# Amazonians, register here!



## KenOC

Distantprommer has recently joined us and is asking who has shown up here from the old Amazon forum. I ask that you Amazon veterans respond to this thread with your old and new user names.

I'm KenOC, same as before. You?


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## bharbeke

bharbeke (TC) = Brandon Harbeke (Amazon)


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## LezLee

LezLee. Was (unsurprisingly) Lez Lee


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## CnC Bartok

I was once upon a time known as Cute 'n Cuddly Bartok.


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## Larkenfield

I have definitely not shown up, but I’ve tried. Hello to DP!


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## Larkenfield

Robert Pickett said:


> I was once upon a time known as Cute 'n Cuddly Bartok.


I like to think of you as Volume 'n' Amount.


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## CnC Bartok

Pedantry is in fact my middle name, Lark, but I must admit I ought to correct people more fewer than wot I do. I am still enjoying the Ramor Bartoks, btw, puffins notwithstanding.

Hi, DP, good to know another friendly face has arrived!!


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## BalalaikaBoy

Amazonians? 
*locks door and watches feminist from the safe distance of an ivory tower*


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## distantprommer

Distant Prommer will remain Distant Prommer. No need to change.

I have been in and out of this forum before, but hope now to have a more permanent presence.

Saludos!


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## Larkenfield

Robert Pickett said:


> Pedantry is in fact my middle name, Lark, but I must admit I ought to correct people more fewer than wot I do. I am still enjoying the Ramor Bartoks, btw, puffins notwithstanding.


Hi Robert. I'm always glad to be corrected by such a fine fellow such as you. I'm having beer and Bartok for lunch! Cheers, Lark


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## T Son of Ander

Tom here... T. Son Of Ander, as before. Hope everyone is doing well!


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## Luchesi

Here’s info I copied

Angelo Mandillo, AB Mandillo
distantprommer, Distant Prommer
Jlspinks, J Spinks
Larkenfield, Larkenfield
MusicBear88, Thomas B Dawkins
Pesaro, HB
Phil in Magnolia, Phil (not) in Magnolia
Philoctetes, Vaughan Otter
Ras, Rasmus
Robert Pickett, Cute ‘n Cuddly Bartok
St Omer, Saint Omer
Last edited by KenOC; Oct-08-2017 at 02:30.

Originally Posted by KenOC 
I see Roeselare/barbW is here now, new username Luchesi. Welcome!
Thanks Ken.
Back when Yippers was Ypres (the first city of WWI mustard gas) I became Rosealare (also in Belgium, 15mi NE of Ypres) because I spent some time there in the military. He was tickled about my name change.

Josquin13 replied to a thread Julia Fischer in Musicians
It's good to see your posts here, Ras(mus) and Bill! I'm MRS from Amazon--my new name is Josquin13.


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## LezLee

John Ruggeri is now Johnmusic
Bejart, Flavius and Malx are still around unchanged.


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## KenOC

Here's what I have. New Username = Old Amazon username.

Angelo Mandillo = AB Mandillo
Bejart = Bejart
bharbeke = Brandon Harbeke
distantprommer = Distant Prommer
Flavius = Flavius
Jlspinks = J Spinks
Johnmusic = John Ruggeri
KenOC = KenOC
Larkenfield = Larkenfield
Lez Lee = Lez Lee
Luchesi = BarbW/Rosealere
Malx = Malx
MusicBear88 = Thomas B Dawkins
Pesaro = HB
Phil in Magnolia = Phil (not) in Magnolia
Philoctetes = Vaughan Otter
Ras = Rasmus
Robert Pickett = Cute ‘n Cuddly Bartok
St Omer = Saint Omer
T Son of Ander = T Son of Ander


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## LezLee

Ken - I don’t suppose it matters but I’m now LezLee (no space)!


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## SixFootScowl

I have been using Amazon for years and was unaware that they even have a forum.


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## bharbeke

Fritz Kobus said:


> I have been using Amazon for years and was unaware that they even have a forum.


They don't have one currently. They had some decent forums in the late 2000s, but they got less and less obvious to find, and they were just barely there before they got the ax in the last year or so.


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## SixFootScowl

bharbeke said:


> They don't have one currently. They had some decent forums in the late 2000s, but they got less and less obvious to find, and they were just barely there before they got the ax in the last year or so.


Must not have been cost effective to maintain the forums.


