HeyChristine.com

Thursday, March 8th

Office politics... nasty... but fun!

On a rainy evening, Joann and I met at Ranch 1 on the corner of Tun-Hwa and Hsin-Yi Roads only to discover that the restaurant was no longer there. Such is life (in Taipei, that is). So we grabbed a bite to eat at the nearby Dante coffee shop and was surprised at the new renovations. I was impressed.

Joann, per usual, is full of crazy-ass Citibank stories. Every once in awhile, I kinda miss working for a big company like Citibank. As much as I love the flexibility and independence of doing my own thing, I am pretty darn good at office politics and much enjoyed the daily challenge of kicking people's *bleep* and putting them in their place -- gracefully! (Me being the good guy of course... but that's obvious, no?)

Yalan used to sit back and watch me do my thing with a big smile on her face, although she never said anything. I always wondered what in the world was going on in her head but then again, she was probably thinking the same thing about me. Anyway, I am totally digressing here... this is my concert ticket, for the record:

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What's up with Yo-Yo?

First and foremost, our seats were SUPERB. That we got tickets at all was amazing, but to get the balcony seats where we were MUST have been a fluke! Even the attendant who opened the door for us (with a key!) looked at us suspiciously and double-checked our tickets before letting us in. Look buddy. Just because we weren't senior citizens with dark blue, penciled-in eyebrows drawn out to our ears... sheesh...

It was too dark in the Concert Hall to use my camera but I did take some shots outside. Anyway, so I learned what the best balcony seats were along the very edge of the stage -- 4th floor, rows 2B/2C/2D, or, the very opposite of the Hall. We were about fifty feet from what would be considered box office seats (center of the center), and lo and behold, guess who sat there. The President of the Republic of China, Chen Shui-bien, and MAN is he short!

It was a packed house, and the performance was... well, okay. Clearly, Yo-Yo is one of the most talented cellists in the world -- that goes without question -- but the genre of music that he played left much room for lively entertainment. Most of the pieces were slow, intense, and sometimes even hypnotic excerpts. The woman sitting next to me drifted off at least once, and I noticed a number of people in the audience dozing off too, even before intermission.

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NO... I am NOT knocking Yo-Yo.

Just describing what I heard and what I saw (cough cough...). There WERE a couple of rather unconventional performances, one in particular which I found rather disturbing. Yo-Yo was performing a duet with a pianist who, of course, sat at a grand. Like the President, the pianist was also rather short.

The problem was that instead of PLAYING the piano -- as in, depressing the piano keys with one's fingers -- the pianist stood up against the piano and leaned *into* it to PLUCK and sometimes SLAP the strings! At one point he was reaching so far into the body of the piano that I thought he was going to CRAWL IN! What if the hood of the piano were to collapse?!

With the *psycho* pianist and Yo-Yo's trademark head twitches and God-awful facial expressions, I really thought I was going to have a heart attack. I don't think I can watch another performance like that again. It was too painful. Call me a traditionalist but you just CANNOT treat a grand piano that way! Shame on that man.

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I can't believe Wennie.

Wennie and I went to Starbucks for lunch today. That girl is crazy. She was the one who got us the tickets but because HER friend who gave them to her renigged one too many at the last minute, she gave up her own seat since she promised everyone else tickets. WHO does that??! Ayah... I wished I had known that earlier because I would have just given her my ticket. Crazy girl. That was REALLY sweet of her...

I have no more room and no more time to write about anything else. Things are kicking in with ORIENTED and with HeyChristine.com, but I will have to write about it tomorrow. I'll just conclude this entry by saying that it is definitely WORTH IT it to see Yo-Yo Ma in concert at least once in my life. Now I can say... been there... done that... next!

Last but not least, today was Women's Day! I should probably find out why because it was certainly news to me (I live in my own little world) but the big boss surprised us with flowers. I'm embarrassed to say this, but... it actually made me smile. EW.

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