MaNah, MaNaht

96 weeks since my last entry - not coincidentally, my last post came right around the time my wife and I found out we were expecting a baby. Marie Colette Dauphinais was born 4/13/08. The last 14 months have been a blur of sorts. She's amazing and has changed our lives for the better. Maybe I'll start blogging again, maybe I won't.

I humbly offer both an anecdote and a tribute:

In my 20 years of driving cars, I have blown two sets of speakers. Both times I was listening to Pavarotti.

Requiescat in pacem

So much for my pledge to post more often...

The nutshell: I now work part time at the University of Arizona, as a adjunct piano instructor/accompanist/coach. As a friend of mine put it, I'm the "Swiss Army Knife" of the UA piano department. I'm OK with that title, and I'm having a ball so far. I have a handful of piano students, including a grad student accompanying type with whom I'm working on standard aria repertoire. I'm also playing a number of faculty recitals this year, and will be playing recitals for at least one faculty search this year. I am also the coach for the Opera Theater, currently undertaking Mascagni's "L'amico Fritz". An old friend of mine phoned his congratulations thus: "Congratulations on getting a job that pays you for being who you are." Grazie, Stephan.

In the meantime, I'm having a ball thus far with my first "Lucia di Lammermoor" with Arizona Opera, and that's just with the chorus music rehearsals so far. It's always enlightening to play for Cal Stewart Kellogg, and I'm looking forward to doing my first official Donizetti with him.

On the domestic front, I bit the bullet and finally did a brisket yesterday on the backyard smoker. I fired the beast up at 2:15am, had the brisket on at precisely 3am and pulled it off when the 10-pound hunk of meat reached an internal temp of 185F at 7pm, 16 hours later. It was tiring, but worth every hour of fire monitoring/adjustment. The first serving was heavenly, and the leftovers at lunch today were even more rewarding.

Bis später,
M

The Swedish Chef on YouTube

Counterstreamradio.org

Yo La Tengo – “I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass”

“Top Chef” on Bravo

Evan Ziporyn – “Pondok”, played by the incomparable Sarah Cahill

Various tapas dishes we’ve been preparing

The New Yorker’s “Summer Fiction Issue”

Intelligentsia’s “Anjilanaka”, direct trade organic coffee from Bolivia

My wife’s homemade Ginger Brew

I love being able to write/utter the following:

The Yankees are tied for last place.

Happiness is stumbling across "Enter the Dragon" just beginning on late-nite TV.

Hot damn...

"you have offended my family....and the Shaolin temple..."

shamelessly lifted from konstanze1:


Favorite Color: deep blue
Favorite Food: yes
Favorite Month: November
Favorite Song: hardly a "song", but my latest musical obsession is Lou Harrison's "Main Bersama-Sama"
Favorite Movie: The Blues Brothers
Favorite Sport: baseball
Favorite Season: autumn
Favorite Day of the week: they're all pretty much the same, but Sunday mornings were made for coffee and newspapers
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Baskin Robbins peanut butter/chocolate
Favorite Time of Day: evening

9 CURRENTS

Current Mood: content
Current Taste: relaxed
Current Clothes: comfy
Current Desktop: my wife, looking coquettish at a Prague subway stop
Current Toenail Color: same color they've been since birth
Current Time: 11:35pm (Tucson, AZ)
Current Surroundings: living room, sleeping Schnauzer withing spitting distance, Tanqueray gimlet at the ready
Current Thoughts:

8 FIRSTS

First Best Friend: Ian, still hanging on after 20 years
First Kiss: Michelle, now a professional dog groomer from what I hear
First Screen Name: flipper9
First Pet: Jenny, the dachshund that died on my 7th birthday
First Piercing: none
First Crush: Amy Irving in "The Competition"
First CD: The Beach Boys, "Endless Summer"

7 LASTS

Last Cigarette: A Nat Sherman
Last Drink: besides the gimlet I'm drinking as I write?
Last Car Ride: tonight, driving home from Gianni Schicchi rehearsal
Last Kiss: wife kissed me goodnight about 20 minutes ago
Last Movie Seen: "A Good Year" starring Russell Crowe
Last Phone Call: Ian, the aforementioned friend
Last CD Played: Radiohead, "OK Computer"

6 HAVE YOU EVERS

Have You Ever Dated One Of Your Best Guy/Girl Friends: no
Have You Ever Broken the Law: Yes.
Have You Ever Been Arrested: No.
Have You Ever Skinny Dipped: Yes
Have You Ever Been on TV: yes, cheesy morning program for which I accompanied an opera singer singing Gershwin
Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn't Know: nope

5 THINGS

Thing You're Wearing: my trusty jeans and an untucked clearance rack shirt that gets compliments EVERY time I wear it
Thing You've Done Today: Practiced, coached three singers, played a dress rehearsal with my duo partner (violin), played two hours of Gianni Schicchi rehearsal
Thing You Can Hear Right Now: Lou Harrison through my headphones
Thing You Can't Live Without: music
Thing You Do When You're Bored: I haven't had time for boredom in a really long time

4 PLACES YOU'VE BEEN TODAY

1. home
2. Casas Adobes Congregational Church, Tucson, for a dress rehearsal
3. University of Arizona School of Music
4. gas station

3 PEOPLE YOU CAN TELL ANYTHING TO

1. my wife
2. Ian
3. n/a

2 CHOICES

1. Black or White: black
2. Hot or Cold: hot

1 THING YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:

play in a Gamelan ensemble

I had a riot playing a John Cage piece this past weekend with my old friend Stephan and a couple of new friends, John and Willie. The gig itself was a great deal of fun, with perhaps my personal highlight of the weekend being a spur-of-the-moment performance of Steve Reich's "Clapping Music" with Willie inside a gigantic Richard Serra sculpture. True to form, Stephan was on hand with a hi-tech recording device to capture the sounds (there was a 1/4 sec. delay inside the sculpture), and Willie's girlfriend had a camera at the ready. Sounds and/or photos will be posted soon.

