Klarinet Archive - Posting 000127.txt from 2010/01

From: Ken Wolman <rainermaria@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] 2010 Woodwind.Org Donation Drive update: day 4
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:00:55 -0500

William Foss wrote:
> Come on all - unless you are a full time student we all should be able
> to afford some sort of donation to this invaluable service !
>
> Bill Foss
> U.S. Army Retired
> USC Aiken, Retired Woodwind Professor
> Director of Bands, Aiken Prep

Dear Mr Foss (I don't know your retirement rank or I'd use it)...you
have drawn me out of lurking mode because of this note. I have no
interest in your anticipated pity or consolations. I have less than no
interest in beginning an argument with you, on or offline.

Let me explain to you, Sir, the reasons that I, who am *not* a full-time
student but a part-time English teacher who collects Social Security and
has to fork out lifetime alimony, cannot contributed to a truly worthy
endeavor. For do not misread me, I checked my sense of humor at the
door: Woodwind.Org is a magnificent project, and if it depends on the
generosity of many, Mark Charette deserves kudos as its organizer and
tutelary spirit.

Now then. Let us see what I have had to give up in the name of keeping
myself marginally afloat, shall we? First there are the musical
instruments. I bought horns before I bought clothes. I could not sell
used pants.

1. A Selmer Paris Centered Tone Bb clarinet that was and remains in
memory the most perfect instrument I have ever found. I *inherited* it
in 1991 and had to sell it in 2002 because I was living below the
poverty line.

2. A Selmer Paris Series 9 that would have been as good as the CT if I'd
been able to afford a tear-down and reassembly. However, by some miracle
of financial chicanery I acquired a Backun barrel for this instrument
that made it sound new glorious. And let's not forget the Chris Hill
mouthpiece which of course I had to hock to a former member of Klarinet.
Every time I acquired what I foolishly believed was a proper "set-up"
for my musical longings, some circumstance of life made me sell it for
survival's sake.

3. Next to last try. A Buffet E-11.Wonderful. And then yet another job
gone, another instrument of necessity tossed into the great mouth of eBay.

4. Now I have a LeBlanc Noblet 40 bought from...let's not say, but it's
lovely.

What else, sir? What else has made me a bad candidate for a donation
guilt trip even if I'm not an F/T student? Five jobs lost in one year. A
suicide attempt. Incarceration on alimony arrears gone to warrant. Those
who keep tearing around one who can't move. Hey, you can sing that.

Five months of the right job followed by the beginning of the current
Crash followed by carving deli in the A&P followed by 21 nights of no
more than 2 hours of sleep a night, interrupted by a curious paralytic
incident the docs thought was a stroke but was only an accidental
overdose of Seroquel. And then teaching. Awful money but some degree of
enjoyment.

Moving out of New Jersey and occupying a ghetto garden apartment in
Bristol, PA as the aftermath of being assaulted for a *second* time by
my so-called "significant other" after 9.5 years of domestic nothing.
Her dog died so she slugged me. Makes a lot of sense. I can and do
forgive but I will never forget.

Right, I have two adjunct composition jobs at opposite ends of Jersey.
If I can't get through the summer working in Walgreens, shall I have to
sell the LeBlanc as well? BTW: I'm not getting paid for another month. I
know how to make macaroni and cheese and cook kielbasa.

So now that you made a totally unwarranted assumption about how the life
of a 65 year old non-student is a retirement colony, you owe me an
apology in public and from honor, and you might wish to make a
contribution to Woodwind.org in my name.

I've had to think here before I spoke (remember that one, Morrie?).
Learn the same thing. Never generalize.

Ken Wolman

--
----------------------------
Ken Wolman

http://awfulrowing.wordpress.com
http://opensalon.com/blog/kenneth_wolman
http://wearethecure.org/friends/cids-memory-p-394.html

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