DC arts girl

"RIP Baltimore Opera" and other recent thoughts

2009-03-15T21:53:00.003-04:00

The Baltimore Opera filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy this past week. So very, very sad. Yet another major arts organization taking a nose dive in this economy. They filed for Chapter 11 in December and official word was that they'd still provide education programming until they got back on their feet. But major funding required for their come-back never came forward, so they completely folded this week.

My organization has select hiring freezes right now, which always seems to be the first step before more drastic measures. I say "select" hiring freezes because some positions are eligible for rehiring, but not others. My team is down a staff member, but we're not allowed to rehire because that position is considered nonessential. Tell that to the remaining two of us! I think this is a very bad sign, especially for my team. We're clearly not valued as much as other education programming teams (screw adult programming! screw college and high school students! why should they need the arts??), and I think if staff cuts become a reality, we may be the first ones to be considered.

So it was especially timely when I received an email this past week from my previous boss, asking me if I knew anyone who might be interested in a new position that pays almost TWICE what I'm earning now. I quickly set up a meeting with him to learn more!

I may be overthinking things regarding the stability of my organization and my position, but can you blame me? Since at least last fall, ArtsJournal has been posting almost daily articles about various organizations folding across the country. It's stressing me out! And when I'm already stressed from being overworked, along with no assurance from senior management that my job will exist in six months, I'm looking for some security. Can someone please tell me what's going to happen to the economy and philanthropic giving in the next two years? Knowing this would be very helpful...

Program & Staff Cuts

2009-01-29T17:50:00.003-05:00

Oh crappity crap crap. It IS happening. Our President/CEO/ExecDir just told us we must figure out how to cut programming AND that we can't rehire for the current vacant positions in our department. How in the world will we run whatever programs are left if we're not fully staffed? And my job is safe, right? I won a bunch of awards last month, so I'm good, right? RIGHT??

Pick One: Your Programs or Your Staff

2009-01-27T18:39:00.003-05:00

Dammit! So arts organizations across the country are tanking due to their endowments disappearing, donors hesitating to contribute until the economy improves, and slowing ticket sales. But word on the street was that well-run orgs could weather this as long as things didn't get too much worse. However, I've learned that even my "well-run, well-respected" org is looking at taking serious measures too.

In short, senior staff may have to choose between their programs and their staff. If they want to keep their programs, then they have to look at which staff members to cut. If they want to keep their staff, they have to choose which programs to cut back on. This isn't happening just yet, but it's on everyone's minds in case things don't improve.

It's a terrible choice (and admittedly not as black-and-white as I'm making it sound). It was interesting to observe that my knee-jerk reaction is to save programs first and foremost, because those programs are serving thousands of people. The programs are having the greatest impact, and that's why we all go into the arts, isn't it? But that would mean having to select which positions to eliminate or staff to lay off. How can you do that when you really like everyone you're working with and the work they do? We don't really have any slackers on staff -- most everyone is working full steam and with efficiency.

In reality, it'll probably be a combination of the two. Hopefully we can cut back on programs so that their essence is still there but enough that we save a good chunk of funds. And if someone leaves, then we just don't rehire right away. That's most likely what's going to happen, but it's still startling to hear the phrase "Your Programs or Your Staff." Oy.

Awards and Bonuses and Cash, Oh My!

2008-12-28T21:13:00.003-05:00

OK, I'll stop by yapping about working so much, about how I'm not paid what I'm worth, how I'm overworked, yadda yadda yadda. Because last week I received a "Superior Performance Award" at work. They give only a couple of these out each year, and it was accompanied by a mighty big check...a check the size that is not commonly seen at nonprofits, and definitely not during a down economy.

Then I received the regular employee bonus, on top of another award about doing good for the environment.

So I'll shut up now...

But it's nice to see my organization taking a cue from the corporate world in handing out performance-based bonuses. Not a common thing, is it?

Worried

2008-11-18T17:56:00.003-05:00

I'm worried about the arts world (and, to be honest, my own job) in this economy. Major arts organizations in the LA/San Fran/NYC areas are currently hurting big time, and although patrons in the DC area are usually pretty loyal and supportive in all sorts of economic climates, I'm worried this time around, what with endowments tanking right along with the stock market. The Washington National Opera laid off several people over the summer (even waaaay before Lehman Bros went bye-bye), but now there is serious talks of hiring freezes and layoffs at other major DC orgs. This is stressing me out!

