{"id":145,"date":"2012-05-15T05:53:21","date_gmt":"2012-05-15T12:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/?p=145"},"modified":"2012-05-15T05:55:58","modified_gmt":"2012-05-15T12:55:58","slug":"firebird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/firebird\/","title":{"rendered":"Firebird"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m in black tie downtown at the Gala Opening of Essa-Pekka Salonen\u2019s final season conducting the LA Phil.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The wife is looking gorgeous, all dolled up.\u00a0 We are elated.\u00a0 We have just watched Essa-Pekka conduct Stravinsky\u2019s Firebird.\u00a0 I say watched<\/em> because amazingly and astoundingly and astonishingly at the climax of the piece real fireworks burst out inside <\/em>the Disney Hall.\u00a0 That\u2019s right\u00a0 INSIDE!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When did you last see a firework display inside a beautiful wooden interior?\u00a0\u00a0 It, and he, and them were astounding.\u00a0 So we were pretty damn excited as we followed the expectant crowd towards the grub tent to grab a glass of champagne.<\/p>\n

We are yakking away excitedly when a young woman in black pushes between us and in the rude way of a certain kind of journalist thrusts a small micro-cassette in my mouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m from the New York News\u201d she says. \u201cWhat did you think of the event?\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s skip the magnitude of the lack of manners and say I am in a magnanimous mood and so I regale her with three or four minutes of extempore appreciation of Los Angeles,\u00a0 the LA Phil and The Disney Hall. How cities like humans grow up \u2013 they take time to mature and now the Disney Hall is a jewel in the diadem of LA \u2013 allowing culture to grow and mature, \u00a0for people in this great city to enjoy the fruits of civilization.\u00a0 Things that New Yorkers, for instance, take for granted.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m like that.\u00a0 I say things like that.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t bad.\u00a0 A bit overlong.\u00a0 Clooney would have looked better doing it, but all in all I felt the premise was good, it was well argued, cogent, and probably even true. I felt ok with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould you mind repeating that she says?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?<\/p>\n

\u201cMy recorder is playing up\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Her hand never shifts from the small black thing thrust at my mouth.<\/p>\n

I breathe deeply.\u00a0 I hate repeats.\u00a0\u00a0 What did I just say?\u00a0\u00a0 Oh well.\u00a0 I try again.\u00a0 This time I manage to extend my thesis of the life growth of cities, through adolescence, into maturity and senescence, using examples like Vienna coming into maturity with Mozart and London\u2019s cultural rise, and because incredibly I have been here through that time span, I recall how LA use to be a hick town with two-story buildings and no high rises and no restaurants after nine, but how the Olympics changed all that and now with the downtown renovations and the diadem of Disney Hall and the blessings of etc etc.\u00a0\u00a0 At least five minutes.\u00a0\u00a0 Clooney would have nailed it.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a repeat.\u00a0 It was an expansion.\u00a0 I had grasped the theme, expounded it, expanded it and brought it home.<\/p>\n

She looks at me and frowns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u00a0 Will you say that again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahhh!!<\/p>\n

I am not a patient man.\u00a0 My wife will testify to that.\u00a0 I don\u2019t happen to believe that Patience is a virtue.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s certainly nothing I have ever suffered from.\u00a0 In fact, I think Impatience is a virtue.\u00a0 Especially when faced with folly.<\/p>\n

I look around for help.\u00a0\u00a0 My wife, my normal rescuer, is deep in conversation with Michael Gorfaine.\u00a0\u00a0 For once she doesn\u2019t notice my dilemma.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.\u201d\u00a0 I say to the woman in black.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sorry.\u00a0 That\u2019s it. I need a drink.\u201d<\/p>\n

I leave her and head for the bar.<\/p>\n

Unbelievably she pursues me.<\/p>\n

I ignore her as politely as possible while I order another glass of champagne, but she will not be shrugged off.\u00a0\u00a0 She is banging away at her little black micro machine.\u00a0 Once again she thrusts it towards my mouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill you say what you just said again?\u201d<\/p>\n

I can be quite firm.\u00a0\u00a0 Even severe.\u00a0 There are danger signals.\u00a0 Even comedians have been known to back off.\u00a0\u00a0 I am already annoyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo\u201d I say.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI said it twice, that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my machine\u201d she says.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s because Mercury is retrograde.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMercury is retrograde.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPsycho babble bollocks\u201d I say, beginning to become angry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s true.\u00a0 Mercury is retrograde.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that affects your tape machine?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yes\u201d she says.\u00a0 \u201cSee.\u00a0 It\u2019s not working.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you attribute that to the apparent view of the trajectory of a planet inside our orbit?\u201d<\/p>\n

I can be quite cutting.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yes,\u201d she says, \u201cmost definitely, it\u2019s because Mercury is retrograde.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the most stupid superstitious bullshit I have ever heard\u201d I say quite forcefully.<\/p>\n

I think for the first time she notices I am a bit upset.<\/p>\n

\u201cOr the batteries have died,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m in black tie downtown at the Gala Opening of Essa-Pekka Salonen\u2019s final season conducting the LA Phil.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The wife is looking gorgeous, all dolled up.\u00a0 We are elated.\u00a0 We have just watched Essa-Pekka conduct Stravinsky\u2019s Firebird.\u00a0 I say watched because amazingly and astoundingly and astonishingly at the climax of the piece real fireworks burst […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions\/148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericidle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}