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## distantprommer

distantprommer said:


> Distant Prommer will remain Distant Prommer. No need to change.
> 
> I have been in and out of this forum before, but hope now to have a more permanent presence.
> 
> Saludos!


As soon as I had written that above, I suffered an accident that more or less forced me to use a wheelchair much of the time. It is slowly getting better, but my back, which on occasion had had painful spells, became excruciating. To make matters worse, at about the same time my wife and I had a bad case of food poisoning. She was better in a week or so. It took me more than a month to get over it.

As we were visiting family in Hong Kong, we were unable to fly back home for a number of weeks.

We are now back, and getting into the routine of things again although I cannot get into my car yet. It is too small. Taxis are cheap enough here.


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## KJ von NNJ

I am the proud Amazonian, K.J. McGilp. Now on this site, KJ von NNJ.

In my mind, we were famous. This post is for James W. Ginn and Quantum Yippers. And for any others who were among us, whom have moved on, into the upper realms. God Bless!


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## LezLee

KJ von NNJ said:


> I am the proud Amazonian, K.J. McGilp. Now on this site, KJ von NNJ.
> 
> In my mind, we were famous. This post is for James W. Ginn and Quantum Yippers. And for any others who were among us, whom have moved on, into the upper realms. God Bless!


I remember them both with great fondness. 
It was bad enough that Amazon closed the forums but to completely unjustifiably delete all the posts was downright wicked and unforgivable. I've often wanted to recapture not just the serious discussions and recommendations but all our friendly exchanges and jokes. If they'd only had the courtesy to warn us, we could have copied our personal exchanges.


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## science

I was "wyote" on Amazon.


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## CnC Bartok

Good to see you here, Wyote!

Checking in here....


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## science

Did we ever find M. Ziolkowski? 

I miss that guy.


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## LezLee

science said:


> Did we ever find M. Ziolkowski?
> 
> I miss that guy.


No, I miss him too, but haven't managed to find him.


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## Luchesi

science said:


> Did we ever find M. Ziolkowski?
> 
> I miss that guy.


I'm curious why do you call yourself science?

----------
but here's a blast from the past

Initial post: Oct. 4, 2010 4:49 PM PDT
Wyote says:

As this decade draws to a close, let us first reflect on our age and the passage of time, and then turn to more important matters: favorite recordings of classical music.

I cannot participate in this thread very well because so few of my recordings are this young! But I look forward to your choices.
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Posted on Oct. 4, 2010 5:04 PM PDT
Piso Mojado says:

Pianist Yevgeny Sudbin's Medtner and Tchaikovsky concertos; and Scarlatti sonatas
Dmitri Hvorostovsky's "Petersburg - A Vocal Suite" by Gyorgy Sviridov, with pianist Mikhael Arkadiev on Delos
Andre Mathieu's fourth piano concerto by pianist Alain Lefevre and the Tucson SO under George Hanson
Alexis Weissenberg's Bach program on Japanese RCA, including Bach-Busoni Chaconne, first time on CD I believe
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Posted on Oct. 4, 2010 5:48 PM PDT 
Last edited by the author on Oct. 4, 2010 6:11 PM PDT
scarecrow says:

Fredrik Ullen playing all of TRINITY by George Flynn;(Although I still like very much Flynn's own readings of his work)
and then Ullen playing Sorabji's "Transcendental Etudes";Well 1 to 25, now 26 to 48, there are One-Hundred, 100, no typo;the last on is an hour long passacaglia
these pieces are quite uneven,(well not to everyone on this planet) they resemble Scriabin-like chromatic meanderings,some sound like sketches;although very rich elegant piano sound;impeccable playing, transcends the works themselves;

Pianist Jenny Lin is quite imaginative in the repertoire she engages; 
as Ralph van Raat; typical John Adams, Magnus Lindberg, with Rzewski, John Taverner,He commissioned a concerto from Gavin Bryars;good composer;

Listen for pianist Nika Shirocorad, she plays incredible Michael Finnissy, his impossible "English Country Tunes";Her repertoire is the new;

John Tilbury recorded all piano solo music of Morton Feldman this past decade;

James Dillon as well, his chamber music is quite inventive; Soon in Glasgow they will be doing his 8 part massive work, large orchestra, and chamber groupings;

Also this decade discovered Galina Ustvolskaya, Hayk Melikyan also a wonderful pianist to keep close to your ears for new repertoire;

