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dusty 08 February 2009 - 12:54 Last night I went to bed early. Way earlier than I usually do. And I woke up... just as late. Ha! But somewhere along in my dreams, I got the silliest idea pop into my head: look up Dustin Art Williams online. Then the thought faded and I went on to dream whatever the fuck else it is I dream. Upon waking, I partially understood where the thought came from. Dustin Art Williams was my orchestra conductor back when I was in Junior High. He used to drive this little banana-cream yellow car around, which he later sold or traded for a huge, ugly brown van. He then had all the members of the Advanced orchestra go over on a Saturday and spraypaint the shit out of it. It was the most kick-ass vehicle of any of the school staff. He was, of course, the hippest fuckin' teacher ever. I had so much fun under his tuteladge. He had the orchestra play all sorts of fun shit. Somehow, I remember he even got some composer dude we really liked to write a whole "symphony" just for our orchestra. It was supposed to represent the music of our region. Instead of classical, our orchestra'd play jazz, blues, rock or whatever the hell was popular on TV at the time, like the theme from the Simpsons and Tales from the Crypt. He left at the end of my eigth grade year.I was so down-trodden! I strongly believe, to this day, that if he hadn't left the RGV, my sister would still play her violin. Mr. Williams would've stuck up for her when Mrs. Isadore tried to force her to go into state, I just know it. Or perhaps he could've found a way to convince my sister that she was good enough to tryout - but he would've never forced her into it the way Mrs. Isadore tried to do. And, had he stayed in my hometown, I would've still been playing my viola now, maybe even professionally. But he went to Utah to study violin-making, which was a passion of his, and both my sister and I dropped orchestra less than two years later. I don't regret dropping out of Mrs. Isadore's orchestra, but I do miss my viola. Classical music, however I wanna view it, will always hold a strong place in my life. So after I ate breakfast today, and struggled through the routine of inserting foreign objects in my eyes, I came over to my computer and looked him up, just for kicks. Most music teachers have some kinda webpage, right? Well, I found this:
It was on the website of William's Fine Violins and Luthier Studios. Do I gotta point out the obvious? Eh, I will anyway: THAT'S MR. WILLIAMS! How frickin' awesome is that shit? He realized his dream! The fucker did it! And that just made my frickin' day right there. I'm tempted to write him an email, but, well, we'll see. I still have my Junior High yearbook, and he wrote a note in there for me: "Make All-State, practice hard, live long, get rich, then buy an instrument!" I'll keep his place in mind once I get past the rest of the list. |
