oboeinsight

So I had opera today, and it was wonderful to get back together with some of my favorite musicians! What a joy to get to play incredible music with them. Tomorrow we get to meet the first batch of singers in the first sitzprobe, and there are some new names — and new voices — so I can’t wait!

My reeds that looked to be Happy Reeds on Sunday aren’t so happy right now, and I’m not sure if they’ll grow into decent things or if I’ll have to nix them. Well, I know one is a goner; I started to play on it and heard this “gclk” (yeah, that’s how you spell that) and, lo and behold, it cracked. Which means it was probably already cracked. Which explains the saggy oboe middle C.

Oh. Well.

Then, as I was cleaning my oboe later in the day I looked down the bore and saw something in the top joint. Say what? I’m not sure what it is … a piece of fabric hooked on something? A piece of cane that is stuck in there? I dunno. It’s very small, and perhaps I’ve just been blind to it forever and it’s been there all along, but I don’t think so. Sigh. I’m not sure what it means to the happiness of the oboe.

Prior to the opera rehearsal (it was a 1-4 call) I wound four reeds, after having wound 6 yesterday. One guess as to what I really want to do tomorrow morning! 😎

But now? Now I’m watching “my” Giants. 0-1, middle of the sixth, bad guys. We’ve lost two in a row already. If I blew it two days in a row I think I might be given a warning about my performance, so I’m wondering if I should send them a warning.

Okay. Baseball is different than oboe playing. I know. Just look at the salary diff. 😉

20 more minutes of this game and then I have to go back and forth between the game and … drumroll … Project Runway.

Yeah. Really.

Sigh.

You’d think that people in the Arts would have better ideas. You’d think they’d have a clue. But this ad tells us they do not. (Thanks The Standing Room for … um … this.)

I keep hoping this is just something that was on a Comedy Central show, you know? But no such luck. They do things a bit better there.

Update
Okay, okay, I have seen worse ads. It’s just that this one is about the arts, and I think that people in the arts should do better than this. It’s just so average in its creativity.

But it made some of you laugh, so there’s that.

(I do wonder if they could get in trouble using the Raisin Bran box so obviously. Is that legal?)

I have been summoned to jury duty. And I’m not happy. Couldn’t they have snagged me in the summer, when at least I didn’t have much playing work? I’d have had to cancel students if I was called in, but at least I wouldn’t have had to worry about playing work unless it conflicted with Merola.

Here’s the thing: if I don’t work, I don’t get paid. If a contractor for a freelance job calls to hire me for those dates and I say, “Oh, by the way, I’m on jury duty,” you can bet he or she will say, “Never mind!” If I have to miss more than one rehearsal of Symphony Silicon Valley I’m out for the entire run, and I have to give them more than a day or two of notice so I’m not exactly sure how that would work. (I think it’s 21 days notice, although I’d have to check for sure.) Opera is a bit more generous with absences, but it’s still a costly thing to do and they have to have two weeks’ notice. If I miss UCSC students I have to reschedule and make up all lessons missed. This isn’t easy to do, since a quarter goes so quickly. And private students? If I don’t teach, I obviously don’t earn any income and, even worse, my students won’t know until the day before if I’m called if their lessons are on or off. If I do get called I get to go sit in a room with a bunch of people and not get chosen when I tell the attorneys I’m a professional musician. Yes, it’s happened twice already and I’ve gotten into the jury box only to be dismissed. I’ve been told (of course who knows if it’s true) that attorneys tend to dismiss professional musicians.

Surely there must be a better system?

The only good thing was that I opted to change the dates for a week when I at least don’t have symphony or opera. But still. Sigh.

Okay. I’ll stop whining now.