Oops!

Well, this morning, as I promised I would, I made it out to Stinson Park at Aksarben Village here in Omaha.

I was fired up, pumped up, ready to play just the second "Play Me, I'm Yours" piano I intended to encounter.

Took a while, but I found Stinson's Kranich & Bach "Mirrapiano," which, according to the latest from http://omahapianos.com, had been redecorated and retuned. 

I arrived at the park at 9:38 AM (Central time).

Tried out the keys to make sure they worked...only to find...only most of the lower-register keys and about one-third of the remaining keys made a sound.

I didn't know Goliath was still very much alive, had moved from Israel to the United States, settled in this country's 43rd largest city (not counting the suburbs...remember?), and had taken up the best-known musical instrument there is.

Well, the Omaha Creative Institute's chief, Susan Thomas, did say that not all ten of the Omaha Metro's "Play Me" pianos were expected to survive the event. 

Still, it would've been nice to do all the things I'd like to do on that K&B "Mirrapiano." One cool thing about Robert Cook's reincarnation of that piano is that, with the chalk provided, you can put your name (if there's room) or your initials on the soundboard.

Well...around 10:08 AM, I arrived at my safety valve: Memorial Park.

Anyway...the Stinson Park experience has led to an important new strategy for me: If I find that any of the next pianos end up like Stinson's did, I'll go back to Memorial Park. And I'll email people to let them know about it.

And another thing about coming to Stinson Park at Aksarben Village: I was able to, for the first time in my life, shoot videos. (I'm lucky they turned out fine, and it won't be long before I get to upload them to YouTube.)

When I come back, I'll let you know what happened when I tried to make the fourth time at Memorial Park a charm, too.

The Artist and the Storyteller and the Audience

Right after attending the 5:00 PM Saturday service at the church I belong to (it's got four others on Sunday as well as a Wednesday mid-month service), I went right back to Omaha's Memorial Park...to participate in a storytelling session conducted by one of the best storytellers around, none other than Rita Paskowitz. 

In fact, I arrived at the park at 6:30 PM...because I thought it foolish to turn around and go home after church, only to have to come back to the park right afterwards. 

When I got back to Memorial Park, a bunch of teenagers- mostly from area high schools like Creighton Prep, Marian, and Mount Michael- brought the park's south stairs back to life with their presence.

The first teenager to greet me was a girl named Liz...and I was floored that she recognized me and called me by my name.

Well...it was cool. 

Eventually, Liz wanted to know if I played the piano.

After I told Liz and her friends "Yes," I went right to the park's H.P. Nelson upright and tried to think of something today's high-school-age students might like.

One of these days, I'm going to up and learn some of Rihanna's, Katy Perry's, Bruno Mars', Maroon 5's, Lady Gaga's, and Nicky Minaj's stuff...among that by other acts. (I really do like some of today's hits...especially Bruno's latest one, "Treasure.")

Right now, the most recent cut I can play (and get away with it) is..."Purple Rain."

So I served up that 1984 Prince monster.

Well...they thought it was cool.  

After that, I dipped into my 1950s-1960s-1970s vault and ragged up as many hits from those three decades as I could do in about a half hour. (And during that half hour, Rita made it to Memorial Park...along with "PMIY's" Sally Reay and Natalie Shaw, the development coordinator for the Omaha Creative Institute.)

One thing I'm trying to take from the "Play Me, I'm Yours" experience is: "You've got to know your audience!" That's why I started out with Prince instead of Scott Joplin...almost 24 hours after launching my Sweatshop Gallery session with a blues rather than a rag. (At Sweatshop, I was playing for people who could've been Liz' older siblings.)  

Speaking of Liz...sometime during the half hour, the other students encouraged her to try out the ol' upright. 

Well, she did.

And it was cool.

Then, at 7:05 PM, it was storytelling time...and we got a chance to hear a classical piece by Lori Elliott-Bartle, the very artist who painted the very H.P. Nelson upright she was playing. (I thought Lori did a nice, nice job at the 88s.)

Rita introduced Lori to the audience, and afterwards, Lori talked about just how she came to turning what had been a plain old 1910s upright into a "Garden Party" piano. 

