Raggin' Piano Boogie
| The TRAVELING PIANO Information Page | READ THE DAILY LOG - Flight of Peregrinating Musical Exploration! |
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Since 1987 |
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June 30, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaThe day was spent in a school dental chair with two second year dental students. I was getting a root canal done. When I had no money in my early twenties I tried a dental school for a root canal because it was free in allowing myself to be a human guinea pig for practice. The student back then having put the novocaine in the wrong side of my mouth and then jabbing into my cavity asking me to say when it hurt traumatized me for a life time. And now here again fifty years later with a few differences, I had to pay to be used for practice to the tune of a thousand bucks!!! Which is half the price of a practicing dentist. A friend is paying for it. Thank you dear Jesus for friends who care. 
 Friends have been family for me throughout my life. Even though I had a large biological family, can we talk bad blood? Anyway, a dentist a few years ago did a root canal for me and is was without cost as a favor for another dentist. He was magic. I walked in and less then a half hour later I walked out having felt nothing. It was miraculous. Today was not that great. I sat in the chair mouth open, hearing sounds I never heard in a dentist chair and for three and a half hours non-stop. They were not able to finish because the clinic was closing. I came home with pain as bad as it can get. Need to go back in a few weeks to get the job finished and then again in September for the crown. The dentist and his assistant was nice and interested but, really... it all hurts in every way. |
June 29, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
I cannot work a fundraiser without having this blog updated. For the last week I have been focused on nothing else aside from the political armageddon happening here in the USA. For the last few months the gallery I had going took up all my time. And then the storage area I had to create with filing and organization. That was a lot. Also, my mind has been in a fog for many reasons. In any case, I am just about updated. Never in the almost twenty years was I behind with missing days three months back. When I was young, lol... I had the energy, focus and commitment to do every day with out fail. Same with the photos. That was for a good fifteen or more years. Now... sometimes I use old photos. It hurts. I took so much pride in updating daily and having new and present photos daily as a diary in remembering who I met, when and where. |
June 28, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
Creating music for myself is therapeutic, not fun. Sharing the piano and the personal interactions... that, is fun. Meeting new people all the time, experiencing amazing and unique interactions wow, has that been fun! Taking pictures of people and sharing them, this is fun. As a first responder for people living on the streets with both music and resources, that will continue but honestly, that is work not fun. It is work that I love dearly and it gives me purpose and is a way to act out my frustrations and anger... but it is not fun. It is a practice of objectivity, care, empathy, compassion and brotherhood. |
June 27, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaI have full blown rebooted last years fundraiser with a new story and will be asking everyone for one last time to help keep this journey alive until the 40 year mark which is less than two years away in 2027. Maybe those who come to this blog from time to time who have not contributed once in the last twenty years will do so while there is still time, lol. I mean really... The Traveling Piano Finale |
June 26, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaMy neighbor, we have been talking. He had been working security on Fremont Street but quit the job as they encourage the police and security to be harsh with people. He told me that from his perspective the place is a party spot, people get drunk and he thought his job was to help people have fun while guarding them and also leading them away from getting out of hand. He wanted to just help keep everyone safe. The job is not like that. Security there is being bullies and the cops encourage each other to do what they do. 
