Saxes and Singers and Gnats, Oh My! (AKA the Racine Concert Band 2014 Free Summer Series Comes to an End)
Those of you who’ve read my blog for quite some time now are aware of two things, I hope:
1) I’m a musician as well as a writer.
2) I sometimes indulge in extra long titles (as above).**
Why am I starting this blog post like this? Because the Racine Concert Band — of which I’m a member — just successfully concluded the 2014 free summer concert series at the Racine Zoo this past Sunday night.
“But Barb,” you say. “Why didn’t you get online and say something on Sunday night, or better yet, yesterday? Why wait a day?”
The reason for that mostly is because of the “gnats” part of the above title. At about the midway point of the Sunday evening concert, the gnats and biting flies and perhaps even some ticks (those are the pea-green critters, aren’t they?) came flying out to bedevil every musician they possibly could.
I, unfortunately, appear to have been the musician that announcer Don Rosen decided to discuss in his comments — he said something to the effect that “one of the saxes” (most likely me) was swatting insects, going back to playing, swatting more insects, going back to playing, and he didn’t know how any of us could do that.
Now, every one of us was swatting insects in the first three rows. (I cannot see the rows behind me, mind, but they probably were swatting them, too.) But as far as I know, I’m the only one who swatted so many insects, so hard, that I actually had the clips to keep my music from flying off at the first wind gust go flying into the nearby clarinet section instead. (Sorry, clarinets.)
I know I was bitten at least ten or fifteen times, too. And as I despise bugs with a passion, this was not easy to bear whatsoever. (I did kill at least twenty of the suckers, though.)
Anyway, the conditions for the concert were fine for the first half, awful for the second. It’s because of this that I hightailed it out of there afterward (at least, as much as any musician hobbled by a cane in one hand and a saxophone in the other can hightail), even though I believe someone I hadn’t seen in quite some time was attempting to get to the stage and perhaps say “hi.” (If that person is reading my blog for some reason, please know that I am sorry I didn’t stop to chat. I just could not deal with the bugs. At all. But do feel free to say “hi” here instead, OK?)
Look. It’s an outdoor concert. I know we’re likely to run into some problems here and there. But between the bugs, the heat and humidity, and the fact that my asthma was bad for several days due to the poor air quality on the one hand and the high heat/humidity on the other, that was possibly the most difficult concert, conditions-wise, I have ever played.
So I needed that extra day to rest, to recover, so I could come back and write a blog about the whole shebang. (Lucky you, huh?)
Now, as for a greater deconstruction of the headline — I am a saxophonist, thus “saxes.” Gnats should be self-explanatory at this point . . . and as for the “singers” part of the above headline, Ami Bouterse guested with us again this year and did a fine job with two art songs (the “classical” portion) and two show tunes. (The audience, as you might expect, liked the show tunes a whole lot better. It’s rare when the audience goes for the classical stuff instead.)
So the 2014 free concert season for the Racine Concert Band has come to an end. And you might be wondering whether or not the RCB will have a free summer 2015 concert series, too . . . but as I said last year around this time, no one knows that right now.
All I can say, as I did last year, is that I would appreciate anyone who appreciates the RCB to please contact Mayor John Dickert or your local alderman and tell him (or her) that you really, really, really want the RCB to continue as these are the people most responsible for city-backed funding for next year.
Please. You want to support the Racine Concert Band, because it helps to provide vitality to this community.
We need that. Badly.
So please, support the band. Contact the Mayor and the aldermen. And if you’re able, donate to the band, too . . . help preserve one of the very best parts of Racine and give us another free concert series to remember in 2015.
———-
**Mind, if I had felt like an even longer headline, I would’ve tried to shove in something about Adam Maegaard’s fine French horn solo, too. (I enjoyed that piece.) But the headline was already quite lengthy as it was, so . . .
New Guest Blog Is Up…
Folks, the inestimable Stephanie Osborn has once again featured a guest blog from yours truly, this time in her ELEMENTS OF STORYTELLING: CHARACTERIZATION series.
Now, why did I write this particular blog? Simple. Characters are everything to a story — and without them, you don’t have much at all.
Here’s a bit from my newest guest blog:
Without characters, you don’t have a story.
I mean, think about it: Who’d remember the Harry Potter series if Harry Potter wasn’t there? Or his buddy Ron Weasley? Or his other buddy, Hermione Granger? And that’s just the good characters.
