Band Drama

 

Since I will be at the Irish Fest "band camp" for four days, I have to wear all four of my good bras those days. Today I dug up a painful underwire bra that at least makes me look decent in public to go work on campus. Nobody was around but my young coworker, so while in my office, I slipped out of it and tossed it over the back of a chair. Then our new department chair stopped by and chatted, and only after he left did I realize the bra was in his clear line of sight. Did he see it? Hopefully he didn't notice...

There is some band drama going on. Our leader thinks I go to the Irish session instead of band practice too often, and she's not happy that both our bass player and I are missing the Ukrainian picnic gig. In my case it's because we only learned about this last week, and I have longstanding plans on that day to go to an Anglican Rite Mass in Milwaukee, and then dinner at a Serbian restaurant. I don't know why our bass player can't make it, and when Hardingfele and I walked at lunch today, she said she was going to grill her about her absence. I couldn't seem to convince her that this would be a bad idea. Then someone contacted Hardingfele in the afternoon about playing a gig at a retirement home, but we'd need a caller. The caller we used for years is long dead, and we have never had really good luck finding another one. Hardingfele found some list that said our bass player is a caller, so she sent an email saying could we do this gig, and could the bass player be our caller. This led to a long email from the bass player about how we are not really a contra dance band but an English country dance band, and if she was calling for us we'd have to change our evil ways, plus she couldn't play bass. If we find another caller, she could lead us on the fiddle, and then we could be a real contra dance band. I emailed her privately and said she made a lot of sense, and what she is looking for is what we do at the Moldy Jam jams, and she said some of them do play for contra dances. Why we couldn't memorize our songs we've been playing for decades so we can just start playing whichever one is called out is beyond me, but I'm starting to understand why the bass player is frustrated and goes to the Irish sessions instead of band practice... and in fact why I do too. Some of us want to grow as musicians, and some people seem fine with the (pretty mediocre) status quo.

After work I changed the battery in my Snark tuner, and Travalon had gotten me a shoulder rest and set of replacement strings at the music store near his job, so I felt ready to go. As we drove to the health club to go swimming, I said I wondered if the violin is happy about all this activity around it, and it's thinking, "Yay! Finally I get some attention instead of the mandolin!" Travalon said he pictured the violin with a little cartoon smile. We swam outside, and now I feel very relaxed. There's so much to stress about, like will I drive my Irish teacher crazy, will I suck at Irish fiddling, will I be the worst one in the intermediate Irish class, but I've done what I can to prepare. There are also floods in Wauwatosa, which is where we are heading tomorrow, but the Irish Fest people said it isn't affecting where they are located. Complications for Travalon too, because one of the buddies he was going to hang out with while he's a temporary bachelor caught our cold at the wedding in Sheboygan, so they may not get to hang out. He will see another buddy, and Travalon never gets bored anyway - he always finds something to do. He'll be just fine.

Famous Hat