Driving home from B-52 following Showdown, Glory Daze, and a Countdown, I tuned into KSJN 99.5, the local NPR station, in time to hear the end of the 2nd movement of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto #2, and right off I could tell that this was the best rendition I'd ever heard. Already I was regretting that my drive home was only 0.9 miles. Arriving too soon, I turned KSJN back on in my bedroom, before I turned on my desktop to post this. God, what fabulous music! How magically rendered!
The Golden Horde, who torment the southern tier of MSP Buzztime sites with their numerous perfecto's, decided to wear down the playmakers at the Tailgate Cafe in advent of Team Beth this evening. Well, the joke was on the Golden Horde. The Tailgate's transmission had partially collapsed (showing the Channel 2 sports quiz but not the Channel 1 Lunchtime quizzes, on which the carnivorous Horde are accustomed to feast). I was forewarned.
The upshot? I called the Tailgate, and they've requested a technician. And then four of us grouped up at B-52. SPOON, NCYCLO, DOTCOM, and GONE D. We were regrettably opposed by TIARA and HOBBS. Following months of experiment, TIARA and HOBBS have decided that TIARA's laptop works better than HOBB's voice-activated smartphone, in a realm described to me as 'borg'.
There was some kind of Showdown League going on, which the Tailgate was unable to finish. No big deal. But I wish to apologize to any group who finished below B-52's 12th in the Valentine's Day Showdown. That's where we finished, our two highest scores provided by TIARA's laptop.
TIARA and HOBBS are, by any standard of beauty you may imagine, unusually homely specimens. It happened that I ambled out of the Men's Room at B-52 while TIARA was complaining to the hostess, the least powerful individual in the B-52 hierarchy, that she couldn't reserve her usual table.
Rounding on her, I whispered, "I'd like to congratulate you on your victory tonight, if only you didn't cheat."
"Oh!" TIARA smiled brightly, receiving my insult as a compliment. "My husband knows some really unusual stuff!" Yeah, whatever.
And here I thought he was her father. What was Iceberg Slim's famous phrase? "Ugly enough to break daylight with her fist."
The rendition of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto #2 which I was hearing, was performed by Krystian Zimerman, a Polish pianist, conducted by a Japanese maestro, Seiji Ozawa, in conjunction with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
If that rendition doesn't raise the hairs on the back of your neck, you're dead to music.
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