Comments on: Frustration Pageant

By: Tom Dick

Tom Dick — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:52:55 +0000

Grow some balls, you sound like a child. If the guy at orange wasn’t Bengali would it still be 9 out of 10 on the fraud scale? You sound pathetic. A call to arms for Londoners? From you? Yeah, the revolution starts here and boy is it middle-class. If Londoners were like you the city would be dead in ten years.

[Nico responds: Well, I think the nature of this revolution would be specifically designed for people like me and our petty, bourgeois concerns like phones and getting coffee & sandwiches quickly. I can’t pretend to speak for the Subaltern in London, or anywhere for that matter â€” being born middle-class is so eternal, isn’t it â€” but it sounds like you ‘n’ Gayatri are ready to really roll up the sleeves and get to work with the capital-R Rev! Onwards! I’ll be on the sidelines with artisanal sandwiches for when you get tired. ]

By: Susan Tomes

Susan Tomes — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:53:55 +0000

Life in London is indeed frustrating, and you describe it so vividly. It’s difficult even when you live here and are used to it, but it’s alarming to see it through a visitor’s eyes. Many of our difficulties I think stem from the fact that there’s very little job security. People therefore don’t regard their jobs as anything to invest in, either in terms of background knowledge, pride in the company, or compassion for the customer. It’s incredible how often you find yourself pleading for information with an employee who confesses that they haven’t been there very long and have no idea how to answer your question. Somehow the indomitable spirit of London continues to flourish amid the chaos …. I hope!

By: conchis

conchis — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:25:40 +0000

I for one enjoyed both the music and the “call to arms” on Sunday evening. Having been stuck in blighty for some years now, I’ve gradually been worn down by the relentless inefficiency of the place. It was refreshing to be re-awakened from my complacency, and reminded how frustrating I used to find it all when I first arrived.

Thank you Nico (& co) for enduring it all, and managing to not only deliver a wonderful performance, but to do so in good cheer.

P.S. Was also a wonderful surprise to see you and Sam performing again last night with Owen Pallett!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:24:52 +0000

Thank you Nico (& co) for enduring it all, and managing to not only deliver a wonderful performance, but to do so in good cheer.

P.S. Was also a wonderful surprise to see you and Sam performing again last night with Owen Pallett!

By: Frederik

Frederik — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:09:50 +0000

Okay, it was inelegant on my part to point out the poor attendance. But I was surprised and did wonder if these damned Tube closures had anything to do with it.
It was worse than inelegant – it was Philistine. You’re not selling bags of lentils. If just one person in that crowd loved and understood your work, that would be enough, right?

By: Frederik

Frederik — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:45:47 +0000

Thank you for a very interesting concert on Sunday. It was poorly attended – perhaps the publicity was poor. The transport to the Round House certainly WAS poor because of the usual round of Sunday ‘planned’ closures.
You complained about the trains before conducting City Life – it was the only false note of the evening. Of course trains are terrible – this is old news. But it was inelegant of you to harangue an audience that had cheerfully braved the weather and the ‘planned’ closures to applaud you about the inefficiency of English trains. We already knew English public transport was shit as we had ducked and weaved and queued and changed buses to get to you. Fine to blog about it I guess, but not as part of a concert. It diminished the concert.
Moving to another country is always stressful and people always complain. The English distrust efficiency, you’re right – it’s a weird kind of snobbery. But there are cultural dissonances wherever you go. Someone from Oslo living in Zurich complains about the sloppiness of the Swiss. Et cetera. Setting up a new life in America has I am sure its own problems and frustrations.
I am not English by the way, defending ‘my’ trains. I’m Dutch, where as we all know everything goes like clockwork ….

[Nico responds: I’m not sure if this is the most depressing comment I have ever received, but it has certainly dampened whatever remained of my high after performing! Perhaps you misunderstood me. I wasn’t haranguing. I was calling for motivation. I’m off tomorrow morning early to Eindhoven. Tell everybody you know to take a bright yellow train to the show and perhaps it will be less ‘poorly attended.’ Jesus. I’m going to listen to Buxtehude and try to remember my experience of Sunday which was many smiling and laughing faces both onstage and in the audience.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:53:33 +0000

Nico,
Thanks for the wonderful post. Sorry about the hassle. I’ve done a fair bit of work in England and understand. My advice, go to Germany for a few days, come back and you’ll be amazed at how “flexible” the English have become 🙂

By: David

David — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:06:07 +0000

OK, I’m still awaiting moderation. But in the meantime, if it’s not too tedious to recall, a funny thing happened on the way to the homestead: dropped in on the big music library, fifteen minutes to closing time.

They were preparing for a special Burns event. I needed a score. They said, ‘but we’re closing at 6.50 this evening’. I said, ‘but I’ve come here specially and how was I to know that’.