This set the stage for Rita to encourage those of us in the audience to share our experiences with trying to learn to play the piano...or wanting to learn the ivories, but not getting parental (or any other kind of) support...or in the case of one participant, having to choose playing the piano or playing softball as a teenager.

Some of the storytelling session's participants were in elementary school...and Rita encouraged those who wanted to show their piano skills to do just that. 

As a result, we got to hear from youngsters such as Jack,

Dottie,

and Lorenzo. (Lorenzo's tune even made it to www.youtube.com.)

The next portion of the session saw Rita seek our stories about what it's like to come to Memorial Park, the site of an annual Independence Day concert featuring the rock acts the Katy Perrys and Bruno Marses learned their craft from.

Rita's own story came from one of her experiences as a student at the U of Nebraska at Omaha. This was during a 1970s Vietnam War protest at that very park...and it culminated in the only time Rita came face to face with a gun pointed in her direction.

It was a police officer's gun.

And it WASN'T cool.

A cool experience about a park I set foot in for the first time in my life only because of "Play Me" came from the woman on my left, Hannah...who participated in tai chi sessions at Memorial until recently. 

Hannah talked about how tai chi demands so much discipline that you can't even swat at a fly if it comes your way. You've got to keep your eyes on the prize.

In a word: Perseverance.  

Next, Rita asked each of us for a word that describes "Play Me, I'm Yours." (The word "fun" won out.)

The fun multiplied when Rita had those "pianophobic" adults in the crowd come up in fives...to hit one note apiece...at the same time. (A third quintet got to hit two notes apiece...at the same time.)

Lori went back to the piano to cap off the session by delivering "Maple Leaf Rag."

Thought that was cool. 

Lots more cool stuff took place afterwards, including a succession of pianists trying out ol' H.P. 

One of them was a cyclist who proved that you CAN play "Heart and Soul" by yourself.

Another was a birthday girl, Emily...who one-fingered the intro to "When the Saints Go Marching In." (And that was only because I learned the lesson George taught me that afternoon: "Get someone to actually touch a piano key!")

Lori's hubby John got into the act with a one-handed "Oh Susanna."

A teenage girl knocked out the intro to Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in G Minor," one of the coolest classical pieces ever written. (Well, I like to think so!)

A little girl named Amelia, a grown man named Grady (he and his wife Kathleen brought their German Shepherds with them), and I delivered some ragtime. (But I was the only one of the threesome who didn't tackle "The Entertainer." That's going to be later this fortnight.)

Matter of fact, with his version of "The Entertainer," Grady hit the last note of the night.

 

I came out of Memorial Park with some great memories, some new buddies (well, I like to think so!), and...I'm fired up and ready to go!

Ready to go to Stinson Park, that is.  

And that's way cool.

"Hey, Memorial Park...I'm BAACK!"

If "Play Me, I'm Yours" hadn't arrived here in the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area, I'd have never had a real chance to set foot in Memorial Park. 

Thus far, I've had a chance to not only get some playing in, but also to hear so many other people- of one skill level or another- play those keys.

Yesterday morning, I went back to the same site where "PMIY" was locally launched...and I hooked back up with Steven Raphael and J.D. Mossberg.  

The 33-year-old J.D. was already playing when I actually arrived at 9:30 AM (Central time). And at that moment, joggers would periodically run through the park. 

And J.D. and I would start to trade tunes until Steven came back to Memorial Park.     
                                   Steven brought a friend along this time: George, a veteran of Iowa's Old-Time Country, Bluegrass, and Folk Music Festival and Contest (that event's new title). 

George and I had a chance to reminisce about the event that Bob and Sheila Everhart put on at this time every year (matter of fact, this year's version starts tomorrow at the Plymouth County Fairgrounds in Le Mars, IA, the festival's home since 2008)...and about two of its best-known performers.

Pat Boilesen- another Old-Time Country Festival veteran (she's from Albion, NE)- would really love "Play Me, I'm Yours." She and another longtime OTCF performer, Sarah Davison (out of Braddyville, IA; she's now the leader of the country band High Road- and she'd love "PMIY," too), won plenty of ragtime piano contests at Bob's and Sheila's shindig during the 1990s and 2000s.  

