Midori and Dim Sum.

I figured the subject line would grab your attention! Well, on Thursday, Joel and I trooped up to Ames for the Natalie McMaster concert and boy oh boy did she get the audience all excited. The first half of her performance was not as good as the second. She does an amazing job with the fiddle and needless to say she is one talented artist. Joel called her music progressive Celtic and it was good. I personally preferred the slower numbers, but overall it was a fun and foot tapping concert. During her encore performance, she encouraged people to join her up on the stage and there were a number of teenagers who did some impromptu Irish Dancing. Everyone had a blast.

Saturday was the grand Midori concert. She had a week long residency in DM where she taught a couple of Master classes and gave a number of talks. John had downloaded the songs that will be performed that evening so I listened to it prior to the concert. The one piece that I was not looking forward to was Shostakovich. Whenever I think of Shostakovich, the image of a dark depressed composer and for me most of his music reflects that. Lo and behold, his Violin Concerto was what Midori was going to perform. The other orchestral pieces were fine, and they were performed prior to the intermission. After the intermission, I just braced myself to what was coming. Believe it or not, it took me not more than five minutes to be sucked in by Midori’s playing style. I was glued to her, and never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed that I would actually like the piece. A lot of it had to do with Midori. Her playing was impeccable and you can’t help but be drawn into her music. I was mesmerized beyond comprehension the entire time she was playing and before I knew it, the concert ended. She earned a well-deserved standing ovation from the audience and it would have been nice to have her perform an encore piece, but that was not the case. It’s not the least surprising to see this former child prodigy reach the point where she is in the classical world right now. I’m blessed to have been able to be present at her performance. I highly doubt I’ll ever see any other performer play the way she did.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008802030371

So, that was Midori. How about Dim Sum? Where does that come into play? Well, click on the link below and find out! http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080117/ENT02/801170348/-1/
My favorite Chinese Restaurant in DM is not serving Dim Sum. Yay! I was really wishing, hoping and praying that the chef would serve Dim Sum and as the article in the paper said, the restaurant is now doing it. So, I got up earlier than usual on Sunday and trooped over to the restaurant to myself some Dim Sum. In fact, I got myself so excited about it that I was dreaming of Dim Sum the night before. Alas, when I arrived at the restaurant at around 8:15AM, it was all dark. I guess they only open later in the morning/day and serve it at a specific time. What I should have done was to call the restaurant to verify the time they do serve Dim Sum. Oh well. I left very disappointed and ended up having breakfast at a diner which was fine, but Dim Sum would have been much better. There will be other times, I’m sure of it. I just have to be a little patient, that’s all.

This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and it marks the beginning of Lent. Yes, Lent is definitely early this year. I’ll be leading a small Lenten group discussion that consist of a number of young adults from St. Kate’s. It’s a small intimate group of us and we should have a pretty good discussion. The books are schedule to arrive this week which pretty much means that we’ll only be able to meet the week after. On Friday, the Rite of Election will take place at the Cathedral and I’ll be present with the candidates for RCIA from the parish. It should be a neat experience for all of them. I had informed my supervisor that I’ll be leaving earlier because of the Rite and she approved it. Joel, Kathy and I will be going to the Frederick Chiu classical concert at the Art Center. He’s a world renowned pianist and he’s really popular in DM. That should be another really good concert and I’m definitely looking forward to it too.

That’s all the news from me for the week.