Keyboard

My wife told me back at Christmas that she wants a piano. OK, says I. Why? My thinking is that I need to know whether she wants (A) a hulking piece of furniture that'll give me a hernia, collect dust and never be played or (B) something that can be hidden, is lightweight and can be taken anywhere so that there is no excuse not to play. She considers and wrestles with the idea; tells me that she doesn't want a keyboard and finally agrees to at least look at electronic keyboards. Fast forward to today and we drop by one of the local music stores (perhaps the only one), L & M Music. We take a peek at the Yamaha P120 and she decides that an electronic keyboard may not be all bad. It has Yamaha's "Graded Hammer" effect which cause the keys to respond to weight so that they both feel weighted like an accoustic piano's keys and they respond differently based on the amount of pressure you apply; hit it harder and you get a slightly different sound than if you press the key lightly. The quality of the sound produced is pretty impressive. It'll cost right at $1200 but she's excited about it and I figure its only money. It'll take me a couple of months to save up enough but we'll have it for her before too long, Lord willing.


On a separate but somewhat related note we worked around the house a little while our daughter napped this afternoon. My wife cleaned up some boxes and nicknacks from the bonus room over our garage and I put together a bookshelf for the library and cleaned up a little in there. Looks like I'll be moving my lighting/studio equipment to the room over the garage and moving the birds out (two cockatiels: Sam & Stan) and I'll be using that room for my studio. It's not really long enough but it'll do until I earn enough money and get busy enough to warrant renting/leasing a place. I have two sessions scheduled already and a third in the offing. One session is an artistic attempt by me to find some vision and capture something artistic so I'm paying the model. The other session is one where a young lady needs a portfolio started for her as she's doing some music and promotional work and needs headshots plus some different looks. We may shoot a CD cover for her either at the studio or later in the Spring; her cousin has worked with me before on environmental portraiture shoots.

The Steelers gave us all a scare tonight. I'm not a lifelong fan or anything but I'm pullin' for them this year. I hope they steamroll everyone else (sorry Payton) and crush their opposition in the SuperBowl.

Thanks for reading,

Kev