I went to hear a concert yesterday at the Rubinstein International Piano Competition. Among the pianists is Carlos Ibay, who's been playing since the age of 2 and developed an international career including concerts in Carnagee Hall - and he's blind since birth. He doesn't learn the notes by Braille, but rather by listening to the music repeatedly. Oh, and he sings as well, from Opera to Gershwin standards to Filipino folk music. And speaks 7 languages fluently.
In an interview, Amy Sedaris, also known as Jerri Blank, said she invented a new style of acting, where you say how you feel instead of acting it. In every episode of Strangers with Candy she would look at the camera and tell us what's going on deep inside: "Sad", "Humiliated", or, my all time favorite, "Shame, it's just more shame".
My least favorite radio station, the classical top-40 WCRB, decided to adopt the same approach. Instead of playing quality music, they pause every 10 min to tell you (in a deep baritone) that they are "the best classical music station". Listen, morons. There's nothing less relaxing than someone hammering into your head "W-C-R-B, the most relaxing music on radio". And you cannot make up for a minuscule collection of music, dominated by fringe boring baroque composers (William Boise? Who the hell is he?) by repeating the mantra "best music on radio". And, by the way, interrupting the music every 5 minutes to tell us you're continuing with your long sets of uninterrupted music is, how shall we say it, kind of dumb.
I've just returned from one of the most exhilarating musical experiences of my life.
The Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela and its 26 yo conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, were in Boston, playing to a full house in Symphony Hall. They started with a superb performance of Bartok's concerto for orchestra. After the intermission they continued with Beethoven's 7th symphony, with such energy and accuracy you rarely hear from mature orchestras, and this is an orchestra with some 12 and 14 year old kids (the age range is 12 to 26). The audience was roaring with appreciation and, for lack of a better word, love. And then they almost brought the house down with their rendition of Bernstein's West Side Story - with almost 200 players on stage, this is a huge orchestra, but with the vitality and agility of a single-minded daemon.
The official part of the programs ends after 2.5 hours, and the audience doesn't let them leave. Dudamel returns for an encore. The lights go out for a few seconds, and when they're back the players have taken off the black jackets and are wearing light rain jackets in Venezuelan flag colors: red, blue and yellow.
Three anchors later, the audience is in ecstasy, the players are walking around the stage waving their instruments (while continuing to play them, god knows how), Dudamel is lost in the orchestra, cellos and double-basses fly in the air, some players walk around the stage, climb on the conductor stand, jokingly conducting the riot, stumping with their feet, doing "the wave", grinning from ear to ear... and the music keeps flowing.
Absolutely amazing. I've never seen such an explosion of talent. I'm still smiling and shaking. Read more about it in the Globe or the LA Times.
As Simon Rattle said, "The Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela conducted by Gustavo Dudamel is the greatest show on Earth." I'm happy I was there.
My friends Danny and Tao Kai always complain that they can't get me anything, since I have everything I can possibly need. For my 1/3-life crisis I threw a big party, and even though I specifically asked for no presents, I ended up with a few highly useful items I never knew I needed!
And the top 3 are:
1. Lips. You can always use a pair of red lips.
2. A set of 6 self-adhesive mustaches. Don't be caught in public with a naked upper lip!
And my personal favorite...
3. A wine bottle cozy. You've probably seen bottle coolers - used to chill a bottle of white wine, or to keep it chilled while it's not refrigerated. But what about red wine? How can you keep it in room temperature when it's too cold outside, or if you've just brought it up from your cold wine cellar? The hand-made wine cozy comes to your rescue!
I'm still looking for a title for this blog. In the meantime, I decided to borrow one from Joey. I don't remember if he was a bit under the influence when he came up with it, but I always thought it's a brilliant summary of the impossibility of looking backward and reliving your life. Even if we did know everything that was going to happen, every result of every possible action, would we make the right choice? Joey gives it a 50-50 chance, and he's probably generous. Oh well. We'll burn that bridge when we cross it! (another one from Joey's).
Here they are, the top things you don't want to hear on your radio:
"You have had some horrible surgeries. Tell us about them." -- heard in a WBUR interview with polio survivors. I was not fast enough, and heard a bit about having all your foot bones broken before I switched the station.
"This is our spring fund raiser." -- is there really a difference between a commercial based radio station like WCRB and a sponsorship-loaded fundraising-every-other-week NPR station?
"My name is Laura Carlo, and I want to tell you about my wonderful new Bose radio." -- turns out there is a difference after all. How come a voice so sweet and full of high-fructose corn syrup just makes me want to puke? (WCRB)
"And now, a symphony by William Boise" -- WCRB has approximately 12 classical CD's. This seems to be one of their favorites. I had never heard of this composer before WCRB, and its main talent seems to be having written 5-minutes symphonies, that fit right in between commercial breaks. Oh well, maybe he sounds much better on a Bose radio.
Anything to do with Lake Wobegon. -- Prarie Home Companion's host Garrison Keillor is the male equivalent of Laura Carlo - hearing his voice creates an allergic reaction in my body. And regarding the so called "humor" of the program, I'm in one mind with Homer Simpsons on that: in one of the episodes Homer and family find themselves watching A Prairie Home Companion with increasing frustration. Homer is finally reduced to pounding the television and yelling "Be funny! Be funny!"
"With us is Dr Montross, a psychiatrist in Brown University, who has released a poetry book about her love of cadavers." -- heard on WBUR On Point.
I'm a big fan of PostSecret. Secrets of other people can make me laugh, or cringe, or feel sad, or see something in myself that I knew was there and wasn't let out. I collected my favorite secrets in my website. You're welcome to try to guess which of them are actually mine. The one I did intend to send is still in the top drawer of my desk.
