The Last Symphony

Here's something random that I love about Powell Hall: every hair gets its own armrests - that's right, two of them.  That means that you never have that awkward airplane-shared-armrest thing happening.

You know the one: you manage to find your seat first and score the armrest, so you never want to move your arm and relinquish rights to it to your neighbor.  Or it might be that you're using the front portion and they're using the back portion, but when you start to get uncomfortable and want to move, you find that you're out of luck.  Or you have that moment where you touch arms, then you both pull your elbows in and mumble a non-committal "sorry," but you're really only concerned with whether you'll get your spot back before they do - but you can't jump for it too quickly or you'd be the overzealous seatmate.

But I digress.  Powell has chairs, and each one has two armrests.  That's nice.

The real point, though, is that the musician can play.  And the choir can sing.  And they did Beethoven proud.

It was quite an ensemble.

David Robertson himself, SLSO's music director, conducted the show.  He's delightfully unassuming.  He just walks out, steps onto the platform, and gets to it.  No showiness or need for attention.  Just getting right to the music.

The first half of Robertson's program consisted of Bruckner and Berg; post-intermission was all Beethoven, specifically his Symphony No. 9.  And it was fabulous - moving and fluid and energetic and great.

An Atypical Recommendation

Typically my recommendations are in the realms of the artsy: movies, music, and books.  And of course food.  I've occasionally ventured outside that range, but not often.

Today I venture again, and recommend A.M. Clark & Sons in Webster.  It's an old-school auto shop that does business the way it should be done.

Mike, the owner, can come across as a little gruff.  He's not mean, he's just a no-bullsh** kind of guy.  He'll tell you the truth about your car whether or not it's what you want to hear; then he'll explain it to you again if (like me) you get a little glassy-eyed halfway through his description of what was wrong and how he fixed it.

They do good work at a reasonable price.  It's an unfortunately rare business model these days.

Quote of the Day

"I think of cooking as a political act."
  -- Michael Pollan

Goal #19

Goal #19: eat vegetables.

I've been eating out a lot lately.  I think it's for a few reasons - I'm busier at work, there's a group at work that goes out once a week and I'm expected to participate, it's an easy thing to do when you want to get together with someone, I don't have much in the way of groceries.  Sometimes my menu choices are healthy, sometimes not so much.  So this week, I'm going to try to be good.

Today I cooked up some Brussels sprouts, asparagus, sweet potatoes, and sugar snap peas - they're all ready to go.  Hopefully that'll make it easy for me to grab a healthy snack or side dish when I need one.

Recap of goal #18: I've been pretty good this week.  Here's a recap:
Monday: running
Tuesday: running (sprints)
Wednesday: running
Thursday: climbing (bouldering, actually)
Friday: day off
Saturday: 57-mile bike ride; 3 hours of climbing
Sunday: 32-mile bike ride

Happy Mom's Day!

What I Watched -- Dead Man Walking

Wowzers, this is a heavy movie - as you might guess by its title: Dead Man Walking.  I remember wanting to see it ages ago when it came out (okay, in 1995), but it was one of the many movies I just never got around to.  For some reason I decided now was the time.

Susan Sarandon plays Sister Helen Prejean, a nun who has dedicated her life to educating the poor.  Sean Penn is Matthew Poncelet, a death row inmate with an unclear story.  He has obviously had a hard life, and he was unquestionably involved in something bad, but you're not sure until the end exactly what his involvement was.  Sister Helen, who is out of her depth when she agrees to act as his spiritual advisor, finds herself torn when she is confronted by the families of Matthew's two alleged victims.

Bottom line: both Sarandon and Penn do a fabulous job, and it's worth it for the acting.  But it is dark.

Quote of the Day

"The revving heart of my hopefulness, kicked into gear anew, is the most precious thing about me, I refuse to vilify it."
  -- Jonathan Letham, Men and Cartoons

Goal #18

Goal #18: cardio.

My rowing buddy is injured!  He hurt his back pretty badly and has been out of the game for a week now.  He's on the road to recovery, but it will be a while longer before he's water-capable again.  I could, theoretically, go out and row without him - but what fun would that be?

I'm trying to do other things to keep in shape, but without the regular morning appointment with C, it's a little more challenging.  I went climbing today, but that's more strength than cardio.  I'm going to go running tomorrow morning, but the rest of the week is still to be determined.

Recap of goal #17: I ran into a dilemma this week, which is that my version of Quicken was no longer supported so I couldn't download any of my transactions.  Fail.

So as of today, I have updated to a new version, but I still haven't trolled back through the records of all the money I've spent lately.  I guess I'll have to get to that this week.

This I Used to Believe

Y'all know I like listening to This American Life on NPR. There is an archived episode from April 2009 called "This I Used To Believe." It's a play on the NPR series This I Believe, which in turn was a copycat of the old Edward R. Murrow series of the same name. In both versions of This I Believe, famous people and average Joes were invited to write short essays identifying and elaborating on some particular thing they believe in.

The "This I Used To Believe" episode of This American Life wasn't good enough in itself to write about, but just the title of it got me thinking about all the things I used to believe which I don't anymore. Some of them are obvious and childish, some are just depressing: Santa, the tooth fairy, that bad things don't happen to good people.

Some of them are complicated, and I'm not even sure about them yet. Like life, I think beliefs are - and always will be - a work in progress.

What I Watched -- The Dark Knight Rises

I had a strange experience lately.  I started watching The Dark Knight Rises - which, I know, I should have seen on the big screen - but I knew I had seen it before.  I couldn't remember when or where or with whom, but I started skipping forward through the movie to make sure I wasn't just remembering a preview or something.

Nope.

Seen that part, seen that part, seen that part.  I stopped paying attention and had been playing on the floor with my dog for a while when I realized that I didn't actually remember this part of the movie.  Or this scene, or this scene.

Back up.

As best as I can figure it, I must've started watching the movie and fallen asleep for about the last 20 minutes, which is a bummer because that's the good part.  I'm a little bit limited in what I can say about it without spoiling it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, especially since I don't remember the early parts of the movie too well.  But basically it's brain candy in movie form.  (I'm big on brain candy lately, aren't I?)

Bottom line: it ain't over 'til it's over.

P.S. I have a crush on Joseph Gordon-Levitt.