Steve Reich!

Okay, so I forgot before I made the previous blog post that I never talked about the LSO concert! Pep, me, Serene, Maia, and a girl named Mariana went to see the London Symphony last Saturday. Student tickets were £6, so Pep and I picked the most expensive tickets we could find, plugged in the code, and were really surprised / happy that it let us have the discount!

We decided to grab dinner somewhere around the concert hall, which seemed like a mistake when we arrived because it really wasn't a pedestrian friendly area and there was not a whole lot around. So begrudgingly we decided to go into one of the ritzy looking, chic restaurants built into the huge venue. The food was really inexpensive, and very, very nice! Hooray! I split a meal and a dessert with someone so my entire total for the night (including the ticket) wound up to be around £11! When we walked in to the concert hall, we were surprised by how far up our tickets were. We were supposed to be in row E, but as we got closer to the front, we realized that because the pieces had two orchestras involved, there was a stage extension up and we were actually in the FRONT row. WHOAAAA so we could breathe on everybody's shoes, basically. It was a really interesting perspective, because I could clearly make out when the violins (who were sitting closest to us) were out of tune, slightly ahead of the beat or behind, etc. I am not trying to diss the LSO, I'm just saying that it was comforting to know that pros don't always have as much rehearsal time, still have personal playing issues, etc. haha.

Steve Reich, the composer himself, performed a piece called Clapping Music. We were only about ten or fifteen feet away from him, which was super cool. The concert itself was great, and then when he came out for bows we (illegally) took pictures, haha. Here are some of the best ones!

This is what we looked at while we ate dinner!


Here he is!

I should probably mention that the conductor is quite famous also (see: Kristjan Järvi), but I was more interesting in getting such a close up view of a person that many would consider to be one of the most influential composers of our age. By 'our' age, of course, I mean people who were alive in the sixties.

Anyway, I really have to go to bed now! It is one in the morning, and I have my last databases class tomorrow! Afterwards all of us DH people are going to go find some lunch to celebrate! This means that I will miss the tour of Roman excavations underneath the Museum of London, but I feel the team-building is more important in this early stage. Plus I assume the excavations are going to be there a while longer, haha.

I also have to get mentally prepped because the Floorball Club is going to a tournament in a few weeks and they are holding try-outs tomorrow. I am terrible at floorball and I'm extremely out of shape, but I am very good at putting my body in between the wiffle ball and the goal, so I might have a shot. Speaking of out of shape, remember when I had heart failure two springs ago? Well, I had to fill out a health form for the gym and that bit about the 'previous heart problems or issues' made them quite nervous, so now I have to go in on Sunday to run on a treadmill while they monitor my heart rate before they will give me my membership card. If they learn anything it's going to be that I can't run a mile without wanting to vomit, haha. Maybe I'll only have to run one kilometer though....hmmm.