Sick Weekend Survival
Well, first of all, I would like to announce that the Druid Sister's Tea Trio Recital is not happening on July 27th at Jack London Square. Our singer is doing a festival in New York, so we had to postpone it. And, I don't know how to update the performances page of my website. Does anyone want to help me with this? Anyway, that Druid's concert will not be happening.
And now I would like to talk about the weekend from Hell. Last weekend. I had four gigs lined up. And on Monday, I got some terrible form of food poisoning, or something, and I was not able to get up out of bed. Not even to make a phone call to cancel the things that I needed to cancel. But that should have been no problem, right? I had all week to recover until the weekend, when I would be performing.
It turns out that I did not recover all week, and on Saturday afternoon, I was dragging myself out of bed and into black clothing to go and play a wedding at the Berkeley City Club. I really didn't know if I could do it as I had a sick stomach and a foggy head. But it was only an hour long wedding ceremony and the guitarist and flutist were great. So it was not so bad. After the wedding, I hurried home to lay down.
Sunday was not so easy. I considered cancelling my students, but I felt kind of okay in the morning so I decided to give it a shot and teach them. I was a little shaky, but I got through four students. Then I had to run out to play a show at the Altarena Playhouse, in Alameda, called "The Last Five Years". I was just filling in on one show, and so I didn't know the music, but it was really fun. When music is new like this sometimes it's a blast to play. It's kind of like a roller-coaster ride. You have to be on the edge of your chair, waiting for cues, trying to feel the music and understand the score all at once, listening to the parts that your fellow musicians are playing beside you. It was really fun. I was playing with keyboard, violin, another cello, and guitar and bass. FellowAlameda Josh Cohen was playing the violin on this. I loved playing beside him, as some of the music had some klezmer flavor to it, and Josh can nail that style.
After the show, I was feeling kind of euphoric. I hadn't played a broadway type show in a long time, maybe since my 600 performances with the Cirque du Soleil "O" show in Las Vegas in 2002-2003. So I was kind of in this strange space, feeling kind of sick and weak from the food poisoning, but kind of exhillarated from the great music and the live performance, and I was thinking thoughts like, "Hey, why am I not playing shows? I love shows. This was so much fun. And I live just outside of San Francisco. There must be tons of shows in San Francisco that I could play. I wonder how I could get some of that work. I should be playing tons of shows in San Francisco and everywhere else..." It was a typical euphoric conversation that I was having with myself during an upside in my manic personality, as I was maneuvering with my cello through a really tight space, down the steps and out of the musician's loft, when suddenly, "crack!". I heard this loud and awful sound and realized that I had somehow banged my cello against the wall there.
This is a terrible, terrible thing, to hear this kind of a sound. This is really, the kind of sound, for a string player, that comes sometimes in nightmares, and you wake up shaking and in a cold sweat, and then you wipe your hand across your dampened brow, and lay back against your pillow, and you say, "Phew. It was only a bad dream..." It's that kind of thing.
Oh man! My stomach tightened into knots right then and I was afraid to look at the damage. Armando, our conductor, was very kind and he looked at it for me. Ouch!
So, there is a crack now in the side of my new and previously perfect Polish cello. This cello is called the Alabama Slammer, because it gets such a big and beautiful sound, and because I purchase it, believe it or not, on e-bay, from a man in Alabama. But that's another story.
I packed up the cello and headed for a wedding at the Brazilian Room in Tilden Park. Mary Tanios and I played cello and violin duos at this lovely venue. It was kind of fun. It's always a joy to work with Mary. By this time, my stomach was feeling better and I was not whoosy anymore, although I was still feeling very tired from the week of food poisoning.
I forgot about this awful crack, (conveniently blocked it out?), until last night when several friends and I were playing trios at a Phillipino Catholic High School reunion somewhere in the Presidio in San Francisco. After playing for an hour, I saw the crack and showed it to my friends, and we "oohed", and "ahhed", about it for awhile. We all decided that my cello needs to be taken in and adjusted and looked at.
So---that's the story of the weekend from Hell, and I am just thankful that I lived through it to tell about it. This weekend, there are more weddings and shows to play. (Carmina Burana with the Masterworks Chorale in San Mateo, and a wedding in Los Gatos.) Hopefully, it will turn out to be better than the last weekend. I'll let you know!
