salience
September 24, 2009
So much has been going on, I can hardly believe it is almost October!
As a recap:
1. I continued my trend of seeing my favorite bands live this year with an Incubus show at Radio City Music Hall. Yep, this is where I saw Celtic Woman back in March, only this time the crowd was very different. Incubus has been one of my favorite bands for going on 13 years now: the audience was on its feet for all three hours they were onstage and I sang along to every. Single. Song. Partly because I couldn't help it, I just knew all the words and was so happy anytime a familiar opening chord sounded, but also because they were all fantastic performers. You can feel the relationships between the members, they are so familiar with one another that the music comes easy. There were surprises though! Brandon Boyd (vocals) played a didgeridoo, Mike Einziger (guitar) played a Pipa and they even played a lot of acoustic versions of their older material. I was hoarse for a good two days after, but was it worth it! I cannot wait to see them when they tour again!
2. I spent two weekends in Atlanta to help la mama move. Overall it was a great change, and I'm glad she's happy in her new place.
3. This has been the summer of babies, I feel. My cousin Teresa is pregnant with her second child and Teresa's sister-in-law, Jenny, just had her first child. I'm definitely looking forward to the holidays when we can all catch up!
4. August was very intense for Columbia Summer Winds. Not only was the Board in full swing, but we had two concerts to put on: one at Riverside Park and our first ever at a revered, public venue: Bryant Park. Bryant Park was especially challenging because a) it was a concert on a weeknight and I took off work and b) because of a), logistics were that much more difficult. Ever try driving a U-Haul through rush hour traffic in Times Square? How about renting a 10 foot truck from a very uncoordinated warehouse in Chelsea? For one and a half hours of music on the Fountain Terrace in midtown, 13 hours of logistics were needed. But we did it!
I'm happy to say this past season has been the most successful for the group to-date. We estimated we reached approximately 600 people this past summer. Quite a feat when you consider we only put on 3 concerts. It's some feeling to look back at our accomplishments and see how much of a hand I had in bringing about such success as CSW Manager. I rule!
Our plight at incorporation/attaining non-profit status continues. Our pro bono legal counsel has been bogged down with a very languished Department of State back and forth, but we hope to be incorporated soon.
Which brings me to my next first: I can now call myself a grant writer. CSW applied for two grants (each for about $3,800) through the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. One is state funded, the other city funded. Both are Manhattan community specific: you must be a Manhattan based organization with grand plans to make a positive impact on the Manhattan community in some way. Our "project" is the 2010 CSW season, where we will continue to provide performances of the best in wind ensemble repertoire/Broadway show tunes/orchestra transcriptions/current movie soundtracks in public spaces at no cost to the public. As far as I know, we are one of the few groups which exist in the NYC area solely for this purpose.
The applications themselves were relatively straight forward, but crafting our answers took myself and the Board about two weeks to piece together. My favorite part of the applications was a budgeting section, where we were able to list what all goes into one CSW season via membership donations. It's really an eye opener to see, in total, Columbia Summer Winds Director/Associate Conductors/Manager/Truck Crew, etc can plan to donate $7,300 via in in-kind volunteer hours. Or, to put it another way, if CSW were a professional organization, all of the services provided by our staff would total to $7,300 over the course of about 8 weeks, and that's on the low side! We are one lucky bunch to be able to count on that level of dedication, no?
We also held a recording session for CSW too. Sadly, we lost half of the material due to an accident involving our sound tech. But what we did keep actually sounds pretty good! It'd been years since I'd been involved in a recording!
I submitted 16 copies of our two applications and two demos to LMCC this week. We're to hear about whether or not we've been awarded either/both grants at the beginning of 2010.
5. Ryan, his parents and I attended his cousin's wedding down in Virginia two weekends ago. It was a little chilly, but all in all, a beautiful outdoor wedding. We had a great time!
6. Last weekend Ryan and I went to the Harriman Cup Polo Match in Old Westbury (Long Island). UVA vs. Yale. I had never been to anything even remotely associated with polo, so I was pretty excited. We had been told to expect an atmosphere similar to Foxfields (the horse race down in Chartlottesville every spring). Luckily, the spirit of those in attendance was the only similarity to Foxfield's. No out of control undergrads in an inner ring at this event! We had a great time spending the day outside in the sunshine, learning about polo and catching up with Ry's old Jeff Soc friends. We even got to stomp the divots (a la Pretty Woman) at the half! UVA ending up losing to Yale by 3, but I definitely would like to go again next year!
7. With CSW ending last month, September has meant the start of Manhattan Wind Ensemble rehearsals. We have our first concert the Monday before Thanksgiving and are playing some rather difficult material (namely Vesuvius, my favorite by Ticheli, and the William Byrd Suite). Our auditions this year were pretty stressful for me, mostly because the technical passage our director selected started off with a fourth octave F sharp and only progressed higher from there (near the top limit of the clarinet range). Needless to say I could have done better and am regretfully sitting second chair this year. Sigh. There's always next year, right? If nothing else, it gives me time to really perfect the fourth octave. :)
8. Ryan and I saw Jude Law as Hamlet on Broadway this past Tuesday night. Law has always creeped me out, ever since his character in Road to Perdition with the long fingernails who would photograph freshly killed bodies. I have to say though, he did an excellent job throughout the entire 3.5 hours the actors were on stage (and I didn't think of those awful fingernails once!). Hamlet is my favorite Shakespeare and it was really hard for me to make sure I didn't speak along with the lines as they were delivered. I couldn't help but remember all of the time spent in Mr. Friedman's AP Lit class senior year of high school reciting random sections of the five acts just for fun. Ask any Friedman Scholar and I'm sure they can still tell you "It harrows me with fear and wonder" or "The air bites shrewdly it is very cold, 'tis a nipping and an eager air!" or "Do you see yonder cloud in the shape of a camel?". Polonius ("Neither a borrower or a lender be" and "Brevity is the soul of wit") was my favorite though, and he was also conveniently the grave digger, both were hilarious!
8. Ryan's parents are coming into town tomorrow for a long weekend. Ryan's birthday is on Monday (yay 27!) and he moves to London next Thursday. Ry's mom and I have quite the itinerary planned. Dinner at Tavern on the Green and then a show at Cafe Wha tomorrow night, followed by lunch at Serendipity, a trip to the Met and dinner at Ninja Saturday, a matinee showing of Hair and then dinner at Plataforma on Sunday and then a birthday lunch at the Yale Club and a birthday dinner at Smith and Wollensky on Monday. We just so happen to be going to four of my six favorite restaurants in Manhattan this weekend (all save Porterhouse New York and Hill Country), so rest assured it will be a good time!
I think that's about it. Just a few things going on, as per usual. I will catch up with photos soon!
lasaliente, 15:55
