Raggin' Piano Boogie
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Since 1987 |
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June 30, 2026Las Vegas, NevadaThis month ends with my leg healing. It was almost three months of debilitating, exhausting concern. I can walk again and stand on my leg without excruciating and debilitating pain. The pain level is now like the rest of my body at level three all the time. Thank God. I pulled out all the tools I have learned through life to deal with this. I wish I had been able to use them diligently and consistently but my mind does not work that way. That is why I need many tools, so at least one will come to mind when I can choose to use it. Throughout life I have seen many people suffering from for example severe back pain. After a few years I see them never talking about it and life going on as usual. Thus, the "this too shall pass" tool. Then the gratitude tool when trying to walk up the stairs for example. Gratitude for life is all inclusive as in "thank you for this pain." I mean I was feeling, having feeling which is life in of itself. The last doctor I saw, I was able to trust his "knowing" and verified I would not need surgery and I have neurological issues. That was such a relief, lol. |
June 29, 2026Las Vegas, NevadaEvery single day since Mo died I have been working on my Nature Art Photos. my friend Jocelyn who owns a huge crystal shop a block away from where I live has offered to let me hang them in her store. I've written many times about how much work is involved and its still ongoing. I want $20 per, she wants me to sell them for $5 while giving me all the profit. With the amount of work involved and cost... I just can't do that. It is also a matter of respect. The same issue as when I used to book the Traveling Piano for performance. Some people would accept $50 a job while I wanted at least a $100. I traded off my feeling of worth for the amount of jobs I could book and that worked for me. No one but me knows the amount of effort and work I put into what I do and therefore no one but me can dictate the worth of that. It has always been more than about money. My pay is a matter of respect first and foremost. Although, to move some of the not so good inventory, I may acquiesce with some of the photos. Once I sell the inventory well, I do not have the time to both play the piano, do the upkeep of my life at this age and work full time creating photos to sell. |
June 28, 2026Las Vegas, NevadaIt does me good to remember to remember my core goal in life. This, especially as I age and become less productive and visibly, physically significant in the world. Being forgotten, ignored, banded from influence because of my views or how I handle myself, being financially poor and without the funds for many of life's comforts well, my goal in life has been to be able to affect just one other life with the best that I have to offer and that is the highest bar to achieve. Seriously, that has never been the lowest bar so that I am not disappointed, it has been my deepest desire. I found it for myself through sobriety many years ago. And of course, I feel fulfilled in life through that and in many other ways too. Through humility, love and gratitude I have been able to share and give those virtues to many, many people. That makes me feel very, very happy. To be doing that in this world takes a lot of negotiation and tradeoffs. I have done the past work to be conscious of it all. |
June 27, 2026Las Vegas, NevadaA few years ago I went through an exhaustive filing of what and where everything I have is stored. My needs for both and overnight stay and long term travel and also for camping which I wanted to do when the summers heat began. Nothing has ever been simple for me. It comes from the many years of Traveling Piano travel into places with little resources. For example, a cup of coffee in the morning. That is important for me and so there is the pot, adapter, extension chord, coffee cone, paper cones, coffee, cup, spoon, sugar, dry milk and the bag it is all stored in. Thats just for coffee. Easy access and where it is stored in the luggage needs to be considered. I had created a complete set of travel needs, each for all three scenarios and where they would be put into the truck. I have past photos of this from doing it all many years ago on this blog. Kind of insane in a way but my needed process. It was an accomplishment and also, I considered it all a practice in using my mind. Well, I'm tearing it all apart now because for example the coffee makings need to be used, my hygiene stuff, replacement of clothing, etc... and, travel is not in the picture anymore. If it enters, I'll deal with it then. I have everything filed of what I need and where it is in a data base now. |
June 26, 2026Las Vegas, Nevada |
