Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Why are musicians so hot?

Recently I got to know a cellist who looked quite hot when he played the cello. Away from his instrument he wasn't that amazing. Not bad looking, but certainly not hot. And once he opened his mouth to talk, well, the illusion was completely shattered.
This is not the first time that I've met someone who looks way hotter when they're playing an instrument. Why is this? They don't even have to especially amazing at their instrument, just capable enough to do the job they're there to do. Weird.

Deja Vu

Deja vu is a strange thing. Recently in a violin lesson I was giving my student shuddered and said: “Woah, déjà vu.” I was mildly impressed that a thirteen year old was familiar with the concept of déjà vu and then thought no more of it.
And then last Saturday I had my own most recent case of déjà vu. It was the closing night of Into the Woods, a musical I’ve been playing in. I was sitting in the green room with some other members of the cast and crew, some of whom were signing programs which were lying on the table. At the end of the last show every member of the cast and crew gets a program that other people can sign if they want to. Mine was signed by a couple of nice people. Anyway, I was sitting there, feeling sorry for myself due to lack of sleep and having had a full day, when it suddenly occurred to me that I had dreamed this a few weeks ago. I’d dreamed it after I knew that I was going to be playing in Into the Woods, but before we’d had any rehearsals for it, so I’d just assumed that it was a random dream, because I had no idea what the venue looked like. Anyway, as I was sitting there I remembered the dream. Well, not the whole dream but at least part of it. In the dream I walked through the green room, down the ramp into the makeup area, up the stairs past the black curtains into the backstage area and up the ladder to the orchestra area. I’ve heard that déjà vu is a feeling you get when you think you’ve experienced something before, but really it’s just your brain “remembering” something that you haven’t really experienced before. However, I distinctly remember this dream because I remember thinking how ridiculous it was that I’d dream about the orchestra being up a ladder. I mean, when does that ever happen in real life? It’s such a dream thing! Although as it turns out, it did actually happen. This is not the first time I’ve had dreams that later turned out to come true. Mostly it’s just banal stuff. But I wonder if other people have dreams like that too, and if this is proper déjà vu, or something else altogether...