The Avengers

For living less than fifteen minutes away from Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Celine Dion, you would think that I would have had more accidental run-ins with celebrities.  Granted, they only live fifteen minutes away if you can avoid the top screening security inspection by their private armies or have enough co-op equipment to effectively track down Osama Bin Laden's removed wisdom teeth.  Seeing as I don't have either of these, I haven't really had many celebrity encounters.  No spontaneous Justin Beiber concerts.  Not even a George Clooney sighting in Whole Foods.  I think the closest thing I've gotten was this girl who kind of looked like Russell Brand from the back end.

So today, I was starstruck.

The orchestra took a day trip to New York City as a break from the crazy schedule of the week.  We started off at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which I had never been to.  And strangely enough, one of the exhibits the Met, or MMA as I like to call it (yes, I know those are the same initials as Mixed Martial Arts, it makes it sound less dweebish), is the instruments display.

Wait a second, NYO, did you set this up?  How did you know I liked classical instruments?  Is this some kind of crazy mind-reading ploy? Are you a part of that whole government surveillance thing?  I mean, honestly, how else could they have known that I played the horn?

Following the museum, we went to a New York Philharmonic concert conducted by Bramwell Tovey.  Don't you just hate it when you go to a classical music concert and the conductor is hilarious and breaks down the stereotype of stuffy and pretentious concerts? Cause I sure do.  There were some witty remarks made about the British Wimbledon Victory and even some sarcastic comments to the latecomers walking in after the second number.  Gosh, it was just too much fun and too much laughter for a snobby classical music concert.  

Aside from the horribly lighthearted atmosphere, the performance was mindblowing.  The main work on the program was the Planets by Gustav Holst.  I don't know if I can actually describe the gigantic amount of power that this orchestra has in their sound, but it was truly awesome.  I'm trying to find a way to relate how exciting this is to me (see that engaging with audiences class is really paying off).  Think about it this way:  The Avengers show up at your door and after Robert Downey Jr. makes a few corny puns, the group decides to take you along with them on their crazy crime bashing raid.  The Hulk steps on some bad guys while Thor and Captain America play a rousing game of monkey-in-the-middle using Captain America's lethal shield (Hint: it's not a good thing to be in the middle of that game.)  Meanwhile, Iron Man is making a rousing commentary while mimicking the voice of Latin-American soccer announcers.  That's what this New York Philharmonic concert was like.  They are my heroes.

But it gets even better.  After the concert, we were given the opportunity to have a meet and greet with three of the NY Phil's members and their personnel manager.  Although there wasn't a horn player, Nancy Allen, the principal harpist, was there.  All of that crime fighting stuff may have been cool, but meeting Nancy Allen was like arm-wrestling with the Hulk or quizzing Captain America on state capitals.  I really hope that she didn't think I was weird because of how close I was to fainting out of excitement.

NYO was finally able to pull me away, kicking and screaming (because I bet Nancy Allen didn't think that was weird at all) and we went on a dinner cruise on the Hudson River.  

Even really before my first visit to the city, New York has been this surreal place of excitement and legend.  I know in my anti-Yankee brain that this couldn't possibly be true, but my heart tells me that NYC is a city of a people who are following their dreams.  It's a city created by people who have all, at one point or another, sought out to be the best human being they could be and to make something good and lasting come from their lives.  It's creation from motivation, if you will.  And it's this same dream that's brought me here to NYO.  A desire to do something greater and touch lives and maybe be other people's superhero someday.  I don't know if I could live up to the titans that exist today, but I will sure don my cape as best as I can and try to fly.  And even if I crash into the ground, I suppose I'll just have to dust myself off, and climb back up to the top of the building to try again.  They say that "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  If that's true, then you might as well cart me off to the nuthouse right now.

So, farewell until next time New York.  I can safely say that this visit was far better than any run in with George Clooney at the supermarket could ever be.