The Only Pirate at the Party by Lindsey Stirling

Author:Lindsey Stirling
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books

THE ITALIAN JOB:

A MUSICAL

The summer after I turned twenty-five, I spent a week performing at a Celtic festival in Courmayeur, Italy. When I was first contacted about participating in the festival I gaped at the e-mail in shock. Italy? Someone wants to hire me in Italy? I was still traveling to various college campuses so the thought of going to Europe had me in hysterics. As a kid, I watched the 1995 production of Riverdance at my grandmother’s house almost every weekend (Michael Flatley, what a babe). I felt as though it had prepared me for this moment in some small way. I pulled myself together long enough to type out a professional-ish response before watching hours of festival footage online.

Prior to my departure, my mom gifted me an undercover security belt she had purchased for her trip to Russia several years earlier. “To carry any valuables,” she said, happy to pass along her international travel savvy. What she forgot to mention was how difficult it was to actually access the aforementioned valuables. Every time I had to pay for something, I felt like I was giving a striptease. You should be tipping me, buddy. If there’s one thing I’ve since learned from international travel, it’s not to draw attention to yourself. Wrestling a giant pouch of money from your bra practically screams, “TOURIST! COME AND GET ME!” I eventually ditched the pouch. After all, I wasn’t a tourist; I was a paid musician, a businesswoman, a professional.

When I arrived in Italy, a burly man wearing a dark suit and sunglasses picked me up from the airport in a blacked-out sedan. He did so without speaking a word. His eyebrows resembled two hamsters, and he was wearing at least five pounds of gold jewelry. I was fairly certain he was a Mafioso, hired to murder little American girls. I was trying to devise a plan to retrieve the pocketknife from my secret pouch without being shot, when suddenly we turned a bend and I found myself in the midst of a breathtaking valley, filled with trees and bustling people. After opening the door, my driver reached into a black leather briefcase and pulled out a pair of dancing clogs. He slipped them on and gingerly jumped onto a nearby stage, joining a group of step dancers in rehearsal. Slowly, I retracted my hand from the secret pouch.

“You must be Lin-sey! Welcome to Celtica!” said a voice from behind me.

I turned to see a man in flashy plaid pants approaching.

“My name is Alessandro. I will be your translator for the next few days. Come, you must meet the others!”

Grabbing my violin, I followed him through a clearing toward a giant stage lined with posters—of my face!

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.