Frown

At the weekend my friends and I were glared at by an 8 year old. One of her favourite toys is a very cute cuddly cat. It was sitting on her father's lap when he got up in a hurry to answer the door. Something about the awkward way he balanced himself and the light weight of the toy meant that it was actually flung (accidentally) across the room and into a wall. The daughter was visibly upset and went to rescue/comfort the toy. Unfortunately it was so funny that all the adults laughed at her. We all received the frowning of a lifetime – which only made it funnier.

I regularly receive an even more harsh staring.

I rehearse every week in a band that never performs, so we just play for fun. Most of the songs don't have well defined endings, we just sort of carry on until they reach a natural conclusion. During one of these songs another guitarist and I enjoy improvising throwaway lead lines and playing silly call and response games.  The best musician amongst us is the de-facto musical director, she'll be playing bass while this is going on and will try to cut short the messing around. She used to slow down the bass line to bring the song to an end. It's easy to recognise and it's about the musical equivalent of your mum shouting "Time to come in now lads, your tea's getting cold". However we often ignore her and keep playing. In retaliation she has started playing a chromatic run up to the tonic that is an absolutely unmistakable "THIS IS THE LAST ONE". Although with practice you can still ignore her and keep playing. The song now ends when the bass is playing a rallentando chromatic cadence, and the bass player is giving you a harsh stare.

Richard "D.S. Al Fine" B