Raggin' Piano Boogie
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Since 1987 |
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October 03, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
It was First Friday, a monthly celebration on the streets of Downtown Las Vegas and now that the weather is better the place was packed... with kids. Wow, I am getting old! While walking around checking on the five Community Traveling Piano's that are out on the streets, I am finding that they all are in need of tuning. That will be a constant issue. They are reaching the point of musical notes not being distinguishable. The piano's are now being used in movies. I came across a film crew using one and the actor was banging the shit out of it in an anger scene. My thinking was not quick enough to tell them if they are going to bang the piano out of tune they need to pay for a tuning. People in general do not respect public property and also do not think about how a piano gets destroyed and also, do not realize the piano's belong to me along with all the responsibility that goes along with that.
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October 02, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
The Community Traveling Piano's on the streets are front and center on my mind. I still need to get one local business owner who has been storing a piano I acquired in their warehouse and it has been a pain in the ass getting it out to the spot where it is supposed to be... for months now. How can people be so flighty? It has been a lot of work although I've been enjoying it. From the finding of them, to making arrangements for pickup and finding a way for delivery, finding the right location and gaining permission, checking on them almost daily, making signs about them, covering and uncovering with the threat of rain and now dealing with the upkeep of cleaning them, fixing keys and tuning well, finding people to help out with delivery and upkeep for the sake of community without pay... its a challenge even with everyone and I mean everyone loving them. |
October 01, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaMo and I took the Traveling Piano out to Main Street in the Downtown Arts District of Las Vegas. Mo cannot stand up or turn around on top of the piano anymore because his back leg joints no longer exist because of old age arthritis. Its difficult for him but he trudges along with my help. People really appreciate what the Traveling Piano has to offer. Its a push for me to keep the pace going with interactions. As far as stamina, I try little tricks to keep going. 
 For incentiveI say to myself that I need to keep going for at least three full interactions. I'd probably have more energy and mobility if I lost weight. Thats not going to happen anytime soon so... it is what it is. The truck sound batteries need replacement which will cost about $400. How that will happen is a mystery. The sound is only lasting about a half hour before it goes dead and I need to turn on the truck to have power. Working with the truck on with the bad carburetor and exhaust fumes... not good, lol. |
September 30, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
Mo and I walked the streets today giving out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I made. In the old days when I would see groups on the streets giving out food I would criticize them in my head for not putting in more effort for meals and more nutritious food. Now, when my ability is so much less and funding for supplies is less and all i can really do is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches... I'm realizing that just about everyone likes a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I wrap them in tin foil and joke around with the crack addicts I come across saying, "don't be using the tin foil for your crack." That is what they do and of course they all go... no, no, never, lol! The most common phrase people used to say was "God Bless You." Now, they say... "I really appreciate you." |
September 29, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
Mo and I walked the streets visiting the Traveling Piano's we put out for people to play. They all needed cleaning from dust in the air. I needed to check to see if they are all working, close the lids that people left open and create a little music on each one. I'm tempted to get more freebies from people looking to dump their pianos online but do not want to take on more than I can handle. It is not easy finding someone to help me get and move them. I have a tuning kit now that I have almost no clue how to use. Youtube has instructions but I have never been good at comprehending instructions. That is why for example with the computer I use, about every ten years or so I realize how to utilize something new or a solution to something. With one of the piano's, I was messing around with one really bad note and its strings and was able to make it acceptable sounding which was kind of fun. There are five Community Traveling Piano's out in a five block area on the streets of Las Vegas right now!