At the same time, I'm completely burnt out at work. In my previous post, I mentioned having a hard time with work/life balance. It continues: I worked 6 long days last week and yesterday was another 12-hour day. When my team asks for help from the rest of our department, because we're overwhelmed with working days, evenings, and weekends, we have to plead for assistance. Surprise, surprise, nobody wants to come in on a Saturday when we have several programs happening simultaneously.

In my most recent performance review, I was told I was a "high performing employee." I had hoped this would mean a nice raise or bonus at the end of the year, but in this economy, I doubt that will happen. So if I get paid the same salary whether I am "high performing" or just an average employee, why do I choose to go the more difficult route?

Oh -- can I rant some more? -- I'm getting a little tired of poor project management. The department I work in is filled with passionate, smart people, but due to the nature of our work, some are just not used to project management. As in, assignments, tracking progress, deadlines, etc. I have a hard time working with colleagues/managers who aren't good with project management.

I think I need an attitude adjustment. Or more money. Or an attitude adjustment AND more money. Or the ability to juggle kittens. Or the ability to juggle kittens AND more money. Or just more money. Damn the economy!

Work/Life Balance

2008-10-30T20:20:00.005-04:00

It's been two years since I've blogged. I miss it! My career in arts management has changed so much, mostly for the best, and since my life often revolves around my career, I guess it's safe to say my life has very much changed as well.

My work with the jazz organization ended in March 2007, when I left -- very pissed off -- to work for a well-respected, major performing arts organization in the DC area. It was not an easy decision to leave the jazz org. I loved almost everyone I worked with, I loved the musicians, I loved the music, I loved the mission. But there was such dysfunction -- the type of dysfunction that case studies in management classes are made of -- that I couldn't trust the organization's leadership any more. I was bold-faced lied to on many occasions, and I saw staff treated horrendously. There were double standards, institutional passive-aggressiveness, great indecision, poor leadership, and more.

But...

There's always that "But..." when I talk about my leaving. I've been told that's how people in abusive relationships feel! Yes, I was treated poorly, lied to, disrespected, and more. BUT....I so loved the mission and the people. It was also slightly glamorous, getting to travel with internationally renowned musicians, doing events at venues like Carnegie Hall, the UN, the State Dept, the Kodak Theater, staying in very nice hotels. I STILL can't completely reconcile my leaving, though I can intellectualize that it was probably the best career decision I've ever made.

Now I'm working for another well-known organization, but this time where employees are treated with fairness and respect, where the programs are truly making a deep impact, where teamwork is crucial and strongly encouraged, where I'm surrounded by very smart and passionate people, and where people seem genuinely happy to be there.

Personally, I've learned so much in the year and a half I've been there. I'm managing a team of five full-time and part-time employees, I'm responsible for seven programs, I have the freedom to try new things and take appropriate risk, I get to work with amazing artists and educators, and I've doubled my professional contacts.

But...

I've been having two difficult issues with working at the new org, and they're getting to be big issues for me: work/life balance, and lack of excitement.

Goodness, there is so much to be done. I've never had this much work to do! I like doing excellent work, and I feel as though the only way to be excellent is to work long hours. I could do the typical 9am-5pm like others do, but I feel I would only be average. So I work 50-60 hour weeks, every week. Which was fine in the beginning. The result of all of those long hours was that the impact of our programs doubled in some cases. Revenue increased, programs expanded, statistics sky-rocketed in a very good way. Great for the org, but terrible for me in the long run. I have lost my work/life balance. I hardly see my husband or my friends, I'm not involved with the flute organization I used to head, I'm exhausted, and I can't turn my brain off. I think I'm literally addicted to work.

All of this MIGHT be manageable (except not seeing my husband as much as I'd like) if there was some crazy excitement attached. Crazy after-hours get-togethers, or travelling across the country, or, I don't know, cat juggling, or SOMETHING. But this very well-respected, well-run organization that I work for is also very straight and narrow. BORING. ::Sigh::

So I've gone from one extreme (a terribly run, but terribly exciting, organization) to another (an expertly-run, but terribly boring, organization). I need to figure out how to better balance my work and life so that I can, uh, HAVE a life. So that I can create that excitement on my own, with my husband and friends, with family, with the community, blah blah blah. And, also, how do I continue getting great results at work without working so many hours?

Also, can anyone teach me how to cat juggle?

