After doing some "light" repair work, last minute paper/e-stuff, Mrs. bloke doing her last of her farm stuff, etc...
We left outah blokeplace c. 8:00 P.M. on Tuesday night (as a strategy to avoid Thanksgiving traffic).
That route involves picking up I-40 east of Memphis, driving to Nashville, then to Louisville, to Cincinnati, to Columbus, to Wheeling, and then to an old established south suburb of Pittsburgh, Mt Lebanon.
Losing an hour and arriving there c. 8:00, we had already eaten truck-stop hot breakfast sandwiches (to prevent my daughter from having to rustle up stuff for us on our grandkids' last school day).
I was sorta halfway out of it on Wednesday, but believe I was somewhat cordial. Mrs. bloke slept in the car. Somehow, young bloke stayed awake all night in the car, talking incessantly. He continued to ask me riddle questions... As the night driving wore on (Tuesday night), I began answering "bird" (being "the word") as the default answer to every riddle (as Mrs. bloke was asleep).
After a pretty good night's sleep Wednesday night, my daughter and son-in-law made Thanksgiving pretty special. Thursday brunch (at my daughter's home) was a browsed cold breakfast featuring all sorts of exotic cold cuts, smoked salmon, cheeses, breads, etc., along with the espresso machine running constantly.
Later, was "sweets" time, when a bunch of fancy candies and other sweets were set out for everyone.
Thanksgiving dinner involved a specially-prepared turkey (which was picked up from a special turkey-preparin' place) along with one of bloke's famous hams (for which I'm known locally, and which we brought with us). All the amazing sides were there...too much food (just as with all the rest of you). Before we ate, the middle grandkid (15-year-old wiz-kid) opened up a couple of Lego table centerpieces, dumped out all the random pieces (ignoring the instructions) and put both of them together (intricate) in about a half an hour each. The 12-year-old grandson and my grown son were working through their favorite video games on the largest TV screen I've ever encountered in a house (a good bit wider than their fireplace mantle, and I know there are even larger ones...I'm just referring to my own personal experiences). The 17-year-old granddaughter...well, she has a boyfriend (etc.)
After dinner (as one of the two sisters of my son-in-law recently decided to move to Pittsburgh - as well as his parents, who have bought a house, but haven't completed their move from TX), the sister and her family brought the kids over for-and-with desserts, as well as the other sister and her kids who were also visiting...18 peeps in the house, and all on the main floor (LR/DR/kitchen).
Everything eventually settled down, we got another night's sleep, and my son-in-law left out early for his PSO dress rehearsal. Each Friday night (and Sunday matinee) after Thanksgiving the PSO does a version of the Vienna Philharmonic NYE concert (as Manfred Honeck is Austrian, and loves the tradition).
My son-in-law managed some very nice balcony comp tickets for his family as well as for the three of us. (He could have probably secured tickets anywhere in Heinz Hall for us but - knowing we're musicians - he knew where we would prefer to be seated.)
The concert commenced with Der Freischütz (overture). The violins' interpretation was appropriately powerful.
Immediately afterward, out came saxophone virtuoso, Steven Banks http://steven-banks.com/biography to play the Tomasi concerto. (I've never heard it before; I'm certain - if I hear it again - no recording nor live rendition will top this one.) As an encore, he played a very slow/unaccompanied rendition of The Lord's Prayer (the old TV station sign-off music, just before the overnight test pattern).
Mixed in the the Strauss pieces was a Puccini opera intermezzo (something sublime/slow as a contrast). Mr. Banks came back in the second half and performed one of the movements of a composition of his own (with strings only) on - this time - his tenor saxophone.
The Strauss "Hunting" polka was played, (with the principal percussionist running in-and-out of stage doors with his "rifle" (slap-stick) and musicians pointing this-way-and-that towards deer sightings. He was wearing a hunting vest and hat with "safety orange".
As one of the two encores, he was right back out with a rolling bench with an anvil and hammers to accompany the orchestra in Feuerfest!
Quite a few Strauss waltzes and polkas (as with the VPO/NYE concerts) were fit in-and-around other works. The final unprogrammed encore - appropriately - was the Radetzky Marsch (the one whereby you've noted - when viewing VPO/NYE concerts - that the audience claps along during the loud phrases).
The PSO's horn section is absolutely electric, and the horns (as well as the woodwinds) are located in an acoustical "sweet spot" in Heinz Hall.
My son-in-law (yeah...we all have our daily and long term things which we must address, and - certainly compared to blokeplace and environs - some of the costs of living there are - to me - eyebrow-raising, but...) is "living the life", and deservedly so.
for fb-ers, here are a few random pre-concert pics: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=957 ... 9919442339
(Even though it will result in inappropriate friend requests, I just made these pics "public".)
WHILE THERE
I also had worked out a trade with a gentleman who lives in a northern suburb of Pittsburgh.
HE - has a C tuba project for which he needed a nicer (no cracks) bell. I slicked out an appropriately-sized bell for him (one which I didn't believe I'd ever need for myself, might - ?? - have used someday for a repair for someone else, but so what?)
He ALSO would like to try his hand at making a carbon fiber detachable upright bell for a King tuba body. I explained to him that the taller flange found on a King fiberglass sousaphone bell - along with the wider shelf found on those) would be much better than a regular (brass) King tuba/sousaphone male bell connector...
...so I traded him that male bell connector and that very nice-looking (once I worked on it) USA-made bell IN EXCHANGE for a somewhat-dented/somewhat-shiny King BRASS sousaphone bell - as a go-to auxiliary bell for my recently/economically acquired vintage King fiberglass sousaphone. It's a later-vintage lead-soldered one - rather than an older-vintage brazed one, so it's thinner and lighter-weight (thus far less "top-heavy" than would have been a vintage brass King sousaphone bell - on the lightweight fiberglass body). Here is it: (Later today, I'll go out to the shop and slick out this new-to-me bell.)
oh yeah...ALL THREE are in the Boy Scouts. (The girls are in an all-girls patrol, as the Boy Scouts - yes? - involve themselves in far more skill-oriented things than do the Girl Scouts.) My daughter is very active in regards to both her daughters' patrol and her son's separate (boys) patrol.
