Archive: The Fine and Right Education of the Young Doctor Benny

Last Saturday, Benny played his violin at the Stockley Gardens Arts Festival. You may remember this event from last May. They do it biannually. Or semiannually. Whichever means twice a year. Anyway. We showed up at the Academy of Music at 10:00 as directed and found that there would be ONE HOUR OF REHEARSAL before we even walked over to the festival. Okay. Benny's usually good for about 40 minutes TOPS of attention span before he goes over the moon. So, I was cautiously pessimistic. Dan took Sadie to the mall to run an errand while I waited with Benny and watched the rehearsal.

At 11 we met up with Dad and walked over to the festival. The performance was MARVELOUS. Benny was COMPLETELY INSANE though and tried to play on every song, even songs in book four. The teachers spent plenty of time trying to corral him and eventually just took his bow away when he wasn't supposed to be playing. This eventually made him sad. But his spirits were renewed when he was given the opportunity to play a SOLO. Now at this point, he had been playing the violin and trying to pay attention for almost two hours. His brain was so fried he looked like a zombie. Mrs. Morton asked him what he would like to play and he said, "Twinkle." I breathed a huge sigh of relief, since he knows Twinkle better than anything and it seemed like the safe, wise, choice. Then he launched into a version of Twinkle that NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD BEFORE. I recognized what he was trying to play but couldn't place it. I shot a look at Mrs. Stevens and mouthed, "WHAT IS HE DOING?!?" She had no more idea than I did. It was... hilarious. It was clear it was Twinkle but it was full of these bizarre and complicated embellishments he was trying to play by ear. At the end, he gave a huge grand flourish and a bow like nothing I have ever seen this side of Transylvania. Of course, everyone LOVED his performance. I had about six people from the crowd ask me if they could have him. :) He had a fabulous time.

Here is a page of pictures of the event!