Picture Sunday

Hello, end of weekenders, and welcome to a very special edition of Picture Sunday.

As you all know, Mr M's clarinet recital was this week. It was Thursday. I had to work, but left about an hour early, sped home, changed into something recital-like, and hit the road to B'burg.

I got there a little early, so I stopped at Mr M's house, aka Poderosa East, instead of heading straight to the church where the recital was held. Things were calm, DeepFatFriar was there watching a movie, so I took a seat on the comfy leather chair and relaxed, and in about 20 minutes we headed out to the church.

I had a distinct mission for the pre-concert stuff this time around. I had decided to stay out of Mr M's face as much as possible. Last year it seems like I was around him at every turn leading up to the performance, he was nervous, it made me nervous, and so this time around we did a quick tune in the practice room, then I wished him luck and headed out to the sanctuary. Where I looked up at the church's gigantic speakers hanging from the ceiling and thought, "Holy crap, those look like giant iPods."

























I was third on the program. It was a very different type of recital this time around. And this is all my own opinion, without confirmation or denial from Mr M. See, last year when he decided to have a recital, he wanted to prove something. He wanted to prove he could do it. It was quite formal, even though his speaking in between songs was friendly and charming, and the list of music played was Herculean. There was a lot of it and it was loaded with flashy, difficult, "looky what I can do" passages. And don't get me wrong, it was great, he played it well, and it was enjoyable.

But this year it was less stiff. The music was, on the whole, more modern and accessible. There was some beautiful stuff in there. Some flashy and hard stuff too, and some deceivingly hard stuff. The banter was light and funny, and I think everyone there really enjoyed themselves.

But you want to know about me, don't you? Did I play well, or did I fall apart?

As you know from my last blog, my goal was to have fun and not worry so much about it, and I achieved that goal. I had fun all right. Did I play well? Well, you'll have to decide that on down the page. I thought was playing well. In fact, I was burning it. It's funny how you play something like that "when it counts," and after you've played about the first four notes you can tell by the way they sound that you're going to do really, really well. It just feels right.

Mr M (who forgot his music and had to look off my stand) and I were just playing up and down, weaving in and out of passages, we were in tune, it was just great. Then it came to the beginning of my solo. The one I'd alternately played well and shitty, depending on the day. I started it, and it was kickin'. I played all through it, got back to the part where Mr M took the lead and I was dipping around behind him, I got to the end of a line, my eyes headed down to the first measure of the next line, I played the first two notes...

...and then I realized, "Oh shit, I've forgotten how to play the clarinet."

And then a couple of amazing things happened. One of which I'm very proud. The first was that after those first two notes, there was complete silence. And yes, friends, fun I was having, in fact, I seemed to be having so much fun that during that silence, I began to laugh. However, what made me proud is that even during my laugh I was keeping time, and I came right back in, right in time, into the next measure, and played well to the end. Also however, my laugh threw Mr M off a bit, and he had trouble with that next measure where I came back in. So a bird hit the windshield, but it didn't make us wreck.

People seemed to like it, or at least were very kind and complimentary to me about it, and in fact, I don't think I've ever had so many nice things said to me in one night. I'm surprised I didn't explode. Between the fact that they all apparently thought I clean up very well and played a good duet, I got some very nice things said to me by nice people.

Mr M finished on with the rest of the recital, which featured a barn-burning clarinet duet between him and his friend David Neithamer (hey, piss off, David!), everyone was happy and satisfied, and we all went back to Poderosa East afterwards for a little reception where ESP had laid out a beautiful spread of goodies. (Including the biggest and tastiest strawberries I've ever seen.)

So, first, some pictures. Here's the four of us who participated. Cara, the pianist (a really lovely person, editor of Blue Ridge Magazine, and woman who has actually interviewed the Hackensaw Boys!), David N (hey, piss off, David!), Sherman, me, and Mr M.



















Now, I have to tell you something funny about this. It was not my idea that Sherman find his way into the picture. See, of course, some of the boys came along for the recital, Sherman, Peabody, Huckie, Good Luck Baby Lily, and at his first recital, Bunsen.

























(Notice Huckie has his hankie at the ready. Remember, he got a little weepy last year.) Anyway, when we started posing for after-recital pictures, David (hey, piss off, David!) said, "Hey, give me one of those characters!" Of course Sherman was the only choice, and he held him for all the photos.

Here's one of Mr M and I during the duet.





















And here's a photo of Mr M and I afterwards. I got flowers from him, he got flowers from an audience member. Since this was at a church and we're on the altar having pictures made, he in tux, us with our flowers, I like to refer to this as our "wedding photo."




















Of course, us being us, we couldn't let well enough alone, and decided that if the above was our wedding photo, these would be our "what happened approximately four minutes after the wedding" photos.










































And a good time was had by all.

I'm afraid there is no recipe du jour tonight, simply for the fact that I didn't feel like doing one today. I didn't feel like doing anything today, and so I didn't. Not a thing. So there!

Finally, here is where you can go hear Mr M's and my duet from the recital. And by the way, the blunder where I was having so much fun I laughed? You can hear it.

Views of the Blues, mvt III

All that and a Comfy Chair Cinema movie. I filmed the barn-burner duet between Mr M and David (hey, piss off, David!) from the recital, and you should go and take a look. I mean, if you want to see how real clarinet players do a piece.

Happy week.

Betland's Olympic Update:
* Big news. Mowed my yard Friday, and in the back yard, saw something near my mower that I almost bent down to pick up and throw out of the mower's path - until I realized it was a snake. Yes, Mr Snake is back, well, let me explain, this snake was so exceedingly small it didn't even make me scream, it was no longer than about 10 inches, and was slithering to a crack in the concrete on the back porch. So I don't really have a Mr Snake so much as a Master Snake. I googled him and found out he's apparently a ringneck snake, a harmless and non-poisonous number described as "secretive." Hope so. Actually, I hope I was just an overnight stop on his way elsewhere.