MUSINGS BY JOAN #30
In this morning’s Miami Herald there is a full page article about a rescue cat named Nora who is making a fortune for her owners by playing the piano. According to the article, she plays in perfect rhythm and on key. (This is a cat we’re talking about folks.)
Nora has several million hits on her website where she can be seen in various videos playing away with both paws and keeping perfect time. She has done the talk (meow?) show circuit, has a fast selling line of T-shirts, gets endless requests for her "pawtograph", and has had a “Catcerto” written especially for her by a famous Lithuanian conductor (I am not making this up) by the name of Mindaugus Piecaitus. When the Maestro premiered his epic work with the Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra in June, Nora performed her solo purrfectly, and was seen via a full size video screen set up in the concert hall.
I bring this to your attention not because I wish to further publicize Nora and her astounding musical ability, but to complain bitterly about my two totally useless cats who are sleeping on my desk as I write. After reading the article in bed this morning, I actually had a long chat with Wasabi on the subject of any latent talent on his part. He licked my nose twice and went back to sleep. I don’t think there is much of a market on You Tube for that sort of work.
Ginger, my girl cat, is a lost cause talent-wise. She couldn’t sit still long enough to play a chorus of Chop Sticks, much less allow anyone to video her doing it. Besides, which, I don’t own a piano at the moment so the whole project is out of the question. It never occurred to me to ask the Stray Aid people three years ago whether they had any rescue cats with musical talent. Or any talent at all for that matter, other than sleeping. I don’t think the fact that Wasabi is a notoriously picky eater has any potential either. Moneymaking? Hell no. If anything, they cost money. I’ll know better next time.
Obviously, there are people out there raking in the money by figuring out how to work the internet to their benefit. I just haven’t figured out how as yet, or who exactly my market would be. There seems to be a limit to how many almost-80-year-olds are sitting at their computers playing video games and thinking up Face Book pages that might go viral within 24 hours. Actually, most of the people I know who heard the word viral would ask the doctor for an antibiotic and take to bed. (In all fairness, I must admit that my sister and I play Farkle on line regularly. That’s Facebook’s highly addictive video dice game, if you're not a player. Currently, she’s beating me, but don’t count me out.)
If anybody has any great ideas, I’m open to suggestions. Be glad to cut you into the profits, or better still, I’ll send you one of my do-nothing kitties. Maybe you can teach them how to play for pay!
# # #
Photo caption: Nora, ready for her next solo. Check out her technique.
In this morning’s Miami Herald there is a full page article about a rescue cat named Nora who is making a fortune for her owners by playing the piano. According to the article, she plays in perfect rhythm and on key. (This is a cat we’re talking about folks.)
Nora has several million hits on her website where she can be seen in various videos playing away with both paws and keeping perfect time. She has done the talk (meow?) show circuit, has a fast selling line of T-shirts, gets endless requests for her "pawtograph", and has had a “Catcerto” written especially for her by a famous Lithuanian conductor (I am not making this up) by the name of Mindaugus Piecaitus. When the Maestro premiered his epic work with the Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra in June, Nora performed her solo purrfectly, and was seen via a full size video screen set up in the concert hall.
I bring this to your attention not because I wish to further publicize Nora and her astounding musical ability, but to complain bitterly about my two totally useless cats who are sleeping on my desk as I write. After reading the article in bed this morning, I actually had a long chat with Wasabi on the subject of any latent talent on his part. He licked my nose twice and went back to sleep. I don’t think there is much of a market on You Tube for that sort of work.
Ginger, my girl cat, is a lost cause talent-wise. She couldn’t sit still long enough to play a chorus of Chop Sticks, much less allow anyone to video her doing it. Besides, which, I don’t own a piano at the moment so the whole project is out of the question. It never occurred to me to ask the Stray Aid people three years ago whether they had any rescue cats with musical talent. Or any talent at all for that matter, other than sleeping. I don’t think the fact that Wasabi is a notoriously picky eater has any potential either. Moneymaking? Hell no. If anything, they cost money. I’ll know better next time.
Obviously, there are people out there raking in the money by figuring out how to work the internet to their benefit. I just haven’t figured out how as yet, or who exactly my market would be. There seems to be a limit to how many almost-80-year-olds are sitting at their computers playing video games and thinking up Face Book pages that might go viral within 24 hours. Actually, most of the people I know who heard the word viral would ask the doctor for an antibiotic and take to bed. (In all fairness, I must admit that my sister and I play Farkle on line regularly. That’s Facebook’s highly addictive video dice game, if you're not a player. Currently, she’s beating me, but don’t count me out.)
If anybody has any great ideas, I’m open to suggestions. Be glad to cut you into the profits, or better still, I’ll send you one of my do-nothing kitties. Maybe you can teach them how to play for pay!
# # #
Photo caption: Nora, ready for her next solo. Check out her technique.
No comments:
Post a Comment