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September 28, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
Throughout the last almost twenty years with the present journey, being recognized on the streets was never a thing. I realize that many people worldwide know that a piano man on a truck exists and thats it. Now having lived in a neighborhood that I walk almost daily and because of people posting online and my work, I am very recognizable in the Downtown Arts District of Las Vegas. That feels nice sort of, but also once Mo passes I will go back to people not recognizing me because I will no longer be the piano man with his dog. Most people recognize me because of Mo. In every way I am adjusting to having less ongoing significance in the world as I post less online, am less active because of age, do not promote myself, etc... When I die, people will say, oh the piano man died and will give kudos and have feelings in every way for about a week, lol. Then all memories will slowly fade. Of course some memories will stick. That is the way life works. Even with a memorial, my life becomes objectified. I think about all this to remind myself that the present reality and existence is all that matters. I ask myself how I want to enjoy and give to life with no significant attention or unique identity from it all, as it all that fades away, while still living.
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September 27, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaMo and I drove to the Redrock Overlook today. Summer is done, thank God! It has been a while since being out in nature. We did not go for a walk but did spend some time with the Traveling Piano and others who were around. And... the time was not too long in consideration of my stamina and Mo's not being about to move around on top of the piano. Not accepting tips is becoming more difficult but... I must play this journey out to the end. Those that send contribution when I ask or just to support, it is they that matter to me. One guy wanted to give me ten bucks and he tried to push for me to take it. I said if you really want to support, do it online. They never do because that just takes effort. Well, the effort is what I need most. What I give is effort. I know all about how it works with money. How could I not after all these years? I also know all about unconditional giving and sharing and the power in that example. It cannot be matched. 
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September 26, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
One huge way out of the hell hole we are all in is to give, to share. Everyday, to make sure I do not get lost in my head completely I must share with another human being who has worth. If I do not know you are a fascist supporter or that you are an asshole then, everyone has worth especially if you are in need. It is a way of acting out with love against my anger and hate. Compared to the old days, the amount of giving is a lot less but, the amount does not matter. It is the intent and action that matters. And, the more difficult it is to do, the better the outcome if I can push myself to do it. These days, it is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Those on the streets are finding the means to attain food more and more difficult as more and more people get lost in hell and assholes do not find the need to share themselves because the maga mentality is now the way to go for them.
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September 25, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
Navigating the world with what is going on and my age is exhausting. What to care about most, what I am capable of doing, the priorities. In the present moment I know I am excellent and all is fine. I am secure. Mo is still with me and he is happy to be with me and enjoys life even with his own difficulties due to age. My mind is the same as it always was, sometimes in having no where with all but just much slower in functioning. The music when it happens, the work with the homeless, the (ugh) online political commenting, the street pianos, it is all still happening. I have been getting more behind in my data filing. It is what it is. Once again Mo... he is everything. I've been surrounding myself with comforting objects from my past. I have some old kitchen refrigerator magnets, of course candles, a piggy bank from when I was about six years old, a Ukrainian easter egg collection, a porcelain hummingbird my friend Gertrude gave to me, two plants still alive, my paintings of Bo and Mo, rocks and crystals, etc... it all makes me just feel good. After having given everything away back twenty years ago, who knew I'd be able to find a few of the old material possessions and get such comfort from them.
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September 24, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaThe dark face of humanity is showing. Of course that happens through leaders, human verses spiritual. There is a drive to shun and push against everything we perceive as good, fool the masses, turn the definition of love against itself. Striving for equality, inclusion, the appreciation and the gift of diversity is becoming taboo. Kindness with compassion and empathy, understanding, the sharing of bountiful harvests... fail. This under the guise of all that being too much for humanity to handle. The bible is being used to rationalize that. As a diocesan roman catholic I was taught we are here to suffer for the afterlife. Of course that was all authoritarian manipulation. I knew it as a child. 
 The concepts of choice and free will are becoming restricted, directed, dominated and controlled. Desire to live and let live in harmony not only with each other but nature and the world is being destroyed. Vengeance, hate, suppression, repression, cruelty, suffering and abuse is being coveted. In order rewrite the truth in spirit demons are hiding bad character and true intent. They force through coercion, deceit, violence and denial. Creating fear, death and destruction has always been the way for ideological labels, people who call themselves capitalist republicans, conservatives, rightwing bible thumping evangelicals, nationalists, fundamental christians, (specifically diocesan roman catholic) fascists, zionists and nazis. Their operating in the past has always been insidious, as a wolf in sheep clothing. Now... the evil in our face. 
