Knitting, Mahler 2nd, other miscellany

I finished the vest illustrated here the other night, in slightly different colors. It looks awesome over a white long-sleeved shirt. Can't wait for the weather to cool off so I can wear it.

I also finished another vest , that one a pullover, that's been sitting in the knitting basket waiting for the neckline ribbing for about six years. It's made in a celadon green twisty yarn with narrow vertical cables and knitted-on pockets. I'm very pleased with how it came out, but it's going to have to get really cold before I can wear it, since it's so heavy.

Well, the bank hasn't been sold, so I guess the rumors of an immanent merger / acquisition weren't as accurate as they were cracked up to be. Our stock has gone up about 40% since I bought some last week. I wish I had bought more -- it would have been worth going into debt to buy them, but it's too late now, and it's really too much of a gamble to do that anyway.

With all the other mergers and acquisitions, we're now the ninth largest bank in the country, but we weren't invited to the table in Washington over the weekend. If we had been, that would have sent a message that we're in bad shape, and that we weren't sent the same message. You can't win.

We have the highest tier I capital ratio of any bank in the country, but the market still hasn't figured that out yet.

I had a good day today. It's another "Work at Home Wednesday," my normal pattern these days, but with a twist. The project lead on one of my projects is an all-the-time telecommuter, and we had a meeting today. Instead of going to the office, we met at a cute restaurant halfway between our homes and had a great working lunch. The food was great, and we accomplished our task. It was a beautiful day, but although it looked very fall-like, the temperature was in the 80's.

We (the May Festival Chorus) rehearsed with Gilbert Kaplan last night on the Mahler 2nd. He was impressed with us. He was apparently unaware that some of us have sung the damned thing almost as many times as he's conducted it. Well, not exactly -- but I sang it as far back as 1981, which was two years before he first conducted it.

I was sort of impressed with him, primarily because of his passion for the piece. He had facsimiles made for us of the opening choral parts in Mahler's own hand, a nice gesture, with the names and dates of our performances at the bottom, suitable for framing, I guess. He presented Bob with a facsimile of the entire choral section, with all of Mahler's ink colors, intact -- from black, to blue, to purple at the end (it gets really passionate at the end).

His conducting was easy to follow, much better than that of many of the big shots we've worked with. One of my good friends in the chorus worked with him before, when she sang with the London Symphony Orchestra Chorus. She related how rude the musicians were to him -- taking forever to tune the timpani, delaying the start of the rehearsal in the process, and then ignoring his direction and playing however they damned pleased. Half the chorus refused to sing, and they had to bring in outside singers.

The stories I've heard about that orchestra and its arrogance have always amazed me. The musicians usually step out to the pubs during rehearsal breaks and seem to have little respect for anything or anyone but themselves. The chorus' rehearsal discipline is apparently appalling as well.

Bob gave us a pep talk last night after Kaplan left, telling us how proud he was of us and our rehearsal with Kaplan. "People some to the midwest and always seem surprised that something this good should be here -- as if the midwest was in the backwoods somewhere. New York City does not have a chorus half as good as you are. Your discipline and work ethic and talent always amaze me -- and you should be proud." Then we worked a little on the Brahms Requiem and he let us go an hour early.

There will be no orchestra run through -- just the dress rehearsl tomorrow night, and Kaplan is being good enough to do the choral movement first, so we can leave early. Performances are Friday and Saturday at eight. If you're in the region, please come. It will be worth any trip -- the piece is amazing (like Kaplan, I, too, have a passion for Mahler). Details of the performance can be found at: http://www.cincinnatisymphony.org/Events/Details/oct17-18cso0809.asp

Tomorrow at lunch I need to look for some artwork for David's house for his 60th birthday on Sunday. When Carol moved out she took all of her little pictures of cats and her gawdawful crewel embroidery off the walls, (thank god - her taste was pure kitsch), his house has had bare spots ever since and he needs some decent art to hang there. He bought her furniture, but he's in the process of replacing 99% of it, so it's finally beginning to look as if a man lives there.

I guess that's it. I need to do some laundry.