January 7, 2004 at 8:27 AM

Yesterday on my way home from work from my day job I stopped by the library and picked up a copy of the violin concerto by Benjamin Britten with Mark Lubotsky paired with the piano concerto played by Richter, for some reason I found the violin concerto only moderately interesting and it didn't really hold my attention. Given there was a recognizable melody but I just didn't find it that appealing, I did however find the piano concerto alot more appealing. I had to hear this disk to satisfy my curiosity.

After that I headed off to my second job at the pizza shop. It turns out I wasn't scheduled to work. See Friday we were really busy (people freak out here when the Buckeyes play) and everyone was working hard except for one person and of course I told him what to do. Granted he is a manager but that doesn’t excuse his lazyness, all the other managers work hard! So he’s like "I don't have to answer you" then smiles this huge grin and walks away. On top of that it was my birthday and I would not take that on my special day especially when I really didn’t even need that job, it was just something to keep me busy when I didn’t have a girl in my life to occupy my attention. That was it, I would not take it, it’s the principle of the matter and I told the head boss I never want to work with him or see him ever again and that I could work somewhere else when he was working there to fill out the hours if I decided I needed the money. I have no respect for lazy people and if someone doesn’t do what I tell them when they aren’t doing anything and everyone else is working then I have to do something about it no matter what. So sure he doesn’t have to answer to me but then I also don’t ever have to work with him or seem in ever again, there’s your respect you lazy jerk. I’m so sick of lazy people looking for a free ride in life and leaching off of everyone else. So I requested a schedule change but I didn’t think it would go into effect right away and as it turns out, the synchronicity of the whole thing couldn’t have been better because I wanted to talk to Holly. I called her last night and it turns out she was out shopping and I missed her twice but it was so nice having time off to call her last night. She was home tonight though much to my (and her) delight and we had a great conversation about our past, future, and we set a date to be together this Friday, another day I would have been working if I did not request a schedule change. So everything worked out really well and all at the exactly right time. I really feel the chemistry between us and that we have something strong going here.

After I talked to Holly, I went to sleep around 8pm because I was really tired. I woke up at midnight and started to think…

How about a midnight practice session at the office?
Did I really want to play and at any volume I desired?
Did I need to copy rare OOP cds for my friends?
Did I want to be warm without jacking up the gas bill at home?
And more importantly did I get enough sleep?

Sure enough, I loaded up car with my violin, guitar, sheet music, rare cd’s, and some beer, hey it’s not like I’m not drinking on job right? It’s after hours and no one would be there and knew I would be sober in the morning.

So driving to the office I passed the old school I used to go to, the windows of the computer lab invoked memories of endless hours of frustration, humiliation, and pulling my hair out. Then I decided to stop at the last Rax roast beef restaurant known to man because I worked at one for over five years and I wanted to recall the memory of the degrading position I used to work and relish in the fact that I now have a position of respect and a decent level of income and the feeling that I have found my way in life.

When I got to the office ate my roast beef sandwich with this delicious chinese mustard I have been saving for some special occation and began doing some internet stuff before my midnight practice session. Yesterday a friend of mine from Steve Redrobe’s violin forum sent me an MP3 of Schlomo Mintz playing a caprice by Kreisler with incredible tone and feel so I thought I’d return the favor and began preparing some mp3s of Mintz’s Paganini Caprices, Dvorak Concerto, Sibelius Concerto, and the 54 recording of Milstein performing Paganiniana from the Italian Sonatas CD. I have been a Mintz fan ever since I first heard his recording of the caprices (did you know he had the same tacher in Isreal as Zukerman?) and with all this fascination with Mintz and tnowing the Kreisler CD is so good I checked Amazon and they had the Kreisler for 25 bux, I wasn’t going to pay that but I decided to order his recording of Vieuxtemps 5 and the Lalo for like 9 dollars, not bad. I would like to get his Kreisler and Brahms Concerto eventually and suddenly I remembered the Bexley library has a copy of the Mintz Krieisler cd, I think I will be paying them a visit soon. I then started to copy some rare OOP cds for another friend, Georger Bolet’s recording of Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a theme of Chopin and Alexis Weissenberg’s recording of the two Rachmaninoff Sonatas, probably my two favorite non-Chopin pieces ever written.

I then read some stuff from zen slut’s blog about capricorn rising and talked to an old friend I have not spoken to in a long time from maestronet about the death of Connie Sunday.

After that I decided to clean my office some and finish up some programming because there is this section of code I just had to get working because it would have bothered me and distracted my practice if I did not finish it. The intention of my boss has backfired, instead of her watning me to work less and provide me a means to get in the morning so I don’t have to wait for people to show up, I do alot more programming. It seems the office has become my home away from home much the same way the computer lab was in college, only more so because I can smoke and drink and control the level of the heat and play music and listen to cds as loud as I want.

Then it was time to play with all distractions removed, I played Vivaldi along to cd and of course as ussual tons of solo Bach, inserting all kinds of legato scale patterns and modulating arpeggios. The legato is really starting to sound better. I also played some of the Bach lute suites on guitar, man I could play Bach and Vivaldi all day and I’m always eager to learn myself more. I also played along to this tune I love my new age artist Liz Story called “My Heart Your Heart”, what gorgeous and meotional music.

A few other random thoughts:

1)I wonder if Brittney Spears will ever marry me and get an annulment the next day?
2)I am considering changing my last name to Heifetz and starting a summer music camp for aspiring violinists.
3)I would like to sign up for the all string marching band, please let me know how and where to inquire please.

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January 7, 2004 at 8:27 AM

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