Week 6: September 29

Ok, picture-heavy post this week, folks.

 Hey, I’m not hearing any cheers……

 Oh…..right. Well anyways, mid-week I went to see City Hall with friend B. She was really excited to go because so many movies have been filmed there, and wanted me to take some pictures of her in various cool spots. 

The Grand Staircase

Big Head Kid

Ceiling

For some reason I find this funny. So official, so overly obvious.

Several floors down

On Thursday was Ian’s chamber recital with Paul Katz and Pei-Shan Lee. All of us in his studio were really excited about it, and it was even better than I expected. First they played Beethoven trio, op . 1 no. 1, then Ian and Pei-Shan played Enescu sonata no. 3. After intermission the three of them played Mendelssohn c minor trio. I especially enjoyed the Enescu sonata. Ian made it really gipsy-sounding and fun, and I was interested and absorbed the whole way through. It was almost like he was a real Romanian (ha).

Side story connected with Ian’s recital: before they started the second half, Ian said “I want to thank Paul and Pei-Shan for coming and playing with me. Paul is one of my oldest and most favourite teachers”. To which Paul Katz responded “Oldest??” This brought down the house, and Ian said that maybe he had better stop there, and he sat down and they played, and that was that.

Another side story connected with Ian’s recital: he was rehearsing all afternoon, so we (his students) held studio class on our own. Six people played including me, and everyone made comments, and we finished class a whole hour early. I thought this was funny because when Ian’s there we always run late.

This weekend was the first set of SFCM orchestra concerts. We did a Saturday night concert and a Sunday matinee, both of which went really well, although Sunday was more cohesive. Our program was Ravel “Mother Goose Suite”, Justin Ralls’ “Tree Ride” and Brahms’ second symphony. You may remember that I met Justin in the first week, when we went to Off the Grid for Steph’s birthday. He was quite happy with our rendition of Tree Ride, and I got to like the piece quite a bit myself, and I was so happy with the way the orchestra performed, and that Ravel is just drop-dead gorgeous, and Brahms is magnificent, and it was just a wonderful weekend overall. 

Today before the concert I went to Fort Mason with B and my roommate. We wanted to check out the $1 book sale, which was slightly disappointing, and I didn’t end up buying anything. But here are some pictures of the glorious views.

"The more of us who walk, the more of us survive"

See, told you it looked like Currie Barracks.

Book sale in that warehouse on the right

Palace of Fine Arts in the distance

Obligatory picture of the GGB

The first time I was here, one kid commented “That looks like Benjamin Britten” and another kid said “Oh, I thought it was Walt Disney”. It’s actually some obscure American politician who probably isn’t nearly as deserving of a statue as Britten or Disney.

He looks like he's checking a cellphone. "Seriously?? No new noties??"

I also found a very special geocache, one of the oldest in California – it was placed in 2001. It was in a beautiful, quaint community garden, very peaceful. I could have spent all day sitting in there with the sunshine and flowers. Unfortunately I had to go play the violin (kidding). 

Legendary geocache in plot 6

Pretty

I really like rustic gates like this.

Now we get a week off from orchestra before the next program, which I'm also playing in. But looks like we're off to a great start.

- Antisocial Violinist