Marc-Andre Hamelin playing the Ives Concord Sonata was a breath of fresh air;makes it more modern than we usually encounter, everyone else puts Ives in the 19th Century;you miss great swaths of the content and meaning;

Massimiliano Damerini I like playing Berg "Sonata", Sciarrino, Ferneyhough;

Nic Hodges playing Michael Finnissy is wonderful, real natural;as his Sciarrino;

Frederic Rzewski playing Cornelius Cardew's "Thaelmann Variations" is amazing;New Albion;also 7 Disc of his own music;

Marilyn Nonken,pianist is a knockout with Morton Feldman and Tristan Murail, she brings more to the music than what supposedly is there, well the Murail;
She plays all the Boulez Sonatas in one evening; Whooh!

JACK Quartet is very good with soliciting new repertoire; and fulfilling the resonance to the past avant-garde as with Xenakis;as does/did Arditti, their "Fragmente, Stille fuer Diotema", by Luigi Nono is a high water mark;
as their Wolfgang Rihm Quartets; Third and Fifth I like;Also his orcehstral works were released, Sub-Kontur, and the Third Symphony;

Kairos Label has been exceptional in whatever they release, Ferneyhough, Grisey, Lachenmann, Hector Parra; Georges, Aperghis, Marc Andre; Beat Furrer; Olga Neuwirth, Ramon Lazkano; Rebecca Saunders;

Ingo Metzmacher and the Karl Amadeus Hartmann Symphonies, were exciting, in particular,
Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Symphonies; very dark, penumbral works;pulverized subjectivity;

Also this past decade I've discovered Gloria Coates, incredible inventive composer; Symphonies and String Quartets;

Great to have all this interest in Iannis Xenakis, this past decade have seen all his works, re-released, re-recorded;

Much of the above has been covered by good friends, comrades in arms, Hutch, and Chris Culver; Keep it going! I read all yer reviews;Keeps me off the streets!
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## LezLee

Luchesi said:


