Hitchcock's Birds - in real life!

What words might you associate with this picture?

Pretty, stoic, birdly, feathery?

Perhaps...

I call it EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of these little bastards attacked me today as I was walking by a creek.  It swooped down and hit me with feet or wing right on the top of my head.

It didn't hurt, but it shocked me - and those who know me, know that my reaction was not silent.

I let out a loud "FU@&" and expressed my dissatisfaction on my cell phone to the person with whom I was talking.

I was hung-over and all I wanted to do was lie down and sleep on the grass in the sunshine, but I couldn't do that with this evil little monster flying around!

This evening, I was able to identify the species of bird online and discovered that I am not alone in my experience.  Apparently, it is well documented that these are malicious birds and they like to defend their territory by swooping down on people often!

In other news, today was my last day at the ballet school I have been playing at in London.  It was a great part-time job to have this year, but I'm glad the year has come to an end.  I've long known that ballet-piano is not something that musicians can do for a long time without a certain embitterment and general disdain for the world; I'm finding that I'm getting close to my saturation point.  It's good to have it as a back-up or part-time job, but I will be happy to not have to play for dance classes next year in Vancouver.

I think I will still play for some exams because it is contract work and I've already learned the music, so the investment has already been made!  

Not to say that I can't still improve in my playing for dance classes, but I think I've learned about as much as there is to learn from ballet classes about the relationship of dance and music.  I am looking forward to exploring that relationship more through a creative process - working more with choreographers and professionals.

Note to self:

If you play for a ballet class over a period of 6 months and still don't know the names of the students, do not allow them to become aware of this fact.

Reasons:

-Who'da thought... the egos of teenagers are bruised when they discover that you haven't even learned their name, "but I know YOUR name..."

-This gives them many tangents on which to go off and talk about during the class and any hopes at discipline during said class are ruined.

-They all suddenly and loudly tell you their names, expecting that this is the magical day when you will finally figure out their names.

In conclusion,  traditional ballet pianists sit behind the piano and only occasionally draw attention to themselves - they are happy to never be noticed so that they can read their favourite magazines between exercises.  While I've avoided that so far, maybe there is rhyme and reason to that approach...