As I’ve mentioned before, my city here has a symphony orchestra (tickets about $1.75.) Tonight was one of the best performances I’ve seen here yet. The first half of the show featured a man who played a kind of archaic flute. This along with the rest of the symphony, which included a harpsichord tonight, conjured images of ancient times. For the second half of the show (and I’ve found that the best stuff always seems to come after intermission,) the orchestra performed a piece called The Titan by Gustav Mahler. Although the musicians, especially the horns, were superb, much credit belongs to the conductor, a Japanese man named Shinya Ozaki. Ozaki is the resident conductor, who is well known in Japan and the USA. Mahler’s symphony was quite long, but flowed superbly – it appeared to contain some folk Jewish inspiration, and the finale was mind blowing. That’s the conductor.
The boy. There is this boy in town who I keep bumping into. At first I just figured it was a coincidence that I kept seeing him, but now I’m starting to wonder. This kid is, I’m guessing, about 13 or 14. He is quite small and walks around with a strut as if he owned the entire town. I see him at odd hours – like tonight after the performance when I headed over to McDonalds to use the bathroom. Sometimes he is hanging out in front of a non-stop bar, and other times, just at a street corner. Tonight he was talking with some other boys who hang out in front of the McDonalds and beg for food and money. What throws me through a loop is that I’ve seen him a few times going into McDonalds and buying stuff. But, he seems to have some connection with the street kids and other assorted odd folks around town. Just the other day, he walked by the lady with the scale and she gave him a cup filled with, I’m guessing, money. Is he the kiddie mafia? I wonder if he himself is a street kid or what. What makes me think that he is not is the fact that he always has fairly nice clothing on, and he always seems to be going somewhere quickly. Odd.
So the conductor and the kid – as it is here,
I love the sound of old instruments. I went to a recital of Beowulf once, by a guy named Benjamin Bagby. He played a few different instruments that sounded exactly like what you’d hear in some Viking victory hall.
As for the kid, his name is Little G. His father put him on the street to sell crack, and now he looks after his two sisters. If any homies do you a bad turn, you just ask for Little G.
nate is sooooo jealous. he LOVES mahler.
i still think your descriptions of people there are the best part of your writing.
hugs,
K