Stupid Boston Market marketing

Last night Mrs. R and I were late for an evening concert and stopped at Boston Market for a quick chicken dinner on the way. On the wall was a bit of advertising: "Blah freshness blah everything we serve is fresh blah taste and nutrition. It's too bad people have to eat it so quickly". (Sorry, not entirely verbatim.) We both initially read the last sentence as reproaching customers for wolfing their food. But no doubt it meant, "It's too bad no one gets a chance to appreciate the beauty and wonder of our food since it gets eaten the moment it's made and doesn't sit out under heat lamps wilting". Hire a poet, people.

The concert, incidentally, was by a local orchestra that makes a nice sound and plays in an attractive space. They performed the Beethoven violin concerto with a soloist I hadn't heard of but who has played for big American orchestras. The piece starts with a fairly long instrumental section, during which tension builds (at least if you like LvB, which [in this case at least] I do) before the soloist comes in with a difficult octaves passage. Last night the soloist seemed to be raring to go, in fact playing a few chords along with the orchestra before her entrance, and I thought, wow, this is dramatic. But from the first few bars of the entrance I could tell the soloist was tight, hitting 99.95% of the notes but not doing so in a relaxed, commanding way, and on top of that breathing in microsecond bursts through a closed throat. Oh well. Still a nice evening.


ObRilkePoem: Der Nachbar in German and middling English translation.