from beethoven to bob marley: my first orchestra experience

the night began with a slightly peculiar car ride to cleveland with Rivers Cuomo driving and Aussie Tim in a tuxedo (the two of them were ushering), blasting Beethoven at high volumes. probably the first and last time i will be in a car with three college-age males who are listening to Beethoven and liking it. we stopped to get 2 dollars of gas. got there, got tickets, and Bunny and I went for dinner at the Uptowne Grille, the ambience of which was greatly enhanced by its extraneous vowels, i assure you.
the performace itself was comprised of three parts. a modern piece chockful of atonality, imagine a ten-year-old trying to make spooky halloween music on an organ, and intersperse that with the Cleveland symphony choir. thats exactly what it was like. the second piece was slightly less funny-sounding, in fact better. the third was the centerpiece of the night, Carmena Benina (sp?), or when Aussie Tim says it, "Carmena Banana." it was an hour long so we sat on the floor after we got displaced from the usher's bench. the piece description said that in the third section the two soloists consummate their love but it was only metaphorically in song. the only highlights were the loud parts. and one of the other soloists made funny faces. well, not funny ha-ha, more like rich-white-people funny.
on the way back was when the fun really began. same scenario, except Rivers Cuomo (ok his name is actually Steve) was now wearing a tux as well. car + large rock on highway = flat tire. after crawling off the highway, there's the process of putting on the spare, etc, etc which is all well and good except that it only lasts two or three blocks before also becoming flat. flag down a passing police car, use their phone to call triple A, and Mary, one of Steve's friends, to come pick us up at this random street corner in a sketchy area of Cleveland. the tow truck arrives amazingly soon, but Mary isn't expected for 45 minutes at least and it's cold as heck, so the friendly police take us down to a club a few blocks away which Mary will have to drive past. The Velvet Tango Room, in fact, and as soon as we entered, we noticed that it looked to be quite popular with Mafia-types.. the woman in charge was very very very nice though when we explained our predicament. still, definitely a surreal moment, two guys in tuxedoes, another guy, and a girl, sitting at a small table in a darkly lit establishment, sipping raspberry hot cocoas for want of in-state IDs. a suitable amount of time later, Steve and Tim decide to go back to the aforementioned random street corner and wait for Mary (whom we couldnt get in touch with again), and then come pick me and Tim (the bunny one) up. we wait. and wait. the nice lady insists that our drinks are on the house. finally we decide to go join them at the street corner. more waiting, during which a good ten minutes or so was passed by throwing rocks at a street sign. back to waiting. now approaching 1:30 am. a most-likely inebriated poor-white-trash type comes out of nowhere, with a dog on a leash, cursing at us to get off his f-ing corner, f-ing get out of his f-ing neighborhood, or else his Dalmation will fuck us up. hmm. then the racial slurs start, and talk of white supremacy, quite ridiculous really considering his target audience.. anyhow we walk away.. and take up residence on a new street corner two blocks down. more waiting. toes freeze. still no Mary. finally, bunny decides we should look into getting a cab and so the nice lady at the Velvet Tango Room makes a phone call for us and finds that out, when lo and behold! Mary! Mother of God! yay!! never have i been so happy to sit in the back of a (warm!) Volvo station wagon listening to Bob Marley.
all in all, quite an adventure. despite all the obstacles and godforsaken weather, everyone kept their spirits up and laughing. those crazy music majors can be a pretty fun cast of characters. :)