{"id":83996,"date":"2015-03-25T11:57:08","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T15:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=83996"},"modified":"2015-09-09T10:20:33","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T14:20:33","slug":"big-bent-ears-part-2-borderline-religious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/25\/big-bent-ears-part-2-borderline-religious\/","title":{"rendered":"Big, Bent Ears, Chapter 2: Borderline Religious"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Joyce-piano\"<\/a>

Photo: Kate Joyce<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

\u201cEvery now and then, when I\u2019m tuning, I can make myself cry,\u201d he said at one point. How can a piano tuner make himself cry? I thought to myself. What in the act of tuning would cause someone to do that? When I reviewed this footage months later, I could hear how dumbstruck I was. \u201cWhen do you make yourself cry?\u201d I asked, baffled.<\/p>\n

Tim came back with an explanation that, in one fell swoop, answered the question, created a bigger mystery, and effectively ended that part of the conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is getting sort of borderline religious here,\u201d he said, \u201ckind of with the f-word mixed in with it \u2026 When you say, God, I\u2019m here\u2014I\u2019ll do the motions, you do the work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The second chapter of Big, Bent Ears<\/a>, Sam Stephenson and Ivan Weiss\u2019s \u201cSerial in Documentary Uncertainty,\u201d is available now. We launched the series earlier this month<\/a>; it\u2019s a combination of video, audio, photography, and writing in various arrangements and states of completion. This week, Sam and Ivan talk to Tim Kirkland, a piano tuner in Knoxville, and to the members of Nazoranai, an improvisational noise band. Read the piece here<\/a>, and stay tuned for the next chapter, which comes next Monday, March 30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cEvery now and then, when I\u2019m tuning, I can make myself cry,\u201d he said at one point. How can a piano tuner make himself cry? I thought to myself. What in the act of tuning would cause someone to do that? When I reviewed this footage months later, I could hear how dumbstruck I was. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16402],"tags":[17253,17255,1596,13223,17356,8397,9992,8163,17552,17551,17257,1551,2080,17357],"class_list":["post-83996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-bent-ears","tag-big-bent-ears","tag-big-ears-festival","tag-documentary","tag-ivan-weiss","tag-jonny-greenwood","tag-joseph-mitchell","tag-knoxville","tag-multimedia","tag-piano-movers","tag-piano-tuners","tag-rock-fish-stew","tag-sam-stephenson","tag-video","tag-wordless-music-orchestra"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTim Kirkland, a Piano Tuner, Finds Religion in His Work<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the latest chapter of \u201cBig, Bent Ears,\u201d a Knoxville piano tuner talks about the subtleties and exhilaration in his work.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/25\/big-bent-ears-part-2-borderline-religious\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Big, Bent Ears, Chapter 2: Borderline Religious by Dan Piepenbring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"March 25, 2015 \u2013 \u201cEvery now and then, when I\u2019m tuning, I can make myself cry,\u201d he said at one point. 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