Underappreciated

2006-11-15T11:40:00.000-05:00

While I (some times) enjoy my current position, I've been taking a few interviews here and there to remind myself of what's out there. I had a good one a couple of weeks ago for a managing director position of a local arts organization. The full-time position was to run the day-to-day operations of the organization, manage the ensemble and its weekly rehearsals, coordinate with volunteers and of course the board, and to help fundraise (which wasn't in the job description they posted, but I'll go with it). They're looking for someone with a good deal of experience. Well, well, I've got proven experience in all of those details. Sounded like a perfect match to me. Until salary was discussed.

Starting pay for all candidates was $30k.

[insert record scratch here]

Yes, you heard me. $30k. Shall I say it one more time? $30k. For an "experienced" professional running the day-to-day operations of an arts organization, and not to mention the administrative tasks of weekly rehearsals AND fundraising.

I know I'm not in the arts for the money - it's a bigger mission than that - but $30k is just insulting for the amount work to be done.

Cry with me here, please.

The Universal Non-Profit Motto

2006-08-01T13:02:00.000-04:00

Exasperated by the enormous length of time it takes for management to make any sort of decision, my colleagues and I have created an unofficial motto for our organization. It works for any org - try it! You'll like it!

"The ABC/XYZ Institute:

Always on the verge of beginning the process of discussing the next decision..."

Fundraisers on Commission

2006-06-20T18:45:00.000-04:00

There seem to be a lot of freelance fundraisers (or if you're in the arts, "development" personnel) in DC. This makes sense, as there are a ton of non-profits based in DC who rely on fundraising to further their missions. Some freelancers work for a set fee; others work on commission. Freelancers bounce from one small organzation to the next, some specializing specifically in small organizations. Actually, now that I'm thinking while typing, most probably specialize in small organizations, since larger organizations have their own development staff.

I'm starting to wonder why organizations don't start demanding that their freelancers work on commission. Some non-profits agree to contracts with freelancers that have a set fee in place. This means that in order for the non-profit to actually raise money, the freelancer will first have to raise their own fee, and then the non-profit gets to keep whatever comes after that.

But what if the contractor doesn't raise enough to cover their own fee?

Case study: At a previous organization, I saw management pay a freelance development team $15,000 for two month's work. However, that "top notch, highly recommended" team brought in $7,000. The result was that the organization then LOST $8,000 on a fundraiser! Not good. Management issues aside, this could have solved by a commission. If the contract stated a 20% commission, and the freelancers weren't all they were cracked up to be and only brought in $7,000, then they would be paid $1,400, with the org taking home $5,600. That's ridiculously low, but it's $5,600 more than they had before. And that's a lot better than LOSING $8,000 on what was supposed to be a fundraiser.

Why don't more organizations demand that freelance fundraisers work on commission? Why trust that even the "top notch, highly recommended" contractors will raise enough to cover their fee?

What's an Art?

2006-06-14T22:11:00.000-04:00

So I like to consider myself sort of an artsy type person. I've named my blog "DC Arts Girl," I explain to people who aren't musicians that I have a career in "Arts Administration," and I think I told the IRS (or some other organization to which I've had to submit an official-looking form) that I'm an "Arts Administrator." Some of these designations are to prevent confusion when I tell people that I'm the Special Projects Coordinator for the XYZ Institute of Jazz, because normally the response to that description is "Oooooooohhhhh...." Pause. "So what do you do again?" Pause.

But I've recently realized that "the arts" means different things to people, even those of us in "the arts." In searching blogs, some people say they blog about the arts, but are really just writing specifically about the stage. Or the visual arts. Or musical theater. Or the NSO. Even I just write about the musical arts, and more specifically, the instrumental musical arts involving jazz, symphonies, and chamber ensembles. That's pretty narrow. I definitely am not encompassing "The Arts" as a whole in my blog. Just "The Instrumental Musical Arts That Involve Only Strings, Winds, and/or A Rhythm Section." But that makes for a long title, so I'll just stick to the Arts.

Just a random observation.

Elevator Snubbing in Friendship Heights

2006-06-06T12:29:00.000-04:00

Another rant...I work in a six-story office building in Friendship Heights. There happens to be a day spa in the building (which I frequent) along with a tapas restaurant and countless doctor's offices. So there are a lot of people entering the building every day.

It seems as though I encounter what I'll call 'Elevator Snubbing' at least 4 days out of the workweek. Elevator Snubbing is when I'm walking 10 feet behind you, you reach the elevator first, you enter the elevator, and then you allow the doors to close right as I reach the elevator. You don't hold the elevator for me. You act like you didn't hear the click-clacking of my heels directly behind you. You know you heard me. I wear 3-inch heels everyday, and their sound is unmistakable on the lobby's tile floors. PLUS there is a mirror next to the elevators, so you can see who is approaching the elevators behind you. Sweetie, you have no excuse for not being helpful and holding the door.

