Wednesday, June 30, 2010

I Heart Art

Saw Yo Yo Ma perform with the NSO tonight. My family came with and they were less than thrilled, which really bummed me out. I have all sorts of lofty ideas that art is for the people and transcends non-musical knowledge and whatever. Turns out I am a little wrong, but it also turns out that my family will shell out $50 a ticket and not read program notes so they can consume Twizzlers. I'm not sure that's art's fault.

Anyway, we've listened to electronic music in a number of my classes (Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima is NOT for the faint of heart. or anyone who is not hard of hearing.) and I've found it interesting, but not... linked? I guess, to classical music. The piece tonight, Golijov's Azul so was. It was brilliant. It was rooted in something I understand and then took leaps away from what I know. It was brilliant.

They also played Ravel and I LOVE Ravel. He's delicate, beautiful, and doesn't take himself too seriously. It's not superior. There's an awesome quote from Suzuki, I think, that says "Art is not in some far off place". Ravel got that.

I made a pact with my brain not to sing this summer, but I can't keep up my end of the bargain. I was so inspired tonight, not only to listen to more Ravel, but I have to sing some of his stuff because listening isn't enough. What a good night

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

There's no "I" in "Team", but there are two In "Idiot"

Today was a blissful day! Today was an afternoon off! I spent it in the sweltering heat of Nationals Ballpark eagerly watching Stephen Strasburg (from here on out called, Not-Cliff-Lee, or NCL for short) fire 98 mi/hr fastballs only a mere foot away from other dudes faces. We were a bit late, my friend got off work late, etc, so we showed up at the bottom of the 3rd. This is National baseball, ladies and gentlemen, not Philly Nation, so timeliness is definitely not of the essence.

Luckily, we didn't miss the best thing about the game; because, my vast audience, NCL was not the main attraction today. Nope, not the Boy Wonder's time to shine in this woman's eyes. Not even the obese woman shrieking six inches from my ears wins the award. (Although my favorite comment from her was the deafening roar of "CAAAATCH THEEEEE THIIIIIIIIING!!!!" to an outfielder who was hit an easy pop-up that even a National couldn't miss.) No, it was better!

A professional athlete, a member of the MLB, a Washington National, hit cleanly into the outfield and promptly fell down. Running from first to second base. He just... wiped out. Even though we haven't been hitting so well, none of my boys tripped rounding first.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Ex-Patriots, Profiteroles, and Dating Improprieties

Only related in that they are happening to me.

I've decided to marry a European. This isn't a new development, probably started about six years ago, but it gets more and more decided the older I get. The World Cup is the new propeller of this idea as soccer players are hot and more numerous overseas. American football, while made a beautiful feat of athleticism and masculinity by the Philadelphia Eagles, yields uglier dudes (Sorry, Donovan). Anyway, the brilliant idea supplied by my good friend Celia, was to apply for European citizenship. Cuz we don't need no mans. Or rather, she don't need no mans, because I do. However, two passports are better than one, so we're going to give it a shot. Horror stories of red tape coming soon.

I've taken up gymming again. Mostly because I've taken up profiteroles again. Homemade and seriously worth being the width of a small car for a couple of those suckers. However, three batches have appeared in the kitchen this week alone, so damage control must be done. Plus realistically I need to get a bit more fit so those fat-free footballers will notice me. My gym buddy is the lovely Celia, who was born with a terrible affliction that makes her skinny no matter what she eats. There is an old lady that comes to the gym as well and she scoots around the track with her walker. I must beg the question, "What is the point?" and where's the fun in getting old if you're not allowed to sit around, watch TV, and eat crap all day? but I do admire her commitment to fitness.

I accidentally agreed to go out on a date with someone three and a half years my junior. Accidentally because a) I didn't know his age, b) He doesn't look any younger than myself, c) He's nice and very cute, just a fetussssss! At my tender age of 22, that seems, uh, icky. Doesn't he know that you never ask a person out face-to-face!? That way the ask outee has time to decide if they really want to hang out with you and can make up an excuse to decline if the answer is "Not even worth a free meal"!!! Plus it seems ludicrous to willingly go out on a first date when ordering alcohol would just be considered rude. Which is a travesty in and of itself.

At least it's a change from my boss telling me I should go to pole dancing classes. He even offered to put a pole in the store for me to practice on.

I'm totally cute, guys. Tell all your European, soccer-playing friends.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Megalopolis, Ho!

The past couple of weeks have been marked by Capital Pride in DC. Generally, I don't take notice of society, but I happened to be riding the Metro reasonably early Saturday morning and I overheard a couple of women talking about the events they were going to that day. Then the conversation took a rather dour turn. One woman was saying that on their bus trip up from Fredericksburg, the driver noticed her and her partner holding hands and threatened to kick them off the bus. When the woman contacted his supervisor to complain of the disrespectful and blatantly unequal treatment, the supervisor's only comment was, "Well, maybe y'all made him uncomfortable". The woman responded, "Maybe he made ME uncomfortable".

I got off the Metro and cried in the bathroom before work. People have black hearts sometimes and it makes me sick.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Reasons to Delete Your Facebook

Now that I've grown up and have no time, three jobs, and embarrassingly low income, I can only check facebook once, maximum twice, a day. However, my heart hasn't really been in it. I no longer care if someone I once had one class with had a rough day at the summer camp they're counseling. Plus I feel there's been more and more over-sharing and it completely freaks me out. Today was particularly horrific, pictures I was cringing at, one kid updating his status a million times to give us play-by-play action of the Tony Awards (if I wanted to know I would have watched, dude), and two friend requests from complete strangers. Thus, my inaugural blog (inaugblog. I like it!) will be reasons I should get rid of the damn thing. Fear not, general populous, it won't come to fruition.

1. The highly inappropriate friend requests. Always from men far too old (and generally geographically impractical) to date and tweens too young to properly type their status updates and therefore must rely on numbers and symbols to do the trick. How did you even find me?
2. The painful life updates . Examples might be: awkward relationships. Maybe they post pictures. Maybe the rest of us look because our curiosity is simply too great and end up crying out in horror and feeling sick. Maybe.
3. Friends who invite you to everything/things you don't want to go. Then I'm dragged into making up a story of why I can't go, flirting with the balance between the absurd (because it's fun) and the believable (because I seriously don't want to go). I probably have something better to do. Plus who does wedding invites on facebook. Tacky. Texting's the only way to show you care.
4. Farmville.
5. Friends who update their status(es?) too much. Get a Twitter for the love of Thor.
6. Parent factor. My dad is pretty hip, he's got his own account and even periodically coerces my brother into uploading pictures to it from his cellphone. But one day he's going to figure out how to look at 1,100+ pictures of his baby girl getting sloppy drunk in bars and kissing random strangers for a scavenger hunt. Lord, help him. His own fault for friending me and my fault for not caring to figure out how to limit privileges.

I should probably be more generous. I communicate with extended family members a lot more on facebook than I do in person. Too bad they're all able to view the same pictures as my father.