BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Jun 26 - 09:24 AM

My wisdom teeth have to come out.
The procedure has been scheduled for mid-August.

My dental check-up this year revealed that one lower wisdom tooth,
which came in crooked anyway,
has a large cavity on the side of the tooth facing out into the cheek.
Very difficult spot on which to fill the cavity, way back in the mouth.
No other cavities or decay.
So, all four have to be extracted.

I'm not looking forward to this at all.
But it has to be done.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jun 26 - 10:00 AM

Good luck with the surgery! That's a rite of passage for many teens and early-20-somethings, keb, but I imagine there's no time of life when it's easier. Mine were taken out when I was about 21 and I went to my Mom's house to stay for a couple of days after (the dentist being in that town). I had to take myself back to the dorm at college in order not to starve, my youngest brother ignored the notes on the soft food in the fridge I'd picked up for the healing process.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jun 26 - 11:45 AM

The thread about the Limelighters and if they were classically trained has reminded me of a young woman I met years ago in a remote logging town in the North Cascades. I used to go out with a group of fellow Forest Service employees (we lived in a crew house - not much chance to cook except on a hot plate) to regular meals at one of the two restaurants. The one we favored had a waitress I got to know over the summer. Her social worker husband ran a youth camp up the valley, so when he was hired, it turns out she had to leave her job in musical dinner theater in Seattle. That tidbit stuck with me, and one crowded evening in the restaurant we were celebrating a birthday, so I asked her if she would sing Happy Birthday.

None of the others knew what I knew, so were puzzled that I made the request, but she stood back, put down her order pad, and belted out an operatic soprano ornamented version of Happy Birthday that brought the place to a standstill—you could hear a pin drop. Eyes opened, jaws dropped - and I think from that point on, her activity and appreciation in town soared.

She was staying out of trouble, but was lost in the generic "waitress" skill set in people's eyes. I hope after that she got into some good trouble.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Jul 26 - 09:23 AM

My elderly next door neighbor walked into his driveway at ~ 3:30am yesterday and fell, breaking his hip. A man walking his dog three hours later found him and rang the bell to alert the wife who was just getting up. Hip surgery yesterday and we'll be paying a lot of attention, helping him with the rehab so he survives this injury.

As the mangled saying goes - there for the grace of dog. . . I've kept my dogs in at night the last few weeks before I train the new one to the Invisible Fence collar. That fall would have been on the opposite side of the house from what the dogs see, but I wonder if they might have heard him and made a fuss? I get up when there is a cacophony to see what is up. What if, what if, he still would have fallen. Sigh.

Stay safe out there everyone!

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 Jul 26 - 04:11 PM

I live near the Tanglewood Festival which happens every summer and is mostly about classical music, although they book appearances by popular musicians like James Taylor, probably for the money. The big feature of the Tanglewood Festival is the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which leaves Boston for the summer in order to perform at the festival. There is also the Tanglewood Music Center; this enterprise provides fellowships to young musicians: pianists, vocalists, and orchestral musicians. The fellows often get to perform with established classical conductors, and of course they get to be around the BSO.
Back in March, all heck broke loose with the BSO. The Board of Trustees, and the CEO, announced that they would not renew the contract of Andris Nelsons, the Latvian conductor who is the BSO's music director, when the contract expires. There is some essential disagreement between the CEO and Nelsons, no one is certain what as there is a non-disclosure agreement of some kind in effect. But the orchestra raised hell; no one had consulted with them about the conflict between their conductor and their CEO, and they were furious. Every time they performed with their conductor thereafter, they took to wearing red flowers as a gesture of solidarity with the conductor. Some of them went to the press and belly-ached about the situation, which was not all right with the trustees and the CEO, of course. Even the New York Times has weighed in on the situation, and for what it's worth, the Times music critic is anti-Nelsons and wants him to hurry up and leave already.
Now it's July and the Tanglewood Music Center holds a formal assembly for those fellows, the young musicians, at the beginning of the festival. It is customary to have opening remarks presented by first the CEO and then the music director of the BSO to the fellows. So the CEO comes out and finds himself looking at a sea of black punctuated with red. All of the TMC fellows are dressed in black T-shirts with legends expressing their solidarity with the orchestra and its conductor; and they are all wearing red flowers, just as the BSO does.
The CEO makes his little speech, to tepid applause. It is now his duty to introduce none other than the conductor. So he makes the introduction, and the conductor walks out on the stage. All the fellows jump to their feet and give the conductor a standing ovation that lasts almost ten minutes, before the conductor even opens his mouth. Welcome to Tanglewood, everybody.
Somehow the festival will get through this highly-charged atmosphere up until the final concert in August, at which they always perform Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with all its poetry about brotherhood. I'm going to a TMC fellows concert on Sunday evening that will be a "Liederabend", all about German art songs, and will feature the singers and the pianists -- none of the orchestral music fellows. Perhaps this little concert will not be so politicized, we will see.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 Jul 26 - 04:40 PM

Correction to the previous post:
I wasn't at the assembly I describe. I got the account from a close friend who was there.
And it seems that "ten-minute ovation" is not accurate. I have just viewed another account, by another person who was there, which said that the standing ovation lasted one minute. My bad, I think.

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jul 26 - 09:41 AM

keb, how are the rehearsals going? Here's hoping you continue to find good trouble. :)

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jul 26 - 11:35 AM

Last year the Texas Hill Country (in the middle of the state) had record flooding and at least 130 dead in July 4 flooding. This week another huge slow-moving storm is passing over the region, with as much to 20" of rain forecast for pockets where the storms hover. Houston, San Antonio, and to the Uvalde area. Though it isn't mentioned, this storm will likely cause a lot of flooding in Coahuila, Mexico and out in Big Bend National Park (if it were to wash away the yahoos who are preparing to deface the park with "border walls" I wouldn't mourn. They should know better.)

Subject: RE: BS: stay out of trouble thread (stay afloat)
From: Helen
Date: 15 Jul 26 - 05:55 PM

SRS, I hope the flood situation does not get dangerous. It's scary preparing for it and also stressful during the clean-up afterwards.

I had a good day yesterday. A group of my friends caught up with one of our music friends from our music session group which has been going for over 40 years. He was a member for a few years and then moved back to Ireland. He visited a couple of years ago and then arrived again this week for a holiday. We had lunch and then played some music in a local Irish pub, thanks to the generosity of the pub manager who allowed us to play there.

My music playing has been almost non-existent since some personality clashes with two of the later additions to the group so to play music again with some of the nicer members yesterday was a dream come true.

The Irish pub has a music session once a month and in big news for me, because I have never done this in all the decades I have been going to those sessions I - [drum roll please!] - took my harp to the last two sessions and attempted to play along with some of the tunes. It was fun and maybe the loss of my attendance at our music session group was a big push for me to take the big leap and show up with my harp. It's on again this weekend so I will see how it goes this time. I can only get better but it is a challenge. (Note: it is also a challenge manoeuvring through the people, tables and chairs with a smallish but heavy harp and other essentials.)