 And then they brag about it to each other and that is not what he signed up for. He quit. This totally shocked me especially in his being young and just getting out of the army from active duty. I have total respect for this kind of person. With all the police brutality, the marshals who think they are hot shit and then the ICE goons... all of them in a fraternity, an inner circle of trust that lacks an attitude of being in service and God forbid they rat on each other or drift from conformity... fuck that. It is really sad that the good cops have to quit or conform to the shit. |
June 25, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
This new spot to create music in that I have found is good because there are few people around. Those living on the streets pass by every once in a while and I get to spend some quality time with them. It is also in my neighborhood which is great. I can barely lift Mo on top of the piano anymore and getting him down is more challenging. It may be time to use a step stool that I purchased to help us get into the truck and then I'll lift him from inside the truck. Using the step stool is like using my glasses to see. Such resistance! I'll walk around almost blind rather than use glasses. Giving up my old ways and embracing the hassles that are now necessary... not so much fun. |
June 24, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
The temperature was like 90º which is like 70º when compared to the 120º which we have already been experiencing. So... of course I took the truck out. I have a new spot. I found by a wall of a building in a public parking lot away from all apartments and business and it is only a block away! No one really sees us but everyone can hear us from a distance. The parking lot had been built about three years ago and I just never thought about it before. My attention is usually in the opposite direction. So I was blaring my musical improve and my neighbor found me along with his brother. He is fairly new in the neighborhood and had never seen me in action and it felt really good to give him the Traveling Piano experience. |
June 23, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
I have always worn my heart on my sleeve with desire to express intimacy in relationship. That is the kind of person I am. My life for the first fifty years was spent working to accept that fact and move away from others attempting to attach false motives to my intent. At age fifty I broke through with the grace of God to totally embrace who I am at my core one hundred percent. The last twenty years has been spent working to be responsible with that. Now, when anyone confronts my intent in a negative way I just tell them to fuck off. Live and let live... as far away from me as possible please. |
June 22, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaAs I see what is happening with AI I get freaked out more and more. It is leading me to a precipice of leaving the internet concerning socilization, news, shopping and God forbid not sharing my journey to its final end. I want to even avoid it to pay bills. Will that be possible? AI is creating a world where humans are losing their humanity. A new sociopathy is being created and relationships are turning dystopian. AI is dehumanizing us, creating our fears, emotions, joy, security, delusional love, it is controlling and manipulating our minds into one machine. 
 Sound crazy? I've been watching it. Failure, trial and error which is so criticle to the human learning experieince, what we learn from, what creates our individual unique creative expression, how we grow... that is all dissapearing. AI creates stimulations of fluidity in life. It works from set prompts only. It will destroy us all if allowed to create its own prompts especially if profit is involved. Humans work from fluid prompts discovered through spirit. Spirit and AI are not, will never be the same. The vunerable human mind is beginning to embrace AI as spirit. |
June 21, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaWriting helps me to process whatever is going on in my life. This blog has helped to keep me grounded. I cannot let it slip away. The same with music, nature, humor, relating one on one with people, staying as organized as possible in every way and the practice of wearing my heart out on my sleeve. Everything about my life is my art. I work to be the leader of my own life. Leadership is not a rank or a position, it is a choice, a decision. Being a leader is to look out for the person next to me as well as myself. It is the shield that matters not the spear. I want to be willing to sacrifice myself, not my life but my credit, time, energy, knowledge, life experience and one-one one contact. This is what has always been most important for me for my passion in life which is to stand out uniquely as part of the whole, to be inclusive and to share what I have to offer. 
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June 20, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
My room is usually organized and tidy as I have so little space. For almost a year this humidifier pictured today has been sitting on the floor in the same spot less than 4' from where I sit everyday. Every day I have said to myself clean that thing and put it away. Literally, every day I've been telling myself today will be the day, what is wrong with you it only takes about ten minutes, deal with that thing, just do it. I would say today you have only one thing to accomplish, clean the humidifier and put it away. Well, today... eight months later the job is DONE! Why today? The only rational I can state is "but for the grace of god." I was given the grace to clean that fucking thing. |
June 19, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
When I opened my door today I connected with Jesus. I yelled... Christ! 120º and its going to be like this for months. |
June 18, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
So much... I am exhausted and actually have the tendency to feel nothing and just give up but... when I saw this statement posted on the internet today "This is how it happens. Authoritarianism doesn't feel like a takeover. It feels like... exhaustion. It feels like... "this is just how things are now."... well, not on my watch! I need to constantly remind myself that I will fight to the very end for what matters in the spirit of truth, for others suffering, suppressed, living in fear and who are being murdered. I call politicians, attack them on Facebook and on accounts when possible, email politicians, stay informed and aware,I put up signs everywhere, attend protests, encourage people in public to get serious about what is happening and I am looking into helping those who feel like they need to hide. Most importantly, I pray everyday to stay open to opportunity in order to be helpful. All this along with the Traveling Piano work, the homeless work, fundraising and trying to keep my life in order. |
June 17, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
Trumps "Big Fucked Up Bill" will destroy almost 400,000 square miles of our nature and forests, our natural heritage. Republican fascists are willing to sell it all off for logging, fracking, drilling and for development. This includes land in major canyons and the forrests of our national parks. Anyone who treasures and appreciates nature and our national treasured outdoors, the enviroment... anyone who does not call out the republican scum before it happens has no worth. July 4th is the dead line for the bill. 30% of our national forest lands nationwide are going to be destroyed by logging. That is almost 100,000 square miles. Another 300,000 square miles of national park and forest land will be destroyed by drilling, fracking and development. Fuck every reublican voter and those that did not vote!
