The Musician Centric Podcast
Two professional violists, Liz O'Hara and Stephanie Knutsen, explore diverse perspectives in the music field through conversations together and with friends. Whether gaining fresh insights from industry innovators or laughing their way through a show like Mozart in the Jungle, Liz and Steph hope to inspire musicians, particularly freelancers, to feel a sense of agency in their lives.
**Note: This podcast was formerly titled the ViolaCentric podcast**
The Musician Centric Podcast
Mozart in the Jungle Recap! Season 2, Episode 1
Stories? Questions? Thoughts? TEXT us here!
And now for something completely different! As a big fan of reality show podcast recaps, Steph convinced Liz to dive into the MITJ universe. Neither of us have watched this series or heard much about it, and you can bear witness as our innocence is ripped away! Join us as we recap Season 2: episode-by-salacious-episode. In this series we follow Hailey, the fresh-faced freelance oboist, Cynthia, the jaded veteran cellist and the whole crew of pros in the music scene that orbits the New York Symphony. Will Hailey survive the cut-throat ‘jungle’ with her love of music still in-tact?
Ready to step back into the chaotic world of Hailey and the NYSO? The NYSO is in tense labor negotiations, Rodrigo is battling his inner and outer critics and Thomas is hard at work on his first symphony. As if that's not enough, we've also got a line-up of new faces, including the symphony's new lawyer, Nina, and her peculiar request for a private performance of Bach from Cynthia (who doesn't just love Bach?!)
As any satire does, MITJ never fails to bring up an evergreen topic in orchestral circles: Can a conductor be too close to the musicians? Does the traditional view of the conductor as a strict father figure hold up? There's lots to discuss and joke about - thanks for laughing along with us!
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Episode edited by: Liz O’Hara
ViolaCentric Theme by: JP Wogaman, www.wogamusic.com
Additional music by: Freddy Hall with www.musicforpodcasts.com
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Welcome to the Musician-Centric Podcast. We are two freelance violists living and laughing our way through conversations that explore what it means to be a professional musician in today's world. I'm Steph.
Speaker 2:And I'm Liz, and we're so glad you've joined us. Let's dive in Our new generation of Tuning.
Speaker 1:Tuning and like what are they doing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's the recap that nobody asked for, but we're doing it a second season.
Speaker 1:So, even though you didn't ask for it, we're back.
Speaker 2:Some of you may have kind of hinted that you wouldn't mind us doing it.
Speaker 1:We know some of you listen, so don't try and deny it.
Speaker 2:And so we're enjoying ourselves. To new Musician-Centric listeners. Welcome to season two. We recorded season one last season, last year, and we had a lot of fun doing it. I will admit, I was like all prepared to love, to hate it the whole season and then I ended up kind of like enjoying it by the end. So if you're resistant, like me, like just give it a chance. That's all I'm going to say. And now I was very happy to be watching it again. It felt like coming home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like putting on your cozy sweats.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, being entertained by all our old friends.
Speaker 1:Yes, and wondering what happened to them in the intro.
Speaker 2:That's right, so should we kick? Right in let's go Season two, premiere Season two premiere. With a knot. I don't love the rebrand of the intro.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I kind of caught a glimpse on accident of season three. The intro is different again. Ah because, so it must just be something they just change. They just change it.
Speaker 2:They do a rebrand every year. Yeah, must be nice to have that kind of time.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, can you imagine doing a rebrand?
Speaker 2:every year. Time and resources.
Speaker 1:No, you guys get like one rebrand.
Speaker 2:This is it.
Speaker 1:This is it You're stuck with this logo for.
Speaker 2:Imperpetuity, imperpetuity. So yeah, it was really good to like see everybody again. I literally wrote oh, here we go, and my notes the first thing.
Speaker 1:Oh, here we go.
Speaker 2:Rodrigo.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we have like a scene change.
Speaker 2:We're in LA all of a sudden, for some reason which becomes revealed, I think, pretty quickly why we're in LA. But first, rodrigo is talking to his muse, oh yes. Did we decide that that was Mozart initially.
Speaker 1:I think so, but why does he have a French accent?
Speaker 2:That's exactly what I wanted to know.
Speaker 1:So he's talking with this bewigged makeup, obviously figment of his imagination, and I always thought it was Mozart Me too, Like when he was studying the manuscript last year.
