.the gpb kids.

So we left Wondercon around 1 30p because we had a concert to catch- Joshua Bell at Zellerbach Hall. For those of you who don’t know, he’s been around forever- he played the violin parts in The Red Violin. I remember him from when I was in jr/hs- I listened to his recordings of Fritz Kreisler’s pieces over and over. And when I lost that cd, I went out and bought it again. He played the following repertoire: Tartini’s “Devil’s Trill” sonata, Dvorak’s Four Romantic Pieces, Prokiefiev’s F minor sonata, Grieg’s C third minor sonata, some encore I don’t remember, and Heifitz’s arrangement of Love for Three Oranges. I really enjoyed Grieg’s C third minor and the encore Love for Three Oranges- fiery and expressive, and sweetly lyrical where it needed to be. The Prokofiev was played in a surprisingly light and delicate manner sometimes compared to how I envision Prokofiev: bold, heavy, and distinctly Russian. The Tartini and Dvorak were less memorable for me, but were still very pretty. I think it was a good concert, even if he said all of one sentence to the audience during the entire time. But it’s about the music, no? Yay for music! I think mike enjoyed it too. 

The result of my wall painting efforts. Wall 1:

Heading out to see the Hong Kong Children’s Orchestra:

Some highlights for the night:

Funny Item #1:

My old Chinese Choir teacher, Sister Teresa, was at the concert (retired from SF back to Portland last year).

Sister Teresa: How’s your Sai Lo? (at this point her inflection sounded like Child. As in MY child)

Me: Um, beg your pardon??? (My friend Chi also looked at her weirdly, because he heard the same thing)

Sister Teresa: You have a Sai Lo, right?

At this point she uses a slightly different inflection (read: correct), eyes Chi, and then it clicks. She was actually saying Sai Lo. Little Brother. Different Emphasis.

Me: Oh, that’s just a family friend. My brother is older than me.

Funny Item #2:

I was talking to Chi, and was telling him that my grandmother didn’t really get or fully appreciate music (she likens music to sawing and noise; Ngee Ngee Ngaw Ngaw, if you will). And he looked over at my grandmother, sitting at the edge of her seat, staring intently ahead. “See, she appreciates music. Look how interested she is”. And at that point, my grandmother suddenly burst out with, “That guy is REALLY bald on the back of his head!!”. Ah, so that’s what she was looking at. Music, what music?

At a bakery for some bahn mi

I saw a couple of movies over the past few days. Yep, I actually put aside my netflix DVD’s and went to the theater. That’s what happens when you have a girlfriend. >_>

Over the weekend we saw Knocked Up, Judd Apatow’s (The 40 Year Old Virgin) new movie. At over two hours it’s a pretty long comedy, but the jokes keep rolling so it doesn’t feel very long. There are a few cameos thrown in there for good measure too. Like Ryan Seacrest and James Franco (Jules was like so *_*).

Now let’s take a second to think about the message of this movie. Get a girl drunk, sleep with her, get her pregnant, and then she’ll give you a shot. Hmmm.

Once is a ‘modern day musical’ about a pair of musicians who form a strange bond around their music. I guess it’s not that strange. I’m undecided on whether I like the ending or not. Anyway, the music is pretty good and I hear it’s on iTunes so you should check that out.

Message of the movie: rock out.

I saw this Cibo Matto music video a while ago, but it just popped up again over at Digg. It’s pretty creative. What do you think?

Let Go by Frou Frou is one of my favorite songs, and CAL is my favorite school, so this video is doubly exciting.

Once upon a time I went to see Ted Leo play in SF… and life was swell. MP3.com just interviewed him about his most influential albums. I went ahead and put the movie on GameSpot User Videos so I could share it with all of you. Enjoy!