Happy Thanksgiving! Since I have another hour of wait at Logan Airport and not so much to do, I thought this would be perfect time to update my blog while watching Gilmore Girls.

Yesterday, we had a birthday pie + ice cream in the lab for Mirco and myself. Mirco is one of the post docs whose birthday is today. Apple pie and vanilla ice cream! Delicious :) Several traditions for these lab birthday gatherings were enforced, as usual:

• The birthday person has to do all the work: I sliced and distributed the pie for the 13 of us (harder than it sounds with all the apples falling out) and Mirco scooped the ice cream. And we also cleaned everything up afterwards. Haha, yay, birthday work!
• The most senior German in the lab counts down to the birthday song so everyone starts singing at the same time... in German (the countdown, not the song; the latter would be incredibly difficult): usually it's Tom (of course, he's German; hence this tradition :D)  But yesterday it was Daniel, one of the German post docs. And the lab sang the most pathetic birthday song up to date. I think it keeps getting worse very time; there were at least 10 different keys. Hahaha it was so bad that everyone started laughing in the middle of the song and commented on the group's lack of musicality. That's okay. As long as they excel in science.
• We have a discussion about how we're all getting old. Mirco is turning 30, and most of the post docs were like: oh, sigh... turning 31 was the hardest, so don't worry yet; when you're 30, you're still on the "borderline," juuuuust getting out of the 20s, but when you're 31 years old, you're clearly in the new 31-40 age range. Hahaha so then a couple of visiting professors in their 40s were like: anyone else wanna complain about turning 40?? Man, 30s is so young! And a post doc was like "well, when you hit 40s, you're so old that you have alzheimers and don't even remember to worry about such things!" 

Tom walked in when we were almost done wih the pie/ice-cream (he literally flew back in to Boson like an hour before; the typical Tom move), and everyone insisted he sings the birthday song alone since he was late. Hahaha, he actually did sing part of the song: "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you... hahaha um, ok."

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A while back, I lost the combination to my lock on the basement storage unit. A few days ago, I kinda realized that I needed the suitcase that's in there. Yesterday, I spent about an hour cracking the combo to my lock after learning how to do it from google :) And I got it!!!!!!! It was a little concerning how easy it was once you understood the instructions and had some time/patience. If done correctly, you have to just go through 80-100 combination possibilities before finding the correct one. Thank goodness there's nothing but empty boxes and my my suitcase that I have to store down there.

My first BSO Experience: woah... :) Long concert review coming up.

The people:

• Yan Pascal Tortelier: Instead of the official BSO Conductor James Levine OR Sir Andrew Davis (who was supposed to conduct this particular concert), Tortelier (son of the famous cellist Paul Tortelier) stepped up to the podium. Unfortunately, I wasn't a big fan. Hah, actually ended up avoiding looking at him because he made me crack up. My biggest pet peeve about his conducting was the fact that he was so robotic... literally -- robot arms: his arms going up and down vertically, where each of his arms was in opposite directions. And just... some riDIculous poses that were very unfitting of the moment. And I was really surprised (or maybe not...) that the orchestra stayed sooo together because his "beats" were impossible to tell. Oh well...
• BSO: the concertmaster, Malcolm Lowe, was incredible. BSO's concertmaster since 1984 (before I was born!! no wonder making it in the music world is hard; one good person steps in, and you're out of luck for the next 20+ years), and BSO's (only) tenth concertmaster ever, and the THIRD concertmaster since 1920 (wow...). He had such great bow control -- fierce attacks; really continuous lines that never ended; and soooo much gravity gluing his bow to the strings, and yet, such lightness and controlled bounciness when the music called for it. Anyway... the rest of the orchestra -- they were mostly all very good (of course!), but I did notice a few musicians that made me wonder how they ever made it to BSO... very unmotivated people playing with like an inch of their bow in the intense parts of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite... sigh. Perhaps they got tired of playing the Firebird for the gajillionth time in the past 5 years of their careers or the fact that they only had like 2 days to prepare for this entire concert since their last concert. But really, on the whole, they were fantastic. The woodwind players were awesome. Great tone... and greatly in tune, which always helps.
• Joshua Bell: I went through different phases about Joshua Bell. In high school, a few of my friends and I got into him because he was one of the more good looking violinists. Actually, he kinda looks like Tom Cruise. Then we started  obsessing over how "musical" he was (because he moved around a lot...) and about his sex face (perhaps one of his most well-recognized pictures). And I really got into his romantic concerto recordings (Tchaik, Wieniawski, Sibelius, etc). I still love his Tchaik and Sibelius over most others! :) But then I started hating the way he performed because he moved around so much in a weird/detracting way, his bow always seemed to slide around, and the combo of the two weakened the quality of his sound. And then I got into the Hilary Hahn phase for her clarity and piercing tone quality. But... it's Joshua Bell. And in a live performance, he really made it work. SO much energy and power in his performance. 

