Another O'Keefe Makes It To The Rhino

Piano Man from Soul of Athens on Vimeo.
I found this video of Rick O'Keefe in Athens, Ohio. Anyone ever see him there? Interesting guy!

Dr. Cornelius "Thumbs" Pianeer - A Biography

Artist Rendering of Dr. Cornelius "Thumbs" Pianeer in the Appalachian Highlands.

The Early Life of Cornelius Pianeer

Dr. Cornelius "Thumbs" Pianeer was born in the state of Michigan in the 1950s, the fifth child of nine, "like the center note of a kalimba with two older brothers and two older sisters and two younger brothers and two younger sisters and I learned how to play them all."

As a child he showed no musical talent whatsoever, though he was good at mischief and everyone could count on him to come up with a plan when a plan was needed. "That's what you call 'im-prov-i-za-tion,' son."

Dr. Pianeer dropped out of college when he was 19 and went to Ireland where he worked shoveling cow poop on a farm until he learned some humility. It was in Limerick, Ireland, while playing his thumb piano in a cow pasture that he was visited by the fairies and given the gift of song.

Unable to find a lass and settle down, Dr. Pianeer returned to Michigan where he flunked Basic Harmony and decided to pursue the ministry. He sold all his possessions, bought a backpack and went to the Grand Canyon where he lived in a cave for a month and lost his favourite thumb piano. Dr. Pianeer then followed the rain to the great northwest where he found an Irish lass and settled down on the shores of Puget Sound.

Thumb Piano Brings the Rain

It's said the thumb piano brings the rain. In Africa, thumb piano musicians are recruited to drought-stricken areas. Dr. Pianeer says "the thumb piano should always be played near running water because that's the rhythm it follows. If there's no running water, the thumb piano will make its own."

Living on the edge of a rain forest on the Olympic Peninsula, Dr. Pianeer perfected his style without causing problems for the locals due to all the rain. On vacations, his Irish wife asked him to leave the thumb pianos at home.

Dr. Pianeer was living the good life, roaming the mountains and the seas, making up shanties on his thumb pianos, calling in tides and sending out vibes. That all ended when his Irish bride went a little crazy and moved to New Orleans and Dr. Pianeer tagged along.

At the Crossroads in New Orleans

By this time, Dr. Pianeer had secured a Doctorate of Divinity from the Universal Life Church of Seattle, Washington, and paid $89 extra to get a fancy diploma, clergy cards, and a binder with all the language for all the typical ceremonies of the world's major religions. He was prepared to recite ceremonies for birth, transition to adulthood, marriage, sickness, death and despair in five faiths. In New Orleans, he added a few more.

Dr. Pianeer quickly became involved with the Catholic Church and several Voodoo churches in New Orleans, working as a teacher, musician and healer. "The thumb piano was made for healing. It sets peoples minds at ease."

At the Voodoo Spiritual Temple on Rampart Street, near the crossroads at Congo Square, Dr. Pianeer performed a piano service four mornings a week for the tourists and "the Loa." He was billed as The Piano Priest of New Orleans and was known as a friend to the disadvantaged.

"Sometimes people throwed money in, sometimes they took it out," Dr. Pianeer said of the collection plate that was passed during his performances. The Temple also served as a soup kitchen and sleeping shelter and Dr. Pianeer often played to a roomful of sleeping bags and vomit. "Young folks got no place to go if they can't go home."

Hurricane Katrina and the Beginning of the End

Alone, divorced, mentally fragile, Dr. Pianeer lived in the Faubourg Marigny off the French Quarter in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina came and washed away all his flock. Dr. Pianeer stayed another three years, helping rebuild St. Roch Church and lifting the spirits of his listeners and visiting the hospitals with his healing kalimba.

But Dr. Pianeer's own health declined and he was certified mentally ill and put on tranquilizers. The hurricanes kept coming and people learned the thumb piano brings water and they asked Dr. Pianeer to stop. That's when he met another lass, Miss Amelia Mae, an artist and religious scholar who was also alone, divorced and mentally complex. The two of them ran off together to the Shenandoah Valley to recuperate and try again.

Way Back Up in the Woods Among the Evergreens

They lived in the woods where they made art and music and love. Dr. Pianeer learned how to rile-up the cicadas with his Karimba thumb piano, which has rattles attached. "You can play it at night and they all line up on it. Cicadas, frogs, crickets, birds -- they all love the kalimba and will line up on it if you play long enough."

One of Dr. Pianeer's first recorded performances is in the woods in the mountains with the crickets and the crows. "I got the call that my daughter's pappy-in-law got the word he got cancer. So I went outside and played a healing song for him, and it came out 'Ditty for Daniel,' and the crows came in at the end. I recorded it on my phone and sent it over to Nashville for him but it didn't do any good."

After five years in the mountains, Dr. Pianeer and his artist wife Mae moved into town and Dr. Pianeer volunteered at the local school for the deaf and the blind since he knew a little sign language on account of being a 10-religion minister and helper of the disadvantaged. Well wouldn't you know they put him with the blind kids instead of the deaf ones, so he learned how to read and write Braille and how to work with young people who, like him, have cognitive difficulties.

