h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ah - that was for a concert that's on at the end of the month.

We're doing 'Job: A Masque for Dancing' by Ralph Vaughan Williams (very hard, nibbling fingernails already on that one), 'Les Illuminations' by Benjamin Britten (Done that before - it's fab) and, just for fun, the Overture to 'Hansel and Gretel' by Engelbert Humperdinck (the original one, not the singer)

I've just done another concert actually, a Halloween one . We wowed the audience with 'Night on a Bare Mountain', 'Danse Macabre', 'The Creation of the Female Monster' (from 'Bride of Frankenstein') and rounded it all off with 'Symphonie Fantastique'. That went down really well, because we'd hardly lifted our bows from the strings on the last note when someone hollered 'Bravo!' at us. Very gratifying Apparently, my Dad was so up in the air about how brilliant it was, he couldn't sleep all that night!

Alas, we have to do a heap of Tchaikovsky now. I wouldn't mind, but we do the same stuff every two years, and there's only so many times you can play '1812' without wanting to end it all.

Never mind, get through that, and it's 'Ten Years of CPO Night at the Movies' to enjoy, and there's always Shostakovich's fifth symphony to look forward to in the Summer! Gotta look on the bright side!

You are one busy and talented musician!!!

BRAVO on your performance. Awesome.

::sneeze::



Thanks for letting me know what's on your program. Always interesting to hear what music programs are up to these days!!!

We were supposed to be doing some songs by Manuel da Falla, but we couldn't get an orchestral accompaniment in the same key as the vocal part!

It'll be interesting doing 'Les Illuminations' with a Soprano. It was originally written for a Tenor (Peter Pears I expect). Still, at least we're doing it.

Mind you, the principle viola is probably having kittens already - both the Britten and the RVW are absolutely *littered* with viola solos!

Ah, the joy of being co-principle...

You mean it's not all easy!??

It is for me - I'm not the principle! (breathes big sigh of relief).

I can recall one occasion when I had to play principle and we were doing the Enigma Variations - there are two viola solos in that that are both very prominent and very famous. The type where *everyone* notices if you muck it up.

Scary stuff. (brr).

Boy - talk about living life on the edge!

Be careful on that thar edge, Missy!!!

The responsibility of well-known music... that's a big one. No wonder little piano students love to make up their own songs, which almost always sound like a cat jumping around on the keyboard....

The alternative is chopsticks. Though there is one single tune (which I can't reproduce here, alas) which *everyone* seems to be able to play on a piano - and shouldn't.

I recall a reference to this particular tune in an episode of 'The Mary Whitehouse Experience' about ten or so years ago.

Given my own lack of talent on the piano (and I'm *seriously* bad), I can't really comment. But when has that ever stopped me?

... oh boy!!!!

Heehee...!!!!

We have these cheap guitars at Wal*Mart, and one of the guys working in the Vision Center kept goofing around on one to attract attention. It was pretty annoying. He hardly ever played actual songs.

He was perhaps a better guitarist than me, but maybe he needed some music in front of him!??

It's like someone Michael Palin saw in his hotel in Odessa (I think it was there). He'd visited a 'Mud Spa' place (and got coated in the stuff for his trouble), and that night the entertainment was a female singer.

His comment was something along the lines of 'In the day she probably carries out mud enemas but at night she murders Beatles songs'.

Yes indeedy, not only do they coat people in mud, but they also use it to do other things that you really don't want to know about!

Most of the time people just wear the stuff. He said they looked 'like human crossword puzzles' on Arkady Beach.

It was from his journey 'Pole to Pole' - and that's worth a read at any time, I can tell you. But then, all of his travelogues are a spankingly good read, as they're full of humour and sharp observations. He doesn't fall shy of poking fun at his own misfortunes either, which is good.

It was the writing of Michael Palin and Bill Bryson that persuaded me to keep a journal of my China Holiday in 2000. I am still grateful to them for that. It helps to marshal my memories of the trip, otherwise the whole thing would just be a confused grey fudge.

He did hear some good music of course, but that stands out as a worthwhile comment of the bad stuff.

I'd love to have heard his comments on the band that greated the American guests on our Yangtse cruise ship. Dad never sent a copy of it to 'You've been Framed' - it would have been a sure winner of £250! You wouldn't believe it unless you heard it .

Alternatively, there's the old guy who stands in Queen Street here in Cardiff and croons unrecognisable songs into a big plastic toy microphone. God alone knows what he's singing, but he's having a good time doing it - though I can't say if he's making much money out of it!

Hahahahhaaaa... Bless him!!!!

Maybe he's homeless!?? My school paper is doing a three part series on the homeless.... we have an EXCELLENT writer doing it. Makes me very proud to be a part of the paper!!!

Possibly, though he looks pretty well dressed and reasonably tidy. He might be in Bed and Breakfast accommodation or a Hostel, perhaps. He's in town every day, rain or shine. It's a pity he's not that good, really.

Mind you, I recall (a few years ago admittedly) one guy who was one of the nastiest, most aggressive panhandlers in London. He would come up to you and demand you give him money, and then chase after you shouting foul abuse if you didn't. It could be argued that he was so aggressive because he was fed up with people ignoring him, but the journalist on the story dug a little deeper and found some interesting facts.

