Musicians wrestle everywhere (especially at BOF)

"musicians wrestle everywhere" (words by emily dickinson) is a piece that we first learned for the tolosa repertoire under sir jojo. at first, being the stupid kidlets that we were back then, we hated it. finally sir jojo was like "ang chachaka niyo! kaya lang kayo napapangitan kasi hindi niyo siya maintindihan at ayaw niyo siyang aralin!" which shamed us all into silence. when i listened to the tolosa recordings (of which i was not part) i realized that he was right. it was a really great piece.

i also realized that musicians really do wrestle. everywhere. and pretty much all the time. i once made a collage about my stage fright and named it after that piece. i'm naming this post after that piece too, because nowhere am i more aware of our musical "wrestling" than during bamboo organ festival. seriously.

for one, it is such a physical struggle just to get there. the heat, the traffic, and for us corporate slaves, the stress (and guilt) of shirking work, which suddenly seems to grow steel tentacles in the days leading up to the festival. it's a mental struggle just to fend off these things and keep them from affecting the music. and sometimes (as our second performance of the ives piece proved), it's just one tremendous struggle to get to the end of even just one song.

thankfully, this year's big wrestle is over. and i've got the pictures to prove it. too bad i couldn't take pictures of the brilliant oboe solo during rossini. ibang klase, hindi siya tao.

i love taking pictures of this instrument. pansin ko lang. last time i took a shot of this, its owner was off on his break.

the bamboo morgan himself

scare-latti in performance

the diva herself. i swear i am archiving this for when rina becomes famous. by then, this may just get me a new car or something that i want very badly . or it could get me a tell-all book deal. hehe.

doña scolds maida. "ilang beses ko uulitin, 'day? huwag isama ang puti sa dekolor!"

performing schubert *yawn*

bamboo whoregan >:-)

in other news: double congratulate me--i am "recommitted" and have celebrated my first valentines' day with a boyfriend! pics and post coming soon.