And now I would like to talk about the weekend from Hell. Last weekend. I had four gigs lined up. And on Monday, I got some terrible form of food poisoning, or something, and I was not able to get up out of bed. Not even to make a phone call to cancel the things that I needed to cancel. But that should have been no problem, right? I had all week to recover until the weekend, when I would be performing.
It turns out that I did not recover all week, and on Saturday afternoon, I was dragging myself out of bed and into black clothing to go and play a wedding at the Berkeley City Club. I really didn't know if I could do it as I had a sick stomach and a foggy head. But it was only an hour long wedding ceremony and the guitarist and flutist were great. So it was not so bad. After the wedding, I hurried home to lay down.
Sunday was not so easy. I considered cancelling my students, but I felt kind of okay in the morning so I decided to give it a shot and teach them. I was a little shaky, but I got through four students. Then I had to run out to play a show at the Altarena Playhouse, in Alameda, called "The Last Five Years". I was just filling in on one show, and so I didn't know the music, but it was really fun. When music is new like this sometimes it's a blast to play. It's kind of like a roller-coaster ride. You have to be on the edge of your chair, waiting for cues, trying to feel the music and understand the score all at once, listening to the parts that your fellow musicians are playing beside you. It was really fun. I was playing with keyboard, violin, another cello, and guitar and bass. FellowAlameda Josh Cohen was playing the violin on this. I loved playing beside him, as some of the music had some klezmer flavor to it, and Josh can nail that style.
After the show, I was feeling kind of euphoric. I hadn't played a broadway type show in a long time, maybe since my 600 performances with the Cirque du Soleil "O" show in Las Vegas in 2002-2003. So I was kind of in this strange space, feeling kind of sick and weak from the food poisoning, but kind of exhillarated from the great music and the live performance, and I was thinking thoughts like, "Hey, why am I not playing shows? I love shows. This was so much fun. And I live just outside of San Francisco. There must be tons of shows in San Francisco that I could play. I wonder how I could get some of that work. I should be playing tons of shows in San Francisco and everywhere else..." It was a typical euphoric conversation that I was having with myself during an upside in my manic personality, as I was maneuvering with my cello through a really tight space, down the steps and out of the musician's loft, when suddenly, "crack!". I heard this loud and awful sound and realized that I had somehow banged my cello against the wall there.
This is a terrible, terrible thing, to hear this kind of a sound. This is really, the kind of sound, for a string player, that comes sometimes in nightmares, and you wake up shaking and in a cold sweat, and then you wipe your hand across your dampened brow, and lay back against your pillow, and you say, "Phew. It was only a bad dream..." It's that kind of thing.
Oh man! My stomach tightened into knots right then and I was afraid to look at the damage. Armando, our conductor, was very kind and he looked at it for me. Ouch!
So, there is a crack now in the side of my new and previously perfect Polish cello. This cello is called the Alabama Slammer, because it gets such a big and beautiful sound, and because I purchase it, believe it or not, on e-bay, from a man in Alabama. But that's another story.
I packed up the cello and headed for a wedding at the Brazilian Room in Tilden Park. Mary Tanios and I played cello and violin duos at this lovely venue. It was kind of fun. It's always a joy to work with Mary. By this time, my stomach was feeling better and I was not whoosy anymore, although I was still feeling very tired from the week of food poisoning.
I forgot about this awful crack, (conveniently blocked it out?), until last night when several friends and I were playing trios at a Phillipino Catholic High School reunion somewhere in the Presidio in San Francisco. After playing for an hour, I saw the crack and showed it to my friends, and we "oohed", and "ahhed", about it for awhile. We all decided that my cello needs to be taken in and adjusted and looked at.
So---that's the story of the weekend from Hell, and I am just thankful that I lived through it to tell about it. This weekend, there are more weddings and shows to play. (Carmina Burana with the Masterworks Chorale in San Mateo, and a wedding in Los Gatos.) Hopefully, it will turn out to be better than the last weekend. I'll let you know!
posted by Marcie Brown | 10:54 AM
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