He was on lots of benefits, and had a very tidy flat (also paid for by the state via Housing Benefit). He'd been in court plenty of times for his behaviour, but it was far more profitable to go out and beg than to work (they'd have taken his benefits off him if he'd got a job, of course). In the long run, he was actually getting more a year than I was - and he wasn't paying tax on the begging money! (this is also illustrated rather well in the Sherlock Holmes story 'The Man with the Twisted Lip').

Then there's the other end of the spectrum - like the woman that was panhandling on the tube yesterday morning. She was sitting at the bottom of a long flight of stairs between the Bakerloo and Central lines at Oxford Circus. She had a toddler on her knee and was holding out a fruit drink carton with the top opened up. The child was looking about in silent confusion whilst his mother kept up a constant plaint for funds. It was too noisy to tell if she had an accent or not, so I couldn't hear if she was a resident Briton or had entered from abroad.

There were also too many people to see her that clearly as everyone was having to find an alternative route to the District and Circle lines, which were not running at the time. Everyone was in a desperate rush because of this, so she wasn't making anything at all as no one had time to stop and fumble for change - certainly not with the pressure of people coming down behind them. Unfortunately for her, she'd chosen one of the worst possible types of pitch. I suspect the 'better' ones were being patrolled by Tube Staff and Security. The trouble is, once people are past the barriers, they've paid for their tickets and put their money away. Very few people travel with coins in their hands for instant dispensing into open ribena cartons.

It was clear though that the efforts by London Underground to clear out the panhandlers have met with a reasonable level of success. She was the only one we saw (and wasn't aggressive at all - the only thing she was denting was my conscience). The buskers (two) were confined to specific, marked 'busking points' and were very good (unlike the sort that use toy instruments and are only pretending that they're not really panhandlers). I think they've taken a leaf out of Bath's book on buskers, and now you have to audition for a licence or something.

Maybe I should do what I did before I went to China. I stuck up a sheet counting up the days to departure, and then ticked them off one by one. Sad really - or maybe a bit or .

Just over a month to go! Christmas Day in St Wolfgang! Big yay!

YAY!!! And I'll see Ian in less than a week!!!!

::Sings:: It's the hap-hapiest season of all....

The only downer is the huge number of extremely cliché'd Christmas Adverts on the telly.

The ones with 'bells' ding-donging, pretend snow falling, at least one Christmas Fairy/Santa Claus doing something improbable/reindeer/whatever and all of that. Urgh. And there's usually at least one with Wizzard or Slade as the backing music - particularly the one with the Andrex Bog Roll puppy and a goose in it exhorting people not to buy puppies as Christmas presents - which never works anyway judging by the number of abandoned pups in shelters come January. Why do people buy animals as presents? They can't be put in a cupboard when (not if - WHEN) the kids get bored with them!

Anyway, back on topic. Amazingly, Patrick 'Jean-Luc Picard' Stewart is advertising Marks and Spencer for Christmas (accompanied by requisite faires/fairytale characters selecting things that are, naturally, available at M&S Stores)! Surely *he* doesn't need the money?! Sad, Sad, Sad.

I have to admit that the one that really gets right up my nose is a really irritating 'Disneyland Paris' one that we've had to put up with - it involves people gambolling through the (still financially failing) EuroDisney in happy snow - which stops until (and this is the really cringeworthy bit) Santa Claus notices that his Snowstorm ornament isn't working any more and gives it a shake - the snow starts again and everyone's so happy that they start exploding. They don't really - but I wish they would.

Never mind, I take comfort from the fact that the kids that get taken there this year will find it doesn't snow in Paris at Christmas time, and they'll be really disappointed. Give 'em satsumas in a sock next time Parents!

It's not that I don't like Christmas (even thought it might sound like that!) - just the rampant commercialism that surrounds it these days. And the stupid, unimaginative adverts that employ the same, tired old clichés year after year, the blatant exploitation of 'pester power' (I mean, back to back toy adverts during Kids Television? Who are they trying to fool?) and the assumption that, unless you're drowning in gifts, you have't had a proper Christmas and your parents are evil and hate you (don't you just love peer pressure?). Our family philosophy now is - keep it simple and just enjoy being together. I'm looking forward to that - it's something of what Christmas used to be.

I wish they'd bring back K-tel and Ronco adverts myself. All those compliation albums of music like 'James Last and his Orchestra perform your favourite Airport Lounge Muzak' and really weird gadgety things that did something in twice the amount of time you could do it yourself by hand. Fab.

Bizarrely, my Grandad was a James Last fan. The rest of the time he liked music.

Ooh - get me on that plane! Instead of watching 'The Sound of Music', we'll be visiting places that they filmed it in. Much more enjoyable. Austrian Bells on Christmas morning - they sound so different to British ones. I can't wait to hear them.

*waits for the other marchers*

*arrives slightly shocked its mizzp not cal!*

why would you be shocked?

because cal always does the next stop and your never on.


too busy worrying about me!

Well it just so happens that cal asked me to do the next stop