Thursday, November 29, 2007

Jazz Hands

Last night Mark took me to a concert at the University. It was a compendium of jazz standards. As we sat listening it quickly became apparent to me that we were in a rather cliquey world. Everyone seemed to know each other. Most held conversations about jazz that sounded like a foreign language.

It also came to my attention that going to a jazz concert is very much like attending a Catholic Wedding. Especially if you aren't Catholic. When everyone starts to clap at inexplicable places, I experienced the same sense of panic as at my first Catholic Wedding. Only there people started to cross themselves and kneel at what appeared to be random points. Nothing makes you feel more like an outsider than not knowing the secret handshake.

It prompts you to start look for clues. Anything that will give you an idea of when should kneel, clap or cross yourself. Anything to blend in. When this hopelessly fails you seriously consider just standing up and yelling, 'yeah, um, unindoctrinated here, could someone pass me a handbook.' This you hope, will at least keep you from bowing when you should be clucking like a chicken.

Picture from Flickr

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