Hope for the best, prepare for the worst

admin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:14:36 +0000

at a recital. Or a mini-recital. This one is just 30 minutes of music, as requested by the Minnesota Orchestra as part of my audition. So the question becomes: how much can you, or should you, pack into 30 minutes? I have accepted an invitation from a colleague to play through my 30 minutes at his house, in front of other colleagues and students. There’s something about a non-paying audience that ups the ante. Somehow, if people are paying, you can gauge their commitment: “I’m playing well enough to earn their $25!” But this audience will be small and critical. They won’t pay anything, but I will owe them plenty for caring enough to show up.

So what is the worst, if you must prepare for it? Actually, part of practicing is trying to improve your “worst” so that even if it happens, it’s not that bad. I’m playing 4 pieces the day after tomorrow, and I can imagine the worst for 2 of them. It’s the other 2 that worry me. This used to be the way with every piece for me. I would remember the best playthrough and hope that I could recapture it in performance. Now I tend to remember the worst and assume that it will come back to roost. The truth is somewhere in between, most likely halfway in between.

I must thank Akiko, once again, for encouraging me to do this playthrough in the first place. By doing it nearly two weeks before the event in Minneapolis, I give myself a chance to reflect. Plus, as I’ll be recording it, I can listen and judge for myself. As Akiko knows, each performance is followed by a list of things that I “should have done”. Hopefully, after Friday night, I can do those things, and my experience in the Twin Cities will be the better for it.

Beethoven: Sonata No. 10 in G, I
Bach: Sonata No. 3 in C, II: Fuga
Ysaye: Sonata No. 6 in E
Tchaikovsky: Valse-Scherzo

the Godfather trilogy eating game

admin — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:41:28 +0000

Not much of a game, actually, but you see so many “x drinking game” pages out there, that I felt this post needed such a title. This is actually much more than a game; if you decide to involve yourself in this it will consume a weekend. Akiko and I played this “game” a few years ago and invited 10 friends or so along. So, the game…

You watch the Godfather trilogy from beginning to end, with optional breaks in between the films. You eat and drink everything the characters eat and drink, when they do. I don’t know how recently you’ve seen the Godfather movies, but they are packed with food and drink. Much more than we realized when we thought up this idea. In the end, it worked, barely. It was certainly an unforgettable day and night!

So, to help out, I made us a spreadsheet. 4 spreadsheets, in fact, because Godfather II is split into two parts. If you want to recreate this event, all you have to do is download my spreadsheets and take a look at the different food/drink events in each movie. Each one is marked with its corresponding time in the movie. Since I don’t know when you’re starting the movie, you input that into cell E2, just as it says on the spreadsheet. The sheet will then calculate when you need to serve each “event”. It couldn’t be easier! Except that you will probably end up running around like your hair’s on fire, like we did.

So, here they are, the Excel spreadsheets. Download and enjoy! You will never think about the trilogy the same way again, I guarantee it!

natesviolin.com » Akiko

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst

the Godfather trilogy eating game