9:37 PM, Sunday, August 5th, 2007:

I'm a beautiful antique,

I'm seventy years old.

Everything about me squeeks,

And I will soon be sold.

 

But I'm a beautiful antique,

I used to belong to Telly Savalas' first wife.

She got me in 1940,

But I've been in storage for 15 years and finally her daughter sold me to Adam.

 

He's not the biggest fan of me,

But appreciates that I'm so anti-new.

He's thankful to Remo for telling him about me,

But this is the last journey song I'll ever do.

As the years pass in this little experiment called The Journey, I've found a certain truth: the best entries, songs, memories - are almost always the little ones tucked away in random months. Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans indeed John...

 

So when Remo called me and asked if I wanted a piano, I started thinking of entry titles. Nearly 8 years of writing them will do that to ya. The situation was this: he had just sold a house to the daughter of Telly Savalas (random right?) and they had this 60 year old piano that was her mother's that had been in storage for over 15 years that they just wanted to get rid of. The cost of the storage was obviously adding up and they didn't have room for it in the new house. Remo just happened to know of someone who would love it and there you are. The risk of course is that there were no guarantees of how it looked, played, the condition...and I would not be able to see it before I bought it as it was such a pain in the ass to get out of storage. So for a small sum, I took the jump figuring no matter what, it was a story for the site. So what did I get? Voila:

How funky is that? Ends up it's actually a very rare antique Wurlitzer Butterfly Baby Grand from 1937. And surprisingly in remarkable condition for being 70 years old. That's the good news. The bad news is that it needs some work and my upright "Journey Piano" sounds better in comparison. In fact I would venture to say that the soundboard in my upright is bigger. But it soon became apparent that this was more about a rare find as opposed to a working instrument. A google search came up with some hefty asking prices and one in showroom condition is worth a fortune.

What's cooler is my piano is the only one I've seen online that has these inserts in tact. You can unscrew them and take them out, but that was never done to this piano and I have to think that having those would be quite valuable to the right person. And it really is a great little art deco piece from the late 30's. I can see why these are so sought after in the antique community.

I'm of course a bit spoiled as I had the glorious Yamaha C7 for a couple months and other than the annoying ring I couldn't seem to get rid of - it played beautifully. It was HUGE, it sounded HUGE, and I haven't forgotten that. It's what I want again someday - and you never know, this piano might be a way to get closer to getting another one.

I'm willing to put in the couple hundred bucks to get it sound mechanically - but I'm in no position to fully restore it and what I'm hoping to do is get in touch with a place where we can make an arrangement. The prices for this thing in showroom condition are nearly three times what my Yamaha C7 cost and something tells me that I'll be in the right place, at the right time... and it will all work out. Funny how easy it is to have faith in things like that, but in other aspects of your life you're a giant ball of stress. Peaks and valleys...

 

It's crazy - this was the month in 2005 and 2006 that kinda just hung there. Filled with random stories and "nothing" entries and then September came out of the blue and kaBLOWie the world turned upside down. I still get up everyday excited about what's gonna happen next. Not everyone can say that.

 

Enjoy the song,

 

Adam

 

PS - the fly at the end is really the end of a loooooong summer of dealing with these things. I dont usually get so aggrivated about a bug - but oh my GOD had I had enough. Ha. Funny bit - and even with the compression you can see the little bastard. :-)