What about the enigmatic Severus Snape, the villainous Voldemort, or Harry’s own uncle and aunt? Without them factoring into the equation, how would the seven books about Harry Potter interest anyone?
No, books are built on characters. It can’t be any other way.
In this blog, I also talk about several stories in the Bible, Ernest Hemingway’s OLD MAN AND THE SEA, and (just for kicks) Geoffrey Chaucer’s CANTERBURY TALES. So do check it out, along with all the other blogs in Stephanie’s ELEMENTS OF STORYTELLING series.
Just Reviewed Victoria Alexander’s Latest at SBR
Just figured I’d drop a little blog-let here to let you all know that I reviewed Victoria Alexander’s latest Victorian Era romance, THE SCANDALOUS ADVENTURES OF THE SISTER OF THE BRIDE, over at Shiny Book Review late Saturday night. (Or at SBR for short, as always.)
But you want a capsule review, you say? Well, here it is . . . I loved the story, thought it was funny, enjoyed the characters . . .
But the editing was absolutely horrible. And as this is a big-budget book from a well-known publisher, that is just not acceptable.
I don’t have a clue what happened with this book, quite frankly. But as an editor myself, I know that if you have a twenty-five word sentence with zero commas in it, there’s usually something wrong.
And it’s doubly wrong for a Victorian Era romance, because if anything, those old fuddy-duddy Victorians were much bigger sticklers about proper punctuation than I am as a modern-day editor. And if you want to properly evoke the period, you need to observe all the regular conventions of said period.
But you say, “Who cares about the commas, Barb? Why are you obsessing about this, anyway? You’re a modern reader. You can deal . . . can’t you?”
Um, yes and no.
The lack of commas (thus the lack of proper punctuation), especially in long stretches of dialogue, kept throwing me out of the reader’s trance with great force. And as there is absolutely no excuse for the lack of proper punctuation for the three reasons I gave over at SBR, I docked the book a grade.
At any rate, go take a look at my review, and judge for yourself whether or not I’m making any sense this fine day.
Then come back and let me know. (I’ll be here.)
Guest Blog up at Penny’s Tales about “An Elfy on the Loose”
Folks, I’m pleased to report that my latest guest blog about my novel, AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE, is up over at Penny Estelle’s website, Penny’s Tales.
Note that this particular blog was originally published over at Stephanie Osborn’s Comet Tales back in April. I am very pleased to have the ability to spread my message far and wide.
Here’s a bit from this particular blog, which is called “On the Writing of AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE,” discussing just what I found so interesting about my main character, Bruno the Elfy, and why I found his journey so compelling:
…why should anyone care about Bruno just because he’s an Elfy and from a magical society? You’d think that someone who has magic, and a lot of it, would be too hard to root for, right?
Not in Bruno’s case. He’s an orphan, a ward of the state, and because of a past traumatic brain injury, he doesn’t remember everything he should. Further, most of what he’s been told about himself is wrong. Worse yet, the Elfy High Council is so afraid of Bruno’s potential magical power that they’ve intentionally mistrained him before sending him off to the Human Realm (our Earth), intending to maroon him there forever.
Despite all this, Bruno never completely loses his sense of humor, which appealed to me. He refuses to give up – it’s just not in him – and that, too, appealed to me. So I kept writing…and my husband (Michael) kept editing.
As I wrote, I learned that Bruno had landed in a house that was haunted. And where he mostly couldn’t do magic. And where he only had one friend: the strange Human girl Sarah, with whom he had to make common cause due to her loathsome parents (as one of my friends put it, “Sarah’s parents are straight out of reality TV”). They’re in a bad situation, but it quickly gets worse when Bruno’s mentor Roberto tries to rescue them, but instead ends up getting captured himself by Sarah’s terrible parents. Who are themselves in thrall to a Dark Elf, who’s up to no good…and then, of course, they fall in love, and everything gets better in a weird way because that’s what love does, despite everything else going to the Hells in a handbasket.
With all of that going on, Bruno and Sarah realize they have to gather allies. But how can they? Bruno’s new to the whole Human Realm (our Earth), while Sarah’s been told her whole life that she’s unimportant and way too young to be bothered with. And they need both Elfy and Human allies, which isn’t going to be easy…
There’s much more to the blog, as it discusses just what my late husband Michael did to help me write AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE, and just why his input was so very, very important. So I do hope you’ll check it out.
