11/5/99

"Does he paint? he fain would write a poem, --

Does he write? he fain would paint a picture."

Robert Browning

symphony dances

I spent the first half of my day in a work meeting. Then I came home. Had the meeting not been in Houston, that would have been a short day and a great way to end the week. As it was, there was the 'junk food, soda, coffee, pay the pump, listen to tapes of Maria Callas being interviewed and singing, three hour' commute.

The evening was a symphony concert. Maria and her story were still ringing in my ears. I love Friday night. A string orchestra of teenagers entertained while I had a gin and tonic and greeted friends, pre-concert. Dance was the symphony's theme. The normal pieces were based on dances of various sorts. In a radical move, the symphony performed a piece written by singer-songrwriter Darden Smith and his buddies and ours, the Johnson/Long dance company, danced and made use of the hall and its accouterments in a most delightful way. Well, it had a number of the symphony patrons talking, that's for sure.

After the concert we joined some friends and most of the principal dancers and, briefly, Darden, for a drink at the Four Seasons.