Piano Man

 

Last weekend I had the chance to meet up with my dear friend Jeremy (he was getting his doctorate under Martin Katz while I was at U of M) and help him drive across country and set up his new apartment in Bloomington, Indiana, where he is just beginning a post-doctoral fellowship and teaching classes at Indiana University.  He’s basically one of the smartest and most talented people I know so it’s no surprise one of the largest and best music schools in the country caught on as well.

After flying into Hartford, Connecticut I was picked up by Jeremy, who had just finished up working at a camp in Lenox, Massachusetts and we were off to Buffalo, New York to go to his parents house, have a quick dinner and get a bit of a nap in before the 13 hour overnight drive.  As nothing particularly interesting occurred during the trip there really isn’t that much to report on.  Towards the last four hours of the drive we would switch off sleeping and driving and arrived in Bloomington relatively refreshed. 

Luckily for Jeremy (and by proxy myself and my back) his parents had gone down earlier in the month to accept and unload the Pod that had been packed in Minneapolis before Jeremy was gone for the Summer.  Prior to tackling the re-arranging and decorating, however, we grabbed breakfast at one of Bloomington’s most well known eateries—the Runcible Spoon!  I think I can comfortably say that breakfast is mine and Jeremy’s favorite type of food

“They dined on mince and slices of quince, which they ate with a runcible spoon…” ~ The Owls and the Pussycat, by Edward Lear

 

After breakfast it was back to the apartment for a quick nap then off to shop for the necessaries!  For the next couple of days we slowly pieced the place together, with Jeremy taking care of his responsibilities (faculty ID, class schedule, etc) in the mornings and coming back in the early afternoon.  I basically would wake up and think to myself: “Okay, if this were my place how would I decorate it?”… and then I would just do it.  Luckily he didn’t take too much issue with my work so it worked well for both sides!

Jeremy, lording himself over his new dominion in true Lady Strauss mode. (Umm, by the way, that coat rack was only $12!)

 

While in Bloomington I also had the chance to meet up with another fellow U of M friend and have lunch.  Lenora and I both did our Masters degrees together and it has been a while since I have seen her!

SOUTHERNERS UNITE!!!!!

 

I also had a chance to check out Jeremy’s new office (he has a grand piano!) and on my way to the music building I noticed that, though he had only been there for a scant few days, they had already erected a statue in his honor:

They even got the coat right!!

 

I leave you finally with the “advertisement” Jeremy made for his class, in which he will talk about different styles of singing, the singers who were great at it, why they made the musical decisions they did, and what is appropriate to do in our day and age.  Sounds a little dry, right?  Well… as this video is proof, it will be nothing of the sort.

I kiiiiinda wanna apply to Indiana University just so I can take this class.  (Though, I suppose I could just call him up and ask any pertinent questions if I really needed to.)

 

Artist: Billy Joel/ Album: Piano Man