Sunday, June 28, 2009
Annie's Piano Recital and Mega-Hopscotch
This afternoon Annie had her piano recital. She goes to Beach Music Studio where she takes piano and song.
I was wondering why she wanted to go dressed in one of her dress-like dressing gowns, but as her teacher explained at the start of the show, Annie was a "double-threat".
Annie Playing her Piano Tune
Turns out she had arranged to do a song-and-dance routine with her music teacher, singing "Barbie Girl" with her.
Annie and Her Music Teacher Singing "Barbie Girl"
Despite a few duff notes here and it was a good show, and it was interesting to see other students showing improvement over previous performances.
Annie Posing for a Shot by the Piano
I walked the kids home and got them lunch at the local Licks restaurant while Erika went off for another trumpet performance downtown.
The kids started playing with the neighbours, and after a while Vanessa came in and asked me what the world-record was for hopscotch length. She and Devin from a couple of doors over had made a hopscotch path that led all the way up the block, and went up to 550 (which unfortunately is a fraction of the world's largest). Still, they had fun with it, as did I in taking pics of Vanessa hopscotching up the sidewalk.
Vanessa Making Her Way Up the Mega-Hopscotch on the Sidewalk
Labels: Annie, hopscotch, piano, recital, Vanessa
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
By the time I got back from work today I had missed out on all of the "fun" of it being moved into the house, but there in our dining room was the piano that Erika had tracked down and bought so that Annie could practice her music lessons on.
It's an upright grand piano made sometime early last century by the local piano manufacturer Heizmann. It is a bit beat up, with several visible dings in it, but other than cosmetically it looks impressive and apparently holds its tune well.
This all started a couple of months ago when the second electronic keyboard we got for Annie conked out. Erika then figured that the thing to do would be to get a real piano instead, instead of frittering away hundreds of dollars away on various plastic/electronic keyboards. Something that could withstand Annie, in other words. ;-)
I pointed her in the direction of the local Craigslist sales listings, and she made some enquiries with a few people. Eventually she found a fellow who was a local piano restorer and tuner. She initially had her eyes set on a smaller, Annie-sized piano, and had even put a down payment on it. But then she went back with our neighbour Dave (fellow trumpeter and long-time piano owner) to have a look at the other pianos this fellow had. They both convinced her that going for a "real" piano would be the better idea overall, so she went for the Heizmann instead of the "toy" piano she had put the deposit on.
Having it professionally moved into the house was a significant fraction of the overall cost of acquiring it, but it looks and sounds good, with a rich sound.
In addition to Annie using it, Erika can use it to ensure that she's in tune on her trumpet, and I have also vowed to take piano lessons sometime later in the year. Annie initially seems a bit daunted by this new piece of furniture, but I hope she grows into enjoying it and making her own music with it.
Labels: Craigslist, piano
Monday, January 08, 2007
Erika has found a piano for Annie to practice on, and in order to make the necessary room for it in the dining room, I offered to put all of my CDs that are stored in that same room into storage.
I can do this because I have digitized/MP3s-ized all of our music and I never play the actual CDs anymore. With few exceptions I buy my music online, so its not like I need anything more than a simple box to put everything in. For copyright purposes I am keeping all of the CDs rather than selling them, though I know that the prospect of having the "copyright police" come after me for non-compliance is next to nil, so it's more for me than anything else.
All of my CDs have been ripped at 320kbps and reside on my "music machine" which has also become my iPod station by default. I have everything on that machine backed up on a large portable hard drive. And ever now and then I dump the latest contents onto a backup DVD disc as well and take them off site. This convenience and easy portability of music in this format is so much handier than comparatively bulky CDs (my portable CD player is gathering dust) that I can’t imagine going back at this point.
In the end I managed to fit my old CD collection into four large plastic boxes, and I stuffed them all into a storage area in the basement. I kept a few rare and oddball disks out so that I can scan their covers in order to add them to the MP3 files so that they appear on my iPod/iTunes, but then those few will end up joining the rest.
Erika is planning on using the large wooden CD storage unit for putting our shoes and boots in at the front hall. It was designed to hold 900 CDs comfortably; I guess now we will find out how good a shoe holder it is.
Labels: CDs, iPod, iTunes, MP3, piano
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