Weekend in Review

There is something really wrong with a girl who works every day for a couple weeks straight, gets home from session on Saturday night, and while flipping through channels, starts watching public television to see the Minnesota House debate their tax bill. Just completely, utterly, masochistically wrong. As if I don't get enough politics while I'm at work! As if I didn't spend all of Friday evening at work watching the Senate debate theirs!
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I got to see Nora this weekend! Yay! You'd think I'd see her more often since we went to law school and the same church together, she married my classmate, and more importantly, her sister is my roommate, but no. Anyway, it was great to see her and catch up a bit. (Which forced me to turn off the politics for a while Saturday evening, so thanks, Amy.)
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I have two more concerts the next two weekends, and then my symphony season is over for the year. What relief! It's exhausting going to rehearsals every Sunday night. This concert series is actually quite entertaining. Well, it is once you get over the fact that we're playing a 70-minute symphony by Bruckner (the Fourth - aka "the Romantic"). But even that piece can be entertaining. If you've ever listened to the fourth movement (here and here), you'll know what I'm talking about: in several spots, I hear Indiana Jones meeting highbrow, classical music. In a few other spots, I swear it'd be great for a Halloween concert. Or maybe that's just the way I'm playing it...

The other piece we're playing is by Randall Davidson, with narration by Garrison Keillor: The Young Lutheran's Guide to the Orchestra (read the second or so edition of the narration here, but be warned: this version has some colorful language in it that is not included in our edition of the narration, but it's the only one I could find quickly this morning). This piece is quite entertaining - it's got some old gospel tunes with hilarious narration, all along the premise of, if God were choosing an instrument to play, which would it be? Some of the best lines in the narration relate to the viola:

"The viola section is not a nice place for a Lutheran; you're just going to have to take my word for it. I know violists and they are fine people until, late at night, they start a fire in a vacant parking lot, drink a few bottles of cheap red wine and roast chickens over a pit like a group of gypsies, and talk about going to Mexico with a woman named Rita. Don't be a part of this crowd. The problem with violists is you can't hear them beyond the stage, and when people do hear them, they think they're second violinists anyway."

And the tuba player:

"The tuba player, for example, is a stocky bearded guy who has a day job as a plumber. He's the only member of the orchestra whose average bowling score is above 250, goes deer hunting in the fall, and changes his own oil. It's not an instrument for a sensitive Lutheran, and anyway, there's only one Tuba player and, well, he's it."

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Happy Monday to all.