I've been watching the world cup nearly non-stop since it opened a week ago. Admittedly, yesterday I only watched half of one game, but other than that I've been watching at least two or three games a day. It's definitely cut into my practice time, but then it only happens once every four years, so I feel no shame. So far, it looks like Argentina may be the team to beat. They came out strong against the Ivory Coast, and then today CRUSHED Serbia/Montenegro 6-0. Admittedly S/M (lol) was the definite underdog, however, all teams in the world cup are made up of world-renowned players, so to win any game 6-0 is quite a feat. Brazil looked decent in its opener, but not great, as did England, and Germany certainly hasn't been winning quite as strongly as expected. Another one to watch is Ecuador. No one gave them much credit coming into the world cup, since they only managed to win games at home to qualify, and home is at high altitude in the Andes, which many people said gave them an unfair home field advantage. Obviously such talk has been put to rest. But tomorrow: tomorrow is the big game for the US team. A loss or even a tie means they are out of the tournament, and Italy is one of teh world's big soccer powers, so it's an uphill battle. Still, if the unthinkable should happen and the US team loses, I can always cheer for Mexico or Ecuador. I never like cheering for the traditional powerhouses, although it's true that England hasn't won a world cup since I believe 1966, so I can always cheer for the safely. Either way, it's been a fun week.
Two days ago I went to play my cello at a rest home for the elderly. I was invited because they saw an article about me in my home town paper, and there happened to be a former music teacher in the home that had suffered a massive stroke around 20 years ago and has been "locked in" ever since. They thought it would be great for him if I'd go down there and play, so of course I agreed (would have anyways). I won't chalk it up as one of my greatest performances. I didn't have a pianist, so working up the requisite amount of rep to fill the time was hard. I tried to pull out the arpeggione sonata (since that sounds ok without piano), and played the first and third movements. The first sounded fine, but the third was of course incredibly rocky. Still, I could actually get through it, which was good enough. I also played the first movement of Kodaly and four movements from the 3rd Bach Suite. I managed to put it all together literally the night before, but it was fun. What I found out after the performance, however, is something I'll definitely keep in my "inspirational moments" folder. The director walked up to me afterward and was talking about the music teacher; she was saying how communicating with him was very difficult, since the only way they could do it was by attaching some sort of sensor to his head and reading his brain waves, which apparently were strong enough to move a mouse cursor to various letters of the alphabet on a screen. So she said they'd be sending me questions/comments from him as he gave them; apparently the stroke only affected his motion, but his hearing and mind are still in top shape. What I found out, however, was that he was clearly over any sort of anger/depression resulting from being in such a state; in fact, they told me he was one of the only ones in the home who actually wantes to be resuscitated if his breathing gives out or somesuch. It gives me hope that someone can be completely at peace, being in a situation such as his. I guess he's hoping that research performed on him will ultimately help others in a similar predicament. I think they're trying to find a way to get his brain waves to generate actual speech, but currently are stuck at getting him to direct a cursor. Still, pretty incredible, I think.