Black History and Wind Ensemble

So...You've all been looking for black history posts, right? Yeah...about that. I am really busy this semester. I've been trying to post a blog on Oprah for about 10 days now - because let's be honest: hasn't she been the most influential black woman America has ever seen? Rosa Parks is close, but she never gave a car to 300 people at one time...

After 10 days, I still haven't had time to post. So, I'm just going to not do it this year. I'll pick it up next year from my new blog (because next year will no longer be "Life in Idaho." It will be "Life in Washington," "Life in Colorado" or "Life in Texas.").

I have been so busy this semester. I usually watch about 30 minutes of TV during the week: "The Office." But this past week I even skipped The Office so that I could go to a wind ensemble concert. If you remember, last semester SZ had me take her to a jazz concert. While there I was reminded how much I like brass instruments.

This particular wind ensemble concert had a focus was on Sousa. (That's right MR. "Stars & Stripes Forever.") It was an amazing concert. The performers were amazing. Each breath they took resulted in beautiful stirring music. There were two parts I didn't like, though. One was this opera singer. I'm not sure what an opera singer was doing at a wind ensemble concert, but she was there and wasn't impressed (I should mention that I'm never impressed with opera singers). The other part I didn't like was at the end. As part of the closing number, they had this massive American Flag drop from the ceiling, which of course meant everyone stood, which resulted in a standing ovation at the end. I felt kind of cheated into the standing ovation. I would have given it anyway, I just don't like being tricked into it.

Oh, but the songs were amazing. They didn't just stick to Sousa. There was Gershwin, Berlin, Brion, and even Kabalevsky. And each note was perfect. It was worth missing The Office for.

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On a side note, SZ was performing. She mentioned she was thinking of joining wind ensemble shortly before we broke-up, but I never knew her decision and then eventually forgot about it. I grossly underestimated her level of talent. I know the caliber of the performers she was playing with and she kept up with them. There was a part when 5 of the performers moved away from the music stands and used piccolos in front of the audience. SZ was in that group and performed marvelously. It was very impressive.

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On another side note, I have since watched the episode of The Office that I missed. I didn't miss much.