...Izee's Thread

[Izee]

...Izee' and her friends are out for a ride...

https://youtu.be/9S0CqdZV7Vc

[Izee]

...Izee' was out for a ride...and then heard that Marcus Hrolfson was being threatened...she and her Lair rode to his side...and she had a few words with the other Commander.      ((I just LOVED this series, and D'Lenne))

https://youtu.be/UYloWBP79ro

[Izee]

...Another accurate article of what the Liberal/Progressives have done to a wonderful city, San Francisco.  As children, my brother and I were always excited when our parents would take us to the 'City'      The Skyscrapers, the well dressed people, the GREAT FOOD   , and the culture.  We would go into the museums and art galleries.  Once, as an adult, I was in SF on Business, and one evening, after a GREAT meal at Fishermans' Wharf, I just walked along the street, and went into the small art galleries.     The Owners were smart...they would offer you a glass of champagne as you looked at what was for sale.     At the third gallery...I was TOTALLY CHARMED by a young man...and had TWO glasses of champagne.  I walked out...my bank account was much smaller...a nice original painting was being delivered to my hotel...and he had insisted that I take a bottle of the champagne with me.     I safely got back to the hotel, and saw that the painting was placed in my closet, and figured..."Oh Hell, go for it."  I called my husband, and told him that I was going to stay another day.  I also called the front desk and extended my stay.  I then got the TV on, and rented 'My Fair Lady' to watch, and drank the champagne as I watched it.     Needless to say, I had a BIT OF A HANGOVER the next day,    so I took it easy, but did do a lot of walking...I just drank mineral water with my meals.  I stayed OUT
 of the art galleries, and just went into the clothing stores.

…I wouldn't DREAM OF DOING THAT, NOW!!!       Our 'Enlightened Liberals' have destroyed SF...all the while claiming that they are more 'Compassionate' than the rest of us.  What is WRONG with THEM?     Can't they see the people on the streets as they drive their BMW's???  I guess that they can't.   

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7956517/IAN-BIRRELL-tech-giants-turned-San-Francisco-dystopian-nightmare.html

[RAGNAR]

Round them up and execute them quickly and painlessly.






See... I can show compassion as well.

[Izee]

...Izee' had just wanted to borrow a book from the Library in Turia...but...well...you know Izee'   

...https://youtu.be/NynYl5uJmCI

[RAGNAR]

Gotta watch those due dates!!!

[Izee]

...Being 'ASSAULTED' in H.S.   

...As I have said, I was the TA for Chemistry in HS.  I had a RATHER INTERESTING event with the Teacher.     He knew me well, he also taught other science classes, and I always did well.     In our Soph Biology Class, students once asked Him if they should sign up for Chemistry...(an Elective Class)...and he said, "Not everyone should, it is a difficult course...but I will be disappointed if P----- doesn't sign up."  Everyone turned, and stared at me...and I just said..."I was going to sign up for the Ceramic Arts Class, but I changed my mind."  I did well in Chemistry...although he did once burst into the Lab where I was doing an Organic Chemistry Experiment...I was going to make a Sulfa Drug...and had mixed sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and benzene in a flask.  (NITROBENZENE!!!!... ).  He took the experiment away from me, and gave me a safer one.   

...Anyway, as a TA I spent most of the period, and another, preparing experiments for the students, and maintaining the Chemistry Lab.  One week, He was really angry and frustrated...   A large spool of 'Nichrome" wire was missing.  (Nickel Chromium)  It was very expensive, and he would have to explain to the Administration over what had happened...and he believed that it was possible that a student had stolen it.  We turned the Lab upside down searching for it, with no success.   

...A week later, I hauled a large cylinder of oxygen into the lab on a hand cart.  I had met the delivery man in the parking lot, and he had strapped it to the cart, and I pulled it into the classroom.  The Teacher told me to secure it to the back of the room, against a counter, so that it would be secure.  I found straps, and tied it down, and used some clamps to secure the straps.  I couldn't get the clamps, that had those 'butterfly' screws to tighten them, very tight, I just didn't have the strength.  I opened drawers around the area, and found a pair of needle nose pliers, and began tightening the screws.  The Teacher called out..."Where did you find those pliers?"  I just pointed at the drawer, and he asked..."Is there a spool of Nichrome wire in there?"  I opened it, again...and saw the missing spool!     But, being me...I just picked it up, and stood sideways so he could see what I was holding...and I slowly said..."No, it is a spool of Nickel Chromium wire."  I did emit a real shriek as a large piece of chalk bounced off the cabinet right next to me...he threw it very hard!!!      But then, me, and two of my friends who were hanging with me,  started laughing our asses off, and I walked up and handed it to him.  He was grinning, and shaking his head...and he looked VERY RELIEVED!!!   

