Especially since I didn’t get Christmas last year (Dad and I were traveling), I started prepping for Xmas as soon as I got back from Thanksgiving. Last weekend, I brought the Xmas boxes up and have spent the week assembling the big tree, while playing movies I don’t have to see to watch – Scrooge, Muppet Christmas Carol, Charlie Brown, Christmas Story, Arthur Christmas.
I think the big tree is probably fine, but it’s the one we’ve had for forever and it is leaking needles like no one’s business and it might be time to get a new one. This one, you have to unfurl each branch individually – the little dining room tree and the new one I bought for the home office unfold like umbrellas. As of right now, I have just a wee bit more work unfluffing the new tree, and I need to spend time on all of them to make them look less demented, but I’m hoping to have them installed, lit and ribboned by the end of the day. (It’s snowing! Quite enthusiastically. Good day for it.)
The big tree (Tree Major) will house our many Swarovski ornaments, the little dining room tree (Tree Minor) will be music-themed, and the new tree (Tree Augmented?) will be all the silly shit that doesn’t go on the other two trees. Speaking of tree names, in the romance novel I reread by listening to on the road, the guys name their little potted trees “Conifer Aniston”, “Spruce Willis” and “Chris Pine”.
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And speaking of romance novels, I’ve been reading a bunch of MM Xmas romance novels. But I made a big mistake. I read one that I really liked, and then bought another by the same author. And I started liking that one too, until I realized the story had the same beats and even some of the same scenes as the last one. Like, she’d just rewritten the same book. Oh. I get really turned off if I can see the plotting and the machinery. So I put that one down. Reading a nice one now where the two men are asexual, and one is autistic. It’s charming, actually.
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Other than Xmas prep, let’s see. I ushered for VLOG’s Death Takes a Holiday, the musical by Maury Yeston that practically no one ever does. I don’t know why, it’s a really interesting piece, a good ensemble show and very performable. VLOG did a great job with it too. I won’t review it because I saw the dress, not a performance, and too many friends in it, but VLOG does continue their tradition of doing really excellent productions of really interesting shows with minimal production.
I played in QUO’s second “there’s no place like home” concert last night, “Refuge”. This was the repertoire, “Tchaikovsky’s Second Symphony, Ukrainian, pays vibrant homage to the rich folk traditions of Ukraine, a lifelong fascination the composer pursued during his extended visits to the country. QUO’s very own clarinetist Johann Palo, winner of the orchestra’s 2025 Concerto Competition, is the soloist in Debussy’s brilliant Première rapsodie. Witness the world premiere of QUO cellist Michael Viljoen’s new work Tafeni — on finding home, an evocation of the wide open spaces where the ancestral lands of the Zulu and Xhosa overlap in South Africa. Opening the evening, Leilehua Lanzilotti’s stirring ao kuewa tells a story of renewal and care for the land.”
Unlike the Holst concert, I played every piece. The simple (and lovely) “ao keuwa” was built on patterns, and Kyle and I played a repeating two-note phrase throughout. (We started on notes a third apart, which then resolved to the same note in the middle – making it a total of three notes between us we played for the entire piece.) We joked about having to practice our butts off for it, but actually, it was a super-lovely piece and I was really happy to be part of it.
I love Debussy, but I will say the Rhapsodie didn’t do a lot for me, although our soloist was excellent. The horn part (I was on 3rd) wasn’t difficult, exactly, but it had a lot of misleading ‘traps’ in it. You really had to be on your toes.
The piece written by our principal cellist was really great, and was my favorite piece on the program. Lots of interesting and challenging horn stuff, including a unison horn phrase that climbed to a high B. (I think I hit it last night, but it wasn’t good.)
The Tchaikovsky went fine. I’d never played it before. I was supposed to play assistant principal on it (something I’d never done, and wasn’t looking forward to), but we had another hornist drop out and I ended up on his part, 4th horn. It wasn’t difficult at all, except the third movement was a nightmare of counting and my brain just wasn’t up to it last night, I missed quite a few entrances (the other horns got them, it wasn’t a big deal). I also missed kind of a solo in the 2nd movement (just a long held note, and probably no one missed it) because I miscounted. Brain was fuzzing out. But mostly I played fine. This is us.
This concert, unfortunately, had been the source of organizational drama. We’ve been trying new and different performance venues and this one was (and had always been) scheduled at an Upper West Side synagogue not far from Lincoln Center. Well, suddenly a lot of the membership started raising a fuss about using a synagogue and possible dangers of threats, and probably positions on Gaza, and tried to get the orchestra to change the date and the venue at the last minute. We ended up not doing that (yay), but we lost a lot of players over it (for this concert alone, I hope) and had to fill in with others. But we played well regardless and the audience did show up.
I thought it was a bunch of nonsense. We weren’t endorsing anything about the religion of the venue, we were simply booking the hall. Mostly we rehearse and perform in churches, and if we start going down that road, objecting to the venues because of the organization that runs it or possible dangers (we did have security at the synagogue, which is always there – metal detectors and such)… anyway, I was annoyed and refused to get involved and if they’d rescheduled for a later date, I wouldn’t have put a lot of effort in clearing my calendar. But it’s done now.
What else? Still watching lots of Hallmarky movies. This X post made me laugh today:
and I discovered The Diplomat, which is amazing and I want to binge it all. I’m already into Season 2 (they’re short) and am just riveted. I will say that I’ve never actually watched Keri Russell’s previous shows, so I’m kind of discovering her. Wow.
Enjoy the snow! This week, holiday party, some caroling, and prepping for my dad’s arrival next weekend.
The Toast Point Page 