Random Monday: More Riots, Humor and Clammy Critics

A lot of items have come onto the radar this week, so tomorrow look for a bonus Random Tuesday post.

UPDATE: added a screenshot of the Watt Stand.

• Name this bell accessory
  A video loaded in the cycle of videos in the upper left column (pictured at lower right), has me wondering about the added piece of plastic on his bell. I imagine that it makes the bell resting on the leg more comfortable. Is this commercially available?

• Featured principal
  Gabriel Kovach is featured on the Phoenix Symphony blog.  As principal horn he is doing a super job week after week.

• Ha ha you’re a riot
  As a follow-up to last Friday’s “Audiences Gone Wild!” post, I did find this. (Really? The Belgian Revolution?)

• A different kind of Wiki
  From the Uncyclopedia, a definition of French horn.

• A different kind of humor
  This video you will either really like or really not understand – a humorous look at a fairly typical conversation at an orchestral audition. This gets a PG-13 rating for some foul language.

• The story of Sidd Finch
  It was 25 years ago when George Plimpton pulled a huge April Fool’s Day Joke with his story of a French horn playing pitcher for the Mets. (The original story.)

• Hit or miss
  While some critics in Chicago are naming names and pointing fingers at clams, some audience members have said “enough.”

  At Horn Logic one of those critics even steps up and responds.

  In a related matter, this quote in reference to the Vienna Phil was interesting, especially the last sentence:

The Vienna Phil.’s sound was extraordinary, of course: These guys never let you down there. And their execution was generally at a high level. How odd, I often think, not to hear horns flubbing. How odd to hear them play their notes sure-footedly. Don’t they know that horns have a divine right to flub?