… to work.

After a nice long weekend and holiday, it’s going to take a Grande double-espresso Macchiato to get back into gear this morning. I’ll see your coffee and raise you a Mozart Overture to the Marriage of Figaro.

Here’s a little joke I heard about Ricardo Muti:

Muti is lost in the middle of a hot, dry desert. The burning sun is beating down on him, and he is miserable.
“Please, God,” (said in an Italian accent) “… please, just send me two drops of water. That’s all I ask, two drops of water!”
A second later, a small cloud forms above Muti. He holds out his hands in front of him, hoping God has heard his prayer. Two drops of water fall from the cloud and land, one in each of Muti’s palms.
“Thank you God!” Muti yells up to heaven. He claps his hands together, rubs them, then slicks his hair back.

Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, in the icy air of night!
Keeping time, time, time, in a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells—
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

Maybe Edgar Allan Poe was a little out of his mind, but you have to admit, The Bells is a pretty catchy poem. And maybe Franz Liszt was a little out of his mind, but you have to admit, his La Campanella is a pretty slick bit of piano-piano.

Despite his hair, Evgeny Kissin is not crazy. He makes this impossibly difficult piece look easy!

Only three workdays this week! Hooray!

go ahead and revel in the joy of the moment – because reality is about to strike …

Only three workdays this week? How am I supposed to squeeze five days of work into three days?

Mozart. Mozart, played ridiculously fast. Mozart, played so fast that the cellos and basses are catching fire. That’s how.

Put this on your iPod and you will not only finish your work, you’ll also clean the house. You might even have time to go to the gym – and you can listen to Mozart there, too. For an extra boost in productivity, increase the YouTube play speed to 1.25 or 1.5!