Now that Christmas is over I’m hoping to get back to the blog. This next week I’ll probably still be slow to post, but after that I do plan on blogging again. Really!

Just a quick note about Nutcracker for now, though:
It was quite fun to play the English horn part without worrying about switching to oboe, and not having anything but Nutcracker music to play. It was also nice to have no reed woes. I was amazed to watch Karen Gabay dancing the lead role … she’s only a few years younger than I am, but she looks and dances like she did back when I first saw her. SO impressive!

About “thigh applause” and the “shoe shuffle”:
Sometimes, when someone plays a solo, colleagues do what one might call thigh applause: we just applaud with one hand on a thigh, to show the musician we like what he or she did. Some prefer the shoe shuffle, where shuffle a foot back and forth on the floor. We don’t do that as often in performance since it does make a bit of noise, but you’ll hear it at rehearsals. I do both at times, but I actually don’t care to do either all that much, and I prefer people not do it for me. Why? Because if someone does it frequently and then, for one solo, doesn’t, I start thinking, “Gee, was it awful? What didn’t he/she like about this one?”

Yep, I’m goofy that way.

Anyhoo, I figured I’d post something here now so my two readers know that I’m alive and well. I hope Christmas observers have had a lovely and meaningful time.

Next up … 2013!

Time is so darn weird. It keeps moving faster and faster.