... with a juicer, a porcupine, and a flowerpot.

S YF's over. Gold with honours for RI. Whoop-de-do and all that. I wish I'd been able to play, though - unfortunately in the past I made a rather large decision that prevented me from doing so by making sure that I was unable to rehearse (or anything like it).

Let me tell you- I'm no pro musician like Zh or Rayner or Shaggy but I could tell there was an energy there, while I watched, the realisation that in the culmination of months of passion and practice there was something larger than the individual they were working for.
In the preparation, during the final tuning, I could tell just by looking that we were all nervous with the reality that the performance was just around the corner, inexorably close. We all had exams coming up. The musicians were in various states of stress, depression, overwork, or sleep-deprivation.
They all had their reasons to do well. For pride, for honour, for love, for whatever. The goal was the same, and the music was there. I held my breath, and when they went on stage and they played...
nevermind if they rushed a little.
nevermind that some entries were slightly off.

They were ensemble.

And that was enough.


- adam