It was at a famous place in Geylang, I think,
that our table ordered butter prawns and got
the other - at that point I almost became a
cereal killer.

With due cause... ;)

"Godson of Vice-Chancellor runs amok; Kix waiters
and Cap'n Crunches errant restaurant chef."

So you must have had the practical equivalent
of Home Ec, either that or a modicum of good
sense. One important function of society is
to protect those who don't have good sense.

I suppose my parents did give somewhat of a practical equivalent... and generally explained why something should be done a certain way...

Sounds like. That's what parents are supposed
to do but in many cases don't.

That's a rather high percentage of rotten eggs.... I don't think my
little sister had anywhere near that (in fact, never heard she'd had
any rotten eggs) back when she was raising chickens.... :)

It was a dangerously high percentage, and
if the owners weren't nice, they probably
would have been shut down long since.

I'm a little surprised that they hadn't at least done something to try
to get and keep that percentage a lot lower.... just for their own
health and safety....

I thought it was appalling. myself.

+

Colleges often don't sustain decent orchestras
any more.

Other than colleges with music schools, I'd not expect that much support
for orchestras by colleges anyway, though.... maybe Ivy League,
though...?

A lot of the big state schools have or sponsor them
(the University of Arkansas sponsored ours and a
student orchestra as well, with some slopover of
personnel, for example; granted, such institutions
often have (generally wind-heavy) music departments
of some eminence. I was also thinking of the HRO,
so your guess is also correct.

Do bear in mind that life in general costs more
than it used to. Two C-notes isn't that much of
a stretch any more. A handful of donors looking
for big deductions, and there you are.

Well, yes, there is that.... Used to be that for a $60 pledge you'd get
the card that gave you all sorts of discounts in the area... now that's
for $120 and up....

Used to be you'd get a gift for any contribution
at all.

Does NY appreciate her touch better the second time around...?

I don't know the circumstance behind her leaving
but was given to understand that LA paid her a
real corporation CEO salary, and New York had to
come up with a big payday to get her back.

And they figured out that they'd lost out on something good when she was lured away from them... :)

Cost-benefit analysis no doubt.

I've heard some pretty fine performances by
less than stellar groups. Patient coaching and
lots of rehearsal can go a long way but is
economically unfeasible for upper-grade
professional groups.

And I've heard some barely ok ones from some other less than stellar groups... which shall remain unnamed.... :) Where would you place Buffalo.... that's another one that shows up on Symphony Cast
regularly... and on the regular radio programs, too...

I got a callback for Buffalo in the '70s but had
decided to stay in Massachusetts by the time it
had decided that. I figure if that was so great a
group, it wouldn't have bothered, given my state
of playing at the time. When Foss conducted it, it
was pretty decent, not great. Later on, it wasn't
substantially better than various groups I did play
in. Maybe top 40.

Ah, yes, Milwaukee.

That's the one that was on tonight... ;)

What was the program, and how did they do?

Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Overture, Nocturn and Scherzo), Jalbert: Violin Concerto, and Vaughn Williams: A Sea Symphony. They did creditably... :)

Who's Jalbert?

The RPO is, I think, a service between the RPO and WXXI, with the musicians donating their performance... But for the others, we are
always reminded during pledge drives that the broadcasts are
expensive.... dunno how much gets back to the particular orchestra...

I presume that the musicians' union got a good
talking-to at some point regarding outreach and
finances and such.

One would expect... There appears to be actually quite a lot of
cooperation amongst all the various arts groups locally...

The way Boston does it is to put a vast amount
of money into the pension fund, which is fairly
robust, though that of the musicians' union as a
whole is on the borderline of liquidation. There
are a few moments here and there that I wish I'd
tried more seriously for a big orchestra career.

Did you have a starring or a supporting role...?

The former.

Harder to hide.... Was the imperfection obvious to all, or just mostly
to yourself....?

No, except the composer was there.

continued from previous
FERMENT THE DOUGH (2 hours):
: Shape the dough into a ball and let it rest on a lightly
floured surface while you lightly butter or grease a large bowl.
Place the dough in the bowl and turn the dough to coat the top. Take
the dough's temperature; the ideal is 78 degrees. Cover with a clean
damp kitchen towel or plastic wrap and put in a moderately warm
(74-80 degrees) draft-free place until doubled in volume.
: NOTE: If the dough temperature is higher than 78 degrees, put
in a cooler than 78 degree place like the refrigerator, until the
dough cools to 78 degrees. If it is lower than 78 degrees, put it in
a warmer than 78 degree place until the dough warms up to 78 degrees.
The point is to try to keep the dough at 78 degrees during its
fermentation. If you do have to move the dough, be gentle and don't
jostle it, or the dough may deflate.

FERMENT THE DOUGH A SECOND TIME (45 minutes):
: Deflate the dough by pulling up on the sides and pushing down
in the center. Re-form into a ball, return to the ball, and cover
again with a damp towel or plastic wrap. Put in a moderately warm
(74-80 degree) draft-free place until doubled in volume.

FERMENT THE DOUGH A THIRD TIME (45 minutes):
: Deflate again the same as before, shape into a ball, return to
bowl, and cover again. Put in a moderately warm (74-80 degree) place
until doubled again.

DIVIDE & SHAPE THE DOUGH INTO LOAVES (10 minutes):
: Deflate the dough by pushing down in the center and pulling
up on the sides. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface
and knead briefly. Cut the dough into 2 equal pieces. Flatten each
with the heel of your hand using firm direct strokes. Shape each
piece into a tight ball for round loaves.

PROOF THE LOAVES (1 hour):
: Place the loaves on a lightly floured board. Cover with a damp
towel or plastic wrap and put in a moderately warm (74-80 degree)
place until doubled in volume.

BAKE THE LOAVES (45 minutes):
: 45 minutes to 1 hour before baking, preheat the oven and
baking stone, if you have one, on the center rack of the oven to 450
degrees.
: The oven rack must be in the center of the oven. If it is in
the lower third of the oven, the bottoms of the breads may burn, and
if it is in the upper third, the top crusts may burn.

: Using a very sharp, serrated knife or a single-edged razor
blade, score the loaves by making quick shallow cuts 1/4 to 1/2 inch
deep along the surface. Slide the loaves one at a time onto the
baking stone, if you are using one, and quickly spray the inner walls
and floor of the oven with cold water from a spritzer bottle. If
there's an electric light bulb in the oven, avoid spraying it
directly...it may burst. Spray for several seconds until steam has
filled the oven. Quickly close the door to trap the steam and bake 3
minutes. Spray again in the same way, closing the door immediately so
that steam doesn't escape. Bake 12 minutes. Reduce heat to 400
degrees and bake until loaves are a rich caramel color and the crust
is firm, another 15-20 minutes.
: To test the loaves for doneness, remove and hold the loaves
upside down. Strike the bottoms firmly with your finger. If the sound
is hollow, the breads are done. If it doesn't sound hollow, bake 5
minutes longer.
: Cool completely on wire racks.

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