Speaker 2:It was a Mozart manuscript and Is that the same dude. Was it the same actor? We should find out. Maybe he just maybe he's just visited by various 18th century Okay, ghost.
Speaker 1:So you know, like show pan is coming up, we're going to see the different people. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's right, like maybe that's what it. Yeah, maybe it was somebody. Schubert wasn't French, right? No, he was Austrian.
Speaker 1:Austrian, austrian, german or something.
Speaker 2:I would tie it to something in the episode, but no, it didn't make any sense. But it was funny, like the conversation all around. It's basically his inner critic. That's exactly what I wrote Me too. I love that. He's like apologize this for not having breakfast. He's like cranky with his inner critic. Yeah, it's all very good, but I just I have an important question about my guy, cause you know how much I love Rodrigo, why with the rat tail he looks so?
Speaker 1:It's migrated.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of his head. Why is it still there? Like he could just cut it off and then it'd be. He'd look so great like all around. Let's get the scruff going the short hair like.
Speaker 1:I'm with you. I'm over the rat tail. I think we get the idea. He rides a bike, he wears bohemian clothes, he you know. We don't need the rat tail to cap it all off Because it's like not 1997. No, no, and it's clearly like a clip in deal. I mean, did you ever when you were?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you could buy it with the beach right.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, you know, like there's like a spark, you have like one little lock of pink or whatever in your hair, you just clip in when you feel spicy.
Speaker 2:So does that mean it was the same one as last year and he just moved it to another part of his head?
Speaker 1:I think we're supposed to believe that he's whimsical and he can grow out his hair. Grow at a random strength Enough to make enough to make a giant rat tail on a different part of his head.
Speaker 2:And then shame it on.
Speaker 1:I will tell you, no one's hair grows that fast, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's supposed to be like two and a half months later. Like how I don't understand it's, I don't. I just I think I'm really going to be excited when it goes. It has to go right. Eventually it's going to go.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I hope so.
Speaker 2:But so why are we?
Speaker 1:in LA Because Rodrigo is guest conducting the LA Phil, at least that's who it looks like, and it looks like the real LA.
Speaker 2:Phil, yeah, I think it is. Like yeah, okay, I love this so much Because the sound engineer in the back is due to Mel himself. So now all those comparisons can be validated.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So it's just really funny. They're kind of being coy with due to Mel, because everyone knows that this is the actual conductor. So there's a bunch of like sly little comments like about how they hate their conductor. But we find out that the NYSO is in labor negotiations and there's a rumor that they might strike if they don't get it resolved.
Speaker 2:So big topical event going on, yeah, labor negotiations and strikes. So we then we get to go travel back to New York after this lovely little cameo, and I do think it was LA Phil.
Speaker 1:They sounded great If it was they looked like they were playing with like real musicians. You know what he looked like? He was having just a lot of fun. Yeah, because the people in front of him were actually playing the music that he was conducting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like when people get to like pay to donate and they get to conduct the stars and stripes forever and they just have this. The best thing is, even if the conductor's baton is going like in the opposite direction, they just have this look of utter joy on their face. They're just like so happy to be there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're like riding the best ride. Yes, I'm sure that's so he had that look and so very cool. I was hope I was just fantasizing that. That was the reason I think so, because it was just so joyful.
Speaker 2:I agree, I think it, I think it really was. I think he was just like having a great time. It was hard to hide the joy. Speaking of hiding the joy or not hiding the joy, then we go to the softball team, the New York Symphony softball team named Wolf Gang the Wolf Gang and they're playing against the ballet team.
Speaker 1:I didn't catch their name Did you?
Speaker 2:Yes, it was the ball and jeans, two separate words. Ball was the first word.
Speaker 1:Amazing. I love it.
Speaker 2:It's so clever and it was so funny because Haley's like up to pitch and then the, the ballet guy, runs over and he's like no, she's a sub, she can't pitch, only when she's playing with the orchestra. And he's like sorry, sorry, haley, you got to wait until you're playing Mahler in a couple of weeks to play with us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was kind of ridiculous, it's so stupid.
Speaker 2:I mean, the whole thing is stupid Like I don't know. I would love to know if professional orchestras have softball leagues.
Speaker 1:I know it seems risky Like totally. That's a good way to jam a finger, yeah.
