Boogie Woogie pianist Mark Braun to pedal his piano through Flint, give free concert at Mott Community College

 

by Beata Mostafavi

Tuesday July 07, 2009, 8:30 AM

Courtesy Photo Mark Braun rides his "Joybox Express," a bicycle that carries his 352-pound piano

FLINT, MICHIGAN -- When it comes to the piano, Mark Braun knows how to boogie.

But for the next six days, the youngest inductee to the National Boogie Woogie Hall of Fame will begin a different kind of music adventure -touring lower Michigan with his 352-pound piano fastened on the back of his bicycle.

Locals may spot Braun riding his 11-foot-long, 4-foot wide Pedi cab today while pulling his Baldwin Acrosonic piano through town.

The musician kicks of a unique six-day tour in Flint, starting at the home of his father Phil Braun and making a stop at Mott Community College's Bear Bistro for a noon concert that will raise money for MCC athletes.

"When I was 22 years old, I imagined building some type of bicycle that could haul a piano all across America, from coast to coast, playing for people I'd meet along the way," Braun, 52, said in a prepared statement.

Thirty years later, Braun said he's achieved a "scaled down version" of the original plan.

The MCC concert is free but the MCC Foundation is taking donations to help raise money for student athletes who need financial support. The Bear Bistro is also donating a portion of luncheon proceeds to the benefit.

Braun will continue on from his hometown Flint to wheel his piano to Lansing for several shows and then to Chelsea for a benefit concert. He plans to end his journey with a large group of cyclists who will ride with him to downtown Ann Arbor for the "Townie Party" hosted by the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair.

For details: (810) 762-0425

 

From http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2009/07/boogie_woogie_pianist_mark_bra.html

Happy Fourth of July!

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday! The Walkman Turns 30

Sony introduced its Walkman portable cassette player thirty years ago this week, kicking off a revolution in the consumer electronics industry by changing the way people enjoy music.

Photograph: Rick Rizner

Until its introduction, the only way people could enjoy their own choice of music while on the go was to lug around a larger, heavier cassette player, but the Walkman brought music to the belt-clip, purse or pocket.

The first Walkman, the TPS-L2, cost ¥33,000 in Japan and US$200 in the U.S., but despite the relatively high price tag the reception was enthusiastic. In 1980 The Wall Street Journal called the Walkman "one of the hottest new status symbols around" and noted that prospective U.S. owners faced a month-long wait because of a backlog in orders.

The player had several features that were innovative for the time including dual headphone sockets, independent volume control for the left and right audio channels and the distinctive orange "hotline" button on the top that faded the tape output and engaged a microphone so the listener could talk to someone nearby without stopping the music or taking off their headphones.

The design and much of the mechanics of the TPS-L2 was based on a model that came out in 1978 but was never branded as Walkman. The TCM-100 was a portable cassette recorder aimed at people who needed the ability to record audio clips on the go, such as business people and journalists. The TPS-L2 brought the technology to the mass-market.

With the success of the Walkman a product line was born that would go on to become one of the world's best-known brand names -- but that global branding almost didn't happen. Fearing that "Walkman" wasn't proper English, Sony initially chose the brand name "Soundabout" for the U.S. market, derived from the word walkabout, and "Stowaway" for the U.K. It wasn't until a year later, in 1980, that Walkman became the global brand name.

Within a few years the products were developing fast.

The WM-2, introduced in 1981, was notable for its styling, which was much more modern that of the TPS-L2 and also offered in several colors to suit personal tastes. By 1983, just four years after the launch of the Walkman, Sony introduced the WM-20, which was the same size as a cassette case. Then in 1984 the Walkman line expanded with the introduction of the D-50, the first CD Walkman.

For much of the eighties and nineties Sony reigned supreme in the personal audio space. It sold hundreds of millions of Walkman players and was the standard by which most competing products were judged. However, things started to change with the arrival of digital music.

Sony's first Walkman to accept digital files, the NW-MS7, was introduced in Japan in December 2000 and went on sale elsewhere the following year. The product tied Sony's MemoryStick flash media format with its ATRAC file format and MagicGate copy protection.

Sony didn't know it at the time but the formula would prove disastrous to Walkman's leading position in the portable audio market.

The introduction of digital music didn't just mean more convenience for users. It lowered the entry barrier to the player market and suddenly companies that had never made a digital audio player before could throw together a few chips, add some buttons and a display -- or more likely find a Taiwanese contract manufacturer to do this for them -- and launch their own player.

Users were rallying around downloaded music or ripping CDs into the MP3 format and there was no shortage of companies lining up to sell them players. In contrast Sony was requiring users convert MP3 files to ATRAC before they could be loaded on the Walkman.

Apple's entry to the market in 2001 with the iPod was the first step in a what would be a short journey to replace Sony as the most fashionable brand name in portable audio.

