Raggin' Piano Boogie
| The TRAVELING PIANO Information Page | READ THE DAILY LOG - Flight of Peregrinating Musical Exploration! |
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Since 1987 |
Use the links to the left to read a past Month or Year... and then there is always your Backspace to return to a past page.
HELP! A new Carburetor is needed. SpotFund: Long Live the Traveling Piano Spotfund Venmo: Dan Kean @TravelingPiano 2156399378 - Paypal Direct: Paypal - And of Course this Website Contribution Page. Contribute Or email me for snail mail.
July 31, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada |
July 30, 2024Las Vegas, NevadaI sure do miss nature. The energy or where-with-all to just get up and out and into it is not there. Of course it is not possible right now anyway with the heat and especially with Mo. His ability to walk slows down everyday. I mean... he's fourteen and a half now! I am getting more and more out of shape because i have been adjusting to his capabilities. As he does less and less, so do I. Going out on my own to exercise without him just does not feel good. We have been together 24/7 for all these years so I only leave him alone when it is absolutely necessary. It would not be fair to just leave him behind as he ages and his abilities fade. But mostly we do not get out into nature because I am afraid of the truck breaking down somewhere and getting stuck... in the heat... in the what is now an everytime traumatic experience of a truck break down. I have reached my own breaking point with the truck breaking down, just cannot deal with it anymore. Enough is enough. 
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July 29, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
While the photos for this month are current... I just need to stop right there as I was going to say they will not be for next month. I do not know what will come for next month. There may be days out with the truck for new photos, maybe not. The keyboard is getting fixed right now as the heat has done damage. One more month at least, of intense heat... as long at it does not stay above 110º for weeks at a time I will be happy. I do not know what the future will hold. I think tho, for next month I am going to post my musical history. Hopefully I will follow through from the start till the end. Ideas come into my head all the time, I begin to pursue them and then they peter out, the energy to keep the desire fueling whatever fades. So many times that has happened in life. Now the the start of and idea and then fade out with it happens with more frequency although... look at this journey on the whole... I mean almost twenty years of daily not petering out and then the working with the Traveling Piano truck in total coming on forty years continuously? I need to pat myself on the back concerning that.
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July 28, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
While the world moves in new and distant directions away from me, I choose to just keep the footprint of my time here and deal with trying to survive with what I have. When I think about furniture for example, I know that is out of left field lol... but I do think about it often... factories make furniture from raw materials and through time those factories use cheaper materials and everything is mass produced. With that comes a generic feel that most people do not care about. And then there are still woodworkers hand crafting furniture for use still today. That furniture appeals to the crafter and a select group of people. I am with the hand made crafter's ways. Sometimes I think I am just rationalizing because learning new ways and new things is too much work and difficult. But the reality is, I just do not want to. Does everyone need to constantly evolve with technology, commercialism and societal trends? I prefer to continue to evolve and learn and create with the tools I have. Otherwise my life is spent chasing a world speeding up when I am actually at the same time slowing down.
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July 27, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
AI is completely tempting but I will not fall for it. It is such an easy creative route and I know people justify and say embrace it, make it work for you. So much of what I do can be simpler, faster and maybe even more efficient in using AI. I simply do not want to be part of the downfall of humanity through AI. Of course it is already not avoidable so I should just lay down and play dead concerning it? That is not who I am. Once you begin to dance with the devil there is not stopping. This I know. I am so glad I was able to dump Amazon as a store choice. The same with Netflix for streaming, I hardly ever use Google and there are many devils I avoid in life. It is simply a decision and life is better in my way for me, actually. As AI is clearly a danger and it will destroy humanity and there is no stopping it because people are just to attracted to the "twinkly" propaganda being made for it and just do not care... this is why I am fearful that trump will get back in. People are now used to being told what to do, their lives, thinking, feelings are being directed and they just do not care. I will always care about and for my life through the truth of spirit.