> I'm curious why do you call yourself science?
> 
> ----------
> but here's a blast from the past
> 
> Initial post: Oct. 4, 2010 4:49 PM PDT
> Wyote says:
> 
> As this decade draws to a close, let us first reflect on our age and the passage of time, and then turn to more important matters: favorite recordings of classical music.
> 
> I cannot participate in this thread very well because so few of my recordings are this young! But I look forward to your choices.
> Reply to this post
> Permalink | Report abuse | Ignore this customer
> Do you think this post adds to the discussion? ￼ ￼
> 
> Posted on Oct. 4, 2010 5:04 PM PDT
> Piso Mojado says:
> 
> Pianist Yevgeny Sudbin's Medtner and Tchaikovsky concertos; and Scarlatti sonatas
> Dmitri Hvorostovsky's "Petersburg - A Vocal Suite" by Gyorgy Sviridov, with pianist Mikhael Arkadiev on Delos
> Andre Mathieu's fourth piano concerto by pianist Alain Lefevre and the Tucson SO under George Hanson
> Alexis Weissenberg's Bach program on Japanese RCA, including Bach-Busoni Chaconne, first time on CD I believe
> Reply to this post
> Permalink | Report abuse | Ignore this customer
> 1 of 1 people think this post adds to the discussion. Do you? ￼ ￼
> 
> Posted on Oct. 4, 2010 5:48 PM PDT
> Last edited by the author on Oct. 4, 2010 6:11 PM PDT
> scarecrow says:
> 
> Fredrik Ullen playing all of TRINITY by George Flynn;(Although I still like very much Flynn's own readings of his work)
> and then Ullen playing Sorabji's "Transcendental Etudes";Well 1 to 25, now 26 to 48, there are One-Hundred, 100, no typo;the last on is an hour long passacaglia
> these pieces are quite uneven,(well not to everyone on this planet) they resemble Scriabin-like chromatic meanderings,some sound like sketches;although very rich elegant piano sound;impeccable playing, transcends the works themselves;
> 
> Pianist Jenny Lin is quite imaginative in the repertoire she engages;
> as Ralph van Raat; typical John Adams, Magnus Lindberg, with Rzewski, John Taverner,He commissioned a concerto from Gavin Bryars;good composer;
> 
> Listen for pianist Nika Shirocorad, she plays incredible Michael Finnissy, his impossible "English Country Tunes";Her repertoire is the new;
> 
> John Tilbury recorded all piano solo music of Morton Feldman this past decade;
> 
> James Dillon as well, his chamber music is quite inventive; Soon in Glasgow they will be doing his 8 part massive work, large orchestra, and chamber groupings;
> 
> Also this decade discovered Galina Ustvolskaya, Hayk Melikyan also a wonderful pianist to keep close to your ears for new repertoire;
> 
> Marc-Andre Hamelin playing the Ives Concord Sonata was a breath of fresh air;makes it more modern than we usually encounter, everyone else puts Ives in the 19th Century;you miss great swaths of the content and meaning;
> 
> Massimiliano Damerini I like playing Berg "Sonata", Sciarrino, Ferneyhough;
> 
> Nic Hodges playing Michael Finnissy is wonderful, real natural;as his Sciarrino;
> 
> Frederic Rzewski playing Cornelius Cardew's "Thaelmann Variations" is amazing;New Albion;also 7 Disc of his own music;
> 
> Marilyn Nonken,pianist is a knockout with Morton Feldman and Tristan Murail, she brings more to the music than what supposedly is there, well the Murail;
> She plays all the Boulez Sonatas in one evening; Whooh!
> 
> JACK Quartet is very good with soliciting new repertoire; and fulfilling the resonance to the past avant-garde as with Xenakis;as does/did Arditti, their "Fragmente, Stille fuer Diotema", by Luigi Nono is a high water mark;
> as their Wolfgang Rihm Quartets; Third and Fifth I like;Also his orcehstral works were released, Sub-Kontur, and the Third Symphony;
> 
> Kairos Label has been exceptional in whatever they release, Ferneyhough, Grisey, Lachenmann, Hector Parra; Georges, Aperghis, Marc Andre; Beat Furrer; Olga Neuwirth, Ramon Lazkano; Rebecca Saunders;
> 
> Ingo Metzmacher and the Karl Amadeus Hartmann Symphonies, were exciting, in particular,
> Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Symphonies; very dark, penumbral works;pulverized subjectivity;
> 
> Also this past decade I've discovered Gloria Coates, incredible inventive composer; Symphonies and String Quartets;
> 
> Great to have all this interest in Iannis Xenakis, this past decade have seen all his works, re-released, re-recorded;
> 
> Much of the above has been covered by good friends, comrades in arms, Hutch, and Chris Culver; Keep it going! I read all yer reviews;Keeps me off the streets!
> Reply to this post
> Permalink | Report abuse | Ignore this customer
> 3 of 3 people think this post adds to the discussion. Do you? ￼ ￼


How did you manage to find that? I thought everything was irretrievable


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## Luchesi

Hi LezLee,
At the time I copied a few posts with so much info as in that one.


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## LezLee

Thanks. I did think of copying some of my chats with lovely Yippers, but was too late. I never imagined Amazon would delete everything - cruel and unnecessary.


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## LezLee

I posted this on Technical Support (Technical Help thread) but probably not many people will see it. There's a reply there from Baron Scarpia.

..........................................................

*Old Amazon Forums Access!!*

A technically adept person on the Goodreads (Amazon Exiles) site has managed to recover some of the old forums. It's only possible to read a few of the threads and you can only turn one page at a time but it's still pretty nostalgic! Perhaps one of you techies can proceed further?

https://web.archive.org/web/20120601...x2O5YQ79OVJBUQ


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## CnC Bartok

For those who are interested, or for those who hanker after lost years, you will be delighted to hear that I have reverted to my old Amazonian avatar, and am once more the cute and cuddly version of a certain twentieth century giant.

Robert Pickett


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## LezLee

Welcome back, CnC! I am nostalgic for the (good) old days and have tried to memorise the pseudonyms. Be nice if everyone joined you!


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## KenOC

Hiya CnC! Welcome back. I see you checked in on this thread previously, last May (post #23). Whatcha been doin' in the meanwhile?


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## LezLee

KenOC said:


> Hiya CnC! Welcome back. I see you checked in on this thread previously, last May (post #23). Whatcha been doin' in the meanwhile?


CnC's been very prolific all over the place as Robert Pickett !


