Friday, July 30, 2004

Went to see The Impressionists exhibition at the national gallery today. It was pretty good, you know, Impressionist paintings from the Musee d'Orsay and all that. Some moments of leaping heart, some of detached consideration. You know, the usual art appreciation deal. Then I went to the symphony to see some Japanese drum power. It was cool. And strange. I've never seen funny outfits and rippling muscles on stage with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra before. Of course, if I had gone to see it when the orchestra played with Kiss or Meatloaf, I would have seen funny outfits. But I didn't go, and anyway, snigger snigger, no rippling muscles there. So this was definitely a first. Anyway, these drum dudes and ladies had what Kyan would call 'excellent core strength'. And there was a lot of intense poised banging things around and it was really cool. The encore was super fantastic, especially when the orchestra's percussion section started having a little party up the back, bopping around and clang clang clang and having a right old time. Oh, the percussion section. Love em. They're my peeps. Dunno why they're my peeps, as I am not myself a percussionist, but there you are. They're my favourite section. By the way, the main percussion dude and the new young percussion chick are sleeping together, right? I mean, not just sleeping together of course. What I meant to say is that they're together together, right? Like, he's mentoring her, but also they're an item, right? I'm only asking because having watched them all evening, that conclusion seems to stand up. I observed behaviour that I think points to their being in a relationship. For example, before the show started they were chatting on stage and she did that 'brush a bit of fluff off his jacket' thing. And then later, during the performance of the second piece - that Strauss one from 2001: A Space Odyssey - after she'd done a special bit of hitting on a special bit of equipment, he gave her a discreet thumbs up, in response to which she blushed and smiled into her chest. And then at the end of the performance he touched her shoulder in a 'well done I'm proud of you' sort of way before shaking hands with the other percussion man and applauding the timpanist. He seemed more chuffed than a simple mentor, is all I'm saying. And he has been smiling a lot more, too. Am I wrong? Whatever. A good time was had tonight by me and my orchestra percussion peeps.

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