Dear List Members: First, I would like to express my appreciation to the Piano Technicians Guild for throwing one heck of a convention and party at Bally's in Vegas. My focus this time was on hammers and voicing and I thank Andre Oorebeek and Paul Rea for the epiphany in those areas and let my gratitude not go unmentioned to the other fine instructors and courses I was fortunate to attend this past weekend. Secondly, the convention was a great opportunity to reconnect with those I met at the California Convention in Burbank last year. The biggest surprise was seeing my traveling buddy, Bob, from Connecticut who, with Paul Rea and his wife Dorie, made up the foursome that went to Hradec Kralove and Prague Memorial Day of 2009. Unfortunately, I did not know about the online tech gathering on Tuesday at noon. I did meet Dale Probst who was trying to put this together and spoke to him briefly while things were still up in the air, but I didn't see anything posted on the bulletin board and so assumed it was not going to happen. However, I did meet a few contributors by chance in the lobby or elevators of the hotel. I have read some of the posts about Bally's Hotel and their negative experience. On the other side of the coin, my room on the 25th floor of the North Tower was clean, spacious, and had an incredible view. Being the type that will talk to anyone, I got to know my housekeeper whose work was impeccable. I certainly understand the feeling of those who do not find a casino their cup of tea, but there are also those who love the ambiance and adrenaline rush once one enters the world of bells, whistles, and flashing lights, myself included whereby one walk-through will provide a panoramic view of the good, the bad, and the ugly and everything in between.......it's just a microcosm of life itself compressed, like a Rococo artwork, into a world of shallow elegance. As for the cost of dining, the days of the 99 cent breakfast and the $3.99 steak dinner went with the expulsion of the Mob. Some have already mentioned Ellis Island behind the casino which provided food at a very reasonable cost and it was tasty to boot! Regardless of where a convention is held, it pays to get out and explore a little bit and I have little doubt that hotel food will be more costly than at dining venues elsewhere. Be that as it may, I hope the opportunity to meet more of those on the list will present itself in the future, and once again, my heartfelt thanks to all who worked so hard to provide this opportunity and whose presence so wonderfully enhanced my experience in being there. Sincerely, Anthony G. Bajada PTG Assoc. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100701/5801dc66/attachment.htm>
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