quick catch-up post

I'm new to NYRO, but I think it's customary that the orchestra gets a week off from rehearsal after a concert. However, since our next concert is Mahler's 3rd Symphony, and we have only 8 weeks to rehearse, instead of a week off we had our first Mahler rehearsal tonight. It went far better than I expected. The orchestra is more than capable of playing the work. More importantly to me, I'm capable of playing it. I wasn't sure I'd be up to the challenge, but it was easier to hear my section's entrances and play the right notes when I was playing with the viola section, as opposed to practicing the part by myself at home. I still have hours and hours of practice ahead of me, but it's not going to be impossible. By comparison, the Tchaikovsky symphony we played last weekend was more difficult in some places.

After rehearsal, I went to The Gaf to watch the end of Game 7 of the Mets-Cardinals NLCS. I wanted to be in a crowd if the Mets won, so I'd have some fellow fans to celebrate with. Instead, the Mets went down 3-1, and I paid for my beers and got the hell out of there. I had planned to go back there on Saturday night to watch game 1 of a Mets-Tigers World Series, but now I'm not sure I'll even watch the thing. I know the Mets are my adopted NY baseball team, and if the Pittsburgh Pirates were to ever miraculously get back into the playoffs I'd be cheering for them. So the Mets loss doesn't hurt me as much as it does the die-hard, grew-up-in-New-York-rooting-for-the-Mets fans. I acknowledge that. But it still doesn't feel good to me. I wanted to see the Mets in the World Series. I wanted a Mets championship parade through the Canyon of Heroes. Instead, I'll settle for the sour grapes of knowing that the Cardinals will probably lose 4 games to 0 or 4-1 to the Tigers in the World Series. And that there's always next year. And more importantly, there's football season, and hockey season, and EPL (Arsenal is finally showing signs of life!) and college basketball to keep my sports needs satisfied.