The two combatants of Music Circus... Stan Lunetta and Bob Sereno.

I'm glad to see live ants getting some attention... since dead ants already have their own song.

We discovered that there was an insect trapped, as in amber, inside one of Jennifer's brake lights.

My customer's grandmother (depicted in the photo on the music desk) used to carry this reed organ outside to accompany her husband's sermons.

I found this key on the sidewalk in Curtis Park. I decided to return it to the exact same spot in case the owner came back for it.
It has the number 15 stamped on it.

Robin Netzer wore this coat in her youth and recently gave it to Rachel, who looks stunning in it!

My customer gave me these candies from Brazil. They all have a chocolate coating with a filling usually made from nuts. His father ran a candy factory and he loves candy.

On the way in to see White Christmas we ran into Bob Sereno and Richard Lewis and Bob gave me permission to make this picture into a mask. I'll work on it tonight!

I saw a Prius just like mine today, even down to the temporary plate from the same dealership.

This customer apparently has shot a deer and a Santa.

This couch not only has cup holders, but inside the armrest...

...there is a touch-tone phone.

A box full of G.I. Joes.

A customer's radio-controlled airplanes

Radio-controlled airplanes

He is a professional brass player in Woodland who builds radio-controled airplanes on the side.

Masks I did of two baristas at Espresso Metro.

Christmas dinner at the Ollings

Click here to see album

Rachel and a witch marionette that she brought back from Prague as a Christmas present for Jennifer.

Rachel getting a Stephen Colbert poster for Christmas.

Two Christmas toys at University Arts

Joe, the Espresso Metro barista, drew this while in an Oregon diner.

We look at local Christmas displays

Christmas lights 2006

Nathan Gunter, tuning customer and drummer. His mother, Anne Kazes, was a Rockette and Broadway actress in the 1940s. Kirk Douglas was so obsessed with her that Nathan's father had to say, "Mr. Douglas.... we're married! We have kids! Please stay away from her."
Nathan also gave me this musical advice: "Sometimes the loudest note is the one you don't play."

John Doolittle (master woodwind player) has just redecorated his living room (which he now calls Toad Hall) — his new (gas log) fireplace has a remote control!

Nothing says Christmas like a pirate skull and a live tarantula.

Rachel in London.

A wall of graffiti in Prague.

Also from Prague.

Rachel took this picture in Prague last week.

This shrine is a small part of a customer's Santa collection.

Passersby at Terminal A of Sacramento International Airport got to see me take a grand piano apart.

I gave blood today and the phlebotomist had a plush toy of a drop of blood. (Half out of the picture is another plush toy representing a mosquito carrying West Nile virus.)

Christmas meditation #4

I have one customer whose piano I usually tune just before Christmas and I always look forward to seeing how they have dressed up their living room mannequin.

Anyone know what kind of car this is?

Electric car at Espresso Metro

I'd never seen this before... an artificial tree that has the lights pre-mounted. You don't even need to attach the "branches" either... they just fold out.

I got four checks from the Funny Times today.

I couldn't believe this is an actual book: Recording Conceptual Art.

I get to play a real piano at Savannah's — very rare these days!

Ron Davis and Vivien Lee at Savannah's. Ron is the leader of the band I was playing with, and Vivien Lee is the producer of the Sunday night jazz series at Savannah's. She also sang a few songs with us. 

Robots at G. Whillikers toy store

Another Christmas meditation

I played a Christmas party at the Kitchen Cabinet Expo. 

At the Old Soul coffeehouse, we saw this table covered with money. 

[insert your own caption here] 

The girl on the left is Paula Kidwell, the daughter of one of my customers (and former drum student of Best of Broadway drummer Jim Nakayama.) She is now an acrobat studying at L'ÉCOLE NATIONALE DE CIRQUE in Montreal. 

Here are some people who really know how to pose for a picture: John Skinner, Susan Skinner, and Shelley Denny. 

My life from now on will be denoted as A.I. (After iPod). All my favorite music, lectures, movies, and photos are on it. Both the sound and picture quality are amazing. 

For canine couture and feline finery

On a recent trip to Arkansas, my customer Dr. John Trochet saw an ivory-billed woodpecker for about three seconds. Until this year, no one had seen one since 1944, but a few lucky scientists (including Dr. Trochet) have seen them this year. Read an article about it here. 

Low fat s'mores? That's just wrong. 

Orchestra warming up for a performance of Amahl and the Night Visitors at the Unitarian Church. I went because my friend Lisa Derthick was singing the Mother; it turns out that I knew about a dozen people in the audience and company. 

Another Christmas meditation

This checker at Trader Joe's wears gloves because of all the frozen food she has to handle. 

The auxiliary input in my car stereo, waiting for my iPod (coming tomorrow!) 

I noticed this car in front of Espresso Metro first because it was a Prius and second because there was a candy cane over the antenna. 

Left over from the Christmas party... our family masks in the front hall. 

Devoutly to be wished

I can turn the display in my Prius to English, Spanish, or French.

Today I got a cup of Sugar Plum Fairy tea from my customer (the one in the picture with the Rachael Ray smile). She tells her kids that it's "made from ground-up sugar plum fairies." 

Yesterday I accidentally locked my phone. I was trying to hold down the star key, which turns on vibrate. But I was holding the phone upside down, so I accidentally held down the pound key, which locks the phone, and I didn't know the lock code, thereby initiating the worst two hours of my life. 

Belated pictures of our Christmas party

Christmas party 2006

This was a beautiful black Steinway before the (rich) owner decided to strip it, revealing all kinds of unmatched veneer underneath. It looks like it's been sitting out in the desert. 

Susan Skinner. Not many women could pull off wearing this dress. 

This is how my music is set up for a John Skinner job. The Christmas tunes are in the pile below. Next to it is a pile of old business cards which I use as bookmarks so I can quickly return each song played to the same place in the pile. (One old card turned out to be a Tower Records gift card!) 

Remember macrame? This frog/towel holder is not retro... it really is from the 70s. 

A novel, if somewhat risky, way to encourage creativity: a hot plate that heats the paper so your crayon melts while you draw.

These people were singing in the Nugget supermarket. Good sound. 

This bottle of wine costs as much as an iPod Nano. 

Chris Moose, the mechanical moose who poops brown jelly beans. 

Giant universal remote

I saw this at Walgreen's this morning and I'm sorry I didn't have a camera (I got this picture off the Internet)...

Two nights ago I played underneath a big wreath in the ballroom at the Radisson. 

This ceremony is from a Christmas party I played last night. 

We don't do a tree, but we always buy a lot of poinsettias for our holiday party.