OK, Christmas is only a week away. When did THAT happen???
The Nutcracker was a total and complete success. Two performances--Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Personally, I think the music was better on Saturday, but the dancing was better on Sunday. I think we would have all collapsed if there were one more performance...
From Thursday through Sunday night, I unloaded an equipment truck (by myself), set up the orchestra in the pit (by myself), rehearsed three times @ 3 hours each, had two performances in less than 24 hours, then tore down the whole orchestra set-up within two hours after the second show. Today, I was up at 6AM (that NEVER happens) to deliver some equipment, and if everything works right, I'll be totally done with Nutcracker by 5PM. Thank God.
I didn't have a great deal of interaction with the dancers, though the male dancers were usually warming up on stage by the time I needed to be on site. To be upclose with professional dancers was interesting. Any jock who thinks that they could keep up with the physical demands made of these guys is kidding themselves. Or with the women! Being "in shape" is an understatement. And it takes a certain kind of mentality for a guy to be dancing out there with all eyes on you, while you've got all your manhood tucked away in your tights. And there were some who tucked away quite a bit, if you know what I mean...
I promised the injury update. You knew there's be one! Remember in June when I fell between the truck and loading dock and mucked up my leg? Happened again, sort of. Different dock, different situation, and nowhere near the damage. But I bruised my LEFT kneecap this time, and the fingers that were taped up from the LAST concert were aggravated again trying to break the fall. The good news? No blood this time around!
Should clear up the "death of a mentor" thing. No, it wasn't Dan Fogelberg (but he'll be missed...). Rather, it was my high school band director. He wasn't a mentor in the sense that I learned how to wax cars, but in my college days, I would look back at how he taught us, and I how I could take those things (or not) into the bandroom when I got out into the real world. And finding out what a different person he was when he was no longer my teacher, but my peer. I learned what an unfair advantage a student has when accusations are made. In his case it had nothing to do with being inappropriate, but with being "cranky". The school district basically fired a long-time tenured teacher for being "cranky". Of course, there's a little more to it, but that's the way it washes out. Back in the day that I was his student--when there was respect towards teachers from both students AND parents, when the school administration was actually supportive of their employees, and there was such a thing called "discipline"--he was cantankerous, but fair, and beloved by all of his students. And a great sense of humor. He never quite recovered from the whole ordeal, and as he got older, cancer and Alzheimer's were taking their toll on him. I probably haven't seen him in over two years. And that saddens me.
Of course, the big news in town was the Carroll College Fighting Saints' NAIA Football Championship. They defeated the University of Sioux Falls, 17-9, on a sloppy, sloppy field in Hardin County, Tennessee. In TV shots from the endzone, I'd guess that 60-70% of the field was under standing water. And it rained most of the game. It essentially took away most of the passing game of both teams. The last time USF lost a game (27 games ago) was against Carroll in the playoffs of 2005. Congrats to the Saints, NAIA champions for 5 of the last 6 years!
Don't forget that this week's HNT is the Three Wishes HNT! Please go read the rules! The link is at the top of the sidebar!
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