And as always, if you want to read the first five chapters of AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE, please go here to the Twilight Times Books site and check it out. (Or, if you’d rather go straight to Barnes and Noble.com to get a copy, go here.)
Time for My First Ever Book Hook BlogHop! #MFRWhooks
Folks, I’ve never done this before. But as I recently joined the excellent group Marketing for Romance Writers, I’ve discovered some new things to do that might interest old readers and perhaps entice some new ones into sampling my work.
So here we go . . . it’s time for Book Hooks Wednesday!
To set the scene for my novel, AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE . . . here’s a short blurb to whet your interest:
Bruno the Elfy believes he’s very young, has no power, and has no enemies.
He’s wrong.
Quickly sent to our Earth (the Human Realm) and told to watch for magic, Bruno must unravel the lies, keep his mentor from being tortured, and—oh, yeah—figure out why he’s so strongly attracted to young, Human Sarah.
Because his life depends on it.
Now, here’s eight lines or so of AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE from page 11, when my Elfy hero Bruno (originally named Jon) first starts to realize that Sarah, the young Human girl he’s destined to fall in love with, is worthwhile:
What had he gotten himself into?
And what, if anything, could he do to get through to her parents? He had to have sunlight, and food, and companionship …these people could starve him to death without even realizing it, and if not for their daughter he wouldn’t have had any companionship in more than two days.
And she did seem to be rather good company. At least, Jon was hoping that was why he’d had the sudden urge to give her his name. He just had to ask hers first, as Elfy etiquette demanded.
Sometimes Elfy etiquette was so stultifying.
* * * *
Why is he in trouble? Why is Sarah helping him? And why is he even there?
You need to read the book to find out!
Here’s a link to five sample chapters, to get you started . . . then go either to Amazon (link is here) or Barnes and Noble (link is here) and grab yourself a copy of AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE today!
And after you do that, please take a look at these other fine Marketing for Romance Authors’ posts . . . they’re a great bunch of authors with some fine stories to tell, and I’m proud and honored to be affiliated with them.
And yes, in case you’re wondering, gentle YA romance counts with these folks. (Thank goodness.)
* * * * *
NOTE: Here’s the list of people participating in Wednesday’s Book Hook Bloghop . . . we’re supposed to use a LinkyTool, but for whatever reason it didn’t agree with my blog, so the actual list (including my own blog link) is reproduced below.
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Brett Favre, Green Bay Packers “Kiss and Make Up”– Retirement of Number 4 Will Happen in 2015
Well, it’s official: Brett Favre, one of the best quarterbacks to ever play in the National Football League, and his long-time team the Green Bay Packers have “kissed and made up.” This means his long-delayed retirement ceremony and the retirement of his iconic Number 4 in Green Bay will finally happen in 2015.
Now, why is this news, exactly?
Yes, Favre was traded to the New York Jets a few years ago in order to make way for Aaron Rodgers — something that didn’t sit well with many fans at the time (including me), but was probably the best move for the team as Rodgers was ready to play. And after that, Favre played two years with the Minnesota Vikings, a long-time rival of the Packers in the NFC Central division, leading the Vikings to the 2009-10 NFC championship game.
And yes, things were very messy, at the time — even being characterized in Wisconsin as a “nasty public divorce” (most recently by various WTMJ-AM radio commentators, including Doug Russell and Jeff Falconio; WTMJ-AM serves as the “home of the Packers” and is the flagship station for the entire state). Fans took sides, Favre was booed in Green Bay while he wore a purple number 4 jersey, and some fans were so angered with Favre continuing to play in the NFL rather than retiring that they burned Favre’s jerseys and refused to even speak his name.
(No, I’m not kidding. Wish I were. But Wisconsin takes its pro football seriously.)
Even now, there’s discussion as to whether fans will actually boo Favre because Favre wanted to keep playing football after the Packers traded him, rather than retire outright as a Packer legend as many fans felt he should — even though Favre, demonstrably, still was playing at a very high level up until mid-2010.
Fans take things so personally, in fact, they forget how awful they would feel if, in their mid-thirties, they were told they had to stop doing something they loved. That had paid them very well for years. That they knew they could still do. All because a younger person was available to do the same job for a lower amount of money.
