Topic of the century...

It seems to be the way everyone's mind is going lately, but I'd also like to post one more time about music. Specifically, to have you all congratulate me (or spit in my face, whichever you prefer, I guess) because I played my first "gig" last night! Buckwalter has informed me that if I play more gigs I can say that I "gig around" but I would like to call it "giggin' about" instead. It's got a much more Percy Granger/Shepherdess with a big herding hook and lacy bonnet sound to it.
I got hooked up with the gig by the Dean at my school, which is pretty awesome, as awesome things go. He gigs about (see, doesn't that sound nice?) in a crazy way in town, and one of his gigs needed an extra keyboard player for the pit orch in a production of "Mame." I said yes! And I made some moola!
Plus it was fun. I got to sit in with these amazing musicians who all have skills that I can only dream of...maybe someday, but I think that day is a LOOOOOOOOOOONG way off. But the best part of this gig was that I got to use a Banjo patch (called "Mr. Banjoe," and yes that's the spelling). There's this "down south" kind of song, and I played banjo in it. It was so sweet. So sweet. Hooray for sweet things. Hooray for me. Hooray for gigging about.

Everyone told me...

that it would snow sometime this winter. Gail, who owns the yarn store I like to frequent, mentioned that it would snow sometime since we are so close to the mountain, but that you had to be around a window to see it, because it rarely stays.
So today, Buckwalter and I awoke, and both mentioned, just based on the light coming in through the blinds, that if we were still in MN, this would a snowy day. Lo and behold, we walked into the living room to see fluffy snowflakes falling, and falling hard! Well, as hard as the fluffy flakes can fall. But the point is there were a great number of them. So, not having seen snow this winter yet, I did what any other Las Vegianian would do -- I took out the camera and took some pictures!
I am no stranger to snow, but I am a stranger to it when it falls on the palm trees in your backyard.
So there it is. Snow in Las Vegas. After we noticed it, it fell for about 30 minutes more, then turned into rain. As you can see, not even a little bit of snow stayed on the ground -- it melted probably before it even touched down.
In the first picture, which was taken from our balcony, you would usually be able to have a lovely view of the mountains on the east side of the valley and the Stratosphere, of course. However, due to the lovely foggy clouds (can a cloud be foggy?) none of these things were visible.
We had an awesome evening yesterday with Chairwoman Mau -- she made a big splash in the Lyra department. We had some cigars by the poolside and enjoyed a hearty conversation with many a laugh. And the SuperBowl party we went to a couple weeks ago was awesome! How many super bowl parties have I ever been to where three different kinds of wine, oysters, king crab legs, fondue (the cheddar) and X-treme BBQ chicken were served? I also finally got to watch the end of Jaws (which I had never seen) on our host's massive aquarium sized TV. It was scary, but luckily he had prepared so much seafood that I felt like we evened the score. Here's to new friends! It's like that old Girl Scouts' Song...
Tonight Buckwalter cooks Cilantro Chicken on our electric grill inherited from Mr. Ed (thank you to him!) and we'll watch the Goodbye Girl! I'm almost done with a super cool vest --perhaps I shall favor you all with a picture as the week goes on. The pictures seem to accrue faster than I can think of witty things to say along with them for a post. Perhaps I'll just have to bite the bullet and post them sans comments. Oh, I bet I can think of SOMETHING to say, but it might have to just be boring captions like "Buckwalter with cat" and "outside the window." Hm.
Also, I'm considering opening up my knitting skills in a little (and I mean little) entrepreneur-ship. Any thoughts from the world? I am concerned that it would become no fun to make too much for money, but I got the word that some folk back in MN really liked the Taos-colored bag I made for Buckwalter's dear mother for Christmas, and they're just so easy to make....seems like a couple bags for profit wouldn't hurt. And the baby socks and hat are always a hit at a baby shower...something to think about. Don't worry, flock. I shall be thinking about it. And about you all too!
Everytime I end a post I am always reminded of one of my first piano books, which was a Broadway easy piano book "hosted" by Miss Piggy. It was my favorite for so long, and I think it's still at my Mom's house, or if not there, it's lost forever...anyway, on the cover, it had a picture of Miss Piggy in a glittery top hat and leotard, and she had "signed" the book, much as I will sign off to you all now:

Hugs and Kisses,
Miss Piggy
(or, in this case, Madame Flamingo)

The music and me...

First of all, vielen dank to B-san for his nice comment. :) What a trooper he is...and full of lovely inspirational quotes -- that one does always make me a little teary-eyed.

(in honor of B-san, I shall insert here a "break in the narrative," or what some might call "the double-b")

Tonight I travel to the UNLV campus to join a semi-professional choir. Quite exciting! I love singing, and now, what with teaching voice lessons, leading an after-school choir, it seems as though I myself should belong to some kind of group. So here I go!
The music scene here is very different. Obviously, Buckwalter has much more to say about that than I do, and also has much more expertise, but therein lies my next subject. The biggest difference here is that almost everyone I've met who is involved in music in any way, shape, or form has a degree, or has made it a complete lifestyle/profession. There are very few people here who are involved in music just for their own enjoyment or in addition to something else. It's very strange coming from the Ole background, where a huge number of people in the performing ensembles had no thought of music as a career. Why could this be? Could it be because most of the performing ensembles in the greater Las Vegas areas are mainly lounge acts of some kind connected with the casinos? That's definitely something to do with it...I've never met so many rock musicians who actually are or could be ROCK musicians in my life. You know, you meet these people in MN in high school or college, and you think.."Uh huh, yep, I'll look you up when you're living the high life doing wavy arm dances with Mick Jaggar." But they usually sucked. But here! It's a different world in that respect...I mean, we're talking actual ROCK talent.
But the problem? Tenacious D would be sad...none of these rockers are classically trained to rock your socks off. Buckwalter and I wander alone, with our classical training, and our sight-reading abilities. I gaze in wonder at all these pianists as they play song after song by ear (something I have NEVER been able to do) and they drool when I sightread for them. It's a new world, I tell you.
Anyway, life is good. It's a thrill to be involved in music again...it really does create a void in your life when you don't use it!