i admit to shamelessly stealing these pictures from somewhere but i find schroeder so adorable. he has slightly ruffled hair, is always slouched over a piano and does not have much luck with girls, which is charming in itself. the grand piano always seems to be in the middle of nowhere which always made me wonder how he brought it around, or what nice and rich parents he must have. judging from his name, they are perhaps german emigr�s which explains the liking for classical music.

"Schroeder, who idolizes Beethoven, brought classical music to the Peanuts strip. Reserved and usually unruffled, Schroeder reacts only when Woodstock tries to make his grand piano into a playground, or Lucy seeks to make it her courting grounds. The latter can lead to minor violence."

i remember apart from the daily runs in the newspaper someone actually got me snoopy comics for one of my birthdays (the ones i celebrated when i was really young, which weren't many considering they were always during the exam period.) my sec 1 chinese teacher was also very crazy over the entire "peanuts" strip, because she would always have some merchandise lying around.

i thought of schroeder because i went to a concert at QE hall today. before you go off mumbling "jesse" and "toff" in the same breath behind my back, let me make things worse (as i only know how.) 1. it was a petit reward for finishing this week's work 3 days early (WHAT!) and 2. i watched this performance alone. it wasn't for lack of trying but i'm sure everyone just wanted to get their work done and probably would have preferred whatever they were doing that night (eg. lion king. *grin* ) anyway but it was fine, beethoven and beer for 4 quid. nothing to lose.

the conductor was gorgeous and could he shake his ass. he had this really dark look. i must point out that i don't go near violins or stringed instruments for fear that the strings will snap and cut me, neither can i blow, or even carry a decent tune, which leads me to be very inept at music. i shan't pretend to be really smart about it... though i think how everything fits together is marvellously fascinating. it was particularly telling that i was wearing jeans and after dr leunig pointed me out together with the 9 people in the same row as evidence of "homogenous tastes and mass production" it was particularly refreshing to see most of the crowd wearing old-fashioned pants and not have much hair. the only other people who took advantage of the student deal were a few chinese students from somewhere. don't accuse me of ageism, i have immense respect for these people for actually being able to finish the times crossword. (and i had some sausage roll , "brut" in dutch?, and it reminds me of my favourite pastry, courtesy of my grandma)

lively evening from the start, revolutionary music generally, they played a symphony for 2 violins by davaux which was a hodgepodge of revolutionary music of the day, including bits of the marseillaise. the violinists were a father and the son, very different characters, father probably has friends everywhere in the orchestra while the son is probably quite unpopular, with his bored looks and smirks. many questions. who does the orchestra take the tune from? (it was one of the woodwinds in this case). would it depend on whatever they were playing? those of you more educated than i am in this regard can enlighten me. and they put on beethoven's eroica symphony next (which i actually thought was something like erotica minus the t some years ago?), but this time i wasn't expecting sensual music=). it was lively, it got me skipping back home in the cold (my god, the winds today) and humming the finale on the way back. it wasn't life-changing music by any means (like the stories about beethoven losing his hearing and realizing he wouldn't marry), but i guess that was the point of the music=) to forget for a little while=]