Persisting, I got one lady to look and see if she had the Photopsis score I needed. She did, but it needed to be got from the store, and they were closing in ten minutes…

HOWEVER nothing can rival the sheer aggression of New York nocando. At the airport, of course, but also from the security guard to that funny little row of 1930s houses on the Upper West Side. Could I just walk up the steps and look in through the gate? ‘This is as far as you go’. Here, his opposite number would be humo(u)rable.

By: Ashil Mistry

Ashil Mistry — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:30:46 +0000

Oh Nico, you don’t understand the joys your blogs bring to me. And when I heard you were coming to London, my hometown, like, I was thrilled. I booked the concert about a month before you had it. And may I say how wonderful it was. I’m 16, yeah, so I was just about the youngest person in the audience which was kind of embarrassing, and on a school night. You wouldn’t believe what I had to go through to explain to my parents that you are pretty much my idol; so they would let me go. I got there with a friend pretty early at about 6:30. And I think I saw you walking from the main space entrance on the level 1 floor into some doors next to the place where they were selling your CDs (which I already have, duh). And I literally screamed. I don’t think you heard though. And I never imagined you to be so tall. And then at the concert, you walked on stage, and I specifically remember you saying: “Hi. I’m Nico.” – Dude, you rock. You rock. AND YOUR STORY ABOUT THE “NOT TODAY MO FO” HAHAHA made me laugh big time. This morning I woke up laughing about your rant about the train and the bus and the male perverts. Oh Nico you rock. And I have now seen YOU in person. I SAW YOU! IN PERSON!

Mr Muhly, thank you so much. Seriously. Reich and Glass, your mentors. You lucky, lucky guy. Thanks for an utterly amazing concert 😀

By: Kate

Kate — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:53:31 +0000

First rule of England: anything you want to do that you can’t do yourself must be done AT LEAST twice to be completed to satisfaction. They’ll get it eventually.

(P.S. I used to work at Schirmer but left before you joined their ‘stable’)

By: Dino

Dino — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:27:01 +0000

I stumbled upon your pretty website with delicious fonts and eccentric spelling. I wondered who is this? And then I read your marvelous blog…

Having recently moved to London a month ago, I cannot begin to relate more to what you’ve said.

Your tales of woe regarding bank accounts, cell phones, trying to find a place to print out a colour page, adhesives and the obstacles of functioning in a normal existence are spot on. I’m amazed at how I can easily lose an entire day to tick off one thing on my to-do list as the vortex of inefficiency and bad service consumes me whole.

Great job – wish me luck as I jump through the flaming hoops of fire involved in getting a gym contract next…

By: Nico Muhly and the Britten Sinfonia at the Roundhouse, 24/01/10 « mapsadaisical

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:16:03 +0000

[…] couple of days ago Nico Muhly posted a rant on his blog about how London was a complete logistical nightmare, how Londoners were too accepting […]

By: David

David — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:09:52 +0000

You know our famous ‘Little Britain’ sketch with the oft-repeated catchphrase ‘computer says no’? There really are folk like that.

Who rebels? Us cyclists in London – I note we’re rulebreakers and certainly don’t obey the pointless signs.

But then there’s the Round House, and St John – trust you have the lovely book – and…and…

Pleased, at least, you can point out our foibles without resort to the rampant Anglophobia that bedevils the Parterre opera site, with its rants against ‘fucking Brits’ – ohime, imagine if you replaced that with ‘blacks, Jews, gays’…

By: Christopher

Christopher — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:26:12 +0000

The internet is amazing: sitting in my house in boring Middle America on a Sunday afternoon, I could watch your Roundhouse show live from London via their website. A super concert, mind-stretching and very well-programmed. Also, loved how you vented some of the frustrations you blog about to the audience there. Great NYC subway story!

By: Francesca

Francesca — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:04:33 +0000

Nico

I hear ya! Im a Londoner born and bread – and im telling you, there is a skill with putting up with this here otherwise you will get nothing and have nothing you want! But you can make it into a fun game whereby you bargain and play with people until they give in to what you need. It works with the right attitude – which im sure you have – i promise. I had a similar situation the other day int he Roundhouse cafe too. I would say the staff generally were really amazing there – was doing a performance in the Dorfman Hub so was around for a few days – but I asked one woman for a frothy cappuccino and she looked truly insulted as if i had just stepped on her foot – and it was a it of a shit cappuccino in the end. hmmm.

Im really sorry to have missed your show tonight – due to unfortunate circumstances – but really wanted to make it. Are you doing any more performances in London soon?

Good luck with everything – and fight those frustating London vibes – its worth it for the pockets of amazing-ness here.