26: Royce Hall, UCLA

26: Royce Hall, UCLA
Designed by: Christine Mason Miller
Piano type: Console
Playability: Good
Weather: 65°F, overcast
How I got here: Metro Rapid 720, Bicycle

Warning: Students and alumni of the University of California, Los Angeles may find parts of this entry offensive. Reader discretion advised.

For some reason, the intersection of Wilshire and Westwood is ground zero for bad traffic. Cars and buses take almost 20 minutes to clear the one-mile of road that passes the area. Today was no exception.

Good I had my bicycle with me, a must, because I absolutely hate walking through the UCLA campus (my USC allegiances notwithstanding) -- it's just so large, sprawling and hilly. Last Summer I took the Rapid Bus here to attend a social media seminar, which was in a building on the extreme northern end of campus. Last October I was invited as a guest lecturer here for an graduate level urban planning class, teaching the students about the history of East Hollywood, my home neighborhood which they studied and did planning projects for during the quarter.

Fortunately I knew this campus well enough to bike through (even though this was perhaps my second time biking through the place) and was able to land at the steps of its famed Royce Hall.

But damn you, UCLA, you had to ruin my photographic continuity. Every street piano picture was taken from a left-side perspective, but noooo, your street piano had to have a hedge on the left side of it, forcing me to break up my wonderful continuity by having a right-side perspective. Yes, I could have rolled the piano around, but didn't know whether it was a kosher thing to do here.

There were a number of students chilling on the steps, and unlike the last stop, they were genuinely enjoying the music. When I got there, there was a student named Devin who deftly played a number of ragtime pieces. I asked him if he was a music major and he said, "No." Of course I shouldn't have assumed, I get that question all the time myself when talking about my academic career at USC and I'd give the same reply.

After I played, Devin got back on the piano and a friend of his removed the top cover, exposing the hammers and harp. An older woman, probably in her 60s, named Joanie was also waiting to play the piano, and had come to the campus specifically to play it -- she was worried about the coins in the meter. Devin allowed her to have some playing time and she played Billy Joel's "Piano Man" and Duke Ellington's "Don't Get Around Much Anymore."

Devin (on the piano); Joanie (standing, behind my tripod)

After she saw my camera and tripod set up, she asked, "Did you record it?" I initially felt guilty that I didn't, thinking she would have wanted me to record her golden moment with the street piano, but I told her I didn't. "Oh good," she said, "I'm really shy about those things..."

After I told her about my 30-piano quest and that there was another one just a short distance away at the VA Medical Center, she asked me if I was a student.

"I'm not a student anymore, but honestly...I went to the other school," I smiled.

"Oh, the other school that stole our Festival of Books!" she retorted, smiling.

"Yes, the one where I had such a great time a couple weekends ago," I added.

Devin got back on the piano yet again and played the "Super Mario Bros" theme. I bid him farewell and wished him a good day, but he just replied with a weird smirk.

Hmph...Bruins!

Here's my song, an improvised piece (trust me, I was really tempted to play the USC Fight Song to spite Bruinville but I seemed helplessly outnumbered here...) and the "Keyboard Cat" song. Just because: