rainy and cold

last night it began raining and it continued into today. since korrina went to a concert in brooklyn with chanda yesterday evening, i packed up her leftover pie and stew and took it to her at work around 5:30 pm. the only problem was that the temperature dropped to 38 degrees! compared to our 55 degree days, it was very cold and i neglected to wear a hat (though i did think to bring an umbrella). it was nice to see her in her milieu, and i think the weather managed to slow the friday night dinner crowd so she wasn't too swamped with work. of course it was only 6 pm, so who knows how busy it is right now (10:02).

after dropping off her food, greg and i went to a concert at third street music school. we hadn't been to one of their friday "live sounds" performances in several years and it was nice to attend. it was also our first time in their renovated performance space. 

the group tonight was an octet of bass clarinets. i never even knew a bass clarinet existed, so i certainly learned something new. they were very good and my two favorite pieces they played were the planets, mars, by gustav holst; and ultimate transformation: fire, the parliament of reeds, part v, by jonathan russell. i also really enjoyed slow loris, also by jonathan russell.

it was a very cold walk home and my fingers were freezing holding my umbrella. during the hot summer nyc days i think it's impossible to ever be cold again . . well . . here we are. 

violin recital

it was a steamy day, though not as hot as over the weekend.

this is a picture of ina who has been studying with jose for eight years. she's eighteen now and is graduating high school. she performed bach's double violin concerto with him.

chanda performed romanian folk dances by bela bartok.

this is the sixth and last movement.

it was an early recital and it was nice to be walking home with the sun still up.

but first . . a stop at amorino's for gelato . . here greg is happy to have his coffee.

lemon and chocolate sorbetto.

it was nice to have deychen come and watch . . and to have gelato afterwards with us. it's a yearly tradition.

music hour, nathalie's restaurant, and times square at night

it was another beautiful day and after picking up a bag of gifts from our friends who had seen morgana, greg and i went to third street for chanda's music hour.

i was going to put the movie up, but supposedly it's too big of a file to upload onto the blog. i then tried sharing it onto youtube, but my account isn't letting me sign in from the home computer. i'll have to ask greg for help when he gets back.

(it's now the middle of july and i finally got it posted . . funny how things can suddenly work out once a little time goes by. i have no idea what i did differently from when i tried in march.)

 greg and i had dinner uptown at a friend's restaurant. she has a special pasta chef so the pasta was amazing (greg had strazzopreti with broccoli rabe and sausage, and i had pappardelle with mushrooms and green beans in a cream sauce). for dessert we had the sorbetto.

 the coffee was also . . superb!

 the restaurant is decorated beautifully. behind me, on the wall, is a fresco based on an italian painting from the renaissance. you can read about the artist and his work, and about the restaurant itself, here. (oh dear, actually i can't find information about the artist on the website . . she has it only in the menu at the restaurant . . i suppose i will suggest to her that it would be good to put up online!)

 chanda is at a birthday party that is ending late, so greg waited for her (at barnes and noble's) while i went home . . i ended up walking downtown . . through times square. i haven't been through times square at night in a long time.

it's pretty wild!

music hour and venieros

 chanda had a music hour today at third street.

 afterwards we went with greg to venieros . . 

 for pastry and coffee . . 

 it was surprisingly very crowded and we had to wait on line for ten minutes.

 at home after dinner we played bananagrams . . 

 greg's winning hand . . 

 fixing up a few words . . 

violin recital (or "practice makes perfect")

chanda had her end of year violin recital this evening.

she played variations on corelli's la foglia. she loves this piece and has diligently practiced it for months now.

the practicing paid off because even though she made a mistake at the beginning, you couldn't tell and she played the rest of it with good technique and much feeling (i decided to watch and listen rather than film . . some people set up stands for the camera . . but i've never bothered!). she was even able to work on relaxing her knees as she played (she's been too stiff lately in her violin stance . . probably from so much ballet), and she received a few bravos from other parents when she finished. i think we all felt a bit proud of her, just like at morgana's recital. i'm happy to see them do so well. we have had recitals/music hours when there were tears afterwards, so it's nice to see how they've improved over the years, and how their latest hard work and practicing has helped them. also, they both played last on their recital nights: an indication of their age and the number of years they've been at the school and of the quality of their playing. the rush of time passing, of the years that have gone by, feels a bit overwhelming to me.

at the reception afterwards . . 

it was nice to see all of jose's students together, and to see parents we haven't spoken with in awhile. it's fun to catch up and see how everyone has grown.

it poured during the concert . . here everyone is waiting for it to stop so they could go home.

chanda with her violin teacher and his family. as i was taking the picture, jose remarked how he's been teaching her for ten years. chanda was surprised and didn't agree, but jose was emphatic. he just had his ten year anniversary at the school and she was his first student, he said. i didn't realize she was so young when she started . . but i guess she was!

jose's little girl, clara, played also.

it's fun watching her play each year . . it seems like just yesterday that she was born . .

walking home in the rain . . 

but stopping first at amorino's for ice cream.

tour de force

 morgana had her guitar recital this evening. i asked her if she wanted me to video it and she said no. she felt that there would be too many mistakes. well . . there weren't! at least not that i could tell, or the audience. she received a lot of "bravos" and whistles. her teacher felt it went well also. he thought she reached another level with her playing. it was really nice to hear.

 i think she was pleased . . though she pretended not to be.

 with her teacher, nadav.

on the way home . . it was cold out! too cold for ice cream . . (which chanda tried to talk me into getting . . ).

noontime orchestra concert and the dance parade

on the way home: another treat from amorino's . . today i had limone, cioccolato e vaniglia. chanda had fragola, cioccolato e vaniglia. university place was cordoned off for nyc's dance parade 2014 which wended it's way past union square down to 8th street where it turned and headed to tompkins square park for a dance fest. chanda and i waved to my friend alex who had grand stand seats with three of her boys. . and morgana and i caught part of it when we walked to the green market for the children's garden plants.


pretty wild, eh?

sinfonia rehearsal and dyeing chanda's costume

 the sinfonia orchestra has been rehearsing for their concert a week from today.

 it was incredibly warm on the way home so we couldn't resist stopping for an ice cream at "amorino."

 you can have as many flavors as you like. they shape the scoops into a flower on the cone. i chose chocolate, coffee and pistachio. chanda had coffee, pistachio and lemon.

the wisteria was in bloom today.

 after chanda's acting class, we began dyeing her costume. first we did the pants in royal blue and dark green.

 the dark green rinsed out well with hardly any bleeding.

back breaking work!  i was happy to let her do the honors.

 then we overlapped the royal blue . . 

 we used a bit more powder and over saturated the pants a bit with this color. she just had to wash it out longer.

after dyeing the pants (which were polyester), we dyed the cotton leotard. the cotton takes the color better and is a bit brighter. i was a little worried while the garments were hanging up, drying. the leotard looked too bright.

 but after everything dried, it looked alright together. the elastic on the pants needs to be tightened and taken up an inch.