October 17, 2002 | 10:24 AM

Tara is accompanying me to Bach�s Mass in B Minor tomorrow evening at Symphony Hall. I am so stoked. I haven�t seen an orchestral piece at Symphony Hall in awhile. The last time was almost two years ago when I flew my Mom up to Boston as a Christmas present, and we saw this amazing modern piece which was having its world wide debut. It was very Latin American influenced and Jazz influenced and there was choral singing and some dancing too and a lot of atonality and in some movements it reminded me of Stravinsky. It was so eclectic and enthralling. Unfortunately, being the dumbass that I am I can�t remember the fucking name of it. Which sucks. Because there is nothing I would like more than to listen to it on CD while smoking some grass.

As a kid, classical music was very important in my home. My Mother played piano for me every day from the time I was an infant. And my dad adored classical music more than just about anything (except maybe Upike novels and Heineken). My dad had like five different versions of every Mozart opera, and every LP ever recorded by every famous pianist playing Rachmaninov�s second piano concerto. My dad used to tell me bedtime stories as a kid about Glenn Gould. I�m not kidding.

He used to eat four eggs every day and one day he just stopped deciding to play music in front of people; he only wanted to record it because he felt playing live was imperfect and he wanted to create something absolutely without fault.

Was it because of the eggs?

What? Why would eggs have anything to do with it?

Anyway...

My family went to the symphony all the time. I remember seeing The Messiah and Mahler�s fourth at the Eastman Theater in Rochester. I loved being in that theater so much. But what I loved best was The Pops (hey I was a kid, yo�) At the Finger Lakes every season you could get lawn seats and hear the The Rochester Philharmonic Pops plow through the themes to Starwars and The Magnificent Seven (which I still think is one of the greatest pieces ever used in cinema.)

It was sheer heaven.

Anyway...

Tomorrow is the Mass in B Minor and I�m so excited I could just about pee myself.

Tara has never been to Symphony Hall, which makes it ever more fun.

I have free tickets to ten or eleven concerts this year through my second job, which probably makes it the best job ever. If you have to work some silly part time job in Boston, I seriously recommend working at an arts organization like The Huntington or H&H or the BSO instead of somewhere lame like The Stupid Company. For one thing, you are helping to actively promote something positive and favorable in your community as opposed to just slaving for the man. And for another thing, you get to go to all kinds of free cultural events that if you�re like me and spend too much money partying, there isn�t enough left over in the budget to cover.

So see, working for these type places makes it possible for you to have your drink and your art.

And that�s way better than having your cake and eating it too. Especially if you don�t like cake.