The funny thing is that this appears to be a unique phenomenon with women between the ages of, say, 25 and 60. Men always hold the elevator door for me, no matter what age they are. Women my mother's age always hold the door. Teenaged girls seem to hold the door. But career-aged women don't seem to help each other out. What's up, ladies?

Is this a Friendship Heights phenomenon? I don't think so. Is this a phenomenon of ladies who don't visit office buildings very often? Absolutely not, because I recognize a lot of the offenders as women who work in the building.

What up?!

Let it be known that if you are 10 yards away, I will hold the elevator for you. I will even call out "going up?" Because I'm a nice person. I'm considerate of others. And I don't mind waiting an additional 5 seconds for strangers.

5 seconds, people. That's all I ask.

Viva la Tour!

2006-06-04T17:51:00.000-04:00

Joel and I just finalized our bookings for our trip to France (and the Tour de France) next month. I can't wait!! We're going to spend 4 days in Paris, then take a high-speed train down to Tarbes, right at the foot of the Pyrenees. Once in Tarbes, we'll rent a car and drive 20 km southwest to Lourdes, where we'll stay for 3 nights. The day after we arrive, the Tour will go through Lourdes and go up the toughest climb of the entire race: the Col d'Tourmalet. We plan on driving to Tourmalet early that day or late the night before to get a good spot. We'll be able to see all of the cyclists going very slowly up the 9% grade. Joel is very happy about this. I think it just might be his dream come true. There is no better way to see Jan Ullrich et al, unless you're riding with them. :)

Here's what we'll see before the riders arrive:

How about that?!

After a day of watching the Tour, we'll drive back to Lourdes, where we'll spend the next day and a half seeing the sights, including a castle that Charlamagne seized in the late 700's (not the 1700's, silly American - the 700's!) and the location where the Virgin Mary showed herself to a young girl on 14 separate occasions. Then we'll take the train back to Paris, where we'll stay 2 more nights before heading back to the States.

Can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait can't wait.

We've got our passports (mine is new - Joel had one but needed to renew it) and have booked our airfare, hotels, train, and car rental. I did most of this online but could not figure out how to book in the Pyrenees. So I went to a travel agency near my work for help with that leg of the tour. The woman I talked with just happened to be from France and gave me the low-down (if you're in DC and need a good agent, call Laetitia at Liberty Travel - she's fabulous!). I thought travel agents were outdated, considering travel websites like Expedia or Travelocity and the fact that most chambers of commerce and towns have their own websites, but when I couldn't figure out how to navigate to/from the Pyrenees, Laetitia proved invaluable.

This trip will be the perfect vacation for us. I get 6 nights in Paris, and Joel gets to see the Tour live and up close. Can't wait can't wait can't wait.

Cheers!

DC Humidity, Herbie's World, Black Cat, etc.

2006-06-03T10:08:00.000-04:00

The humidity has returned to DC. This means I am going to have to use some major heat (and lots of time) to keep my hair straight. Or I can go au natural with my hair's odd mix of wavy, straight, and curly locks, which looks decent 25% of the time, but is usually a horrific rat's nest. I've always had straight hair - with the right hair cut and product I could wash 'n go and look decent - until 2003, when I got very sick and suddenly my hair got wavy. Then some of the waviness changed to curls but only on a few locks. When my health returned, my strange hair remained. So I've had to relearn what to do with it. And that means lots of flat ironing or blowdrying on high heat with a round brush, all of which takes at least an hour when dry. Ah, beauty. ::Sigh::

The Institute has been busy preparing for our Carnegie Hall event, called "Herbie's World: Herbie Hancock & Friends," coming up in late June (see the invitation here). It's a benefit concert, which means 200 seats have been set aside for us to sell at $1000, and we keep the proceeds from the sales of those seats. In exchange, individuals and corporations get fabulous seats and admission to the VIP pre-reception, where all of the musicians and performers, including Herbie Hancock and Bill Cosby, will hang. The concert will be a huge smash of some of the biggest names in jazz: Herbie, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Marcus Miller, and a slew of others. I've had a lot of our former students ask if they can get in free, which I completely understand. We often give passes to our annual international jazz competition, and events like this are a great way for musicians early in their professional careers to meet the masters. But Herbie's World is a BENEFIT. Come on, people! This is so we can raise funds for our education programs. If we give away $1,000 seats, then we're not bringing in the money.