June 25, 2026Las Vegas, NevadaHaving had such a difficult time with my leg over the last two months has had its positive aspects. It has limited my ability to care about the world in a political sense (so draining) and it has helped with perspective concerning my age limitations now. It has also seriously brought into question what I want for my life ongoing. My life was nothing and then something and then something in a new way and now, what? Music has always been in my life. Since I was a child my mother worked to groom me as a musician. My first job with music began at age fifteen as a teacher and church organist. At twenty one I began playing in bars and restaurants and that morphed into becoming a corporate and society pianist. I was full of confusion and doubt with a lack of self worth both personally and musically throughout the entire time. The the piano on the truck began. I called it Raggin' Piano Boogie because I specialized in Ragtime and Boogie Woogie piano music. I loved the attention and I loved being a unique part of the whole in all kinds of events. Getting paid well was most important, my sense of worth came through the money. Then this third life began which is now dying. After 20 years of Musical Fun, Friendship and Respect with no fees, tips or commercial affiliation, how do I stay interested not only in music and the truck but life in general? A new truck and setup with support to continue the work would do the trick. Or something completely new? |
June 24, 2026Las Vegas, Nevada
I woke up after only a few hours sleep. It was 7am. I could have just laid in bed for an hour until I fell back to sleep but something made me get up. I began writing blog entries and cooking soup? Soup at 7am, what was that about? It was going to drizzle outside for about a half hour and honestly, I did not want to miss the clouds and whatever little rain was going to happen because it is so rare anymore. By noon it will be over a hundred degrees again with the sun full blast. I'll take a nap later. For now, I've a lot to do but need to break it down to as simple as it can get and also minimize the use of my legs. To get anything done I need to make a list. Take the trash downstairs, take my dirty clothes to the car. Pull out stuff I am going to store. Stop at the gallery to see what photos have fallen off the wall. I need to write down every little detail and try to do just one at a time. One and then maybe another and so on. Wow, I do miss the company of Mo being with me.
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June 23, 2026Las Vegas, NevadaRemember, AI is not here to serve humanity. It has been released as a for profit endeavor... for a few. Can it serve both? In the end the answer is no as it will lead all of us all to serve the few. That is already happening and has happened in many ways. Do the few care about humanity as a whole? How has that been looking so far? Zero. I would say a good eighty to twenty percent of AI... NOT in favor of humanity while heading towards a hundred percent and look at in how little time. Humanity is already transitioning to work for the robots... for the few. We are going to have to get rid of the few before the robots get rid of us. What does this have to do with my journey? It is affecting my life, your life, our relationship with each other and everything in the world. It is destroying trust in humanity. Music, creativity, the internet, our thinking, our relationship with reality and the world is being taken over through AI. And people are loving it as they are taught to embrace it with no care. I am not one of those people. Even while being forced to dance with the devil, speak out and call it for what it is in the spirit of truth... or lose your spirit. |
June 22, 2026Las Vegas, Nevada
Does this journey now enter into a total reminiscing stage? No. But, I think about that especially when I post photos from the past that I never used before. I am always focused on working. A few days ago I spent a day doing nothing but not out of choice, not to take a wanted break, it was because of my physical issues. It is summer, the same as every summer now. Too hot to play music, no money for travel. The truck is no longer travel worthy anyway. Last year putting pianos out on the streets was a work around. It involved community, those homeless, I was able to continue playing and even interacted with people as I do with the truck. I just need now to go through the hassle of setting up the keyboard in my room so small I need to store it in the shower when not in use. I do what I have to do because with Mo's passing, my legs not usable for the Traveling Piano right now (torn tendon, sprained ligament) and the heat, I've not created music in weeks. Again, I need to remember there has been months in the last twenty years of no music. It will all come around again in some form or another. When it comes around it would be nice with a new truck, while in better physical shape physically and with travel once again.
