concert review: Chopinity

Went back to the hoffable* Schultz Cultural Arts Hall, driest acoustics on the planet, for a piano recital. Louis Lortie played an all-Chopin program. If you ever thought Chopin was a composer who could spin the most airy and delicate of lace, the answer is: not in this room he isn't.

Nor was the repertoire the most likely to show off that side of him. It was his complete Etudes. Not even all 24 of them, but all 27 of them. Complete. My appreciation of Chopin is kind of hazy at the best of times, and the Etudes are probably the department I'm least familiar with. I only know two of them: one's the "Revolutionary" Etude and the other isn't. An etude is a practice exercise, so even if it's also art it's a workout. So not much of the recital was quiet and ethereal, even if it could have been in this venue. Lots of storming up and down the keyboard, up and down, up and down, on and on and on, magnified by Lortie's straight-ahead style and the acoustics. I began replaying in my mind the videos I've seen of tsunami waves ruthlessly sloshing up streets in Japan.

The version of this concert in Herbst a few days ago got rave reviews for its color and subtlety. Not this time.

*Hoffable, as in, "Holl, Holl, a Hoffable Hellerump!"

world's fastest snail

Sometimes things go better than expected.

It's last Friday morning. I'm standing at the automated postage dispenser at my local PO, with a large envelope that has to get across the country real soon now. I have a choice: regular mail for less than $2 for three-business-day delivery, or Priority Mail for over $5 for two-business-day-delivery. Overnight is even more expensive, but it doesn't need to get there that fast.

I decide one day isn't worth an extra $3, so I plump for regular mail.

The envelope arrives on Monday. That's one business day, or two if the PO counts Saturdays. I've saved money and gotten probably better service.

The previous day, Thursday, I'd mailed another such envelope only as far as Texas. It too arrived on Monday. Maybe it's something about Mondays.