The Globetrotting Geek

Sunday – Day 251

April 14, 2013

Sunday morning was another treat. We woke up at a decent hour, despite the antics of the night before. Kirk and Dan Carsello decided they would head off to Dim Sum with the Glee Club, despite having little idea what ‘Dim Sum’ was. I told them they’d likely enjoy it, despite Dan’s many allergies.

This left me in the house with Dan Pincus and Ilja Sichrovsky, a close friend and house guest of his, visiting from Austria. Ilja was somewhat opposed to Dan’s busy lifestyle, and was constantly urging him to take a proper break, like a proper European!

Dan opened the blinds, the sun streamed in and shortly after that, so too through his door streamed a flock of people.  With that, Dan and Kirk decided that it was time for them to leave and that was the last of them I saw that weekend.

The two latest guests to the house were Mustafa Qureshi of Pakistan and another international student friend of Dan’s; Stephanie. Together we prepared a delicious brunch, comprised of a wide range of both European and American foods. Ilja was not impressed at Dan’s coffee making skills however, and made it clear with a look of sheer disgust on his face after trying it.

What was most exciting about this brunch however, was the conversation. The attendees were clearly of high intellect and vigorously debated issues of international importance, ranging from US foreign policy, to the merits of various political philosophies.

Following the lovely drawn out lunch, I was due to see the production of Jersey boys on Broadway. Dan said he was heading down to see a show right next door at 3PM when the two of them started, and as such said he’d accompany me down. From my impressions of Dan thus far, I felt it probably wouldn’t be the wisest idea to accept, however might be the more adventurous option. I decided to go with it and waited around working on a few little things until 2:40 when Dan finally decided the was ready.

I was already a little nervous about making it in time but Dan was very reassuring. As we stepped outside he took one look at the traffic and decided that a cab would be too slow, so he started off towards the subway. Remembering that the closest line was under construction, his pace suddenly quickened. We arrived at the subway just in time to see our train depart. This threw Dan just a little but he was soon back in his stride letting me know that by his current calculations, I would make it there at about 2:59.

The subway moved achingly slow, and Dan was visibly frustrated. It was edging close to 3PM. As the doors opened at our station, Dan raced out in front of me, madly dashing towards the exit turnstiles. I lagged a little behind him and then rudely dashed in front of a New Yorker who yelled about tourists as I overtook her, to avoid getting lost without my guide.

We sprinted down the street and at 2:59 exactly, I made it to the theatre waving goodbye to Dan as he dashed in the opposite direction.

I managed to get to my seat just as the lights were dimming and found myself in a theatre full of Glee Clubbers. Scott Ventre, though he had seen the show a few times before was rocking out like crazy in the row below me and some rowdy grandmothers were doing the same just over to my left.

 

Following the show we speed walked to the Megabus bay to catch our bus back to Philly. Upon arrival we were informed that the bus was going to be over an hour late. Coupled with this news were a few raindrops that were followed by more of a torrent. We huddled cold and hungry under our coats, waiting to get back to Penn.

 

Finally, we arrived back, too late to do anything productive, so I unpacked my bags and made sure to get some sleep.

Shabbat – Day 250

April 12, 2013

The next day I arose bright and early to the warm sounds of Pink Floyd’s stunning album, “The Dark Side of the Moon” as Dan had seen fit to wake us up with is beautiful valve amplified stereo system. I was a little jealous. From there, the rest of the day was divided between singing and walking for me. First up was a full club rehearsal at some studio in midtown.

Rehearsal was a subset of club, joined by a subset of the alums, one of whom was from the Penn Class of ’70! The alums were split 50:50 between those who had continued singing after graduation and those for whom it had ceased to become a meaningful part of their lives. Regardless, all still retained their fine voices and musicality and I am proud to say that our sound was truly excellent.

Following a few hours of rehearsal, I, the older gentleman and Shohom Basuthakur (the vice-president of PGC) walked down to our performance venue. The club had arranged for us to sing inside the grand echoing chambers of the German Evangelical Church on 28th street, only an hours walk away!

The concert was surprising full, and a certain clubber even convinced a guy he message over ‘grindr’ to come see us. One highlights of the show in my opinion were Franz Biebl’s Ave Maria, in which a smaller counter choir sang down from the pews located upstairs, while I and the larger choir sang below. The resonance of the final chord was truly majestic and I only wish I had a recording of it! The other highlight for me was “The Brotherhood of Man” complete with choreography in the church.

