Thursday, August 18, 2005
Mata El Nido Entero!
Mata Avispas Y Avispones
Time's been awastin. There's been a large amount of that time stuff between my last entry and this one. No really good reasons for that, just sheer laziness I guess. Although, laziness implies that I've been lying around doing nothing for the past couple of weeks, and that's so not true. In fact, in the past six days, A Great Fall has had three shows! Plus, Claire as a solo artist practiced with the Edgewood Symphony Orchestra on Tuesday, which, despite preconceptions, was alright and even bordering on fun. The music was okay and the conductor was pretty cool, but unfortunately I got put next to that girl. Well, that lady more like.
Any of my fellow musicians would understand. There's always one in every performing group. One who looks up and nods after every single thing the conductor says, and even sometimes mutters "Mmmm" or "Mmm-hmm!" He or she is quick to criticize any other member of the group, and also quick to check his/her instrument when he/she plays a wrong note... as if the instrument must have made the mistake.
This lady... the first oboist, in fact, was a piece of work. For one thing, she wasn't that great. I don't mean to be a big diva (I do that enough with A Great Fall) but I played way better than she does when I was in school. If I got my chops back I could blow her out of the water (no pun intended.) She was constantly muttering things... "Ew" or "ugh!" when anyone played the slightest bit flat on a single note.
She also took it upon herself to "shush" the entire orchestra whenever the conductor stopped mid-piece, to alert everyone else that we were stopping. Obviously this woman didn't understand that her fellow musicians are not a bunch of morons, and that we might have musical backgrounds too. Some of us might even have (gasp!) more experience or (double gasp!) degrees in music! There are people in the world who do know when to stop playing without being shushed by the brown noser with the 234 oboe accessories that she doesn't need.
She even had the nerve (and my fellow musicians will back me up on the audacity it takes for someone to do this) to reach onto my stand, pick up my pencil, and make a style comment on my music!! She felt I didn't play a note the way it should be played, so even rather than whisper, "That should be staccatto" or whatever, she TOOK MY PENCIL AND WROTE IT ON MY MUSIC! ON MY STAND! Who does that! I didn't even know this woman! Granted, it's considered okay to speak or whisper comments to your cohorts about style issues... but you just don't go writing shit on their music, especially shit that the conductor didn't specify. Bitch. Quite honestly I plan to get my oboein' muscles back in gear so I can show this whole joint who's the boss and who belongs in first chair. Yeah, that's right.
Anyway, onto Great Fall news. We did two shows this past weekend, both of which went well. We played rather poorly at the Beaver County Rock Off, yet somehow managed to come away with 2nd place! Maybe it was because we got brownie points. Apparently the cook for the evening didn't show, and in their state of panic, they asked if anyone could cook. John, being a cook at Juliano's, stepped up to the plate and cooked burgers all night for the audience before hopping on stage to rock out with us. It was quite amusing actually, and I believe he made twelve bucks for it.
The show the following night at The Rex rocked. A good sized crowd helped to keep our energy up, and John's solos were kick-ass. Things are going really well for us. When we started out, our goal was to get a show maybe... and now we've had several and made a total of $35 (which isn't a lot, but it beats paying for shows like we used to). I guess it's time to raise the bar. Our new sights are on getting signed to a label. So... that's the new hope.
Last night we did a show at the Garfield Artworks which was weird. The headliner band decided they didn't want to play last, so they shoved us to the end instead, and when they were done playing, everyone left. It sucked. We didnt' start our set til about 10:30 pm and there were literally 6 people listening, and it just wasn't worth the effort. Oh well, win some, lose some.
That's why EVERYONE NEEDS TO COME AND SEE US A WEEK FROM FRIDAY AT MR. SMALLS THEATER! It'll be awesome.
There's a cardboard box at the bottom of the stairs in my house, and my cat has decided to stalk people from it. It's very intimidating.
Jason just called and asked me if I want to go to 80's night. I might just do it, even though I'm really freakin' tired. Oh well, we'll see.
