Second APAP

Monday evening's performance at the APAP convention had a glitch of its own. This time, everything having to do with the music technology worked perfectly. Greg, Robin's student who was there to help me with setting up the amp, and I worked out new task assignments to make sure that there'd be no tangled cords. I had a pocket flashlight so I could see in the dark.

When it came time to set up for the Robin/Eric performance, things went not just like clockwork, but in fast-motion. And when I took my place, things went smoothly and all was (seemingly) well.

Robin took her place. We were ready to start.

No lights came on. We waited.

What's going on? Perhaps the light operator is waiting for the music to start, I deduced. So I started the loop going.

No light on Robin.

The loop looped a couple of times. Pizzicato arpeggios: G major, E minor, C major, D major. And again.

OK, maybe he's waiting for me to start playing over the loop. I started the first variation.

No light on Robin. Well, now I couldn't stop playing. So I keep going.

Finally the light comes up on Robin, who has started the dance. Once again, the choreography and the exact variations of the music, thr coordination of which Robin has so carefully worked out, are off until I recognize a certain movement and jump ahead a variation. From then on, we are fine.

It looks and sounds good, but I know Robin will be upset, and she was! Thank god, though, this time it is clearly not with anything to do with me. I'm figuring there's some sort of passive-agressive thing going on with the light board guy.

I harbored unkind thoughts about him until Tuesday night, when Robin called about details of our Friday evening concert in Madision, Wisconsin, and I mentioned the lights. It turned out that somehow something had been disconnected and the guy was running around in the dark himself, trying to fix it. He was very apologetic.

Ha! A likely story. But I'll believe it. It feels better that way.