scary costume

[Benjamin Treuhaft]

HALLOWEEN, 1996                         CONTACT: BENJAMIN TREUHAFT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                   (510) 843-3823 PH/FAX


ILLEGAL TUNER'S HALLOWEEN FLIGHT TO CUBA:
DRESSES UP AS PIANO TO CONFOUND FEDS
     A frightening 88-note apparition will board Allegro flight #6865
from SF International Airport Halloween at midnight, final destination:
Havana.
     Benjamin Treuhaft, a Berkeley piano tuner with U.S. Department of
Commerce permission to ship a dozen pianos to Cuban kids and teachers,
has been barred by the Department of Treasury from traveling there to
tune them up. In desperation, Treuhaft has decided to act in the spirit
of the national holiday and go anyway, disguised as one of the licensed
pianos, a 1935 Lester studio upright.
     The tuner is anxious to meet the Russian freighter Kapara when it
arrives in Havana from Montreal with tons of pianos and related
supplies for Project Send a Piana to Havana - the shipment dedicated to
Treuhaft's mother, the late Jessica Mitford.  In honor of the famous
muckraker's glee with the success of the project in exposing the folly
of the U.S. embargo on Cuba, her admirers have contributed over $35,000
in pianos and cash - including $22,000 from her husband, Oakland
attorney Robert Treuhaft.
     Treuhaft hopes the piano costume, made by Kensington conceptual
artist Hal Carlstad, will confuse any government officials at the
airport tonight if they try to enforce the 30-year travel ban on Cuba.
     Carlstad's guerrilla creations are familiar to anyone attending
peace demonstrations in the Bay Area.  If you need a life-size prison
cell complete with hatch-marks on the wall (to mark days left in an
unjust sentence), Hal's your man.  Just bashed some Trident missiles
with a sledge-hammer?  Hal makes realistic nuclear subs for your
defense demo.  And his macabre coffins have graced many recent San
Quentin death-watches.  This assignment was particularly demanding, in
that the piano will have to collapse to carry-on size.
     Cuba's National Music Museum in Havana will be the first recipient
of a piano from the Mitford shipment.  Last Monday a piano competition
was held at the Museum.  The winner, to be announced this Sunday, will
get a professional upright.
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