Holiday

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to everybody!!

Things have finally picked up a little bit here in Little Rock...for the past few days I have been playing in a praise band at the Church at Rock Creek...which is a mega-church of sorts in West Little Rock...the music was easy, the time was little, and the money was good. A winning gig!! Tonight I will be playing a Christmas Eve service in North Little Rock and then its off to Chicago in the morning...I will be driving up through Illinois all day on Christmas and arrive in time for dinner. So please call me if you aren't too busy with your family.

I'm a little behind on Christmas shopping...which is bad, because Christmas is tomorrow. Oops. Maybe I can give some late gifts for Hanukkah...there are still 4 nights left, right?

It will be nice to have a break from Arkansas...although I am finally starting to make some good friends here and get used to things. I have a bunch of auditions coming up in Feb/Mar...I hope I can find a better cello to use, otherwise I think they are kind of a waste of money...since my cello just isn't good enough to win an audition on. (remember, I didn't use it for the Arkansas audition...I used Mr. Fischer's Perreson and it was the first audition I ever won!)

In cello news...Chris Dungey will be starting my cello after the new year and it will be ready in a few months (in the spring sometime). I'm soooooo excited to get a better cello into my hands...and it will be after nearly a year of looking. I should have it before the end of the ASO season and I'm starting to work on organizing a recital of works written for me to be performed on my new cello in June!! yay!!

I'm listening to the TMCO Spanish Concert from this summer...not very fitting Christmas Eve music...but I already listend to Charlie Brown Christmas a whole lot...

Spectacular Spectacular

This weekend we are playing the Yuletide Spectacular here at the Arkansas Symphony. This is the second concert in our pops series (the first was with circus acrobats). Features mostly very poppy/rocky arrangements of Christmas tunes with some sort of dancing going on. There was a stage malfunction during White Christmas at the rehearsal last night, which ended in tons of white paper being dumped on the orchestra all at once. And we had no idea that it was coming. Surprise!! The picture is the rock-n-roll santa number...complete with dancing girls with reindeer heads.

Ice!

Last night and today were my official first days of winter weather in years!! There was one time in Houston when everyone thought there was going to be winter weather and they canceled school...but then there actually wasn't any. All last night we were treated to freezing rain, so this morning everything is covered in a thing layer of ice...I had to use the ice thingy on my car and everything. I don't think I've ever done that before (since I didn't really have a car when I lived in winter places). Everybody is totally freaking out about it here...my demos this morning as well as my gig this evening got canceled...so I have an unexpected day off. So what do I do? Clean my apartment. Duh. And do laundry. Exciting, right???

Above is my balcony with ice...and my foot to prove its actually Arkansas.

Hi

Hello. Yes I do still exist. I just have not been compelled to write here for some reason. Things are going well here in AR. I went through a dry spell with nothing to do whatsoever for a while, but now lots of my time is taken up with Christmas gigs and quartet demos. And I am muuuuuch happier to have something to do!!

Today it is cold and raining and a little bit icy and everybody is freaking out. They all go to the grocery store and buy all the eggs and milk etc. Its kind of hilarious. In Chicago this would be any normal day and here it is the end of the world to them!

Wait, what?

I was slightly disturbed yesterday I heard an advertisement on the radio for the "Two Jewish Guys Hanukah Party" at the Clinton Museum, claiming it as a "Little Rock Christmas Tradition." When did Hanukah become a Christmas Tradition? Does this disturb anybody else? I know they are big on Jesus down here...bet geez.

Hello/Goodbye Snow/Little Rock/Chicago

This is what I missed in Chicago:But this is what I had to drive through for several hours: And this is what my speed looked like in Arkansas because it was raining:Yes...it took a little longer than I would have liked to get back...but I'm here.