How I Spent My Saturday Afternoon (Spoiler: It Was Good)

Quick update on Mr. Lambeau. He went to the vet’s last Wednesday, and the incision by the tail is good. But the staples that were put in the one he pulled open won’t come out until this coming Wednesday, so he is still in the cone and still on cage confinement. He’s getting tired of it, I know. He whines more and is more restless. I have been letting him out a few times a day as long as he will stay quiet on his pad and not try to run and jump around with Tucker. He’s been good like that for a while, but eventually I do have to put him back in the pen. A few more days, buddy, a few more days.

So, Saturday. We went to a concert. Specifically, the Binghamton Philharmonic Pops orchestra concert. It was awesome! When we lived in New England, we had a subscription to the Boston Symphony for a number of years, so we’d get to orchestral concerts quite often. And, of course, we’d seen the Boston Pops more than once, as well. But after we let our subscription lapse (less time to make the trip to Boston as time went on and the kids got older), we didn’t get to see a lot of live orchestras. We decided to get tickets to this and one more of their shows later in the spring. And I am glad we did! They are an excellent group, and the concert was quite enjoyable. The conductor, Daniel Hege, was very engaging with the audience and that made the performance more enjoyable. On the program was:

The only thing I wasn’t at all familiar with was the music from “Wicked”. I didn’t particularly like the book, so I never felt compelled to investigate the musical. The Fauré was lovely, but then, what did he write that wasn’t? The Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon piece featured their principal cellist and the percussion section from the Binghamton Philharmonic, which included two women, one of which looked to be college-aged. And, yes, they did Led Zeppelin. The conductor said the arrangement was for strings, but they decided to add a drum kit (played by the Philharmonic’s principal percussionist) and electric bass, played by one of the orchestra’s bassists. There were several younger members of the orchestra, which was nice to see.

Also nice to see was the number of kids in the audience. Seventeen and under get in free thanks to the sponsorship of a local credit union and there were a number who took advantage of that. Also a fair number of older high school and college age kids. I liked seeing them interested (or hopefully getting an interest in) orchestral music.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable afternoon, and I look forward to the next concert in May. That one is themed “Other Worlds: Superheroes, Fantasy, and Sci-Fi”. Right in my wheelhouse! We will also look into a philharmonic subscription for next season.

I hope you had the chance to do something fun this weekend. Drink your water. Eat a vegetable. Get outside and refresh. Be nice to one another.

My latest book is a collection of very short stories, half science fiction and half fantasy, called “Crossed Wires and Other Very Short Stories”. I have also written a few other short pieces, another collection, two novels, and an urban fantasy series. You can find most of them at Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and wherever e-books are sold. A few are also available from Amazon in paperback. My novel, “Circle Unbroken” is also on Kindle Unlimited, if that’s your reading preference. You can find out about all of them here.

There are also some stories you can read here on my site, mostly the yearly Halloween short I write, but there are a few others. You can read them from here