Well, George gave me a couple of teachable moments yesterday: First of all, he really enjoyed Pat's version of "Red Wing," and he wanted to know if I could play it.

I tried.

I couldn't.

At least I couldn't do "Red Wing" the way people recognize it.

So he showed me how he heard the Kerry Mills piece...and a light went on in my head.

And I figured: "'Red Wing' starts out in a way like 'American Patrol.' As long as I work off that, I'll be fine."  

I tried it again...and got through "Red Wing" in better shape.

George's other teachable moment came because I missed out on a chance to have Lori (and her husband Tim) actually touch a piano key...one of the very reasons Luke Jerram invented the whole operation.

The BIGGEST reason for "Play Me," of course, is to get people interacting.   

And some really powerful interactions happened during the time George, Steven, and I hung out together at Memorial Park.

Scott, Michelle, and their son Patrick stopped by to check out the roughly 100-year-old H.P. Nelson upright. (The threesome had already been to a few other "Play Me" installations in the Omaha Metro.)

Patrick (above) masterfully played a classical number, and then Michelle (top) did the theme from "Terms of Endearment."   

Lexi wanted to take piano lessons...but her mom, Angie, kept putting the kibosh to that. 

But then, Angie sat down at ol' H.P. (top) to play the one song she knew: "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater." 

Next thing we knew, Angie (above) was teaching Lexi to play the tune. 

And Lexi was nailing it. (In fact, she gave "Peter, Peter" her own kind of beat.)  

Larae (a one-time teacher) got her daughter Shauna (man, I hope I'm spelling these names right!) to duet with her in a bit of improvisation.

Before that, Larae was strictly a solo act...and a darned good one.

Well, that wasn't all...and when I come back, I'll show you what happened that night...when a storyteller came to the park.

Rogue!

During this past Friday's kickoff event for the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area's exhibition of the "Play Me, I'm Yours" painted-piano project, local artist Kim Reid Kuhn approached me about playing the keys during an exhibition she and fellow artist Steven Walsh were going to put on that evening at their place of business, Sweatshop Gallery (2727 N. 62nd St., 68104).

Steven and Kim painted up their own old upright (or maybe it was one donated to them).

One thing's for sure: Sweatshop Gallery wasn't on the list of "Play Me" piano sites.

And that's why Omaha Creative Institute executive director Susan Thomas laughingly labeled it a "rogue" piano...one of several on display here in the area while "PMIY" continues (through 9-8-2013).

So...at 7:11 PM (Central time), I came out to the gallery (in Omaha's Benson neighborhood) to play...and I found a really cool 1916 Bush & Gerts upright.

And I stayed and played it for two hours...and on top of that, I had just as much fun that night as I had that morning and early afternoon at Memorial Park.

The people who passed by liked the music (well, most of them did)...and I even received some tip money.

Well, anyway, the music ran the gamut from an early rag called "Tickled to Death" to a blues called "That's All Right" to Prince's "Purple Rain."

Kim, Steven, and Co. liked it so much that they invited me to come back and play on 9-6-2013.

So...look out, Bush & Gerts!  

One Down...and Nine to Go

Well, it's here!

In fact...it arrived two days ahead of schedule. (If you're a regular of YouTube and you've been following the world's street-piano scene, you've probably seen videos of it already.)

I'm talking about the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area serving as the world's 34th metro area to host that international phenomenon, Luke Jerram's "Play Me, I'm Yours."

Yesterday, the ten street pianos set up for the Omaha Metro were installed in as many public places.

And those passersby watching crews from Omaha's Transfer 88 just as quickly got their fingers on those keys once the pianos were anchored into place.

This morning, the Omaha Creative Institute and the "Play Me, I'm Yours" organization got together to host a community event that served as the official kickoff for the local exhibition of "PMIY." This kickoff event took place at Memorial Park, the landmark on the other side of the main campus of the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Lots and lots and lots and lots of work goes into every "Play Me" project...and OCI executive director Susan Thomas thanked a planeload of people, especially her fellow OCI staff members, the "Play Me" crew (represented by Sally Reay, AKA "Sally Street Piano"), the local government officials who okayed the project, those whose financial contributions helped bring the project to America's 58th-ranked metropolitan area, and the artists who decorated the seven older uprights (including the one pictured; it's right there at Memorial Park), two spinets, and the lone studio piano.

