Piano man off key

This is a story that does not go away, it keeps resurfacing and showing up again, and again. It simply does not go away. It is the type of story that the MSM loves, one man against the evil Cuban embargo. Even the story's title "...hits right notes in Cuba" is sickening enough. That man Benjamin Truehaft is a piano tuner, whose one love is to give pianos to the music loving communist paradise of Cuba. The story claims that the pianos were donated; although, it does not indicate if these were donated exclusively for Cuba. Nonetheless, Mr. Truehaft (from that leftist enclave Berkeley, CA) has taken over 237 pianos and made over 20 trips to Cuba. Some embargo, eh? The gall of some of these people. To think that the US is the only place that Cuba can get pianos, piano wires, or piano tuners. I would call this utter arrogance.

Yes, Mr. Truehaft is providing and tuning pianos for musicians, composers and cultural groups in Cuba (communists otherwise they would not be allowed to practice their craft), but how many of those pianos end up in swanky piano bars in tourist only hotels (absolutely, never, nunca, jamás, Cubans not allowed). Does he stay at one of those swanky tourist hotels when he visits?

Here is the long ass story. Hopefully, it will die (the story and fidel) after this.

U.S. piano tuner hits right notes in Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba (AP) -- When American piano tuner Benjamin Treuhaft first visited Cuba in 1993 he found that years of neglect, humidity and termites were ravaging the island's dwindling piano population.

Thirteen years on, Treuhaft has helped send 237 old pianos donated by Americans to the communist-run island, filling a void in a musical country by providing instruments used for practicing piano concertos, accompanying tenor soloists and rehearsing ballet dancers.

"Most of the pianos here were Soviet-made: many of them from Moscow and Estonia, so they weren't that great to begin with," Treuhaft said during a visit this week. "Then, they met the Cuban termites. And then, they met the Cuban pianists, who are great, but strong, and can really destroy an instrument."

Treuhaft keeps returning to survey donated instruments and tune and restore others, striking an insistent chord against the U.S. trade embargo.

After nearly 20 trips to the island -- some without U.S. approval -- the jocular former hippie who sports a bandanna on his head and likes to tune pianos barefoot is now a personality in some Cuban music circles. Read the rest.