 One might say it is better to have everything finally up front and out in the open. At least we all know what we are dealing with for better or worse. At least, that is what I say. Only good can come from that for the sake of human spirit. After the armageddon that is. The challenge for myself is to live through it all with love, appreciation, humility and gratitude for life in all ways possible and to ask God to direct our thoughts through the process. With music, my uniquely individual spirit and intent, my passionate sharing with others and support of their goodness, along with the validation and reassurance of humanities worth, all that will be my goal until the very end. This along with my unwavering desire for inclusion and to feel part of the whole. |
September 23, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
I took the Traveling Piano out to the corner of Las Vegas and Charleston Boulevards today. While creating music I could not help but compare the sound to the acoustic piano's on the streets that I put out. Even though they are completely out of tune they are so much more alive. My favorite thing happened. Strangers coming together to get onto the piano and create some music for the first time. One guy was from Reno the other from upstate New York who was a songwriter in town with a show doing sound. Mo fell off the piano twice. One to the inside the other onto the cab roof while trying to turn around on top. His days of walking back and forth on top of the piano are over. His back legs will no longer support that. It must be ver frustrating for him in being stuck in one position once he's up there. He still wants to go up. |
September 22, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaPeople are turning off to me because I have become political. They do not want to see what is happening, they do not want to hear about it. They want to live in lala land and that has never, ever worked for me. I will not live my life to appease people in an escape from reality that destroys our world. Since the beginning of this journey I made it clear I am not out to affect the masses. One person is enough for me. Of course, it has turned out to be many more than that. My stomach turns as I see my countries streets being militarized. When I've been in Europe I often thought how so many people do not appreciate the lack of soldiers standing on corners here in America. 
 Our freedom of speech being blatantly shut down. Morons do not realize how in other countries the only news they get comes from an authoritarian government mouth piece while they must guess what is real or not and find bits of reality from underground sources if they can find them. The ripping apart of families, throwing people into concentration camps, an I falling into hell? I need to mention that the music is alive, the relating with people, Mo... the good parts of life still exist although the politics are front and center because that is what is front and center in my mind. It is what it is. |
September 21, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
I am very aware of what it means to dance with the devil as we all must do in life from time to time. I am also aware of how we get sucked into the devils web with seemingly no way out. The way to not get sucked into the web to begin with takes some critical thinking and a strong decison not to dance at the start. With all that in mind, on Febuary 6, 2026 I will be leaving Facebook and Instagram as I can no longer in good conscious feed the beast especially with Zuckerberg at the helm. He is becoming more and more evil. I figured that will give me and others enough time to get used to the idea. It will be life changing for me in many ways. If people want to stay connected, there are other ways via email, phone, text, this website, etc... |
September 20, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
With AI there is no longer anything original or creative. It is all about prompts already existing from a machine and not from unique and present human experieince in mind and spirit. AI is like a sample grand piano that produces fantastic, realistic sounding musical notes but cannot and will never be able to produce the immediate energy, environmental vibration, or real spontaneous syncronisity from the real world. Only acoustic pianos can provide that. AI acts as foder as a DJ works with the music of others. As people embrace it, the mind of humanity dies and as well the individuality of human spirit.
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September 19, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaI met a young piano player with a street piano about two weeks ago and he played the star wars theme while I thought how great that would sound and present itself on the Traveling Piano as I drove him down the street. I suggested he get in touch with me and he did. We planned for today and he brought two friends with him who were going to sit in the back of the truck but they chickened out at the last minute. So we all separated and I did my thing with the young piano man named Andrew. It was really out of the box for him, it has to be for everyone. Playing the piano loud while someone is driving you down the street... ha, been doing it myself for almost forty years. Andrew is now in a very small camp of piano players to have done that. I sent him the photos I took. He thanked me but I have no idea if he really liked doing it or not. I mean, I can't imagine it being anything but mind blowing for a young kid but... you never know. Mo sat in the cab with me. 