And then...the music began. (Oops...I mean it resumed.)  

The first pianists to get a crack at the park's century-old H.P. Nelson upright- during today's community event, that is- were students and instructors from the Omaha Conservatory of Music. (One memorable duet- by Anne Madison and Yulia Kalishnikova, and I hope I've got their names right- made in onto www.youtube.com.)

Omaha City Councilmember Pete Festersen got into the act; he sat down and played a little bit of that Mannheim Steamroller favorite, "Fresh Aire."

Next, five members of the Omaha-based Ballet Nebraska danced around the old upright while one of the accompanists for the troupe played. (Check that out on www.youtube.com, too!)

The good-sized crowd also heard from a local legend, a saloon pianist named Jim Snyder. And his infectious brand of boogie-woogie playing made it onto- you guessed it- www.youtube.com.

I got a chance to go up following Jim. [Nope...my ragtime version of "Do Re Mi" (from "The Sound of Music," not the one from Lee Dorsey) didn't make it to YouTube at this writing. But I still had lots of fun.] 

Basically, after that, Jim, a young pianist named J.D. Mossberg, two teenage girls and their younger brother, and I traded turns at the piano.

Also, I met back up with another local ivory tickler, the California-born Steven Raphael. (I hadn't seen Steven since the early 2000s, about the time he had a show on public-access TV right here in America's 43rd largest city...not counting the suburbs.)

Man, Steven and I had a good, good conversation as we talked about old times and caught up with each other.  

Steven sent me an email last year about pursuing help from the "PMIY" folks rather than setting up a local street-piano exhibition Denver style.

He knew the right route to making Omaha and Bellevue just the second and third sizable Nebraska cities (after Kearney) to put at least one piano out there in a street for passersby to play. 

By the way...in Denver, you can find a dozen spinets and older uprights lining the Mile High City's 16th Street Mall. And they're out there much of the year- a real departure from the way Luke, Sally, and Co. do things.

Still, for us here in Karrin Allyson's and Buddy Miles' birth city, the way Luke, Sally, and Co. do things is better than nothing at all. Way better.

Having a ball during the early going of the Omaha Metro's "Play Me, I'm Yours," and I'm looking forward to coming back to Memorial Park tomorrow morning to not only get some playing in...but also to listen to other pianists of one skill level or another. [And I'll also be back tomorrow night to listen to- and share- stories about each other's musical journeys (and stories about Memorial Park).] 

Here's the rest of my schedule:

8-27-2013: Aksarben Village's Stinson Park, 9:00-11:00 AM
8-31-2013: Bayliss Park, Council Bluffs, IA, 9:00 AM-12:00 Noon
9-1-2013: ConAgra Plaza, 1:00-3:00 PM; Lewis and Clark Landing, 4:00-6:00 PM
9-2-2013: Tree of Life Sculpture, 9:00-11:00 AM; Fontenelle Forest, Bellevue, NE, 1:00-3:00 PM
9-3-2013: Rockbrook Village Shopping Center, 9:00-11:00 AM
9-7-2013: Village Pointe Shopping Center, 1:00-4:00 PM (alternate date: 9-8-2013, 4:00-6:00 PM)
9-8-2013: Florence Park, 1:00-3:00 PM

If you live here in the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area (or are visiting), check out our "Play Me" street pianos. And if you'd like to learn more about Luke Jerram's claim to fame, just visit www.streetpianos.com. And if you'd like to see what we're doing in the River City and environs, log on to http://omahapianos.com.  

I'm Jim Boston, and thanks for reading this blog!

Extraordinary Talent...and Then Some

I belong to another music-oriented club besides the Great Plains Ragtime Society. In fact, I've been in this additional organization since 1984...the year it celebrated its first birthday.

It's the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society, the River City Theatre Organ Society.