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July 26, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
The website has really been an accomplishment. Even though I am not posting daily like I did for many years, it is still going. It will continue as long as the work with the Traveling Piano does. I am fully aware that most people cannot navigate through it anymore because the structure is so outdated, it is a dinosaur website... I like that it is old school. If someone wants to enjoy it they will find a way. I'm not out to sell anything with it nor am I out to impress. It was created for the sake of documentation, fun and to inspire and empower... and to sometimes influence others with what interests me. I've been curating the music files listening to each one to find the worst to dump. There are upwards of 5000 pieces of music that I recorded and posted here on this website. Most of it is all similar. My music is kind of one dimensional in a very deep and complex way. Once I go through it all, I'll need to do it again from another approach, that would be to find the good improvisations. And then again to find some (I hope) exceptional ones.
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July 25, 2024Las Vegas, NevadaWhen I see photos of the cold and snow they really do help me to feel cooler in this heat because I can put myself in the photos and remember all the associated feelings of when I took them. Having been in Vegas for so many years now I am not sure I would be able to handle the cold again as I did when I was younger. I remember it was not fun but, being warm in cold surroundings was fun and the snow when there was a lot of it... awesome. I do miss the silence that comes after a snowfall and then their is the sound of falling snow. Nothing compares to it. The feeling of the visual cushion, if its not a deep snow it is not so much fun unless it is the first of the season. What I do not miss at all is my old drafty house. Wow, it could get cold in there even with the heat on. 
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July 24, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
I've shown on this blog in the past, my crazy the needs I have in order to function. I am trying to work my way into full blown fundraising again but cannot do it with out being organized. So, I've been consolidating all the data I have from past years and am creating a data base so I can see and understand in a way that works for me. I am creating a record for everyone who has contributed in the past, when, how much, for what, in what form, the date, how many times, how I know them with summary fields for each account, year, fundraiser and then calculations for the grand totals for the years and the end grand total of all contribution. I need to mark active accounts, take out duplicates, record correspondence... it just goes on and on. Please God let me finish the data base and all the entries because if I do not and leave it for awhile... when I come back to it I will need to start over from scratch. Yep, thats the way my mind works.
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July 23, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
As the temperature outside my room rarely goes below 110º during the day and can easily rise to 120º, the music equipment is fried and the truck of course is running like an old goat that has seen many a battle... here I sit with Mo. In the middle of the morning I take Mo out for a walk. When going out to relieve himself I need to carry him up the outside steps as his legs collapse from the heat on his paws. But, we are both still going. He is happy, always happy to be with me and company for me. My pup keeps me in a state of joy, gratitude and appreciation always. |
July 22, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
I've created a data base from software to keep track of contributions over the years and who I have asked for help so I can ask everyone again and not repeat myself. That is a feat beyond belief for me as it is so technical and complex. There are about twenty thousand contacts to deal with. No more than 200 have contributed over the last 20 years. That is kind of pathetic but it is what it is and those that have contributed and do contribute... thank God almighty for them. They... are the only reason i am still going be it $20 bucks shared of a couple hundred. The truck needs a carburetor and many other issues need to be taken care of to keep it going. |
July 21, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
I have a keyboard in my room. It is not the best but it is something. Without creating music, I go crazy. Plus my finger dexterity and speed is leaving me fast with age and from lack of use. The keyboard must be played soon after I get up on any given day while I still have energy. After a few hours of being awake, forget it. Living in such a cramped space I must take the keyboard, stand and stool out of the bathroom, move stuff around to set it all up and then take it all down and put it back. Just that in of itself is physically draining.
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July 20, 2024Las Vegas, NevadaMeditation is needed daily about 40 minutes of it. Left with three days of not doing that, my mind is taken over with fear, anger and rage. The world's hell especially in a political sense is so very easy to get sucked into. Through my many years of observation, study, analyzation and personal experience throughout the northern hemisphere in communities both rural and urban my conclusion about the current state of affairs... fuck trump, fuck people like elon musk, fuck all the spineless republican politicians and their supporters. Unfortunately, that anger is a survival need for many now. 
