Wild ginger and a symphony that was 30 minutes too long

On Saturday night Lisa and I took some newbie's to the area (Matt and Sara Fitch) into Seattle. Lisa's folks weren't using their symphony tickets so they were given to us. (There were four of them) The symphony was to start at 8, so we headed downtown early to catch dinner at the much lauded Wild Ginger. In the past few weeks I must admit my appreciation for duck has gone up considerably. (Especially when it's crispy on the outside and oh so nice and ducky on the inside.) Anyway, we shared a nice dinner there and being as it was family style we got to sample a couple different dishes. Might I suggest the Seven Spiced Beef if you go?

Following that we walked across the street to a Gelatto store. Where we all enjoyed the finest Gelatto Seattle has to offer. (I can claim this because I haven't eaten gelatto anywhere else in Seattle)

After the frozen fruit-stuffs we walked across the street again and went to the symphony. Our ears were treated to the musical wanderings of Copland's "Music for the Theatre", Mendelssohn's "Violin Concerto", and Brahm's "Symphony #3". The violin concerto featured the talented fingerings of Stefan Jackiw. (And quite the fingers they are.) He was playing a 1721 Stradivarius on loan from the Stradivarius Society of Chicago. Let me tell you, for an almost 300 year old violin that thing made some great music. (Crazy to think it's older than the US of A) Stefan played amazingly. We couldn't help but be amazed that he had the whole concerto memorized as well as the piece he played for his encore.

After Stefan did his thing we had an intermission and then Brahms started up. I'm sure this is a perfectly wonderful symphony but at 5 movements, starting at 9:45ish at night is really too much. I could have used the abbreviated 3 movement version or the "double speed" symphony option.

I pride myself on being able to sit through 2 hours of nothing but music, but I have to admit that something like a 4 hour symphony would be crazy tough.

This week will most likely, barring DHL issues, involve me installing new server software at work. Now, to the grocery store! To infamy and beyond!

~B.