Break Time
I am in the middle of spring cleaning. My parents are coming to town Wednesday, so I have no choice but to clean the house up a bit. A lot, actually. I admit, I am not the cleanest dude around, and I let stuff accumulate. Where does all of this crap come from? Geez. I am pecking away at it, but there is so much to do, it is consuming me. I spent most of the day Sunday on this, most of today, and I bet most of tomorrow doing this. I have to add it to the other things I am working on for the concert this week.
Saturday, I played a pops concert with the Tar River Orchestra. It was an easy gig, playing only the first half. With two rehearsals, it was three trips to Rocky Mount which is a full tank of gas, about $70. This gig cost me $70 just to get to. This is $40 more than it could, or should, or used to cost. Gas is going to ruin us. If it costs more to get to the gig, its going to force them to pay more, making it harder for them to afford paying us , meaning they wont use live musicians anymore…and guess who gets cut first in an orchestra? That’s right, the Tuba.
The last few days have been perfect weather-wise around here. I have been spending some free time outside reading. Since I was avoiding cleaning the house, and wanting to relax a bit, I read a book I just got in the mail. I Love Amazon.com. Its an autobiography by Lynn “Buck” Compton, and it is a fairly personal inside look into his life. Compton was an officer in the 101st Airborne, Easy Company, featured in the book and mini-series Band of Brothers. This is where I learned of him, and from that, and the book have developed a great and human respect for this fellow. Interestingly, Compton was a teammate of Jackie Robinson at UCLA, and prosecuted Sirhan Sirhan for the murder of Robert F. Kennedy.
So, I am about to run out to the brass band shed and pick up some things, and continue to work around the house getting things ready. Wask Clothes, clean dishes, throw crap away… I pay the price for being lazy.
tonytuba.org 