well, it's happened again.i'm drinking more coffee than water, more wine than beer, and feeling better about life for it. i stopped judging the days by the weather, and more by how the night ends.last night, i found out about an amazing concert an hour before curtain, and it was a total adventure.rumor was that it was the last night of a festival, so i found a poster on the street, and to my surprise, the umbra orchestra was playing two of my favorite composers, Bartok and Stravinsky. for reals. besides, their names were the only ones i recognised on the poster anyway.first, i had to find the theater. like everything, it seemed like a hole in the wall- the entrance was a tinny door to a huge dark building which looked like a school. while i was waiting to purchase a student ticket, i started talking to a violin student named monica who was studying at the music conservatory in perugia, which is public. she only spoke italian, and her accent was very southern, but once i told her i'd only been studying for about a month, she spoke slower. we decided to sit together, and choose seats on the top floor, in the center, where the acoustics were the best.i went home to change, and when i returned the lobby was packed. i made my way to the theater entrance, and totally froze. the room was only about the size of a movie theater, and aside from the chairs on the ground floor, the walls were a series of box type seats, straight up to the top. on the ceiling, a fresco of angels in circling women celebrating spring hung over head, and it looked golden in the dim theater light.i found my way up the 6 or so floors of stairs, finally arriving at the "piano economia." i found my box, were some wierd italian couple who were arguing about something were sitting too. so, i guess that on paper monica and i were sitting next to each other, but in reality, there was a wall between us- she stuck her head out and around to say ciao. oh well, we tried. the lights went down, the mc introduced the show, and the musicians took their places.to me, the repertoire was odd, because the string Stravinsky pieces seemed more like Bartok, and the Bartok rhythmically seemed more like Stravinsky. maybe that just shows how composers influence each other. the music tapped into something in me that made me feel right at home, even though everything about where i was seemed like a movie.well, almost. the timpanist kept on rushing the beat. i was most impressed with the conductor, who moved more like a lizard dangling over a water fall than a man with a stick.during intermission, i got totally lost. i finally thought i'd found the right room on the right floor, but instead i ran into three really strange ladies talking to each other in the hall, who were too engrossed in what they were talking about to let me pass. so, i darted into one of the boxes, and they followed. then i realized i was in the right room on the wrong floor, they had posh velvet seats instead of a wooden bench, and these women were creeping me out.they started talking to me and i quickly fell into step with their conversation. one was a girl who was volunteering as an usher, who seemed to be sweet talking the older lady in her 70s who held herself with amazing grace- i started wishing i was her granddaughter, or somehow related to her dynasty. the third was a woman who's age i couldn't tell because she appeared to be a dwarf. she told me she studied the flute, and all about other theaters she'd been to in milan, and venice. i couldn't tell if she was the older lady's daughter, or if they were just friends. even though i figured these three women just met, they were talking like old friends. even though no one seemed to care my italian was budget, they didn't show any mercy with their italian, and were throwing around musical terms like no bodies business.the lights dimmed and this odd couple invited me to sit with them. so i did. i swear, it felt like were were right on top of the orchestra. every little movement the players made, even just their weight shifting in their chairs, was heard.at the end of the show, the four of us exchanged numbers and talked about driving out to the lake nearby Perugia sometime. i can't really imagine the four of us, a 21 year old american, the 20 something italian girl, the dwarf flutist, and an this older lady who could be a part of some ancient Italian royalty, all wearing bikinis. who knows.later on that night, i called up some Italian friends and we hung out in a small park in front of my appartment, looking at stars. i think it was a full moon, and still, we could see plenty. it just blows my mind how this town holds so many diamonds in the rough, you just have to spend enough time digging.so yeah, this one's for everybody at Mills. even on the other side of the world, the music is still the same.i have been keeping my ear to the ground for punk shows, but they're usually at private parties, like at home, where everybody knows everybody. There's a lot of radical politics in this town that aren't too friendly to any americans, for obvious reasons- a lot of people here hate americans and will judge a person based on what Bush has been up to.anyways, we'll talk politics later, this story is about the music.hope everything has been going well, write me back cause it's fun.tutti amore,megan marchps. as far as sending this to Mills professors' email addresses, I just went from memory. feel free to pass on the word that i'm having a blast
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