oh wow! Gandalf is amazing!

So this evening I got a treat. Ooh-la-la. The United States Air Force Band of the Golden West performed in town. It was their concert band, and true to form, it was a fantastic performance. Their jazz band came by a couple years ago, and the musicians are wonderful. They're professionals.. Oh golly. Tonight's performance was a treat to my poor ears. It's been so long since I've heard a good concert band perform. They did several marches (of course, since they're military). They performed a piece called Valdres that was really cool, and a tone poem-ish piece called To Tame the Perilous Skies. It was a picture of the fog lifting to reveal the planes, then them taking off to fly around for a while, then they got called to duty, participated in a dog fight. It was really impressive. I enjoyed it immensely. And the french horn soloist - oh my goodness! He was amazing! I've always loved the French horn, and wow he was good. They also had a vocalist who performed first Debussy, then jazz (All the Way, and some Ella piece).

Then there was Gandalf. Some dude wrote a Lord of the Rings symphony (this was before the movies and the craze). Gandalf is the most famous section of it. I'd never heard it before, but I'd heard about it. The piece certainly conveyed Gandalf as I picture him from reading the books. So cool. And now I am refreshed.

I also picked up some job applications today. And it's a four day weekend. And we got another phone line, so I won't feel bad staying on-line. Yay!