Matching Tracksuits

Fun in Fours

Results For "Month: May 2010"

Pathetique

When we got our tax return, K and I decided to invest a small amount into a piano. We considered a Steinway Concert Grand, but at close to a thousand pounds, we thought the floor might not agree. We settled for a digital, and the three of us have been playing away.

DSC_0997

I’ve managed to pick up where I left off twenty-some years ago: the second movement to Beethoven’s Pathetique sonata.

I’ve been looking for different versions on YouTube.

Gould, in typical Gouldian fashion, turns it into something up-tempo. “Look how fast I can play this!”

The result is not adagio cantabile; it’s a march.

Daniel Barenboim gives a very thoughtful performance, but he leans a little too much on the sustain pedal.

For L’s part, she’s content just to bang. For now. We hope…

Meeting with Friends

It took some time, but the Girl finally got to spend out-of-school time with one of her best friends from daycare. With so much anticipation, there was only one fitting destination: the zoo.

“I have a lot of energy right now,” the Girl told me yesterday, pointing to her chest and adding, “In my body.” It’s common for three-year-olds, I suppose. Two of them together had an exponential effect. “Guys, slow down!” was the day’s mantra.

DSC_1654

It was a day of firsts — not first-time experiences, but merely who could be first.

“Do you want a picture with the giraffe,” we asked, and they bolted to the first photo set, the Girl reaching it first and shoving her head and shoulders triumphantly through the opening.

“I’m supposed to be first.”

DSC_1681

With some cajoling and physical manipulation, we managed to get them both in the frame. For all of 1.5 seconds, they sat still for a picture, then bolted off in different directions: the only sure way to make sure one is first.

DSC_1688

DSC_1701
The energy must have been contagious, for all the animals were unusually active. The reptiles were slithering about in their displays, and the four-year-old orangutan, Baby Bob, was climbing, rolling, and jumping.

DSC_1719

Just more examples of the continuity among the animal kingdom’s pre-schoolers.

April’s List

March was a slow reading month. Too much student work to read. In fact, looking back on the month, I’m not even sure what I finished reading.

AuthorBook
Mark SteynAmerica Alone: The End of the World As We Know It
Walter Dean MyersThe Glory Field
Charles DickensGreat Expectations
Louis LowryThe Giver
Robert MarzanoClassroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement
Pope John Paul IICrossing the Threshold of Hope