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July 19, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
I wish my downright anger that boarders on hate for all that it is to be an American diocesan roman catholic did not exist but it does. At the core of that authoritarianism and the using the name of Jesus Christ and Christianity is the evil out to destroy the world today. Same goes for all Religious Nationalists trying to highjack what it is to be a Christian. The name Leo Lenard comes to mind as does Project 2025 in Politics. I specify "diocesan roman catholic" because there are at least 40 forms of Catholicism under the umbrella of the pope. My birth right happens to be diocesan, how unlucky for me. How political they all are. Even the pope rejects what they stand for. There are other groups such as the Jesuits, the Franciscans, Dominicans... every Apostle created their own form of Catholicism. The Roman diocesans ... just ugh. |
July 18, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
Everyday I spend time curating the years of daily improvisations I made and posted on the website looking for the few special ones. Always, I am working with the photo galleries in processing them, filing, posting. Of course the fundraising happens whenever I can get the inertia. I've begun to write my musical story from the start. It will all get posted here on this website. Since this website is in a daily format chronologically and with limits in writing space daily, much of what will go down will not make sense as the story line will be all over the place. |
July 17, 2024Las Vegas, NevadaMy inability to help the homeless outside my room is on my mind always. Just a few years ago I was out in this heat everyday with the Traveling Piano not only creating and sharing music with them but also food and other resources. The truck, me and Mo now, too old to do that. Lastly after the posts from above, I guess it should be first and foremost... I am looking to find management, representation and backing to create a partnership to rebuild the entire Traveling Piano truck as a new vehicle maybe electric. I must plan to endow it in order to keep the legacy alive after I am done. The database I have create will help keep all my soliciting on the matter in order. I get strong impulses and ideas and they seem to putter out after about 48 hours. 
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July 16, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
Well now... I have made it to another year much more significant than a birthday. Forty Two years young, yes today the Piano Man marks 15,330 days clean and sober. Everything good that I am, everything I do, my ability to connect with the truth of spirit and live honestly to manifest my passions through gratitude... all the musical fun, friendship and respect... the empowerment and inspiration happens through my not taking that first drink. I've seen many people die through the last 42 years from alcoholism and drug addiction. I take not one moment for granted as I practice living life one day at a time. The consistency and work put into not letting the threefold disease of alcohol and drug addiction take me down is truly but for the grace of God. Some days the disease does get into my head to take hold mentally, physically and spiritually... but that passes without getting drunk or high as long as I remember to remember... just how bad it was and extend myself in gratitude through love and service to others. My program is a "we" program. Therefore I share this accomplishment.
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July 15, 2024Las Vegas, NevadaIn creating a transition for this journey I must remember the process of booking gigs 20 years ago.... I simply sent out promo everywhere until people began to call. It is a numbers game and finding the needles in a hay stack. Some people have better ways, easier and quicker especially in todays world with social platforms and technologies, personalities selling online. On my tombstone I want written, Danny Kean the Traveling Piano Man... He Did It His Way. Of course I have never had another option. That is how my brain has always worked. It has never operated in a conventional sense. So, in the old days I could get 300 letters out into the mail in a day. Today, that would be ten tops. Age has a lot to do with that. 
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July 14, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
I've been thinking about how I no longer know what I wrote in this blog. Up to about four years ago I prided myself in knowing and when I repeated myself I knew that too. Thank God this website is a daily journal. I like knowing what happened throughout this journey. Maybe I will start writing some of the bad stuff, lol. The possible reasons why I cannot remember may be that I have not been doing it daily. Anything I have ever done when I have stopped doing... once I start again it needs to be from scratch in my brain. My age could be a factor. Not using my brain as much in general, covid really fucked me up in so many ways. It could be a mixture of all that. Is it really necessary to know the "why" of everything? When I am doing a project I have zero ability to compartmentalize. Everything must be in front of me all at once while working or I forget what is there. |
July 13, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
This post is the last of three about how I live with a disconnect from life and reality. Motivation in life, I must create for myself. I have been inspired many times but to feel motivated in order to do something with the inspiration has never happened naturally. As a child I was shut down always and constantly from any self-motivation. "Doing" was all there is, blind following of direction without question. Every action had to come from being told to do it or from obligation or expectation. So of course, I never wanted to "do" anything, even to dream. I could not and must consciously find a way to choose to act on motivating myself still now. The same with empowerment. When someone has empowered me most times in life I have not even known it. And, when I realized it, fear would engulf me and then failure would ensue because that is what happened everytime in life as a child. My mother bless her heart tried her best to constantly push me. In that process I never heard praise for my accomplishments in of themselves. There was only the need to do better, not good enough and nothing more. Only in looking back am I able to realize, see and appreciate how empowered I have been. I also find that in daily meditation. Now, I know how accomplished I am as long as I do not compare with anything or anyone else. If I compare ever with anything, I become nothing more than mediocre in my mind.
