Oh MY!

Tonight I witnessed one of the greatest tragedies of life. The squandering of at least 40 combined hours of time by an incompetent musical director. How do I get 40? There were 20 musicians, mostly young and inexperienced who suffered through the ineptitude of a disorganized, chaotic, and uninspiring first rehearsal perpetrated by a director who should have known better.
We are now living in St Pierre du Mont in France and my wife would like to play in a string ensemble if we can find one. We visited the local conservatory last week and were told that an amateur group meets on Friday night for a weekly rehearsal in preparation for a series of concerts. She was invited to come and observe and join if she were interested.
We arrived at the appointed time, 7:00 and went into a small but nice recital-rehearsal hall. There were about 20 high school aged string players and about a half a dozen adults all just milling about; talking and socializing with their friends. About 7:20 a much harried looking woman of vast proportions descended the stairs and called the players to order. Roll was taken, chairs and stands were found and the conductor then proceeded to pass out three pieces of music. Tuning was done by the conductor taking each instrument and plucking the strings with her thumb and handing the instrument back to the player. She did this with each player including the adults. No “A” was ever given so the pitch from each instrument varied from player to player. It was kind of like taking a small sample of yellow paint and matching 30 other samples to the sample just previously matched. What you get is an entirely different shade of yellow for each sample. By the time the tuning was completed it was almost 8:00. Not one single note had been played. She even checked the tuning of the adults in the group.
The first piece up was Bizet’s Carmen. Both Carmen and Bizet should ask for their money back. The conductor’s technique was reminiscent of someone beating a snake with a stick. I think she quit beating when she thought the snake had finally died. I know I had. Her comment at that point was “Wonderful. Now let’s number our measures.” Exit Frank and Barbara stage left.
Here is the point. These people were cheated out of what could been a wonderful musical experience. An experience of learning, appreciation of great music and above all the satisfaction of working with others under the direction of an inspiring conductor to play some of the greatest music ever written. Never mind that they may have all been inexperienced. They deserved better.
Instead they got incompetence bordering on criminal action. This woman stole their time and gave them nothing in return. One can only hope that in the next life she is assigned to a place where the only music be heard is bagpipes or “Lady of Spain” badly played on an out of tune accordion by a chubby pre-adolescent with acne.
I am now going to practice my guitar.

Thanks for listening, I feel much better.

Bag It And Tag It

Over the last few years my wife and I have had the great opportunity to do a bit of traveling. In 2002 we flew to Paris France (no, not Paris Idaho) and rented a car. We traveled all over France in a small VW Jetta for three weeks. Before we left, I suggested that we probably could get along with just taking a small carry-one bag each. The idea went over like a fart in church, but after some discussion and a few tales of people traveling half way across the planet and having to wear the same clothes until the luggage was finally found, my wife finally agreed. Yes it is entirely possible to travel with just a carry-on. You just have to be willing to spend a few hours in a self service laundry in a foreign country. My logic was validated when we met an American couple in Paris and shared a table with them at the Café du Marche. He was wearing one of his wife’s blouses because his luggage had been lost. In many places he would not have received a second look and I probably wouldn’t have noticed either if he hadn’t brought it up. If you look at it from a positive point of view, he beat the stereotype of the American tourist (Dockers, new white tennis shoes, t-shirt with some message like “I caught crabs on the Oregon coast” and a Chicago Cubs baseball hat).

Unfortunately, as we are packing today in preparation of our flight to Geneva Switzerland tomorrow I am trying to stuff 250 lbs of the essentials of life into four suitcases and a carry-on. Oh, did I mention the two laptops in a back pack and a violin? Larry’s Tire Store, Funeral Home and Airlines LCC, is limiting us to 50 lbs per bag. The first leg of the trip from Seattle to Salt Lake City had only two bags and both were over the weight limit. Since then my wife has been shopping and we have added two more suitcases. I am now way over the limit and will have to discard the chop saw and air compressor to accommodate her recent purchases. I have refused to give up my 5lb bag of Snickers. Larry, in his quest to squeeze the last dollar out of my wallet has told us that our first bag is free but the 2nd one will be $75. Other airlines charge $35/bag except for SouthWest and they don’t seem to care.

I let you know how it went when we get there.

Thanks for listening, I feel much better.