Sweet! But can he draw a liger?

A drawing posted as an entry in a contest at Cosumnes River College. The winning artwork gets printed on a composition book sold at the bookstore.

Queen of navigation

I got a little GPS device for my car. Listen for the voice telling me to turn right. (I will do anything that a British woman tells me to do.)

Attend the tale

I never thought I'd see it, but they are doing Sweeney Todd at Music Circus. I probably won't be playing it, but I'm definitely going.
Two shows that I probably will be playing (and love): Evita and Hairspray.

Hillary = $5 bill

This notice was posted on the register at Espresso Metro.
Isn't it funny that (for a while at least) this election was supposed to be about "change", and yet it looks like we're going to end up with the two oldest and most familiar candidates?

More on Buddy Harpham

Buddy is in his eighties and still extremely—hard to use any other word—spry. One of the other sax players in the band is John Doolittle, who I've played Music Circus and Best of Broadway with for years. John is now 62, but when he was in middle school, Buddy was his band teacher.
Some of the tunes we played that I haven't played for maybe 35 years: "Music to Watch Girls By," "Love Will Keep Us Together," "Baby Elephant Walk."

A piece of history

I'm subbing with the Buddy Harpham Big Band today. I always considered it a part of Sacramento history, but I just learned today that Buddy went to University of the Pacific with Dave Brubeck and Dave was his original piano player!

Another box

Here's a collage that I particularly like. "Very disturbing," says Jennifer.

Mystery woman

I finally met with Kate Washington today — she's the woman who writes the Foodstuffs article that I illustrate. I'm not posting her picture because she needs to be anonymous in order to review restaurants.

Gamble that paid off

My customer spent $6,000 for this piano at an estate sale without knowing anything about it. Not recommended! (It turned out to be pretty good.)

Neuroscience in traffic

Free car

When I took my Prius in for the 30k service the Toyota dealer gave me a free rental for the day... this dark gray Camry. Sweet.

Another obsession

Thanks to one of Rachel's friends, I added the Scrabulous application to my Facebook profile. Very addictive. I currently have six games going.
I may not finish them, as Hasbro (owner of Scrabble) is pushing hard to have this application removed. I have a feeling that it will stay after some money has changed hands.

Favela poster

Next to the piano I was tuning today I noticed this poster. It said "RCAF" at the bottom, which denotes the Royal Chicano Air Force. I asked her if the poster was by Ricardo Favela, the RCAF artist who used to teach at Rachel's day care (possibly the most overqualified day care provider ever). It was.
It's about the nicest Favela poster I've seen.

Fun with the dowel knurler

Filmspotting

Friday is Filmspotting day! If you like movies and podcasts, you have to check out this podcast of two guys from Chicago neither of which is Roger Ebert. They know their subject, they have great chemistry, they go the film festivals, and they get celebrity guests. They also have entertaining recurring segments like Top Five lists and Massacre Theatre (in which they perform a famous movie scene and listeners have to guess what movie it's from). I'm downloading it as I write this.

Bingo cage

At Cosumnes River College in the piano lab, for some reason they have a bingo cage and bingo balls. Fascinating how that works.

Hire these people for your next New Age event

Special Guests: Suzanne Grace from Grace Yoga performs the inspiring “EARTH DANCE”

Erin Krasovich on Root Chakra didgeridoo (Tuned in Low B Natural)

Jerry Wood: Cedar Flutes

Cindy “Electro” Farris: Room energy clearing

(from a Christ Unity Church concert)

Virtual guitar

This is not a real guitar but the controller for the computer game Guitar Hero. It even says Fender Stratocaster on it.

Urban art on J Street

Chris Harvey's plastic city

Something from my former schoolmate and roommate:
City made of shiny disposable plastic objects from $0.99 stores - Boing Boing: "Dan sez, 'Since you liked Chu Enoki's garbage city, you might like Chris Harvey's Mandala of Perfect Happiness, a sculpture made entirely from cheap plastic objects, many of them from 99 cent stores. Here are some pictures of it in my Flickr.' Link (Thanks, Dan!)"

Peace Corps band

The Sacramento City College World Music Ensemble played at the Peace Corps Midwinter Dinner. We had an incredible turnout. So many people came that we ran out of chairs and people had to sit on the floor.
As always, one of the highlights was when we passed the wireless microphone around and had everyone introduce themselves. A couple of the older returned volunteers (RPCVs) claimed that they had met Sargent Shriver. Someone else said, "I never met Shriver, but I knew a guy who slept with Lillian Carter."

Mystery socket

An old upright (circa 1926, formerly a player piano) that I looked at today had this electrical socket inside.

Last dance

This building in Curtis Park once housed a ballet studio that sent a young student to the Royal Academy of Dance in London. Today I noticed that it was for sale.

Indoor storm

At the Nugget market, the sprinklers moistening the produce were accompanied by the prerecorded sound of thunder.

Dr. Broadway

I tuned my doctor's piano yesterday. Don has a huge collection of Broadway piano/vocal books (above). He also has a lot of Broadway CDs and always lets me borrow a couple, which I put on my iPod.

I want me a Hillary

My friend Don at the gym said to me, "I want to find me a wife like Hillary."
"Why?"
"Because she wouldn't mind if I fooled around."

Giant fish-shaped facade

Christmas room

I asked the woman who decorated this room, "where do you put all the stuff after Christmas is over?" She answered, "Christmas is all year round."

Three saints

A painting in progress.

Beth Duncan and me

Karen Swett took this picture of me and the great Beth Duncan performing at the annual Swett musicale. Click here to see all the photos.

Big illo

This is me with my gigantic illustration in the News & Review... I think this is the biggest illustration I've had in any publication anywhere. Jennifer paid me a nice compliment: "Did you color it, or did they?" When the color is good, she gets suspicious.

Towel chicken

Rod Simpson of Riverside Athletic club makes a plucked chicken out of a towel.

At last night's big band job, Ron brought new music stand lights for everyone. They are little LEDs that look like antennae. Here Rachel models a pair.

This is a gold-plated disk that you put on top of a CD before you play it. It makes a huge difference (according to my customer), and costs only $200. Apparently it keeps the laser in the CD player from doing something or other that's bad.

This customer of mine was given this bobblehead of himself as a present.

Last night we went to a musical evening ("bring your holiday leftovers!") at the home of Clint Swett, a business writer for the Bee (also a former tennis partner). The house was packed and most of the people got a chance to perform. Talent levels ranged from beginner to professional.
Jennifer hadn't gone before, and I was afraid she wouldn't know anyone, but as it happened there were a couple of her former colleagues that she hadn't seen in years. Plus the crowd seemed to like the same music that Jennifer likes. (Rock and protest songs from the 60s)

We just noticed that the Tower Cafe put neon palm trees on their roof. Cool!

On the left, the beanie mosquito I got from Bloodsource for donating so much blood; on the right, the scabies microbe Rachel got for Christmas.