The Sandbar Piano

[hooplala]

Every good bar needs a piano...

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/24/2032269/yes-that-is-a-piano.html

A grand piano recently appeared on a sandbar in Biscayne Bay, about 200 yards from the Quayside condominiums off Northeast 107th Street. Whoever put it there placed it at the highest point of the sandbar so that it's not underwater during high tide.

How and why the piano got there is a mystery. A grand piano weighs at least 650 pounds and is unwieldly to move, said Bob Shapiro, a salesman at Piano Music Center in Pembroke Park. ``You don't take it out there in a rowboat,'' Shapiro said.

This much is clear, however: The piano isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Unless it becomes a danger to wildlife or boaters, authorities have no plans to haul it away.

``We are not responsible for removing such items,'' said Jorge Pino, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. ``Even a car can become a habitat for wildlife. Unless the item becomes a navigational hazard, the Coast Guard would not get involved.''

The marine patrols of both the North Miami Police Department and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said the same thing.
From Quayside, the shape of the piano is visible to the naked eye, but with a pair of binoculars or a telephoto lense, seagulls can be seen landing on the instrument and water lapping at its legs.

Throwing away a grand piano may seem like a waste of money, but it may not be. In decent condition, a used grand piano would cost at least $3,000 to $4,000. But many pianos wear out from the literally tons of pressure on the internal parts. Cheaper models aren't worth the cost of rebuilding.

``It could be worth nothing,'' Shapiro said. ``Pianos don't grow old gracefully. They just wear out.''

[Disco Pickle]

it's not even playable.  damn thing is a wreck.

still funny though.  Florida. 

[Eater of Clowns]

It's a beautiful bit of surrealism and I love it an almost stupid amount. 

[Iason Ouabache]

Mystery solved:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20110127/D9L0O2MO0.html

A 16-year-old looking to boost his art school application took a bow Thursday for being the one behind the grand piano that mysteriously showed up on a sandbar in Miami's Biscayne Bay.

Nicholas Harrington said he wanted to leave his artistic mark on Miami's seascape as the artist Christo did in the early 1980s when he draped 11 small islands in Biscayne Bay with hot pink fabric. And if it helped the high school junior get into Manhattan's Cooper Union college, that would be OK too.

"I wanted to create a whimsical, surreal experience. It's out of the every day for the boater," Harrington told The Associated Press.

"I don't like it be considered as a prank," he said. "It's more of a movement."

On Jan. 2, Harrington, his older brother Andrew and two neighbors lifted the instrument, which had been trashed during a holiday party, onto the family's 22-foot boat and took it out on Biscayne Bay. There, they left it on the highest spot along a sandbar.

[AFK]

If it had been me, and I had the disposable income, technical expertise, etc., , I would've found a way to fit it with some kind of recording device to record the sounds it made in the ocean.  As someone who's really into experimental minimalist improv music, it would've been very interesting to hear.