More on NAAM

After seeing a lot in the main convention center, I headed over to Yamaha’s display… it filled up an entire convention hall in the nearby Marriot. I met Mr. and Mrs. Downs. They showed me around the place and told me which demos to make sure and see.

First, I saw the Downs' presentation of the new Disclavier. I was amazed with their presentation. It was so smooth and intresting while at the same time it maintained a wonderful scope. It was really cool to see and was the first presentation I didn't get bored through. Mrs. Downs is a very talented musician and I always thoroughly enjoy hearing her play. Here’s a sample from a show she did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we3uTrakD7s

Next, Mrs. Downs told me I had to see the demo of the new Tyros3 keyboard. It was played by the very talented stylist from England who modeled the voices. You can see his demonstration online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vZauXFY1_c&eurl=http://www.music-tyros.com/en/movies/index.html. (Once you get past the long introduction, he explains some of the features.)

The last show I saw was presenting the AvantGrand. It’s a digital piano that’s supposed to have the look, feel, and sound of a concert grand. I was quite impressed with it. I don’t play piano, so I don’t know how it felt, but it sounded just like a real piano… well… there were a couple places it almost sounded like a sythasizer, but for the most part, it was quite impressive. I believe it contains 12 speakers and 2 transducers. The transducers are used to vibrate the piano so it “feels” just the same. It sounded a whole lot better in person than it does on their demo video. (http://www.avant-grand.com/)

Mrs. Downs talked to some people and let me try a stick-cello! (http://www.yamaha.com/yamahavgn/CDA/ContentDetail/ModelSeriesDetail/0,,CNTID%25253D5014337%252526CTID%25253D232400,00.html) It was kind of weird. To me, it sounded like a cheap cello, but it didn’t have any wolf notes. The entire G-string seemed to be a sweet spot, so that was kind of annoying. It was fun and would be great for practicing, but unless you were playing something like a quartet version of Coldplay, I doubt you’d want one.

I saw a ton of other things including the new LED stage lighting, green laser shows, cool connectors, really expensive microphones, some famous pop-stars, some famous bands, etc. but unless you want to read five pages of text, I think I should stop here. And, no, I didn't want to wait in the line to get autographs of people I only recognized the name of... Now, if I could sell it on eBay, that might be a different story :-)

After the show, the Downs very kindly offered to bring me out to dinner. It was a blast, and not having eaten with anyone but myself in a week, it was a very welcome reprieve. I was going to drive everyone to the restaurant… but… well… it’s a long story.

First, Mr. Downs asked me where I was parked. I didn’t know the name of the lot, but I knew which bus went to it. Well… the bus wasn’t there, so I told them I thought it was basically on the other side of the block. Mr. Downs said he knew of a short-cut, so we started walking there… Well… we walked to the other side of the block and there was no parking garage in sight. After humming and hawing for a long while, I got the brilliant idea of calling home to ask someone to look it up. Kellie kindly told me where to go, so we walked another city block and saw it… on the other side of a busy rode. That meant a long jog to an intersection and back. When we got to the garage, I was sure I knew where my car was, but when we got to the 3rd level, I couldn’t find it anywhere. I then realized the parking garage was divided into two, sub-garages and we were in the wrong half, so we all walked to the other end of the rather large parking garage. No car there, either. I then realized we had gone up a level while walking to the other end, so we had to go back down a level. STILL no car. The fact that I was embarrassed wasn’t allowing me to think clearly, either :-) I finally told the Downs to wait there and I’d go look for it. After running all the way across the parking garage and back, I found my car… right where I left the Downs standing. It was a rather embarrassing half hour of walking, but the Downs were really nice about it :-) Mr. Downs seems to know the city inside-out, so he was able to get us away from traffic and to our restaurant. (See? I know how to spell it! THANKS!) Anyway, the dinner was really good and I really enjoyed spending some time with the Downs. They’re an extremely nice couple and it was nice to be with someone, let alone someone from our church, for once :-) (I didn’t think I’d get tired of being by myself after the first week!) After dropping the Downs off at their hotel, I went to my hotel room, fat and happy.

Oh, I learned something new tonight – wash your new dishcloths before you use them and they work a whole lot better. I think Mom’s told me that before, but I’d never really been in the market for dishcloths until now.

I got more GRAPEFUIT JUICE tonight! YUM! No artichokes, though. It’s sad how such a great food has such a small corner of the store freezer. It should be the center of the store! The pinnacle of food! The icon of grocery stores! Ok, I'll go back to my padded cell.

Stay tuned for Knott’s Berry Farm!