the best

I may add to this over the coming days, as my mind is still in that jet-laggy-sleep-deprived fog. But here's a start to my "Best Of" list:

Best Airline: 1. V Australia (help-yourself 24-hour free snack bar, way too many entertainment choices, staff who actually talk to you like a normal person, wide/comfy/good-reclining seats, pretty coloured lights inside the cabins - mood lighting, and a bar area!); 2. JetBlue (out of all the domestic US airlines this one was by far and away the best - no baggage fees, free snacks all flight, free individual TV/etc all flight, nice new planes inside and out); 3. Southwest (the cheap-n-cheerful of the bunch, no baggage fees, sit-where-you-like - first come best dressed); all the others were pretty dreadful, and I was appalled that they were 3 of the "big" airlines - each one charged a $15 bag fee, and the only snack they gave out free was a pissy little cup of soft drink and a bag containing 5 peanuts/pretzels/potato chips. I shall avoid these airlines from now on, and so should you! United, American, Delta - pah.)

Best Meal: jeez, this is going to be tough. It was all amazing and delicious. Maybe I'll do it by city...... LA - Bamboo Chicken Ramen at "Mr Ramen"; San Fran - hmm, it's a tie between the Chinese dumpling banquet and the creole fried chicken with mashed sweet potatoes; Austin - again a tie between the Brazillian meal and my sister's amazing home cooking; Chicago - purely for reasons of atmosphere, I'll give it to the Greek place. For service it would be the Italian. Both were incredible; NYC - this one is tricky... but I can't go past the amazing naan bread at the Indian restaurant on Thursday night!

*phew*, that was probably the hardest award!

Best Crowd: for size - Austin; for friendliness - all of them!

Best Venue: they were all amazing. Seriously. I can't fault a single one for helpfulness, staff, facilities, vibe. Brilliant.

Best Performance: hm, there were moments in all of the gigs that were really special... but I'll narrow it down to - LA, performing Cat Lamb's new piece for the first time; SF - we *nailed* the duos!, and premiering Jen's new piece; Austin - recovering after the score-slipping-incident; Chicago - performing Nomi's duo; NYC - getting to finally, after 2.5 years, perform "beautiful//fragment" for Jenny.

Funniest Moment: inflatible sheep. baaa.

Favourite Touristy Thing: again, too many amazing experiences to choose from! But a few stand out - the Frank Gehry buildings in LA and Chicago, seeing "Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom" at the Blanton in Austin, the California Academy of Science in SF (especially the Spiny Lumpsuckers!), and the Jenny Holzer exhibit at the Whitney in NY.

Best Nature Moment: definitely hiking in Austin, albeit brief!

Cutest Moment: Joshua (my nephew) wins this award, hands-down. He wrote/drew me a little sticky note when I was rehearsing in Austin, saying "good luck" for the performance. awww. Also performing at his school was a real treat.

...more awards to come!!

east coast style

i'm currently sitting in Los Angeles airport, whiling away the last 4 hours before boarding my flight home. Here are some reminiscences about my time in NY...

Arrived Monday afternoon from Chicago, after encountering all sorts of flight cancellations, re-bookings, delays, and finally a green light to take off. In the end I got to NY at around the same time as the flight they'd originally booked me on! Crazy.

Found Jenny/Juice and Tes's place, and used my new arty-farty brolly to fend off the rain. Just had time for a cuppa tea before heading out to an Irish pub in Manhattan for a session that Tes was playing in. Nice cozy little pub, good music, good beer, good food, good times. Was really great to see them both again, and to catch up on plans, accomplishments, memories and life in general.

Tuesday was a chance to sleep in a little, before braving the chilly breezy spring air to have a wander in the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. Not much in bloom, but there was an eerie starkness to the landscape. The cherry blossoms provided a sudden burst of colour and cheer. At this point I discovered the greenhouses, containing tropical and desert plants........and WARMTH!!! yay! I walked niiiiice and slooooooooow to soak up the humidity (my glasses fogged up as soon as I stepped inside!), before braving the outside world once more.

A short stroll home, then we headed out to dinner at a nearby Austrian restaurant - yet another addition to the ever-increasing range of cuisines I've had the pleasure of experiencing on this trip! And stay tuned for even more!! Then it was off into Manhattan for an NYU composers concert. Venue was an interesting gallery (can't think of the name offhand) which I'll keep in mind for my future performances in NY. THe performers gave convincing interpretations, and the program was diverse and bold. An excellent glimpse into some emerging talent!

Wednesday was concert-preparation day, starting with a rehearsal of Nomi's flute duo (with my Bang on a Can flutey friend Jessica Schmitz). It was nice to work with Jessica again, I wish we'd had more time to prepare one of the other cool duos I brought on this tour. Next time, for sure. Allowed myself plenty of time to get in to the city and find The Tank - it's really close to the big Broadway/Times Sq theatre district, which I wasn't expecting at all! Much crowd-battling ensued, until I finally located the venue. It really reminded me of the Metro Arts space in Brisbane - very cute funky little space!

