Text 680, 105 rader
Skriven 2013-05-11 16:38:37 av Nancy Backus (1:3634/12.0)
     Kommentar till en text av Michael Loo
Ärende: music&travel 526
========================
-=> Quoting MICHAEL LOO to NANCY BACKUS on 05-10-13 09:10 <=-

 ML>>> In fact one Boston Symphony bassist did just that and had
 ML>>> his ass seriously busted for it. You could look it up and
 ML>>> not be surprised by the fact that he was the one who had
 ML>>> played for a while with Frank Zappa.
 NB>>> I vaguely do remember something of the sort... and, true, wouldn't
 NB>>> be surprised... ;)
 ML>> Well. I did the research and found one (1) mention in the
 ML>> newspapers, and a friend of mine was reported to be the
 ML>> culprit. Not what I remember at all. Or perhaps there was
 ML>> more than one case.
 NB>> Could be.  That wouldn't surprise me either.
 ML> What I meant is more than one publicized event, not more than
 ML> one instance, because I know the latter to be true.

As we know, not all old news is still easily found.  I gathered the
latter, and that you had meant the former...

 ML> The BSO guys are a special case - they were the prodigies and
 ML> bad boys of music but gave all that up for job security and a
 ML> certain amount of prestige, so they (especially in the freedom-
 ML> obsessed '60s and '70s) chafed at the boundaries imposed by a

I'd wonder why Boston more so than other localities... but maybe it's
something in the gene pool... that was the hotbed of the American
Revolution, too... ;)   Well, except for Virginia, but they were more
genteel about it, probably...  :)

 ML> conductor every couple days, so when off duty they went and did
 ML> weird and thrilling things, such as making pornographic videos,
 ML> cooking gourmet meals, and smuggling drugs. This last had special
 ML> appeal, as musicians live hand to mouth, and back in the '70s the
 ML> starting salary was a measly $80,000 a year, hardly enough to feed
 ML> a family in Boston. Of course it was a 30 hour a week job, and one
 ML> could moonlight by teaching at a university or conservatory, do
 ML> outside gigs (which irritated us second tier players because they
 ML> clogged up the rosters and impeded our opportunities), or sell
 ML> stuff sometimes unrelated to music proper (such as narcotics).

Some of the alternates are obviously done still...  ;)  Is the
contraband done as much though...?   Sounds quite dog-eat-dog to me...

 ML>> Bitter much? No, I audition badly, and I know that, and the one
 ML>> time I actually auditioned I was sent away with my tail behind my
 ML>> legs - they said, and I quote, we are looking for reliability, not
 ML>> personality (I also auditioned for Buffalo and was called back,
 ML> but in that short amount of time had lost interest in orchestral
 ML> music and in upstate New York).

Buffalo might not have been too bad... :)   But chamber music has it's
own proper niche in the musical world...  Not really being a part of the
musical scene here, I don't know how much happens here, but it seems
that there are plenty of opportunities at most levels... 

 ML>> I'm sitting here two hours before my flight, and the TSA
 ML>> peeps are going by, and most of them appear fully capable
 ML>> and probably perfectly happy to break a violin. One of
 ML>> them was a kind of cute blonde, though.
 NB>> And, if she broke the violin, it would be mere carelessness, not
 NB>> intention...?  ;)  
 ML> I don't cut cuteness that kind of slack. I no feel-a you butt,
 ML> you no break-a my violin.

[smile]
 
 ML>> We find out today.
 NB>> And...  were you affected...?  :)   Or are things more or less
 NB>> back to their usual level...
 ML> Don't think so. I waved my fancy credentials at the outer
 ML> guard and was waved through, bypassing a line of only 20
 ML> people or less - there was but one TSA ID checker who took
 ML> alternately from the demigod line and the peon line, but
 ML> of course only 10% of us have had our brush with immortality,
 ML> so I was through in a jif, being waved through with a "Thank
 ML> you, sir." Ticket machine to club was 5 minutes.

That part not so bad...

 ML> But when I went to the gate at boarding time, the inbound
 ML> had not shown up, and it was from a shuttle route, which is
 ML> not supposed to ever be late (they used to give something
 ML> like 5000 miles, or 20% of a free trip, if you were delayed
 ML> for any reason including weather more than the FAA mandated
 ML> 15 allowable minutes. Not true any more I guess). We loaded
 ML> a bunch late, and we took off a bunch late, and though the
 ML> flight only takes half an hour, we circled a bunch, so that
 ML> was more like an hour. But this all might have been attributed
 ML> to bad weather up and down the east coast plus the general
 ML> all-around nastiness of Philadelphia, rather than understaffing
 ML> in the control towers, which I believe has been minimized by
 ML> Congressional bluster and by cleverness on the part of the
 ML> aviation administrators.

Possible.  Bad weather and Philly could account for (most) of it... but
if the towers were also understaffed it wouldn't help anything.  But
from what I happen to hear there has been movement between Congress and
clever aviation admins to dodge that... hopefully not at the expense of
needful airport updates in the future, though...

ttyl      neb

... It's a widely held misperception that it tastes like chicken

 * Origin:  (1:3634/12)