# The absolutely anything thread.



## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Just about of fun. 
Post anything you wan't to talk about. You can post things about particular composers, genres, instruments, pieces and anything you want. 
Jokes and anecdotes are all welcome.

Have fun...


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

I don't really like classical music ! (Just kidding !)


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

In the USA, decaf coffee comes in green packages, but you brew it in orange pots. Why is this? This bothers me.

How can a criminal or a counselor be "at large?" One can be at work or at play. One can be at your disposal, or even at the sink where the disposal is kept. But how can one be "at" an adjective? 

The humans I have known tend to use idioms that reflect their subculture or avocation. For example, when an artist is trying say “I understand,” she’ll likely say “I see.” Musicians will tend to say, “I hear ya, man.” But managerial types say “I gotcha!” 

Hmm . . .


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

My question: Why are threads on this forum looking more and more like the threads on that other forum???


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

KenOC said:


> My question: Why are threads on this forum looking more and more like the threads on that other forum???


What other forum


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Weston said:


> In the USA, decaf coffee comes in green packages, but you brew it in orange pots. Why is this? This bothers me.
> 
> How can a criminal or a counselor be "at large?" One can be at work or at play. One can be at your disposal, or even at the sink where the disposal is kept. But how can one be "at" an adjective?
> 
> ...


Does that coffee thing really bother you..?
I don't know.


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## Pyotr (Feb 26, 2013)

superhorn said:


> I don't really like classical music !


That's perfectly acceptable. Just don't say "classical is BAD music!"


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Why do strings sound different, about a thousand times more spacious, in Hollywood movies than they do in classical music orchestras?


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Weston said:


> Why do strings sound different, about a thousand times more spacious, in Hollywood movies than they do in classical music orchestras?


Maybe the sound is computer generated?


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## Guest (May 15, 2013)

Why do prawns or other such shellfish, served with a chilli sauce so hot it is numbing, taste 'metallic'?


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Weston said:


> Why do strings sound different, about a thousand times more spacious, in Hollywood movies than they do in classical music orchestras?


I think if you walk down O'Connell Street and end up on Capel Street without going down any connecting streets in between, you've vanished into Beethoven's map...


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Weston said:


> Why do strings sound different, about a thousand times more spacious, in Hollywood movies than they do in classical music orchestras?


Different technique, both in recording (closer multi-mic) and playing (vibrato and portamento galore).


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Why do drive-thru bank machines have braille on the keys?


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Kieran said:


> I think if you walk down O'Connell Street and end up on Capel Street without going down any connecting streets in between, you've vanished into Beethoven's map...


Either you've walked up the Liffey or you've spent too much time looking at the Nelson Monument.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

KenOC said:


> Why do drive-thru bank machines have braille on the keys?


I don't know. Probably easier to mass produce things that way.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

KenOC said:


> Why do drive-thru bank machines have braille on the keys?


Similarly, why do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters?

Or, why are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink?


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Pyotr, I was just kidding ! I've been a classicla music freak since I was a teenager .


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

KenOC said:


> Why do drive-thru bank machines have braille on the keys?


Actually there *is* an answer for this.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I just read in Mental Floss that over the centuries, there have been 120 instances of spontaneous combustion. I mean people bursting into flames. It has something to do with having a wound, fat leaking out, and smoking or something like that igniting it.

It makes Alicia Keys' latest hit kinda creepy.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

KenOC said:


> Actually there *is* an answer for this.


Come to think of it, guide dogs _do_ have licenses.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Manxfeeder said:


> I just read in Mental Floss that over the centuries, there have been 120 instances of spontaneous combustion. I mean people bursting into flames. It has something to do with having a wound, fat leaking out, and smoking or something like that igniting it.
> 
> It makes Alicia Keys' latest hit kinda creepy.


Years ago, we watched a very thorough documentary on this topic which concluded that 'true' spontaneous combustion didn't exist. In the cases that were discussed, there was always alcohol & the person next to a gas fire or something. I suppose some people would be disappointed - it certainly spoils Dickens! - but I feel comforted by that.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

KenOC said:


> Actually there *is* an answer for this.


Are we too blind to see it?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Kieran said:


> Are we too blind to see it?


The answer, or so I'm told: Banks want their machines to be usable by the blind (possibly required under the ADA). While a blind person can't drive a car or safely walk up to a drive-thru machine, a sighted driver can take the blind person to the machine, and the blind person can use the ATM from the back seat without disclosing the PIN.


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

Why do Jews reject Jesus Christ as their savior?

lol


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Couchie said:


> Why do Jews reject Jesus Christ as their savior?
> 
> lol


Crikey! Everybody duck!


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Are there any virtuoso cymbal players?


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

Couchie said:


> Why do Jews reject Jesus Christ as their savior?
> 
> lol


Because otherwise they would be Christians?



Weston said:


> Are there any virtuoso cymbal players?


The person playing the cymbals is usually trained in all the percussion instruments, so he or she might well be a virtuoso of those. At any rate, it's not as easy as it looks to get a good tone out of those things.


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## Novelette (Dec 12, 2012)

KenOC said:


> Why do drive-thru bank machines have braille on the keys?


I asked this very same question to a mechanic who services these machines and this was the response: these machines are manufactured in one type only, they do not manufacture special drive-through machines. So the banks obtain a single model of ATM's, and install them anywhere.