The Pieces:

• Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun: I didn't find this too remarkable or memorable... but of course it was a typical atmospheric and Impressionistic piece. Beautiful woodwind solos and a good opening piece :) But again, Tortelier's obscure conducting really detracted me... 
• Stravinsky's The Firebird Suite (1945): Originally on the program was Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements, but with the change in the conductor (Sir Andrew Davis' family illness), the program changed slightly as well. But this performance was incredible. All ranges of sound effects, atmospheres, and emotions -- portrayed really very effectively. When the Infernal Dance began (after a really, really quiet ending to the previous section), a lot of people in front of me nearly jumped out of their seats, haha. And seriously, their piano was so effective, and the beginning chord of the Infernal Dance was so intense, that every time they hit that note with the timpani, it sounded like there was an explosion in the building. It was fantastic. And the epic moments in the Finale... wow. It is suuuch a demanding piece (even just technically) on the musicians, and of course everyone played it like it was nothing. It was great :)
• Brahms' Violin Concerto: Joshua Bell came up with his own cadenza... a noble goal, but about half of his cadenza seemed to have nothing to do with the rest of the concerto (other than the fact that he obviously has fluent techniques)... it was a little odd (and random). And it was a bit unfitting stylistically... hm. But otherwise, really well-executed, of course! Such fluidity and freedom in his playing! Like he can do whatever he wants to with the piece, because he can handle it. The second movement with the oboe solo was beautifully done, and the big moment at the end of this movement was breathtaking! And the final movement was really exciting. So much energy coming from him, even at this point in the performance!

The event:

• Symphony Hall: the inside is beautiful (from the outside, it looks like any other Bostonian building)!! The seats aren't thoughtfully built out, but it is a gorgeous hall. I can't comment much on the acoustics (not very knowledgeable on that one...), but it was good enough for me! I got a really good seat, 6th row center, which means I had a great view of everyone in the inner circle of the strings section and Joshua Bell (and the back of Tortelier) -- no one in the woodwinds, brass, or percussion. But that was totally okay with me!
• Being in the audience is sooo different from playing in the orchestra. But I really, really enjoyed it. I always hated accompanying in solo pieces because I've always wanted to watch the soloist and not have to focus on my part... getting to watch Joshua Bell was pretty awesome, and I wasn't so jealous of the BSO members this time ;)
• CD Signing: There was a CD signing session after the concert! Unfortunately, he couldn't pose for photographs with anyone, though passive picture-taking was allowed. I managed to get a shot with both him and I in the same frame, though it's blurry and from a bit of a distance. But that's something, right?! (Now, I will do anything to get a picture with Hilary Hahn next March. Seriously.) And I got my CD signed. And when I told him he sounded incredible, he said thanks and shook hands with me! Haha, I was really psyched.

This completely made me forget that my science in the lab isn't working :)

Bought a sudoku book on sale. The previous one I bought (called: "Absolutely Nasty Sudoku, Level 4") is way too hard. It leaves me feeling sad, actually. I actually counted. Of the 50 sudoku's I've tried:

• Completed: 13
  
• Screwed up: 3
  
• Left incomplete out of frustration after hours: 34

26% success rate. Ridiculous. So I bought a book which I think should be slightly easier.