Speaker 2:And they did. When, when Rodrigo shows up, somebody's like oh yeah, everyone's being very careful.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So he shows up and Union Bob, Union Bob, the piccolo player, is there and they basically like, have a little talk during a break and they realize that their softball team is actually kind of close to be playing making the playoffs. So Rodrigo is like oh hey, do you need help? You need a picture. And so he jumps in. Yeah, and it turns out that he's actually very, very good and he helps the team and they win. And build some rapport with the musicians.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Yep, yeah, it's kind of a fun scene. I was just thinking about, like I don't know we've been doing this lately too getting like when you get together with your musician colleagues just to do something fun, and it's always kind of refreshing, you know, to have that time outside of work.
Speaker 1:Yeah Right, and to relate with them as real people and not just one facet of your personality. Exactly.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah. And then we cut to a scene with I wrote oh, good Lord.
Speaker 1:I know. So Alex is back and they're still together. I think they're him and Hi-Li.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think they're going to caricaturize him this year, I don't know why. I feel like that first scene was just he's like doing this really perky. Like he starts out with like hi, Alex, and I'm a Sagittarius, and then he like runs down the stairs and he does these silly dance moves and I wrote no, yeah, super cringy. This is super cringy Dance video that they're making.
Speaker 1:Is he auditioning for something? Yes, I didn't catch that. Okay, I think so so he's auditioning for something, yeah, and so he's very over the top.
Speaker 2:It seemed like Hi-Li was saying to him at the end like, oh, you're totally going to get it or whatever, like it was a submission for something. But yeah, it was just kind of lame.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we come to learn that they're still together. That's right.
Speaker 2:I think that was the point of that yes, yeah, because, of course, we were left hanging with the question mark at the end of last season of what's going to be going on in her love life the start of this season.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, and it's still Alex. And then we see that Thomas is back. Yep, we flash to Thomas in his apartment. He's got his little vision board of composers and he's saying good morning to them. Which I love very much. He said good morning to them. I loved it.
Speaker 2:So he's doing some composing. Yes, he said. After he said good morning to everybody, he said get your ass on that seat and start composing, you cheeky bugger. You tell him Thomas, and then he's like gleefully composing, he's like gleefully playing the piano and writing things down and he's like conducting himself on the floor and he's having the time of his life right now.
Speaker 1:You know what he's in flow?
Speaker 2:He's in flow. He's in peak flow state.
Speaker 1:You can't interrupt that once that gets started.
Speaker 2:No, you got to go with it, you got to follow the muse. Follow the muse.
Speaker 1:And so actually it made me wonder is he still suffering with some kind of mental health issue? I'm getting, I'm getting a little manic, I'm getting that impression.
Speaker 2:I think so. It might be that way. We'll have to find out, but I feel like I mean this is later in the episode, but I feel like, generally speaking, he seems a little up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, ok, that was my impression too. Yeah, let's keep him in our hearts. Thomas and then we end up. Ok, this is a very telling scene. As to the, we're over in Haley's apartment again, yes, and she's practicing and her phone quacks with a phone call. Like, is that still an option? People still have an option to have their phone quack, only one way to find out.
Speaker 2:Let's see, is it in there? It would be under sounds Rain, I mean with all these updates, it's got to be.
Speaker 1:There've got to be some pretty crazy ones out there. Apple has a sense of humor. Oh, it is. What else do they have?
Speaker 2:They have are bad. Let's see Auga.
Speaker 1:Good old Auga. Classic the Marimba yeah, ok, that's a good one. Classic.
Speaker 2:OK, that's enough of that. Now my phone's going to ring that way and I'm going to be like whose phone is that?
Speaker 1:What psychopath would choose that? That's very funny. So, anyway, she gets her phone quacks and it's one of her students' mom and she says that her son has headlights, and this was very triggering for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right. You just had this.
Speaker 1:If you're a, parent and you've ever dealt with headlights. Oh my gosh, there's nothing I can't imagine. Maybe having bed bugs is about the same, but it's that uncomfortable, dirty feeling and it's so helpless because you can't do anything about it and you just have to put all of your clothes and stuff in a plastic bag and then use separate hair brushes and combs and it's awful. It's awful. It's awful In a support group Parents poop gone through lice, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a thing. Huh, it's awful. It's awful, do you not recommend?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2:I feel like the comparison to bed bugs is very good. My sister struggled with that in New York one year and it was so like bag the mattress. You have to do all these things. I don't know it's so disturbing yeah.
