November 3 -- end of the day; it was Different

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I've been thinking about staying open to new things, and trying new things, and not being stuck in comfortable mud.

Every week the University sends me email about musical happenings on campus for the coming two weeks.  (I signed up to receive this email.)

There are dozens and dozens of events.  From looking at these lists, I think everyone who gets a degree from the music school has to do at least one recital.  There are recitals at all levels.  There are visiting musicians giving lectures and concerts.  There are university ensembles performing.  Of course there are big-name acts from all over the world, performing.

Most of the events are free.  I always think I am failing to take advantage of the myriad goings-on in Ann Arbor, and I have decided to try to attend one musical event every month.

For years I have been reading about Octubafest.  This year I finally picked an Octubafest event, and we extracted ourselves from our daily lives and went over to the music school.  The beginning of this adventure was less organized and together than we are wont to be.  We thought the parking lot by the music school was full.  (NOT, but we didn't know that yet.)

I had looked up where to go, and I had seen another parking lot that was almost adjacent to the end of the music-school parking lot, but significantly lower in elevation, accessible from another road.  We drove around there, found the unofficial path up the hill, and climbed.  It was steep, but not scary, even when we had to climb over some fallen dead trees.  (Digression -- ash tree, I bet.  Damned beetles.................  But they do leave cool tracks.  End of Digression.)

When we achieved the end of the music-school parking lot, we discovered there were plenty of empty parking spots that hadn't been visible from the entrance to the parking lot.  Oh.  Next time, we won't give up so easily!

Our next obstacle was Where to Go in the Music School.

We entered at what looked like a Main Door, but it opened onto halls of practice rooms.  We didn't see anything that looked like a lobby, or, more to the point, a building map.  I started asking people where the Recital Hall was, and eventually we got there.  (Digression -- it was fun walking down the halls of practice rooms, hearing a snippet of piano, and a snippet of French horn, and a snippet of drums, and a snippet of alto voice....  End of Digression.)

We found the Recital Hall -- to find (you were expecting this!) that the concert had begun.  We spent the next 10 or 15 minutes hanging out between two sets of double doors, waiting for the first piece to end, so we (and half a dozen other people) could enter the hall without disturbing anyone.

Eventually the piece (which had several sections with tantalizing pauses between the sections) was over, and we could go in and sit down.

I need to remember that Serious Music is Seriously Long.  And that I won't be familiar with any of it (minuscule overstatement, but conveys the basic truth).  (Digression -- in History of Rock, we learned that in the late 1960s, there was a big push amongst rock musicians to be Taken Seriously as Musicians [and song-writers/composers].  They didn't want to make or sing the same-old, same-old.  They wanted to make music that was new, and they wanted to demonstrate their musicianship.  The music got longer and longer, so they had time to show off their virtuosity, and less and less ... accessible ... [as a lot of things that are New are not necessarily easy on the ears]........  The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?  End of Digression.)

I also wasn't thinking about how loud tubas are.  Even one tuba is very loud.  The hall was not tiny (the 20 or so people in the audience only filled about 10% of the seats), but I found the resonance of certain notes to be painfully loud.

As I sat there, trying not to wince at the loudness, I thought about going back down that hill, over those dead trees, in the dark..............  (Digression -- daylight savings went off, on the 3rd, and I wasn't emotionally prepared for it to be dark at 5:30!  End of Digression.)

After a couple of pieces, there was an intermission. 

I suggested we leave.  And we did.  I'm not giving up on my plan for listening to more music.  For next time, I'll see what I can find on that long list of musical events that might be more ... accessible ... to the uninitiated.  And I'll remember that tubas are perhaps best listened to out of doors, even if Octubafest takes place in late October/early November when it can be pretty darn cold out.

We made our way back down the hill in daylight (the concert began at 4:00, and we left around 5:00), and we decided to do one more thing that was different.

We'd heard about a new Indian restaurant that was right on our way home, so we stopped there.  It turned out they wouldn't open for a few minutes, so we strolled through a new-to-us bookstore across the courtyard.

We enjoyed eating at Cardamom.  Both of the dishes we had were tasty.  We'd eat there again.



So -- our evening of trying Something Different had mixed success.  We did get out and do something we never do, so that was a success.  We learned some things about what to do if attending an event at the music school, so that is also success.  And we found a new restaurant we liked.  A fine end to a Different evening.

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