Monday at 9 am

Ugly beauty
Originally uploaded by mstivers.

From the top of Duane Street in Silver Lake, you can see the reservoir and hills behind it and, in the foreground, the line of cars heading downtown to work.

Local relic

HPIM2446
Originally uploaded by mark47.

According to Jennifer's brother Russell, these shin guards have been in this tree for weeks.

Kienholz

Kienholz
Originally uploaded by mark47.

Also at LACMA, this Edward Kienholz assemblage of a couple making love in a car. Music of the 40s plays softly from the car radio. When this piece was first shown it caused an uproar.

Our favorite piece of the day was "The Central Meridian," a walk-through environment by Michael McMillen which tells a life story through the objects in an imaginary garage.

Downhill Derby

Downhill Derby
Originally uploaded by mark47.

This bulletin board at the Silver Lake bakery/cafe advertises the Silver Lake Downhill Derby. That would be a pretty exciting race, because Silver Lake is full of really steep hills.

Tiny elevator

Tiny elevator
Originally uploaded by mark47.

This is part of the permanent collection at the LA County Museum of Art. It's a tiny two-door elevator. All the lights work like real, the doors open and close, and you can even push the buttons on the outside.

Privacy cubicles

Privacy cubicles
Originally uploaded by mark47.

Right after picking up Rachel from Union Station, we ate dinner at Phillipe's, a Los Angeles institution (and where the French dip sandwich was invented). They have these ingenious "phone booths" where you can talk on your cell phone without bothering everyone around you.

We did lunch

We did lunch
Originally uploaded by mark47.

Me, Amy, and David. We (plus spouses and Rachel) ate at Cheebo on Sunset. Please send lots of money so David can produce his great play, "Uncivil Unions."

He also made the Batmobile

He also made the Batmobile
Originally uploaded by mark47.

Jennifer's mom Faye (right) lives in Silver Lake, which is lousy with show business worker bees. Her neighbor Daniel (left) is a model maker. He built the original Stargate. Right now he's working on the new King Tut exhibition.

Priorities

Priorities
Originally uploaded by mark47.

We are staying the condo of Jennifer's brother Russ. He used to have a tidy two-car garage. Now he has a tidy pool room. He spent $3k on a tournament-quality pool table and balls. (Russ once won a college pool tournament, but had to return the trophy when he confessed that he wasn't a student.) In the lower left are all his trophies, mostly for baseball and wrestling.

Spring break flip-flops

Spring break flip-flops
Originally uploaded by mark47.

They have a built-in bottle opener.

We don't have change
Originally uploaded by mark47.

Please, please, PLEASE don't ask us for change.

This plaque is a treasure to railroad lovers and a nightmare for punctuation lovers. 

The hill that Jennifer's mom lives on. If I put my laptop on the garbage can in front of the house, I can pick up the wireless network of someone whose initials are KJ. 

Jennifer's mom lives in Silver Lake, a Los Angeles neighborhood that is getting dangerously trendy. There are second-tier show business people all over the place. This is a bakery where Jennifer and I like to get breakfast when we stay here. 

This is Rachel's friend Morgan and his date at the Second City show. We've seen the touring company twice and found them even funnier than the mainstage group. We literally laughed until we cried and were bent over double. 

On Thursday morning I went early in to the CSUS student union ballroom to tune for the Second City touring company show. I was so thrilled that I wrote a little fan letter to the musical director and left it in an envelope on the piano. Unfortunately, there was a sad postscript: the lowest Ab string on the piano was broken and there was no replacement. I asked the property manager about it and he said, "Oh yeah; we've known about that for a while."  

This house belongs to one of my tuning customers and I tell her that it is my dream house. It's on a corner in the heart of Curtis Park, my favorite neighborhood in Sacramento. It's the second-floor unit of a duplex, and every room is flooded with daylight, "like a treehouse," she says. She is a landscape designer who plays in a big band in her spare time.

Across the street from my customer's house (in Sacramento's famed Fabulous Forties neighborhood) is this double lot where Reagan lived when he was governor. 

One of my tuning customers has this sculpture of Barbara Carroll, the cabaret singer. She seems to be playing an invisible piano. 

The books for the 1stCom recording session. Wendell hopes that these recordings will be so good that it will vault him up to level of scoring feature films (or at least the trailers for feature films). 

Every morning at 8:30, you can find me behind this still life on a table at Espresso Metro. If you want to murder me, just hide in the bushes in front at 8:27. Notice the lovely asterix that the barista painted on top of the latte.

If you lost a Casio Ex-Word, please go to the register at Espresso Metro and claim it.

Every time I see my car mechanic he tells me I need to have my engine steam cleaned so he can find the tiny oil leak he thinks I have. (I don't think it does leak oil, though it does burn.) Steam cleaning costs about $150 and I don't want to spend the whole afternoon it would take. But yesterday I was at Target and saw a hand steam cleaning unit for $60. I bought it and immediately came home and steam cleaned my engine, the outside of the car, finally got the dried gum off Jennifer's car mat, spot cleaned the carpets, etc. While I was cleaning the hubcaps on my car I got this nasty scratch from one of the gorgeous rosebushes. I didn't even notice it until Jennifer, horrified, pointed it out later.

A couple of days ago I got an email saying I could get comps to the River Stage's production of Mrs. California. I have worked at Cosumnes River College for about 8 years but I'd never seen a show at their much-acclaimed theater program. This show completely lived up to the reputation. There was nothing college about it (of course, no one in the cast or crew was a college student --- how do they get away with that?) --- it was totally professional down to the hairstyles, which Jennifer said were completely authentic to 1955 and must have taken a long time to do.
Sadly, the wife of the artistic director had just died and they were taking donations for a memorial fund. She had been only 50 --- ovarian cancer. I met her a couple of times, once when I tuned their piano.
Outside the theater, we ran into Steve Coughran, guitarist/French horn player/drummer and professor at CRC, and he and I got in an uber-geeky argument about handwritten vs. computer-typeset music. (Another reason I prefer women to men. A woman would never get into such a stupid argument.)

Yesterday I played a casual at the Del Paso Country Club for a party for Stanford alumni. It happened I came back to the neighborhood for a tuning today. Although I've been practically everywhere in the county over the last twenty years, I'd never been to the street bordering the club. What mansions! These must have belonged to original members of the club. 

There was a hailstorm of Biblical proportions today, here seen from the front of Espresso Metro. But it only lasted about ten minutes. 

This toy car is in Taylor's Market above the produce section. Taylor's is a tiny grocery store but it is our favorite place to buy food, especially meat.

Yesterday we were shopping at Taylor's market and we ran into Jan, who we hadn't seen since our Christmas party. Her husband, Tom, is a guitarist and longtime friend. He is going to be playing Lion King for six weeks. Besides playing guitar, he has to learn the kalimba for the show.

I went to University Art today and got a frame for this lovely photo of my brother Jon, my mother, and me (age about 5?) What a babe she was! On the right you see my action figure of Captain Jack Flange, the mutant piano tuner from outer space. Download his theme song!

When you look out from the music building at Sacramento City College, you see this building being gutted. This has taken out a lot of parking, which leads to problems in front of Espresso Metro. 

The Little Theater at Sacramento City College where I was tuning today. I finished about five minutes before a film class started. Before, I talked to Rob Knable, the head of the music department, for the first time since coming back from the Peter Pan tour. He wants to interview me for the department newsletter.