Are you missing a piano bench? It's probably here. 

Rachel's hand, featuring her leather finger guard. The Music Circus season is practically over; there is hardly anything left to do except pack everything up. 

Cranston's Hardware was a mainstay of Main Street in Woodland until it went out of business a few years back. A bookstore/cafe called The Next Chapter occupies the space now, but they have a small display in a back corridor honoring Cranston's, including these shelves that used to hold bolts. 

I love the title When Boxing Was a Jewish Sport. It reminds me of the movie Airplane, when a passenger asks for some light reading and the stewardess gives him Jewish Sports Legends.

This Russian deli is in Carmichael. All four of Jennifer's grandparents came from Odessa. 

I was sitting in my car in the parking lot of Cosumnes River College, ready to do some tunings there, when I got a call to program the keyboard for Grease at Music Circus. This is probably my last visit to the theater this season, as the final show, King and I, doesn't use a keyboard. Notice the conductor/pianist Jeff Rizzo underneath the Kurzweil. To the right is a vintage Farfisa organ.

These two palms used to stand at the entrance to the Palms Playhouse in Davis, one of the most interesting local music venues. When I first moved to Sacramento, you could easily see them from the freeway because there was nothing around. Then south Davis started getting filled up with tract homes. Finally the Palms Playhouse (an old barn, really) got knocked down in favor of tract homes. The trees got moved to two corners on either side of Albany Avenue. The one on the left doesn't look too healthy.

While we were eating at Tower Cafe, this fly insulted Jennifer. In general, I abhor violence, but I was forced to demand satisfaction.  

Hal went to Germany not as a tourist but to write. Here he is showing me the story he wrote. The story is a fictionalized version of his effort to market his songs, which you can hear online.

Hal came back from six weeks in Germany and we resumed our regular Sunday tennis game and coffee afterwards.  

We went to the Buddhist Food Fair today. It's incredibly popular and used up all the parking places for many blocks around. There was a taiko drum group playing --- probably the best I've ever heard; they actually played with dynamics and not just at full volume all the time. 

Rachel wearing the corset she made. 

Rachel going to her corset-making class at Hi Fashion Fabrics. Almost everyone from the Music Circus costume shop is taking this class.

This is part of Steve Coolidge's violin concerto. He already has a soloist and a chamber orchestra lined up. Very exciting! 

Part of the concerto

Toe separators. Because there's nothing worse than when your toes start growing together. 

Dave MacDonald was forced to sell his beloved Broadway Academy, where he trained so many Broadway dancers, Rockettes, Kings cheerleaders, Vegas chorus girls, etc. I made one final visit today and took a lot of pictures and also a video which I am not posting because it's just too huge (99MB!) I sure hope Dave can find a new studio building. In any case, Best of Broadway (the show) will continue.

Stan Lunetta and a synth that he used in his avant-garde groups of the 70s. 

What Stan's synth sounds like

Rachel in the costume shop. She has a coworker (not pictured) named Cindy Lou who, after a divorce, changed her last name legally to Who. Her boyfriend, independently, had his name changed to Spike Manlike. 

The choir room/lecture hall at Sacramento City College. I tuned the two Yamaha C7s there today. It has a great sound system and is wired for recording. At the far left you can see the window of the control room. From the other side of the control room you can see into the band room, which is also wired for recording. 

I did this drawing in 1981 (despite the date on it) and it's my favorite that I've ever done. I just got a new frame for it today. Strangely, I see things in it that I never noticed before. It's as if someone else did it. 

Rachel cut off some skin from the tip of her finger today with scissors. She went to the HMO, but she'll be back at work tomorrow.
After five years of working in the costume shop, she has already poked her fingertips with needles so often that she says she has no feeling left there.

When a musician becomes a danger to himself and others, he gets put in the seat underneath the ladder. Typically, it is Larry Rhodes who sits there. ("I know I suck, but I think I suck at a fairly high level.")

Yes! Parked at KFC next to a '55 Chevy in my favorite color. 

Rachel has to keep her hand up so blood doesn't rush out and stain the carpet.

The phrase AUTO HITTING DONE means that a piano-playing machine has broken in the mechanism on this fine Chinese piano. However, I can't help thinking about a car running into a piano, or vice versa.