Speaker 1:But anyway, so that lesson is canceled. But we see that Alex is there hanging out.
Speaker 2:I thought it was funny, though, when she so the mom calls and she's like all frantic and she's like quickening off the phone and then Alex is trying to ask her like but when did he? Okay, because she's trying to find out. At the last time she saw she's like scratching her head and she's a little worried.
Speaker 1:It is panic inducing. It makes you feel itchy even when you don't have it. Yeah for sure, I'm sure. I'm sure that's true, yeah, it's awful. But Alex is there and he's like clipping his toenails.
Speaker 2:On the bed. Who does? That there's a trash can in front of him. It's disgusting.
Speaker 1:It's clearly the honeymoon is over. Yeah, there's a caricaturizing him.
Speaker 2:This was not his vibe at all.
Speaker 1:Last year he was fine yeah.
Speaker 2:He was much more like composed, I feel like I don't know. He didn't seem like a guy clips his toenails in bed.
Speaker 1:Maybe they just want us to hate him, so that, yeah, I think so. They want us to get icked out for poor Alex.
Speaker 2:She's like really irritated too. She's like I have to practice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's got to practice the same phrase a hundred times in a row. That's her method.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. She can't be distracted from that Got to just obsessively play the same thing over and over again.
Speaker 1:Hey, that's how you learn it. That's true Pro tip.
Speaker 2:Pro tip Repeat over and over, and over, and, over and over until you hurt.
Speaker 1:Then we end up back at the hall in Haley's office. She's wrapping up, warming up or whatever practicing. This new young woman comes in and she's like oh hey, I'm Rodrigo's new assistant. You need to train me, sarah Bell, sarah Bell. Of course, the first thing that she needs to know is how to make the mate.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's the most important thing.
Speaker 1:You can see by her demeanor that Haley has really become attached to Rodrigo and these things that she thought were eccentric in the beginning are now endearing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true, that's true. That's a good point. She honors the mate. Yes, yes, yeah, we find out that Sarah Bell is the daughter of a guy who donated their organ. She's been placed in the position through privilege and is a singer-songwriter, which I don't think should be poo poo no, that's still a musician. Yeah, exactly, I know that initial reaction was a little judgmental.
Speaker 2:But we need to not do that. That's the thing of the past. But I forgot to say it this way. I meant to say she's a singer-songwriter. Oh, she's really into the upspeak. Yeah, every sentence she says sounds like this, which we find out is kind of an irritating quality In the next scene.
Speaker 1:Yes, so in the next scene we're in Gloria's office and Gloria is in the midst of redecorating, which is very high maintenance.
Speaker 2:And her assistant says that the thing she chooses makes her hair look like spun gold. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:So what I think they're highlighting here is the disconnect between the managing executives and what the actual musicians are doing For sure and what they think is important. So she's trying to get Rodrigo to help the orchestra come to a agree to what administration has put forth in the negotiations.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and she's saying two things at once. First she's saying we can't afford to pay the musicians and then she's saying also, you could help by not making our donors mad or whatever. So it's like she's sort of putting it all on him, which is, I think, kind of an old school tactic. So I don't know. He's getting frustrated, though he's throwing a fit about all the red tape and he just wants to make music, of course. And he gets very dramatic and says if the orchestra doesn't get better as musicians, then when they go to Latin America he's going to be exiled from every country and he's listing off all the countries they're going to and he won't be allowed to go back. It was just cracking me up, because this is very dramatic. And in walks, sarah Bell with his yerba mate.
Speaker 1:And she pushes his buttons. He's already agitated, and so he finds out that she's supposed to be his new assistant and he's like no, this isn't yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's that time of year, we're back to school and we are back to gigging. Even if you're not mentally ready for the season, you can count on our season sponsor, potter Violins, to get your equipment ready. When's the last time you reheared your bow stuff?
Speaker 1:Oh, I feel like it was recently, but I bet it's been over six months, so I got to get over there and get it freshened up. Oh, and I need new backup strings and an instrument adjustments Sounds like it might be about time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do love to get in there for a visit to our favorite technicians as we approach the change of season. Maybe I need a new case too.
