All in Oral History

Christmas shopping with Uncle Easy

Frank Fujimoto
Family, Oral History

I was talking with my cousin Kay earlier this week and we talked about how this was the time of year when as a child I'd go out with my Uncle Easy to go shopping for toys for the younger members of our family. Being a bachelor, he would say he needed help picking out the right fits. When the planned day came around, Uncle Easy would pick me up and we'd go have dinner, after which we'd make our way to Toys 'R' Us and he'd ask "would this be good for so-and-so?", checking his list to make sure he had something for everyone. After we were done, we'd drop the presents off with Kay so she could wrap them.

Book - A Romance on Three Legs, Katie Hafner

Frank Fujimoto
Music, Oral History, Reading

It was pure coincidence that I was recently reading A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for a Perfect Piano by Katie Hafner, especially since I read about Henry Z. Steinway's death just as I was getting to the part of the book which talked about him. I found the book to be a quick yet entertaining read, especially since it dips into related topics such as the history of the piano, the artistic goals of tuning, and descriptions of how a piano is manufactured. As the title implies, the book centers around a particular piano, a Steinway which was labelled CD 318. Hafner tells how the piano was made during WWII and explains how it and Gould were finally brought together.

Steinway; Frank's Yamaha

Frank Fujimoto
In the News, Music, Oral History

The last person named Steinway to run the Steinway & Sons piano company died last Thursday. Henry Z. Steinway was the great-grandson of Heinrich Steinweg (later Steinway). Coincidentally enough, I happen to be reading the part of the book A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano (by Katie Hafner) which describes how Steinway & Sons came to be. More on the book after I've finished reading it.