Cruising with Dueling Pianos

I’m doing a Dueling Piano show on a cruise ship out of Barcelona for a few weeks. I only met my other two partners the night before we were signing on. One of the guys is a vet of about 8 years, and is super nice. The other is a younger kid with about 3 or 4 years under his belt and a great attitude. Actually, I think we all have a great attitude. I don’t mean to gush, but this particular gig is a real privilege to work. You get to travel through Italy and Spain on one of the largest ships on the water, get well taken care of, have sound and light guys, great equipment and audiences that are on vacation and are already predisposed to having fun. All of that, and you get paid.

So far we’ve played 2 shows, both of which have gone well. I was pleased to discover that both of my partners have solid shows and are very supportive on stage. The audience this week is somewhat older, averaging 45-55 years old, and this bunch isn’t very energetic, but they give us love in a reserved way. 

The first show that we played we had very little time to do a sound check as the room was in use until 45 minutes before our show began, and the techs wanted to wait for a third tech to come and help them move the pianos. Then there was a problem getting one of the wireless mics to work, and so we rushed through a sound check in 10 minutes and it just wasn’t enough time.

The following day we helped the techs move the pianos onto the stage, and got right into the sound check, as we already knew what the problems were the night before and could tell the techs exactly what we wanted to change. By the time the sound check was over, the monitors were perfect, and I was really pleased with this.

During my first break, while my partners were up on stage, I was working with one of the techs and we were able to get the main room sound just about perfect as well.

Our schedule on the ship is 4 nights on followed by 3 nights off. Tonight is my second night off, and I’m about to go out and check out some of the other entertainment on the ship.

Disturbing

Two days ago I copied a picture that a friend had posted on Facebook onto my own Facebook status. Here’s the picture:

 

Most of my friends are like-minded and 16 of them “liked” or commented on the picture. The following morning one of my Dueling Piano friends, a guy who I had worked with one weekend about 2 years ago (and don’t know all that well) private messaged me as follows:

[Dueling Piano Guy:]
you`re kind of full of yourself
[Me:]
what do you mean
[Dueling Piano Guy:]
you are
think you`re better and smarter than everyone else
I think you`re arrogant
[Me]
why?
[Dueling Piano Guy:]
why?, you just run your trap about people`s beliefs and opinions like you`d know more than they would...you don`t even have fucking kids
somehow the NY and Cornell thing and allthe breaks you get are some kind of license to run your trap.....since nothing matters to me anymore youdon`t want to crossme
[Me]
Are you talking about the picture i posted?
[Dueling Piano Guy:]
I ought to kick your ass
I think you are full of yourself
[Me]
I think you are off your meds.
[Dueling Piano Guy:]
what the fuck makes you think you know even one iota more than anyone else
Tell me that to my face puke
[Me]
Well are you?
[Dueling Piano Guy:]
Fuck you...best NEVER cross my path
you`ll need meds
asshole

........................................................................

About 8 hours later he sent me the following:

[Dueling Piano Guy:]
sorry Eddie...bad night. You did nothing to deserve any of that. Sorry again.

[Me]
Forgiven Sir. Please take better care of yourself.

[Dueling Piano Guy:]
Thank you from the bottom of my heart Eddie.....good luck overseas....I`ll try and take better care of myself. I`m just so sorry for acting that way.

Budapest guest house

First of all it's pronounced BUHD-a-peSHt, with an SH sound before the last "T". The city is divided geographically by the Danube River, which separates Buda from Pest. I stayed on the Pest side which has a more happening nightlife scene. I rented a room at a guesthouse online while I was still in New York City on a break from a Dueling Piano gig. When I arrived at the building, I had to take an antique tiny 2-person elevator up the 4 floors to my "guesthouse". I entered a very large apartment, and was shown to my room. It looked like something that a minor Hungarian nobleman from 1850 might have been lived in. It was very Gothic with lots of tapestries, over-sized

furniture, a full scale reproduction of Michelangelo's David, marble pedestals, ornamental accents, lots of brass candle sconces and a 9 foot tall glazed ceramic wood burning stove that looked like a piece of art. It was in a very old building that housed large apartments surrounding a courtyard. My windows faced the courtyard and because I wasn't on the top floor, I didn't get that much light, which added to the already slightly spooky effect.

Every time you entered the guest house you needed to key in, and then when you shut the door from the inside you needed to use your key to lock it. The same hassle for the beedroom door, except with a key and lock that was from the late 17th century, and that I never did get the handle of. 

The only thing missing was a grand piano, vampires and organ music. I shall put that on my online review.

