I was recently grumbling about what I’m sure will win the best film for the Academy Awards. It was an entertaining movie. It was cool. It made me nearly believe these CGI things were real. It was a spectacle, really. But there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot of plot (and what was there was rather preachy) and there wasn’t any acting to speak of. Still, It’ll probably win. Because it sells tons of tickets. And people rave about it. I was grumbling about this to Dan. (I can grumble about things other than reeds … how ’bout that?)
Then I had the Grammys on — for oh-so-short of a time since they aren’t my cuppa — and started to see tweets about the winners.
Oh. Yeah. It’s only an awards show. Which means it’s sort of a popularity show.
Guess I needed that reminder.
One classically trained musician was ragging on a singer who won best album of the year. She complained about intonation. Style. All the rest of the stuff we classically trained folks tend to harp on. And mentioned that if the player had been an out of tune bassoonist she’d never have won.
Awards shows are awards shows. We are doing what we do not to become popular. Or at least I am. If I wanted to be popular I’d have done something other than oboe (and I’d have had to have surgery on my body and face eons ago, taken courses in posture, been taught to present myself better, and gotten a mighty good publicist who could do magic). I think we all tend to get a bit huffy about these shows (myself included), and forget that they aren’t always all about reality or who is truly the best musician.
Until they nominate and vote me as winner. Then we’ll know we’ve finally reached the truth.
Or not.
In Other News …
I made it through the week! Yesterday was rough. The Santa Cruz day job exhausted me, and a 3 hour 15 minute opera rehearsal at night meant I arrived home around 11:00 PM. I did end up having to cancel — at nearly the last minute — a student between the two jobs because I wasn’t going to make it back from Santa Cruz in time to teach him (rain = traffic). I rescheduled him for today, but other than that one hour I’m enjoying a day off. And I’m still in my robe & pjs. So there.