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June 16, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
Innocent people are being terrorized, arrested, kidnapped, harassed, torn away from families and jobs while being sent to prison hell holes for profit. I will not stand silent. I will be political in showing the worth of humanity and the validity and reassurance needed. Now is NOT the time to be careful in society. Now is the time to be driven with focus and purpose, to speak out, stand up, push and to act with support for freedom and the constitution in every way possible, especially in public.
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June 15, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
As I drove the Traveling Piano down the streets yesterday with my American flag flying upside down, I was thinking how the Traveling Piano has always been political just not as clearly up front as it is now, as of today. Politics pushed the Traveling Piano journey into what it is back when republicans left those not deemed worthy of help on rooftops for weeks after Hurricane Katrina! That is when I realized, in 2006 that I could make a difference in giving to the world my kind of support with music, compassion, empathy, friendship and respect. It was my first active step away from republicanism. We all must be a voice for those who's lives are being destroyed with suffering and death as a result of America's new dictatorship under trump. The Traveling Piano will continue to share its Musical Fun, Friendship and Respect while everyone knowing clearly and upfront where I stand politically. I am anti-fascist, have zero tolerance for those who support fascist republicanism and those who are not inclusive, those who want to destroy diversity and equality. |
June 14, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
I drove the Traveling Piano down the streets today, American flag flying upside down. It was an excruciatingly painful. I've always loved my country and its flag. I have always loved my country and have enjoy sharing that fact through our flag. Every patriotic holiday my yard had the most flags rising from the ground and flying everywhere. No more. The call now is to use the flag as a "distress" signal. The Traveling Piano has always been political just not as clearly up front as it is now, as of today. Politics pushed the Traveling Piano journey into what it is back when republicans left those not deemed worthy of help on rooftops for weeks after Hurricane Katrina! That is when I realized, in 2006 that I could make a difference in giving to the world my kind of support with music, compassion, empathy, friendship and respect. It was my first active step away from republicanism.
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June 13, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
I must absolutely give this blog some tender care and update it. I am working on that. I just uploaded 300 photos to the gallery... from last year! Chezzz... am I behind or what? My life is turning political. I'm coming out of the closet concerning the Traveling Piano 100% with political affliation because of this fascist dictatorship happening and in the ways it is operating. It will not work for my life... in any way. So as I fill in the days, there will be a lot about that because I have been spending my time trying to cope with it all in my mind. I was just put into Facebook jail a few hours ago, probably from posting too many nasties on republican politician sites and being reported for it, LOL... my first thought... thank you God, get me out of this space and off of Facebook. |
June 12, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
I cannot in good conscious continue to support Mark Zuckerberg's Meta in knowing he supports a fascist government and specifically the dictator Donald Trump now is. From his million dollar contribution to trump's campaign and his contracts with trump's administration to supply AI to the military for genocide, his elimination of all diversity, equality and inclusion programs, the taking down of restrictions concerning hate moderation and misinformation on the Facebook platform and his outspoken distaste over our democratic institutions... fuck him, I am preparing to leave both facebook and instagram. My goal date is October 1st. I already stopped using twiiter, amazon and google a long time ago. |
June 11, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
I attended a protest outside the Federal Building tonight on Las Vegas Boulevard. The cops where chomping at the bit to cause trouble as they blared constantly on their bullhorns threats about one person stepping into the street and all hell would break loose. Thousands were in attendance. Other police vehicles would drive down the street randomly setting off their sirens. I had a loud whistle with me. Everytime I would blow it to respond. I walked back and forth and all around groups of like twenty cops standing two by two as I waved slowly and consistently a large flag upside down high in the air to signal distress. I looked at each cop in the eye as they looked back at me. Some would say I was trying to stir up trouble and that was my first thought until I got right with my true intent. It was to challenge any of those cops who may still have a scrap of integrity and to say to the fascist cops, fuck you I am not afraid of you. Providentially after about an hour, a voice in my head said enough, get back to the truck and head out. I drove through the streets first in support while blaring the Traveling Piano's truck horn. Everything looked confusing as people were walking in all directions. I learned later that they were all being corralled into one area. Once everyone was in one area the cops began to blare on speakers for everyone to disperse. The problem with that was they had barricaded everyone into the area so they could not leave at which time the cops open fired with tear gas and rubber pellets at the protestors. I had left to return home in the truck just minutes before that happened.
