Other than the occasional home concert for Wifey and Isla, It’s been a while since I played in front of a real live, polite Midwestern audience. Well, I’m excited to announce that I will be performing my original piano compositions in St. Paul, MN on Friday, March 30 along with pianists, David Nevue and Steven C Anderson. The concert starts at 7:30 pm.

David is the talented composer and founder of Whisperings Solo Piano Radio, an online radio station I am proud to be a part of. If you enjoy solo piano, do yourself a favor and check it out!

The concert will be on Summit Avenue in St. Paul. Seating is limited, so please RSVP to steven@stevencmusic.com to reserve your seats and get directions to the home. The suggested donation is $10/person at the door.

I’m really looking forward to this, and I would love to see you there! For more information, visit the Events page at the Whisperings website, or drop me a line.

Unfortunately, Indie & Bear will not be in attendance.

Patty and I recently took Isla and the dogs for a jaunt through the fields behind our house. We all enjoyed the mild weather, and Indie & Bear got to wear themselves out.  Isla even got to walk the dogs for a bit, although, Indie seemed to have some reservations about taking orders from someone in a penguin hat. I guess I would too.

A lot of people ask how Indie & Bear are with Isla.  Well, they’re both great with her; however, Bear seems to be her protector and is a good sport when she wants to hug/ride/borrow money.  Indie prefers to keep her distance, lest Isla decide to work on her eye-poking skills.  Isla is never alone with the dogs, of course, and Patty & I are good about teaching Isla the proper way to interact with them.

Nothing wacky occurred on our walk, so unfortunately, all I have are adorable photos that’ll treasure forever. Sorry.

It’s been a pretty mild winter in Minnesota so far this year.  That’s why I feel lucky to have gotten out to record some video after our only snowfall of December.  It was pretty quiet that Sunday morning and I had the entire field behind our house all to myself. I invited Indie & Bear, but Indie was pretty comfy on the sofa, and Bear was checking out the Best Buy ad. (OK, I took them out for a run later!)

I decided to compose and record a simple string track and I edited the whole thing in iMovie.

Considering how much coffee I had, I’m amazed this came out sounding so relaxing.

As you can imagine, Isla loves any place where she cannot possibly run out of things to do.  This time, she decided to hang out in the “Our World” exhibit, which includes a toddler-sized “Main Street,” complete with a mini doctor’s office.  Considering how much time Isla has spent in the hospital, it was a bit of a relief to see her enjoying the surroundings.  She couldn’t wait to try on the lab coat and play with the stethoscope. She even attempted to break my leg in the hopes that she could take a real x-ray!  (I’m still a little disturbed by that.)

I know she’s just playing, but it’s amazing to watch her figure things out while also having fun.  Patty & I aren’t pushy parents, but we just want her to know that she can do anything she wants to in her life. She’s becoming a more confident little girl every day, and something tells me that she won’t let a little thing like hearing loss slow her down.

I just hope I can keep up.

Abe Vigoda is still alive

We had a great time and Isla really seemed to enjoy the experience.  Nothing wacky happened during our trip to the mall, although Patty and I enjoyed a Cinnabon and I got into a slap-fight with the lady at Glamor Shots over a previously unresolved issue involving the best way to photograph a rhinestone -studded jacket, but that was it.  Oh, and if you ever want to visit the Mall of America without all of the interpersonal jostling, I highly recommend you visit on a Wednesday morning. Just call in sick for work.  Seriously, I’m totally cool with that.

Here are some aquarium photos, yo.

(You thought I was joking about the Cinnabon, didn’t you?)

I’m not really that into antiques, but Patty is looking for a new Dining Room table, and I am totally trying to impress her with my vast knowledge of tables, TV trays and certain ledges.  Truthfully, the only thing I know about antique tables is that napping on them is strictly and abruptly frowned-upon…with actual frowning…plus some glowering  (although, I think that clerk was just showing off. )  We didn’t find a table, but Patty found some sweet picture frames and a really boss old camera.  Check it out:

Perhaps the most disturbing thing that I found, other than the racy pictures of Ernest Borgnine,

WWEBD?

*cough* Rip-off! *cough*

Pardon my casual, socially-acceptable swearing, but what the hell is “Star World??”  I’ll let all of the hardcore Star Wars fans out there check out this particular bit of lawsuit-fodder, but I have to ask, “What’s with the Fabio Space Monkey?”

Anyway, I wrote some music in a style hopefully reminiscent of the music one might hear on CSI.  I call it “See a Sigh” ’cause I hate lawsuits.  It runs 1:08m and makes me feel like a big man.

I recorded this piece a while back, but I somehow forgot to post it.  It’s called FatCatWalk and it runs 0:51m.  It’s my attempt at cartoonish incidental music; the kind of background music you hear in a show while someone is sneaking around.  Share the warmth.

Here is the last piece I composed and recorded for the game.  Since it will be part of a video game, I don’t have a monstrously clever name for it.  Let’s just call it “Iron Chef 3″ and see if that works.  The song is 44 seconds long, which like the others, will be played as a loop in the game itself.

Have a great July 4th weekend. I’ll be on an honest-to-God Minnesota lake. Sounds wet.[powerpress]

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Good news: You have more money than you’ll ever need. Bad News: you kinda look like Les Nessman

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Speaking of my unhealthy obsession with old TV shows, I should probably admit that I used to rot my brain watching Gilligan’s Island. Hey, it was the 70′s and I was into some weird stuff, OK? Well, The Professor was played by an actor named Russell Johnson, who was also in like, EVERY Twilight Zone episode (OK, just two.) My cursory review of Mr. Johnson’s Wikipedia entry revealed the words no one wants to see in their bio:

On the one hand, you’re famous enough to have a Wikipedia entry. Unfortunately, some people were really hoping that you were slightly more homicidal. That has to be tough at parties; “Oh, you’re the actor, NOT the killer? Well, I knew I recognized you from somewhere. Yeah, I gotta go.”

I’m fortunate enough to have one of those names that is shared by relatively few people. A Google search reveals that my vaguely humorous name is shared by an actor, an attorney, a High School track star, and a whole mess o’ Germans. I’ve never heard from any of these people, but I bet we all hope that each of us behaves ourselves.

So far, so good, but I’m keeping an eye on that attorney.