Pre-tour phase begins.

A small impromptu gathering of friends on the night before our first rehearsal yields some key revelations: Abi has learned a pretty excellent amount of Chinese, for example. I may or may not cling to such folks once we get there. Or just study really hard with my little CD, which jumps wayyyy too quickly from "hello" to "we have a reservation at this hotel." Whoa there.

It's going to be fabulous and a little surreal to see yesterday's alumni playing in the same orchestra with today's freshmen. A kind of time warp orchestra. Perhaps the kind of orchestra we all wish we could play in: made up of friends from different times and places, but of course, conducted by Robin Fountain. (David Zinman is my second choice.)

Upon John and Dave's return, they will find that little has changed. There's still a little homoeroticism bubbling under the surface:



And we find that little has changed with them, especially with regards to John's "whatever" pose:



We've got rehearsal today and I've not been a very diligent violinist this week. Better hit the ground running ...