Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Oboists and an Atomic Dilemma

Had an oboists' gathering yesterday.

To some, it may be disastrous, but it was fun!

It wasn't quite the biggest gathering you have but nevertheless the information and gossips shared were all very intriguing and it further emphasize the bitchy nature of musicians!

To digress a bit, I was having this conversation with my friends at work the other day. We all concur that working as musicians had made us all extremely bitchy creatures. Some are subtlety bitchy, some are just openly bitchy. And we do agree that sometimes we forget about the environment around us and show to our bitchy sides even though when we are around our non-musician friends!

Anyway!

We all checked into a hotel suite, courtesy of Natalie the Goat, to have a reed making session.

Oboists, as you know, are obsessed with sculpting miniature masterpieces from little pieces of canes. There were enough knives in the room to get us all arrested for an illegal gathering. (There were 7 of us, with a dozen knives)

Without forgetting to mention the 4 oboes and 2 english horns, I'm surprised that the police didn't come knocking at our door.

I'm not biased against Loree okay? I tried and liked Veda's Royale. In fact, it's the first time that I actually said that I like a Loree! Maybe because it's 5 years old and well seasoned? Maybe it's good? I'm not sure, I didn't quite like the other Royale I tried so I figured that it must be the seasoning. So, burn all Lorees! Except for Veda's, of course.

So, we all set out to make a reed, or rather, attempted to make one. No one really completed one; instead, we spent the afternoon talking about playing, players. Not too bad, considering that we had quite a mixed of players learning at different places: our own Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, Holland, London, Paris and Sydney.

Trivia: Multiple oboists playing together can be in-tune. It just depends on who you are playing with. If it's with certain people? well, I need not say more.

It was fun anyway, even with thoughts of setting up some kind of Oboe Organisation in Singapore. A certain Terence Teow would certainly faint upon hearing this. Anyway, I don't think it will go through. The number is just too small to sustain.

Having said all this, I'm looking forward to the next gathering next week. It will be a more peaceful one without any oboes or weapons involved. Just a nice cup of coffee. Gossiping included!

*

The Atom is out today!

Should I?

Should I not?

Damn. I can't decide!
fjozn at 9:50 AM