Museums and Culture

The Macaulay Marauders first went up against the team from Hofstra.  To be quite honest, it took me a little while to catch onto the game.  So I don’t really know how this particular match went except for the fact that the other team’s seeker caught the snitch.  There are soft, deflated volleyballs used as quaffles, the balls which are used to score points by throwing them through the three circular hoops at each end of the field.  There are bludgers, red and yellow dodge balls, that are thrown by beaters at competitors.  This act will knock a player off his broom and the player then has to run to his end of the field to get back into the game.  Wikipedia categorizes the game as a semi-contact sport.  I beg to differ.  Players are tackled, pulled, and pushed!  If I ever wanted to be part of a Quidditch team, my opinion has changed now.  The seeker’s job is to catch the snitch, a non-biased yellow-clad member of a non-participating team.  To do this, the seeker must grab a little weighted ball that is attached to the snitch’s backside.  Unfortunately, in this game, the seeker from Hofstra got to the snitch’s behind before we did.  There are many opinions about the position of seeker.  Should seeker be allowed to tap-out like all of the other members?  Or should part of the seeker’s job descriptions be high stamina?  Hofstra’s seeker tapped-out while the Marauder’s seeker did not.  Is this fair?

The second match was against the Honeybadgers (university I’m unsure about).  During this game I had a better understanding of what was happening.  I kept score along with the score board as I was in a better position to see when the chasers made shots.  I especially enjoyed watching the intricate back and forth play as players were knocked off of their brooms.  I guess I would consider us lucky to not have flying capability.  It’s dangerous enough on the ground!  Unfortunately, again, the Marauders lost this match as well.

I couldn’t stay for much longer as I had further plans for the day.  In the end, the Macaulay Marauders came in 4th place!

Finkel² + Rutkowski

I took the subway from Delancey street to 86th – around thirty minutes.  I had predicted this time lapse, but didn’t realize that I would have so much time to spare pre-concert.  It’s funny how sometimes one has so much time, but then uses it up to the point of being LATE!  The Alumni Recital at Mannes College was at 1:30 and I had about forty minutes to spare, so I stopped for some bar food at Firehouse – a four cheese pizza!  The waitress warned me it would take twenty minutes to make, but I had forty, so I thought I had time.  Oh well, so I missed the first piece of the concert, but here is what I did hear:

Grand Duo Concertante, op. 48 …… Carl Maria von Weber

Potpourri Suite …… arr. by Ian Finkel
Trio Sonata, op. 2, movement 2 …… Georg Friedrich Handel
Slavonic Dance No. 2 …… Antonin Dvorak
Sevilla …… Isaac Albeniz
Dance of the Buffoons …… Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Sonata No. 1 in D minor, op. 75 …… Camille Saint-Saens

Hungarian Fantasy …… Franz Liszt

 The reason I went to the concert in the first place was because the clarinetist performing was Joseph Rutkowski, my former band teacher in high school.  He was playing along with too old friends, both alumni of Mannes as well, Elliot and Ian Finkel.  Elliot Finkel played the piano, and Ian Finkel played the xylophone.  The most interesting part of the entire concert was the fact that almost all the pieces were arranged or transcribed so that the xylophone could play.  I’ve never heard a xylophone play a chamber piece by Handel before, have you?  One of the highlights for me was when the three of them played encores.  The second encore was an arrangement of Bagley’s “National Emblem March.”  Now, why was this a highlight?  It brought back memories of high school when the band would play that march for pep-band and graduation!  And there my teacher was, Mr. Rutkowski, playing the same piece along with a piano and xylophone!  Many of Mr. Rutkowski’s students came to see the performance, and there was even another alum like me!  We had a nice chat afterwards and took pictures (none of which I have).

Columbus Avenue Street Fair – Who knew!?!?

Who knew that when I was walking down 85th street that I would just stumble across a street fair on Columbus Avenue?  It really wasn’t until after the concert did I realize the magnitude of the fair.  As I sat for my lunch outside on the street, a nice touch as I usually don’t eat outdoors in America, I saw in front of me bouncy castles and to my side a gyro truck.  I thought that was the most of it.  I was dead wrong.  After the concert I decided I was too tired to go all the way back to Delancey Street to see a ninety minute performance of Habit, so I planned to walk down Columbus Avenue until I reached the Lincoln Center subway station.  The entire way down was filled with stalls of all types of commodities: food, clothing, art work, jewelry, and random objects.  I found some really nice clothing along the way, but for a college student, a $70 vest or a $90 dress is just too much!  Granted, the vest seemed to me to look one of a kind, and the dress was vintage and was worth $400, but without a mother or grandmother to use her own money to purchase said vest or dress… I don’t think so!  There were also street performances by bands.  Seriously, it was quite a lovely surprise to experience!

It truly was an eventful day in the city.  I am really taking advantage of what there is to offer, even if I do skip on a couple of my planned excursions.

Marina B. Nebro