Yesterday afternoon, RCTOS put on the 2013 edition of its annual fundraiser. Every year at this time, the club holds a concert at Omaha's Rose Theater, the one-time movie house (originally called the Paramount Theater; later the Astro) whose official current title is the Rose Blumkin Center for the Performing Arts. 

The place was packed.

And the talent was packed, too!

The theater's got a 3-manual, 21-rank Wurlitzer theater pipe organ that was built in 1927...and, currently, it's the only concert-ready theater organ in the Iowa-Nebraska-South Dakota area. 

Getting back to the talent being packed...this year's featured organist was Walt Strony, the Illinoisan-turned-Californian who was voted ATOS' Organist of the Year not once, but twice...in both 1991 and 1993.

Right from the first chords of his opener ("On the Sunny Side of the Street"), he showed the crowd just why. 

And when Walt followed that up with a medley from "My Fair Lady" and then his version of Mario Lanza's 1950 smash, "Be My Love," the Rose audience was in for one heck of a ride. 

Three selections later, Walt cued a silent movie, "Two Tars." (The two tars were none other than Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.)

Walt isn't just great. He's G-R-R-R-E-A-T!!

He and his unique style hit the theater-organ circuit in 1974 (at a time when Walt was 18)...at a time when RCTOS' 2008 featured organist, Donna Parker, was in her teens as well (and playing the organ at Los Angeles Dodgers games).   

After the showing of a movie that still proves to be some kind of funny, it was intermission time.

And after Walt came back out and fired up another number, the Pathfinders (a barbershop chorus group from Fremont, NE) took to the Rose Theater stage.

Last year, when Rob Richards played the Rose Wurlitzer, the Pathfinders turned out the concert with their movin', groovin' brand of a cappella singing...and proved to be so great that RCTOS invited them to come back for 2013.

The Pathfinders opened with a song called "Harmony" to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the International Barbershop Harmony Society...then brought back a tune they did in 2012, the 1967 hit "Lazy Day." ("Lazy Day" was how Spanky and Our Gang followed up their debut hit, "Sunday Will Never Be the Same.")

Fremont's Number One plus factor (well, I like to think so!) does the old, old ones, too...like "The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi."

One of the Pathfinders used to run RCTOS. His name is Greg Johnson, and he's no slouch as an organist, either.

Greg's successor as the club's president is no slouch, either. His name is Bob Markworth...who'd just been named ATOS Member of the Year for 2013. (Bob and his wife Joyce own a 1927 Kimball 3-manual, 24-rank theater pipe organ, the instrument locally known as "The Beast in the Basement.")  

Because of Greg, Bob, Joyce, and Jerry Pawlak (he's the club's secretary-treasurer), RCTOS membership grew exponentially throughout this early going of this 21st Century. 

The club now has 162 members. And you can't beat that with a stick!

Well, after the barbershoppers showed how "The Joint Is Jumpin'," Walt came back out to join them.

After Walt got the show (this year's show was titled "Let's Take a Musical Stroll") going, he talked about how some people ask him to play rock songs during his theater-organ concerts. 

Walt's answer is: "Forget it. You need a melody."

Guess what Walt Strony and the Pathfinders teamed up to do?

They  worked out "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da."

By the Beatles.  

Oh, by the way...the 'Finders (formed in 1972, the year before Donna started playing at Dodger Stadium and two years prior to Walt's first theater-organ concert) recently did their thing at the IBHS competition in Toronto, ON, Canada...and ended up winning tenth place.

That's right: The Pathfinder Chorus is one of the WORLD'S ten best barbershop choruses.

No slouches are they.

Then Walt ran the concert's anchor leg by himself, closing it all out with a patriotic medley that featured the theme song from each of America's five military branches. (He invited veterans to stand up; veterans from four of the nation's five branches did just that...with only the Coast Guard lacking representation at yesterday's show.)

The medley continued with "The Stars and Stripes Forever" and closed out (the concert did, too) with what some people feel should replace "The Star-Spangled Banner" as our national anthem: "God Bless America."  

Can't wait 'til next August...to see who's going to make the joint (ahem, the Rose Theater) jump. 

