Saturday, February 14, 2009

A big win for mass transit


CNN.com has listed the "winners" and the "losers" in the new stimulus package about to be signed by President Obama and mass transit has definitely come ahead as a winner! America is this much closer to having a modern transportation grid, which is much appreciated by all of us out there who do not own cars.

Question: does any of the money go to projects already being planned for Detroit, such as the Woodward Light-Rail, the Ann Arbor-Detroit commuter line, or the proposed rail connection from Downtown to the Detroit-Metropolitan airport? I would hope so. These things would be invaluable for the city and the region.

So, thank you politicians for finally doing something right. I have no idea what the rest of that stimulus package will actually accomplish, but at least this part of it is a step in the right direction.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

A Good Afternoon for Mendelssohn

Went to see a (free) concert here on campus at the Schaver Music Recital Hall (pictured), on this warm and almost Spring-like Sunday afternoon. It was a very interesting (and by interesting I mean diverse) group of performers. The pianist was a Taiwanese woman, one violinist was a mainland PRC Chinese man, the other violinist was Romanian, and the cellist was (here is the shocking one) American.

Great performance! I especially enjoyed watching the pianist. She had the most pleasant smile on her face most of the time when she was playing, and when she wasn't smiling she looked like she was wanting to. It is easy to forget sometimes being a music student that music can be fun. I'll try to smile more this week while practicing piano and see if it helps any. (Doubtful.)

While the highlight of the recital was of course the Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, I think the most memorable part for me will be the three Chinese (or maybe Taiwanese) folk songs that they played at the beginning of the recital. Light, fun, and enjoyable. Too bad though that there wasn't an Erhu!

(Picture from the Wayne State University School of Music website)