Speaker 1:And, as we've said before, if you need a rental instrument, they're the place to go. My daughter and many of my students rent from Potters and the instruments are really fantastic, even the smaller violas.
Speaker 2:Yes, get back to your music this season with confidence by visiting Potter Violins, so your equipment will be ready, even if you might need a bit more of a warm-up. And then we meet someone new, right.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh yeah, Virgil.
Speaker 2:That's his name. Ok, I didn't catch it. I'm glad you caught it. Virgil, with a robot, I didn't understand what his.
Speaker 1:is he a musician? Is he work for the hall? I didn't quite understand, I know.
Speaker 2:I didn't either. I mean, we find out that his husband is in the orchestra right.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:But I don't know what he does. Maybe he's like an executive director. No, that's Gloria. No, that's not Gloria. Gloria's like president of the board. I don't know what all these?
Speaker 1:Gloria's the executive director so maybe he, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Maybe he's in operations, or maybe he's also a musician.
Speaker 1:OK, we haven't seen him highlighted as a musician, but his partner, Christoph, and he have decided that they want to start a family. They want a child, so he's holding this disturbing robot baby that I don't know. It's like when you were in. Well, when I was in high school, you had to take care of an egg for a week yes, so it's like a fancy parenting exercise.
Speaker 2:I think there have been schools that have used the robot babies instead of the egg, which is Is that right? Yeah, that would be the worst if you had something that cried and needed that and stuff Like that wasn't a real thing. Just be hard to. Yeah, the egg was hard enough, so that was a cute little scene. I don't know, it's fine.
Speaker 1:And then he goes. Where does he run into Haley again? In there, I think she comes in and she's like you can't fire Sarah Bell.
Speaker 2:Her dad gave us the organ, and so then he's following her around saying how he doesn't want another assistant. She's like I can't be your assistant anymore.
Speaker 1:Right yeah, and I was with her. I mean, that's really dicey.
Speaker 2:Totally.
Speaker 1:Like you're going to be a sub and his assistant. That's like really conflict.
Speaker 2:Lord Lyons, not to mention the kiss.
Speaker 1:The kiss that's right which gets brought up in the next scene, that's right, yeah, so they are having this heated discussion. She's like you have to have a new assistant, I can't keep doing this for you. And she ends up trying to go into the ladies room. And of course Rodrigo thinks, hey, there's no boundaries here, I'm going into the ladies room too. And she's like no way. But anyway, he gets kicked out of the ladies room and she finds herself in there with Cynthia.
Speaker 2:That's our first spotting of Cynthia so far.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Cynthia's back and she's a good female friend. Yes, yes, yes. So she's in there and she's the one that says hey, everybody's talking. People are talking about that kiss from last season, yep, and Cynthia is looking out for her. She says I'm going to squash those rumors because that's messed up, right which is really nice of her to do.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I think I don't know. I guess we'll see. We don't know what's going to happen with them. But Cynthia's part picks up a little here and it's because the lawyer for the bargaining of the contract shows up.
Speaker 1:Right on her, motorcycle, slash scooter, slash Vespa. I don't know.
Speaker 2:That she rode, she rode whatever it was. Like from Pittsburgh, it's like girl, how's your hair with that? Yeah, yeah, how's your hair look like that?
Speaker 1:Shouldn't you have like bugs in your teeth?
Speaker 2:Is this action? Is this Gretchen Wall? Is that who that is?
Speaker 1:I don't know who that actor is. I didn't pause it at the right time, I think it's the chick from.
Speaker 2:I think it's the chick for rounders. Someone will have to tell me if you're a rounders fan. If it's her, I think it's her. That's a deep cut, but anyway, yeah, she's got a lot of personality and something's happening with her and Cynthia.
Speaker 1:Yes, or she wants there to be something happening with her and Cynthia.
Speaker 2:Because they both effing lovebock.
Speaker 1:Yes, they do.
Speaker 2:Nina wants a private performance on cello of Bach from Cynthia.
Speaker 1:I mean that's sexy. Yeah, Private performance of Bach.
Speaker 2:There were undertones in that little dialogue for sure.
Speaker 1:Yes, so they're at rehearsal and this new lawyer her name is Nina she's making the rounds kind of talking with people. Clearly she's done her homework. She's there to advocate for the musicians. I liked her. She was like a girl boss. She came in there and was like, yeah, had her stuff together. They're starting rehearsal and then Rodrigo gives a downbeat for Schubert and they play.