Concert went great, and it was a particularly special night as I got to perform "beautiful//fragment" for Jenny for the first time. She wrote it for me almost 2 years ago, and I've performed it several times since then, but I've always wanted to have her hear it. It was pretty emotional for a lot of reasons, and I felt that it was one of the most 'true' performances I've ever given of this intense and confronting work. Rock on, Juice - thanks for writing such an awesome piece for me.

Post-concert celebrations were held at a Ukranian restaurant (I told you there was more cuisine to come!), and once again I can't fault the food/beer/company in any way.

Thursday was a day of reflection. Felt strange to not have a performance to look forward to, after 6 gigs in 4 weeks. In a lot of ways I was just starting to settle into the travel-gig-rest cycle. But in other ways I was exhausted!! After another nice sleep-in I headed in to the city to visit the Whitney Museum of American Art. Wow, I didn't even know this place existed until Juice and Tes told me about it. Absolutely amazing. I was particularly struck by the exhibit of works by Jenny Holzer. Very bold, confronting, thoughtful, emotional, considered, and totally etched on my memory. It's the first time in a long time (can't remember when) that I've actually been so overwhelmed that I couldn't view every single piece in the exhibit. It was a good feeling to be able to say "ok, I've had enough now" - all in a good way, mind you!

Thursday night Jenny and Tes had organised a little gathering of various friends at "The Cubbyhole". Being the first to arrive I sat in the window with a beer and people-watched for a while. After the intensity of the art museum this was a much needed moment of calm. The bar was in a really lovely little area (The Village??), and was an insanely cute place! Filled with colourful ornaments hanging from the ceiling, daffy duck stools, and a great vibe. The gathering was great fun, and there were several periods when the Americans in our group were outnumbered by Aussies+Brits. Go the Commonwealth! hehehe... everyone was really lovely (as I'd expect any friends of J+T to be!) and I had a great night of relaxing chat and laughter.

Dinner was Indian - and was awesome of course. I love that my friends and family know such amazing places to eat! Thanks guys, I've been really spoilt on this trip!! The walk to the subway was tinged with hilarity as we passed several sex shops. The inflatible sheep was particularly amusing.... and yet also disturbing! Ahhhh good times.

Today was travel, travel, travel. Left the house at 10.30am, subway-subway-airtrain, then flight NY-LA, walk-walk-walk, and now all checked in for my 10.50pm flight to Brissie. Still 3.5 hours to fill in before boarding, and only 30 minutes of battery time left on my computer. agh! Hoping that books, newspaper, dinner and possibly a short snooze will be enough to pass the time.

See you all on the other side of the planet!

Chi-town

it's hard to believe that i'm just 2 days away from the final gig of this crazy tour. in some ways the first concert in Brisbane seems a really long time ago, in other ways it feels like a whirlwind. it's been a great experience, and really rewarding in so many ways. performances in the 'classical' genre (in the broadest possible definition of the term!) generally don't get a season in the same way that a ballet or opera production might. all the hard work and months of preparation usually result in just a single performance. it's been fantastic, on this tour, to be able to spend more time developing the works in performance mode (which is totally different from practise mode), and to settle in to a rhythm of performance that's rare to find in this little niche of the music biz.

more reflections after i get home, but here's a quick run-down of the last few days.

during my week in austin i performed a small session for my nephew's 1st grade class. it went great! the kids were really attentive and asked some good questions. it was fun to see them getting up and dancing, and having a good ol' groove along to Zoom Tube. the next day i did a small session for my niece's kindy class, which was somewhat more chaotic, but pretty cute all the same. after realising that their attention span was pretty much non-existent i invited them up one at a time to try pressing a key down while i played. there were 3 or 4 kids who kept coming back time after time, and after all the others had gone back outside to play, this small group remained and just wanted to keep playing and investigating it all! very cute.

up through the middle of the country to chilly chicago, and my composer friend Nomi. i was also reunited with my flutist friend Tara, who had flown in from LA for this gig. yay! it was a small crowd, but i was really happy with the performance (even running my own sound for the first time - and it all worked!!). just as the concert started, so did the snow! behind me were a row of large windows, so each time i finished a piece i'd get distracted watching the snow fall. i kept commenting on it, even though i realised that it was an everyday sort of occurrence for the crowd. had a nice chat after the concert with another 'new music' flutist from chicago, so will be great to keep in touch with her and exchange repertoire ideas etc. also was approached by a man who had just arrived at the end of the concert, and thought i was some other 'janet mckay - flutist' that he knew in the area. i have a doppelganger!

after an arduous day's travel (should have been a simple 2 hour flight, ended up as a 6 hour marathon!!) i've finally arrived in new york, and about to head out to an irish music session. tomorrow will hopefully be a bit of a rest day (and laundry, emails, etc etc) and doing a last big promo push for Wednesday night's gig. would be awesome to end the tour with a cracker!