A week in Berlin

Tomorrow I leave Berlin after having been here 8 days. I've enjoyed this city. The Berliners are extremely civilized and polite, and don't strike me as uptight at all. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I always found the language to be rather harsh and in-your-face. Of course, being an American, I can't help but think back to the not so distant history where the German people succeeded to overrun all of Continental Europe. Pretty aggressive stuff. And yet the people are polite, they look you in the eye, and are very easy to live with. The city is clean, and there doesn't appear to be violent street crime. It's rare to see police, and everyone seems to behave. I suppose that's to be expected from the number one economy in Europe, but still, refreshing.

I have met some very interesting people here, out at restaurants and also online. One couple from Prague helped me with a German menu, and ended up joining me for dinner and giving me a map and a complete rundown on the cool places I must visit. I met a guy named Zack in a sidewalk cafe and we bonded discussing the failures of the European Central Bank and the IMF. (It's my not so secret pass time. I'm an economics geek. It doesn't come up in conversation with my friends, because none of them are into that. Many are creative types and couldn't give a damn about monetary and fiscal policy.) Zack and I became friends and we went out to dinner a couple of times. The first was an Austrian restaurant recommended to me by an American friend as his favorite restaurant in the world. I have to say, it was pretty outstanding, and the conversation with Zack, who I suspect has near-genius intelligence, was smart and lively.

The second time we went out together, we tried a chicken restaurant recommended by the couple from Prague. It was a German Pub, and they only had one thing on the menu: 1/2 Chicken. It was the specialty of the house and was cooked to perfection. My guess is that it was initially boiled, and then the entire chicken was deep fried. Of course the German potato salad that was served with it was rich, creamy goodness. Towards the end of the meal I noticed an upright piano was sitting near us, and after a word to the owner, she unlocked it, and I sat down and played. There weren't that many people in the place, but everyone who was there clapped after every song, and when we finally got our check, the owner had taken half off, "For the music."

The other day I crashed an art opening. Free beer and cheese.

Today was my last full day in Berlin and I decided to rent a bike. It's a very bike-friendly city, in a way that I wish New York was. There are dedicated bike lanes on most streets, and the car traffic respect the bicyclists. Even the taxis! Very different than New York. I drove all around, including the big city park, the Tiergarten, right in the center of all the buzz, just like Central Park at home in New York City.

A couple of other random notes about Berlin. The traffic light cycles to yellow before it goes to green so that traffic is ready to go when the light does go to green. Prostitution is legal, and quite available from what I see on the streets. There are blue laws on Sundays, meant to uphold the Lord's day, and apparently the only types of businesses that are allowed to be open are bars, clubs, casinos, houses of worship and houses of prostitution. All VAT taxes are included in the prices quoted by restaurants and shop pricetags, so you know exactly what you're paying before going to the register. Taxi's in Berlin are run, it seems, mostly by Germans, and I always felt safe in any cab I was in. The public transit system, the BVG, seems to run more or less on the honor system. You buy your ticket, and it's up to you to time stamp it. Once you time stamp it, it is valid for 2 hours on any train or bus going away from the original time stamp machine. But, the thing is no one ever checks to see if you have done this. Apparently there are police that are supposed to do this, but my new Berliner friends have never actually had someone ask to see their stamped tickets, or for that matter, seen it happen. Could you imagine this working in NYC??

Anyway, Berlin is a wonderful city, very inviting of tourists, safe, interesting and easy to navigate. Definitely a city I could live in. A world-class city for sure. I wonder if they'd enjoy dueling pianos here? Hmmm...

A Fresh beginning

It's been way too long since I updated my blog, and I've been inspired to write again. As most of my readers know, I now make my living as a Dueling Piano player. It's been over four years since I saw my first dueling piano show in Austin Texas. Since then I have completely devoted myself to this craft, and now I can say that I more or less know what I'm doing. If you look at some of my past entries on this blog you know some of my struggles and obstacles as I tried to master this very specific and unique entertainment form. Well, I continue to try to master it with every new performance and every new dueling pianist that I meet.

I travel pretty much every weekend now, flying in on Thurs to some town or city in the Midwest, or the south, doing a show Thurs night, Fri night and Saturday night, and then fly back home to New York City where I spend 4 days at home, before doing it all over again. I've shared the stage with over 100 dueling piano players over the past 4 years, and have learned something from most everyone of them, even the bad ones.

Today I am flying over to Berlin. I was invited to play on a major cruise line as part of a dueling piano headliner act for 7 weeks out of Barcelona. I've already done this gig on this ship, but in the Caribbean. This will be different as the crowds are more European. I didn't think the Dueling Piano format would work in Europe but every one of my colleagues that have done this gig before me tell me differently, so I'm excited to see how it works. I don't sign on the ship until the 25th, but the cruise has agreed to fly me over 2 weeks early so I can explore Europe before I begin my contract. So I will be blogging about my travels. Feel free to make comments.