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June 21, 2026Las Vegas, Nevada |
June 20, 2026Las Vegas, Nevada |
June 19, 2026Las Vegas, NevadaMany years ago someone said that what I do is not who I am and to remember that. I've thought about it many times through the years and how it was said to give me reassurance and comfort that when this all ends there is more... that more would be, me in spirit. I "get" that but I also get that I am living in reality. I live through spirit in reality. I've also often thought of reality as an illusion. Never the less, what I create for the world in this world I am living in is also who I am. As I am able to create less and less, letting go of who I was, this is not easy. The level of creativity I have been able to achieve through this Traveling Piano journey is significant for me. It has filled my life with giving and sharing and feeling a part of the whole. The attention and notoriety for what ever its worth... has had major worth for me. It has helped to empower and inspire me. As that becomes less and less well... ugh, damm, boo hoo and all the rest. |
June 18, 2026Las Vegas, NevadaFor all the years traveling and still while settled here in Las Vegas, I have lived with a mind set of preparation. Belongings and needs for work and living for when traveling, for overnight stays, a new start with fresh supplies, an emergency quick get-a-way... many of the rural places I traveled to had no resources for immediate needs. People who lived in these places would travel once or twice a month to get what they needed and then store it for themselves. I had to travel with my storage. Well now, I'm just using it all up, everything that was prepared for travel. If I hit the road again, I'll deal with my needs as they happen. When I had some money I purchased clothes for a new fresh start. Basics like underwear, tops, socks, etc... I have learned to be very frugal. So I have been wearing the same old for years. Time for a change. I need to feel as fresh as possible... right now. What is still good from the old stuff I will take to the streets for those living on them. |
June 17, 2026Las Vegas, Nevada |
June 16, 2026Las Vegas, NevadaThe last piano has been moved to the back of a store to be taken apart. Seven acoustic piano's found for free online or donated, places to put them on the streets where the city could not give me any trouble, people to help me move them, the weather, very limited vandalism and mis-use (although two were stolen) that all lasted for a full year. Pretty good I would say. A couple are still being used but on commercial properties, a couple have been turned into planters with cactus and the last one I am taken apart. The community has loved them everyone, on every level. I would use them to play on in the middle of the night when I walked Mo and the heat was less. It has all been fun. I think the best part is the comfort they have given for the homeless. Lots of comfort with knowing I put them out for them as an equal along with everyone else, and they served as a release, creative outlet and something to do. The pianos validated and reassured a sense of worth for everyone. |
June 15, 2026Las Vegas, NevadaThe Fourth of July has always been a big for me. It is an opportunity to celebrate the birth of my country and I have a lot of love for my home. When I began working with the Traveling Piano, contracted parade performances became a large part of my Fourth of July. They were all in local communities repeated yearly and it was not the parade until the piano man and dog passed by. The consistency from year to year usually in the same towns created relationships some up to twenty years. Kids grew up looking forward to seeing the Traveling Piano every year. My record for how many parades I could do in one day was five! I would start early in the morning at the first and then speed to the next town and catch the tail end of the next one. That would repeat and last into the night. I talked with my friend Sid today who has been organizing his town's parade forever. He was the first to pay me my worth and set the bar for all the other parade fees through the years. He said that people do not realize I ever stopped. They still talk about me and my pups every year like we will be there. It is what they remember whenever the 4th of July comes around. How beautiful is that! People still remember and think about the man piano, his truck and pups almost forty years on. Ever since the dictatorship we have been dealing with took hold back when trump first won the election I have really soured on celebrating independence day. But now, I have found away. I have always been confused by the concept of freedom. Free from the governance of England? What does that mean? It is the celebration of a new form of government built for the first time in human history on ideals. The ideals of an American Social Democracy were never meant to be perfect and always meant to ebb and flow as life does. It is an experiment in both capitalism and socialism working together for the good of all. No authoritarian dictatorship can destroy the Ideals of American Democracy. It is in our minds and spirit and the responsibility of us all to remember and followthrough with. |
June 14, 2026Las Vegas, Nevada |
