Nobody's in the Kitchen

After we marched in the kickoff for Occupy Pittsburgh, I dreamed that the seven of us were standing in a long line of people waiting to get into a restaurant and nothing was happening. No one at tables was getting served and the line wasn't moving. I stuck my head into the kitchen and no one was there. There were plenty of supplies and pot and pans, but no one doing anything. I went back to my other six friends and told them to come into the kitchen and we'll just cook the food and feed ourselves.

When I woke, the analogy was obvious. Our government and corporate leaders have abandoned the kitchen, so we have to do it ourselves.

Penn State Scandal

I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I'm watching the Penn State scandal unfurl itself. So far Sandusky was arrested, Joe Pa and the University President were fired and McQueary is on paid administrative leave for his safety. It is reported that Joe Pa has hired an attorney. Last night the Penn State student body organized a prayer vigil for the victims which was a powerful antidote to the riot they had Wednesday night when Joe Pa was fired.

I try to get inside of Joe Paterno's mind. I imagine that Joe has known about the Sandusky problem for years, and that is a huge part of what has been driving him to keep working till he's 84 years old. If Sandusky had died (of natural causes) back in 2003, and if Joe knew the scandal was contained, paid off all the boys, etc., then Joe probably would have retired years ago. I believe that Paterno...in good faith...has been trying to teach young men at Penn State to be good and moral, and to be good fathers, but I would guess that he also has a huge sense of guilt that drives that, also. He couldn't stop Sandusky and he couldn't protect the boys because he had to "Protect the Program," but maybe in the balance scales in his mind if he did so much good in other people's lives it would outweigh the bad that festered under his watch.

Unfortunately, the scandal will probably go into Stage 2, Sandusky pimping out young boys to wealthy donors. Mr. Injeanious told me he read something about that yesterday, 11/11/11, but it might not come out until later when a grand jury does more investigation. It was also mentioned that in the past 100 years, a District Attorney working on a case had not been murdered, but coincidentally, in 2005, the District Attorney in Penn State's county disappeared. He had worked on the Sandusky case, so we have to wonder does the cover up and the "Protect the Program" mentality go that far that they would murder a District Attorney?

Those two rumors seem to go way overboard, until I stop and ponder, "Sandusky sexually abused 8 boys over about 10 years? There is absolutely no way that is the totality of it. What else do we know about human nature but that this is only the tip of the iceberg?"

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely," is not a cliche. Why does something like this happen? We all have propensity for good and evil in us. When we set up situations where people in our society like Ben Roethlisberger, Joe Paterno, etc., to a god-like status such that they don't have checks and balances, they might do things they shouldn't. I'm becoming a great proponent of checks and balances.

Occupy Pittsburgh Kickoff

I've lived a charmed life. Others have fought for, and laid the groundwork for many advantages in life that apply to me. In my college education and careers I have secretly felt like the system was set in my favor to make things easy for me. My struggles have been internal (feeling socially insecure or lethargic sometimes). At least that is my perception.

But I want to be more responsible on a larger scale. The middle class has been eroding, so when I heard about Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Pittsburgh I jumped at the opportunity to participate. My family and friends participated in the kickoff march today, October 15, 2011, starting at Freedom Corner in Pittsburgh's Hill District and through "Dahntahn." My family and I went to Occupy Wall Street for the day last Saturday, and there is no way I would stay at that protest overnight in a sleeping bag. That would be the LAST thing a 53 year old woman from Hinsdale, Illinois, would do. But now, I'm thinking about it.

I am protesting Wall Street managers who allowed or caused the financial meltdown who still have their jobs and bonuses while a huge number of middle class people are foreclosed on and lost their jobs. The Occupation movement is not about a soundbite though. It is the beginning of the 99% rousing from their slumber and learning how to participate in the decision making process instead of letting the 1% persistently chip away at us until we become their serfs and peasants who prop up their extravagant lifestyle. I still accept capitalism and I'm not promoting socialism. I am standing up for checks and balances within the system.

Andy's at Fairmont Hotel--Four Bass Fiddles

It doesn't happen very often that four people who play string basses form a quartet and perform somewhere, and the fact that they are practically in my back yard is close to irrefutable proof that there is a God. The Pittsburgh Symphony Bass Quartet has formed itself and played tonight at Andy's in the Fairmont Hotel, downtown.

Two weeks ago Tonya, the jazz singer, announced at a gig at Hambones, that the Bass Quartet would be playing at Andy's, and I almost jumped out of my skin. My husband and I cleared our schedules and went to their performance tonight. The pieces were unique (perhaps contemporary?) combining their low, haunting tones and melodies with unexpected sounds, scratches, harmonics, and thwacks with the back of the bow. I felt like I grew an extra lobe to my brain because of the intricacies of the music. The first piece was "Oblivia." They played pieces by Prokofiev arranged by Aaron. Jeff and Aaron played duets. One bassist played Bach's Cello Suite Prelude (thank you!). There was an arrangement by John Moore and Andersen's arrangements of Wedding Music I and II with another piece included. As I listened I remembered the wonderful, rich sounds of my father's voice. Everything they played tonight resonates with me so much that I could easily use it as the soundtrack for my life. One of the musicians said in the middle ages "gambas" (bass string instruments) were used in church music because their low sound complemented the singers. Just gambas. Not much showcasing of basses since then, which emphasizes how unique this opportunity was.

