The freezing part is of course that we’re stuck in the worst cold snap that NYC has seen I think since I moved here 30 years ago. I don’t remember it ever going down to single digits pretty much every day. The mildly amusing part is that, since I live in a radiator building, the apartment seems to get hotter and hotter as it gets colder and colder outside.

Charles left behind a big parka that he used to wear all the time – it’s a little small for me, although less small than it was, say, last year – but I only wear it in this kind of weather. It’s been a champ. I keep discovering more pockets that is has (helpful, particularly the one near the collar that I can put my wallet and phone in) and it also has the pocket slit that allows you to put your keys away in your pants pocket without unbuttoning the parka.

I’ve also been wearing duck shoes everywhere. I was mildly embarrassed about this in court, but I realized that nobody cares and the alternative was to bring a change of shoes, which I didn’t want to do.

Yeah, so the “thawing” or “unfreezing” is that the trial is almost over. On Thursday, we had the summation from both sides, and tomorrow we just have to get the instructions from the judge and then we deliberate. Theoretically, that could take days, but honestly, I think it’s going to wrap up pretty quickly. And then I’ll tell all.

The other unfreezing is that VLOG had its auditions for Sweeney this week. I did audition, thought it went well, but was not called back. This may mean nothing – apparently, some roles they didn’t call back, and I’m happy with ensemble anyway. But we’ll find out probably by tomorrow night. (now picturing them calling me to verify acceptance of a role while I’m in jury deliberation and can’t answer the phone. I guess we’ll see.)

But my roadmap for rest of winter and all of spring is completely dependent on whether I’m in the show or not. So making no other commitments as yet.

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Um, some random bits. I did make hot and sour soup and it came out quite good. Also made a chicken fajita hotdish out of a hotdish recipe book that my Minnesota niece gave me. That came out really good, but her husband is pushing me to make a classic hotdish, the kind involving tater tots, next. I am not opposed. I also have the makings now for a chicken piccata pasta recipe I got out of the NY Times, and for another round of chili. Freezer’s pretty full, and my fridge water line has iced up again, sigh.

Of course, just as the Olympics start, all these great TV shows come back, like The Pitt and Bridgerton and The Lincoln Lawyer, plus the handful of shows I’ve already been watching. So, entertainment I got.

I also saw another opera, The Magic Flute. Directed by my buddy Martin, using an English-language adaptation of Nathan Hull, a now no-longer-with-us stalwart of amateur opera and operetta in town. I really liked it! Tamino was kind of the audience’s voice in ‘what the hell is happening here?’ and that was funny and helpful. Leads were mostly quite good, especially my buddy Daniel as Papageno. I thought the orchestra was not tight at all, even though they’d had quite a few performances under their belt, and I suspect it’s because they’re rotating players out for different performances and there’s no chance to gel.

I didn’t really have much of a plan for forward motion in my conducting career, now that I’ve done most of the G&S operas I want to do, but certainly doing more opera-opera is a possibility, so I’m keeping my eyes open for opportunities there.

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Speaking of performing in general, this is way random, but here we go. My best friend Brad (Bunthorne Boy) and I were seniors in high school and starting to get really serious about classical music when the movie The Competition came out. This is not considered a classic movie by anyone, but we were just the right age and point of development to have it hit like a ton of bricks. Not so much the love story, which was fine, but the competition stuff itself, and commentary on being a musician, and getting introduced to the great piano concerto repertoire.

Tons of spoilers ahead, so skip this if you’d like. Richard Dreyfuss plays Paul, a talented pianist from a working-class background who keeps trying and not quite getting to the top of the competition circuit, and he’s about to age out. The big question is should he try again, or just start teaching music in the public schools. The movie is really his story, so the love interest, Heidi (Amy Irving) isn’t quite so fleshed out. She’s talented, but not driven the way he is, and also seems to be rich, which he definitely is not. She also has a big-name teacher, played by the wonderful Lee Remick, who pushes her into applying for this competition.

It turns out that they knew each other from previous music festivals, and there was a bzzz between them, but nothing much happened, and he’s totally like, “can’t talk to you, hot girl, can’t get distracted from my playing”. But Events occur.

Anyway, Paul performs the Emperor concerto (Beethoven), which is a fantastic piece and, just like every other work, was new to me when I first saw the film. And plays it great.

Heidi, when deciding, is waffling between two concertos, but picks a Mozart concerto (which is insane for this kind of competition. Yes, you have to be really good to play Mozart well, but Mozart isn’t jaw-droppingly showy like you need for these competitions.) But then this happens when (the next night in competition) she goes on stage to perform it.

So suddenly she’s playing the Prokofiev 3rd, which we’ve only heard a bit of in the movie, and which she hasn’t rehearsed.

This is a challenging raw and energetic concerto 180 degrees from the Mozart, and really nothing like the other warhorses that the other competitors are doing, and it’s a huge jump off the cliff to try this. And this is what happens.

Side note: both Brad and I were so impressed with this piece, which we’d never heard before, that we were obsessed with it through freshman year in college, each buying recordings of it, and seeing it played live at Wolftrap the next summer. It’s still one of my favorite pieces of music.

You see in this clip that Paul is listening, then really taken aback by what he’s hearing. And then you find out why afterward, after she wins and he takes second.

And, although it’s quite clear that Paul is somewhat of an asshole, it’s also completely understandable that it just never occurs to him that this cutie pie he’s attracted to is actually really really good and, as he says, “better than me”.

This is something that everyone who strives to be the best at what they do learns eventually. No matter how wonderful you are, you don’t do everything wonderfully, and other people will do those things better. Or just be better all around. And you can either be bitter about it, or just accept that you’ll end up at a certain level with a certain amount of work, and maybe never top that, and that’s just got to be OK. Or both bitter and accepting.

But the revelation I had on the 100th watching of this movie was… remember that hearing this Prokofiev for the first time out of nowhere, for me the young budding musician, was just like OMG WTF is this amazing piece? But that’s not true for Paul. He already knows the Prokofiev 3rd. The only time we hear him talk about it is to mention that the scoring has castanets (heh), but he clearly knows the piece. He’s undoubtedly worked on it, has probably performed it, and knows exactly how tough it is and where the pitfalls lie. And he’s hearing Heidi sail through them, and is like, ‘oh shit’.

I myself have had the experience, more than once, of hearing another performer perform a piece in my repertoire and going, “oh, THAT’S how it goes. I never would have gotten that, but she’s right“. And that’s what’s happening with Paul, on top of everything else, it’s a specific reaction to how a particular piece is performed.

Anyway, I love this movie, despite its flaws, and just had to go on and on about it.

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Next up: what does the unthawing look like?

Unthawing? Is that a word? Does it mean the same thing as thawing? Huh.