ACOUSTIC GUITAR CLASSICS

This is the famous 'Big Piano' in 5th Avenue's FAO Schwarz toy store.

It was of course made famous by it's appearance in 90's film 'Big', starring Tom Hanks.

Obviously it's a huge hit with tourists who like to let their frenzied kids jump around on it while they merrily capture the moment on their cameras. I was looking forward to it too as I had that amazing scene from the movie in my head where Tom Hanks and his boss Mr MacMillan play 'Chopsticks' but when I got there I could only feel sorry for the staff who work in that area of the store.

These poor employees must be reduced to a gibbering shambles by the time they get home, their ears and brains reduced to gelatinous soup after listening to the horrendous cacophony produced by crazed kids on this massive musical instrument all day long. This of course is purely speculation.

The actual piano used in the film lives in Times Square's branch of 'Planet Hollywood'.

Sadly, the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art was closed when I visited Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, but through a window I managed to spy a bronze by Jacques Lipchitz on an inside wall: Instruments de musique avec compotier et poire, cast bronze.
Luckily, it was a very clean window...;-)