oboeinsight

Yet again, we oboists get a mention in an article. This time it’s about high school kids and nutrition. Go figure.

You can use a basic formula of 18 calories per pound of kid. So if you have a 150-pound point guard, a 150-pound running back, a 150-softball pitcher or a 150-pound oboe player they need to get about 2700 calories every day. And to breakdown this total, you can go 60% carbohydrates (maximum) and 20% each of protein (minimum) and fat.

Um. Okay. It’s good to be acknowledged. I guess.

And Here We Go Again …
There’s a new article (at least I’m assuming it’s not the same as the one I linked to before) about playing unusual instruments for college perks. There are some funny little things in the article, as always. (One quote: He said the bassoon is “not that popular,” and requires “perfection in different areas.” … um … different than what? Or is he suggesting that it requires perfection in more than one area, which would be the same with any instrument? Ah well, he’s fifteen. I’ll give him some slack!)

Reading the article, though, assured me that I’m actually not overcharging. And we live in one of the costliest areas of the United States. As the article says (if one is to believe that proper research was done):

Even before a child enters the college sphere, parents can spend upwards of $15,000 on music lessons – an average of $50 per 45-minute lesson – from around age 7 or 8 until 18, Conley said.

Be aware: the less popular instruments are likely to cost more. One local retailer quoted a price of $3,000 for a low-end bassoon. Reeds, which experts say could last from five minutes to five days, cost around $15.

But let me repeat what I often say: Please play oboe because you love the sound, and you can’t imagine playing something else. Don’t choose it for the college perks. Trust me.

Enough for now. Time to get to Santa Clara University to teach!

Every Tuesday (this quarter, anyway) I drive over the hill to UCSC. And every week I get to view a most unappetizing picture encouraging drivers to pull over and grab a bite to eat. I’ve been meaning to snap a photo for eons, but the restaurant is just after the summit of highway 17 and when I get there I’m usually too preoccupied with whatever I’m listening to, and I’m thinking about heading down the hill. And, let’s face it, I’m lazy; pulling over, getting out of the car, and taking a picture is usually just too much for me! ;-)

But today was the day. I finally did it! Unfortunately something is up with the way I took the picture, and it really doesn’t do the thing justice, but I’ll post it here for now, knowing my husband, the Fine Photographer™ will either fix what I did or take a better one of his own.

But … really now … if you saw this picture, would you pull over to eat at the restaurant? I’ve never stopped—they aren’t even open on my way to Santa Cruz and when I’m on my drive home there’s no way I’m stopping for anything. But I doubt I’d ever stop anyway; that picture sends me on my merry way.

While this IS a horrible picture, by the way, it’s only because of the focus, the fact that I can’t take a level picture, and I have some sort of glare … the color, and the faded look is exactly what you’d see if you were to see it live and in person.

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Of course I have used dissonance in my time, but there has been too much dissonance. Bach used dissonance as good salt for his music. Others applied pepper, seasoned the dishes more and more highly, till all healthy appetites were sick and until the music was nothing but pepper.

-Sergei Prokofiev

(I’ve been listening to Romeo and Juliet, getting ready to move from Puccini to Prokofiev and opera to ballet. Man, I love that music! I even like this particular ballet.)
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Elsewhere on the site, “I drink like an Irish sailor,” the Internet user name of a Greenwich High School student, writes that he is an avid oboe player, but his true vice is hard liquor. He lists Jack Daniels as the person he’d most like to meet.

Things like this make me cringe, having known some musicians with major drinking problems. I’m not surprised, though. I know drinking is a big thing for a lot of high school students. I’m sure it makes the quoted student a much better oboist, too. Oh yes. (Sad article.)

And kids who think myspace is a safe place to tell all are idiots.

That sounds a bit harsh. Sometimes truth is harsh.
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I had posted my little Bohème poem on a board near the musicians’ room at the hall. Someone crossed out the word “hat” and wrote “muff” instead.

First of all, the translation I’ve always read for “cuffietta” is not muff, although I don’t speak Italian so what do I know? But more to the point … who the heck would consider changing a poem written by someone else? I was just ticked off. I know it’s silly, but there you go. I took the poem down; it was no longer the one I wrote. Sigh.

And, really, if I read the libretto correctly, I am correct about the word, although I suspect a literal translation is “bonnet”. (I had originally written “Mimi gets her bonnet back” but then I wrote this during the Luhrmann gig and “hat” was more fitting. I actually prefer “bonnet back” for the alliteration, but “pink hat back” works fine what with the repeated soft “a” and “k” sounds.) The muff is given to Mimi by Musetta in the final act, to warm her cold hands. Mimi gets her hat/bonnet (cuffietta) back, before getting the muff, from Rodolfo, who had kept it when they split up.

But why would someone feel he or she had the right to change a poem anyway? Where does that come from?

I’m sure a singer was the culprit. ;-)
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