We Enjoyed a Dinner and Concert in Downtown Gainesville

Tuesday late-afternoon/evening Melissa and I ventured to downtown Gainesville to have dinner and then attend a Candlelight Concert at the Hippodrome Theater. The concert's theme on this occasion was the holidays, including Christmas, Hanukkah and assorted Winter classical pieces.  The musicians were a string quartet: first and second violin, viola and cello.  Candlelight Concerts are spread nationwide with many different musicians providing shows themed around different topics, many of them tributes to famous musical artists, past and present.  I thoroughly enjoyed our holiday concert and felt a deeper connection with music and its complexities and textures...and the enormous training and skill exhibited by those proficient in it.  I break it down to three aspects: the actual music as it reaches my ears and I process it, the process of producing it on the different instruments (or with singing if that applies), and the written sheet music on which the musicians rely.  All three are closely tied together, yet they are at the same time very, very different to perceive.  We want to try out more Candlelight Concerts in Gainesville, and I kind of like downtown at night.  The garage parking is easy and there are plenty of nice places to dine.  We had dinner at Harry's and then made our way to the Hippodrome.  It seemed strange being there, since from 1987-91 I worked at the downtown post office but it's changed a lot: I felt lost much of the time I was walking around the area.  Oh well, I'll figure it all out...