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June 10, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
Went to the UNLV Dental School as they need guinea pigs (people) to experiment with and work on and practice. I need a root canal and my funds from Humana are already used up for the year. My ability to chew on both sides of my mouth are about to end so I made an appointment even though I have horror dental school stories fro myself back in my youth. While in the dental chair a student comes up and says sorry they cannot help as I need to pay $79 upfront just for the evaluation and then the root canal will cost at least $800 along with other bills along the way? I asked why are they telling me that now when at the desk I was totally upfront about not having any money. I told them I have no money when I made the appointment two weeks ago! Live is better when human beings are not measured by a profit margin of worth. That school is rolling in the dough. With hundreds of students handling hundreds of patients daily, even with a discount they are pulling the money in. |
June 09, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
The anger aspect of myself, the rage from within has very much surfaced for this journey. I've worked so very hard to temper it through the years but now that just does not seem to be an appropriate thing to do. Of course it is eating me up. I must learn to live with it and keep acting out with it in positive ways but... no longer can I be silent about just how fucking angry I am that humanity can be so disrespectful. Thank God I have been able to live a large portion of my life away from the shit I hate so much. Actually, what I grew up around. People say hate is such an unacceptable word and an unacceptable feeling. I say yea, well tell that to those being starved to death in Gaza or the parents of children slaughtered in the Ukraine. Tell that to the over 60,000 people here in the US who have been ripped away from there families with no criminal records and the more than half who are US citizens and totally legal. Trump and his kind are pulling hate out of everyone to use for themselves. It just goes on and on while I at the same time work to keep a strong focus on all the the love, appreciation, music and gratitude in my life. |
June 08, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
To experience trust through relationship in this world is amazingly wonderful. It is everything. The personal and intimate feelings of trust cannot be compared. When trust becomes broken or realized as delusional or it just fades away... what has been experienced in of itself personally, that cannot be taken away or destroyed. This explains why I still love and have feelings for people I have disassociated from, those who I now totally distrust or even hate. The intimacy in love as with trust, cannot be destroyed. With my buddy Mo and Bo before him... the trust came through respect.
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June 07, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
It is very difficult to completely give myself to the reality of what is happening and its consequences. Many are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. People balk in thinking we can find an easier, softer way. This is not possible. We all must be fearless and through in knowing that holding onto old ideas cannot be. The result will be nil until we let go absolutely. This political dis-ease we are living with is cunning, baffling and powerful! We are at a turning point. Half measures will availed us nothing. Where is our American ingenuity? That... is the answer. We must turn to what can be verses focusing on what cannot be. Socialization, unification, solidarity, speaking out and showing up with action is the answer. |
June 06, 2025Las Vegas, NevadaWith this being Pride Month, republicans have shut down the suicide prevention hotline for LGBTQ+ youth. Since its launch in 2022 there have been 1.3 million calls for help. Soldiers have been banned from the military, those who have been serving for years with exemplary leadership. All those born with gender issues have been discounted in making "only two sexes" a political government policy. Trump has restricted gender affirming care for those born with both sex organs, erased all referrals to gay people as though they do not exist, threatened any business that shows support for diversity. The removed all social protections for gay youth. That is inhumane. Republicans have attacked and removed all education and funding concerning understanding of what sexual identity is about. And the most trite behavior of all, anyone who was gay who served the USA in any outstanding way enough to have their name on say a military ship or government building or listed as gay in a library... their names have been stripped from that the vessel, building or what ever and renamed. 
