Found inside a piano

A racy painting

Paul Basye is holding up a racy manga-inspired image painted by one of his student/clients.

Too sexy for a regular exhibition — for private viewing only.

I parked here today

Award-winning bathroom

This bathroom is in a popular downtown restaurant. When you go to the sink, it looks like there is a mirror behind it. In fact, you are looking through clear glass at the identical sink in the women's rest room. There is even an identical paper towel dispenser behind the sink in the other room. The illusion persists even if you happen to see a person in the other room.

Two of my musical idols

Bobby Hutcherson and Mike McMullen.

A piano signed by Abbey Simon

He's really famous. Google him.

Band in a record store

Nothing says "bachelor apartment"...

...like a motorcycle in the living room.

Bug on the nose

At the Cafe Morocco, I saw this photo on the wall and thought, "How weird. A photo of a girl with a bug on her nose." Then I notice that it was a real bug caught under the glass. 

Michael Nelson band at the Fox & Goose!

Michael Nelson band at the Fox & Goose 5-14-09

A mysterious landscape

Six-foot dandelions

Next to my customer's house today was a foreclosed house. Someone should come mow the lawn.

Tommy sound

The Key 2 part in Tommy calls for what I assume is a very aggressive Clavinet patch.

I got to play with the World's Greatest Drummer...

...Elaine Lord.

Went to a movie tonight..

...and it was big fun!

Komen Race for the Cure

Today I walked in the Vox team at the Race for the Cure and made some new friends. I also saw some teams with silly names. 

Nina's landscape

This illustration has something to do with the idea that if you're a great barista, you can make something beautiful out of even Maxwell House beans. Besides that, I put in images which refer to friends and family. To the right is a bust of Jennifer, below that a guitar representing my old friend Michael Evert, and above the sculptor's head is a landscape by Nina Weiss. (Let's see if she picks this up with her Google Alert...)

Brick at Woodland Opera House

I was tuning at the Woodland Opera House today and on their set they had some really realistic looking brick walls. They made it from 4 by 8 sheets of styrofoam which their technician cut with a soldering iron and then painted with a roller. Even from up close it is very convincing. 

A check from McGraw-Hill

This is for a cartoon in a textbook — I'm not sure which one.

DVD commentary song

Joss Whedon's Internet musical Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog was a brilliant hit. Now, for the DVD commentary, he has written a song that is both a commentary on the musical and the act of commenting itself. This performance is from a live This American Life broadcast. According to Ira Glass, before this performance, Whedon (who fairly recently taught himself piano so he could write musicals) had never performed for more than nine people. 

Went to Second City

...for the first time in 4 years, and saw Nina Weiss, my old classmate, for the first time in 28 years! She used to look like Maria Schneider; now she looks like the young Carrie Fisher. 

A square grand...

...in one of the miniature Thorne rooms at the Art Institute.

You're famous!

I was standing near American Gothic and overheard a couple of kids talking to the painting. "Grant Wood, you're famous. The Simpsons talked about you. Family Guy talked about you."

Best event ever!

We had our best Peace Corps event ever at Sierra 2 on Wednesday night. Our Nom (for people nominated to serve overseas) Party is usually a quiet affair, but this time we had fifty people in a tiny room plus a cameraman (from...?) and Anita Creamer writing a piece for the Bee. Above you see me handing a check to a guy from the Friends of Yimbo group.

Spitting fountain, Millenium Park

Spitting fountain, continued

More Chicago pictures

When in Chicago...

...the first thing we do is get a hot dog at Portillo's. 

This is the real rescue piano

Rescue piano

Today I worked on a piano that my customer found abandoned at the curb. (Not the one above.) After only two and a half hours, I had it working and in tune with itself (though a half step flat from the universe). Hooray!

Does this gage make my butt look big?

A Child Shall Lead Them

Today I watched part of A Child Shall Lead Them, Dave MacDonald's mini-revue which I'll be playing three performances of. It features Elaine Lord, the self-proclaimed "greatest drummer in the world"! (She is actually pretty great, having played on Broadway and all over the country.)

More Goat Roast pictures

Goat Roast T-shirt

At the Goat Roast, Howard Koons provided fabric pens to color the design. Several people added flames under the goat.

