Fragments

I started this the other day and decided to finish it. At 3 in the morning. Oh well...

I have a new hero. 

Like most things in my life, it all started with me watching Sesame Street.

Oscar is about to start Grouch-keteer (sp?) practice when Telly rolls up with some new bitch. Uh-oh. Oscar, who is already grouchy for some inexplicable reason, is not trying to deal with this bitch and doesn't hesitate to tell her. Telly has got her balks though and tries to explain to the Grouch that she would be a valuable asset to the group. Oscar says "prove it" so she pulls out a snare drum and sticks, at which point MY interest is piqued. Then she takes off her shoes. Oscar (who is still really ticked off...I just don't get his problem...) is like "WTF". She tells him that her name is Evelyn Glennie and she's a deaf percussionst. She takes her shoes off to better feel the music. Calling her out to be the lying whore she is, Oscar asks how she can understand what they're saying if she's deaf. She replies that she reads lips. Before Oscar can point out how absurd this is seeing as how he is a puppet whose mouth positions  consist only of open and closed (tee hee), not providing nearly enough variance for someone to be able to distinguish the vast array of words that make up the English language, Telly tells her to shut up and play. She starts to do her thing and of course she's quick nasty.  Oscar's hood-born instincts blind him to the fact that Evelyn is a prevaricating hooker and probably a witch and instead command him to spit that hot fire to her syck beatz. 

Or something like that.

Anyways, I was curious as to why she was influential enough to be on Sesame Street, so I looked her up. She's credited as being the first solo percussionist of the 20th century, commissioning all sorts of pieces, writing her own literature and in general just being an overall badass. She also has written a really good article about how her deafness affects (or doesn't affect) her playing..

Also, I ran across one of the pieces she commissioned balks in 2002. It's a piano/mallet concerto written by some New Zealander titled View From Olympus. In my head, I envision after Ryan and I get our music degrees playing it with some high school band who we suckered into getting them to play it with us. You can listen to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd movements, if you want. They're pretty sweet.

Also, the number of the day was 17. Go figure.