Magical Three Day Weekends

Ah, the magic of three day weekends. I've always felt like there should be a day in between Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday night I went to a great concert at the Lily Pad in Inman Square, seeing basically the same jazz band I went to a week before, with the addition of a great trumpet player. Since he put a video up on YouTube for public viewing, I'll share it with you folks! Here in an excerpt from his piece "Lindsey" which he wrote for a good friend of his, on her birthday.

I would also suggest if you're in the area to go next door to The Druid, a great pub with lots of amazing stouts, IPAs and other beers on tap. If you're more hungry than thirsty, I would try Cinderella's Pizza, which is closer to Central Square (about a 15 minute walk from the Lily Pad, and seems a lot longer in freezing winds and dropping January temperatures). Even though I am lactose intolerant, I'm still thinking about you cheese lovers, hence the pizza recommendation, but they also have lots of sandwiches and other entrees, and it's super cheap!

On Monday, I went to Finale, which is a restaurant, bakery, and dessert place. I had a mouthwatering pizza with goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes, fig sauce, arugula and walnuts. Turns out, I can eat goat cheese without the lactose intolerance repercussions. Dessert was another issue. We shared a dessert sampler which had a mini boston cream pie, creme brulee, chocolate mousse, whoopie pies, apple pie, and pumpkin cheesecake. The lactose intolerant in me thought about it for a second, before taking a huge bite of the boston cream pie. I pick my battles.

Yum! 

On Tuesday night I went to go see Silver Linings Playbook...there are so many ridiculously good movies out right now. Silver Linings Playbook is a really great feel good movie, both funny and serious, with some really fantastic acting. And I respect Jennifer Lawrence so much more as an actress.

A few more fun things I've done instead of spending it on the internet? I went to a delicious Thai restaurant, Brown Sugar Cafe, really close to BU and my apartment. Had a great dish called Honey Pork, which came with veggies (mushrooms, baby corn, peppers, tomatoes), with a delicious honey garlic sauce...savory, sweet, and extremely filling. Can you say food baby? I was so full I was having some issues with my breath support later when I went to practice my excerpts. It being Friday night and all, after practicing, I ventured out into the Bostonian tundra, which was snowing, and met a good friend at City Bar, in the Lenox Hotel that I've blogged about before. We had a lovely little hang out and caught up, since we haven't hung out since before Christmas. I was also really glad not to have a repeat of my cowboy-boots-meet-icy-sidewalk incident from two years ago, where I was on my way to play pool at Jillian's and had a bad fall right outside my apartment, and bruised my tailbone pretty badly. 

Oh, and backing up a little bit to Thursday night, I went to see the BSO perform another great concert. Saw Symphonic Metamorphoses by Hindemith. The last movement is also transcribed for wind ensemble, and it's really one of my favorite pieces, so I'm going to include that at the end. Also saw Steven Hough perform Listz's first piano concerto, as well as Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev (not to be confused with the Tchaikovsky version). I'll also include a movement at the end of this post. 

I'm doing a few more fun things this weekend, that I'll surely write about, but for now, I need to hit the practice rooms before my rehearsal for Schumann...and I will include that music in my next post. Have a wonderful rest of the weekend everyone! 

Hindemith conducting his own piece! With Berlin Phil...

And here we have an excerpt of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, performed by the Cleveland Orchestra. Not only is this piece pretty bad ass, but it has some great moments for all instruments, including orchestral saxophone. A few words about being a wind player. I usually judge the integrity of the recording of this particular piece by the sax player. Not only is the solo towards the end the first notes the saxophone actually plays, but it's on a loud low note which is hard to articulate at the dynamic marked, also...while everyone else is playing the orchestra is gradually going up in pitch. When the sax comes in on the correct intonation, it sometimes sounds a little off because everyone else is playing a few cents sharp. So if the notes come out, the phrasing makes sense, and it's in tune, I nod my head in recognition that being a wind player in orchestra is difficult, and whomever is playing that particular part nailed it. Enjoy.