November 25, 2010: Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman Concert

November 25, 2010: Today I used an English activity that turned out to be very entertaining for both the students and myself. I read them a story about a crime that had been committed downtown -- a man was robbed of his possessions and pushed off the Liberty Bridge into the Danube River.Witnesses of the crime told police that they saw two teenage boys commit the crime before fleeing in a getaway car. At the scene of the crime, police found that one of the boys had dropped an UMSZKI lunch ticket (UMSZKI is the name of my school) and an English dialog. This led police to my English class to find the suspects of the crime. The boys were divided into pairs and they were told to prepare an alibi as to why they could not have done the crime. Then, one of the boys would leave the classroom while his partner sat in a chair in front of class to answer questions by his classmates about his whereabouts on the night of the crime. After the class questioned the one boy, he would leave the room and the other boy was questioned by the class to see if their stories were the same. For each discrepancy in their stories, they would receive one point. The class questioned each pair of boys in this way and the pair that received the greatest number of discrepancies was declared guilty of the crime. The boys asked some very detailed questions to try to get discrepant answers. It was very funny to hear them do this all in English! For example, one pair said that they went bowling at the time of the crime and could not have committed the crime. The class asked each one how they had bowled -- how many strikes they got, what the score was, whether they had eaten anything and if so what, etc. One boy said the score was 10 to 0 but that he had gotten three strikes. (I guess he's never bowled before, or it he did, he doesn't know how to score.) There was much laughter in the class. And, it was good to see the boys react in English rather than Hungarian.

I learned a bit more about the death of the student yesterday. I heard a report that he had been hit by a train. Such a tragedy. One of my students who knew him, was very distressed and I excused her from class to console herself rather than try to concentrate on my lesson.

After school I again went to Keleti train station to pick up another CETP teacher who came to Budapest to join other CETP teachers for Thanksgiving dinner. We returned to my apartment and I gave him directions on how to get to the restaurant. He left for the restaurant and I prepared to go to a jazz concert at the Palace of Arts. Here's a picture of the National Theatre taken from the roof of the Palace of Arts.

National Theatre of Hungary

Brad Mehldau (piano) and Joshua Redman (saxophone) appeared there for a concert. I've long admired Mehldau and was quite anxious to hear him live. He will be performing in Los Angeles in December at Disney Hall, too so I will be seeing him before Ruth does. The concert was very well attended -- almost a full house. I was impressed with the musicianship of both Redman and Mehldau. Redman can make it sound like he's playing two saxophones by simultaneously playing one melody with the low notes and another with the upper ones. Mehldau's playing of the piano was very fluid -- his fingers floated over the keyboard. I was amazed at how he could make each hand play a different melody with different rhythm at the same time together with the saxophone. Although I was impressed with their musicality, the type of jazz is not for traditional listeners such as myself. At times the saxophone squawked and the piano repeatedly played the same chords over and over making the sound too avant garde for my taste, but the Hungarian audience seemed to enjoy the concert immensely. We received two encores due to the thunderous applause. The Hungarian jazz enthusiasts were of all ages ranging from the mid twenties to older people in their 60's. It was entertaining to be among such an enthusiastic group.

Brad Mehldau at piano and Joshua Redman on the sax

After the concert, I took the tram back to Vigado and from there it was a short walk to Vorosmarty ter where the Farmer's Market was and I met Dan, my CETP guest who had finished Thanksgiving dinner. We met and rode back to my apartment. And so ended my Thanksgiving in Hungary.