Their performance also resonates with me because I am a high-functioning introvert who is often in the background. These world class bass players usually play a supporting role in symphony concerts, but now they could dance all over their strings and be fascinating by themselves. Let me say that again, tonight I was inches away from musicians who are in the smallest sliver of their top percentile IN THE WORLD, playing for the joy of it! And there is nothing I enjoy more than bass strings. If there is Karma, then I did something to make the Universe VERY HAPPY, therefore I got the opportunity to listen to the Pittsburgh Symphony Bass Quartet play for 3 hours tonight.

Four Bass Fiddles

Unbelievable! Four bass fiddles played for an hour at Heinz Hall tonight. I sat as still as I could and let the amazing, low vibrations sink into my bones. String arrangements written only for bass instruments are so rare, that after the quartet ran out, they played arrangements they had come up with themselves...even arranged during down time while on tour to spice up sound checks. The Barber of Seville on basses! Holy cow!

Season ticket holders were invited to come for a behind the scenes tour of Heinz Hall and a short concert and question and answer session. I think I just experienced something incredibly rare...chamber music with four basses. I doubt there are any recordings like that and I doubt there is anything I would like to hear more than that, so I tried to relax and absorb as much as possible. Answers to our questions were: Their fiddles cost as much as a small house or a really nice car. Most were made around 1850 or 1880; the "youngest" fiddle was made 1930. The musicians don't mind carrying them. If they have names for them, they won't tell you.

My thanks to the PSO organization for pulling together MY FAVORITE EVENING EVER!!! I'm trying to write a post that is intelligible, but inside I'm running around babbling incoherently: "OMG! OMG! It was fantastic! It was incredible! Holy cow! It was amazing! You should have seen it! OMG! OMG! OMG!"

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra "Big Bang"

You had me at hello, PSO! This was my first concert. I didn't know the conductor would lead everyone in the "Star Spangled Banner" as soon as he walked in. I got verklempt and couldn't sing. Then I could barely keep from laughing out loud when the audience jumped out of their seats at the beginning of Gandolfi's "Garden of Cosmic Speculation." It was an 8 minute piece covering the entire history of the universe, so it began with the big "Bang!" [sic] Thank you percussion section.

I knew the bang was coming. An hour before the performance I attended the lecture with the composer, Gandolfi, and assistant conductor, Thomas Hong, who told about his inspiration for the "Garden of Cosmic Speculation." Thomas Hong said next, to notice how the guest pianist for Pagnini's Rhapsody plays with tremendous power even though she is a very petite, Chinese woman. The inside scoop on Beethoven's 5th was that the conductor, Honeck, approached his preparation for the piece as if it were the first time. I was able to listen to it that way also.

The audience was very different from what I expected. Since I was there an hour early, I watched all the white haired patrons meander in and confidently decided that my husband and I will ALWAYS be the teenagers in this crowd. We still have peppered hair. The introvert in me was looking forward to my gallery being sparsely populated so I could sit by myself, but by 8pm it was standing room only and the overwhelming majority was people in their twenties and thirties. Clearly, to them the PSO (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra) is a rock star because at the end of the 5th, a young man in the middle of the gallery stood up, punched both fists in the air and hollered, just hollered, and it seemed like the rest of the gallery went with him.

Oh        my        goodness  !  !  !

What if every symphony performance is like this all season? What if PSO fans give it the same loyalty and enthusiasm the Steeler fans do? I'm not going to bother with reality, right now. I'm going to sit here with "what if" for a while.

Pittsburgh Podcamp 2010

I went to support my husband then realized, as usual, Mr Carpetbagger stumbled on to a good thing. I changed my focus and dove into the deep end just for me. I met Amy, Andrea, Kathryn, Rob, The Comic Book Guys, James, Joe, Beth, Steve, Mr. & Mrs. Scarehouse/Etna, and Jennifer. I went to seminars about Podcasts, SEOs, and Twitter because I know nothing about them. I went to Secret Agent L because I knew I’d cry.

With no plan and no delay, my blog begins with this thought: Thai, Chinese societies, and others venerate age due to the preponderance of experience and wisdom. Perhaps our society doesn’t look to the older generation because our nutrition and lifestyles are so bad that the elderly are demented, and by default the best minds available ARE the young. I don’t want to leave the next generation of my family feeling like we all abdicated, so I’ve been working hard and gaining back ground I had lost the past few years. Short term memory has improved enough that in the last 2 months, the only memory lapses were the same struggles I had when I was younger. I credit this to invigorating co-workers, nutrition, ginkgo biloba, water, and walking 5 miles every day. I've reversed arthritis in wrists, neck, knees and shoulder. On Friday, I was able to jog with no patella pain. None.

Let’s all just sit here and be amazed for awhile.