In recent years under CEO Howard Stringer Sony has been attempting to reinvigorate its Walkman line and sales have been rising. Sony sold 7 million Walkman digital music players in the financial year that ended in March, up from 4.5 million in 2006. For the current financial year it expects to sell 6.3 million units, a lower number due in part to the poor economy.

Sony's latest flagship model, the NW-X1000, packs noise cancelling, a bright touchscreen display, mobile TV, and the ability to surf the Internet and watch YouTube videos. It's already on sale in major markets and supports Sony's ATRAC format but also MP3, Windows Media and Linear PCM in addition to AVC, MPEG4 and WMV9 video files.

From http://www.pcworld.com/article/167692/happy_birthday_the_walkman_turns_30.html

Abide With Me: Hymn # 1

I'm sure that many would think that this is a semi-odd choice for all-time favorite hymn.

My dad was a Congregational (now United Church of Christ) minister so I was pretty regular in church attendance in my younger years.

Some Sunday evenings, he would preach on a circuit and I'd go with him to some of these tiny churches.  The people there, mostly older folks, liked the old hymns best - Fanny Crosby and so on.

So, some of my "favorite hymns" are going to be those that I sang when I was out with my Dad.  Fond memories from long ago.

In 1986 I was finally diagnosed with Cushing's after struggling with doctors and trying to get them to test for about 5 years.  I was going to go into the NIH (National Institutes of Health) in Bethesda, MD for final testing and then-experimental pituitary surgery.

I was terrified and sure that I wouldn't survive the surgery.

Somehow, I found a 3-tape set of Readers Digest Hymns and songs of Inspiration and ordered that. The set came just before I went to NIH and I had it with me.

At NIH I set up a daily "routine" of sorts and listening to these tapes was a very important part of my day and helped me get through the ordeal of more testing, surgery, post-op and more.

When I had my kidney cancer surgery, the tapes were long broken, but I had replaced all the songs - this time on my iPod.

Abide With Me was on this tape set and it remains a favorite to this day.  Whenever we have an opportunity in church to pick a favorite, my hand always shoots up and I request page 700.  When someone in one of my handbell groups moves away, we always sign a hymnbook and give it to them.  I sign page 700.

I think that many people would probably think that this hymn is depressing.  Maybe it is but to me it signifies times in my life when I thought I might die and I was so comforted by the sentiments here.
This hymn is often associated with funeral services and has given hope and comfort to so many over the years - me included.

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
~John 15:7


Abide With Me
Words: Henry F. Lyte, 1847.
Music: Eventide, William H. Monk, 1861. Mrs. Monk described the setting:
    This tune was written at a time of great sorrow—when together we watched, as we did daily, the glories of the setting sun. As the last golden ray faded, he took some paper and penciled that tune which has gone all over the earth.
Lyte was inspired to write this hymn as he was dying of tuberculosis; he finished it the Sunday he gave his farewell sermon in the parish he served so many years. The next day, he left for Italy to regain his health. He didn’t make it, though—he died in Nice, France, three weeks after writing these words. Here is an excerpt from his farewell sermon:
    O brethren, I stand here among you today, as alive from the dead, if I may hope to impress it upon you, and induce you to prepare for that solemn hour which must come to all, by a timely acquaintance with the death of Christ.
For over a century, the bells of his church at All Saints in Lower Brixham, Devonshire, have rung out “Abide with Me” daily. The hymn was sung at the wedding of King George VI, at the wedding of his daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth II, and at the funeral of Nobel peace prize winner Mother Teresa of Calcutta in1997.


Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.
Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.
Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word;
But as Thou dwell’st with Thy disciples, Lord,
Familiar, condescending, patient, free.
Come not to sojourn, but abide with me.
Come not in terrors, as the King of kings,
But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings,
Tears for all woes, a heart for every plea—
Come, Friend of sinners, and thus bide with me.
Thou on my head in early youth didst smile;
And, though rebellious and perverse meanwhile,
Thou hast not left me, oft as I left Thee,
On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.
I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.
I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.
Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

Upcoming Series on Hymns

A while ago, when I was still playing at being Interim Assistant Director of Music - whew, that's a mouthful! - I was asked about possibly writing a monthly blog post about something musical.

I thought for a while about what I could write about and came up with a few ideas.

I'm no longer in that position but I figured I could still write about my ideas, at least some of them.

The first topic I'm going to hit is hymns.

At the beginning, they're probably going to be posted in 3 places, depending on their meaning to me.

Hymns that have a lot of meaning to me will get posted on O'Connor O'Riginals and O'Connor Music Studio

Hymns that I used to help me through Cushing's and/or kidney cancer surgery will be posted also on Cushing's and Cancer.

Hymns that are just historical in nature will only be on O'Connor Music Studio

My first post, helpful to me in all areas of my life will be posted on all three blogs.  Sorry about the cross-posting!

Stay tuned later today for Abide With Me.