So I just finished working on the Elton John's Funeral For a Friend.

Every Halloween I try to have this polished up. I first played the piece soon after Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was released.
Like every other piano-playing kid in those days I waited for the music books to be released after the albums.
After running through the sheet music a musician will begin to add their own flourishes and touches. Everything from additional chords in a segue, to changes in tempo and dynamics. Never underestimate the joy in adding an additional verse done strictly as an improvised solo either.
There are three taboos to fucking with another composer's music:
1. Classical Music. You play it as written unless you're screwing around and it's expected by the audience.
2. Ragtime Music. Um, I occasionally break this rule and there is a lot of controversy about this between devotees of this rather obscure genre. Don't tell.
3. Funeral For a Friend by Elton John. I have always played this as written by Elton. Maybe because it's the best juxtaposition of classical and rock out there. Even all these years later I'll pull out the raggedy-ass copy of the sheet music about 2 weeks before Halloween.
Other than these 3 exceptions I'll do a read though of the piece as written and almost immediately begin inserting my own touches.

This year is different. I was not physically able to work on Funeral for Friend until two days ago. Believe it or not it is a demanding piece. The beginning is quite simple but by the change to Love Lies Bleeding I'm beating the hell out of the piano like Jerry Lee Lewis. Or Ben Folds. Or Elton John.

There is NOTHING as satisfying as playing a difficult, kick-ass piano piece for an audience that appreciates it. Not even good sex can rival the feeling. I can't believe I fucking wrote that either. Clearly being confined to the house for three weeks is destroying my brain.

Well, Funeral for a Friend now sounds great as ever on the upright here at the apartment. Am sure that the poor neighbors would agree. My hands are killing me too.
Ran through some other stuff I'm used to playing at Halloween shows. You know, Werewolves of London, Creep, and a few Chopin nocturnes that will inspire suicidal feelings in the most jaded of humans.
Unfortunately there is no one to listen except for myself and of course the neighbors.

I'm an egomaniac with low self-esteem. A paradox with a piano and no outlet for my musical expression.

Yes it is satisfying playing music for my own edification. It is far MORE satisfying to play for an audience.
Despite butterflies, fear, inevitable wrong chords and notes, I miss it. Even at Halloween. Maybe especially now.
Every band I've ever played in scheduled a Halloween gig. During the years I played solo I always made sure there were plenty of holiday tunes in the repertoire for that most wonderful of evenings. God I can remember throwing in the Addams Family a few times when playing piano bars in the LA area. I've a knack for picking up TV show themes and transforming them into rag versions of their former selves. Yet another useless yet bizarre talent to my credit.

I guess the point of this blog is to say I'm glad to have Funeral sounding great, but disconsolate being unable to share it.

This year Halloween in Reno is bittersweet. Memories…
Elaborate and fabulous parties I would throw in Long Beach, the parades in Greenwich Village while living in NYC, the many years playing riotous and always fun Halloween shows in various bands on both coasts, seeing Oingo Boingo play their annual Halloween show in LA.

If you're driving though my neighborhood this week you're not hearing things. You probably do hear Funeral for a Friend coming in through the car window. You might be surprised at the passion, sadness and strength in the notes.

~Miss R

What goes together better than Nevada Day and Egg Creams?
It's enjoying a home made egg cream on Nevada day while listening to Beck, one of my favorite L.A. musicians. C'mon he even mentions Reno in a song.

I'm not a native Nevadan. Since moving to Reno I'd have to say that maybe 10% of the folks I've met are native to this city. Maybe 15% total were born in Nevada.
This is akin to the joke when I was growing up in Los Angles about finding a native of California. Basically, there were none.
Yes I know that uttering the words California and Nevada in the same sentence is blasphemy. Learned that within days of coming here. Thankfully my move to Nevada was from Michigan and the car didn't have CA plates.
Especially BAY AREA plates.
That's apparently grounds for death by stoning here.
What did I know? I moved here to be with my boyfriend (the prick left me within 60 days of my move to Reno not that I'm still bitter) who was/is a Professor of Atmospheric Physics at UNR.

Confessions of a City Girl:
Week Two as a resident of the Biggest Little City in The World…..

"Hey Girly 'yer hair is so curly and pretty." says a guy about three seats over
"Thank you, I appreciate you saying so" say I, having been raised with good manners.
"Say! It that a New York accent? Are you one of them Jews from Jew York?" he snickers.
--my overloaded brain has a split second to react--
1. Admit the east coast connection (will I EVER lose the Brooklyn inflection on those vowels?!) or
2. WORSE admit I grew up in California; known bastion of liberal commie rich bastard swine who are single-handedly responsible for driving up housing costs, bringing pedophilia back into vogue, and causing all of the C&W bars to close in favor of local rock music venues.
As the drool begins to form at the corner of my mouth I hear my voice spouting…
"MICHIGAN! I come in peace. I came here from Michigan. Is that okay? You know I LOVE NEVADA. Michigan sucks." Which from my personal experience is true.

The guy became quite nice after that and seemed apologetic. I finished my espresso and left. God if he figured that I was from California and could also make an Egg Cream to die for it would've been all over.
I have no fucking idea what he was doing in a coffee bar either.
As an aside the place I'm referring to is Deux Gros Nez and they make a divine espresso. For some strange reason they also have egg creams on the menu. Naturally one day I had to order one. It sucked. You were warned.

My point is that Reno seems to be a quintessential melting pot. There are people here from every state in the country and several other countries as well. Last Christmas I was dating a sweet Australian guy named Ross. He never 'got' the laughter which ensued when we'd go out and people would discover that our names were Ross and Rachael. Luckily for Australia  Friends never caught on.

Nevada is the only state that has, to my knowledge, their own holiday. How cool is that? Even better? It's officially on Halloween. Auspicious indeed.

Check out this float from the Nevada Day Parade in 1939. Sure it looks like a fine sculpted pile of sand or borax is being deified, but look closer. No, a LOT closer. You'll notice that the real point is that Nevada was celebrating it's proudest moment in US History to that date: The longest telegram ever sent.

According to some research I've done it seems that the Nevada State Constitution, and the petition for statehood, was sent via Telegraph to Washington D.C.
Try that today and you'll get a monster phone bill and thirteen binders of documentation to be filled out in triplicate and returned to Washington. As if they'd include a postage paid envelope either.
There are some cool pictures of old Nevada Day celebrations available online, at the wonderful Museum in Carson City and in library archives. I found another old float picture from a 1930's Nevada Day Parade. It shows a bear menacing either women and children or piles of borax and sand. The Bear is the State Symbol of California so it could be the Donner Party quaking there, prior to the snowfall. Maybe this state rivalry predates the last 10 years. Food for thought.
Hey the Donner Party were food for thought too.

People from Nevada are proud to be here. I understand. 25 minutes to some of the best skiing in the world, two great lakes to swim in, endless miles of hiking and biking trails, and the great sunny summers. I love it here.

What's better than a holiday? Especially one that no one else in the country gets to celebrate? A day off from school and work? I'm thinking of staying here permanently.
You should consider it too.
Just don't mention anything about California or New York. We'll just keep slowly bringing sushi and egg creams into the mainstream Reno culture.
Maybe in 10 years we newcomers will be acclimated.
I've already located Fox's U-Bet at Raley's on Virginia and they're having a sale on Club Soda this week too.
We'll have an ex-patriate float featuring sashimi and  Fox's U-Bet Chocolate Syrup.
The two great tastes that do not go great together.
 They can abide side by side in Nevada though.

~Miss R

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