The Symphony: A. Piazzolla. The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires,and transport

All three RantWomen, RantMom, RantWoman, and Little Sister did the symphony today. The program was  Astor Piazzolla's the Four Seasons of Buenos Aires and Vivaldi's Four Seasons. This occasion brought to us posthumously by a VERY beloved honorary auntie figure who brought a lot of music to the Rant Household decades ago. Both RantSisters count actually performing at least part of the Vivaldi work among our high school orchestra experiences. RantMom really cannot think of much she would rather do than spend time with at least one of her children and two is a giant bonus.

The concert was glorious.  The RantWomen, RantMom with her regular mobility cane, RantWoman with Ambassador Thwack (on incredibly good behavior) and Little Sister with her wheelchair were mostly very pleased with our seating. RantMom had good reason to grumble about line-of-sight issues from her seat so next time small adjustments in seating can happen.

So why the RantPost?

--Program notes

--Restroom issues

--Various threads of World Events swirling

Program Notes

RantWoman really misses being able easily to read program notes. Program notes are the main reason RantWoman's knowledge of European history is slightly greater than zero. RantWoman loves the musical details. And reading program notes aloud is not really either RantMom's or Little Sister's thing. RantMom is slightly dyslexic and RantWoman gets impatient when RantMom trips over foreign words. Little Sister has enough to do managing her own realities. Plus RantWoman is a child of the information age. Could there be, say, an app that has all the same ads and content as the program?  Okayyy, there is the matter of turning off one's devices during the concert but...

--In the meantime there is YouTube and Wikipedia so RantWoman can get SOME of the same information she would get out of the program, in this case just a video and a Wikipedia page.



The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires per Wikipedia

RantWoman found herself reflecting on all the various  flows to Argentina of immigrants from different countries. RantWoman also is barely conversant in Argentina's history but let the music settle her queasy stomach about the days of the dirty war.

Restrooms

--Rantwoman is a bit of a restroom geek. Thank you a grad school operations research class.

--The RantWomen get around by bus and frequently arrive at a destination with bus bladder.

--There really are plenty of women's restrooms in Benaroya hall and if ushers would direct people toward where their seats are AND tell them how to find the nearest bathroom, much greater happiness might result than everyone lining up and crowding near the entrance to the hall

World events

One of the gifts of the arts is simultaneously to connect one to and to distract one from the churn of world events.

Put asie all the dablling in history above.

Put aside mental rumble about the assassination of General Suleimani, all the carnage that might result, and the wild rhetorical posturing in social media. Nice of the Iraqi parliament to vote to ask the US to leave. Of course if The Orange One refuses to listen to the US Congress, why does anyone think he is going to care a bit about someone else's parliament.

Skip commentary about regularly scheduled face-off betweent  the Proud Boys and Antifa: RantWoman is charmed, well no, to learn that WA is an open-carry state, so anyone who wants can bring firearms to whatever events they want to. But what about all those other "weapons" the police try to confiscate: stiff wooden boards, some kind of board full of bolts..?  Does confiscating these items also infringe on the right to keep and bear arms? RantWoman is not a lawyer, but it occurs to her to wonder.

See, RantWoman is pretty sure decent protests can happen perfectly well without either firearms or the other "weapons" the police try to confiscate.

RantWoman herself has considerable experience and is still perfectly capable of helping foment obstreperous protests; RantWoman  in her doddering middle age would prefer not even to need to think about protest weaponry along RantMom's transit route from church to the concert.

RantWoman's twitter feed says there was  brief bus disruption of bus service: RantWoman was very glad to hear RantMom experienced none of it. And the RantWoman all found good bus connections home and did not miss the Link at all.