We have been told to refer to ourselves somewhat as leaderistas. This followed a lengthy discussion during our induction at the beginning of last month about the status of people on a leadership programme, to which our current state of affairs has been renamed. It was an internship programme, which naturally leads onto its subscribers being called interns. But what do you call those on a leadership programme? Surely not leaders, for that is what we are hoped to be moulded into - we settled on leaderistas. It’s neither a pleasant nor a particularly useful word, but that is the joy of democracy and informed discussion, and that is what we shall call ourselves, we merry little band of chaps. And why this seemingly irrelevant little diversion? Simply to lead us into the context of the substantive:

I went to see a piano concert the other day after work - Thursday, I believe, but they all start to blur into one. It was perfectly pleasant, I went along with some of my fellow leaderistas to a free recital performed somewhere on Southbank. I’m no musical-type, so it would be remiss of me to comment on anything of that sort, but it did all make me wonder why piano players do what they do. There’s something theatrical about the way they hunch over, tinkling the ivories with hands clawed, then they’re bolt upright, swaying left and right, sniffing the air in a restrained Stevie Wonder fashion. One moment it’s fluid, foot tapping, the next minute it’s jerky, brooding, clomping at the keys. It’s useful, it gives the novice a good idea of what’s supposed to be going on.

The one thing I can’t understand is why they wear such badly-fitting jackets.

Tags: dead cultural stuff

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 9:15 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.