Following our performance, Shabbat was out, so the two Dans, Kirk, and I all headed back to his apartment. Him for another exciting evening with friends and us for a night at Reuven’s (also known as ‘Jewbacca’ or ‘Taco’), an orthodox Jewish PGC alum who traditionally hosted fantastic after parties replete with top class mashke (alcohol). I had a very interesting chat with him about how he managed to be ‘frum’ (religious) at the same time as travelling with the club and partaking in all the activities. One thing he mentioned that was of interest to me, was how back in his day, the religious community at Penn was very much insular and un-accepting of diversity. I proudly told him how things had changed and it somewhat seemed to set his mind at ease.

I left the party with one very drunk Clubber in tow, shipping him back to the apartment before flouncing down on the couch for another night at the Pincus Emporium.

Friday – Day 249 #TheNextBigThing

April 11, 2013

Firstly in case you noticed the odd title of this post, I will be hashtagging a number of my posts as such for the next few weeks. This is because I’m part of a promotion at the University of Pennsylvania to promote the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and have been given the opportunity to own one myself if I pass a sufficient threshold of views. Selling out it may be, but I trust you to forgive me for the period of two weeks or so. Also, if you feel like being particularly generous, like my posts, as that counts extra!

Friday was intensely busy with grading CIS 121 midterms for a good majority of the day. It was relatively uneventful with the exception of a difficult coding question at the end. The gist of the question was as follows:

Assessing student responses was difficult, even more so given that many of the TAs found the question to be challenging as well.

In the afternoon I caught a bus to New York City, where I would be staying for the weekend as part of the Glee Club NYC Performance Tour. Upon arrival I was taken by my fellow clubbers Dan ‘Po’ Carsello and Kirk ‘Mortton’ Arner to a home in the West Village. The place where I was to be staying for the weekend belonged to one Daniel Pincus, Glee Alum and renaissance man.

Dan was a consultant for The Quantic Group, a pharma focused consulting group. Balanced with that is his position on the board of The Muslim Jewish Conference, an international non for profit that focuses on discussing topics of shared concern between the two faith communities. That was paired with additional activism efforts he engages in across the middle east, working to free women from repression and on the establishment of civil liberties.Oh and did I mention he founded his own popular dance troupe?

Not only is he professionally accomplished, but he is something of an artist, with a work of his own on display and varied books on artwork and photography.

Sitting on Dan’s coffee table was a Canon EOS 5D Mark III, a top of the range, full frame, digital camera. He was gracious enough to let me take a few photos on it, but the feature set was overwhelming and combined with my very amateur skills, didn’t result in any fantastic images.

Opposite the coffee table, I fell in love. As I entered the room for the first time, my eyes were immediately drawn to a piano mysteriously labelled with a white number 15. The piano was a Steinway upright, already a good sign, and as I tinkled at the keys, rich, full, dulcet tones rose from the heart of the beast.

My first impression of Dan when he walked through the door was already pretty favourable. His stride evoked a sense of confidence but the smile on his face and his demeanour as he walked two guests into the house betrayed a side that carried more spontaneity. Bolstering my impression of him was the two fine ladies that entered with him, a gorgeous Pakistani in a flowing yellow evening gown and a researcher from the Antarctic circle, casually in conversation.

From his position, it would’ve been easy to lay the three awkward Glee Clubbers in his house aside and make haste to away to his next destination of the evening, but generously he offered us to join him on his next adventure.

His next animus was to convene with an artist friend of his, who, residing above a dumpster owned by an Italian Mafia family, had been commissioned by Dan to build a ‘Gamelatron’ – a fully automated Indonesian gong music ensemble. He showed great passion towards this pet project of his, and enthused all of us as to it’s transformative powers. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to embark on the trip (Dan and Kirk filled the car anyway) but a few hours later they returned with stories of wonder. It seems they two were as impressed by Dan as I was.

Dan then explained to me the story of Piano #15 and my breath was almost taken away. He took a photo of the signatures under the lid and explained to me that the piano I had played on was in fact purchased from Carnegie Hall and had been played on by artists such as the great Lang Lang.

Following their return, I closed up my Physics books, unpacked on the couch in his most spacious apartment and soon fell fast asleep.