Relatively Eventful Irvine Day no. 1

Returning to bass trombone after months of playing a wimpy F-attachment tenor is a euphoria as close to heaven as one can achieve here. Effortless low Ds and Cs, pedal tones that actually sound like something. I had the chance to experience this today for about 30 seconds and it could not have happened at a better time. Today's visit to NHS met moderate success; I would like to have watched Philharmonic rehearse a bit (I suppose the concert on Thursday will suffice), and we forgot to show Mamer the photos with us and Dennis Kucinich's wife. But these setbacks did not prevent all enjoyment - it was a nice kind of nostalgia today, a welcome escape from the bitter and unsympathetic variety that trips to Irvine often instill within me.

The usual trips to the reject racks of Ralph's and Albertson's followed, but sadly there were no amazing bargains to be exploited today.

Breakfast was Mimi's Café, where a waitress angrily spat, "Who got the Belgian waffles?!" I of course took several seconds to respond to this, confused because while I had indeed ordered Belgian waffles, I expected them to be served sans attitude.

Weather

Those merciless meteorologists are still attempting to convince me that it might rain today, that there might even be thunderstorms. But I've had enough of their backhanded trickery. I've been betrayed for the last time.

Club Sandwich and Shostakovich

I was going to attend the UCLA Symphonic Band's concert at noon today but ended up just going to lunch instead. Normally I would be feeling guilty about this, but today De Neve had the most amazing club sandwiches on thick bread, which I ate two of along with the remains' of my friends'. Another exciting development in the world of UCLA dining is that desserts are now labeled; finally we know (at least vaguely) what we stuff into ourselves twice daily. Time will tell if this is a permanent change and whether or not it is exclusive to De Neve. Today there was a dessert called "Chinese Chew," which I found to be a misnomer because there was nothing Chinese nor chewy about it. However I have no idea what I would call it myself; apparently the dining hall staff don't either.

Last night was my first concert as part of UCLA Symphony. The program included:
Mozart - Overture to Don Giovanni
Rheinberger - Concerto for Organ no. 2 in G minor
Shostakovich - Symphony no. 5

It was probably one of the most enjoyable performances I have ever given, deeply reminiscent of my first concert with the NHS Philharmonic and Tchaikovsky's 4th symphony in Fall 2004. Something about Shostakovich's 5th is immensely moving to me. It doesn't quite connect with me on the same personal level that Tchaikovsky's music does - but what it does do is create sympathy, perhaps because it is so difficult to imagine a more perfect way to capture the suffering of millions at the hands of Stalin than with this symphony. I suppose Shostakovich is more difficult for the modern audience to understand than someone like Tchaikovsky, with over-the-top crowd-pleasing lyricism beginning to die out and modernism setting in. Plus there were a few bumps and bruises in our performance, namely at the end of the allegretto, where a missed clarinet entrance nearly resulted in a trainwreck. Despite this I believe we succeeded in conveying the proper atmosphere. The largo in particular is just absurdly tense throughout; and our director did such a fantastic job conducting it and drawing us into the music that it seems impossible that a single person in the audience could have not felt it.

Stains and Schedule

These are surely the clearest possible indications that my TA was acutely focused when grading my essay:


Here is my tentative schedule for next quarter:

PHYSICS 1A - Physics for Scientists and Engineers: Mechanics
COMPTING 10A - Introduction to Programming
MATH 32B - Multivariable Calculus
FRNCH 2 - Elementary French