As the mirror ball turns

Lastnight I went somewhere I had not been in a long time which is the Marriott out by UB.

Ha, ha! Who doesn't associate the Marriott with the 1980s, disco music, singles dances, that big mirror ball? "Boom, boom, boom, let's go back to my room!" That is what my friend Michelle was singing as we walked in. We were both singing and dancing and cracking up.

And we could not have been with a more un-disco-y crowd. We were with my piano teacher, Stephen Manes, and his wife, Marta, and the great cellist Jonathan Golove, and UB concert czar Phil Rehard, and a composer from Mexico whose name I didn't catch, and his wife, Brenda. This was a celebration of Stephen's triumphant concert lastnight at Slee Hall. He rocked the house with that "Wanderer" Fantasy.

We piled in around a round table and had drinks and talked about music. A perfect evening if you ask me. I got to talk about Leonard Pennario, which I love. Plus we were discussing the haunting Mozart C Minor Fantasy , which Manes played lastnight. (Friedrich Gulda plays it in the link.) And we spoke of the controversial science of embellishment, as espoused by Robert Levin when he was here a few weeks ago. Levin had his 15 minutes of fame on this blog already so I will not go into that again.

Stephen and Marta made the mistake of telling us we could come visit them at their house in Santa Monica which is very tiny. Ha, ha!! We are there!

The day was crazy with lots of other stuff packed into it too. Which brings me to something funny that happened in the middle of the day.

I was hurrying through the Ellicott Square Building and this gentleman called my name and I turned around. Will you look at the Ellicott Square Building in today's slideshow? Note to out-of-towners: This is the kind of building we Buffalonians walk through casually, during the course of our everyday lives.

Back to the gentleman who said hello. I didn't know who he was. At least, I didn't think I did. Situations like this are always weird for me because I have an extremely bad memory for faces until I have seen someone three or four times. I honestly think I am wired wrong. I am never entirely sure whether I have met someone or not. It is a terrible way to be. I could never be a politician.

Well, the gentleman introduced himself and he said, "I'm Art Russ." I think that was his name. "I read your blog," he said.

It is not as if this happens every day. "Oh," I said.

He made a joke about wanting to see how my teeth were doing. Still in a daze, I said, "I just got them adjusted."

He said, "I know. I read what you wrote this morning."

I got such a kick out of that! I wonder how Art Russ found this blog but unfortunately I did not have the mental wherewithal to ask. I will, however, declare today Art Russ Day. Art, this post's for you!

Here is one other funny thing. My friend Jane is friends with this gay couple. I mentioned them just yesterday, in connection with their tailgating at Gay Bingo. They held a birthday dinner for Jane a few months ago that caused me to gain five pounds, it was that good. It began with a perfect poached pear and went from there.

Yesterday I didn't name the couple but now I will. Their names are Art and Russ! In the morning I am writing about Art and Russ and in the afternoon I meet Art Russ.

As I said, it was one crazy day.