In any other profession, this would be called age discrimination. But in sports, because of how most people’s bodies react due to aging and how their physical skills can’t but help decline, it’s called a simple fact and franchises are lauded when they jettison older stars.
Even when, as in this case, that older star is the Iron Man of Professional Football.
At any rate, I don’t understand why anyone would boo Brett Favre at this point. He’s been retired from pro football since the end of the 2010 season, for crying out loud. And he did so many wonderful things for the Packers: He took them to two Super Bowls, winning one; he won three Most Valuable Player Awards; he set numerous records; he broke the consecutive games played streak while in a Packers uniform; and he did many positive things for Green Bay and the state of Wisconsin.
He even was an active supporter of many local charities.
So even though Favre played for two teams in addition to the Packers, it wasn’t like that was Favre’s choice — he was traded. He wanted to be a Packer until his body gave out. Just because that didn’t happen doesn’t mean that all of the onus of Favre and the Packers’ “messy divorce” should fall upon him — some of it should fall on the Packers, most particularly General Manager Ted Thompson.
But some fans just don’t care about that.
Why? Well, Favre is famous for retiring, then un-retiring, in a similar manner to basketball legend Michael Jordan. And all that retiring and un-retiring was difficult for his team in Green Bay to handle, for his coach to handle, and most especially his GM to handle.
So if you’re a fan who was angry at Favre because he had the audacity to keep playing after the Packers clearly indicated they were ready for the Aaron Rodgers regime, please do me a favor: get over it.
That way, the rest of us can enjoy Favre’s well-deserved retirement ceremony in peace.
2014 Racine Concert Band Season Continues Tomorrow . . .
Folks, I didn’t manage to get up a reminder about the Racine Concert Band summer concerts at the Racine Zoo in July . . . at least, I don’t remember doing so. But we have four more free concerts left out at the Zoo, and I figured I’d get over here and say a few brief words about tomorrow night’s 7:00 P.M. concert to whet your interest.
Tomorrow night’s concert features trumpet soloist Mark Eichner and xylophone soloist Nicholas Stainbrook — and if you’re a longtime reader of my blog, you’re probably going, “Mark Eichner? Isn’t he the conductor of the band? How can he play a solo?”
I could be sarcastic and say, “Very easily, thank you.” (Oops, I just was.) Because we have a guest conductor for two pieces, our regular euphonium player Paul Taylor (who led a high school band for many years in the Kenosha Unified School District — Bradford High, I think) will conduct two pieces — Eichner’s trumpet solo “Beautiful Colorado,” which is a virtuosic waltz for trumpet and concert band, and “The Florentiner” march directly before the solo.
This concert interests me more than most of the others because I’m playing the first clarinet parts instead of the second alto saxophone parts. I even have a solo on Chaminade’s “Scarf Dance,” which is a piece of French band music with the characteristic French harmonies (love that stuff, truly), and have a number of very good and very melodic parts. (We haven’t seen much of that in the saxophone section so far this summer. Depends on the year what we get, of course.)
Other things that may interest you: My usual stand-mate, Vivian Krenzke, will have an extended alto saxophone solo on “Spiritual,” and Vera Olguin will have several solos on both flute and piccolo among the woodwinds. Dave Kapralian and others in the cornet and trumpet section have some interesting parts, and our substitute first horn player (sorry, I don’t know her name; she’s a dark-haired woman with a robust sound and exquisite musicianship) will have a lengthy solo in one of the French pieces also.
Mind, there’s a good amount of music people who usually go to band concerts will recognize — Percy Grainger’s “Country Gardens,” several marches, including John Philip Sousa’s “King Cotton,” and a waltz from the ballet “Coppelia.” (This last is something you often hear on television commercials in vastly shortened form.) And did I mention this concert is absolutely free yet?
All you have to do, if you want to come out and see it, is go to one of the two side entrances to the Racine Zoo. (That way, you’re getting in for nothing. Besides, the front entrances should be closed by the time you get there at six-thirty or so to grab a spot on the lawn.) Bring a blanket or a lawn chair, and prepare to be captivated by sound.
See you tomorrow evening at 7:00!
——
P.S. After the concert, please make sure to tell your local alderman and/or Racine Mayor John Dickert how much you enjoy our absolutely free Zoo concerts. Because we still need your support — badly.
Barb Caffrey's Blog 