[Izee]

...When I argued WITH THE COMPOSER!!!   

...I had been asked to sit as Principal Cello in the local UC Campus, and did very well.     I helped with the students, and volunteered my time to sit in small ensembles, and raised money for the Music Dept.     One year, we played this Symphony, and I DIDN'T LIKE the 2nd Movement!!!     It is slow, and the cellos and basses play very short notes...using the bow!  That is hard...your hand and arm gets very tasked...and making EACH NOTE sound the same is hard!  I was sitting at the stand, glaring at the music when we took a break, and the Conductor came over to me, and asked..."Something wrong?"  I looked up at him, and said, "This whole movement should have the cellos plucking the strings...each note would sound the same...and it would be easier to play."  He nodded, and raised his baton, and said..."OK, start the piece, using your bow, as written."  I played about 12 measures, and he stopped me, and said..."OK, let's try it your way, put down the bow."  I did, and he started me again, and I plucked the strings.  He stopped me, and asked..."Do you hear the difference?"  I nodded...and he said..."Mendelssohn knew what he was doing", and walked away.  I set down my cello, and went to take a break...Mendelssohn was RIGHT!!!  Here is the movement...

...https://youtu.be/6BiK2qBJL_0

…The Conductor was also a Composer, and once, we put on a Concert with several of his works.  They ranged from lyrical, to very modern Atonal works...that I DIDN'T LIKE...I just like melodic works...although I do love Shostokovich.     I was sitting, playing my cello in an Octet he had written, and was struggling with a passage.  Technically, it was difficult...and the bowings and note shapings he had marked just didn't make sense to me.  I actually wrote in my own idea of how tp play the passage, and did so at a rehearsal.     He stopped us all, and looked at me, and said..."Play that again."  I did so, using my markings, and he frowned, and said..."No, no, no...do it as I have marked it."  I started arguing with him, saying that my phrasing sounded better...and the violist tapped me on the shoulder with her bow, and said..."Ah, last I looked at the cover page, HE WROTE THIS...NOT YOU!!!"   

…I nodded, and erased my markings, and the Conductor had me play it the way he had written it...and nodded and said..."Practice it that way"...and I did.

…Another one of my "Finer Moments"....

[Izee]

...I do need to comment on the work...once I calmed down over how to play the thing...I listened while performing.  I tear up, every time I listen to it.  It is a very soft, and desolate work...just a few instruments playing at any given time.  I envision a train station, in Russia, during the winter.  There are two voices in the work...the violins with the high voice...and the violas with the low voice...and they alternate speaking to each other.  The cellos and basses are the sounds of a train slowly moving by, the wheels echoing off of the ties.  A man and a woman are bidding farewell to each other...perhaps forever...I visualize the man as a soldier.     They speak back and forth...and then laugh a bit as they talk of things they did together...and then he is called to fall into line.     He does, and they do speak back and forth...and then he gets onto the train.

…Just my fertile imagination...

[Izee]

...OK...it is late...and I have been watching music videos on YouTube.  Here is one I really like...a graphic of Bachs' Tocatta and Fugue.   

...https://youtu.be/ATbMw6X3T40

...A funny story about this.  I was a music major when I entered college, and was invited to join the Womens Music Sorority.  Part of the Initiation was a 'Performance'.  I, like the other pledges, got all dressed up, and, one by one...we were taken to the stage at the Conservatory, and would play our instrument, or sing...to show our musical skills.      They would cut us off after a couple minutes, and grouchily say..."We have heard enough"...and we would stand on the stage as the Sisters peppered us with difficult questions...and then say..."We may talk to you later."  When I went through that, I figured that I was a total failure, and went back to my dorm and cried for a while.     But...two days later, I was told to come to the Auditorium that night...and me and the other pledges were welcomed into the Sorority.     We all went to IHOP and ate pancakes and drank a lot of tea.   

...Years later, I was the President of the Sorority, and I sat...in the middle of my Sisters...and listened to the pledges.  I was in charge, and kept an eye on my watch, and at about the two minute mark...I would wait until the MOST difficult place to stop...I had the score of the music in my lap...and I would stand...and loudly say..."WE HAVE HEARD ENOUGH!!!!"  I would sit back down, and my 'Lieutenants' would lead the Interrogation.   

