music, central park zoo, cupcakes and more.

So much has been happening lately, I don't even know where to begin.

I suppose the first order of business is to mention a gig I have coming up this weekend with a Grammy Award winning rapper who's very, very famous and was recently in Dave Chappelle's Block Party documentary. It's unexpected and pretty sudden, and I'm not going to lie, I'm a little nervous about it. Sight reading is required -- not my strongest point -- but thus far the music that has been sent to me does not look difficult.

Other news -- I played Bernstein's Chichester Psalms last night. The concert (chamber version) went very well, especially considering I had VERY short notice to learn the piece, which is notoriously difficult for my instrument. I never had a chance to have a complete rehearsal with the full ensemble and almost zero time to tune (not to mention no time to warm up beforehand). The conditions were less than ideal, but my instrument (and me) held through it, and did just fine. The chorus was very nice and friendly, which always makes performing easier. All in all I was surprised and pleased with how kind everyone was. I got a few compliments from the performers as well, which is always nice.

A couple days ago I had a very New York day and visited a couple city institutions. First on the list was the Central Park Zoo. In general I hate zoos, because they are pretty much prisons for animals. It wasn't surprising, then, when I found out one of the polar bears at the CPZ had to be put on antidepression medication. The zoo itself was lovely. Small, but beautifully landscaped and full of informed, friendly guides. The habitats were cramped, especially for some of the monkeys, and the sea lion tank made me feel sad -- the animals had no where to go except to splash around in a circle all day, which they did over and over, making me dizzy. The penguins looked happy, as did the puffins, but the monkeys looked depressed, as did the polar bears. (Even the one on medication.) The animals were well taken care of, however, and I didn't feel as guilty about visiting as I normally would with a zoo. Especially touching (I'm a total softie when it comes to animals) were the senior citizen animals who had special tanks and were obviously well loved.

Highlights:

*The rainforest room -- amazing birds! There were so many different kinds, and they were all colorful. A few were making nests, which was adorable.
*Baby colobus monkey -- cutest animal ever.
*Red panda
*Snow monkeys, although their exhibit was small and weirdly surrounded by water.

Next on the list was a visit to the store Condomania in the West Village. I think the name is pretty self-explanatory. I went with a classmate as a joke, and it was as entertaining as could be imagined. We did not spend very much time in there, however, as the store was limited to pretty much what it's named for. Apparently it's famous though, and has a loyal following.

Then it was cupcakes at the overrated Magnolia's. The place is famous for their baked sweet stuff, but the staff were catty, self absorbed and generally the type of people I try to avoid. It was self serve for cupcakes, which were tasty. $3.50 for 2 cupcakes, however, is overpriced. Not worth it. It was fun to try, though, and there was no line, which is unusual.

Afterwards I ate my cupcakes in the park, and was hit with a storm of pigeons. One was gimp with a messed up foot so he got a few pieces of the cake. I'm a sucker, what can I say?