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"You know you've worked too long in a lab when:"

-- Accident reports are a badge of honor
-- You've wondered why you can't drink distilled water in the lab - It should be clean?
         I do wonder about this...
-- You have to check the web to find out what the weather is outside
-- Although all cooking is a glorified chemistry experiment you just still can't seem to get it right
-- Safety equipment is optional unless it makes you look cool
-- Warning labels invoke curiosity rather than caution
-- You've used dry ice to cool beer down
-- You have made some kind of puppet out of a nitrile glove and kept it as a pet (Putting dry ice in makes for a rapidly expanding if short lived pet)
        Aww, a latex glove puppy :-)
-- You still get amusement out of "freezing" things in liquid nitrogen!
-- When you rejoice when grabbing a handful of eppendorfs/anything and it turns outs to be the exact number you needed.
       This is SO true. Makes my day.
-- You actually threaten your cells whilst waving a bottle of virkon.
-- When you start making patterns in your pipette tip box as you take the tips out. I made a beautiful spiral today.
        Must try. Will photograph and post if successful :-D
-- The fire alarm ceases to bug you. You only evacuate when you see the fire.
-- When you organise your kitchen cupboard contents the way you would your chemicals... all labeled in alphabetical order.
-- You have a callus on your thumb.
-- You have a callus on the side of your thumb from opening PCR tubes.
-- You open the toothpaste with one hand.
        Haha, I'm gaining so much left hand dexterity these days... because using 2 hands for opening bottles are just so inefficient. Of course.
-- You wash your hands before and after using to the washroom.
-- When you hear tween, you think of the surfactant not the age group.
-- You use the word "aliquot" in regular sentences.
-- Sometimes you momentarily vanish from social activities because of a time point.
-- Showing up at 10AM and having a coffee is a productive day.
-- You can't stand god-like physicians, while secretly wishing you had their job.
-- You're very good at diluting things.
-- You're also very good at transferring small amounts of liquid between containers.
-- You say “conjugation” instead of “sex”, and "pili" sounds dirty.
-- SOB is not an insult; it's what you grow your bugs in.
-- You say "mills" and "megs".
-- No one in your family has any idea what you do.
-- You own invitrogen t-shirts and actually wear them.
-- You've suffered carpal tunnel from the pipetman.
-- You've used Kimwipes as Kleenex.
          They ARE softer :P
-- A timer clipped to the hip is not only practical, but dead sexy.
-- You've played Battleship using tip boxes.
          What a clever idea!!
-- The front page of Science is your light reading.
-- You think the following is a quality insult: "I've seen cells more competent than you!".
-- The scent of latex reminds you of work, not play.

I've gotten into this bad habit of checking my mailbox daily, but if all I see are ads and worthless brochures, I just shove them back into my mailbox because I don't feel like dealing with them... Until I see an important mail (something from home, bills, paycheck, etc). Such as today. I got a paycheck in the mail, plus a bunch of other crap. So I took all the junk out, and on my walk to the T stop, I went through them, and threw out the worthless stuff every time I walked by a trash can. At least I have a system.

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I miss the Charlottesville/Mechanicsville Starbucks or B&N Cafes where I can actually sit at a table. In Boston, I have yet to successfully find an empty table the countless number of times I entered such establishments. I'm pretty sure I have to go in before 9am to find a place to sit. Uncool.

By the way, trip #4 to the same Starbucks this morning: I ordered a grande americano, and received two grande americanos. Paid for 1. But I figured 6 espresso shots was too much for one day and just took 1.

Their new caramel brulee latte sounds dangerously good...

Haha, remark from our conductor:

The Dvorak Concerto: great job under "combat conditions."  I advised you Bobby could be mercurial; he was...and then some.  He played great, but I expect his focus was somewhat diluted from having just been through the finals of his competion earlier in the day.  You did as well as any orchestra could have keeping up with his ever changing approach to the piece, and the orchestral tuttis were quite beautiful and powerful.

The exciting happenings in November!!!!:

• Ada Yonath is coming here next Monday for a seminar! It's like meeting celebrities in science :)
• Professor Columbus is also coming to Boston next week!!
• Joshua Bell (with the BSO... ahh!)'s performance of the Brahms VC is the Wednesday after that... I'm pretty psyched!
  
• closely followed by my trip back to VA for Thanksgiving (that Thurs-Mon)!
• which also happens to include my birthday (time for the double 2; getting old...?!!).

Once this is all over, there will be only 4-5 weeks left of year 2009. Holy crap.

Sup, SP?

Doesn't quite have the same ring to it as Sup, LL!

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Went to the dorky scrabble club meeting. Won all three games :D The first one, I lucked out and played 2 bingo's in a row. The second game, I played the word "JIVE" for 60+ points... and then here's the real hit of the day: on the third game, I played a 113 point bingo with the word "STARTLES", with both S's landing on 3W (i.e. making it a 9W word... plus the +50 points from the bingo). Heh, this was exciting :) Yes -- 113 points in one turn :D I think it's my personal record.

