If you think the Maytag repairman gets lonely, pity the poor
percussionist.
During a recent Chicago Symphony performance of Bruckner`s Seventh, a work teeming with strings and brass, Gordon Peters had just one note to contribute: a cymbal crash during the adagio movement.
Did the principal percussionist feel left out back there?
”Sure, you`re sitting there like a fool, and it`s boring,” he says.
”It can be somewhat embarrassing.”
Playing for another conductor, Peters might not have had to suit up for the Bruckner piece; some leave out the lone cymbal crash because it wasn`t written into the original score.
Still, ”you must think of it as part of the entire esthetic, and play it as best you can,” Peters says.
And so he did, if a congratulatory tap on the shoulder from Sir Georg was any indication. SOURCE: By Janet Franz.
CHEEP THRILLS ON CLARK ST.
Does Chicago need more birds? Probably not more of the pigeon variety, but possibly more of the pet kind, says Helmut Montford, owner of the new Blue Parrot shop, 3001 N. Clark St.
Perched on the corner across the street from the Ivanhoe Theater, the shop is a retail aviary dealing in birds large and small.
”Most birds are fine pets for apartments, and most apartment owners have no objection to them, especially the smaller birds,” says Montford, a former Treasure Island employee. ”We lived in an apartment until recently. We have five birds ourselves and love them.”
Montford and his wife, Joy, flew into their first retail venture, so to speak, after learning from breeders that birds seem to be in demand in the high-density New Town area.
They opened the store at the beginning of 1986 with about 100 birds, mostly exotic, larger varieties such as parrots and macaws. Now they`re expanding the stock to include smaller birds such as parakeets and finches.
The potential pet owner, Montford says, should understand that ”birds have personalities of their own. They need some attention. Some really become attached to the owner. When we come home, we have one bird who will sit on my wife`s lap.” SOURCE: By Sharon Stangenes.
CHICAGO IN SHARP FOCUS
Mayor Harold Washington gazed up at the blow-up of Modern Black Man magazine`s March cover and said, with a gleam in his eye, ”I didn`t know I was so handsome!”
The mayor was guest of honor at a party that George Pryce, the New York-based publication`s editor, hosted in the Drake Hotel to kick off MBM`s plan to feature two American cities each year. Los Angeles is next. Pryce said Chicago was chosen first because of this city`s exceptional number of
”upwardly mobile black men.” (Does that make them ”umbies”?)
Washington, who also has appeared on Newsweek`s cover, said MBM`s coverage captured the city`s heart and soul: ”I`ve struggled for three years to find words to match that kind of philosophy, but haven`t come within a cannon shot of this expression of it.”
Among Chicago`s umbies in the crowd were Stanley Hilton, Blackstone Theater manager; Richard Hunt, sculptor; John W. Rogers Jr., president and chairman of Ariel Capital Management; and Edward G. Gardner, chairman of Soft Sheen Products.
Gardner was happy to be included among local achievers, who he believes serve as role models who ”realize their responsibility to do more than build their own businesses, but to build the community and provide jobs as well.” SOURCE: By Margaret Carroll.
SMART COOKIE
It`s Girl Scout cookie time, and Brownie Scout Allison Perez staked out her street for sales.
One of the first stops for the almost-7-year-old was Schmeissing Bakery, 2679 N. Lincoln Ave.
There, amid the hectic take-a-number-please Saturday business, good Scout Allison made her pitch to Louise, behind the counter.
”Isn`t that silly?” said one customer to another. ”Trying to sell cookies to a bakery.”
”Oh, I don`t know,” said the other. ”She just sold a box.” SOURCE: By Sharon Stangenes.
CSO ROOTED IN A WILD, WILD PAST
Who would picture the founding conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a gun-totin` young adventurer?
Lady Valerie Solti, wife of Sir Georg Solti, the CSO`s current musical director, painted just such a picture with words, slides and music in a recent lecture at the Newberry Library.
Theodore Thomas, she said, was a violin prodigy who as a boy in the mid-1800s traveled from his native Germany with his family, then took off on horseback at 14 to travel through the American South, arranging his own performance appearances as he cantered along.
He carried ”cigars and a pistol,” and hoped to be attacked by bandits, but he never was.
He returned to New York, eventually, and to Europe to hear its orchestras. Returning again to the U.S., he formed an orchestra, which P.T. Barnum wanted to tour along with his circus acts.
Thomas declined that invitation but did take his orchestra on tour. The ensemble arrived in Chicago in October, 1871, to find the city in flames. Retreating to St. Louis, the conductor paid his musicians from his own funds. Despite financial difficulties, the orchestra continued touring, and in time a Midwestern businessman told Thomas he would help establish a permanent Chicago orchestra.
The conductor admitted he was prepared ”to go even to hell” for a permanent orchestra.
Deficits were a problem from Day 1 (in 1891), but Thomas labored to enlarge his audience, even presenting some ”working people`s concerts”with admissions of 25, 15 and 10 cents.
In time, preparations began for Orchestra Hall. In less than a year, 8,000 donors pledged $750,000. The architect was Daniel Burnham, author of the slogan ”Make no little plans.”
After rehearsing in the still damp and drafty new hall before its dedication on Christmas Eve, 1904, Thomas caught the flu. He died in January, 1905.
But not–as Lady Solti explained in her lecture–before providing Chicago`s frontier with an appetite for music it has nurtured through the years in the South Michigan Avenue hall whose plaster he helped formulate. SOURCE: By Margaret Carroll.
CAN WE TALK?
Time: after 9 p.m. on a weekday. The telephone rings.
”Hello?”
Silence, then a recording that goes something like this:
”Hello. Now`s the time you should be thinking about real estate. You own your home and probably have been thinking about selling. You may think it`s a buyer`s market now, but we can help you sell your home. We do all the work. We make it easy. If you`d like to know more about our services, don`t hang up. Wait for the beep.”
Bleep!
SOURCE: By Brenda Butler.
RING-BOUND FOR GLORY
The year`s first meeting of an informal women`s group concluded with a question: ”When will we meet next month?”
Twelve hands reached into 12 assorted briefcases, handbags, etc., and produced 12 different ”organizers”–those handy little books with calendars, address books, calorie counters and practically everything else but the kitchen sink.
Twelve jaws dropped as we realized just how organized we were. The meeting quickly disintegrated into a comparison of the books and their various features. SOURCE: By Kristine N. Curry.
AND JUSTICE FOR SOME
Hadn`t seen Russ (as we`ll call him) in months–not since his ex-wife took him to court for nonpayment of child support.
”Doin` fine,” says Russ, a Lake Shore Drive lawyer who drives a Mercedes and defends drug peddlers, incestuous fathers and accused murderers. ”Haven`t seen what`s-her-name in a long time either.”
What`s-her-name and Russ haven`t been talking since she complained to the Cook County state`s attorney`s office about nonpayment of child support for their kids. That was 18 months ago. It took a year for process servers to find him, and the case is yet to be scheduled for an initial court appearance.
What`s-her-name is upset. Russ says that`s how the system works:
”The system works all right, but it works best for lawyers. She`ll never get a dime.” SOURCE: By Richard Phillips.
