OH MY GOD.

In high school, I played bassoon in the band. Part of being in band was going to concerts and writing about them. The Redwood Symphony was a volunteer orchestra that was putting on a Halloween concert at a local community college when I was in 12th grade. It was kinda kid oriented (recommending coming in costume, playing movie soundtracks) so my parents took me and my little brother. Normally I'd just go with one of my parents (Mom would take me to see SF State's Wind Ensemble, Dad would take me to Skyline). But we all went cuz my brother is a Star Wars fan(atic) and the Redwood Symphony was playing a bunch of Star Wars stuff. OK.

We get there, and they started out with a seminar kind of thing, with up-close discussions with the different sections of the orchestra: you know, teaching the munchkins about what kind of instruments are being played. The strings sucked, cuz strings suck in general. The brass was loud and fun and shared the stage with the percussion section that had some crazy stuff. And the woodwinds decided to show off with the cantina music from Star Wars (not on the regular program). I was in AWE of the contrabassoon. I'd never seen one before. I alomost got to play a contra myself in honors band that March, except the only contra the school district could find was in New Jersey and nobody could afford the insurance to ship the thing out to the West Coast. Damn. And we were playing Lincolnshire Posie too! SO close......

ANYWAY. Back to Halloween. The performance itself started off with a suite of music from the NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Dude. I was SO freaking happy. I'd been DYING to hear that stuff played live for YEARS. And it was GOOD. This wasn't some dumpy little volunteer band. This orchestra was talented. THEN they pulled out a narrator. To narrate "The Composer is Dead." Which was written by LEMONY SNICKET. Oh god, I DIED. Then they followed up with the ever creepy IN the Hall of the Mountain King and STAR WARS. (Did I mention that the entire brass section was dressed up in Star Wars costumes? The trumpets were Jedi Masters, the tuba had a padawan braid going, and the french horns..... hahhahaaaa. They all put on Darth Vader masks when they got to the Empire's theme. Kickass.)

So, what's the big deal that I'm writing about this more than a year later?

I just found out that The Composer is Dead is being published. WIth a CD of the original performance by the San Francisco Symphony. The SF Symphony is probably one of the BEST orchestras in the world. This piece is REALLY freaking good. And the narration? LEMONY SNICKET himself. I got to meet him Daniel Handler when the last book in A Series of Unfortunate Events came out... he had an appearance at a high school (not mine) near my house. Wheeeeeeeee. I was the only person in that line whose book wasn't signed "With All Due Respect." Apparently I "never learn" because I read it more than once!

I WANT THIS RECORDING.

OK. I'm done spazzing out for today.