That's about it for now. More exciting entries later I promise.
Time's been awastin. There's been a large amount of that time stuff between my last entry and this one. No really good reasons for that, just sheer laziness I guess. Although, laziness implies that I've been lying around doing nothing for the past couple of weeks, and that's so not true. In fact, in the past six days, A Great Fall has had three shows! Plus, Claire as a solo artist practiced with the Edgewood Symphony Orchestra on Tuesday, which, despite preconceptions, was alright and even bordering on fun. The music was okay and the conductor was pretty cool, but unfortunately I got put next to that girl. Well, that lady more like.
Any of my fellow musicians would understand. There's always one in every performing group. One who looks up and nods after every single thing the conductor says, and even sometimes mutters "Mmmm" or "Mmm-hmm!" He or she is quick to criticize any other member of the group, and also quick to check his/her instrument when he/she plays a wrong note... as if the instrument must have made the mistake.
This lady... the first oboist, in fact, was a piece of work. For one thing, she wasn't that great. I don't mean to be a big diva (I do that enough with A Great Fall) but I played way better than she does when I was in school. If I got my chops back I could blow her out of the water (no pun intended.) She was constantly muttering things... "Ew" or "ugh!" when anyone played the slightest bit flat on a single note.
She also took it upon herself to "shush" the entire orchestra whenever the conductor stopped mid-piece, to alert everyone else that we were stopping. Obviously this woman didn't understand that her fellow musicians are not a bunch of morons, and that we might have musical backgrounds too. Some of us might even have (gasp!) more experience or (double gasp!) degrees in music! There are people in the world who do know when to stop playing without being shushed by the brown noser with the 234 oboe accessories that she doesn't need.
She even had the nerve (and my fellow musicians will back me up on the audacity it takes for someone to do this) to reach onto my stand, pick up my pencil, and make a style comment on my music!! She felt I didn't play a note the way it should be played, so even rather than whisper, "That should be staccatto" or whatever, she TOOK MY PENCIL AND WROTE IT ON MY MUSIC! ON MY STAND! Who does that! I didn't even know this woman! Granted, it's considered okay to speak or whisper comments to your cohorts about style issues... but you just don't go writing shit on their music, especially shit that the conductor didn't specify. Bitch. Quite honestly I plan to get my oboein' muscles back in gear so I can show this whole joint who's the boss and who belongs in first chair. Yeah, that's right.
Anyway, onto Great Fall news. We did two shows this past weekend, both of which went well. We played rather poorly at the Beaver County Rock Off, yet somehow managed to come away with 2nd place! Maybe it was because we got brownie points. Apparently the cook for the evening didn't show, and in their state of panic, they asked if anyone could cook. John, being a cook at Juliano's, stepped up to the plate and cooked burgers all night for the audience before hopping on stage to rock out with us. It was quite amusing actually, and I believe he made twelve bucks for it.
The show the following night at The Rex rocked. A good sized crowd helped to keep our energy up, and John's solos were kick-ass. Things are going really well for us. When we started out, our goal was to get a show maybe... and now we've had several and made a total of $35 (which isn't a lot, but it beats paying for shows like we used to). I guess it's time to raise the bar. Our new sights are on getting signed to a label. So... that's the new hope.
Last night we did a show at the Garfield Artworks which was weird. The headliner band decided they didn't want to play last, so they shoved us to the end instead, and when they were done playing, everyone left. It sucked. We didnt' start our set til about 10:30 pm and there were literally 6 people listening, and it just wasn't worth the effort. Oh well, win some, lose some.
That's why EVERYONE NEEDS TO COME AND SEE US A WEEK FROM FRIDAY AT MR. SMALLS THEATER! It'll be awesome.
There's a cardboard box at the bottom of the stairs in my house, and my cat has decided to stalk people from it. It's very intimidating.
Jason just called and asked me if I want to go to 80's night. I might just do it, even though I'm really freakin' tired. Oh well, we'll see.
That's about it for now. More exciting entries later I promise.
