Re: Brandenburgs, Beer, Schlachthaus fünf , stand-ups & Bach

[kimmoor@mindspring.com (Kristen Immoor)]

Hello you gorgeous people you,
        I'm going to cram all today's threads into one concise response,
because my head is swimming and I'm ever so glad to have all of you back
again!

a)  Arin - The 'Pure Gould' poster was a Sony edition promotional? It would
follow, then, that there are more. This could be a quick (but not tasteful)
answer for all the F_Minorians looking for Gould posters. The cardboard
standups are probably in short supply, but I bet the distribution offices
have promo posters to spare. I need to remember to look into this. Also,
Kinko's has just upped the max size on their copiers to a ridiculous bigly
huge size, so I was thinking of taking a clean, large image of GG to them
and seeing how it comes out as an 18x24 copy on card stock. I'll let you
know if I ever get around to doing it and what the result is.

b)  I find Bach to be extraordinary thinking music, but I agree that the
intricacy of the counterpoint can be a bit distracting at times. I find
myself conducting with one hand and typing with the other and it really
slows down the works. Oddly enough, I find GG's string quartet to be
marvelous for concentration, the whole opus seems to flow in one gorgeous
36 minute tide that allows uninterrupted mental soothing.

c)  Gould? Beer?! Perish the thought. GG has gone on record as a
tea-totaler in favor of the old Torontonian ban of alcohol sales in public
places. He gave an interview once (Please, someone back me up if you
remember where it was) where he recalled an experience in which he did
imbibe an alcoholic beverage, and the resulting little buzz disturbed him
quite a bit. He said that he intensely disliked the sense of losing
control, and did not wish to experience it again. I can only imagine the
utter bender he'd be on if he threw back a few, once the alcohol got
sloshing around with all his barbs and Valium!

d)   Brandenburgs... I have the London/Britten, and I can't say I care for
it. Though it is a skillful and completely flawless performance, it's very
prissy and sounds a bit too uptight, not joyful enough. I am going to
spring for the Casals festival version next and see what I think of that
one. Usually you can't go wrong with Casals, he's a cello animal, a
complete beast with a bow. :-)

Finally,
e)  Slaughterhouse 5. I love it, but I love most everything I've read from
Vonnegut; with the exception of Hocus Pocus, which took me three years to
finish and I *still* can't decide if it was worth it. (What was he thinking
with that one?!) I like Vonnegut because he's the equivalent of an
intellectual, satirical, textual comic strip. He makes jokes deliberately
to see who won't get them, he paints his landscapes in broad, goofy strokes
of garish and Disneyland colors. He makes sweeping generalizations, but
obsesses over details. He's a real character. I hear he can be kind of
rude, though (no offense Kurt, if you're out there.) A friend of mine was
up for some cable tv awards show honor, and had to go to Vegas for the
taping. Apparently, K. Vonnegut was also to receive an award at the
ceremony, and by chance he ended up staying in the same hotel as my friend,
Kevin. On the first night of the stay in Vegas, Kevin went to the lounge of
some cheesy showpalace, and there in the corner of the room, alone at a
table, was Vonnegut. Kevin, being an enormous fan, summoned all his courage
and approached K.V. He gave the usual "I hate to bother you, but" speech,
and Kurt seemed very receptive. He talked with Kevin about the ceremony and
whatnot, the conditions of the hotel, the food, whatever. After a while,
Kevin invited KV to have dinner with him and the other actors from his
show, and KV accepted happily. The next night, Kevin waited an hour for
Vonnegut to arrive for dinner at the designated spot. He never showed.
During dinner, Kevin's server mentioned to him casually that KV had come in
earlier, alone, and requested a table in the back of the restaurant, away
from Kevin's table. Granted, Kurt may be a very private guy who likes to
eat alone and couldn't bear to hurt Kevin's feelings, but it sure did break
my pal's heart into tiny little pieces.
        But back to the point, the movie of the book: I think the director
did a fabulous job of turning a non-linear story into a fairly-linear
movie. I liked it. Tell the truth I didn't even notice the music much, and
I probably wouldn't have thought twice about it if I hadn't known it was
GG. It's worth a rental, definitely, if only because it's such a cultural
timepiece.

This got longer than I expected...
Kristen

___________________________________________________________________________

"...you can never say no to a stewardess in a dream."

                                                              -Glenn Gould