Makes sense to me.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

On a side note, I go to drive through ATMs all the time on foot. I see no reason a blind person couldn't do the same -- as I'm sure they don't see a reason either.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Interesting fact - Sergei Rachmaninov was a Turk ! You read it correctly . The Rachmaninov family was of Volga Tatar origin, and the Volga Tatars are a Muslim Turkic people and speak a language which is very similar to Turkish . The Rachmaninov fmaily had converted to orthodox Christianity long before ,like many other Tatars . 
I don't know if Rachmaninov actually spoke Volga Tatar at all . Chances are he did not . But this language is still very much alive in Russia today . 
Rudolf Nureyev was also a Tatar , from the Bashkir branch of the Tatars , who tend to look more ********* than the Kazan Tatars, who have intermarried with Russians and the Finno-Ugrian peoples of the Volga for so long that many are indistinguishable from Russians in appearance .
Traditional Tatar music sounds almost Chinese at times, being pentatonic . From what I've heard, Rudolf Nureyev felt very much at home visiting Turkey, because the language and culture reminded him so much of the tatar republic where he grew up .


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## Volve (Apr 14, 2013)

Is there really a point in finding a meaning to life? Each life is it's own, is it not? Maybe the real meaning to life is giving life a meaning.


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## Feathers (Feb 18, 2013)

How do you pronounce Schytte's name? Is it what I think it is...?


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

superhorn said:


> Interesting fact - Sergei Rachmaninov was a Turk ! You read it correctly . The Rachmaninov family was of Volga Tatar origin, and the Volga Tatars are a Muslim Turkic people and speak a language which is very similar to Turkish . The Rachmaninov fmaily had converted to orthodox Christianity long before ,like many other Tatars .
> I don't know if Rachmaninov actually spoke Volga Tatar at all . Chances are he did not . But this language is still very much alive in Russia today .
> Rudolf Nureyev was also a Tatar , from the Bashkir branch of the Tatars , who tend to look more ********* than the Kazan Tatars, who have intermarried with Russians and the Finno-Ugrian peoples of the Volga for so long that many are indistinguishable from Russians in appearance .
> Traditional Tatar music sounds almost Chinese at times, being pentatonic . From what I've heard, Rudolf Nureyev felt very much at home visiting Turkey, because the language and culture reminded him so much of the tatar republic where he grew up .


Joe Strummer was born in Turkey.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

ahammel said:


> Joe Strummer was born in Turkey.


Hovhaness was Armenian and can therefore be glad he survived to compose anything at all.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Volve said:


> Is there really a point in finding a meaning to life? Each life is it's own, is it not? Maybe the real meaning to life is giving life a meaning.


Give up because you won't find it.


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Weston said:


> Are there any virtuoso cymbal players?


Yes. trouble is they keep quiet in order to be polite.

Seriously, Evelyn Glennie.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Feathers said:


> How do you pronounce Schytte's name? Is it what I think it is...?


I think so.. :lol:


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

Feathers said:


> How do you pronounce Schytte's name? Is it what I think it is...?


Something like /stjytɛ/, to judge from Wikipedia's Danish phonology page.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Every time I find the meaning of life, they change it .


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Mahlerian said:


> Different technique, both in recording (closer multi-mic) and playing (vibrato and portamento galore).


Old school Hollywood studio practice also did the folowing: 
Post recording of the entire orchestra, the first-chair violinist was called in, then was recorded playing the first violin part (to be dubbed into the final mix) but with a lot more vibrato.

This was called "sweetening the line."

You know, that super-schmaltz sound which could throw some listeners into diabetic shock...


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Why do we keep pets?


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Burroughs said:


> Why do we keep pets?


Presumably to pet them. Or, if we live through the Siege of Leningrad, to eat them.


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## Pyotr (Feb 26, 2013)

superhorn said:


> Pyotr, I was just kidding ! I've been a classicla music freak since I was a teenager .


superhorn, Iknow, so was I. Just poking a little fun at the people here who have that opinion. Sarcasm doesn't come thru very clearly in the written word here.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Burroughs said:


> Why do we keep pets?


I keep them out !


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## Couchie (Dec 9, 2010)

I eat my own poop


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Couchie said:


> I eat my own poop


The shop down the road sells pooper scoopers. Do you eat your poop by the scoop?


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I think I have a secret admirer! The caller ID shows some lady, Jenny Craig, keeps calling me.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

How can she be secret if you know her name?


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Ingenue said:


> How can she be secret if you know her name?


As the old song says, "My secret love's no secret anymore."


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## julianoq (Jan 29, 2013)

So today I went to my first concerto ever.

Six months listening to classical music only everyday haven't prepared me for that, it was an out of this body experience since the beginning. The Schubert 9th is one of my favorite symphonies and the performance of maestro John Nelson was outstanding. São Paulo Symphony Orchestra played very well and sometimes I felt that my heart would go out of my mouth and join the strings section.

The program:

Felix Mendelssohn - Fingal's Cave
Mozart - Sinfonia Concertante for Winds
Schubert - Symphony No. 9 "The Great"

A picture that I took 20 minutes before the beginning using my phone:










I don't remember feeling so much peace since, well, ever!


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