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September 18, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaWhat an interesting day. I went to check on the Fremont street piano. It was stolen. I thought luckily it was the worst piano but it still hurt a little. I know the guy that probably did it. Later, I was walking Mo up Main street to check on one of the other Community Traveling Pianos and this neighborhood guy I know was playing on it. From a distance I could see him sitting and wondered where he got the seat as the bench has been gone for about three days. It was the original bench and I asked if he knew where it came from. He said some crack addict must have taken it and he found it in the back alley. I know people and said back to him, don't be hiding the bench just for yourself, it is for everyone to use. 
 People are really having fun with these pianos, there are presently six of them downtown. They are giving people on the streets something to do. Just hope they don't get destroyed from smart ass kids banging the shit out of them. People have been doing that when they get drunk. And then, walking home I found another new piano that someone else put out. How crazy is that! This one is an art piano. Someone has taken what I am doing and expounding on it. Awesome! The Community Traveling Piano's are just regular pianos, the new one is painted. Looks great. Later I found it is being used for a promotion. You would think they would put a sign saying what it is for? I hope they leave it there. Its for an upcoming music festival. |
September 17, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaContinued from Yesterday... This will be my last post about Virginia Tech and the Traveling Piano's support for the student body and local community at the schools request, after the mass gun murder there. After about two weeks someone was coming to use the alumni house and so I had to get out before they arrived. It was a secret that I was staying there. No one had another place for me to stay so I put feelers into the community. An alumni from the school want us to stay with him. It was one of those scenarios were his wife was not on the same page. When I arrived, the wife was nasty. This was not the first time something like that has happened. She wanted to act out on me because of her husband. To make it worse, she was a narrsisitnarcissist, a writer of published books. She wanted me to fawn all over her while being nasty, lol. 
 The next morning she told me to leave without reason. I had a list of people to stay with but it felt time to go home. The wife was actually a real downer. I did not write that in my blog at the time because everyone was reading the blog and I wanted to keep the experience all positive. My journey through out the years was most certainly not all positive just as life is not all positive for anyone. The student government was terrific for the entire time but as soon as they were done with me I could feel them detach without care. A teacher at the school sent a contribution as a thank you. The school itself never acknowledge my being there. On the way home I stopped to get gas and found my picture on the front page of weekend edition of The Roanoke Times, the largest Newspaper in that area of Virginia and they really showed appreciation with the article written. That was a perfect thank you. |
September 16, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaThis is the continuance of thoughts from The Traveling Piano experience after the gun massacre in Virginia Tech. While in Virginia Tech as a result of the student gun massacre there, Bo and I hung out with the Traveling Piano in the community as well as on campus. I learned that the way to reach a strangers heart, especially someone who is hurting, is to spend time with them in person. I've been given the grace to do that through music, the Traveling Piano and the truth of my intent. Gun violence affects a person for life. There is no getting away from it. It is like when someone commits suicide, if you have been close to the situation in any way, you will never forget it. Murder is no different. 
 Through all the Traveling Piano's fun and distraction, the laughter and gratitude, friendship and respect, appreciation... there is something way more important at the core. As everyone in Blacksburg, Virginia was living life in a numb state of being, they all were able to grasp the reality that I could feel their feelings and understand what they were going through. They were able to trust me in the truth of spirit through the truth of spirit. I was not sharing sympathy. There was no pity or sorrow for their misfortune. That is what fake Christian organizations like Turning Point teach, what Idolized leaders like Charlie Kirk teach. The idea of sympathy verses empathy. Sympathy is reserved for those indoctrinated for the sake of authoritarianism and inaction... unless directed. Sympathy is a false attempt to show or feel the act of caring. 
