Ursprache trumps Weltschmerz

I love the National Spelling Bee! Smart, single-mindedly focused, proudly unconventional kids. I can't spell a single word I've heard in the last half-hour. (Actually, I got luckier toward the end with Weltschmerz and Kundalini:) But I was plenty pissed that the announcer guy mis-pronounced sciolto as "shalltoh." You don't tell the kid that the derivation is Italian, then butcher the diction. Unfair! But in the end, the girls ruled the world. And it pays to study your German.

I try to keep up with Living and Working in the Creative Sector, though most of the time it just makes me feel stupid. Today's entry talks about the difference in "time horizons" between managers and executives:

Both managers and rank & file workers focus their attention and efforts on the present. Both work more in the “NOW” than do executives, whose jobs and responsibilities require them to primarily exercise a future-focus.

Well, if executives work in the future-focus, and managers focus on the present, what does that make me, given that lately I seem to be mired in the recent past, spending my days sweeping up messes that I've made?

Dozens of hours pass, and The List gets no shorter. Schedule harpsichord and organ delivery. Decide on temperament for said harpsichord. (I don’t know… surprise me….?) Schedule piano tunings. Talk to singers about Anti-Master Class in July (I’ll explain later). Change ad copy for next week. Help with photo shoot promoting new classes and private lessons for the fall. Talk to staff and colleagues about staffing pre-show lectures in July and August. Refine tech week schedule for Orpheus. Explain to managers who want to talk about chamber music bookings for 2008 that I just can’t think about that right now…

Zdenko G. Fibich

When I saw that Daniel Felsenfeld had an image of Faerie's Aire and Death Waltz on Felsenmusik, I knew I had to link to it. Used to have it on the wall of my old office. I could always find something in it that would make me smile. I have no idea if you can read any of it in your web browser, but it's worth a try.

Some of my favorite indications in the score:

If there is a 3rd clarinet, some violins may go.
Rests are imaginary.
Remove cattle from stage.
Slippage may occur.

Unplugging

Do you unplug? I'm getting worse and worse at it. Don't know when I've last gone more than 48 hours without email or cell phone. Talked to a colleague yesterday who's going to spend the next couple of weeks on a yacht off the Greek Islands. Totally unplugged. (She probably will never read this because she's so unplugged:)) It makes me happy just thinking about it.