It was a busy weekend for yours portly, so I’m putting off movie reviews for another week (don’t worry—they will return). In the meantime, I wanted to look at some feedback I’ve received from different folks about Koi Dance.
Koi Dance is still 90% off with promo code koipond. That means you can get the entire album for $1.
Here are some things listeners are saying:
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Mogadish Matt, Somalia’s #1 Libertarian and a longtime friend of the blog, shared a bit about Koi Dance (out today on all streaming platforms and on Bandcamp; 90% off with promo code koipond) on his blog, Free Matt Podcast:
Thanks for the shout-out, my grizzled friend!
Also, I’ll be hosting a listening party tonight (Friday, 7 August 2026) at 8 PM EST; join here.
Thanks again, Matt!
—TPP
Thanks to Erin at Existential Ergonomics for this awesome write-up of my new album, Koi Dance (out today on all streaming platforms and on Bandcamp; 90% off with promo code koipond).
I’ll also be hosting a listening party tonight (Friday, 7 August 2026) at 8 PM EST; join here.
Thanks again, Erin!
—TPP
Koi Dance is out TODAY, Friday, 7 August 2026, on all streaming platforms and at https://tjcookmusic.bandcamp.com!
It’s 90% off (!) with promo code koipond. That means it’s $1 for twelve tracks of great music (or 8⅓ cents per track).
That promo code is also good for everything on the site, including a full discography purchase. That means you can get thirty-one (31) releases—almost all of which include tons of original artwork, scores, videos, essays, etc.—for $9.70 with promo code koipond.
To put that into perspective, if you purchased every release on my Bandcamp page individually, it would cost $194. Purchasing the full discography (just click on any release to see the option to purchase my full discography) comes with a built-in 50% discount, so that brings the cost down to $97.
Use promo code koipond, and the price plummets to $9.70. That’s less than any one of my albums at full freight. It’s less than a small pizza. It’s less than two cups of coffee.
But if you buy just one release—or even just stream one release—make it Koi Dance. It’s my best release in awhile.
Also, I’m hosting a free listening party to the entire album tonight, Friday, 7 August 2026, at 8 PM EST. You can join in on the fun and conversation here: https://tjcookmusic.bandcamp.com/live/koi-dance-listening-party
Finally, it’s Bandcamp Friday, which means Bandcamp waives their usual 15% cut of sales, making it the absolute best time to support your favorite pudgy composer—me!
After a month of on again, off again composing—with a good chunk of “off-again” in there—I have finally finished composing “Japanese Trapdoor Snails.” I started the work on 15 April 2026 and wrapped it up late on the evening of Wednesday, 13 May 2026.
It’s an unusual piece, as snails are unusual creatures. I wanted to capture something mystical and contemplative—and, in a hackneyed kind of way, something vaguely Japanese—in the opening bars, with are a slow, flowing 5/4 time. I thought 5/4 fit the slow movements of snails, as if they need an extra beat to get where they’re going.
The “B” section, of sorts, shifts to 3/4 (after some shifting from 5/4 to 4/4) in the same tempo, with the flute moving in dotted quarter notes and the oboe moving in quarter notes. My goal here was to blur tonality and, again, to depict the kind of shuffling crawl of snails along the edges of a pond.
After a recapitulation that shortens one 4/4 phrase to 7/8, I launch into a lively 3/8 portion that has a sort of gypsy and/or Slavic feel to it. In retrospect, I think of this section as capturing the trudging lives of a Japanese Trapdoor Snails going about their never-ending business of pond cleaning. Note that I wasn’t quite sure how this portion fit thematically with the rest of the piece until after listening to it, which happens sometime—an idea pops into my head, I develop it, and then try to figure out if it should stay with that piece.
To be clear, I’m still not convinced it does fit, but I like the contrast and I think it gives some life to this otherwise contemplative and reflective piece.
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Happy Tuesday, dear readers!
