Vegas (Part I) – Alan
I managed to find a bit of time in between all my dance practices to go through a few of my photos from Las Vegas in February, and the easiest to start with was Alan Thompson Jr.
(I used one of his recordings for the music on the slideshow.)
Alan used to play piano at Disneyland; hopefully if you visited the park during the three years he worked there, you had a chance to hear him on Main Street, because he was (in my opinion, at least) the best piano player they ever had! He was always able to attract a huge crowd with his playing, and even though he doesn’t work there, he is still legendary… guests are always asking the current piano players if he still plays there!
It’s been over a year since I heard him play in person (FAR too long), but I at least was able to visit with him on my trip. He made two day trips from California to Las Vegas, a nice little bookend to the WPPI convention!
He’s one of those people who doesn’t like having his photo taken, so I ended up with a lot of silly poses that “better not end up on the internet” (I guess they’re just for my own photo album), so I later on got stealthy and tried shooting him when he wasn’t paying attention. Am I a bad person for coercing people against their will into photoshoots? ;)
If you want to check out his mad playing skills, just search for “Alan Thompson piano” on YouTube! My favorite is Grim Grinning Ghosts; I taped that back when I hardly knew the guy. I’m just sorry it was taped from my lousy point and shoot that I still want to drive over… but it got the job done.
His skills weren’t as good when the keys were larger.
I got this one by sitting down to change my lens…
…and then he realized what I was doing. But finally, a real expression!
Thank you for posting the slide show of Alan Thompson, Jr.
As you know, I’m one of his biggest fans and his music touches my soul.