Hi, James!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

JB>  Ya, variations on a theme for me. Same old story, different
JB>  smell. 0-8


          Hmm.  So, assuming we're here on earth to learn something, what
is the theme??  For me I think it has to do with communication &
special needs....  :-)



JB>  Shortly after graduation, I started listening to divergent
JB>  musical influences. (I'm deliberately keeping this fluffy.

AH>  Seems appropriate, at least in the SURVIVOR echo....  :-)

JB>  Don't sell this echo short. I just have phases where I
JB>  dabble into dark waters, and others where I prefer a brook.


          No problem!  So do I, and I don't imagine we're alone in that. 
What I meant was that a detailed discussion about any particular type of
music might be more appropriate elsewhere.  OTOH, if you've learned
something from listening to certain types of music which can be applied to
life in general it is on topic as far as I'm concerned.  SURVIVOR is a
forum where you can dabble into dark waters or not, as you wish.  I'd like
to think that's one of the strengths of the echo. Maybe you weren't just
sitting in the university library listening to recordings of John Cage...
maybe you didn't just hire somebody to teach you how to play the style(s)
you were interested in, as a guy in our community band does.  Maybe you
have some other things to say but prefer not to do it yet.  That's okay....
 :-)



JB>  I've heard some pretty amazing playback systems in my
JB>  days, and yet... You really find out how inefficient
JB>  they really are the more you learn about them.


          Uh-huh.  Some folks may not want to dig deeper, though.  I'm
told, for example, that one individual of my acquaintance prefers the muddy
sound of cheap equipment because that's what she is used to.  I guess...
like my father & yours
... she wants music to be safe & predictable.  For me it was a
revelation when I had better equipment available & heard things I
hadn't known were there.  It was even more of a revelation when I became
actively involved in live music....  :-)



AH>  Same here.  I like Gilbert & Sullivan, though... [chuckle].

JB>  They did The Mikado, right?


          Yes, and THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE....  :-)



JB>  Wouldn't that be classified as opera-lite, or pop-opera?


          In my experience, it's generally referred to as
"operetta"... but your description also conveys the idea quite
efficiently.  :-)



JB>  I saw that play done by a High-School, who did rather
JB>  well at it.


          I played "Pirates" twice, the second time as a ringer
in a high school production... my personal favourite!  My favourite version
of BYE BYE BIRDIE was done by an amateur group which included a lot of
teenagers too, BTW.  They bring a kind of energy & enthusiasm to such a
show which, appropriately channeled, may be difficult for more seasoned
performers to match.  Anyway, one of the things I like about G & S from
the standpoint of a pit musician is not having to decipher what the copyist
scribbled ten minutes before curtain time or whatever....  :-))



AH>  You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink;
AH>  You can lead a kid to learning, but you cannot make him think.

JB>  I wonder if the masculine reference was by inclusion,
JB>  or experience. 


          Ah... this bit of doggerel was composed years ago, when
schoolteachers were still expected to model formal grammar.  IMHO the
(male) poet was using the masculine pronoun as the traditional
"default" position.  And it seems to me the same principle
applies to females, although it may manifest differently....  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+