DeanMail - Edinburgh Fringe Festival / Dinner & Dean Hi Folks, Pursuant to absolutely nothing, this background color is close to the orange I painted the walls in my old room in the Bronx, circa nineteen-seventy-something. I don't recall the exact circumstances under which this photo was taken, but it appears I was attempting to play the piano with my feet - extremely difficult to do under any circumstances, especially so with shoes on. Note: I wrote Ariel, Funny Papers and Solitaire, among other tunes, on that very piano - using my fingers (in case you were wondering). Which raises the curious question: is a thumb a finger? Hmmm.... Of course, if you've already downloaded my new 'Dean Friedman Music App' onto your mobile device (iPhone, Droid, iPad, Blackberry, WindowsMobile) you'll already have seen this and other embarrassing pics, plus assorted music links, videos, tour-dates, etc... Amazingly, you can even order tickets to my upcoming tour-dates directly via your mobile phone! Imagine that?  It's not too late, of course! ;-) You can still download the new app at the following link: 'Dean's App' or you can scan the following QR Code: ................................................................... Meanwhile, as many of you may already be aware, tickets to this August's Edinburgh Fringe Festival are officially on sale. This will be my eighth year performing at this amazing festival and, as always, I'm really looking forward to it. It's really the place to be in August! ;-) I'll be playing three separate venues this year: Sweet - Grassmarket     August 8-12       ORDER TICKETS Malmaison Hotel             August 15-19      ORDER TICKETS The Voodoo Rooms        August 20           ORDER TICKETS (Note: I'm also playing a gig in Kinross, Aug. 3rd and one in Glasgow on Aug. 4th, among my 40+ tour-dates) Now, here's something Fringe-related that's kinda cool: The management at the Malmaison Hotel - Edinburgh (actually situated on the Leith Docks) have thoughtfully provided a 15% dinner discount voucher for a meal (ala cart menu and drinks) in their brasserie, good during my appearance at the hotel, from Aug. 15 thru 19. Simply click on the voucher link, below, print out the full-sized voucher, book your table in advance, and present the voucher at the brasserie!. CLICK ON VOUCHER IMAGE TO ENLARGE & PRINT The voucher-reservations are first come, first serve, and many of these Fringe shows have sold out in the past, so you're strongly advised to book your tickets (and dinner reservation) early. .................................................................... And here's one last bit of very cool news. You'll recall a few weeks back I invited folks to contribute to what I consider to be a genuinely worthy cause, 'Peace through Pyramids', which teaches kids in the middle-east, from vastly different backgrounds, to work with, trust and ultimately care for each other, through the language of 'Circus'. I confess I was surprised, though I suppose I shouldn't have been, at some of the extremely negative reactions from a few folks who remain so caught up in their respective entrenched outlooks that they completely rejected a benign and creative attempt to break the cycle of violence. My position is: there's plenty of blame to go around, but don't blame the kids; instead, help them learn about each other in order to prevent violence in the future. Anyway, that's just my opinion. Fortunately, I'm not the only person that feels that way and I'm glad to say that, as of today, the 'Peace through Pyramids' project is fully funded and this good work will move forward. Congratulations to the amazing, Jessica Hentoff, and her awesome Circus Harmony youth circus troupe, the St. Louis Arches; kuddos to the crowd-funding website, Kickstarter.com, which is profoundly changing the way individuals are able to collectively prioritize and determine our global cultural agenda, independent of the traditional narrow-minded corporate and political interests; and much admiration and appreciation to a good number of you on this list who took a few moments out of your day and a few dollars (or pounds, or euros) out of your pockets to help out a good cause and make it all possible. Good on you! ;-) Looks like summer is really here. The tour's getting closer. My, my, how time flies! Everybody be well. Don't forget your sunscreen! (actually, come to think of it, I'm somewhat skeptical of sunscreen's supposedly protective qualities, but, hey, what do I know?) Anyway, see you soon! Enjoy the coming weekend! All the best,   Dean    copyright (c) 2012 Dean Friedman Productions If you would like to be removed from Dean's email list, please send a reply email with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject.