Tuesday, August 09, 2005

From the mailbag...

Eman writes in response to "Love Hurts, Love Bleeds!":
My son got dehydrated at his vort. He needed an IV afterwards.

Believe it or not, despite our best efforts, he got dehydrated at his wedding. Luckily, we had prepared an IV and one of our doctor friends infused him during a break in sets. BH, he was fine and did not spend the night in the hospital.

(We learned later that it was actually a depletion of electrolytes which is different from dehydration. Indeed, if you are not taking in salts, drinking water can be counterproductive).
Pinny writes in response to "Al Tashlicheini L'es Zikna":
I wanted to comment on the post "Al Tashlicheini Leis Zikna". I strongly agree with the writer that older musicians are just not really revered and hired anymore due to "appearance". Never mind the fact that most of these "older" musicians are very well-versed in everything from Classical to the current Jewish pop music.

My father has been one of these musicians, who since the early 60's has been a composer, musician, teacher, and performer. He was one of the first one-man bands to premier in the NYC area, and is still "on the scene" albeit fewer gigs due to the fact that the "younger" crowd has seemed to have been able to corner the market. I too am a musician as part of the "younger" crowd, and I feel there is tremendous competitiveness for gigs, and spending hundreds of dollars a year on marketing can only take you soo far. Basically, don't depend on music as your mainstream job, think of it more as a "sideline".

My advice is just to keep plugging away, young or old and with Hashem's help, He should be able to give us all the parnassah we need.