The baby grand in the park will always be the first place I recommend to tourists. I go there regularly to study and clear my head — Such a New York treasure!
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My cousin the pianist, Colin Huggins, making peoples' lives slightly better in his own special way.
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Yes this made me laugh out loud. Thanks very much!
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Wonderful, hilarious, much-needed laugh-out-loud lift. Thank-you, Stacey Lender!
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Funny that MRIs are mentioned. My first MRI, the technician asked if I wanted music. Sure. What kind? Classical. Ok. So I had to listen to Bolero getting louder and louder, more persistent, while I’m trapped in the machine. I’ve never asked for music again.
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Oh Giulia do I ever sympathize!! I would have played you something soft, beautiful, and soothing like Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “The Lark Ascending” or his “Fantasia on Greensleeves.”
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Last Christmas while strolling through Washington Square Park we stopped and watch a performance. Even though snowy and wet - no end to volunteers to lay down in the wet cold to have a “New York experience”. We just shook our heads and moved on.
Being not any sort of expert on “serious” music, I first thought she was talking about the old French folk song. (“Au clair de lune, mon ami Pierrot………….”)
Then I saw the reference to Debussy in somebody’s Comment.
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maybe the best Metropolitan diary entry ever!
I can only imagine the feelings you must have
experienced lying there listening to Debussy's
impressionist masterpiece.very,very well done,
Stacey. thank you for making my evening.
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Dear Stacey:
Your Diary entry, "Beneath a Baby Grand," is a great way to begin the week. I'm picturing you as you're staring up at the underside of the baby grand piano.
As Allen J. Share said, it's a break from the other "news." Yes! I've had enough of the Supreme Court vacancy, Scott Pruitt's replacement, Twitter tweets, and the wild weather worldwide.
I had heard of the Washington Square Park pianist, but your story led me to Google and YouTube. There he is! Colin Huggins, alias "The Crazy Piano Guy."
Seems like he uses vans and wheeled carts to get his Yamaha baby grand piano from here to there. I'm going to put on my headphone and go to YouTube so that I can experience, as you did, "the greatest M.R.I. I've ever had."
Sincerely,
Dean in CT
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The pianist's name is Colin Huggins. I only had the pleasure to cross paths with him one time (back in 2011), but I have been following him online and have contributed to his endeavors. Our encounter with him was memorable! He is a fantastic musician and I think the city is very fortunate to have him brightening the day for so many! Check him out on social media or if you can, go hear him play in the park.
https://www.colinhuggins.nyc/
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Thanks for that link, Tony! And like any real proud native New Yorker, when I got to his site, the first thing I clicked was where it said "Do Not Click Here." And I'm not sorry I did! :)
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A thoroughly delightful, idiosyncratic, and vivid Diary entry Stacey—I saw you lying beneath that piano as
I read—with a great and very funny punch line. You provided just what I needed after reading too many of the “news” stories in today’s Times. Like so many of us I think, I embrace the Metropolitan Diary for the joy, smiles, laughs, and relief stories like yours provide. Thank you and have a great week. Allen
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