Hallowe'en

is today. Not that that means anything, other than bracing myself for the onslaught of resistance to 1/2 price candy in the days to come. Our doorbell doesn't work and you have to pound pretty hard on the entrance to our fortress of solitude (we live on the 2nd to 4th floors of a stacked townhouse) in order that we actually hear you so it's unlikely that we'll be terribly hospitable tonight.

My cat just leapt up onto my lap, only he didn't really---he ended up ricocheting with a sickening thud back to the floor as his little furry noggin collided with my rather bony elbow. It took a while but I got him to accept that these things happen and now he's learned to embrace the pain and lie like a warm puddle of goo on my lap. Sometimes the hardness of animals' skulls thrills and amazes me.

But back to the land of music---newest developments: I had a call to go out and play Brahms in Nova Scotia. Alas, it will not happen for various reasons. Also, my quartet's been asked to go to New Delhi, India in January to play what amounts to a very odd gig but I will say that, if they give in to our outrageous demands, we'll be on the plane. Details will follow either way.

It's been 3 days since I was last at work and I'm already officially bored. Which means that the proper routine of practice and working out (which I do religiously anyhow...the latter, that is) must begin post haste.

I'm not at all good at sitting around, but I'm trying hard not to accept gigs that will take me out of town, at least not for a while. For 6 months of the year I spend very little time at home and it's nice to get back to a point where we can eat real food and I can catch up on things that have long been delayed, such as taxes, bills and cleaning. Oh, the cleaning. I need little yet I have everything. I'm a musician so I'm not sure how it is that I have, literally, every material object that I could want. In fact, more than I want. If anyone wants to come rummage through my belongings and take many, many things away, they're most welcome.

I've been listening to a couple of recent recordings of our quartet; I tend to record a lot, whether it be my practicing, rehearsals, concerts, whatever, particularly since I bought a new viola a year ago and am still working out its kinks---or rather, my kinks. I had my first viola from age 16 til last year, when I turned 34. That's a long relationship. I loved it and it got me through a lot; it did well in audition land and blended great in quartetville. But the general complaint was that it didn't provide enough dynamic range (read: I didn't provide enough dynamic range), so when a friend of mine started turning out monster violas, I jumped on one. It really blows my mind; it actually hurts my left ear sometimes with the volume that can be extracted from this beast, but in a good way.

So I've been listening, trying to work out what I need to improve. I have to say that a different instrument can really shift one's perspective and change one's priorities---but it can also change one's life. I am now a better player, and I now sympathize all the more with students. When I sit and say, "Here, try doing x and y and getting sound xy," and they try and I realize that the hardware they're dealing with is inadequate, I understand so well why so many of us struggle to win jobs out of school.