Ragtime

No, that doesn't mean that I think it's time to rag on anyone. I'm actually referring to the style of music. (Check out Wikipedia's background if you don't know to what I am referring.) So, yeah. Ragtime. I think it's pretty nifty! Rebecca and I used to play duets out of a Ragtime piano duet book. We have a lot of fun laughs and memories over those duets. Lately I've created and started listening to a station on Pandora based on Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer." Here's Mr. Joplin himself: My opinion is that he was an awfully talented guy. The station based on his work is pretty much the friendliest music station anyone could ever ask for. My mood always lifts when I hear the cheery piano tunes.

Other memories of Ragtime I have include a Ragtime piano player who sat outside one of the eateries in Disneyland and played for a few hours. I even caught a snippet of that on video (but unfortunately I'm not at home with current access to that video, or I'd post it with this post). Also, when the latter end of the family took a vacation on a cruise to Alaska, there was a piano player in the main lobby of the ship. He was rill good at his job of being an "Entertainer" (pun intended) for the vacationers, and one day Rebecca and I were awed with his ability to play Scott Joplin all by his lonesome at such a quick tempo. Though he was almost playing too quickly, he inspired me to come home from the vacation and work on playing my own Scott Joplin music in non-duet form. 'Twas quite fun for me to get better at the piano through that experiment.

In summary, if you're feeling down, my suggestion is to listen to a bit of Ragtime on Pandora. I know I sure heart it!

p.s. I just listened to a song by an artist named Fats Waller! If a genre of music has a guy with that name, it's just gotta be cool.