Brainy bones

This weekend I am playing in the orchestra pit of a musical called A New Brain.  It is a recent musical, created by William Finn and James Lapine.  It opened Off-Broadway in 1998, and to some degree, is autobiographical, describing Finn's personal experience with Arteriovenous malformation.  I had to look that one up.  An Arteriovenous malformation is a congenital deformation of the connections between veins and arteries.  This means that the blood travels directly from arteries to veins without first travelling through the capillaries.  It is genetic, which explains the song Gordo's Law of Genetics.  The musical centers around songwriter Gordon Schwinn's medical crisis and the healing power of art.  The music itself is good, for the most part, but with an unusual orchestra ensemble of reeds (alto sax, clarinet, piccolo, and flute [that's why I'm in it]), French horn, cello, drums and piano (and a variety of keyboards/synths). 

In the spirit of the show's opening this weekend, here is a giant brain cell.  Just for fun.  :-)



Take a look at those dendrites!

 On a completely unrelated note, here is a blue trombone:

It's a P-Bone, a plastic trombone, endorsed by trombone artist Jiggs Whigham.  Yes, it's a real instrument (not to be confused with other instrument-shaped-objects that may be found elsewhere.)  I got the opportunity to try the blue one and it plays reasonably well, though a bit thin in tone.  The slide moves well and it's really light!  They are also available in red, yellow, and green.