People wore nametags that stated where and when they served in the Peace Corps. This guy's nametag said

Name: LUKE

Served: ELUKETONIA

Years: 2009-2014 

Deja vroom

A sports car rally started in front of Espresso Metro today. The smell of some of the cars reminded me of the Jaguar that Jon had in high school.  Hal reminisced about a Volvo and MG that he used to have. 

Another band picture

The Michael Nelson band

Appearing at the Fox & Goose on May 14.

Davis students have a great sense of design

In a UC Davis dorm, some student saw that their piano could use a splash of white. 

How to help a drunk friend?

Steady his hand while he pours.

Sacramento Bagel Boys is back!

It has new owners but the same product. Please go buy some of their bagels.

They are on Folsom near 65th Street. Right next door to Giovanni's Pizza which is also excellent (but in no danger of closing).

Buddy Harpham tribute

Today I played at the Elks Lodge for Buddy Harpham's tribute concert. A truly once-in-a-lifetime congregation. I also met Buddy's current girlfriend, the famous Dolores of "Frank and Dolores' Dance and Accordion Studio", which I used to drive by all the time. Dolores taught Elaine Lord to dance, and Frank taught her the accordion. 

The final Goat Roast design

...with additional color and typography from Howard Koons, the host.

His wife will be silkscreening the design on T shirts that people bring.

Scooter club at Espresso Metro

A scooter club met at Espresso Metro (for a cigarette break, apparently) before roaring off somewhere. 

Joan greeted me with her usual "Hello, Mark Stivers." I commented that she always calls me by my full name while I don't even know her last name. After she left, Paul Basye explained to me that she had had her name legally changed to "Joan."  Her driver's license has her down as just "Joan." 

Video at Macau

Our Peace Corps group went to the Macau restaurant this month which is about a mile from our house. They have Portuguese/Chinese food. A lot of deep-fried organ meats, but you can also get fresh seafood at bargain prices. 

MIke Nelson

Today I rehearsed with Mike Nelson for a set we are going to do at the Fox & Goose on May 14. We are going to have guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard plus two women singing backup. It's all his original songs.  Should be good!

I'm in the Humor Times

I finally got a cartoon (no idea which one) in the Humor Times, a Sacramento publication openly based on Funny Times, the Cleveland paper that has been publishing me for years.  It used to be a freebie, but I think it is now available by subscription only. 

This is from the Puddingstone website

 

 

        Rich O'Day (seen on the left behind me) is a composer who wanted to have several of his songs recorded. He has a fine baby grand piano in his living room, so it was decided that we would do the session at his home. I arrived at 10AM for the 12 noon session and set up the mobile recording rig. The musicians arrived and began running through the songs. The players were; Mark Stivers (piano) Valerie Marston (vocals) Ron Jones (drums) and Shelley Denny (bass) The arrangement for the first song was discussed, worked out and we would began recording. We worked through and recorded three songs in just two hours.  Valerie will come to the studio for a vocal session on Wednesday evening (as we had decided to have her just record scratch vocals) and I will mix and master the tracks soon after. It was a delightful day and we all enjoyed ourselves at the in-home session. In many instances, I have found that to record in someone's home yields very good tracks as the atmosphere is always very relaxed. Here is a rough mix.     3-30-09

A Gibson/Baldwin Les Paul piano

It has guitar pegs for fallboard knobs, except that someone stole four of them.

My design for this year's Goat Roast T shirt

The new champion audiophile

with direct-drive turntable and tube amp (there's another one on the other side.)

The phone pool at Trader Joe's

I went to Trader Joe's today and at the checkout, the cashier said the employees had a pool on how many people were going to call and ask if they were open (it being Easter). He bet on 77 but thought that would be low. It was only 10 and already 23 people had called. The woman in front of me said, "I'm going to go home and call the store." The cashier said, "Maybe I should call up one of the other stores."

The Class

We went to see The Class at the Tower Theatre yesterday. I expected it to be thought-provoking, but I didn't expect it to be so entertaining and funny. Every teacher, parent, and teenager should see it. It got a 92 out of 100 on Metacritic; read the reviews here.

Calling up the past

This phone booth from 1968 was part of an art project. It still has the 1968 phone book in it so if you grew up in Sacramento you can look up your dead relatives.