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

Entry: A Performance To Remember - A4839258
Author: Kat (scouting for you)-Visit Peer Review to Help Entries into the Edited Guide - U234368

I once went out with a piano player (see A3797959) and you become disgusted and surprised at yourself for being jealous of an inanimate object and begrudging the time spent doing something enjoyable and joyful.

As with my other pieces, how does it make you feel? What does it make you think? Was it easy to read? Did the structure work? Was anything not in style with the rest of the entry? Did it fall flat? Etc etc.

If you didn't like it, please say. You don't have to have a good reason why you didn't like it in detail, you are welcome to just say "I didn't like this entry, it is poorly written" or whatever.

Thanks for reading.

Kat

Simply put, this is marvelous

It hooks the reader from paragraph one, the emotion so gripplingly real that one is drawn into the story completly. And what follows is no less masterful, the storyline progressing in such a way as to capture the heart of the reader in it's web.

And though one suspects that something untoward awaits the character in the end, it is done in such a way as to be like cheese in the mouse trap, baiting us in to the dramatic close. And just like a good horror movie, we're left to say to the screen "Be careful, something horrible awaits just round the corner!" And what a close, the trap snapping shut in such a dramatic fashion. No happy ending here, that's to be sure.

On a deeper note, it is after the piece is read and done that the reader is compelled to evaluate how things may relate to ones own life. I will confess that I deleted my first reply four paragraphs in, an urge to spend more time with my son suddenly of the utmost importance.

In the end I can think of nothing but praise for your work Kat, and it is a joy that you bring such talent here to share with us all. Thank you

Spynxxx

Hello Kat,

This is a piece well written and full of suspense, as Spynxxx has said in his review. I enjoyed the read, and didn't 'predict' the outcome correctly whilst reading through, so was effectively shocked at the concluding suicide scene. You kept me guessing to the end, which rates your story as a well planned effort, the shock coming at the very last paragraph.

Just a couple of points that don't quite ring true. Concert performers, whatever their instrument, never need to have a score before them in actual performance. They are so totally familiar with their repertoire of works that all they need to concentrate on is the artistry of expression and, of course, hitting the correct keys. Performance is a thing of the heart and intellect combined. Knowledge of the piece goes without question either from the performer herself or the concert audience.

I was surprised at your American spelling of tyres (tires), especially since you live in the UK! (unless it's Birmingham Alabama, that is!)

But a nice story, all told.


f.

Thanks for those guys
Good to know you both enjoyed this piece.

I've altered the whole sheet music thing. I got a bit carried away and mixed up actual concerts I've been to with my own personal playing (obviously I play with music )
Is that now better?

I also changed the tire/tyre thing...I don't spell the word very often as you can imagine

Kat

Hello again Kat,

Please don't think I'm being at all pedantic, but I don't quite understand.

You say you've 'altered the whole sheet music thing.'

I've had another read, and you seem to have missed that phrase:

'daring the music to change and try to cheat her'...

which I have taken to mean the sheet music again. I might just be 'el-thicko' and got it wrong again! Do let me know and straighten me out if I've mis-interpreted that phrase.

Ron

f.

I decided to leave that phrase in because, as I'm sure you probably know, each time you play a piece it can sound different...so your playing may make the music change. It's probably a bit obscure, and having read the original paragraph it perhaps leaves you stuck on that I'm not sure.

Too obscure? If you try and read it from a completely fresh face.

Hi Kat,

Right, I think I see now what your meaning is; you are a deep thinker!

You are right, of course, that no instrumentalist ever plays the same piece of music exactly the same. Each performance is unique; that is the beauty of the musician's art. Your artist feels that hint of uncertainty about her memory of the score, that sudden panic, that fear of error in the presence of admiring listeners who know the work almost as well as she does herself.

Is that near to your depth of thought?

Ron

f.

Yup that's it near enough. Do you think it's too inaccessible to the average reader like that?

No Kat, they're not all as thick as me!

It's not at all inaccessible. That was the only part that (for me) needed to be clarified.

As I told you, it is a great story, clearly written and well planned out, and I mean it!

Ron

Wow, fabulous work Kat
I liked the way you painted a picture of a living Alexander before you took it away. She was asking how he would be - where he would be, what he would be doing, not *if* he would be. So it was a very effective surprise, I think.

Very impressive. Keep writing and I'll keep reading.

Hi Kat, long time no hear from. I hope you catch this message and can share a glass of on your ‘A Performance to Remember’ being picked for the <./>underguide</.> and a Front Page spot.

You know the drill about polishing, so I don’t need to go through that.

Many thanks for a good tale with a completely unexpected twist!

Hope life's treating you well, and that we see you back one day,
UGeds (Waz)

Hello Kat - here's the UG version of 'A Performance to Remember'.

A17192919

If you ever make it back here - well, hello, for a start - and I hope you approve. Congratulations again