The Healing Powers of the Thumb Piano

One thing leads to another, don't you know, and Dr. Pianeer is now working with a blind audio engineer who showed him how to better record the thumb piano. Now Dr. Pianeer travels around the world with his artist wife Mae, playing healing thumb piano and recording thumb piano, and a blind engineer makes it all sound good on the stereo!

Dr. Pianeer expects the Big Shot behind the dozen religions he has mastered will soon call him to perform in another dimension "where human beings ain't allowed." These healing recordings will be all that's left to help future generations understand the healing powers of the kalimba, the karimba, the thumb piano, the mbira, the sansula, the tamboola and all the other variations of tuned tines. "Just watch out for the water."

Wren I Call Your Name

LissenUp!

I givin' y'all a PRE RELEEZ of this new ambien' masterpeez, "Wren I Call Your Name," bein' a DUIT between yerz trooly and a Wren! I dedkate this peez to Conor Seraphim O'Keez 'count of hez love of the Wren and hez love of TRAINS which, if yer lis'nin, come 'bout 30 sekenz and the Wren come 'bout three.

Yerz Trooly!
Dr. Cornelius "Thumbs" Pianeer

https://drive.google.com/open?id=16UO821wMOXJdd_VYcvIS3aNi2ixH4_Bl

THUMBS DRIVE Track Listings

This Giftmas, I provided Seraphim, Tom, Barry, and Donald each with a THUMBS DRIVE containing four CDs of the legendary Appalachian-American, Dr. Cornelius Pianeer. I have since mailed a THUMBS DRIVE to Cristy & Kelly and Owen. Hopefully, y'all got your THUMBS DRIVES. Here's a copy of the track listings in case y'all want to be educated about what you're listening to. Enjoy!

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Chess Boy: Capablanca’s Golden Bishop, Part 8

Created digitally, kind of a different look. I think I like analog better for Chess Boy, but doing stuff in color on digital is pretty sweet, stay tuned...

Chess Boy: Capablanca's Golden Bishop, Part 7

Chess Boy: Capablanca's Golden Bishop, Part 6

Chess Boy: Capablanca's Golden Bishop, Part 5

For some reason the scan picked up a lot of what I thought were erased pencil lines, maybe I'll try to clean it up later.

Christmas Bugs

I actually drew this comic last year but I just found it. I had drawn two more empty panels after these, but I can't remember what was going to go in them, likely more bugs.

4 Panel Space Saga

Well, folks:

I am pleased to present you with the product of several weeks' intensive comic drawing labor! 

Might Sound Better With the Sound Turned Off

Some have asked, "UNK, how do you get those strange sounds from your piano?"
So glad you asked! Here is a two-minute illustration of my piano fisting technique.

Chess Boy: Capablanca's Golden Bishop, Part 4

Skating Song Snippet

 

The short video, below, is a test of a new recording format for me. I'd appreciate any comments on the visual presentation and the audio. Is it too loud? Too muddy? This snippet is similar to "The Skating Song" on the CD "Christmas Raga." Notice the iconography! Enjoy!

 

HUMBLE GIVINGS

*KhRRRM* (to quote Conor)

I hereby propose to announce a new Christmas Policy, or rather, thematic guideline, proposed to me by m'colleague Tom, on Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve EveEve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve EveEve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve

* * * *

WHEREAS the truest gifts, are those which cannot be grasped nor even seen and

WHEREAS the spirit of the season is frequently burdened, obscured, clotted and obstructed by excess, and

WHEREAS a proliferation of bohemian decision making has deprived all but the patriarch of substantial means, and

WHEREAS the young, also, due to the arrival of many new "little tubs" are not only constrained monetarily but temporally, and

WHEREAS resourcefulness and scrappitude are guiding principles of the culture, as passed down especially from the matriarch, and

WHEREAS the greatest gifts come in small packages, and

WHEREAS the Lore of the Season emphasizes and enshrines especially that which is of especially small stature

SUCHAS The Tim of small proporsh in the Carol and, also, the Givings of a petite percussionist, and 

MOREOVER the smallness and humilitude of even the central figurine of the Babe, and the most humble quality of his bedchambers are immortalized and preserved in many songs and verses, 

THEREFORE

In the spirit of past guidelines such as Many Gifts, we resolve to institute a guideline of "Humble Givings" to be instituted in this season. 

SUCHTHAT those participants may be not only liberated but encouraged to fixate upon that which might be overlooked due to its diminutive nature, either in market value, physical size, or that which, in form or function, attains or aspires only to the smallest. 

* * * *

Merry Boxing Day Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve EveEve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve

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Chess Boy: Capablanca's Golden Bishop, Part 3

Cardboard Rhino Live (read down, then second row)

Sunday Comic from Cardboard Rhino Live

Space Comic

Dad suggested that people make space comics so I made one.

Chess Boy: Capablanca's Golden Bishop, Part. 2

Chess Boy: Capablanca's Golden Bishop Part 1