A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
As a performer and piano teacher for the past 35 years, Mark’s specialty is clear explanations. His demonstrations start with the whole picture, completely transforming the learning process. After frustrating experiences with four different teachers between the ages of five and seven, Mark returned to the piano ten years later at the age of seventeen. Learning to play piano as an adult has given Mark a unique perspective and a great appreciation for what is most helpful and effective for those who have a deep desire to play the piano. While Mark respects traditional teaching methods, he is quick to point out that many of the top pianists throughout history violently disagreed with the “note-reading only” approach. Once you have seen his overviews and insightful presentations, Mark guarantees that you will be pleasantly surprised at your new ability to play with confidence on a level that will lead your friends and family to believe you have been practicing in secret!
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.