Text 34084, 150 rader
Skriven 2016-06-21 05:07:52 av Lee Lofaso (2:203/2)
  Kommentar till text 34079 av Allen Prunty (1:2320/100)
Ärende: Elitist Snobs
=====================
Hello Allen,

 ->> Un Sospiro is an etude, not a concerto.  It is barely over five
 ->> minutes long, not a twenty minute concerto.  And Liszt was an
 ->> abberration, the reach of each hand being a 15th.  That is an
 ->> octave and a half, for each hand, without stretching.  What you
 ->> attempted to play was an adaptation of his composition, not the
 ->> real thing.  Van Cliburn could play it.  But he was an exception.
 ->> You are not.

 AP> It is a Concert if you play all 3 Etudes which at the time I could FROM
 AP> MEMORY.

 AP>   1.  Il Lamento (A-Flat Minor)
 AP>   2.  La Leggierezza (F Minor)
 AP>   3.  Un Sospiro (D-Flat Major)

You mentioned only Un Sospuro, which is only a short piece,
composed by a human freak.  Imagine Shaguille O'Neal as a solo
pianist, giving private concerts to royalty.  Nobody else could
do what he did because of his unusual physique.

The composition you learned was an adaptation of Liszt's
original work.  Otherwise, it would not have been possible
for you to learn it, much less play it.

 AP> But that's not what got me into Juliard alone... I also  auditioned
 AP> with Chopin's Ballades

I am not questioning your talent to play piano, or any other
musical instrument, including voice.  All music is an interpretation.
What you play is an interpretation of somebody else's composition,
as your own expression.

 AP> And my personal favorite George Gershwin's An American in Paris.  Not a
 AP> difficult piece at all but damn it was fun to play.

Porgy & Bess was his finest.  Summertime was so expressive, as
well as his other works.  People think of Rhapsody in Blue as a
solo piece, but it was really for two pianists as a duet.  So
much more can be said about not just George, but also Ira.

 AP>>> a drunk driver's bad decision caused me to lose it.

 ->> I doubt that, too.

 AP> The scars on my hands prove it.  I don't know if Janis was in Louisville
 AP> by this time but I was driving an old Pontiac Fiero (it was cool at the
 AP> time) and got hit head on by a drunk driver detatching two of my fingers
 AP> I was only 18 at the time and it took me a couple of years to heal.  It
 AP> altered my career path as music was out the window at that point.  I
 AP> could sing, but not good enough for Juliard, they wanted me for my piano
 AP> talent.

Sometimes people like to tell a sob story.  Whether true or not.
This is Fidonet.  A place where storytellers abound.  Or used to,
back in the day.

I kinda liked the story told by a biker who had a pit bull as a pet.
His pit bull was attacked by another pit bull so he stuck his hand
down the throat of the attacking pit bull in order to save his own
pit bull's life.  The owner of the badass pit bull was another biker
who had trained his pit bull to be vicious, and you know how those
things can go.  Anyway, the story went on and on, for days on end,
and then he started repeating himself, again and again, until the
sysop finally tired of it and cut his access.

Fidonet needs more people like that.  Bullshitters are getting
scarce these days, the only ones left being those running for
president.

 AP> I decided to go to EMT school after that and worked as a firefighter /
 AP> EMT for 4 years eventually moving into Law Enforcement after rolling up
 AP> on 3 dead children.  You can't get that kind of thing out of your head I
 AP> was never able to harden my heart to the point where I saw bad things.
 AP> Most EMT's use a sick sense of humor to shake off the bad stuff they
 AP> see... I couldn't do it.

Soldiers do it every day.  And when they get home, if they get home,
they are basket cases.  But we have been told, time after time, that
somebody has to do it.  So it might as well be somebody else.

What we need is mandatory community service.  You want to go to
college?  Do the time.  Two years community service.  No exceptions.
You want to go to grad school?  One more year on top of that.  No
exceptions.  You want to go to med school?  Law school?  Any other
professional school?  Do the time first.  Then collect your tuition
voucher.

We have a mercenary army.  Accountable to no one.  You want an end
to war?  Not gonna happen as long as we keep and maintain a mercenary
army.  The only way to put an end to war is to have mandatory service
for all.  No exceptions.  Rich and poor alike must serve.  Able bodied
and not able bodied must serve.  Both the mentally competent and the
mentally incompetent must serve.  No exceptions.

When mommy and daddy know their sons and daughters must serve,
they will hold the politicians responsible and accountable for their
children's welfare.  That's what happens when you have real skin in
the game.

 AP> I entered into law enforcement after that as I was then 21 and could...
 AP> I started in corrections, wanted to make the drunk driver's pay... but
 AP> eventually I moved up into the ranks did many other things than that.  I
 AP> spearheaded a GED program and graduated more inmates in our facility
 AP> alone in 2004 than the entire State's other correctional facilities.  I
 AP> did some good with it.

The incarcerated are there only because somebody else sent them there.
Do you think they appreciate having to listen to somebody else telling
them what to do, and how to do it?

 AP> It all boils down to discipline... and somehow I think -you- are a more
 AP> disciplined musician and not a lazy one.  The Lazy just fake their way
 AP> through life.

Why are most fat people fat?  Because they put more into their pie
hole than the energy they expend getting rid of it.  This type of
behavior catches up with most, but not all, of them later, as can
be expected.  It is only the rare exception who can eat and eat and
get away with it.  Kind of like chain smokers.  Keep smoking like
a dragon and see how long it takes for you to croak.  A handful
will keep on puffing and puffing until they hit the century mark.
And then light up a cigar and wish everybody else a happy birthday.

 AP> I've also been blessed with meeting a lot of the greats.  We have a
 AP> charity called the "Crusade for Children" that cares for kids with major
 AP> illnesses (back in my day it was the "Crusade for Cripple Children" but
 AP> Cripple isn't PC anymore.

Gotta be politically correct these days.  Or else.

 AP> In the early 1980's as a young kid I got to accompany the great Lena
 AP> Horne when she came in to perform during our telethon.  (It is one of
 AP> the biggest events in Louisville every year).

Celebrities are sometimes accessible, even at places where one would
not expect.

 AP> Unfortunately I rarely touch a piano or a keyboard anymore.  That ship
 AP> sailed in 1989 when a drunk hit me head on... on a stretch of the road
 AP> that's notorious for Drunk Drivers in Southwest Louisville... a part of
 AP> Dixie Highway known as Dixie Die-Way.

You can always pick up a harp.

--Lee

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