How about you?  

Everybody Still Had a Great Time

Two weeks ago, the ninth annual Ragtime to Riches Festival took place at Omaha's First Central Congregational United Church of Christ.

It would've been three weeks ago today...except for a scheduling conflict that allowed an organization called Omaha Chamber Music to wrap up a four-consecutive-Sunday stint on 7-7-2013 (the date this year's R to R was originally scheduled).

But...as things turned out...yours truly didn't check with First Central's staff earlier than 6-5-2013, the day yours truly came to the church at 36th and Harney to pay for rental of the church's Memorial Hall.

So...the church staff gave us 7-14-2013 (and at the same time, the Great Plains Ragtime Society snapped up 7-6-2014).

It worked out fine...even with the festival jumping right into the teeth of the Omaha Country Club hosting the 2013 men's US Senior Open, which said "hello" to the two biggest crowds to ever attend a sports event in person here in the city that gave us sports greats Bob Gibson, Gale Sayers, and Bob Boozer.

We sold eight tickets this time. Yeah, I know...that's a far cry from the 38 ducats GPRS sold last year and, as a result, got Ragtime to Riches out of the local shadows.

Nevertheless, everybody who came to R to R 9.0 had a great time.

And the crowd included four people who'd never attended the local ragtime fest before.

Plus: One of them's a student at Benson High School. (So there!)  

It started out, once the doors opened at 1:00 PM (Central time), with a workshop an hour later; it focused on the 1885-1899 period...the first fourteen years the United States had a real music-publishing industry (okay...the first fourteen years said industry was based in New York City, NY).  

One thing I found out in doing research for the R to R workshop was that many of the first big-name Tin Pan Alley songwriters were traveling salespersons before jumping into the music industry full blast. They sold sheet music when not selling clothes and other items...and eventually, they got the notion that they could write better than the composers whose work these dealers agreed to peddle.

One of them was Edward B. Marks, who got off the road in 1894 to hook up with another salesperson with a desire to write ditties, Joseph Stern.  

And with Charles K. Harris' 1892 monster "After the Ball" (only the first million-selling song ever written; it went on to sell six million pieces of sheet music) providing the yardstick, Marks and Stern got together to write Tin Pan Alley's next monster...1894's "The Little Lost Child."

TPA (so named because, according to legend, all those multiple old upright pianos getting played at the same time all over the Big Apple's music-publishing district- West 28th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues- sounded like tin pans being banged) originally specialized in sentimental, treacly ballads like "After the Ball" and "The Little Lost Child."

But as the 1890s started to draw to a close, Americans wanted to shake their hind ends...and Tin Pan Alley started to get the ragtime bug, thanks to two 1899 smashes: Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" and Abe Holzmann's "Smokey Mokes."

I shifted gears at a little after 3:05 PM, getting myself into concert mode. And, for the second straight year, I took a page from the book of the late Burns Davis and gave my own concert a theme.

After building my own 2012 show around some of 1912's top hits, I chose as my 2013 theme..."They All Died in 2012."

During the early 1990s, I got interested in the work someone from Phoenix, AZ (I think his name is Sherman Cohen) was doing linking the birthdates of big-name celebrities with the cuts that topped Billboard's US Pop charts the day each celebrity was born...and using the songs to predict what kind of lives the big names would end up leading. (For instance, the day Michael Jackson was born, the top pop hit in the US was "Little Star," by the Elegants. 'Nuff said.) 

Well, the audience at this year's R to R found out that "Peg o' My Heart," by a singer named Charles Harrison, was the Number One recording on 12-25-1913...Tony Martin's birthday. In addition, they learned that fellow singalong favorite "For Me and My Gal" was a chart-topper for one of the top duos of the World War 1 years, Van & Schenck. (The V&S version was #1 on 7-17-1917...Phyllis Diller's birthday.)

Today, we know Alma Gluck as the mother of Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (you might remember his two big TV series, 77 Sunset Strip and fellow ABC hit The FBI) and as the grandmother of Stephanie Zimbalist (who got to costar alongside Pierce Brosnan on the 1980s NBC hit Remington Steele).

