the weekend

Sweet cuppin' cakes!! Gillian explained how to position the photos! YAY! And look, I clandestinely took pictures of the archive during the rehearsal on Saturday. Don't tell. Isn't it a beautiful place? The acoustics are pretty nice. I was turning pages for the pianist. THey played Schumann's Piano quintet, and then the Quartet played the Brahms a minor Quartet. It was a good concert. Fun to turn pages. Turning pages can be far more tortuous than being the performer, but I beat the odds and finished the concert with no regrets. Phew.



At the lunch break for the rehearsal I was planning to go home and take a nap and call Gilly, but then Francesca (the Archive lady) told me that the Academy (Nabore's academy) was paying for lunch so naturally I went along with 'em. It was funny because they chose a pretty cheap restaurant. They only got the cheapest "house" wine -3.50euro for the liter- instead of the 9 - 30 euro bottles that Nabore gets every lunch AND dinner. The Violist got this TINY bowl of spaghetti and the rest of the time ate bread. My kind of guy! It was totally fun, and even though all the conversation was in Italian I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and took part now and then. The quartet is a nice group of guys from all over Italy, who've been playing together for 10 years! The pianist was a very skinny dude from Milan. He was older but studied with Nabore 2002-2004. Nice. He said I turned pages well.


OHH! I made the most AMAZING spaghetti of all time on Saturday night. I finally bought some meat last week (some fat, red sausage links) and have been trying to figure out how to use them. This time I took them OUT of their intestinal package and fried them up with garlic, purple onions, and lots of pepper. Then I also had bought a large jar of tomato sauce which cost about the same amount as that many fresh tomatoes. Not seasoned, just saucy tomatos. mmmm. Then I made a huge salad. The spaghetti had way too much pepper, the salad way too much oil, and the water I was drinking had too many insect footprints on the inside of the glass, but it was DANG GOOD!!
Sunday night was another recital- Vittorio, who I had met at the Academy in Como when I was there last summer. He is a VERY, VERY cool, sweet guy. He has very messed up teeth, and is tall and lanky so he's not the best looking guy in the world. But he's married to this french girl who is also quiet and sweet and (stop reading, Gillian) REALLY pretty! It makes me so happy that they are together. Looking at goofy but kind him with this really pretty girl just makes me happy. He played Mozart A minor sonata, Schumann Symphonic Etudes and the 2nd Brahms sonata. The concert was in a bookstore! not ANYTHING like the archive where the previous 2 have been. It was exactly like SAntaquin Elementary's school library, with the exceptions that its a third the size, has a cafe attached to it, and a nice Yamaha grand. Apparently they have lots of concerts there. I will be doing my own recital there June 3rd. You are all cordially invited. It costs 4 euro.