So Nice by Rick'n Dor at Orchard

Rick's Pianoman by Billy Joel now popular in retirement residence.

Of course, there would come a day when the Billy Joel fans of the 1970's would, 35 years later, be found at retirement homes. I find myself now bringing that once new music to those residents a little bit early but why not get ready now? Someday, all music ends up being popular among our older population.

Bob Seger's Old Time Rock 'n Roll by Rick'n Dor for Old Timers at MadisonMeadow

The Rick & Dorothy Piano Show play Alleycat on 2 pianos, Ferrante & Teicher Style at MadisonMeadows

Galway Piper by Rick & Dorothy for St. Paddy's Day at Madison Meadow.

Happy St. Patrick's Day-- a song explains the story.

I'm still astonished with pianos on cruiseships-- here's one.

Here's Marcie on the Crystal Cruiseship "Harmony" I think...
Marcie's pretty good and has an extensive collection of Youtubes that the piano student, hobbyist or pro can view.  Anyone who does something other than duelling pianos these days is worth listening to. [Search youtube for marcie]

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VACATION?  I still find it incredibly unbelievable that ENOUGH people have ENOUGH money to take time out to go on cruise ships... huge mothership type cruiseships bigger than any starships on Star Trek. These behemoth white elephants loaded with slave laborers have all sorts of fancy things that you would normally expect only on land for landlubbers. I don't understand how and why cruiseships are getting this way-- or HAVE been this way for what I think has been happening MORE for the past 15 years. Of course, cruiseships have been around much longer but it's getting ridiculous lately. For more on the dark side of cruise ships, google [the dark side of cruise ships]

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CRUISE SHIPS SCALED UP TO RIDICULOUS... Below, you see the Titanic-- a big boat that apparently sank but was called unsinkable. Next is the Loveboat of the 1970's tv show. The pianist above is on the Crystal Symphony in the 3rd square below. From there, we see increasingly bizarre gargantuan giant "unsinkable" boats that "entertain" people with piano music, college type courses, dancing and full scale shows normally found in Vegas or on Broadway. These boats go around in circles on the water. I don't get it. GROW OR DIE. I would refer readers to this reference to understand the complete inanity of growing cruiseshi+] 

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APARTMENT BUILDING ON WATER. Here's an apartment building I lived in Toronto in the 1980s. It seems to me that if you put floats on it, you'd have the makings of what passes today for a cruise ship, more or less-- configuration wise. You can imagine being in a cruise ship while living in the apartment building below because it's located in Toronto where there are piano lounges, broadway shows and lots of other entertainment. I can't sink... or shouldn't at least-- on firm ground. And you can vacation there every weekend after work.

Cactus Country duo does traditional western tunes, sings harmony-- no backtracks.

We get a chance to see local artists here in Sunnyslope, a neighbourhood of N. Central Phoenix, at Madison Meadows Retirement home on a regular basis now. This afternoon we was enjoyen Cactus Country for an hour. [Video]

Brainwaves pushed to 40 hz (Gamma) with this recording?

I still can't tell if these frequency recordings with isochronic tones do anything. Given that I'm not fully awake and can use something-- I decided to try this.

RESULTS Rather than give me more alertness, this recording put me into a "power nap" two times in a row. I must have needed it-- and that's why I was feeling low energy and dragged out. On the third attempt, I was alert and became bored, finally getting up to do stuff in a way that was calm, methodical and energized.

Funny-man genuine piano player Dave Swaim has a rubber face and piano humour.

In an amazing performance I watched at Madison last weekend, Dave Swaim entertained a group of three retirees, me and Dorothy for an hour with phenomenal "humorized" piano playing of standards. Dave's recordings and youtubes, on the other hand,  are sober originals sold on his website in a new age style. You have to SEE him to understand what I'm talking about in terms of his entertaining engaging humorous popular piano in front of an audience . Close your eyes and listen to the following 5 minute sampler while imagining the guy on the left-- making funny faces while he sings... and you'll get a sense of Dave's terrific expertise in front of a crowd-- again-- in this case, 3 residents and me and Dorothy. 5 Minute Demo Mix – Dave Swaim

The residents didn't seem to appreciate what Dave is! It's astonishing- Dave's piano playing and expert vocal interpretations are FIRST CLASS and his persona is polished and professional. His piano arrangements demonstrate excellent playing knowledge with all kinds of "built in musical humor"-- and surprises with glissandos, octaves, rhythmic sense and ... to boot... all memorized. What a show! Dave threw me a copy of his latest original CD-- instrumental new age type of piano music-- saying "first one's on me, the rest you buy". More commentary on that coming up. I can't find his piano humor online anywhere. I wish now I'd brought my video camera.

Nate George... a new piano / vocalist in the making.

The Rick & Dorothy Piano Variety Show for Retirement Residences & Nursing Homes in Greater Phoenix

Rick Potvin and Dorothy Motto will bring a piano, a keyboard, mics, amp and sing along books to your retirement residence or nursing home to create an hour of piano performance and sing along fun in the Greater Phoenix area. Their latest act is called the Piano Variety Show and will include the following segments....

to be installed in a day or two.

Outline

ONE HOUR PRESENTATION

1. Pre-show 1/2 hour - 45 min piano playing by Dorothy on either house piano or our Korg digital

2. OPENING and Greeting 10 min.
Dorothy features Sound of Music Medley, Rhapsody in Blue and Malaguena
Rick features Linus and Lucy

3. PIANO DUET with Rick on house piano, Dorothy on digital Korg for a Ferrante-Tiecher style-- which is not "duelling piano" mayhem currently popular on cruise ships and other so-called piano bars.

Born Free, What Now My Love, Alley Cat, Chariots of Fire, Elvis Medley.

4. ...working

Vid-clip of Dorothy's playing at Madison.