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starladyFirst off, the lovely and talented elisem is having a sale! If you like jewelry, rocks, and/or jewelry with rocks, you should really check out her work. This time around she's also auctioning tektites, I note specifically for any geologists reading this.
I went with my old friend kwviola (seriously, I think we've known each other nine years at this point. that's actually the shortest amount of time I've known any of my friends in this part of the country) to see the festival concert of our alma mater youth orchestra, the Philadelphia Sinfonia, at the Perelman Hall in the Kimmel Center. Sinfonia is huge now, huge--eight stands each of firsts and seconds, seven each of violas and cellos, seven basses! And that's just in the strings! But Gary White, our conductor, is equal to the task of marshalling all that raw sound, and the concert was excellent--I especially thought the ensemble was well suited to the Prokofiev "Romeo & Juliet" suite. They played the Lalo cello concerto with Jeffrey Solow; it's the first time I've heard that piece with a really nice cello, and I was struck by how different--less strident--the solo parts sounded. Very interesting. Also really intense emotionally, at least for me--my mom was a Sinfonia volunteer, and I was in Sinfonia in high school, so I felt a very dense nostalgia on top of my emotions being stirred by the music. We at Raw 1225, the sushi place, which is still so good (except for the miso: the kelp was tough), and had gelato at Capogiro too. Delicious. We also snuck backstage to say hi to the few remaining Sinfonia people we know. It's sad that for both of us, though we've since played in other ensembles, Sinfonia remains the height of our orchestral careers. If I'm still around here next year, I'm definitely going to see about joining a regional orchestra, just because I like playing in them so much. Also, Gary & Sinfonia were cited by Mayor Nutter at the beginning of the concert. His emissary couldn't pronounce "baton" correctly.
I finished Patricia A. McKillip's The Book of Atrix Wolfe (another victim of Borders' "let's sell the roof out from over our heads!" sale) on the train. McKillip is writes gorgeous prose, and while I liked Atrix Wolfe quite a lot I have to say that in some ways I actually liked The Bell at Sealey Head, her most recent book, which I read last week, more. The Bell is in some ways less highfalutin--most of the characters are middle class, with money worries and marriage worries--and in some ways I preferred that to the setting of Atrix Wolfe, which features princes, kings, mages, Queens and princesses. For all that half of it takes place in the palace kitchen, it's not as grounded as The Bell.
I went with my old friend kwviola (seriously, I think we've known each other nine years at this point. that's actually the shortest amount of time I've known any of my friends in this part of the country) to see the festival concert of our alma mater youth orchestra, the Philadelphia Sinfonia, at the Perelman Hall in the Kimmel Center. Sinfonia is huge now, huge--eight stands each of firsts and seconds, seven each of violas and cellos, seven basses! And that's just in the strings! But Gary White, our conductor, is equal to the task of marshalling all that raw sound, and the concert was excellent--I especially thought the ensemble was well suited to the Prokofiev "Romeo & Juliet" suite. They played the Lalo cello concerto with Jeffrey Solow; it's the first time I've heard that piece with a really nice cello, and I was struck by how different--less strident--the solo parts sounded. Very interesting. Also really intense emotionally, at least for me--my mom was a Sinfonia volunteer, and I was in Sinfonia in high school, so I felt a very dense nostalgia on top of my emotions being stirred by the music. We at Raw 1225, the sushi place, which is still so good (except for the miso: the kelp was tough), and had gelato at Capogiro too. Delicious. We also snuck backstage to say hi to the few remaining Sinfonia people we know. It's sad that for both of us, though we've since played in other ensembles, Sinfonia remains the height of our orchestral careers. If I'm still around here next year, I'm definitely going to see about joining a regional orchestra, just because I like playing in them so much. Also, Gary & Sinfonia were cited by Mayor Nutter at the beginning of the concert. His emissary couldn't pronounce "baton" correctly.
I finished Patricia A. McKillip's The Book of Atrix Wolfe (another victim of Borders' "let's sell the roof out from over our heads!" sale) on the train. McKillip is writes gorgeous prose, and while I liked Atrix Wolfe quite a lot I have to say that in some ways I actually liked The Bell at Sealey Head, her most recent book, which I read last week, more. The Bell is in some ways less highfalutin--most of the characters are middle class, with money worries and marriage worries--and in some ways I preferred that to the setting of Atrix Wolfe, which features princes, kings, mages, Queens and princesses. For all that half of it takes place in the palace kitchen, it's not as grounded as The Bell.
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Date: 2009-05-07 00:44 (UTC)Music. I wanted to see the St. Olaf band when they were in Fresno, but I got caught up on that day and forgot. Music really does add to life. I miss high school band, and that frankly is just sad.