d’Arte Board

After wildly successful runs of “Play Me, I’m Yours” in London, Sydney, Sao Paulo, and Barcelona, artist Luke Jerram brought his vision–and 60 pianos–to the five boroughs on Monday, where they’ll stay through July 5.

Since the installation’s NYC debut coincided with the longest day of the year, I was able to make my way to the exhibit closest to my abode (Brooklyn Bridge Park) right before the last vestiges of daylight faded. I was worried that at 9:00, the piano would be locked for the night, or that nobody would be playing it. I needn’t have worried: as I approached, the newest keys to the city were held by a young Orthodox man as his sisters looked on (and CNN.com videotaped).

Waiting in the wings while he finished was this woman, who said she hadn’t played in quite a while and was reticent. After a little egging on by the assembled masses (including the bench’s previous occupant and this writer), she killed it!

Next up was this little cutie and her beaming mom.

Then it was mama’s turn. Holy cow, this lady was some kind of instructor or professional player. Amazing!

And lastly, this guy and his friends were strolling by and he decided to give it a go with a jazzy freestyle number before jumping up, shouting “your turn,” and running off.

“YOUR TURN!”

If you’re in NYC between now and the holiday weekend, I hope you’ll make a point of checking out one of the sites and participating in this project!

These are small digital things that are shaped like album covers but I never bothered making up stupid names for:

If anyone is familiar with the European Jazz label ECM, this is my take on what all their album covers look like.

-JD

I grew up in the age before “Goth” split into subsects like Emo. Many of these probably fit under that heading now. Whatever. This exercise was to relive the hilariousness of that movement because for all its self-importance goths are really easy to imitate and, as I said, hilarious. Imagine finding these in overlarge plastic security vices in a Sam Goody in a mall somewhere selling for 18$ each while hair metal plays on the speakers.

-JD