AMC--Chapter Twenty-Six

[dawn_felagund]

I am rating this chapter for adults only for reasons of discussing topics about sexuality. There is no graphic sex--it is merely Macalaurë musing about love and marriage and children and his thoughts on all of these things--but I want to play it safe. If you're not sure if you want to read this chapter, please don't hesitate to contact me, as

Comments

[frenchpony]

You do have something of a pee fixation. I find that highly amusing, although it may just be the slap-happiness that afflicts all students at the beginning of December

[dawn_felagund]

You do have something of a pee fixation.

I guess I do. :^P

This time of year is interesting because it's my first experience having a flist at finals/end-of-term time. Through the year, hearing about all everyone gets to do at school, I wish for studenthood again, but now I'm feeling glad that I'm in the working world instead. (Where, incidentally, the crap being piled onto me is beginning to subside. Woohoo.)

You're thinking of the chaos of an orchestra tuning on stage before the performance, right? It's a more appropriate metaphor for Fëanor than you might thing, because it's not complete chaos -- it just sounds that way.

Yes, that's exactly it. And wow, what an interesting insight! I had no idea but was simply going off what I used to hear while warming up for band back in high school. To the uninitiated, I guess our rehearsal room was unbearable for the first five minutes of every class.

Having heard that talk and variations thereof for many years, especially the "oh, you'll want your children once you have them" variation

[frenchpony]

What band instrument did you play? Did you learn it outside of school, or just in the band? What sort of repertoire did your band play? Did you study music at all outside of band?

Sorry about all the questions, but I was having the most fascinating conversation with a friend yesterday. He's working on a master's thesis in Music Education, and one of the topics that he wants to examine is high school band culture.

[dawn_felagund]

Don't worry about the questions. I don't mind at all!

I played trumpet. I learned as a part of my elementary school music education. Baltimore County schools encourage students to take up an instrument in the fifth grade to the degree that, out of my entire fifth grade class (which, granted, was only about 70 kids; it was a small school) only one kid did not play an instrument

[frenchpony]

That's fascinating. My high school never was that intense about band, though we did have a marching band led by a director who could actually read music. As opposed to the choir, whose director I suspect to this day still can't really read music. Guess Who was the piano accompanist to the choir senior year and ended up being an unpaid TA whenever the director couldn't deal with high school choristers any more?

But I digress. This is great to know, in part because I can see where some of your musical references in the Macalaurë sections are coming from. I think my friend will be working on his thesis more from the teacher's point of view (he taught middle school band for about six years prior to going for his MA, which in my view is the epitome of heroic stupidity), but if he needs an outside perspective, I will be sure to point him in your general direction.