• Re: 572 fiddling around +

    From NANCY BACKUS@1:123/140 to MICHAEL LOO on Friday, June 28, 2019 14:42:00
    Quoting Michael Loo to Nancy Backus on 06-24-19 12:35 <=-

    he's done it only once on a roof but several times safely
    in an orchestra pit. I have heard of other productions
    where an image of someone playing on a roof was projected,
    but that seems kind of hokey.
    In the movie version, there is a spot where you do see a fiddler
    fiddling from atop the roof.... Dunno as I ever have seen a stage
    In the movies, they can do anything. In the play, the
    fiddler is more along the lines of a dream or hallucination.

    That's somewhat the implication, even on the movie...

    I'm not sure, but I think he's symbolic of the character's
    mental anguish or the breakdown of society, much in the
    same way that boomboxes were when they came out.

    According to the script, it's symbolic of the precarious balance of life between tradition and modern forces... As to boomboxes, that breakdown
    has continued to happen... it was cars that functioned as boomboxes,
    driving through the neighborhood... and now it's whole houses booming
    out the sound.... We can hear the neighbor's "music" booming through
    their and our closed windows at times....

    production of Fiddler... though I did see Zorba the Greek on the stage
    (in Syracuse) once... :)
    I never had anything to do with the theater in Syracuse but
    did see The Menaechmi once.

    I've seen only a few plays/musicals on stage over the years... not from
    lack of inclination exactly, just haven't done....

    ... A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and my Blue Wave reader.
    I read "and my Blue Shield Blue Cross," more appropriate
    to me nowadays. I've also seen ... "and Occupant."

    I think I have that one, too... but I think it's "and [occupant]" or
    some such.... :)

    The one time that I actually charged for my counseling, a client
    referred to me by my massage therapist friend Deb, I was told how much
    to charge, too... I think I might have charged less, but Deb said I was easily worth that much and not to worry about whether or not the client could afford it.... :)
    We also seem to have a more vexed relationship with
    the dollar than most.
    It does seem so... :)
    Someday I will be guaranteed to have enough money
    for the rest of my life. With my luck, I'll die the
    next day.

    I expect that I'll not run out... but I'm not really thinking much about
    it now... We've done our saving and collecting, and there are cushions,
    even if relatively slim... ;)

    Eh, it probably is better for your psyche not to
    have to rush rush and scramble scramble.
    Probably... I didn't have to make a living at it... which was a good thing... ;)
    And there's that too.
    Might have had to scramble a lot more if I had....
    Sometimes I forget that corporations have their uses.
    Yeah... they can be useful to employ some people... at least until they
    lay them off.... ;)
    Spoken from bitter experience. I've had similar but not
    at the hands of the faceless corporations.

    It could have been a lot worse....

    No; I am an accomplished violinist. He was a great one,
    though no Paganini, nor a Heifetz. When he heard the
    latter, he turned to his friends and said, well, we all
    might as well pack up and go home.
    OK... helpful clarification....
    When you see in someone's obituary that they
    had been an accomplished musician, that can mean
    anything from could carry a tune in a bucket to
    someone like me who could carry two tunes in a
    bucket at the same time.

    At that, I suppose I'd be considered accomplished... enough, anyway...

    Beyond that level are
    respected, eminent, renowned. I'd say Kreisler
    was in his day those things, but calling him
    accomplished is like calling Ralph Terry
    merely accomplished because he wasn't Whitey Ford.

    OK... You do remember that I have a talent for understatement...? (G)

    Believable, as the pieces, though unimportant in the
    larger scheme of musical things, have eclipsed their
    composer largely because of their range, from the
    Rondino, which young students play, to that Sicilienne,
    a pleasing and uncomplicated thing that often appears
    on concert programs, to the Praeludium and Allegro,
    which the most virtuosic performers trot out as a
    particularly splashy encore after a major recital.
    That is a wide range.... :) And they are enjoyable pieces, besides... :)
    Most of them I could play immediately, if I could
    find the music, but a few would take work, and the
    Praeludium and Allegro would require substantial
    woodshedding (I did perform it about 40 years ago).

    Maybe it would come back to you as you worked on it... :)

    alcoholic beverage, that's the rule. It's not so much for
    my benefit but to advertise to others what one can get
    with higher status:
    - Why does he get free stuff?
    - If you were one of United's best customers, you
    could get free food, too.
    - Oh.
    And how often does it actually entice someone to try for higher status,
    I wonder... ;)
    Probably a lot more than it should or than we know.
    It tugs at people's sense of self-worth - a sort of
    multilevel consuming if you will.

    I suppose... :)

    It also serves as a consolation prize when I'm not
    getting upgraded, which is more and more frequent.
    That's somewhat of a benefit... ;)
    The free food and booze helps a lot, even though
    it's (by the rules) one drink only. That's a little
    skimpy (a drink an hour is a sensible allowance), but
    the crew tend to bend the rules a bit. American is
    more generous with the alcohol but not the food.

    Apparently, as in the hospital settings, rules are there to be enforced
    only when the situation would otherwise get way out of hand....

    Luckily I fit nicely into a skinny coach seat,
    and in fact first class seats I slide around in
    too much for real comfort. It's the legroom that
    I most covet (though as you know I'm not tall).

    Being able to stretch out the legs completely is a Very Good Thing... I
    find that more and more important as my knee joints tend to tighten and
    need to stretch out and "click" to keep from hurting...

    ... If I were here more often, I wouldn't be gone so much.
    If you were here more often, you'd hear more.

    Possibly... although I do eventually get caught up eventually... after
    all this is a print medium... not simply an aural one... :)

    ttyl neb

    ... I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now

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