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July 12, 2024Las Vegas, NevadaYesterday I began talking about a disconnect I have in life. Music is one of them. The idea of enjoying music, healing music, living music, others enjoying my music, the need for music, all of the life's benefits that music creates... I must reach out for to realize. My mother encouraged me to enjoy music but I never felt that enjoyment for my own. When I decided to make music my career it was only because I had nothing else going for me. When people are blown away or deeply emotionally touched by my music and for sure that happens... I feel like, "what"? Of course I respond with gratitude and compassion. But my own appreciation for my music, I need to reach for. I have had moments of total emersion with the music of others and as well as my own but they are temporary moments. 
 Actually a few have lasted a life time... Pat Metheny and a random girl in Israel I saw just sit down and play for a few minutes in a restaurant, they inspired my improvisation. Stevi Wonder with his giving nature through music has inspired me to share music. People like Stevi Ray Vaughn who's truth of spirit in the most stimulating of joyful ways boggles my mind, there are many musicians who have boggled my mind with emotion and spirit and everything else when I think about it. But in general, in my mind... music is not important and just "meh." Isn't that crazy? I must decide to consciously realize what music is and means and how it feels... the importance of it. |
July 11, 2024Las Vegas, NevadaI was trying to describe to a friend about what I am going through mentally and physically. (its not pretty) He said it seems like I have a disconnect. That ultimately describes all of my basic difficulties from the start of my life. Always, I have felt disconnected from most of my personal feelings. When I was getting sober many years ago I remember someone saying to me that my feelings are not always fact. That was a huge awakening for me. It created an over 40 year journey to decipher feelings and know which are mine verses which have been implanted from authoritarianism, verses which I have embraced in life but not from within. Feelings of passion, empathy and compassion I know clearly and those feelings come naturally. 
 Gratitude and relief also comes naturally or maybe I should say the feeling of release not relief. Joy, satisfaction, nirvana, being part of, secure, loved, appreciated... those are feelings that I must consciously embrace and/or reach out for. The idea that I am alone and there is no one to care for or about me in life, to satisfy those needy feelings, no one will reach to create for me. I need to ask... those thoughts come from a disconnect in reality. By nature desire, that is when another disconnect enters. I must constantly choose to desire what I really want when I can decide on whatever. Decisions... another disconnect which I have written about probably more than anything else on this blog. |
July 10, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
So I have the truck piano and speaker sitting in the one small room that has no room to have the piano and speaker stored in. But, with it impossible to use on the truck right now with the heat... it is what it is. I've not tried to turn anything on. I want it to sit in a decent room temp for awhile. Its been sitting in 150º daylight heat under the tarp for weeks. I absolutely must create some music for myself. I am losing my finger dexterity, I am losing my mind. Next I need to get the piano stand and bench from my friend Eric's garage. It is stored on the roof of it. Driving the truck there in the heat will be taking a chance as to whether it will make it or not. Finding a new carburetor and someone to do it and in a timely manor God, I hope it will not be difficult. That search needs to happen right now. If you are reading this, please make a contribution. There are links at the top of this page for Spotfund and Venmo and of course the contribution page.