Epilogue: Apparently the L.A. Times thinks I'm a violinist!

...you probably won't be able to make it, since you're either out of state or out of the country. BUT, if you happen to be in the area, you are most cordially invited to attend a recital about which I am most excited.

"Classical Elegance for Violin"

Carla Ecker, violin (Associate Concertmaster, Tucson Symphony)
Michael Dauphinais, piano

Music for violin and piano by Corelli, Mozart, Sarasate ("Zigeunerweisen") and Beethoven ("Kreutzer" Sonata)

Sunday, May 27th @2pm

Casas Adobes Congregational Church

6801 N. Oracle Road, Tucson (between Ina and Orange Grove)

Tickets available at the door:
$12 general admission
$10 seniors/students

...here ya go.

Same ol' story this time of year- WAY too many student juries and recitals to play lo these past several days, yea, weeks....however, I don't complain because I'm making a living playing the piano. (I think I set a record, at least on a personal level, by accompanying TEN tuba juries in one afternoon.) I'm in the home stretch....one tuba recital and one clarinet jury remain, and then I can really devote myself to much loftier music.

My wife sang De Falla's "El Amor Brujo" tonight with a local orchestra. Good stuff. Conductor is a bit of a stooge, but the balance was OK. She sings one more tomorrow, and then later this week sings the title role in Vivaldi's "Ottone in Villa", up in Phoenix.

Lots of good stuff happening...a gig in Mississippi next weekend with my friends Lisa and Nathan, followed by a gig the following weekend in Orange County playing John Cage's Four3 with people from/associated with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. A good month, a busy month, and hopefully a month I will look back upon with fondness and satisfaction.

...that the best espresso I've had in Arizona may be experienced at Crave, right here in Tucson.

...is that you just never know what can happen.

If I hadn't watched ESPN tonight, I would've missed the triple play that the Phillies turned today.

Sweet...

"The Magnificent Seven" on late night TV

A Schnauzer cuddled up close, snoring

A gin/tonic close at hand

The satisfaction of another week of work gone by

Bellavoix's rose pictures

The gig offer I received earlier today on the phone...details to follow

looking up "The Magnificent Seven" on IMDB and learning that John Williams actually played in the orchestra for Elmer Bernstein's score

I'm just now winding down after a long but satisfying week of activity. Today I played the third and final performance of Orff's "Carmina Burana" with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra - I love the piece and look forward to my next opportunity to play it. I also played several tuba and euphonium accompaniments as a part of this conference. It was fun, but I'm also very glad to have a lot of that music out of my life so I can move on to the many student recitals and juries for which I've agreed to play.

Up to Phoenix tomorrow for a few coachings and a dress rehearsal for Arizona Opera's production of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah. Tuesday, it's back to the grindstone of rehearsing for juries and recitals. Gotta pay the bills, but I'm not complaining: I'm sitting on my ass playing the piano. In the meantime, I look forward to reserving an entire day to spend playing with the backyard smoker (brisket, anyone?) and reading a non-music-related book.

Q: How can one make leftover Mac and Cheese even better?

I'm not talking about boxed kit supermarket garbage here, I'm talking about the real deal homemade hotdish Mac and Cheese.

A: Add bacon and Louisiana hot sauce.

Holy crap, it's really good.

Opening day is in 6 days! I'm especially excited this year because my wife gave me an XM radio for Christmas, so I'll be able to listen to play-by-play of any game that I wish. They've been doing a lot of the spring training games, but exhibition games on the radio sound a lot like college baseball - it's just not the same as listening to the regular season. I've always loved good radio play-by-play calling (in any sport), and now I'll be able to enjoy some of the voices that I normally only get to hear when I'm traveling. Baseball on the radio - the soundtrack of summer. Cheesy, but true for me.

The longtime radio guy in me felt a slight twinge of guilt when I first started listening to satellite radio; the geek in me can't stop listening. Three classical music channels (2 of them are exceptionally good), the BBC, XMPR (Bob Edwards) and countless music channels have all made the drive between Tucson and Phoenix much more enjoyable.

Back to the piano,
M

I found a super easy carnitas recipe - it's cooking right now, and I can't wait to taste it tonight.

2-3 lb. pork butt, trim the excess fat
8 cloves of garlic
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
12 oz. lager beer (I had a Red Stripe on hand)

Cut some slits into the pork, insert the garlic. Place in crock pot. Cover the meat with the cilantro and jalapeno. Pour the beer over, cover and cook on high for 5-6 hours.



It's only been cooking for 2 hours, and the aroma is already amazing! I just ran out and bought fresh tortillas from La Mesa Tortilleria... it's all I can do to resist eating them now, straight from the bag, warm from being made this morning. YUM...