…But then...a pledge was playing this work...on the huge Pipe Organ in the Hall!  I was entranced...I was very familiar with the work...but had never heard it played on the Conservatory Pipe Organ!!!!    I just listened...and my Lieutenants were nudging me...and I just 'nudged' them back...she was playing it PERFECTLY!!!!      I let her finish...and THEN sicced my Lieutenants on her.   

…She was admitted to the Sorority...and she played the Organ at my wedding years later.     We both laughed about her 'audition'...the other pledges had been upset over being cut off after a few minutes...and wondered why she had been allowed to perform her entire work.     I had just been getting into the interesting part of the Boccherini Cello Concerto when I was told..."We have heard enough" …when I was pledging.   

[Izee]

...Setting an example...

...As I have reported, I volunteered to play in the 'Phriday Phil' when I was younger.     Every Friday, I would leave the Office at 1:30, and drive to a different  Elementary School, and meet all of the Music Teachers in the District, and we would go into the school auditorium, set up, and play two short concerts to the kids.     When I play the cello, I am enthusiastic... ...I don't just slump in my chair and wipe the bow back and forth...I sit on the edge of the chair, and lean forward, and sometimes will sway side to side in a lyrical passage.     Once, as I was leaving the stage, a teacher called out to me..."I am going to get a cello!"

…One afternoon, as I was leaving, a young black girl came up to me.  She said that she had enjoyed the concert, and so I stopped and talked with her about the music.  She talked about the works that she had enjoyed, and I spoke to her about how we played it.  As we were finishing, she noticed that I was chewing gum, and said, "You got gum?"  I nodded, and said, "You want some?"  She nodded, and I took out the package, and offered her a stick.  I was rather surprised when she put her hands behind her back...but understood.  She had been raised to not touch hands with a stranger.  I smiled, and stepped back, and said..."Here, catch, and keep it"...and tossed her the package.  She caught it, and I chuckled, and walked away.   

…Years later, when I was the Principal Cello of the Community College...a new Freshman, a very pretty black girl joined the cello section.  I welcomed her, and...she offered me a STICK OF GUM!  I was surprised, and took it...and she said..."I gotta pay you back."  I looked at her more closely...and she told me that she was the little girl that I had spoken to long ago!      We hugged, and she said that watching me play the cello had made her want to do the same.      We spoke often during the year that followed, she wanted to become a teacher, and I gave her the best advice that I could, and she went on to attend the University.   

[RAGNAR]

And she went on to become the CEO of Bubble Yum bubble gum?

 

[Izee]

...That would not surprise me, Rags, music unlocks so much of the Brain.     When I first went to the semi-annual music retreat, I thought that I would stand out...BA, JD, CPA, Attorney at Law...and that was all that I could fit on my card...*JDL*...but I was eclipsed by so many others...   Once, it took me a while to calm down as I sat in a quartet, and looked at the distinguished men around me...they were Scientists that we have all heard about...and they played BRILLIANTLY!!!     That is why, when I played in the Phriday Phil, I did all that I could to get the kids to see that I was having fun playing the cello.     I smiled, and moved in my chair, and PLAYED REALLY LOUD when I had the melody... ...a lot of times, as we were packing up, the Conductor came up to me and asked me, "Didn't you see the dynamic markings?"  I would just look helpless, and say, "I will watch them better next week."  Of course, next week...I ignored them, and whaled away when I had the melody... ...I wanted the kids to hear the cello, and see how much fun it was to play one.   

[RAGNAR]

1st chair to 3rd chair AFTER dodging the baton headed your way at high velocity.

[Izee]

...I WAS ACTUALLY kicked from 1st chair to 2nd chair in the Community College Orchestra, one year.     The Conductor said that he wanted the young woman cellist to experience being the Section Leader.  She actually did play better, technically, than I did, but I had decades of experience playing the major orchestral works.  I was angry for a while, and then I settled down, and freely assisted her in leading the section.     She moved on to Notre Dame, and I got my chair back...but I was more careful about following dynamic markings.     Sometimes, during a rehearsal, I would look back over my shoulder while we were playing, and hiss..."SOFTER!!!!!!"...the cellists behind me would comply!!!  I also did the opposite...once, during a rehearsal of a Brahms Symphony, I looked over my shoulder, and LOUDLY said..."We got one of the most famous, and lovely melodies in music history...PLAY IT!!!"  The Conductor stopped us, and said, "OK, lets go back to rehearsal 'C'."  He looked at me, and said..."You are here to play the cello, I am the Conductor."  But, he was grinning...I apologized...and we got back to work.  During that passage when we performed it at the concert...the cello section captivated the audience when we all just cut loose.  There was a review of the concert in the local newspaper, and the critic said that he really thought that the cellos brought out the mood of the work.