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July 09, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
Today is my 69th Birthday. It was uneventful. With everyday being at least 120º outside and my being not in good shape, most of today was spent trying to organize fundraising. The last two times I was out with the Traveling Piano which was on the 1st of July and then again a few days ago it was without Mo. One time I almost fainted, the next time it was just totally stifling. The equipment under the tarp has been frying in the truck as it is usually at least 40º hotter under the tarp. That translates into just sitting in 150º heat all day long. I shut it down today, took out the speaker and piano and will let it sit in my room for a day before testing to see if any of it works. This is not the first time I've shut the work down. A few years ago I blew a head gasket while working with the truck in the heat and was out of commission for over a month. Wish we had a place to go where it is cooler but it looks like most of the country is in heat. Humidity and heat would be worse for me personally. |
July 08, 2024Las Vegas, NevadaMo and I are living one day at a time. Everything is moving slower and slower but it is still moving. Thankfully, I have an air conditioner, a room, I do not want to think about the Traveling Piano truck and piano baking in the heat but it is in a safe parking lot, I have enough money to pay my rent, plenty of food, friends I can rely on and Mo... we take a walk in the middle of the night and just love each other in every moment. For this blog I have begun posting past journey images of snow in the cold. Lol... imagery can help as the world fries outside the door. Meanwhile, the writing for this blog is just my thoughts in life for now. The photos of people playing the piano are from last month because... there is no piano playing for now with the heat. I cannot travel anywhere for lack of funds to fix the truck (I am working on that, please help) and to stay anywhere. 
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July 07, 2024Las Vegas, NevadaLas Vegas registered 120º at the airport today. That means at least 126º outside my door. It has not gone below 110º in at least a week. Tonight I was trying to get a young drugged out kid dying on the sidewalk to drink some water and eat a sandwich. He attempted to tell me how he cannot understand why his friends left him. One thing that drugs addicts do not know is that they have no friends who are also drug addicts. When you are in the drug state there is nothing else but you... a helpless... you. 
 Someone else I know lost friend this week. It happens several times a year for them. The police murdered the friend because he had a knife in his hand and was probably high and scared shitless. Cops who murder people are nothing more than weak cowards and there are a lot of them. Anyway, the person feels devastated that they are constantly losing close friends. I want to say to them, "When are you going to wake up that you may be next as a drug addict yourself. Your friends are dying directly as a result of drug addiction. You have no other friends then drug addicts. Do you not see the specific pattern in why everyone dies in your life?" When a person is addicted to drugs, they unfortunately cannot get honest about that. At the same time know the truth but are helpless to respond, sometimes even to save their own life. That is where, But for the Grace of God enters. So, this as many of my friends know is an aspect of the Traveling Piano's work, to care with empathy and compassion for those suffering. It happens through the trust I have built with the Traveling Piano, the music and people like you who help us to do what needs to get done. |
July 06, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
There is a solution for the troubles of the world. I am talking about for the safeguard of our soul. It is not an easy solution for most of us. It is what it is. Every single day, we must take action in some way and with conscious intent to want, have and create gratitude and joy for ourselves, empathy and compassion and we must stay cognizant as to why we want all this. We must pray, meditate or do something to center our minds or at least try to, for the sake of asking direction from the universe. Take a look around at all the fakes... they own "none" of the qualities I mentioned. Look behind their facade, they are as zombies following the trends and show no personal light while also acting in darkness at the same time while thinking they are for real. It is not possible to have both light and darkness of ways at the same time. It is only possible to have degrees of one or another. We choose through willingness of a direction in spirit and by nature the willingness that ebbs and flows through life in mind and body. |
July 05, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
There is a balance necessary as we live in a "real" world where being "intuitive and intelligent" is a must. Peace comes from the practice of flowing... intent. The reality I have lived throughout life is being changed and re-written by false information via the internet. Alternate realities that do not serve humanity are being fed to newer human minds who just accept what they see or hear from others. AI is the new form of authoritarianism. It came about through human greed and self-centeredness. Both young and old are accepting fabrications of reality made by internet bots while thinking they are legitimate sources of information and real. And worse, no one is being taught critical thinking, how to question or the fact that individual thinking and questioning is so very important for our lives. Suppression of mindful freedom, exploration and discovery is being suppressed and being replaced by a wolf in sheep clothing. That would be AI in all of its forms. |
July 04, 2024Las Vegas, NevadaWhat I love most about American Democracy and what makes it different and the best in the world is that America is the only country built on ideals. That includes the choice, the freedom to both fail and succeed. This is why throughout history there has been a constant ebb and flow always, coming out for the better in the end. It is an experiment and that is exactly how life is for everyone in the world. Ebbing and Flowing, Failing and Succeeding. Those who bash America had best learn to appreciate it, find the good in it or else... history shows what will happen. The diversity of culture and everyone we know... will die. We must not be stupid and our hope hope is in voting. That, right now is the only hope and it had better be straight blue no matter what. Everyone had best start supporting that in openly and in every way. Now is not the time to whine. We are all in survival mode. 
