Seen & Heard: Piano Man

••• I was lukewarm to the idea of British artist Luke Jerram’s “Play Me, I’m Yours,” in which 60 pianos have been placed around the city, until I passed the one in City Hall Park this afternoon. (It’s to the southeast of the Tweed Courthouse, in the Warren Street passageway.) The city has enough noise going on, and enough street music, too. But a man was playing “Begin the Beguine”—perfectly—and it was so right. Maybe what we really need is more Cole Porter in our lives. There’s another photo below. [UPDATE: An organizer of the project—who lives in Tribeca—points out that the NYC debut of Luke Jerram’s work was “created by the NYC-homegrown non-profit ‘artists’ peace corps’ organization Sing for Hope. The 60 pianos in the five boroughs represent thousands of volunteer hours of Sing for Hope’s artists from leading companies who donated time and talent to bring the street pianos to NYC.”]

••• Torly Kid‘s summer sale started today: ““Summer clothes 20-50% off. We’ve got lots of great styles left! Appaman, Misha Lulu, Tea, EGG, Mish Mish, Saurette and much more! Sizes newborn to 12.”

••• Ward III is celebrating its first anniversary (congratulations!): “Festivities include a new cocktail list (launching Thursday-ish), and Maker’s Mark cocktails on Saturday. We’ll feature something special on Friday as well, and Sunday we’re not even going to talk about.”

••• Takahachi Bakery has announced that it’ll be closed Sundays in July and August.

 

2 Comments

  1. This is so strange. My playlist had just finished up Begin the Beguine seconds before I read this. I’m the piano buddy for the City Hall piano on July 3 and 4th and will be praciting some tunes before it diappears. Buddies don’t actually have to play the pianos – just unlock and relock them each day. You can sign up here: http://singforhope.org/buddy/

  2. I love the idea of pianos scattered about for anyone to play. We saw them in London and I’m glad they’ve made their way here.