I will be working this event, which I'm excited about because I've never been inside Carnegie Hall. Apparently I will be flying up the morning of and leaving the next day. I hate arriving the day of an event, because there's no time to refresh before you have to be "on." Last year, my boss didn't want to pay for a hotel room for me for another NYC event at the United Nations, so I took the train up in the morning, immediately jumped in a cab upon arrival, and worked my ass off for 12 hours, then had to take a train back that night. Ugh. I was useless the next day!

Anyway, my role leading up to Herbie's World has been dealing with invite lists, managing the email blast (1700+ emails, half of which were to law firms in NYC; go where the money is!), and coordinating with the event company we're using. We've never used this particular company before, and so far I'm impressed. We will be watching out for whether they actually help bring in funds - which is the whole point of the benefit - but I've been pleasantly surprised with their project management leading up to the event. Deadlines, agendas, assignments: I love their organizational detail! That kind of thing is strangely missing in a lot of projects we do.

One of the great benefits of traveling with the Institute is that I get to meet up with old friends in the different cities we visit. I just discovered that a friend from jr. high and high school, Renae D., who now lives in LA, will be rehearsing at Carnegie Hall the morning I'm there! Her choir has a performance the night after our event. What a small world. So we're going to try to meet up. Also, the girlfriend of one of the musicians we tour with works at Jazz at Lincoln Center, so I'm hoping to hang with her as well. And then there are all the musicians we work with and their various gigs that weekend that I would love to see. So little time! Maybe I'll stay an extra night to fit it all in.

On top of everything else, I am also the president of the Flute Society of Washington. When I took over two years ago, the FSW didn't have much of a season schedule; they pretty much did four recitals a year and had the huge Mid-Atlantic Flute Fair. Both programs were excellent, but the recitals had very little audience. Plus, I began receiving emails from people who just signed up and realized that there wasn't much to offer for their $30 membership dues. Refunds were demanded! So I rallied the troops and brainstormed with my board of directors. The result is, I'm happy to say, a full schedule for the 2006-2007 season. In addition to the recital series and the flute fair, we've got a second recital series (parlor recitals, held in members' homes); an annual Fall Guest Artist weekend (this fall we'll host Mary Karen Clardy); a four-part workshop series that showcases "outside the box" techniques like Celtic and Native American traditions, jazz improvisation (can you tell that was my idea?!), and the Baroque; a student workshop series; and lots of special one-time events, like an Adult Amateur Workshop, a field trip to the Library of Congress, and a collaboration with the Levine School of Music. Woo hoo! It's neat to see our members excited about the FSW again.

In other news, I recently went to the Black Cat in DC for the first time, a bar that Foo Fighters' frontman Dave Grohl owns. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of him, but alas, he was not there that evening. Mary, Chris, and Al, you would feel right at home there. It's a little like the Way-Out in STL, but with couches and two floors. Drinks were cheap, there's interesting art work on the walls, and of course the music was good. I'll have to take you there when you visit next.

Joel and I have tickets to see the NSO perform Mahler 8, also known as the Symphony of a Thousand, next week. It has an early start time - 7pm - because of the enormity and length of the piece. Performers will be strategically placed around the audience, and apparently there were less seats available to buy to make room for them. We're meeting friends there and will go to Dish afterwards for dinner. I've seen most of the Mahler symphonies now, either with the NSO or the (cough) Phoenix Symphony, but I've never seen No. 8. Can't wait!

And so it goes, the musical arts in the DC area...

Cinco de WTF?!

2006-05-07T16:29:00.000-04:00

And now for a little rant. I have finally learned my lesson. Do NOT go to a Mexican restaurant on cinco de mayo. At least not one in Adams Morgan/Dupont, and especially not one recommended by The Washington Post as a great place to celebrate the holiday. A few friends and I attempted to go to Lauriol Plaza on 18th Street to have a couple (or five) margaritas after work (as a side note, they need to decide what they are: their website and various sources site them as Tex-Mex, Mexican, AND Spanish - which is it?!). It was decided that we should get there early - say, 6:00 - to beat the rush. Apparently every other young DC professional thought the same thing. And apparently the thing to do was to go home early from work, put on one's little black dress and 4-inch heels, bring out the cleavage, and slather on some makeup before heading to Lauriol Plaza. Don't get me wrong; I don't mean to sound catty. I'm all for ladies going all out and making themselves look fabulous - I like to do that on occasion - but it was a little alarming to see boobs and pancake makeup at rush hour. Isn't there a law that forbids that kind of thing in DC until after dark?

