The Musikmesse in Frankfurt was an amazing experience, especially after only playing 4 different pianos since going to Benin.  

http://musik.messefrankfurt.com/frankfurt/de/home.html

The piano section must have had over 200 pianos in, many of them grands.  So much fun and you were allowed to play any of them.  The sound in the hall was quite something, with so many tunes coming from so many instruments.  Sometimes, there´d be some guy playing a bit of jazz and I´d sit down on the next piano and join in.  Plenty of fun jam sessions and we even got an audience a couple of times!

After a while, I decided to do a tour of all the grands and test them out, making notes on how they sounded.  I would begin by playing just bottom ´C´to hear if it had a good ´growl,´then I´d try the top octave to see if the tone was still bright there.  If both were afirmative, I´d play a tune.  If not, no point proceeding!  Pianos I particularly enjoyed were:

• Sauter          http://www.sauter-pianos.de/english/index.php?noselection=1
• Rud. Ibach    http://www.ibach.de/eng/ibach-e.htm
• Bohemia       http://www.bohemiapiano.cz/
• Pearl River    http://www.pearlriverpiano.com/eprp/aboutus.html

Some interesting ones there.  Pearl River is Chinese, but had a very good sound.  Couldn´t say how durable one would be though.  I was also impressed with the Czech made Bohemia piano.  However, for me the best of all was the…

Fazioli       http://www.fazioli.com/eng/index.php

…an amazing tone, especially on the full-size grand.   Of course, there were Yamahas, Bechsteins, Blüthners etc, which I didn´t try out much, because I already know how good they are!  Well, dream on, Rob!  Maybe one day you´ll own one!!

Today we´ve been having HAILSTORMS!!!  Yes, quite amazing, especially having not seen snow or anything like it for so long.

This afternoon, I give a seminar on notation and transcription (and, yes, there is a difference - in purpose if not in what the end result looks like!)  Then tomorrow, I give a presentation on the music and dance of the BaAka pygmies of CAR/Congo.  Interesting stuff, based on the book Seize the Dance by Michelle Kisliuk http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195117867/104-4552471-8199927?v=glance&n=283155

hey, I´m enjoying this hyperlink business!  Fun, eh?

Finally, and somewhat randomly, I was chatting to a guy from SIL Dallas today and he told me a couple of great palindromic sentences:

A man a plan a canal Panama.

and the lesser known, but fun:

Go hang a salami, I’m a lasagna hog.

Anyone got any others?  Send ‘em in!

On that note, I´ll sign off.

 Rob