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## Larkenfield

CnC Bartok said:


> For those who are interested, or for those who hanker after lost years, you will be delighted to hear that I have reverted to my old Amazonian avatar, and am once more the cute and cuddly version of a certain twentieth century giant.
> 
> Robert Pickett


Bravo! It's about time.:clap:


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## Open Book

LezLee said:


> I posted this on Technical Support (Technical Help thread) but probably not many people will see it. There's a reply there from Baron Scarpia.
> 
> ..........................................................
> 
> *Old Amazon Forums Access!!*
> 
> A technically adept person on the Goodreads (Amazon Exiles) site has managed to recover some of the old forums. It's only possible to read a few of the threads and you can only turn one page at a time but it's still pretty nostalgic! Perhaps one of you techies can proceed further?
> 
> https://web.archive.org/web/20120601...x2O5YQ79OVJBUQ


This link isn't taking me to anything useful. Maybe it did at one time?


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## Luchesi

CnC Bartok said:


> For those who are interested, or for those who hanker after lost years, you will be delighted to hear that I have reverted to my old Amazonian avatar, and am once more the cute and cuddly version of a certain twentieth century giant.
> 
> Robert Pickett


Hello again Cuddly, I'm concluding that we can't remember very many names. I know I can't.. Yours is memorable, probably because I don't think of Bartok as cuddly.

I registered with TC years ago, but I guess I never got a name back then. (how could that happen?)

So when the Amazon discussion groups were wiped out from the face of the Earth (what a nasty company! The only reason I shop there is because I don't want to put my credit card out to more websites. And Amazon has had everything I've wanted so far.) I came here and TC gave me this name Luchesi. I looked it up and it's a somewhat interesting character from Edgar Allan Poe. They said I could change it at any time, but I haven't looked into that..

"Luchesi isn't really a character. He's more of a plot device. He helps drive the action. Luchesi is Fortunato's rival in wine tasting. Montresor doesn't really need to bring up Luchesi to lure Fortunato to his dire fate."

That's fitting for how I see myself in anonymous discussions.

But immediately I heard from posters who were upset that someone named Luchesi in here had been banned after causing quite an intense debate about who actually composed Mozart's masterpieces. Huh? Posthaste I looked up this posts so that I could see what I was up against. He apparently had enough knowledge so that he just couldn't be tolerated - so he was banned.

As I've posted before, back when Yippers was Ypres (the first city of WWI mustard gas) I became Roeselare (also in Belgium, 15mi NE of Ypres) because I spent some time there in the military. He was tickled about my name change.


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## CnC Bartok

Poor old Yippers. I miss him...


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## LezLee

Me too, we had some great conversations and it was such a shock. I think of him whenever I see the word ‘taco’.


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## CnC Bartok

.......an interesting association there, Lez!


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## distantprommer

As somebody living part-time in the country where tacos are the most favourite food, I always enjoyed references to the taco tuesdays.


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## Larkenfield

RIP Yippers. Fond memories!


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## science

Anyone who appreciates the indefatigable Kim Beazley, the MAGA from Down Unda, might enjoy a post from my days on amazon that I, in my limitless vanity, saved:



> Kim Beazley asks me if I enjoy being contentious.
> 
> It's like Rumi asking if I enjoy being mystical,
> or Odysseus asking if I enjoy carrying away my enemies' virgin daughters,
> or Aquinas asking if I enjoy being systematic,
> or Helen Keller asking if I enjoy being a socialist who's best remembered for overcoming disabilities,
> or Humbert Humbert asking if I enjoy being creepy,
> or Maximus the Confessor asking if I enjoy being the most brilliant Christian theologian that nobody's ever heard of,
> or Shakespeare asking if I enjoy puns,
> or Cinderella asking if I enjoy wearing glass slippers and riding home after midnight in a pumpkin,
> or India asking if I enjoy having a high population density,
> or Richard Dawkins asking if I enjoy being intolerant of insufficiently dogmatic atheists,
> or James Bond asking if I like driving suggestively long sports cars,
> or Brilliant asking if I enjoy putting out budget-priced box sets,
> or Suharto asking if I enjoy not being known for slaughtering one and half million of my own people because I was allied to the USA,
> or Jim Carrey asking if I enjoy overacting,
> or Moses asking me if I enjoy leading slaves out of Egypt,
> or Rabelais asking if I enjoy scatological humor,
> or Mesopotamia asking if I enjoy spawning human civilization,
> or Elmo asking if I enjoy being silly and excessively cheerful,
> or the Buddha asking if I enjoy having huge statues all over Asia of myself sitting in the Lotus position,
> or John Adams asking if I like having my contributions to a revolution being neglected by popular history,
> or Elvis asking if I enjoy shaking my pelvis for hordes of screaming teenage girls,
> or Lucifer asking if I enjoy my efforts to bring knowledge and freedom to humanity being unappreciated,
> or Aishwarya Rai asking if I enjoy being inhumanly and frighteningly sexy,
> or Quasimodo asking if I enjoy ringing bells,
> or King Sejong asking if I enjoy taking credit for alphabets created by scholars in my employ,
> or peruse asking if I enjoy being frequently used to mean the opposite of what I actually mean,
> or Raquel Welch asking if I enjoy wearing fur bikinis,
> or Cyril of Alexandria asking if I enjoy leading mobs of monks,
> or Hello Kitty asking if I enjoy being vacuously cute,
> or Scheherazade asking if I enjoy telling interminable stories,
> or my wife failing to give me more examples for use in this epic post,
> or LSD asking if I like being abused by people in search of novel spiritualities,
> or Margaret Mitchell asking if I enjoy writing flamboyantly dishonest portrayals of slavery or the Civil War or Reconstruction,
> or for that matter
> it's like Merlin asking if I like being encased in a tree by a tricky vixen of a witch,
> or infinitives asking if I enjoy having adverbs used to so very delightfully split me,
> or Newland Archer asking if I enjoy (SPOILER ALERT) being generally thought to have had an affair that I most painfully and disappointingly didn't actually have,
> or Jim Parsons asking if I enjoy not being a socially dysfunctional theoretical physicist but playing one on television,
> or hordes of screaming teenage girls asking if I enjoy screaming at Elvis,
> or the Koch brothers and the Family asking if I like subverting democracy,
> or Holden Caufield asking if I like having my obvious psychological problems generally overlooked due to my cool syntax and diction,
> or Shiva asking if I enjoy dancing to the drumbeat of cosmic destruction,
> or Harold Bloom asking if enjoy being a pompous old windbag,
> or Elvis asking if I enjoy working incognito as a burger flipper at an A & W restaurant in rural South Dakota,
> or office meetings asking if I enjoy being a huge flaming waste of time,
> or Tolkien asking if I enjoy writing the most influential neo-Romantic fiction of the twentieth century,
> or Jerry Falwell asking if I enjoy attributing horrible tragedies to God's judgment on American secularism,
> or Seinfeld asking if I like having a show about nothing,
> or Derrida asking if I enjoy probing my reified grammatistical postdialectical neologisms.
> 
> I have to stop because my wife is sighing loudly, indicating that I should have gone to bed half an hour ago.
> 
> But I worry that I haven't been clear, that - well, of COURSE I do! And so does Mr. Beazley his own otherwise impeccable self.


Originally I posted that as a wall of text, aiming to maximize the pain of reading it, but KenOC rendered it in free verse.


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## KenOC

And we fondly remember that Russian lady who had proof that Mozart wrote his requiem for his own death. She was going to make a lot of money from that (somehow).


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## Luchesi

KenOC said:


> And we fondly remember that Russian lady who had proof that Mozart wrote his requiem for his own death. She was going to make a lot of money from that (somehow).


I wonder if Henry James or Reichenbach are here?

In reply to an earlier post on Oct 23, 2009 11:05:59 PM PDT

millionrainbows says:

SHUT IT, Reichenbach.


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## LezLee

I grew fond of Jim Ginn too, his limericks always made me laugh. 
I hoped MacDoom might have made it to TC but I know he was very busy with his B.& B. Ebor1 in York was always interesting to talk to as well.


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## millionrainbows

The one I miss the most was Mozart, who had extensive piano knowledge and stories. He told about Sviatoslav Richter sleeping under a piano. He had some magnaplanar speakers he would listen to piano recordings on, because it sounded like the piano was in the room. He was sympathetic to my interests in Norwegian composers. He was having problems with his eyes. 

The one I miss the least called himself Kim Beasely.


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## Open Book

I followed the amazon board for years and was sad when it disappeared. There was ample warning it was going away and just knowing that its days were numbered was difficult.

Amazon was a bit intimidating, I seldom posted but I was a follower. There were such knowledgeable people who could really write about music. It was a small number, though. I'm glad to see some of them here. I hesitated to follow this board because I wasn't sure it would equal the amazon boards.

There were some great threads on amazon. I miss threads as well as people. There was one called "Would you dare admit it" or something like that where outrageous or contrary opinions outspokenly presented were welcome.

