' talked to one of my friends yesterday...

[MikeMason]

there's always beer...(insert pics of buxom german beer drinkers)

[Tubaryan12]

My Mom was blessed with good looks

Shame she didn't pass them on to all of her kids.

Someone had to say it

[rocksanddirt]

an interesting topic. A few thoughts....1) there are always folks who really just feel like complaining sometimes.
2) I know an auto mechanic who is both smart, and honest (and who is the one that works on our cars).
3) A healthy non-profit arts organization does not rely on individual concert/event ticket sales for regular operating budget. Donations, sponsors, and season tickets support the regular budget.
4) All jobs are jobs at some point, and the question is 'what is intollerable in a work situation?' For me, I know I hate sales so I stay away from that stuff. Doesn't mean I havn't had to do my share of marketing presentations, proposals and such.
5) The car thing....I think that gas cars are going to be around for a long time to come, but that folks who turn cars over (new one every two years, or whatever) are still going to do that and the folks who hold them and repair them will continue to do that. That said, our annual mileage has gone from about 25K for two drivers to about 6K for two drivers, which extends the useful life of a car quite a bit. and the useful life of the driver who rides his bike to work, hence getting some exercise.

[Uncle Buck]

Just self-indulgent rambling (isn't that the whole point of a BBS?), but . . .

When I was in my late teens, several adults in my life with perspectives similar to Bloke's tried to talk to me about my desire to pursue music as a career, and to convince me to consider alternatives. I was young and stubborn, and didn't listen to those arguments at all.

If I had listened more carefully, I could have avoided some extremely difficult years, and could have avoided wasting a lot of time and money. (Funny how the older you get, the more value you see in having had a few extra years of contribution toward a mortgage, retirement, etc. Those things just didn't seem that important when I was younger, single, with no kids.)

But, if I had avoided those difficult years, I wouldn't be the person I am today. Maybe that's a good thing, maybe not. I'll probably never really know.

My difficult years were in extremely good economic times, so I never had a situation where I was not able to land on my feet well enough to pay the bills and get by. If I were facing those difficult years in current economic conditions, things could be very different.

[Mojo workin']

Obviously, you have a good grasp of the mechanical. Why not (since this orchestra orients most of its services and rehearsals towards the evenings) give up your students and get a day-job as an apprentice auto mechanic?"

I appreciate the thrust of Bloke's suggestion to this individual to become trained in a more economically secure type of skill/career. There is the application, however. Let's not forget the possible conflict of levels of education, values, tastes, ways of communicating, etc. between a shop full of auto mechanics and said professional musician/private teacher trying to learn the trade. I have much life experience in this situation; just replace auto shop with cabinet/furniture shop and professional musician/private teacher with over-degree-ed free-lance tuba player/teacher. Those were a long ten years to spend with basically high school (or less) educated workers and bosses who have a different psychology about most things and can't understand why 'with your college education you'd want to try to do something like this'.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

Those were a long ten years to spend with basically high school (or less) educated workers and bosses who have a different psychology about most things and can't understand why 'with your college education you'd want to try to do something like this'.

Amen, brother! Lest us forget the friends and relatives who constantly barrage you with questions like "when are you going to do something with your degree?" or say things like "with your talent you should really be out there playing." Blech...it would be nice if more people understood that you can't just call up the local symphony or school and say "Hey, I'm here! Give me a job!"