Beckett Marathon at Lincoln Center - Who needs a ticket?

So, I will return to this blog - in the meantime, I'm wondering if anyone needs a ticket for the Beckett marathon at Lincoln Center on Sunday the 27th. I have an extra one! Just shoot me an email.

UPDATE: The ticket's spoken for. :)

March

I didn't blog on it, but I had quite an eventful March. I did make it to the last Otello at the Met, and the following weekend I was in Boca Raton for two events at Festival of the Arts Boca: a conversation between Renée Fleming and Ann Patchett, and Fleming's concert, which closed the festival. I reported on the events elsewhere; maybe I'll drag that stuff over here at some point. I had an amazing time, attending VIP receptions and talking to some awesome people.

My calendar is clear for the immediate future, as teaching and preparing for my general exam have me very preoccupied. The only thing I have scheduled is Margaret Cho's show in Boston tonight. I hope she'll be funny.

David Pogue on Blog Comments

The quality of discussion on Pogue's Posts is just astonishing. An assistant and I moderate the comments (which sometimes run into the hundreds for a single post), removing comments containing spam or obscenities. But otherwise, we approve every single comment. And the humor, wisdom and good nature on display is just amazing. If you compared these comments with the unmoderated ones on, say, YouTube, you would assume these were forums patronized by completely different species.

Bummer, pt. 4

Had a ticket to Saturday's matinée of Otello at the Met with Johan Botha and Renée Fleming. Canceled the trip because I've been sick for a few weeks--it hasn't let up--and a round-trip trek to New York in crappy weather is not what I need right now.

Called the Met to have the ticket reprinted and left in a friend's name. If all goes well, I'll see this production on its last night a week from today.

Change

Want to know how things have changed?

I have, somewhere in my condo, two front-row-center tickets to Kiri Te Kanawa's recital in Palm Beach. The event took place last night. I was in Cambridge, Mass.

Yesterday was the first day of Spring semester classes, and I was asked to be here for a course I am co-teaching. What's more, in the afternoon I met with my advisor and spent a wonderful hour discussing my next few years at this glorious university.

I don't regret having missed Kiri's recital. This from someone who used to say that the worst thing to happen in his life was oversleeping in his hotel room and missing Karita Mattila's recital in Paris...

I still attend performances. Recently: an exquisite recital by David Daniels at Jordan Hall; the first preview of Sunday in the Park with George at Studio 54; Deborah Warner's stunning production of Beckett's Happy Days at BAM, starring the extraordinary Fiona Shaw (bonus: spotted Kathleen Turner in the lobby); and the MET Chamber Ensemble's gratifying Webern/Berg/Schoenberg program with James Levine conducting and on piano, joined by Gil Shaham, Yefim Bronfman and the unstoppable Anja Silja, who looked as elegant as ever, and who, in delivering those grotesque lines, never failed to make us shiver to our bones.

Iphigénie en Tauride at the Met

"World indoor premiere" of Golijov's Azul with Yo-Yo Ma; Bummer, pt. 3

Here is where I'll write on my bounty of Yo-Yo Ma encounters, if I get a chance.

Bummer update: on Saturday, I missed Iphigénie at the Met - for which I was to be seated in Parterre Box 1 - to attend an all-day conference at Harvard. It was absolutely worth it this time, however! I'm going to try to make it to the Met for Friday's performance. Anyone have a ticket?