I got to go to the rehearsal for this concert. It was a working rehearsal, and if you are a donor of a certain level to Carnegie Hall, you have access to attend these rehearsals. I am not a donor, but I was there anyway.
As you can imagine, most of the donors are old white people. This is a prime opportunity for me to get quotes from their conversations. The four ladies behind me were probably about 80, and very clearly veteran Carnegie Hall donors/attendees. Here are some snippets of their conversations:
“Last night, I didn’t expect to be, but I was quite successful at finding Netflix on my computer”
“My friend got Amazon, so she can shop, and I asked her why she doesn’t close it and she said she’s afraid she won’t be able to get it back”
“When I walk behind you, I think wow, she’s grown out of those pants. Throw those out”
And, when Joshua Bell came out…
“Oh look at his little tush” and “He looks so boyish with his floppy hair”.
The lady next to me saw some of my hand tattoos and asked about them, so I showed her my Joshua Bell signature tattoo and she was baffled by it – did he tattoo it on there himself? Did he sign my wrist and then someone else tattooed over it? Did he know he was signing something to become a tattoo? Does he know it exists?
Possibly the highlight, other than the actual performance, was my attempt to get rocks to Joshua Bell and his assistant, Heidi. Heidi is extremely nice to me (and extremely patient) and I REALLY wanted her to have some rocks that I tumbled. I had already given Joshua Bell some rocks at a previous concert, and he seemed to really like them, so I needed for him to have more rocks, obviously.
I had a little purple bag of rocks for Heidi, and a little black bag of rocks for Joshua Bell. Because of Carnegie Hall’s strict covid precautions, I was not allowed to go backstage to say hi to them, so I found my way to a guy at a desk just inside the stage door.
Darcy: Hi, can you maybe deliver something to Joshua Bell and his assistant Heidi?
Guy at Desk: Ummm.
Darcy: They are expecting it!
Guy at Desk: Oh ok, what is it?
Darcy: Rocks.
Guy at Desk: Rocks.
Darcy: Yes, see? Rocks. The purple bag is for Heidi and the black bag is for Joshua Bell.
Guy at Desk: Rocks in bags.
Darcy: Yes please.
Guy at Desk: Which color for which person, again?
Darcy: Purple for Heidi and black for Joshua Bell.
Guy at Desk: (after I handed him the bags) And these are…they are rocks?
Darcy: Yes. And if you forget which one goes to which person, it’s ok because I texted Heidi to let her know which color is hers.
Guy at Desk: Ok. So I’m just…going to go deliver rocks to Joshua Bell, then.
He did it, though, because shortly after that, I got a text from Heidi confirming delivery!
Here are some of the rocks:
