Pit & Pendulum
Tonight was opening night for the local production of Peter Pan. The wonderful thing about performances is that they’re shorter than rehearsals! I was out of the theatre by 10:30.
I suspect the production is pretty good. The usual opening-night mishaps intruded — a bit of mic feedback, a botched cue in the orchestra, and I’m told a tree fell over on one of the Lost Boys. (Question: If a tree falls on a Lost Boy, does anybody hear it?)
A friend reminded me how much fun being in plays and musicals can be for kids, and what a valuable growth experience. I was in a few when I was in high school. By now I don’t remember much about it, and the only growth experience I’m sure I had was starting to smoke cigarettes out behind the theatre. (It took me only ten years to quit.)
Oh … and the first time I ever kissed a girl was onstage in a play. We were playing a husband and wife. I still see her around town once in a while. I guess that counts as a growth experience. Maybe not in the same league as flying across the stage on wires, though.
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About the Author
Jim Aikin is earnestly attempting to enjoy living on this planet, in spite of the obvious difficulties that buzz like gnats around the process.
He fiddles around with synthesizers and music software and then writes about them for a variety of magazines, including Keyboard, Electronic Musician, Mix, and Drum.
He is the author of two nonfiction books — Power Tools for Synthesizer Programming and Chords & Harmony, both of which are nominally in print from Hal Leonard, although you wouldn’t know it from the pathetic sales figures on the royalty statements.
His fantasy stories have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and other magazines. Though he hasn’t been active as a fiction writer for more than 15 years, he has recently started sending out stories again, and has made new sales to both of the above fine publications in 2008. “Run! Run!” appeared in the Sept. ‘08 issue of F&SF and “An Elvish Sword of Great Antiquity” in the Jan. ‘09 issue. Another story, “Leaving the Station,” is in the December ‘09 issue of Asimov’s.
His two published novels (Walk the Moons Road and The Wall at the Edge of the World) are both out of print.
He teaches cello privately in Livermore and Pleasanton, California, and has performed with a number of local groups, including the Livermore Valley Opera, the Pleasanton Chamber Players, the Silicon Valley Symphony, the Pleasanton Playhouse, the Redwood Symphony, the Diablo Symphony, and the Livermore-Amador Symphony.
He has released five works of interactive fiction (text-based computer games, in other words) — “Not Just an Ordinary Ballerina,” “Lydia’s Heart,” “Mrs. Pepper’s Nasty Secret” (co-authored with Eric Eve), “April in Paris,” and most recently “A Flustered Duck.” The duck won first place in the annual Spring Thing competition for 2009.
His personal website is www.musicwords.net.
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