Two videos:
Donald & piano (1:39)
Donald's Russia stories (4:54)
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1. Story by Roger:
When I was a young child, and also throughout adulthood, there was nothing more comforting or therapeutic for me than to lie down on a couch and listen to Donald play the piano. It had to be Donald playing.
When I was young, Don seemed to play mostly Beethoven and Mozart piano sonatas. He also played some boogie woogie.
I heard Mozart's Piano Sonata number 16 play on the radio this past Tuesday, and decided to locate a rendition of it for Don's page.
I don't think there is another piece that Don played better than this one. And it's also one of my favorites from his repertoire:
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This is my story about a Russian apartment that I stayed in overnight.
Jim and I were going to Gor____ Park to ride the big ferris wheel. At the park they had a bar, and we sat there and drank three bottles of champagne between us. It was only pennies for a bottle.
We got through drinking the three bottles of champagne, went to the ferris wheel for the ride, and they were closed down for the night!
So we wandered down the street trying to get a cab back to ______ hotel. Cab driver didn't understand us. He drove off. Got on the bus. My friend Jim barfed on the bus! We got off the bus. He slumped to the sidewalk, and I was standing there, didn't know what to do next.
A guy comes along and says "Would you like to stay at my apartment tonight?" I said "Yes we would."
It was a large room with beds around the perimeter, and they gave us a bed. The bathroom was a typical Russian bathroom down at the end of the hallway. I got up in the middle of the night and barfed red barf. It was terrible looking.
Next morning I wake up early before Jim, and I wake Jim and say "We gotta get out of here."
So we left and got a cab to our hotel this time. That day they were going to a monastery, and we get there, and the first thing they do is offer us champagne!
And we were so sick yet, we turned it down!
And everyone was.. "How can Jim and Don turn down champagne ?! "
"End of story!"
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Don:
Story number two -- Jim and the horsemeat.
Jim's aunt took us to ____, Sweden for three weeks. That's how we got to Sweden. His great aunt was a school teacher. Got to their house.. one day for lunch she served us
a meal.. a dinner, with cold cuts. And after the meal was over she said "How did you like the horse meat?"
I said "It was good. I thought it tasted like beef to me! I didn't know!"
Then Jim Nelson took off to the bathroom! Barfed it all up!
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Roger:
In Norway or Sweden.. the strawberry and cream dessert?
Don:
I don't remember that story at all.
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Don:
The other story was the ride.. the ship, going back to New York City. We were on the Gripsholm, and we were following a hurricane into the harbor. And we came into the harbor and went up into the observation deck up in the front of the boat.
And a wave would come along and the boat would go up like this, and all you could see was the clouds, the white and the sunlight, and you could see the whole sky.
And all of a sudden the ship would go down like this. It went down and all you could see was the water splashing up over the windshield.
Roger:
And this time you didn't get sick?
Don:
The Gripsholm had stabilizers on it so it didn't rock back and forth like this, it just went like this, like a porpoise.
We went over there on the Kingsholm. Came back on the Gripsholm.