a $30 nap

Erik and I went to the symphony last night and I am not ashamed to say I slept through much of it. I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before and was tired and headachy, so after the intermission Erik kindly lent me his shoulder and I had a lovely nap to the sounds of violinist Gil Shaham playing Berg’s Violin Concerto. Actually, I really liked the concerto, or what I heard of it anyway. I just couldn’t stay awake to hear it all.

I’ve always thought that if they let us sleep or read or otherwise do our own (quiet) thing during the symphony I’d enjoy certain concerts a lot more. I can tell you from experience (and I don’t just mean last night) that the concert has to be pretty darn good to be enjoyable when you’re very sleepy. And even if some of it is good enough to keep me awake, it’s a rare treat when every piece on the program is that good; usually there’s at least one that doesn’t suit me. (When we’re lucky, the boring ones come after the intermission, so we can just leave after the good stuff is over.)

I think the symphony should sell a limited number of reclining seats, or just wide long squishy benches, that you can lie down on to sleep, read, write, or draw on. We won’t bother anybody. I can turn pages quietly, or sleep without a sound. I imagine snorers would be looked down on just as much as those people who sit there coughing their lungs out–it’s not really their fault, but annoying anyway.

Unfortunately it’s not likely that any orchestra worth listening to will adopt my idea anytime soon, so in the meantime my only hope is to become ridiculously rich and lose my egalitarian values so that I can hire an orchestra to reside at my palatial home and provide the soundtrack to my daily life.

Oh by the way the $30 referred to in the subject line is approximate and includes parking fees and other things.

currently eating: instant cream of wheat with organic raisins and maple syrup

[This post was imported on 4/10/14 from my old blog at satsumabug.livejournal.com.]