Crappy Composers Redux

I’ve never been Number One at anything… until now, that is. An anonymous commenter (possibly my mom) on my earlier post advises me that I’m now the Number One Crappy Composer!

It’s so good to be rewarded for my hard work. I’m … a little … choked up … I’ll be back. Sorry.

Just What I Needed

Well, now I know I’ve finally made it. According to this morning’s traffic stats, someone out there found this site by performing a Google search on the phrase “crappy composers“.

The visitor spent 13 seconds on this page, then made a beeline for my bio, and then went away, perhaps having found what he or she was looking for.

(This one’s for Patty, by the way.)

Into the Future

There’s too much to say in one post about this Budapest trip and the premiere, plus I’m not at home this week. So, I’m going to try to drop a few tidbits here and there as I get the odd opportunity.

Visiting Budapest after 13 years was wonderful and surreal. I’d been reading up on it recently, and had come to expect drastic changes, but I was very relieved to observe that in fact very little had changed. Sure, there were a lot more shiny stores and a lot more in the way of conveniences, and yes many of the buildings had been spruced up. But, being there still felt exactly the same; people on the street looked exactly the same, if perhaps a bit younger and happier.

A building I lived in for about 6 months in 1990

My memories of my three years there in the early 90′s are so unbelievably vivid that the experience was a bit like what it must be like to travel into the future. Suddenly, the lousy state-owned Russian restaurant on Andr�ssy �t wasn’t there anymore, replaced by a Chinese restaurant. Suddenly the Blue Metro line had become extremely rundown. Suddenly, there were a great many interesting, well-lit, well-decorated restaurants and bars all around the city. Suddenly, there were people out and about at all hours.

It was also a surprise how immediately I felt right at home — like I’d never left. By Thursday I was pretty much thinking in Hungarian again, which was nice. I’d been brushing up over the past year or so (coincidentally to this commission). But I found myself in some very strange situations. For example, one day a woman approached me on the street asking if I had change for the parking meter. I had no trouble understanding what she wanted, or even responding (which would have been a problem up until about a year ago). The trouble was that I didn’t know the new coinage! Here was this foreign guy, clearly having been in Budapest and understanding the language, but acting like a tourist with the money. She must have thought I was nuts.

More observations and anecdotes coming soon…

Much to Report

I’m back, and the whole thing was a huge success.

There are many details I’d like to share, but no time right now. I will be fleshing out this post, but it might not happen this week. Off to D.C. for Thanksgiving. Sigh.

Culture shock

Eh, not really. Budapest hasn’t changed as much as I’d expected. And I’m very glad.

Just came from a rehearsal. Words cannot describe how good it is to hear live instruments playing what you’ve only heard in your head or via MIDI playback. A few tempo disputes, which we’ll surely settle over a few rounds of p�linka later on. Otherwise, hooray!

I’m sitting in an airless, smokey flourescent-lit internet caf�. Must go now. Must ….. breathe…. air…..

UPDATE: Here is said internet cafe. The the right of it is Budapest’s first Burger King, which opened when I lived here around 1991. It was said to be the largest Burger King in the world at the time. Shrug. It had wonderfully tacky decor. I must go and see if they’ve toned it down.

The view from my studio…

Just playing with my new phone/camera actually. If nothing else, this will certainly make blogging more fun. In the two or three months since I’ve been paying attention, this is one of my favorite blog posts.

Now this seems like a good time to mention that if you haven’t had Hand, Foot and Mouth Syndrome, it’s one of the more interesting mild illnesses you can get from your kids. If you have a toddler, then it’s only a matter of time. Sorry.

Enjoy!

Perfecto!

I don’t care what anybody says. Oobi is the best thing on television.

Trent Lott’s Porch

I hesitate to put a lot of political stuff here on the blog, but this is just too, too good.

http://trentlottsporch.com/

It’s come to this…

I just went to Safeway in my slippers. Just plain forgot to put my shoes on.

How pathetic is that.

Synchronized Swimming

Over the weekend we were visiting my in-laws in Carmel Valley. We took Philo to the “neighborhood” playground, which was about a 15-minute drive away. Adjacent to the playground there is a community swimming pool where some folks were rehearsing a synchronized swimming act. What an unlikely thing to see.

So, we had to hear the same music over and over again. The music, which was too loud (so the swimmers could hear it), was in a very clich