Speaker 2:Take me out to the fall game. It's cute, their orchestra is so happy right now, like with him Right.
Speaker 1:They seem very thrilled.
Speaker 2:And then Christoph walks in late.
Speaker 1:Yeah, poor Christoph. I mean he's taking care of her robot baby. He's got his hands full.
Speaker 2:He was like muttering about adoption papers and stuff, but then he sat down. But also I was like well, we would never do that If you were running late, you would never be like sorry everyone, this happened.
Speaker 1:Can you imagine? Sorry, I needed to stop at the restroom one last time before I got on stage. Sorry, sorry.
Speaker 2:Take your seat in the back of the orchestra. Never, never, never, ever. That would never happen. For anybody who's listening that does not know that would never happen.
Speaker 1:That was a silly moment, but they do seem to be vibing with Rodrigo.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's telling a funny story about youth orchestra and how his conductor would throw batons at them if they were late and it chipped his tooth. But then he was like and then when I was eight or nine and I left, so hard.
Speaker 1:I was like so your youth orchestra experiences when you're like six or seven? They started me up.
Speaker 2:It really made me laugh, Wherever he's from, but then they start Schubert, yes, and it sounds all right, it sounds decent.
Speaker 1:It's clearly not them playing. I still want to hear like the you know how you can sometimes hear, like the dance videos that are without the sound or with like the original sound. That's what I want to hear. I want to hear him conducting to a bunch of actors scratching against the Disturbing, disturbing. Where is the TikTok version of this?
Speaker 2:It's a good question. Maybe it exists.
Speaker 1:Maybe We'll put it out there. Yeah, I want to hear the originals, please. The deep cut. Talk about deep cut. That would be a real deep cut. So Gloria is mingling with donors in the donor lounge. This is the next scene right before the concert.
Speaker 2:What's his name? And Edward is back.
Speaker 1:He's back on his BS.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that guy who stole what's her name? The former assistant from the Sharon. Sharon and he says to her I need some protein. Could you find me some nuts? And that continues this conversation with Gloria about the orchestra failing because nobody likes Rodriguez, and blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 2:And she comes back with this champagne glass of nuts for him and he starts eating them and Thomas comes over, which I'll let you pick up, but I just laugh so hard because he's eating out of this champagne glass and then he's like he just puts it back in her direction. He's like these are roasted. Like okay, we get it.
Speaker 1:You're very powerful, which clearly has no joy in his life.
Speaker 2:Who wants unroasted nuts, Gross who. It'd be so funny if he said these are unroasted. That would be more realistic, I guess. I guess it's extra because he's like doesn't want roasted nuts in his champagne.
Speaker 1:No, no joy with my nuts. No joy with my nuts.
Speaker 2:A lot of the taste bland and soft and horrible, disgusting. Just the whole fact that it's like a conversation about nuts. It's just so ridiculous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but yes, we're meant to be left with the oh, he's the villain. Yeah, he's mean he's hard to work for. Well, Thomas comes back and he's having none of Edward's about Rodrigo. He's like you have a great conductor.
Speaker 2:And I'm busy, so Thomas is.
Speaker 1:Yes, thomas has a good is a good friend.
Speaker 2:And he might A good mentor and he really might be a little manic, Like he yeah.
Speaker 1:I think so. Well, that's what we're.
Speaker 2:I'm composing now. I'm a composer now. That's what I'm doing, and that's it. Yes, yeah, and it's so good, so good, yeah, okay, so then the concert comes.
Speaker 1:So the performance is there, he's Somehow. I was very distracted by the rat tail, the migrated rat tail, because it's flapping around and he's in his like tuxedo, like. Shouldn't you have like a formal version of that? Some way to make it more formal, like?
Speaker 2:put it Like put a hair tie around it like a bun, like a rat tail no, like what A coil?
Speaker 1:Okay, let's just say A coil. It's Well, let's just say it's an actual rat tail. It is his hair, okay. So how do you make a formal version of a rat tail?
Speaker 2:Because there's nothing to like, attach it to.
Speaker 1:It's just there. Do you like make a little mini bun, like put a clip and clip it down?