We stood in line for an hour, only to be told that we were now put on a waiting list for the beeper that tells you your table is ready. That waiting list was apparently another 30 minutes long, and once we received the beeper, we would then have to wait (let me guess, 30-60 minutes?) until it 'beeped' to get our table. I have never heard of such a thing - a waiting list for the beeper?

Desperately in need for a drink, I looked across the street and saw a Malaysian restaurant, Straits of Malaya. Immediately my rationale changed: Why not celebrate cinco de mayo with a different kind of alcohol? Why does it have to be tequila, anyway? We walked across the packed street and found no waiting at this restaurant, with beautiful rooftop seating, great service, terrific food, and yummy Singapore Slings. Afterwards we headed to that old standby, Stetson's, on U Street.

As a friend suggested that evening, the moral of the story is: celebrate an international holiday by going to a completely inappropriate establishment. (OK, by "celebrate" I mean use the holiday as an excuse to go out and consume lots of alcohol). If it's St. Patrick's Day and you want to drink, don't even think of going to an Irish pub. Do sushi and sake! You'll get right in! If it's cinco de mayo, hit the Malaysian restaurants. If it's Bastille Day, go for modern American and beer (Brother Thelonious, anyone?). If it's Boxing Day, hit Cactus Cantina. And the list goes on...

India, New York, Los Angeles, and more beer

2006-05-04T13:04:00.000-04:00

Woo hoo! I just found out that I'm set to go on the Institute's tour to India in January 2007. The Institute has coordinated with the State Department and MTV-India several times in the past for tours, including one this past January. Apparently people in Mumbai and Calcutta love jazz, most likely because its improvisatory characteristics parallel the improvisations in traditional Indian music. Work for my tour probably won't begin until this fall, but I'm already excited. India is so different from anything I've ever experienced. Can't wait!

I'm also set to work our Carnegie Hall event next month. The evening will be a Tribute to Herbie Hancock, and Bill Cosby will be our emcee. It's part of the JVC Jazz Fest weekend. Tickets for the concert will be available at $1,000 a piece, with 100% of proceeds going to support the Institute's education programs. This should be huge.

The launch of Brother Thelonious beer last week in Los Angeles went very well. We had a great mix of celebrities (Billy Dee Williams, for one), donors, musicians, and press. I was surprised to find that each bottle of Brother Thelonious is large, like a wine bottle. As a dark ale with 9% alcohol, it's designed to be shared with friends at a meal. I'm not a beer connoisseur, but I thought it was very good, full of rich flavor. I made sure to grab two bottles - gave one to Johnny & Angelica when I saw them in LA and then brought another home to DC. Isn't the label (at right) great?! A little explanation: Belgian monks brewed ales, so you can see that Thelonious Monk is dressed like a monk, sitting in an abbey, with a piano keyboard as his halo. Is this not the hippest idea ever?

The hippest beer ever

2006-04-24T11:58:00.000-04:00

At the jazz institute I work for, we got a call in early 2005 from the North Coast Brewing Company in California. They explained that they wanted to create a new Belgian style ale. In discussing what to call it, the conversation at the brewing company apparently went in the direction of Belgian monks. Their Vice President is a huge jazz fan and soon made the connection between Belgium's monks and jazz's Monk - Thelonious Monk. So they called our institute, wanting to team up. The result is Brother Thelonious, a new beer that will be launched this coming Thursday! For every case of Brother Thelonious sold, North Coast Brewing Company will make a donation to our institute. How hip is that?!

So I'm flying out to Los Angeles later this week to help with the launch event. There will be celebrities, VIPs, and great jazz. I'm very excited - can't wait to taste what a Brother Thelonious ale tastes like! You can see the beautiful label and read more about the beer by visiting http://www.northcoastbrewing.com/brother.htm.

In other news, I judged Solo & Ensemble festival this past Saturday. I listened to middle and high school students play the flute from 8:30am to 5:30pm. Whew! As I mentioned to some family members, the bell curve is very apparent in these types of situations: the majority are average players, a few are completely unprepared, and a few are absolutely exceptional. You live for those 3 or 4 (out of, what, 50?) that walk in completely prepared, rehearsed, and ready to knock your socks off. Every player receives written comments from the judge on a variety of areas, and then an overall rating. The difficulty for me is that the festival organizers encourage the judges to use only a portion of the ratings available. In theory, you are to use ratings of I through V, with I the highest and V the lowest. In reality, however, you're really only supposed to use a I or a II. You can use a III for those that are completely unprepared, but then you have to prepare yourself for insane parents that will publicly confront you (I've seen this on two occasions!) and question your education, background, and authority. Ugh. So a little more than half get I's while the rest get II's. This means that those that knock your socks off get a I alongside those that tried hard but didn't quite succeed. Is this the music education equivalent of inflated grades?

