I met Paul Barrett through Facebook. He’s a bassoonist in the Honolulu Symphony. We share a common link; oboist, Jason Sudduth, was in both Honolulu and San Jose Symphonies. As you know San Jose Symphony crashed (hard) and burned (completely). Currently Honolulu Symphony is in bad shape. I’m really hoping it doesn’t follow the SJS path.
If you have some card shopping to do, why not check out Grin-n-Barrett cards. Support a fellow double reeder!
Why do I put up with this?
Because, sometimes … things fall into place. And when it happens, it’s almost like I don’t know why. Like there’s some intangible something, in the air, as it were.
And then I want to do it again. Like smoking crack, only waaaay less reliable. Which explains the relatively small number of oboe addicts, I guess.
Well, I guess I wouldn’t know if what we do is anything close to smoking crack … since I’ve never smoked crack. (Wouldn’t know how … I’d probably do it wrong!) But it is wonderful when things fall into place!
I read the above here. I’d add it to my bloglist but I can’t seem to leave a message for the blogger and, in any case, the blog is anonymous and I prefer not to list anonymous bloggers. (I like the bloglist bloggers to be as accountable as I have to be. Go figure.)
Tomorrow is a busy day … UCSC, private students and opera. And I’m assuming my brother and sister-in-law from Germany are here (no phone call today, but I am going to guess they arrived late in the day and are somewhat tired). I guess I won’t be able to see them until Wednesday. How frustrating is that? Sigh.
But let’s consider that business of asking five of my friends to give classical music a try. “Classical music” generally means concert music written between, say, 1100 and today. That’s a lot of ground. A friend who can’t bear Wagner might love Messiaen. A friend who can’t bear Messiaen might love Bach. Just asking people to give it a try isn’t enough; there’s so much repertory and so much of it is good, and it’s not all that predictable who will like what.
Not only that, if I’m asking friends to give a particular repertory a try, I buy them tickets to live performances. There’s no substitute for being there, especially if you’re taking someone to the opera or symphony. The impact of a voice or instrument or ensemble in the house is a big part of the experience.
Read the whole thing over at Lisa Hirsch’s blog.
(I think the judge should have sentenced her to 250 hours of reed making, myself.)
A New Plymouth woman who played classical music to her cannabis plants to encourage them to grow was yesterday sentenced to community work.
Solo mother-of-three Zarah Murphy cultivated 20 cannabis plants in a room with photos of healthy plants as role models on the walls and played them “nice classical music”, her lawyer Pamela Jensen told New Plymouth District Court yesterday.
Ms Jensen said Murphy was growing the plants for her own use, to treat her diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder, the Taranaki Daily News reported.
She was undergoing psychotherapy for her condition and could possibly attend drug counselling in future, Ms Jensen said.
Judge Allan Roberts said the converted room was a “pretty good effort” in which to grow the plants.
He sentenced Murphy to 250 hours’ community work, including the remission of $1235 in unpaid fines.
Found here.
I wish I could see what’s going in ours, but I love this:
I was really looking for the thunderstorm music … there’s one part that is so “Philip Glass” it cracks me up every time. Something about what the bassoons and lower brass are doing, I think. But I can’t find it, so oh well.
Today is a day off; I have two students to teach, and that is all. Well, except that this house is rather messy and we have family here on Thursday, so I do need to clean. And I need to cook. And make reeds. And practice. And maybe connect with my brother and wife (!) who are visiting from Germany.
Oh, maybe it’s not really quite a day off after all.
BUT … I’ve decided to give myself a full week off after Christmas! How ’bout that? Students frequently cancel then anyway, and I’ve just figured I really could use a full week with no teaching. Hmm. Maybe I should paint the guest room then?!
Favorite sounds on the Casio CT-640: Oboe and Synth Reed. Nothing’s quite so evocative as a digital version of a reed instrument.
