rachmaninoff and james bond

Our Rotary man, Norbert Bald, a.k.a. Luigi, he's friggin' huge with a kickass mustache, invited us exchangies in Ulm to go to a concert last night, which had Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto and Tchaikovsky's sixth symphony on the program. My host family had dinner sooner than usual, a little after six, which I was happy for because I didn't want to have to rush to get to the concert at 8. So, I enjoyed the typical meal of bread and butter and assorted lunch meats, cheeses, and vegetables, and told my host family I didn't have to go until around a quarter after 7. Then my host dad was reading the paper, and found the notice about the concert in it which said that it was at 7 o'clock, not 8. So, even thought I was skeptical, I took off, skimping on my clean-up duties in the process. Sorry Johannes. Got to the Kornhaus, a giant granary (not what you think of as a granary in the states) from the 18th century that was partially destroyed in the war, restored, and sometime turned into a concert hall, around 7:30, and what do you know, the concert's at 8. Retarded paper. I caused a little trouble at the ticket counter, cause Herr Bald had said that the tickets were bought and waiting for us, but he had decided to wait to see who showed up before buying them, smart man, considering I was the only one who came from the exchangies. All the rest of you are bitches. Except Aaron. Long live winter sport. So, I found my spot in the hall, and read the program and Homo Faber until the lights went down. I soon found out that the hall isn't great for big romantic music, it's rather dry, and the seats are flat halfway down, and then barely slope upwards, so you can't hear the piano as well as one should for a big piano concerto. The Ulm University Student Orchestra was playing, along with a pianist from Latvia, who was hhhhot. Herr Bald plays the clarinet, pretty funny to see this gigantic guy tooting on a clarinet back there. But, man, the second Rachmaninoff is my favorite concerto ever. I was really looking forward to hearing it live. Seeing the very beginning live is sooo exciting, I wonder if anyone who doesn't play the piano gets that excited. I hope so. I know Juan bitch wouldn't get excited. You can buy me a drink sometime, Juan. I want to play the second movement next year, but I don't know how that would fit into a recital by itself. Then the pianist played a Beethoven Bagatelle, I hate how Germans expect encores. I love the extra music, but the audience never stops clapping until they get an encore. I grew up thinking that encores are not planned, or expected, and are a very big treat. Stupid Germans. Then came the Tchaikovsky, which I can't relate to as well, seeing as it was his requiem piece, he died ten days after it was premiered. It wasn't all requiemesque though, and it was exciting all the same. Then they played some Waltz as an encore, expected again, bitches. Then I walked back through good old downtown to catch the bus back home. Informed my host dad that his paper sucks, and watched a sort of German version of Candid Camera, which wasn't very good, Germans just can't pull that shit off very well. Not that I watched Candid Camera all the time in states, either. Then, the Man with the Golden Gun came on finally at half past eleven, that was good. My wimpy host family all went to bed, though. Well, that was a long and boring account of last night. Oh well. I need breakfast.