Speaker 2:That would be the most logical thing, but I don't know if it would stay, because his hair is so short, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:What did you clip it to? Yeah, what would you clip it? I don't know.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it's not good. It needs to go. I really hope. I feel like more donors would be engaged again if he got rid of it.
Speaker 1:I mean I hate to say that, but yeah.
Speaker 2:You gotta, sometimes you gotta, play the part. Oh, here's another ridiculous thing that happens. This dude, oh yes For Kristoff. No, it wasn't Kristoff, right, was it Kristoff? Oh, I thought it was Kristoff. I thought it was just a random violinist in the back of the section Maybe oh maybe it was.
Speaker 2:I thought Kristoff was in the bassoons or something. No, not bassoons, clarinets. Either way, it was in that direction of the stage, though, so we'll have to figure that out next week. I mean, his phone goes off like in the middle of the concert, and not only does it go off, but he like pulls it out and puts it while they're playing. So ridiculous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not a, thing, no.
Speaker 2:That's not a thing.
Speaker 1:No, and if your cell phone goes off, you do everything in your power to Shut it up. Shut it up or deny that it's your cell phone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're not trying to be like.
Speaker 1:Not acknowledging that it is your cell phone.
Speaker 2:Let alone looking to see who's calling you.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, in the middle of the conference, I will say.
Speaker 2:I have a story about this in an orchestra that I will not mention, a musician I will not mention. I was sitting towards the back of a section once and there was a space player. It was the second row of bases and there was a space player there who's clearly at a point in his career where he's like, does whatever he wants to do so at his station, around the stand. It's just like I don't know his office back there. He's got snacks, he's got his phone sitting there, he's got keys, everything just sitting on the floor in the concert and at some point the phone started to vibrate in the concert. I'm sitting right next to him and I'm like, dude, that's stuff of nightmares.
Speaker 2:What? Yeah, it was like, but he just let it go, Because what's he going to do? He's playing the bass, he's playing the bass, he's going to have to clumsily reach down and silence the focus and sitting on the floor it was ridiculous.
Speaker 1:It's like bass twister. You're going to hold the bass, yes, you're also reaching down Utterly ridiculous.
Speaker 2:So that does happen to some extent.
Speaker 1:It shouldn't happen. Come on, friends.
Speaker 2:We are professionals. Just leave your phone in your case. Yeah, for heaven's sake, we're professionals.
Speaker 1:Yes, so Gloria and Thomas are meanwhile in the audience. He's chatting whilst the music is going on. I'm like this guy is on one.
Speaker 2:That's okay, though I'm okay with that. Yeah, it should be. It should be okay if it's not too loud yeah.
Speaker 1:It's not distracted and then the performance is over. It's kind of anticlimactic because Rodrigo is not really happy with the performance.
Speaker 2:No, I mean, I think it's funny because in the conversation with Gloria and Thomas they're talking about the quality of the orchestra and he says something like well, they really backslid after Britain, britain, and then he's like it's always two steps forward, one step, or yeah, two steps forward, one step back, and I'm like that's okay. I mean, maybe Do people speak about orchestras in terms like this, maybe sometimes. But do we? It's not like a sporting event where we play a piece and it screws us up and then we go to the next piece and we're not as good as we were.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not well. Yeah, it's not exactly like that Backslid.
Speaker 2:Like you don't really get worse, like that. It's that, I don't know, and and, and maybe it's okay, like it's funny, because, well, to talk about the sports thing you shared, because it was so funny to me, the violin guy, think oh, anyway but but I think, yeah, that may be.
Speaker 2:It might have something to do with this idea that if a person from who's not in our career field is watching, they will relate to the concept of like performance. Wise, you know, in a sporting event, like a quarterback, for example, they have to have their head in the game and if they have a bad game, sometimes their head gets, you know, they get the yips or whatever, and then they don't do well right, so maybe it was just like they were throwing one like that out, like okay, yeah, their performance wasn't very good, so they're like shaky and they might not do well next time, but that's not, it's not a thing?
Speaker 2:It's not a thing.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, no, yep, yeah. So after the show, they're reflecting on it and and they're kind of wondering is that because of the looming strike slash negotiations? Maybe that's why their head isn't in the game, so to speak? And Thomas brings up this really old school philosophy of the way the conductor should be.