 Do you know who senses the difference between empathy and sympathy more than anyone else? Those living on the streets. They can tell the difference between people from a church, those in a religiously way who sharing food and necessities. I myself call them out when they tell me they are doing what they do for Jesus. That is pity and sympathy. I tell them in my own authoritarian way because that is what they respond to that... they are to do what they do "through" Jesus. That... is empathy. They make no true lasting impact when showing charity for the sake of Jesus. That is self-centered under the guise of humility and nothing more. They do it because they are told to. Their charity is not self-driven from within their own hearts. Continued... |
September 15, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaCintinued From Yesterday ... This is my 4th post on Virginia Tech in telling the story of how the gun slaughter at the school helped to shape my journey. Care packages were being sent to the school from all fifty states for all those who survived. The student government had free reign on what they wanted to do, so all restrictions were off concerning how the Traveling Piano was used. The truck was loaded up several times from large cartons full of goodie bags and we drove through the campus wherever we wanted to go with guys in the truck throwing out packages to friends an colleagues all day long. It was a great distraction, totally unusual and lots of fun! Every time the truck emptied we would stop and people would jump on to mess around with musical notes. Continued... 
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September 14, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaContinued from Yesterday... I have been sharing what helped create the paradigm shift that created my present journey. This is the 3rd post about the Gun Slaughter in Virginia Tech. The ability to create love and share it, the care, respect, open space for healing, the validation and reassurance for the worth of humanity through my spirit and music manifest... that was the job for the Traveling Piano, myself and my pup Boner. Unless you are a person who thinks in terms of "we the people," "all of us together as one"... if you have never been personally affected by gun violence, it is almost impossible to have empathy for others concerning it. One must have an emotional connection in order to care. My personal empathy grew leaps and bounds while being asked for that by the Student Government of Virginia Tech after the mass gun murder at their school. 
 Spending personal time with those directly affected open my soul up as never before. There was a guy I knew his name was Jamey Turner who I found there. Jamey was a famous musical water glass player. I had not seen him in twenty years. We had met in my home town of Philadelphia, PA. He was in Virginia Tech for the same reason as myself and it was just amazing and wonderful to run into him. We must stand up to gun violence with action. Every single day, there are people that continue to vote against doing anything. They vote against universal background checks. They continue to support legislation and also remove any way to block the mentally ill, to block extremists, to block people with histories and records of domestic violence from getting guns in their hands. 
 We all live in a society. Our politics are were we express how we want to live with others in our society. We all must have social responsibility. What happened at Virginia Tech and the calling for me to become involved, cemented into the Traveling Piano's brand so to speak that of unconditional love through music and to speak out with awareness concerning gun violence, to stand up against those that promote gun ownership specifically the kind used in mass shootings. I have passionate desire to speak out whenever possible for all those who cannot speak out for themselves because, they are now dead. That is a result of those people who vote for and promote the ideology of gun ownership over the loss of humanity. Continued... |
September 13, 2025Las Vegas, Nevadacontinued from yesterday ...There is a lot more amazing detail to this story but too much to write about here. Anyway, I was in Arizona after coming out of Mexico when the Gun Slaughter at Virginia Tech happened. I thought about all the friends I had met going to school there. I wore the tea-shirt they gave to me to honor teveryone at the school on that day. Bo and I had a very unusual experience on top of a local vortex and then about six hours after the gun massacre, the student government called me saying that Bon Jovi, Tim McGraw and Dave Mathews sent messages of willingness to lend support but all they could think about was the love and joy that Boner and I had brought with the Traveling Piano when we had passed through. They asked if we would please come to be with them and help them to get through the last few weeks of the semester. 
 I thought, the worst thing in the world happens and they call me first? At that time is was most terrible. I was overcome with a lot of angst and a huge headache as I had a clear plan and was heading to LA with several life long dream agendas to reach in California. I was finally after twenty five years close to attaining those dreams. But, after a few hours I called them and said I was on my way. While driving back east, I realized that the other musicians are really good people but they are industry related. I was simply an individual with no agenda other than love through pure musical fun friendship and respect. They could trust me most. There was no controversy to be had and the school would not have to shovel out expenses or hassle in any way. In that moment I knew my path for the future. 