No New Music Tuesday today, I’m afraid. With the school year winding down, several aspects of the job are winding up as we enter into exam review season. I’m attempting to squeeze in one last mini-unit covering the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and European exploration in the span of three lessons, so my unstructured time has been spent putting together slides for those quite vast topics. We’ll see if I can speed run the biggest events of 1300-1600!
The point is not an in-depth analysis of these major movements, but to keep the students a taste before they head into United States History next year. The first part of United States History examines the political, social, and religious context of late medieval/early modern Europe, as that context is significant in the exploration and colonization of the Americas. I’d like the students to finish the “story” of World History in such a way that it dovetails with the “story” of United States History.
I’ve tinkered with my latest composition, “Japanese Trapdoor Snails,” slightly, but have hit a bit of a block with it. As with writer’s block, the solution is simply to write—in this case, music. To do that, though, I need to have a bit more unstructured time, and what I’ve had has been dedicated to more pressing matters.
Maintaining a koi pond is a hobby that can take on a life of its own. In learning about keeping koi and maintaining a pond, I’ve learned that a common phenomenon is people getting hooked on buying more fish. Given that a full-grown koi can go for $50 or even hundreds of dollars, the hobby can get very expensive very quickly. I’m thankful, then, that the previous owners stocked the pond so well.
What I find myself looking for are not more koi (not necessarily), but more species that I can introduce to the pond to increase its biodiversity. At least, that’s the rationale—I really just want an excuse to buy more snails and minnows and what not.
So far, I’ve added rosy red minnows, two small butterfly koi, ramshorn snails, and Japanese Trapdoor Snails. My next planned addition is three dojo/weather loaches, which are a peaceful, eel-like fish that feeds along the bottom of the pond. In searching for those loaches, I came upon an eBay listing for seven purple leopard ramshorn snails.
These are just a color morph of ramshorn snails. Instead of the typical dark brown, they have a slightly purplish, speckled appearance. I would not have bothered purchasing them except that they were eight bucks (with free shipping), so I figured, “why not”? They should add to the genetic mix of the existing ramshorn population.
One thing I’m learning when purchasing live animals on the Internet (read that out loud and it will sound questionable) is that, like most things in life, you often get what you pay for.
It’s a quick installment of New Music Tuesday today, friends. I’m working on a piece called “Japanese Trapdoor Snails”; I’m attempting to capture a quintessentially “Japanese” sound, although I’m not sure if I’m succeeding just yet.
It’s for flute, oboe, classical guitar, and drums (so far). I’ll likely continue to add instrumentation as needed.
Here’s a thirty-second bit of what I have so far:
Still a bit static, but what do you think of this odd little piece in its current form? Does it have legs—or one big, fat, muscular belly-foot?
Happy Listening!
—TPP
This installment of Phone it in Friday: YouTube Roundup is quite phoned-in, as all of today’s videos were in Wednesday’s post. But if you prefer to scroll through videos about Japanese Trapdoor Snails and koi ponds instead of reading, today’s post is for you!
It’s hard to understate how excited I was to get these snails. Now that they’re here, I want more fish! Such is the nature of human endeavors—we always want more. There is always another fish to conquer.
Yesterday (Tuesday, 7 April 2026) was a big day for the pond. After noticing the water level falling, I purchased a Boogie Blue Plus Garden House Filter (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through this link, at no additional cost to you) and topped off the pond.
I also had a shipment of Japanese Trapdoor Snails from www.prettykoifish.com. I have been dying to add these massive mollusk beauties to our pond since I first learned about them. They are the cleaning crew of any pond, and as they settle in and become active, they’ll deep clean the water and the liner.
Right now, our pond water is very murky. That’s actually good for the koi—they prefer it to be murky—and is a sign of healthy biodiversity. The only downside is that we can’t see our fish unless they’re coming up to feed! It will take a few weeks, maybe months, but the Japanese Trapdoor Snails should start to hoover up lots of detritus.
