Avery Fisher concert

I went to the 11/10 concert, which was rather disappointing. The first piece was some weird Chinese modernist thing, which frankly just sounded noisy. I wanted to like it - supporting my sort-of countrymen & all - but I didn't. Gimmicky orchestral stuff isn't my thing. The young composer is quite handsome though. I was excited about Vadim Repin playing the Lalo Symphonie Espagnole, one of the staples of the solo violin repertoire, and yet again disappointed. He was out of tune a lot. At first I blamed it on nerves, but as it kept happening I couldn't figure out a good excuse for him. Also, he was wearing some kind of weird Nehru jacket & suede shoes that made him look as though he was playing in his pajamas & socks.

The only unqualifiedly good thing about the program was Beethoven's Seventh. I recognized a lot of the melodies, which had been floating around in my head unattached to any particular work. Yes, I was a typical diva violinist, only paying attention to concertmaster solos & the violin repertoire. I also pretty much stopped listening to classical music after I got out from under my mother's thumb 7 years ago so whatever I did know about orchestral music got jumbled up or forgotten.

I liked the whole experience of going to the concert though. It felt very grown-up & cultured; dressing up, having champagne beforehand, reading the program notes, etc. We used to go to concerts almost every week when I was growing up. I hadn't been to a New York Philharmonic concert since I moved here several years ago, & the only times I'd been in Carnegie Hall or Avery Fisher were when I was playing. Fortunately Sexy Englishman quite liked it as well, so we'll probably go to another one.

Sadly, I can't say as much for the ballet. A few months ago I begged him to take me to Sleeping Beauty, which was much more old-fashioned than I expected, with lots of solos & irrelevant (though beautiful) parts, & he hated it. He refuses to go to the Balanchine retrospective thingy they're putting on soon. I keep explaining that it was choreographed at least 100 years later but he won't listen. Maybe my lovely friend Dancer wants to go...

trivia master

You know those Delta ads that say something like "Change is: being crowned cross-country trivia champion"? That's me! Delta sucks, but now that I kicked ass from Atlanta to the Bahamas I like them a bit more. (Yes, I know that is not technically cross-country.) Poor Sexy Englishman was overjoyed at beating me by a hair in the first game but I dominated the following 5. I also had the highest score for the entire flight. On a more serious note, Hurricane Noel screwed up our flight on Thursday & I have to say Delta was pretty on the ball about calling us & rebooking us on the next flight out. This is just one plus in their favor though - they've been completely shitty up until now.

This past President's Day weekend, when I flew to Colombia, people trying to check in were forced to stand in the bitter cold outside the terminal because the lines were so long & the staff couldn't figure out how to process people in a non-snail-like manner. They resorted to basically just calling the next flight & taking care of people haphazardly while delaying flights until they'd checked everyone in. Plus, since I was flying JFK to Atlanta to Bogotá, I got in the international line & 2 hours later was told I should have been in domestic. Which makes no sense, because my bags & I were going internationally, & it turned out that cretin was wrong anyway. I swore then I would never fly Delta again but, you know, sometimes one has to save money. I also don't like their weird PR campaign with the new Delta Sky Lounge bar in NYC (I'm not kidding, it's on 57th & 6th), making up new cocktails (!) & thinking that people want not-free movies & TV instead of decent service. All the money they've wasted on that crap, they could have put into improving existing services. I don't need a fancy Rande Gerber cocktail. I want some damn food when I'm sitting in first class from the Bahamas to NYC for 3 hours. Little cracker & cookie packs do not count. I want the flight to leave on time; I don't want a $5 movie on the tiny screen.

There is just no reason American airlines can't get their act together. We had better service & food in Africa than anywhere I've flown in the States. I really think the government bailing the airlines out every time they're about to go bankrupt is unwise. Some of them are bloated, inefficient & need to fail. I don't see why airlines should get special treatment when most other companies are allowed to stand & fall on their own merits. It's been shown over & over that competition is the best way to serve consumers, & it's about time we had some.