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Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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  • noah django

    ???
    he leaves the pianos and the music keeps going.  that means it’s fake.

    • Boundegar

      Nut-uh!  What if he’s telekinetic?  Hmmm?

    • MarcusH333

      Or you could pay attention and listen to the fact that the music changes to a studio recorded track at that point. 

      • noah django

         you obviously have better speakers than the ones on my laptop.  of course, he could have avoided any confusion by simply, you know, *not* editing in a studio track over his performance.  why the onus is on me to notice this instead of on him to avoid any editing that might be construed as cheating is beyond me.

        • MarcusH333

          I agree the editing could have been better. But one of the “live” pianos seems untuned. The studio ones do not.

    • Julien B.

      No it’s not a fake, I was in the room and he was playing in front of a public. Believe me, it is just gifted!!
      At the end it’s just an audio editing :)

  • Rob Gehrke

    Not sure if you’re kidding but…
    He gradually spliced in a different recording (on better tuned pianos…) from 1:06-1:09 – it looks like he was really playing. 

    • noah django

       editing your video in such a way that it makes you look like you’re faking a performance undermines the contention that you are actually playing.  why would you do that?  maybe he’s just naïve?
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEYE85R4UJ4&list=PL84C24BCA7636357E

      • ocker3

         I think it’s a very poor choice by the video’s director

  • yragentman

    Why is this any more difficult that playing the two hand parts on one piano, exactly?

    • http://profile.yahoo.com/PVIITSL3WOOXL5LXROMMTHWHHY Sean

      The notes are in the same range – your fingers would collide.  
      The melodic emphasis switches from hand to hand, this is a piece of musical gymnastics on a dual manual harpsichord.  Playing it on two pianos is just showing off. 

  • Anne Onimos

    Good trick. Nice scarf.

    • BreakTheChains

      The scarf looks like a flag of some country…

      No questioning the technical ability of this young man.  But the audio quality is disappointing (the video part) with the part played by the left hand not clear at all, with occasional out of tune bits.   

  • jaybar

    Organists do this all the time (playing on two keyboards at once)- what impresses me the most here is not looking at either. And chewing gum, or something, at the same time,  for the first minute or so. 

    • Beanolini

      Organists do this all the time (playing on two keyboards at once)

      And they play with their feet at the same time. I have a suspicion that organists are, in fact, a separate species.

      • ocker3

         I was blown away by the guy who could write different texts with both hands at the same time

  • imag

    A big anti-meh from me.  Bach is stunning, epic genius.  This is a wonderful celebration of that genius by someone who appears to be quite gifted in his own right.  Rock on.

  • vonbobo

    Scarf, different shoes, different socks… the eccentric showmanship is overdone for me.

    But don’t listen to me…  go on with your talented self and rock!!! 

  • Cowicide

    the Evan Shinners link is broken it should be: http://www.evanshinners.com

    • http://www.xeni.net/ Xeni Jardin

      ta fixed 

  • anansi133

    Christ, what a smartass!

  • avraamov

    This and the ‘Skull Brain’ picture from a later post seem intimately related.

    Reich’s ‘Piano Phase’ is occasionally performed like this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKXy1FPTdvg

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Aos-Crowley/100002609325035 Aos Crowley

    Interesting, but the pianos are tuned poorly. I don’t mean non-equal temperament, but simply out of tune. Perhaps it was the video compression that caused a phase mismatch?

    • ocker3

       yeah, I think the technical setup failed to be of the same standard as the musical ability

  • urpBurp

    I wanted to enjoy it, but I just couldn’t get past the O-Faces he was making.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Shaneyelderberry Shane Beaumont

    Simply speculation, but perhaps the keyboardist isn’t aware of some harpsichords being fitted with pedal accessories? J.S. Bach was certainly a collector of many fine instruments, dying with 15 cembalos to his name. I doubt strongly that a man who practiced and spoke often in his letters about posture would allow himself to play two keyboards adjacent to one another (he was never an attention seeking performer like Mozart). –> exempli gratia: http://youtu.be/DI0xuYYHQNc

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=704243764 Marian Maw

     I love this but can’t help thinking of Mr Bean somehow…….

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000395426698 Duane D. Watts

    Is he wearing the Stars and Stripes around his neck?  Nothing else matters.  He could BE JS Bach, and I would shut him off.