Exit Stage Left

I wish I'd brought my dinosaur camera on my commute to the office today. The photos would be unbelievable. I hiked three blocks to the bus stop, thinking I'd be totally late to catch a bus that only comes once an hour. I guess I didn't realize that I'd have to be a trained mountain climber in order to get out of my neighborhood. I managed to get there in time to see the bus heading my direction. When I got off on the 16th Street Mall downtown most of the sidewalks were clear, but crossing the street was a nightmare. The snow was waist deep on every corner. It was barely manageable. I walked in the middle of the street for most of the way to the Center. There have been bulldozers filling dump trucks with snow on all the streets surrounding the Arts Complex this morning, trying to keep the streets and sidewalks clear. This is traditionally one of the busiest weekend's of the year in the Complex-- with 10,000 sold-out seats--I wonder how many people will be a no-show's.

The day has been harried and hectic. In total we canceled nine performances, equating to thousands of displaced patrons (and who knows, at this point, how many hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue), angry that they can't come to see shows that were already sold-out. I can just imagine how bad it is for the airlines-- Frontier alone says the storm displaced 64,000 passengers. To make matters worse for us our phone lines keep going down and kicking people out of queue. It's a mess, but we're pulling through. The worst part is that I feel totally helpless. Due to the box office union I can't just jump on the phones and help out--it's awful.

To top it all off: my all-time favorite performance piece, Too Hot To Handel, performed by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra is tonight and tomorrow night. They usually do two to three performances of this piece each holiday season. I have been attending each and every performance for more than five years now. I cannot begin to express how much I love this symphony--it's simply my all-time favorite performance piece. I'd rather hear this symphony performed live than sit through any Broadway show I've ever seen; and that, my friends, is saying something. Unfortunately the three soloists scheduled are all out-of-towners and have been unable to get to Denver. Apparently they will be moving forward as scheduled with a local cast, but it simply will not be the same without Lillas and Thomas, quite simply two of the best vocalists I've ever heard. The silver lining is that Marin has been, and remains, in-town to conduct. Still, I've been waiting all year for this concert and I can't hide my own arts patron frustration and disappointment.