 To have my intent trusted, appreciated, respected and my worth and what I have to offer validated like that... can we talk fulfillment in life? What was happening was worth more than anything else in existence. I arrived at night and headed straight for the memorial. Being careful with respect concerning myself, the truck, Mo on the piano and the music, that was paramount. To my astonishment it all worked out better than I could have possibly imagined with everyone in the area. They snuck me into the Alumni guest house to stay as it was not being used and I was told to be quiet about that. The school administration was too busy playing politics with the tragedy to care much about what the students wanted and had little room to refuse them with their requests considering what was going on. Continued... |
September 12, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaFor the next few days I want to share what set into motion the Traveling Piano's mission of no fee's tips or commercial affiliation for the following almost 20 years, now. It happened as a result of the student gun slaughter at Virginia Tech in 2007. I was heading from Philadelphia, PA to a small fishing village on the coast of Mexico called El Roblito about seven hours south of Mazatlan. On the way I would stop whenever I came across a spot that felt good to create music in be it an overlook, neighborhood or whatever. Of course, I shared the Traveling Piano with others also. Along the way I would stop and stay over night with people who I had never met through various sources. Most of the rural towns along the way were poor and suppressed with dilapidated buildings except for the churches in them. The energy was of... no outsiders welcome. 
 It was dark when I was driving into Blacksburg, Virginia which I knew nothing about. The feeling was different from everywhere else. It was cleaner with more care and more welcoming. I realized it was a college town and that was why. Then, I realized the college was Virginia Tech. The year before, while spending time in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, a significant bond had been created with students I met there who were helping out with the cleanup and to lend support. So of course I had to stop by the Student Government building the next day on the way out to play some music and say hi to everyone. It was a huge and wonderful spontaneous and synchronistic reunion. The students gave me a Virginia Tech tea-shirt and candy to continue with on my way as I headed down into Mexico. The dog in the pictures are of Boner. He was the first dog in my life, a dream manifest from age five. Mo is Bo's spirit reincarnate. Continued... |
September 11, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaIn 1966 as a result of republican voting life long NRA American gun indoctrination... a shooter got a gun and took to the towers of a University of Texas building in Austin where he randomly slaughtered 15 people walking on the street including an unborn child and injured 31 others for life. While passing through Texas with the Traveling Piano in 2007, I had no idea about this or that I had unknowingly stopped with the Traveling Piano at the very spot where several people were gun slaughtered. Do you know how I learned about this? Several people told me so and how they are living with the gun shootings still. 
 They told me how they will be living with it for the rest of their lives. Of all things to bring up... not one but about seven different people including students that were not yet born at the time. That... is what pro-gun supporters create for the lives of other people. The awareness of death and fear, suffering for life. But for today's maga fascists will also say, fuck other people... the ideology of fascism is more important unless... it happens to one of their own. Even then, eventually they will just scream and shout until they are tired of it and go back to the same old rah, rah authoritarianism, their supreme leader and... for guns. |
September 10, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
Charlie Kirk was shot dead today. It is a big thing as he was the founder of Turning Point which is a fascist, pseudo Christian organization that grooms youth. His charisma and insidious ways of indoctrination has garnered him millions of followers worldwide. He was crucial in getting trump elected. All pseudo Christian's who follow religious ideology over Jesus Christ idolize Kirk. He will for sure be canonized by Trump and his movement. People are already attacking those who say anything negative about him. He worked to destroy the idea of empathy. “I think empathy is a made up New Age term that does a lot of damage.” He preferred the world sympathy. Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Sympathy refers to feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune and nothing more. There is a big difference between those two words and they cannot be used in exchange for each other. I have no empathy or sympathy for his life. And, I can be glad someone is dead without feeling they deserve to be or not, I'm glad Hitler is dead & that is past the deserve point.