But in her time, Gluck was one of the world's best-known opera singers. In 1915, she reached back to 1878 to turn James Bland's "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" into just the fourth million-selling recording in history.

And that cut was the top hit in the land on 4-10-1915...the day Harry Morgan was born. (That's right...the same Harry Morgan who got to work alongside Jack Webb on the 1967-1970 version of NBC's Dragnet, in addition to doing all kinds of other series...like CBS classics December Bride and M*A*S*H.) 

Toward the end of my time up there, I took a chance.

I ragged up a couple of post-TPA songs: 1963's "So Much in Love," which was the first big hit for the Tymes...and the top pop hit on 8-9-1963, the day Whitney Houston was born; and the next year's "A Hard Day's Night," one of the many, many Number Ones the Beatles racked up.

"A Hard Day's Night" made the list as a tribute to Beatles fan Jesse Lewis and the nineteen other Sandy Hook School children who, along with six teachers at the Newtown, CT facility, were gunned down 12-14-2012.

What's more, I got squeamish about performing the song that actually topped Billboard's US Pop chart on 6-30-2006, Jesse's birthday: "Hips Don't Lie," where Shakira teamed up with Wyclef Jean.

And I couldn't get off the stage without paying tribute to the late Nan Bostick, so I closed out with her first and best-known tune, 1974's "Bean Whistle Rag."

Nope...the sky didn't fall.

In lieu of a movie, we had a preview of the upcoming local showing of Luke Jerram's famous "Play Me, I'm Yours" art project. (Here in the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area, ten painted old pianos will be placed at public spots all over the area for passersby to play...regardless of skill level. In fact, the exhibit will run locally from 8-24-2013 to 9-8-2013.) 

Ended up giving the oral presentation myself, then Nick Holle (that's right, THAT Nick Holle) and I got together to show a 60-minute compilation of "PMIY" videos culled from YouTube.

By the way...to learn more about Luke's claim to fame, just visit www.streetpianos.com. And for more local information about the exhibit, you can also log on to http://omahacreativeinstitute.org. (The Omaha Creative Institute did the lion's share of the heavy hitting that brought "PMIY" here.)

Speaking of fame...at 7:00 PM, Marty Mincer went up to bat.

And Marty was smacking homers all over the place. 

The apple farmer from Hamburg, IA showed why he took the Regular Division crown in 1990 and 1993 at Illinois' World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival...and the first proof was his rip-roaring version of an E.T. Paull march, "The Burning of Rome."

Later on in Marty's concert, he talked about how his grandmother got him started tickling those keys. It was the late 1960s, and she taught him how to play a piece called "Old Fiddle Tune."

He did it the conventional way, then ragged it up...only to get an admonishment from Grandma: "Don't you ever play that piece like that again!"

Then Marty went back to playing "Old Fiddle Tune" the way it was written.

And, 44 years later, he does "OFT" the same three ways. (And it brings the house down every time!)

Marty writes 'em, too. His biggest one came together in 1989 because, at that time, he owned a 1964 Studebaker (remember Studebaker automobiles?) that kept breaking down.

And he captured that in his "The Mechanic's Rag." (Its subtitle: "A Well-Tooled Piece." On top of that, the instruction on the first page tells you to play this one "with great repair.")

Marty kept it going all through his concert, burning through "A Bag of Rags," Mark Janza's "Aviation Rag," George Botsford's "Black and White Rag," and Scott Joplin's other Monster, "The Entertainer." (When you take out "The Entertainer" and "Maple Leaf Rag," you find his other rags were monsters.)  

Toward the end of the show, Marty led a singalong; after he sang and played "Sioux City Sue," he (and I) led the audience into "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "When You're Smiling," and "Side by Side."  

Then his rollicking versions of "Tiger Rag" (with multiple false endings) and "Show Me the Way to Go Home" (he handled the vocals, too) brought the 2013 version of Ragtime to Riches to a close.

And, when all was said and done, the festival took in $100, which went to the Great Plains Ragtime Society...not bad for the situation at hand.  

Well...it's off to work on the 2014 version of R to R. 

Now...to find out how to get another movie into the festival...or something...