How about that member known as superhugefat---, I liked his name as well as his posts. Not sure his name is printable under the rules here.


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## LezLee

I liked superhugefatass* too, he was fun. He had a big farm, didn’t he? I think he’d just moved when the forums closed.

*seems to have been accepted!


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## Luchesi

LezLee said:


> I liked superhugefatass* too, he was fun. He had a big farm, didn't he? I think he'd just moved when the forums closed.
> 
> *seems to have been accepted!


He seemed older to me, but you never can tell..

In reply to an earlier post on Oct 6, 2016 12:18:50 PM PDT
superhugefatass says:

Ken,

I can just see the smoke billowing out of that van and hear exclamations of "Far out!". Probably had an 8-track player where Innagoddadavita resided for days on end.

Just kidding. That sounds fun. My wife and I worked our tails off as young adults and rarely took breaks. We are planning on retiring at 50 so that we can do some of the things we missed out on.
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## CnC Bartok

I still have contact details for SHFA. A fellow Chemist, I got on with him well, and kept in touch for a while after he escaped Amazon. He had more Beethoven symphony cycles than I do (I have a mere 49 and counting, this thanks to Granate and his surveys!). 

Yes he's not old, and disappointingly doesn't seem even remotely excessively plump in the backside department.....


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## KenOC

Deleted for faulty memory problems.


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## Larkenfield

Amazon never caught on that its Yes and No voting system would signal the forum's demise. The No votes started being used for personal spite regardless of how good and constructive the posts were. Amazon never caught on that it needed to eliminate the No vote option, and it’s fortunate that TC does not have it. It was poison, destructive, and in all honesty, I was not sorry to see the classical forum go, though there were some good people. When I looked in on the UK Amazon classical forum, the spitefulness and negativity were even worse. It was devastated by the No voters and was virtually a ghost town by the time it vanished mercifully into the ethers. It’s odd because the No votes problem had been pointed out to Amazon on a number of occasions, even years before the official demise of the forums, and yet they would do nothing about it until the forums were ruined beyond all repair. It was a shame, really.


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## Barbebleu

Drat, when I saw the OP I was hoping for an influx of Themyscirans!


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## Open Book

Larkenfield said:


> Amazon never caught on that its Yes and No voting system would signal the forum's demise. The No votes started being used for personal spite regardless of how good and constructive the posts were. Amazon never caught on that it needed to eliminate the No vote option, and it's fortunate that TC does not have it. It was poison, destructive, and in all honesty, I was not sorry to see the forums go, though there were some good people. When I looked in on the UK Amazon classical forum, the spitefulness and negativity were even worse. It was devastated by the No voters and was scarcely a ghost town by the time it vanished mercifully into the ethers. It's odd because the problem had been pointed out to Amazon on a number of occasions, even years before the official demise of the forums, and yet they would do nothing about it until the forums were ruined.


You're assuming the demise of the forums has to do with "yes" and "no" votes, because of how people behave toward each other?
Other busy forums on the internet have disappeared as well. I think it is something bigger that sponsors feared, but I'm not sure what.
I agree that it's better not to have "dislikes" the way they were used to censor on Amazon, though.


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## KenOC

I believe the Amazon forums disappeared because:

1. They made no business sense, as Amazon discovered.
2. Amazon ceased to promote the forums and even made them impossible to find.
3. Amazon also gradually "defeatured" the forums, eg, removed the search function.
4. When memberships shrank enough to limit complaints, they shut the forums down.


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## Open Book

2. and 3. happened _because_ amazon wanted the forums gone and this was their way of weaning people off before killing them entirely.

It may be that it cost amazon too much money and wasn't worth it for them. I can't help wondering if their lawyers persuaded them that the forums should go for some reason. Speech has all kinds of consequences. But then amazon product reviews persist, so I don't know.


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## Luchesi

I miss the unputdownable (that’s a word) posts of scarecrow;

Top Ten compositions by composer?