 Why? To strip the moral of the country, thats why. This is what dictatorships do. They treat the people in the country like shit and pound them into submission. All this while experience and time has shown that inclusivity and acceptance of gender issues has made our society 100% better, nothing bad has come from supporting gay rights and lives have improved. No one has been hurt through respect, inclusiveness and equality. As a youth I wanted to kill myself because of those who vote republican in todays world. The respect given and gained throughout my life time has helped me contribute to society in tremendous ways. I thank God I am gay. It was my escape route from the fucked of authoritarian society especially the religious part that was my life and my family dysfunction. Guess what, those of my ilk will never disappear or go away. Genocides have never worked, never ever. Trying to erase or just gray wash paint over existence is a ridiculous attempt at denial. |
June 05, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
This group found us. Several did not speak or understand English. I asked where they are from and they said Russia. With a knee jerk and my Ukrainian flag stickers on the truck... I had to instantly remind myself that I know nothing about these people, and that not everyone in Russia supports putin as is the same here, not everyone in the USA supports trump. Giving the benefit of doubt was absolutely the way to go and the Traveling Piano is not about politics for the most part. After we were done every one of them demanded a hug with a gesture full of grateful appreciation and a thanks for what they called a "heart warming experience." Thank God for the Traveling Piano for sure! It is a true representation in every way of a unique American experience. |
June 04, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
A tech guy from New York City who also has a passion to play on public pianos was in town and we connected. Public piano guys are a breed, who knew, eh? Anyway I was happy to drive him through the streets while he played. Mo hung out in the cab with me. His days of being on top of the piano while the truck is moving are over because of his age. We stopped on a Fremont cross street for a photo. I knew it would be a thrill for him. When we were done a cop came over just to hassle us. I said, oh my we cannot stop for a moment while the light is red to get a quick photo? He didn't care. Being a dick head was all he cared about. I told him that I checked it out with his group first and the shrugged their shoulders. There were a gaggle of about eight cops right about ten feet away. Having people experience the Traveling Piano while driving down a road is an absolute thrill for me because I did that all the time for parades back when and have always wanted to share the experience. Its awesome! |
June 03, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
I pray for the unification of all humanity... our friends, families and neighbors. I pray the world will shed itself of evil as we know it, those minds of self-serving figure heads like putin, trump, their republican oligarchs and dictators of countries worldwide... in order to relieve the suffering and fear of all who seek peace and love for all that life can offer. And, I pray for all those who want to keep their heads in the sand, that they pull up and begin to participate in helping the world to heal from evil in order to nourish their own souls. I want to remember that I must have intention in order to step inside myself. Prayer works with action. Freedom always has and will always triumph over tyranny. |
June 02, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
There was an alley up by Fremont Street where I was told a public piano could be found. After all these years why have I not heard about it before or with my many years of driving all the alleys in that area while sharing food with the homeless, why had I not found it on my own? So, I had to find it and I did. A friggin' piano in an alley! Totally cool. Too bad it was beat to shit but it gave me an idea from recently also discovering free pianos that people are trying to dump on Facebook. It might be time to get a public piano project started in the Arts District where I live and... there is practically no art. It is all bars and restaurants. I need to find different terminology. I'm not turned onto the concept of the word "project" it sounds too formal. There are many public piano projects worldwide and guess what? The Traveling Piano was the original incentive way back when. I think I wrote this somewhere else in the blog recently. When they first began of course I found out about them and it used to be fun to trace the source of inspiration. It "always" led back to promo I had sent out to book gigs playing the piano in public. I also used to see projects in the news that began in a town that I had stayed in and left.
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June 01, 2025Las Vegas, Nevada
It is looking like my life will end doing what I have been doing for a very long time. Thats ok with me. I'll just peter out, lol. Creating music, keeping my diary, that is this this website and archive alive, looking for funding, speaking out politically with support for those repressed and suffering, helping those living on the streets, loving my pup Mo in every moment until his last breath, creating empathy and compassion for those suffering from natural tragedies, loving nature, enjoying the few material possessions I have in life, staying connected with friends the few that stay connected with me, I am gaining an interest in drawing and painting, always sharing the Traveling Piano, collecting acoustic pianos to place around town (something new)... it does not look like I will ever have the money to travel again, enjoying the foods I can still eat, staying connected with the God of my understanding, would like to pay more attention to my body but at least the days of tearing myself up about not doing that seems over.
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