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Eh, not so fond of orchestra these days. The Suk sounds not-so-awesome, and I keep feeling weirder about some of the conductor's borderline inappropriate comments. There are great performers in the group, but the conductor's a bit off. I think whether I return for the rest of the season in February/March is a mystery (after this concert, we have a big winter hiatus until next year).

But! Today we practiced with Bobby Chen, our cello soloist on the Dvorak, and wow... wow :) Apparently he won the NSO Concerto Competition when he was in middle school, and then again in his freshman year in the high school division. Then at age 17 now, he won some other competition (I forget what it's called) that got him to play the Dvorak with us. And apparently he's playing at another concerto competition next Saturday. This kid is insane. And he sounded really, very, very good. His octave double stops at the end of movement 1 -- perfect. I was mesmerized for the whole hour and a half of rehearsal... Not only because he was great technically, but his musicality was pretty powerful. Aaaaaand... I love the cello. The end.

My violinist-ness is starting to show on subtle aspects of my cello playing, week 3. Or perhaps it's not so subtle. Okay okay, so my left hand position and my bow hold looks just fine, like an average cellist. But for instance, my bowing is completely violinistic. When I'm extending my right arm out to play at the tip of the bow, my wrist bends drastically (on the violin, this is what kept my arm and the bow straight so that my elbow doesn't swing backwards). However... it seems that on the cello, my wrist should stay straight -- always, at any point on the bow. Instead, my elbow location/angle should change to compensate. Argh, it's so frustrating. Habits habits habits. I'm still not 100% understanding the physics of bowing straight on the cello while maximizing control at the tip (so that the bow AND my wrist stays flat/straight at any given point). And the wideness of the cello vibrato (and the fact that it originates from the back/shoulder/upper-arm) took such a big effort to achieve... and it's still not all the way there, but getting there, I think.

I'm perhaps stating the obvious here, but playing the cello is such an opposite of the violin:

Cello: The further away my left hand gets from me, the higher the note gets.
Violin: The closer my left hand gets to me, the higher the note gets.
Cello: The higher up my right elbow is, the higher the string I'm playing on (i.e. the A string is the hardest to reach).
VIolin: The higher up my right elbow is, the lower the string I'm playing on (i.e. the G string).

Unfortunately, the latter point (especially) still confuses me. The last few lines of the Bach's first prelude -- it drives my brain crazy because the string crossing is exactly opposite of what I'm used to. i.e. My elbow is further away from me when I'm playing a higher-note string. Grr.

Winter holiday themed cups and winter holiday themed drinks are back at Starbucks (already!)... as of this morning, they were serving hot drinks in their red holiday theme decorated cups... in that spirit, I got the peppermint mocha (tall double no-whip non-fat peppermint mocha... or something like that. I love Starbucks' naming system. So... organized). Even more nostalgic for my college days now though...

I'm officially considering MD/PhD as a future path... I need to do some research on that, however, and talk to more people about it. There are some serious pros and cons. And of course the even-more-than-MD-admissions competitiveness is a discouraging thought.

Tom recently started doing some bench-work with one of the post-docs. But because he's dressed so nicely in lab, people thought he looked funny holding pipets and making buffers. So. At group meeting today, we presented him with a t-shirt that some people designed and said he should wear (on top of his nice shirts) whenever he's doing bench-work. On the back of the shirt, below the picture of a pipet, it says "Sec's forever" :)


I can do vibrato on the cello! I can play the Swan! I can play Nina by Pergolesi! I'm very excited! The Dvorak that we're playing in NSO and listening to Jackie play the Elgar still work me up like no other. I love the cello! Even the etudes are beautiful... I want to be able to play Bruch's Kol Nidrei within the next few months... Did I mention that I love the cello??

Apparently, Newton is one of the more rich neighborhoods of MA. It has great funding for artistic and musical education. Our symphony had a concerto competition last weekend. The winners:

• Elementary school division: a 5th grader blowing away the judges with a great Carmen Fantasy (Sarasate)
• Middle school division: a 7th (?) grader who apparently rocked on the Saint Saens cello concerto
• High school division: co-winners who sounded incredible on Ravel's Tzigane + the Tchaik violin concerto 1st movement.

Sigh. Makes me really wish I had practice more when I was younger. Carmen Fantasy by a 5th grader? Seriously?! I can't even play that piece now! It's so hard. This is insane.