oboeinsight

I just read an article from a performing arts school’s newspaper (not one in California, in case you are wondering). The high school senior author wrote things that made me cringe. I was especially disturbed by the way she wrote dialogue, making clear that she was speaking to some people of a certain race by mangling the spelling. It made me cringe. And she was writing an essay about a college application to a college.

I’ve also read some blogs recently that would have best left unwritten.

I guess there are still some people out there who don’t fully understand just how easy it is to read their blogs and articles. If it’s on the internet, folks, it’s there for us to see. Students, do remember that! What you write might come back to haunt you. Do a search on your name and see what you come up with. You might be surprised.

Now I’m not going to “tattle” on students. But … really … do you think your private teachers, high school and college instructors don’t ever find your xanga, blogger, live journal or myspace sites? Potential colleges and employers do searches on your names too.

Trust me. They do.

So be smart!

But it’s not only kids who aren’t thinking. I see the same thing with adults out there in working world. Some write things that could get them fired. It’s pretty amazing.

My advice? Run what you write through the “Do I want the world to read this?” filter. You then might choose to make your blog entry private. Or just don’t write it.

You wouldn’t believe the stuff I find. Really.

Okay. Rant over and out. Maybe I’m just really bugged because the Giants are playing horribly today.

We want younger people to like classical music.

We use classical music to “repel” younger people.

Go figure.

Sigh.

One way to handle loitering teenagers downtown could be with Handel.

In a few weeks, the popular cinema and dining center at the corner of School and Elm streets might feature the calming sounds of classical music as patrons outside wait for movie tickets. The idea is to use the symphonies as a sort of youth repellent.

Indeed, the conflict between bored teenagers and frustrated merchants is spawning unusual solutions.

Six years after it opened, the brick-lined plaza – the centerpiece of Lodi’s downtown renewal – has succeeded in bringing people and their cash to the city’s core. But local officials now believe that popularity may have its drawbacks.

For weeks earlier this year, complaints about clusters of young people frequenting the gathering spot grew louder from irritated business owners and customers, Lodi police and the plaza’s property manager said.

RTWT

We want you.
We want you to want us.
We need you.
We want you to need us.
We love you.
We want you to love us.
Please go away.

I’d just imagined the artist’s life naïvely, childishly, with too much longing, too much poetry and innocence and purity. And this image ruined music for me.

and

Limitation is the condition of our lives. What matters – what allows us to reach beyond ourselves … is that we continue.

-Glenn Kurtz (from his book, A Musician’s Return to Music, read in this article)

(I have this book on my book list, and hope to get it soon, so perhaps I’ll have more quotes later.)

Orchestras can eat you up if they don’t respect what you’re doing.

-Martin Katz

Yeah, we can. Think about it; there are a good number of us (or is it a bad number? I guess it depends upon who you are and what you think of us, eh?) and there’s one conductor, and if the instrumentalists don’t like a conductor they can really butcher him or her. But no, I’ve never done that. I’m the “follow the rules” and “do what the conductor says no matter what” sort. Sometimes this backfires, as I’ve often seen reviewers critique the players for something the conductor requested, but that’s life.

That doesn’t mean I don’t complain. I’m a real ace at whining. (Ask my husband. Ask my colleagues.) But a conductor is “the boss” so there you go.

Martin Katz is conducting Cenerentola. You can read the quote above and more here.

I’m really enjoying Cenerentolaand it’s incredibly wonderful to be working this summer, even if only for a couple of weeks. (But wouldn’t you know I got a call last night for another gig that conflicts with the opera. Sigh. I hate turning down work!) The group of musicians is great fun too … lots of good players, and all seem to be happy folk!