Alan May, Coldwell Banker Evanston Realtor, North Shore Realtor

Seven geeky guys leaning in closely over their laptops, studying the glow of their LCD screens might not seem to be an unusual occurance and any local coffee shop these days. But in this case, we're talking about Musicians, and they're practicing onstage at the Newberry Library in downtown Chicago for their performance Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Seating is first-come, first-served, with a 5:30 reception preceding the concert.

They call themselves "laptopists" and they're a brave new world muscian who make their Apple PowerBooks create soaring sounds and knee-slapping rhythms by typing alt-shift-control type commands into their laptops. They're not texting, nor tweeting, but creating music.

This is the Princeton Laptop Orchestra with a newfangled orchestra... er... of a kind... with hemispherical speakers, that imitate the sounds of traditional orchestra instruments. The laptopists manipulate computer-generated sounds and take "sampled" sounds from real life, voices, and other raw sounds to create music with a range from total electronic sound, to truly classical concertos.

Wireless networking is used instead of a baton-wielding conductor, and high-tech Apple notebooks take the place of cellos, woodwinds and Timpanis.

The Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk, for short) was started through a cross-disciplinary course at, where else... Princeton University, and was the first company of it's kind formed in 2005. The orchestra is the first of its kind — an experimental group that performs on laptop “instruments” invented specifically for the class. Students play their laptops with a new music language — known as ChucK — written by Princeton computer science doctoral student Ge Wang.

But there is one big drawback to such high-tech ensembles: The laptops tend to crash.

"It's the bane of our existence," said Daniel Trueman, co-founder of the group. "We've gotten very good at dealing with it so that most of the time nobody other than the player who crashes knows that it happened. And we've never been totally brought down."

The Princeton Laptop Orchestra performs at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton St. Tickets are free, with seating on a first-come, first-served basis. A 5:30 p.m. reception precedes the concert.

I'm sure that nobody else has written about this subject... since there seems to be a lot of confusion.... so here is my basic explanation of how the $8,000 tax credit works:

The requirements, and who would qualify for the credit include:

• The tax credit is for first-time home buyers only. (a first-time home buyer, according to the IRS, is defined as someone who has not owned a principal residence during the three-year period prior to the purchase.)
• The tax credit does not have to be repaid. (unlike the former $7,500 tax credit plan)
  
• The tax credit is only equal to 10 percent of the home’s purchase price up to a maximum of $8,000. So if you purchase a home for $70,000, you'll only qualify for a $7,000 tax credit.. (10% of $70,000).
  
• The credit is available for homes purchased on or after January 1, 2009 and before December 1, 2009. So anytime THIS year!
  
• Single taxpayers with incomes up to $75,000 and married couples with incomes up to $150,000 qualify for the full tax credit.

Claim the tax credit on your federal income tax return. Home buyers would complete the IRS Form #5405 to determine their tax credit amount, and then claim this amount on Line 69 of their 1040 income tax return. No other applications or forms are required, and no pre-approval is necessary. However, you will want to be sure that you qualify for the credit under the income limits and first-time home buyer tests. Note that you cannot claim the credit on Form 5405 for an intended purchase for some future date; it must be a completed purchase.

If you've already filed your taxes, prior to purchasing your house, you can file an amended return to claim your credit.

For an overview of the plan go to: http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com

There... wasn't that easy?

Ooops... one important addendum. if you sell the property before 3 years, a portion of the credit will need to be repaid. If you don't sell it for more than 3 years, it need not be repaid.

The National Trumpet Competition was held recently, and the son of a very good friend of mine was on the Northwestern Unversity team that won 1st Runner-up (or what we used to call Second Place).

It is a competition for Classical Trumpet (personally, I didn't even know there was such a thing as "Classical" trumpet).

His name is David Cohen (he's second from the right in the video) and his parents Rhonda and Dick, are very proud of their son. He was accepted by Julliard, and decided that he preferred the music program at Northwestern. If you like trumpet, and have seven minutes to kill, this is a very nice video of their part in the competition. Enjoy

In the midst of December, as my wife an I were helping my younger daughter move, from one apartment to another.... we found ourselves parking at a meter in the Andersonville area of Chicago. As I climbed the giant mound of snow, in order to access the parking meter I noticed something unusual.

It appeared that the entire top of the meter was missing... the meter was wide open to the elements,and there was no place to put a coin.

So, we parked scott-free (or so I thought) and went and organized our Elizabeth's new apartment.

Upon our return, there was a ticket attached to our windshield. Seriously?? Seriously!!

In order to write us a ticket, the meter person would have had to look at the meter, and assuredly noticed that the meter had no top. I double-checked to make sure that I had identified the correct meter (I had)... so I could not understand how any meter reader would be able to determine how I was in violation.

I had the presence of mind to take a photo of the "missing" meter head, with my cell phone, and sent in my protest, along with a photo of the damaged meter... to the powers that be, and promptly forgot about it.

Yesterday, we received in the mail, a letter from the Circuit Court of Cook County stating that they had "investigated" my claim that the meter "through no fault of my own" was inoperative... and had found the claim to be unsubstantiated, and the fine remained owed.

Seriously!!?

I paid the ticket.

Everyone is trying to figure out ways to insulate themselves from these uncertain economic times. Major cities are no exception.

The City of Chicago, in it's infinite wisdom, has recently begun considering a program that would integrate with it's red-light camera program. The red-light camera program takes photos of individuals who drive through a red-light, and then sends them tickets in the mail. The ticket carries a $100 fine, and sports a photo of the license plate, the driver (just in case you want to argue.. "it wasn't ME... it was my neighbor who borrowed my car).. and in some cases, contains a link to a site online, where you can view a brief video of your infraction just to PROVE that the light was indeed red. But this is not the "new" part. Chicago has been using this program for more than a year.

Alderman Ed Burke is suggesting to the City Traffic Committee, that in addition to sending out tickets for the red-light offense, that they make use of a Michigan-based company called InsureNet, that would provide the city with software that would access their network and allow the city to instantly identify if the car that just broke the law is insured. Mr. Burke suggests that the city could add $100 million to it's annual coffers, by using such a product.

So, if you're driving in Chicago, and you're uninsured... make sure you stop on the Yellow light. The state fine is $500.00 for being uninsured. And the city of Chicago fine has not yet been determined. But you can rest assured, when the city council smells revenue... it'll be forthcoming!