up with Josh after so long - we swapped 'new Dad' stories and took Jasper and Josh's gorgeous son, Josef to the park - photos to follow. Love from the mad Mulligans of Manhattan!
Jun 02 '08
New York City Hi Everyone! We're all gearing up for Jasper's First Birthday this Saturday, June 7th. And, yep - the time really does whizz by when a small child begins to run your life. He's doing great, currently snoring away during his mid-morning nap, after I oh-so-intentionally got him up at 5.30am. His knowledge of the English language is vast and varied now:
"Jasper, name an important French post-impressionist 19th Century painter"
"Gauguin"
"Jasper, name the controversial cultural movement begun in Switzerland during the First World War"
"Dada"
"And the nickname of the 7th Century Catholic saint who founded Rebais abbey in France?"
"Dado"
"And have you been surfing Wikipedia again?"
"Brr-rrr Ga-Gaa Blip-Blop!"
Genius child - did I mention that I'm his father?
We've been on the road a fair bit, while Megan has been revising for her huge medical school exam this week. Jasper has now been on (I think) 16 airplane journeys, including three round-trips to the UK. This of course keeps my Mum and Dad very happy, (their only grandchild!) but the poor little guy isn't as immune to jet-lag as I thought he may have been. Meanwhile, we've found a new apartment to move to in July. Those of you that know how we have been putting up with this fifth-floor walk-up, with its dainty 78 steep stairs, will be glad to know that the new apartment building has one of those modern new-fangled inventions called an 'elevator' - hurrah! We will miss our roof-deck here though and I have a dozen-or-so outdoor plants needing good homes to go to!
Mar 07 '08
New York City Cough, cough, (blows cyberdust off Diary page) - well, 2009 isn't quite here I guess. Nevertheless, umpteen apologies for not inventing a machine yet that can pause time, while you kindly fellows catch up on the waffle, banter, kerfuffle and all fine words weird and wacky from this prattling piano-player. Yes, I am now 57 years old and Jasper has finished college. How/what/where/etc the last few months have gone, someone please tell. I can tell you that I have missed sitting down to tap away to you all and that I am very grateful that there are still friends 'hanging in there' on the site!
Meanwhile, Jasper and I have just returned from a three-week trip of concerts in Europe. While I was on the road, he stayed at my Mum and Dad’s place on the Kent coast. Needless-to-say, emotions were high as I cruelly wrenched their only grandchild away from them the other morning, while we embarked on what became a 17 hour trip back to New York – urghh. Now with more than 10 flights in his log-book, Jasper is nine months old today. Blissfully, he’s a mellow sleepy guy on airplanes, and only wakes up to flirt with the air stewardesses. He’s also getting dragged to my concerts now, gradually! I was very proud of him during a house concert I gave in New York recently. Megan sat with him by the door at the back of the room, ready to leap out should he suddenly burst into tears/song/political rhetoric. However, he sat watching me in total silence while I played various Beethoven Sonatas, only proffering the odd “urgle” between movements. Next up, he must learn to reach Nirvana on Sorabji’s 94-day long ‘Opus Clavicembalisticum’. Then again...
And, speaking of Beethoven – Sony Masterworks will be releasing my recording of the Pathetique, Moonlight and Appassionata Sonatas later in the year – hooray! This reminds me to update this website with some more music to listen to – there’ll definitely be the option to buy/listen to stuff soon. I’m off on my own to Barbados this Sunday, where, (forgive me, Jasper) I am looking forward to catching up on some sleep. Poor Megan seems to have med-school exams every other day, but she and Jasper will arrive there next week for Spring Break. Lunchtime now for girth-expanding nine-month olds and more coffee for his weary Dad! Thanks as ever, for all your support. Calling all Mulligang in New York: I’ll be playing at Rockefeller University again on the 28th March; hope to see some of you there?
Sep 05 '07
New York City Hi Mulligang - hope you've all had a great Summer - is it really over? Jasper is now an ancient 13 weeks old and, (an unbiased father writes) a very cool dude. There are some recent pictures of him on the gallery page. His features change so quickly: I’m quite convinced he had put false eyelashes on this morning when I woke up, and his talon-like fingernails need filing every couple of days. Of course, by “I woke up”, I of course mean when Jasper chooses to wake us, (and probably the neighbours). For him, sleeping only one and a half hour stretches at a time through the night sets him up very nicely for a relaxing 12 hours of sleep during the day, while his increasingly-raddled Mum and Dad attempt to function normally! I’m sure he has picked up these bad habits from Bruno, my Burmese Blue feline back in England, who shares Jasper’s preference for nocturnal one-sided conversation. More recently, Jasper has started singing loudly at dawn. However, which microtonal composition he happens to be quoting at the time he won’t tell.
It was very bizarre to see how much the little guy had grown once I'd returned home from playing with Josh Bell in Taiwan and Korea. A mere four days away and suddenly your newborn child is shaving and off to college. However, it was great to play with Josh again and I had no guilt lolling luxuriously in unbroken sleep during the almost 36 hours of round-trip flights! The concerts were really enjoyable, many fans remembering us from our last recitals there three years ago. Once again, we were lavishly spoiled with fine foods, although this trip we made sure that unrequested boiled dog soup wouldn't be on the table, (sorry, Rover).
It was good to catch up with friends over the Summer. The Leopard and his wife kindly flew over from England to visit for a long weekend and I found myself pretending I knew my way around the city, while in reality I was just another gawky tourist, stopping just short of buying a cockroach-infested hotdog on a street corner. A perfect Martini supped atop the Rockefeller Centre is definitely the best way to enjoy a night view of the city. We also visited friends in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania and it was so relaxing to get away for a couple of weekends. Jasper of course demands more luggage and precision time-keeping than a US President, and you really do wonder how it can take three hours to load/unload a car.
My recording of Ned Rorem’s Second Piano Concerto on Naxos, conducted by Jose Serebrier will soon be released. It is a wonderful work, devilishly-well written for a 12-fingered pianist, and very atmospherically scored for a huge orchestra – hope you will all enjoy it. In October, I record an exquisite work, Characteristics, composed by my friend and Pulitzer Prize-winner, Paul Moravec. Also watch this space for exciting developments with the jazz quartet’s Playlist album and an album of Beethoven I recorded in Italy recently. Am currently in talks with SonyBMG, and about to decide which grower of organic bok choi to use for my pre-concert dressing room needs; orange M&Ms are so last season.
Jun 09 '07
New York City Please welcome...........
Jasper Paul Mulligan
to the Mulligang! He was born June 7th, here in New York City, weighing 8lbs 1.2oz. We were expecting him around June 20th, but he decided to join the party early! Megan is well, I'm speechless with happiness and the little guy is a bundle of joy. Pictures to follow, (once clearance has been granted by his team of lawyers). More news soon! Love from us all.
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