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July 03, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
Part of me wants to think that what is happening in the world is just an aspect of growing old, how the ways people think and talk change as do concepts in life throughout the generations. I have observed age throughout life and how when a person gets older complacency steps in, how the world seems like it is going to end at any moment. But, that it is only for that specific individual, their world is ending. So I am cognizant when realizing that the world is... actually ending faster and faster. What is taking it down is the repression of the truth... specifically the truth of spirit. This does not have to be for you and me. Although, it takes a caring a constant nurturing in the truth of spirit. Spirit is nothing more than the energy of gratitude and perceived suffering by nature, understanding, joy, peace and acceptance. We must work to stay in the truth of spirit for ourselves from within... that is key, from within... and not in denial for the sake of others or what is happening to them.
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July 02, 2024Las Vegas, Nevada
The Traveling Piano has been on the road for almost 40 years, the same pickup truck with a piano in the back shared freely with everyone. After 20 years as a fee based performance vehicle, for the last 18 years the Traveling Piano has been operating with no fees, tips or commercial affiliation... no hook and with nothing but with pure Musical Fun, Friendship and Respect through Empowerment and Inspiration. Piano Man Danny Kean with his first pup Bo-ner in spirit and now Traveling Piano pup Mo, we have been focused on community outreach and especially for those struggling in life. Over 100,000 people have been on the piano seat and all through one-on-one individual musical interactions. Having originated in Philadelphia, PA the Traveling Piano has established itself now as a Downtown Las Vegas icon for the last eight years. Travels have happened throughout the entire Northern Hemisphere of America. The journey has been blogged daily since 2006 on this Traveling Piano, very old school style website.
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July 01, 2024Las Vegas, NevadaThe Traveling Piano operates in the most simple way possible without financial reserves, obligations, expectations, salaries or self-serving agenda for attention. 100% of all contribution is put into the truck, work and equipment. Online fundraisers happen only when the situation becomes dire for truck and equipment needs. The act of not accepting contribution in person with the Traveling Piano experience keeps the agenda pure. It creates trust and opportunity for healing in vulnerable environments where communities are severely hurting from tragedy. Giving freely without an exchange leads to intimate and personal interactions of trust and is a huge aspect of why the Traveling Piano's work has been successful. 
 Currently the Traveling Piano truck is in a dire situation. Funding is necessary in order to continue operation. Specifically, a new carburetor and brakes are needed and for the sake of present-ability, serious cosmetic work as in a paint job, new front window and a replacement dashboard to get the speedometer and emergency lights working. The heat is destroying the piano and its sound system and a backup keyboard and speaker is necessary. Over the years people have suggested a new vehicle. This will not work considering the Traveling Pianos unique life and deep emotional and personal history. Cleaning it up and restoring its parts is the only way to go. The world needs the Traveling Piano's mission of truth in spirit. It is a safe space with positive energy and love and lets not forget the fun for all who come in contact with it. We all need fun now especially, eh? Will you help keep it alive? Please contribute... again and again. Just once is great too! And please share this contribution link on your social media and in groups. Spotfund Paypal Venmo: @travelingpiano Dan Kean Check/Money Order/Cash by Mail: Please Email Me For The Address: dannykean@ragginpianoboogie.com |