Joel and I enjoyed a beautiful day yesterday in Greenbrier State Park in Maryland, north of Frederick. He spent 3 1/2 hours mountain biking while I ran errands. It was an absolutely perfect day: sunny, in the 70s, light breeze, striking blue sky. I tried to appreciate each minute of it!

Last Thursday I went to French Wine Thursday with friends. This is a fun series put on by a division of the French Embassy. They have weekly events at different restaurants around DC, where the host restaurant's chef prepares 5 or 6 different hors d'oeurves to pair with 5 or 6 different French wines. They also give you a brief lecture about the region from which the wine developed and why each wine goes well with each sample. The first event I went to featured champagne at a sushi restaurant in Adams Morgan. Then we did a red wine (I forget which one) at an American bistro near 14th and U Streets. This time it was at Butterfield 9, a very expensive "modern American" restaurant downtown. I tried several things for the first time: quail eggs, fried goat cheese, and ostrich meat. The quail egg gave me the willies, but everything else was excellent. The pairing of wines with the appropriate food is so creative and such a distinct talent! Can't wait for the next one.

CHEERS!

New Orleans, post-Katrina

2006-04-15T10:16:00.000-04:00

In February, I coordinated and managed a week-long education tour to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans for the jazz organization I work for. The tour was eye-opening in so many aspects. We had already gone to the Gulf Coast the year before, so we knew about the region, but this latest tour was AFTER Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Six months afterward, in fact. What we saw shocked all of us on the tour. Here is what I wrote a week later to family:

I've been trying to find some time to write about our New Orleans tour, partly because it will be therapeutic to me, and partly because I really want people to know what it's like. The media for some reason glosses over the real deal. Just today, cnn.com had an article that talked about how although some parts of New Orleans are in ruins, much of the city is getting back to normal. Really? We drove all around the city, through dozens of neighborhoods north, south, east, and west, and it looks like a war zone. The entire region looks like a war zone. What's normal about that?

While we were in the Mississippi Gulf Coast/New Orleans region for 6 days, a description of the first 2 days will epitomize our experiences. This first email will talk about our first day in the region.

Flying in to New Orleans, I looked out the airplane window and I saw lots of brown landscape with the occasional blue tarp/roof. It pretty much looked like what I expected. No big deal at that point.

My co-worker and I got off the plane, rented a car, and realized we had 4 hours before the musicians arrived. So we asked around for the nearest mall. We found one in Metairie. I ate my first beignets (yummy yummy!), shopped a little (of course), and then we went to lunch. The first sign that things weren't quite right was that every restaurant and shop had a Help Wanted sign. Later in the week we would discover that most French Quarter restaurants were closing around 8pm because of lack of staff. I guess when 3 out of 4 residents flee the area, the remaining 25% have to take on the extra work.

A few hours later, most of our crew had landed so we started the 90 minute drive east to Biloxi, where we would stay for two nights. As we drove from the airport through Metairie, towards the city of New Orleans, we saw more and more blue tarps on roofs. Then we saw fences down. Then we saw abandoned cars. As we drove north of New Orleans (we wouldn't be IN the city until 2 days later) we started seeing water lines on all of the houses. There were holes in roofs where, one guesses, people hacked their way out of their attics to escape the rising flood waters. Then, just east of the city, we came upon an area that was a ghost town. For miles. About 20 miles of ghost town along I-10. There were Home Depots, a Sam's Club, super markets, fast food restaurants, dozens of apartment buildings and neighborhoods, ALL DESERTED. Most of the windows were broken out. Burnt out cars. And mounds of trash. It was like a Stephen King book. Imagine driving from Bridgeton to, what, Wentzville? [in the St. Louis area] and seeing nothing but destruction. There were buildings burnt to the ground, abandoned cars, clothing, trash bags, shoes, papers, dead trees. FOR TWENTY MILES. At least. And that was just what we could see right along I-10.

There were lots of contractor pick-up trucks driving along the interstate. Some looked like established companies, others looked like they had just gone in to business. It seems like a very popular and profitable business to be in right now in that region. There were roofing signs everywhere, and I think a lot of their "supplies" came from abandoned houses.

