I like going to the Melbourne Symphony. I went on Friday night before Amy's party, and it was a memorable experience. The first piece was Wagner's Parsifal, which was totally boring except for one bit, when one of the french horn players inexplicably vomited. On stage. In the middle of a public perfomance. Hee hee. It was weird. She then quietly removed herself offstage to collapse and, I presume, vomit some more. Until that point, I had been lolling in my seat in a sleepy haze, but my laughter at this strange turn of events woke me up nicely. The orchestra kept playing without a hitch, but the Wagner still sucked. Then came intermission, and some discreet mopping. But oh man, the second piece was an absolute blinder. Seriously. It was Adams' Harmonielehre, and it was fucking cool. All complex and stuff. The percussion section was fully loaded, which is always a good sign. And they were gettin it done, man. Yeah. Made me so happy. My dad and I have our favourites in each section of the orchestra, like, my favourite violinist is the one who looks like William Shatner, etc etc. But the percussion section beats them all. And we hate to see them underused. But Friday was totally their night [with apologies to the puker] and it was amazing. Respect.