Speaker 1:And this is where the we forgot to say that the episode is called Stern Papa, I didn't even notice what the episode is Okay it is called Stern Papa and it comes from this conversation yes, it does when this is the philosophy that the conductor should be a stern father figure, that kind of rules through fear and intimidation, yeah, yeah. And that Rodrigo is becoming too close to the musicians, yeah, and thus is impeding the process. Unlike, that's what's happening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't. I've I really like kind of bristled at this because I don't agree. I don't think I agree. Yeah, I think I think a conductor can be a colleague.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's tricky, though I keep being reminded of your story about a conductor who you ran into, kind of backstage and them just saying how it's a lonely job yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think there's. There's probably the fear that the lines could get crossed in a way that then, I don't know, limits the Capability to lead effectively, you know. But but I feel like this is a more nuanced. I think this is a more nuanced situation than we've given it credit for in the past. I think the old school and we've talked about this before, actually on a guest episode the idea was it the last episode? The idea of feminine leadership versus masculine leadership?
Speaker 2:and that maybe feminine leadership looks like it's more collaborative, even from the conductor's podium, like it doesn't have to be this. Now, I think there's like social engagement is really tricky, that's, but that's tricky for musicians to, even though we do it anyway, but I don't know. Yeah, the idea that you have to be sort of like hard on people to get them to do what you want them to do. I don't yeah.
Speaker 1:That's antiquated, yeah, yeah, now you shouldn't be going around kissing your musicians full of you. That might be a boundary crossed.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's a possible me too. Moment too Right.
Speaker 1:You could get in some trouble for that for sure.
Speaker 2:But like a friendly I friendly relationship is I don't know that feels like it should be the sort of the way of the future, like if a bunch of orchestra colleagues are sitting somewhere nice having a drink after the concert and the director sitting there too, I don't know like, and the conversation is like purely professional, it doesn't seem like a problem to me. To me I'm sure lots of people have opinions on that. But, I'm sure, but it wouldn't impede my ability to respect that person. No.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, maybe that comes down more to behavior.
Speaker 2:But anyway, this is, this is the message Roderigo is receiving from his mentor, which of course he takes very seriously, and and we're headed for a very, very long time, and we're headed for a very uncomfortable scene in a future episode, when Rodrigo starts to look at Thomas's compositions because he's yeah. He's super confident about them, and that's always a it's always a little bit of at least a yellow flag, if not a red one.
Speaker 1:Right yeah. So Thomas asked Rodrigo to look at his symphony. Yeah, I did an internal cringe across my fingers that it's good. Maybe it's G, I hope so.
Speaker 2:I mean if he if like Schumann, like you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe.
Speaker 2:Guess, we'll see.
Speaker 1:Yes, and then there's like an after hours encounter where, where Roderigo bikes over to Haley's apartment at three o'clock in the morning, I wrote oh my god, this is a booty call. Before anything happened, Again boundaries.
Speaker 1:Boundary question. Yes, so he wants to know what the orchestra really thinks of him, and I'm sure that that's something that's on can conductors minds, yeah, and you can't really ask anyone. Yeah, so she says that they think you're crazy, but they believe in you also, and then he set a line which, like he, he feels like he has to have some distance from them and yeah, he says, the highest cliff you can fall from is trust. Right, and then closeness and familiarity.
Speaker 2:From closeness and familiarity comes disrespect.
Speaker 1:Uh huh.
Speaker 2:Which, again, I just I'm not sure. I totally agree. I mean I could see why that is a. I could see why that is a belief. I can understand why that's a belief. I just don't know that it necessarily it might be a limiting one.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I would love to see him explore that balance and I'm sure that we will see that that's right In the next subsequent episodes. That's right. So we leave this episode with Haley practicing while they're one.
Speaker 2:Preparing for next week.
Speaker 1:She can finally play on the softball team.
Speaker 2:She gets to do softball and Moller in one week, isn't?
Speaker 1:that lovely. Protect those fingers, haley, yeah, that's right. And your mouth?
Speaker 2:And your mouth. No softballs to the face. Yes, ah, that's good to be back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was. It was a good one. It was kind of like not really any big sparks happening, but we're kind of getting reacquainted with the characters and where they are in their lives these days. That's right. So we just set a new scene.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that had to lay the groundwork and yeah. Yeah, so we'll be back with episode two in a few weeks, if you like what we're doing. Maybe give us a review.
Speaker 1:Yes, we love that.
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