{"id":494,"date":"2007-11-18T21:43:22","date_gmt":"2007-11-18T21:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2007\/11\/18\/quote-of-the-month\/"},"modified":"2007-11-20T16:30:24","modified_gmt":"2007-11-20T16:30:24","slug":"quote-of-the-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2007\/11\/18\/quote-of-the-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Quote of the month"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is possibly my favorite post concert comment ever, courtesy of Tom (thanks for dinner, Tom!!!!) <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou could hear everyone onstage and, you know, there wasn\u2019t any weird shit going on\u201d I loved that!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This came out of my mouth this morning in reference to a former colleague and made me smile as I was saying it\u2026. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cReally, I\u2019m surprised he\u2019s not still there. He was a perfect fit for that department, both incompetent and mendacious\u2026\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Rarely have I felt I summarized someone’s professional life so succinctly and accurately! <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

From the \u201cbest laid plans\u201d file. Sue and I figured out a few days ago I could simplify my travel today and tomorrow by going directly from Heathrow to <\/span>Hereford<\/span>, where I have a rehearsal tomorrow evening. I should get to <\/span>Hereford<\/span> at about 4, which allows me a decent nap before the rehearsal. We just realized the problem with this plan\u2026 My scores for the HSO concert are in <\/span>Cardiff<\/span>, not <\/span>Hereford<\/span>. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The orchestra has a set, but they\u2019re with the rehearsal conductor, so now all is in motion to gather them, otherwise it\u2019s straight to Cardiff, off the train, get the scores, on the train then in rehearsal. No nap. Very sad\u2026.. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The OES concert last night had the misfortune of competing with a few other events, and attendance was down a wee bit, which was the only bummer in an otherwise wonderful week. Given the situation, I did something I\u2019ve never done before, which is to remind the audience members to tell their friend how wonderful the kids in the youth orchestra were and that they deserve just as much support as their peers on the football and basketball team. Small towns like to trumpet community spirit, but Pendleton has some fantastic young musicians and they deserve better from their neighbors. I expect I\u2019ll probably get in trouble! <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This is one of the dangers of being Ken- I do a good job of tip-toeing around feelings and never\u00a0offending people for 11 months, then find out I\u2019ve offended someone I was really trying to be nice to, so then I get fed up and speak my mind for a couple weeks, and then have to cover my tracks for the next several months. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Otherwise, I enjoyed the concert itself even more than usual\u2026 I thought the Dvorak Wind Serenade\u00a0had some of the most polished and sophisticated playing the orchestra has managed. There were a few tiny blips which I\u2019m sure the audience missed entirely that caused an inordinate amount of self-recrimination on the part of the players who made them. This is the curse of the musician- the better you play, the more your mistakes bother you, and often when you think it\u2019s going poorly it actually sounds good because you\u2019re so focused, which means you don\u2019t get to enjoy your best work. When I listened to the recording of my recital the other day, I should have known it would be the movement I was most bummed out about after the concert that actually sounded the best\u2026. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And Beethoven 8\u2026 Yarrr!!!! There were a lot of comments afterwards about how tight the ensemble playing was, with which I concur. No mean feat, especially in the last movement. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It was an unusually lively post-concert party, which culminated in a <\/span>2AM<\/span> argument over the greatest moments in the Transformers (the animated series and movie, not the new film). <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Other quote of the week “the last time I got that drunk was also\u00a0here.”\u00a0That’s what I call orchestra\u00a0 spirit. Anyway, onward and upward\u2026\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

UPDATE- I forgot to include one other treasured post-concert comment, this one from one of the young ladies in the youth orchestra <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“You’ve shown me the path!” she said. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, she’s found it for herself, but it’s really\u00a0rewarding to be a part of a project that makes it possible for young musicians to find their paths. On thing I heard from all of the freelancers was a general\u00a0degree of amazement at the amount of talent in the junior orchestra. We’ve always had talented kids in town, but never so many across all sections and age groups.\u00a0 Maybe they’ve shown us the path?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n