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September 09, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
I found a photo from 1987. It is from one of the first bookings for what is now called the Traveling Piano and was for a newly formed group of neighbors in North Philadelphia called Save Our Son's and Daughters. Neighbors gathered to address gun violence on their streets. This is when I first began to realize the personal pain and suffering people live with from gun ownership and how most people have been indoctrination into it. Guns are as American as apple pie, as our American Flag. Its time to throw away the pie. It has gone rancid no matter the lies telling you otherwise. Weapons in everyday society has created an American disease as terrible as the militarized weaponization of our local police forces. Whether its possible or not, rational or not for all of society, practical at this point or not, the very least you can do is to think in that direction because thinking otherwise will most certainly kill us all sooner if not later. |
September 08, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
Much of my life is consumed with the political destruction of our world. Everyone copes in their own ways I understand but, people are not realizing that a civil war is in the making. People have no emotional reference to that. Nazi Germany is repeating itself as more people are swept off the streets and in more massive numbers... like 450 last week at a Hyundai plant in Georgia? For most people, they think in terms of something like happening on another continent far away and that they are safe because of that. Unless people are personally emotionally attached in some way to a situation, there is no reference to respond. Empathy and Compassion on an active level is not a natural motivator for most people. Fear is. Anger is needed first and foremost now. When we went to war in WWII, everyone was involved in one way or another because everyone was personally affected. The threat was real. Fear and justified anger was real. When it becomes real for people this time around, it will be too late to act. I must act out on trumps dictatorship at all cost. My character and experience, every particle of my being, all my work in life to mature into the person I have become demands that I actively respond and not go into denial. |
September 07, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
My close friends Mary and Eric are celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary today. That deserves a huge congratulations from me. I ran around to eight different dollar stores looking for helium balloons with the numbers 5 and 0 while thinking how as places like the dollar store are going away because of trump, and how future generations will never know how great my generation had it. I mean not only about dollar stores but the benifits of privacy, the freedoms I've had in life, the sense of communities working together even with disagreement, etc... It all dying fast. Live should be about making it better for future generations. So sad. Anyway, I found the balloons, a huge anniversary gift bag with a huge card and a gift. Then, drove it over to their place and hung it all on their driveway fence to discover. Once I got home, all the energy from two days ago caught up with me and I collapsed to the point of not being able to lift my arms. I became dead to the world, passed out for about three hours. Mo's ability to walk is better, thank God. |
September 06, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaI'm feeling ok after yesterday but cannot do anything physically or even think. Mo cannot stand or walk. He can barely squat to take a shit. I hope this is not permanent. I gave him two pain killers. Arthritis has totally destroyed his back leg joints. Once it became dark I looked at the photos from last night. Damm, I was busy. I can't believe how many interactions I went through. When I am totally in working mode, a lot gets done. It has always been that way. Its just a reminder that I am going to crash big time. It takes 48 hours after energy put out like that. Everything from the setup, the photos, etc... is in the back and trunk of the car I am using. There is no way I can deal with any of it as I am still numb from all the work. My camera stopped working about two weeks ago which has been a pain in the ass.
 It has been giving me trouble for about a half year. I downloaded a firmware update but figuring out how to do it was just too much for last night. I thought before, maybe its the camera card. Did a lot of trouble shooting with two cards and two cameras. Then I thought, is there any chance that both camera cards are bad? What would be the chances of that? Well... both cards were bad. That was was problem. A third card I have worked which is crazy but not as crazy as the time spent not having a camera to use because I did not take it to that extra, extra level of troubleshooting. Anyway, it felt really good to get backing working with my camera. Its a huge part of my working process. |
September 05, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaMo and I setup for First Friday tonight where one of the Community Traveling Piano's are set. We began setting up at 11am. The setup was stress free, took about three hours as I thought, "how are you going to have the energy to keep going until 11pm and then tear it all down?" A volunteer came to help for a few hours and she was great except that she only wants to connect via email for future help and did not want to give me her phone number. I had to set it straight form the start that if she cannot trust me with her phone number while she has all my information well, I need a mutual exchange of trust or I can't use her help. I'm not into dealing with anyone who is super sensitive and secret about their live's for whatever reason. From past experience, that is a no win situation for me. Once the event got going, the noise level was insane. Lots of people stopped to play and there were about six good young Las Vegas piano players we met with! 