June 13, 2026Las Vegas, NevadaTonight I finished putting photos together hopefully to raise some funds. It has been a project in the making for ten years that has been evolving and still is to evolve more. Pieces of the project have been shifting to different storage spots for all those years. Now, they are all put together. At least fifteen hundred photos. At least ten times with the project... starting and stopping and then needing to star all over. The putting of the photos together, that part is done with what I have. Creating files for the photos I have framed verses not framed. Numbering each photo and then numbering the frame backing to coincide. Sticking a label on each back, signing the frames in white ink. Attaching the photo's with tape to the frame, placing the backing to the photo and frame. Placing the photo into the plastic cover and sealing each one fifteen hundred times, lol. Keeping them all in order. This has been everyday since Mo died. Sometimes up to eight hours a day. Thank God I have had the place to do it and only one block away from where I live. The space happened when the time was right. Obviously, it was providential and fitting for the way this journey has worked. It has helped tremendously, the being around people as a part of me realizes I am totally alone without Mo. Not alone in the world just alone in spirit. I mean, in a sense I've been alone in spirit physically since I was born. Just me, myself and I. Life has been a challenge to embrace and accept that and enjoy life through that, along with everything the world has to offer in the best of ways possible. |
June 12, 2026Las Vegas, Nevada |
June 11, 2026Las Vegas, Nevada |
June 10, 2026Las Vegas, NevadaIt is not over a hundred everyday now, it is a hundred ten or more and this, in the first half of June. I'm concerning about the truck and equipment frying in the heat most. I could put the sun reflection cover on but then taking it off for a window of opportunity to go create some music, I no longer have the physical strength or where with all to expend with that. So, the windows of opportunity still exist. Right before dark, a light wind, my having taken a shower and feeling refreshed, lol. Mo could not have handled any of this heat in any way at any time. Even a few years ago, not consistent heat like this. It no longer cools down even at night. But, its all still going and going and going... the Traveling Piano journey. |
June 9, 2026Las Vegas, Nevada |
June 08, 2026Las Vegas, Nevada |
June 7, 2026Las Vegas, NevadaTraveling Piano Pup Mo and I with people, we had three different modes of behavior. When with the piano truck my focus of course was always with people. Mo did whatever he wanted on top of the piano when it came to paying attention to others. He usually was all over the place pacing back and forth checking everything out from all directions. When we were in a public space off truck, we both stayed consistent in work/service dog mode where neither of us looked at people. When out to dinner I would ask friends to ignore him so he could be in his working mode. While walking down a street people would stop us and so it was a mix of ignore and acknowledge as people walked by but I never initiated interaction. |
June 6, 2026Las Vegas, Nevada |
June 5, 2026Las Vegas, Nevada |
June 4, 2026Las Vegas, Nevada |
June 3, 2026Las Vegas, NevadaThe temperatures have been up to 110º everyday already in June and so I cannot work with the Traveling Piano truck. Not creating music is taking a toll on my well being as is the lack of interacting with people in the ways I am accustomed. In my studio apartment there is no room to set up a keyboard and then put it away without a lot of effort and time. The piano's I put out on the streets to play on at night last June, they have all finished their life span. I'm constantly thinking of a solution. The piano on the truck and the speaker does not work in this heat. I can go out at nights but by the time the sun sets I do not have the energy. I could live as a night person and sleep all day but right now I need the sunlight for emotional stability without Mo. Even with a small break in the journey, I feel like people will think it has ended and I do not want to beholden to the idea of what others think. |
June 2, 2026Las Vegas, NevadaWith whatever has been going on physically prohibiting my ability to function well, I've been getting x-rays, mri's, blood work, been visiting with specialists and am about to see a neurologist. It all is taking time away from my life. I'll do all these tests now being diagnosed by AI once... if nothing comes from it I will not be doing a repeat. AI is NOT to be trusted. It was released before it was ready and there are no guard rails on it. For profit whether the information it gives right or wrong, that is what it is about and that has been made clear straight out, up front past the propaganda. Unconventional healing methods is where I will turn. I've always suspected for years now that I have been suffering from long term covid. That is something just now being explored medically. |
June 1, 2026Las Vegas, NevadaDuring my last doctors visit I was asked if I had covid in the past. Then I came home thinking about that. Then an article appeared in front of my face online that opened up a huge amount of understanding and validation about it. Then someone brought it up unsolicited in conversation. That all needs to be paid attention to as spirit is trying to tell me something. I am being lead as God speaks through people for my life. This, I have always known. Of course concernment is needed when other people are involved, a trust. I'm not a hundred percent sure but it is in the high eighty percentile range that what has been going on with me is related to covid from several years ago. I want to look into how others have had success in dealing with what I've been going through... for years. For the last two months I've thought it could be grief internalized concerning Mo's passing, it could be my age, my being overweight, long term covid maybe, the disease of alcoholism working on my brain, maybe it is all of that. Learning to focus on recovery is what I must begin focusing on and nothing else. Finding the desire to do that is always a challenge. |