We crossed the I-10 bridge that goes over the east side of Lake Pontchartrain. Several sections of the bridge were brand new, since half of the bridge was destroyed by Katrina. On the east end of the bridge we saw our first inland boats. There are - still - lots of boats in fields. We saw shrimp boats and sail boats tossed on their sides, just sitting in forests and fields, like it was the most natural thing to do.

By early evening we arrived in Biloxi. We knew Biloxi had been devastated and we were staying in one of just a few hotels that had reopened (the Imperial Palace hotel & casino). After checking in, we all decided to meet for dinner at the buffet restaurant in the hotel. My colleague went to check on the wait. There was a two hour wait and a line that wrapped around the restaurant and through the casino. I thought, I know this hotel is big, but are all of these people staying here? We quickly discovered that the answer was no. It turned out that the hotel was the only place to eat in the city.

We decided to drive around the city to find what we thought would be a quick bite to eat. Many traffic lights were out. We drove through several abandoned neighborhoods, many that had trailers parked in front of where a house once was. We drove down to Route 90 by the coast, where we remembered most restaurants could be found. It was completely dark. Street signs were nowhere to be found, traffic lights were out, a bridge was out. When we visited a year ago, this was a bustling town. Now, there was nothing.

After turning onto Route 90, I looked to my right and asked "what's that big mound?" I slowed down and everyone peered out their windows into the darkness. Suddenly it occurred to me that it wasn't a hill, or an old apartment building, or an abandoned restaurant. It was a barge. There was a barge three blocks inland, right next to the road. The next day we drove past it again and we discovered several bulldozers on top. They were breaking it down - removing it chunk by chunk - rather than trying to somehow tow it back to sea.

We eventually found a Super Wal-Mart several miles north of the city, away from the water, and ate there. The store was packed for a Sunday night. We later learned that it was the most profitable Wal-Mart in the country, most likely because it was the only thing open. Wal-Mart has the funds to reopen and recruit workers, and we were thankful for them that night.

To paraphrase Steve Martin in "The Jerk," that first day felt like 3 days. We saw so much, and we had just arrived. The most shocking thing wasn't the destruction itself - I realize what hurricanes can do - but the sheer magnitude of the destruction and that this is SIX MONTHS later. We weren't seeing this six days or six weeks later. This is half a year later. That's some storm.

First Blog

2006-04-14T18:56:00.000-04:00

So Joel suggested that I start a blog, and I asked him why. He said I could write about what I do, such as my adventures last night. Hmmm, I thought. Last night consisted of my going to two different Georgetown bars with friends and drinking 7 cocktails over 6 hours. How exciting is that?! It was pretty fun for me, but I'm not sure how exciting that would be to friends and family across the country that would read this. (but if you're in the DC area, you need to at least try Mie N Yu in G'town for the fun, chi-chi atmosphere - $10 martinis and banana hummus - mmmm!).

So then I thought I could just write about my work with the jazz institute I work for. If I name names, I could get in trouble, but I do have some pretty good stories, even after working there for just under 2 years. I travel on average about once every month or two - this month I'm going to LA for the launch of 'Brother Thelonious' beer and next month I'll return to LA for a special 'Bebop to Hip-hop' school program.

Anyhoo, I hope family will check back on occasion to see what I've been up to. It's hard to stay in touch, even with email, so I'm hopeful this will be a step in the right direction. Here's what's coming up in the next few months:

1. Flute Society of Washington parlor recital tomorrow

2. judging Solo & Ensemble festival in Virginia next week (9 hours of listening to middle school and high school flutists.....9 hours straight!! but we do get paid)

3. French Wine Society wine tasting in downtown DC next week

4. 'Brother Thelonious' beer launch in LA on April 27 (Mom's birthday!)

5. 'Bebop to Hip-hop' school program in LA in May

6. our brand new Mini Cooper arrives in late May (yay!)

7. the Institute's having a Carnegie Hall event in June

8. Joel and I go to Paris and Barcelona for 10 days in July to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary and also our 10th year of 'togetherness' (even bigger YAY!!!!!!)

9. Joel and Dad cycle the Katy Trail in Missouri in August (glad they're the ones riding over two days in muggy 90 degree heat and not me)

10. National Flute Association convention in Pittsburgh in August

11. Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition gala weekend at the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian, and the White House in September (part of which falls on my birthday--again)

12. family reunion at a beach house in Delaware in September (yay!!)

Oh - if you're interested in Joel's blog, where he writes about his adventures in cycling, check his page out at http://dcmountainbiker.blogspot.com.

CHEERS!!