| | Some unrelated bits today:
- Last night I had a surreal rehearsal with the Waterbury Symphony for the Nutcracker performances I'm doing this week and next. (I play the celesta part, which is very short, but it's the tune most people remember, the Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy. It's a cheezy gig, but easy and kinda fun.) Anyway, last night was so strange because...<gasp> the conductor didn't show up! Apparently there was some kind of mix-up, although the specifics are quite sketchy. Because it's a professional orchestra, the rehearsal had to go on, and the concertmaster asked me to conduct (some of the orchestra know that I'm a also conductor), but I declined. I didn't want to step on anybody's toes, and I've never really studied the whole ballet, only the 5 or so minutes that I play. Well, she ended up conducting herself, and I wished that I had done it; she had no idea what she was doing. The harpist kept making jokes about her, but I didn't want to criticize (although it was pretty funny). Anyway, the whole orchestra was pretty good humored about the whole thing, but it was definitely one of the strangest rehearsals ever.
- Why is anyone surprised about the "new" Vatican policies about ordaining gay priests? It seems to me that the Catholic Church has been pretty clear on how they feel about the gays for a really, really long time now.
- There was an interesting post on BoiFromTroy yesterday about flying foreign airlines. Apparently advocating a free market is "unpatriotic", because it doesn't shout BuyAmerican!!, a silly, bone-headed slogan akin to Support our Troops!! or These Colors Don't Run!!. The article quoted is really inarticulate, but the kernel of truth is that making purchases based on quality, price and value is both patriotic and good for the economy. If Americans want well-made products at a good price, we should compete freely with goods produced all over the world. Otherwise, we're encouraging a kind of economic laziness that hardly seems patriotic to me. What happened to the days when the conservatives were the capitalists in this country?
- I put a really cool Frappr map on here so you can post your picture and greeting for Cooper.
 Here's a fun button for you to click:
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| | Posted 12/1/2005 10:02 AM - 14 views - 8 comments
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