February 8, 2015

This week Ken Slowik was in town to play a concert with Ian and our baroque cello teacher. He's the curator of the Smithsonian Musical Instrument collection and an accomplished cellist, gambist and fortepianist, which is what he was playing in the concert. I managed to make myself useful during their week of rehearsals by lending Ian a baroque bow, tying gut strings, checking the balance, lending them my black wire stand and turning pages at the concert. It was wonderful to see them rehearse. When all was done, Ian gave me half a tuna salad sandwich (???) as compensation (???) and I ate it for dinner the next day (???).

But that's not the whole story. What actually happened at the concert was this: the 3 of them played a Haydn trio, then Ian and Mr Slowik played a Schubert sonata. I was watching them as they finished the first movement, which has a soft and gentle ending, and as just they were playing the last note I saw some strange lights begin to flash. Then an obnoxious alarm began to whoop loudly. Then the intercom came on and informed us that the fire alarm had been pulled. Perfect timing! We had a full house, and the entire audience had to troop outside and stand on the sidewalk in the night while the firefighters came and checked things out. Ian began to express a desire to call it a night and go home. Fortunately everyone wanted to hear the second half, so when we were allowed back into the building, they resumed the Schubert from the second movement.

I found some of this "Pretend Play Money" lying around in the lift at crew. I think it's from one of the opera scenes.

It's smaller than an actual dollar bill - only about the length of my palm.

I filed my American taxes and was reminded that if I am married, I am married. Even if my spouse is not in the USA, I am still married.

On Saturday I went to Bernal Heights with some friends. I was displeased with the walking tempo of the others (you'd think they were 100 years old) and with the monologue of one of our companions (who shall remain nameless) which lasted almost the entire duration of the expedition. However, it did not spoil the trip (it takes a lot to really spoil trips) and the rain came on and off, and there was drifting fog over the city which made it look like an alien town. M said she felt like we were on another planet. I took some photos which don't do it justice so I won't post them, except for one shot which I think turned out to be very effective.

On the way home we found some slides and an angry restaurant.

This weekend we had orchestra concerts: "The Planets" and a piece by the winner of the composition competition. I have noticed that Scott refers to all the planets except one by their names (Saturn, Mars, Neptune etc.). I have not yet heard him say "Uranus"; instead he says "The Magician, please." I am certain he does this on purpose to avoid a word that sounds awkward whichever way you pronounce it.

- Antisocial Violinist