Street pianos in Austin, Texas

An update on the project "Play me I'm Yours" - running concurrently with the event in Adelaide in Australia, it has now started in Austin , Texas, USA.

http://www.artallianceaustin.org/play-me-i-am-yours.html

... and here is the link to view photos and videos as they are posted....

www.playmeaustin.com
.... a video to watch, which gives the flavour of the project ...
Pfluger Bridge 
Candlelit street piano event to mark 'Earth Hour' in Austin!

LATEST: the last piano is installed : video to watch, which gives a glimpse behind the scenes....

From KLRU Collective

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1cLTor7y4s8

Street pianos

Music has always been a huge part of my life, and many moons ago I was a  pianist, among other things. Performance, for me, can be inside or outside - both have qualities and benefits. Especially, I love stumbling across it in unexpected places, and in different time-scales. So I have followed this particular project with considerable interest, which is the brainchild of an artist based in Bristol called Luke Jerram. His venture is called "Play Me I'm Yours", which started in 2008, where pianos are sited  in public places in cities around the world , and anyone can play on them.

Last summer while on a trip to Preston, I came across this one at Turton Towers near Bolton. Imagine your surprise when you enter a driveway, turn a corner, and come face-to-face with a piano sitting under trees!

All of the pianos are donated, and decorated by artists and the public wherever they are sited. 

This last week, thirty-four pianos have been installed around Adelaide in Australia, next week a similar event occurs in Texas - so if any of you live in Texas, keep your eyes peeled!
They don't just appear like magic, however. For such things to happen, a huge amount of work has gone into it, and it appears evident that in all these cities, communities and groups of people have got together to help. That in itself is an event, and what makes it so worthwhile.

http://www.streetpianos.com/adelaide2011/

http://www.artallianceaustin.org/play-me-i-am-yours.html

The project has a main website, do take a look :

http://www.streetpianos.com/

Apart from  videos I have seen of the whole of Carnaby Street in London gathered round a piano singing "Hey Jude" and gatherings in New York city, under the "Play Me I'm Yours" umbrella,  I think this is one of my favourites- a video of a piano being decorated, under the title of Salisbury's public piano experiment. Short and sweet. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-LmwlgnXmQ

Have a good weekend!

Anyone else need this?

It's been one of those weeks. Most weeks are, actually, but this has been particularly one of "those weeks".

All I wanted to do was something simple - S-I-M-P-L-E. But no, as the Inland Revenue are fond of saying - "It doesn't work like that".

Today, as I gritted my teeth for a final attempt, I spotted the brick on my bookshelf. It has been there for years since one of my sons gave it to me as a present. It was intended to be a panacea as I listened to my children yet again playing Monopoly over Christmas, which invariably ended in tears and World War 111 threatening, as they all wanted to win Mayfair. I banned it after two such Christmases, and peace reigned thereafter. The gift made me laugh at the time, and did so again this morning. Wish I'd seen it earlier in the week though.

Note the writing on the back of the label - I do like No.2!!!

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Oh, I did manage to achieve what I wanted - but in a rather complicated way.....

Brighton in February

Well, I didn't see much of Brighton while I was there - only a very dark space where the sea was as I walked back to where I was staying each night. And each day it rained and rained.

However, the reason I was even in Brighton was to demonstrate and exhibit at the Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts Fair run by ICHF. It was excellent, and well attended by many thousands of interested people who were a pleasure to meet. Each day, I did mini-workshops in crazy-patchwork using recycled materials - (and taking along my new items shown in the previous post )- which seemed to go well.

Only one embarrassing  moment for me, when a lady was engrossed in doing her sample and I absentmindedly patted her on the shoulder and said "good girl!" Oh goodness, years of being in school classrooms dies hard! She just looked up and said " actually I rather liked it - nobody said that to me at school - I'll come again!" So we all had a good laugh.

One view of my stand.........while I was demonstrating embellishing.


I decided to take cover in the Bandstand one night, having tried to get down to the sea, but it was raining too hard. About the only view I had - one with eyes right......

the other, eyes left...

A huge thank-you to all who came the show!