SassyBlonde

Good Holy Lord, I'm still here.

Everyone lived through the concert last night, and it actually turned out to be a whole heck of a lot of fun. I just listened to the recording and it actually doesn't stink. In fact, it's pretty damn good. Almost good enough to make up for the amount of exhaustion I'm feeling at the moment..

Most of the time when musicians show up to play a gig, we have absolutely no idea how much work, thought, and coordination go into preparing for the downbeat. I've been getting a first-hand education in that type of process, and it's kicking my ass. Before I started working with this group, I had absolutely no idea how much work it is to put on a concert from idea to execution and it's amazing how different your perspective becomes when you're the gears and cogs making everything work.

In order to put on a program, there are more steps than I possibly could have imagined: decisions on repertoire, booking hall dates, hiring personnel, getting music, coordinating rehearsals, distributing information, lining up PR and advertising, selling tickets, wrangling conductors and other personnel, ensuring guest and solo artists are taken care of, managing wardrobe and concert protocols, formatting and printing programs, renting equipment, managing cash flow, setting up the hall, working the door, getting people on and off stage, coordinating the reception, cleaning up the house. It begins to look really sickeningly hard when you realize that each one of those steps has four, nine, fifteen sub-steps that have to be accomplished in order for it to be taken care of.

Because of the fact that I'm a little more practical-minded than other directors in the group and I'm the only one still actually living in D.C., I ended up with about 75% of the workload for yesterday. By the time yesterday rolled around, I was so exhausted that I was quite literally on the edge of tears up until the last note was played.

In a lot of ways it was a great wake-up call for me. Frankenberry knows how insane I've been with this whole process and he and others have been been wisely and steadfastly trying to impress on me that we really have to get some help with all of this in the form of more hands on the tiller-- dividing up my duties between more people, delegating duties, and never was that more evident than last night.

I was so tired that I couldn't even enjoy playing. I was so busy all week that I had no time to practice. It was the first time in a long time that I was basically the weakest link on stage, not because of lack of ability, but because of lack of time and energy. Boy did I hate that feeling. Then I realized today that in the past two weeks I haven't taken a look at my audition materials once. And I have to go compete for two different high-profile jobs inside of a month. That's not good and that has to change.

The good news is that the group is about to take a step up in profile and bankability, so I'll be able to do just when I need to-- use other people to do the work that I've been handling all myself so I can stay sane and stop looking so haggard and feeling so sloppy.

Now that I've bitched about that, it's time for the long-awaited update on my new boyfriend Gorgeous George. (Thanks to the Berrys for the name suggestion.) George is happy and well-adjusted (thanks to my repair tech) and living in my office until his next concert. And boy, is he pretty. (Wanna see more pictures? They're here.) I finaIly picked him up at the Berry household late last Monday night, much to the glee of everyone involved. (Love you guys!! You're awesome!!) We unpacked the box and headed downstairs for a test run. I was on the verge of hysterical giggles-- okay, I lie, I was totally given over to hysterical giggling-- and the two of them were grinning watching me. (Don't you love the smile people get on their faces when they watch their friends do something that makes them really, really happy? I do. And I love the particular smile on Frankenberry's face-- it's not often you get a full-on, down to the bone grin there, at least in my experience.) I tooted and giggled and they watched and then we stayed up way too late for our own collective good talking about all kinds of stuff. The best possible way to inaugurate a new relationship, no?

I couldn't be more happy with the new bass-- the concert was made extra-fabulous by the fact that I was able to completely relax when I was playing it and just let fly. It was especially gratifying to see the looks on the faces of some of my colleagues when I got it out and let fly. The cellist whirled around so fast I thought he'd fallen off his chair. And my icky conductor, who was at the concert, was flat-out shocked and it was written all over his face. (Kiss that, you nasty old bastard.) What kinda stinks is that it got a bit covered up in the recording, but hey, I know I kicked ass and I can't wait for the summer performances we have coming up where I get to spotlight it on a couple of really cool pieces. For the meantime, we're collaborating on a little special something that I'll let you guys hear later. He is so, so pretty.

And now that I'm done, Im going to go do a happy dance to a little Ursula 1000 and have a beer.