 I invited them to connect with the Traveling Piano saying I could drive them through the streets playing and they were all for it but... I know most likely none of them will followthrough. Young kids not wanting to jump on an opportunity like that I will never understand. Mo was up and about and walking all around the entire time. He went in and out of the store next to us and they had no problem with that. But, I was worried because of his back legs and age. He could not just chill for the entire day. I sold two photos during the entire time, whoopee. What a waste of energy that part was. Now I know as I've always suspected that vendors make little if any at this event. And I've always wondered, why do they setup up and even pay? Its mostly all kids in their teens and early twenties just gathering to hang out. Food vendors probably do ok. |
September 04, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
Realizing that tomorrow is going to be the 1st Friday event downtown here where I live and the new piano is even more front and center where all the crowds will be again like last month with another piano, I for sure had to baby sit it to make sure there was no busking, mis-use, performing from it etc... People are needing to be taught that it is not a public piano. The piano's I've put out are Community Traveling Piano's to share with the public. There is a difference. If they were public, they would belong to no one which then the city could swoop in on and people could disrespect without care. I want it known they are personal property, (mine) on private property wherever they are set (with permission) and to be used freely. (with respect) I figure I'll try and sell a few Traveling Piano Art Photos at the spot also to see what happens. Getting all the photos, signs, tables and other setup needs from my storage area went surprisingly smooth and not too physically taxing. |
September 03, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
... I had to go check on the Community Traveling piano sitting on Fremont street. There was a possibility of rain so I wanted to get out for a feel concerning whether I should cover all the pianos. When I arrived, the piano was gone. I thought, well at least the was the worst piano. My sign had been taken off the piano and a note was written off the back saying "I borrowed your piano will return it... something, something, something." I went to the business it was on the side of to see if they knew what happened. The shop was closed for a few minutes. As I returned around the corner a red haired homeless guy walking up the ally saying, I know where your piano is. The guy knew who I was from sharing food with the homeless over the years. He took me down the alley to the end where there was no outlet. There it was sitting in a corner with wind blown trash all around it on a dolly with thick rope wrapped around it to help it stay on the dolly. (next entry...)
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September 02, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
... It was a decent spot totally out of the way and hidden. I discussed what he thought about leaving it there except the trash around it needed to get cleaned up. He began to clean up the trash. Then he said I'll help you roll it back up the ally and we did. Once it was back in place, the business had reopened and I went inside to see if they knew anything about it. The guy said he wondered if I had a GPS on the piano as I arrived five minutes after it was taken. And then he described the guy who took it along with a two others who had helped. The piano taker was the red haired guy. I went back outside and said "I know you took the piano." He said he had been playing it for hours (that is what the store employees also said) and was torn between playing in public for the attention verses by himself in a corner, so he said. He thought it would be fun to move it around. I said that would put it out of tune. (next entry...)
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September 01, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
... I kept it friendly with him and talked about him taking care of it. Who knows what was going on in that crazy mind of his. Maybe, he got it to the end of the ally and realized there was no escape route. Maybe, he was actually acting out on he idea in his head to just move it around. Maybe he was stealing it to try and sell it or to take it to his own private spot for good. He is in his thirties and told me an interesting fact. When I passed through Denver, Colorado in 2010 with the Traveling Piano, my visit had an impact on the community. A week after I left, a public piano project was established on the streets. He was living in Denver at the time and as a result of that piano project he became inspired to learn how to play the piano. And here we were. What were the chances of my coming to the spot at that exact moment at three in the afternoon, the guy knowing the Piano Man (me), the Colorado connection, the store owners telling me it was him and getting the piano back. And... it never rained. |