Posted on Feb 9, 2009 5:54 AM PST 
Last edited by the author 12 hours ago
￼scarecrow says:
Didn't we do this already? 
Since we live in an overly stimulated late capitalist neo-liberal regime, we get an over-abundance of diversions to contemplate, it is democratic to have more than one of anything to choose from, so long as its 'de-caffeinated' products, safe,non-threatening complaisant;
So it is difficult for me to choose, I've been programmed for consumerist abundance;And I really cannot place all my cognitive subjectivity into one creator or one single place for cognition, I like to explore numerous paradigms of modernist expression; despite how profound that creator may or may not be, genius does have its blindspots,anxieties,incompletedness-es,IDs of miscontemplations. . . .
I like:
Allan Pettersson, symphonies,Ninth
Isang Yun,most music
Pierre Boulez, Piano sonatas
Stockhausen, LICHT
Arthur Kampela
Wolfgang Rihm,string quartets
Helmut Lachenmann,anything for orchestra and "Grido", Gran Torso,opera "Das Madchen. . ."
George Flynn's Trinity,solo piano
Ralph Shapey, string quartets
Milton Babbitt,piano solo music
Beat Furrer
Michael Finnissy,piano solo music
Galina Ustvolskaya,symphonies
Kaija Saariaho
Salvatore Sciarrino, solo pieces
Iannis Xenakis

Reply to this post
Permalink | Report abuse | Ignore this customer
1 of 2 people think this post adds to the discussion. Do you? ￼￼


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## Larkenfield

The Amazon forums became toxic and that was a good reason in and of itself to eliminate them. I imagine they were originally created as a way to increase sales because people would supposedly be talking about products. And it probably did help sales at the start because I certainly heard about a number of recordings that I purchased. But the point was lost and the forums simply became a battleground of negative opinions that did not necessarily lead to enough sales and because of the expense of running them. The popular IMDB forums were also eliminated for I believe the same reason of terrible toxicity and having to monitor that. I wasn't disappointed to see the toxic forums go except for a few of the members who I thought were insightful and pretty terrific. (Sorry, but ‘scarecrow’ wasn’t one of them with his completely boxed in and negative political views, plus his hard to read free verse on music that was also hard to read, and he would never change his format.) I'm glad to see some of the more positive ones here because the good ones try to be helpful, constructive, and illuminating. They're trying to share something good and open people's minds rather than close them.


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## philoctetes

Luchesi said:


> I miss the unputdownable (that's a word) posts of scarecrow;


scarecrow was the star of the forum.


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## CnC Bartok

I have to admit to a certain ambivalence when it came to scarecrow. He was obviously a very intelligent chap, and at times remarkably forgiving, but how the hell he managed to make a political point out of so many seemingly innocuous things is way beyond me. Maybe, Lark, he was trying to open our minds to the blissful utopia that is enshrined in pure Marxist-Leninism, or whichever branch of that creed he adhered to? Sorry, but my mind's well and truly closed to all that, and for good reason!
I still do not understand where that awful spat I had with the bloke who named himself after a Schumann song cycle ever originated, apart from straight out of left field.....


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## Larkenfield

CnC Bartok said:


> I have to admit to a certain ambivalence when it came to scarecrow. He was obviously a very intelligent chap, and at times remarkably forgiving, but how the hell he managed to make a political point out of so many seemingly innocuous things is way beyond me. Maybe, Lark, he was trying to open our minds to the blissful utopia that is enshrined in pure Marxist-Leninism, or whichever branch of that creed he adhered to? Sorry, but my mind's well and truly closed to all that, and for good reason!
> I still do not understand where that awful spat I had with the bloke who named himself after a Schumann song cycle ever originated, apart from straight out of left field.....


CnC, please. I never espoused Leninist/Marxist views ever in a million years on the Amazon forum, or any idealistic utopia that doesn't exist, but somehow I'm flattered and I wish you all the best! There's not enough Bartok on the forum.


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## CnC Bartok

Actually I was having a half-hearted attempt at explaining TO YOU what I thought SCARECROW might have been trying to achieve.....never took you as a misguided pinko, I promise!

I thought the commas made that clear in the absence of a vocative form of "Lark", apart from in Romantic Poetry!!


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## Luchesi

KenOC said:


> And we fondly remember that Russian lady who had proof that Mozart wrote his requiem for his own death. She was going to make a lot of money from that (somehow).


Here she is, did she start a website about it?

Posted on Dec 21, 2011 11:55:43 AM PST
Natalia A. Kalinina says:
I found quite a number of people here who I would like to continue discussions with: decent, intelligent, open-minded, good-natured, and friendly. 
They tried to participate in the discussion about Mozart but it was so hard to be getting through all the debris 'palJacky' was piling around, and especially through that vicious and malicious pack attack. 
I'll find my way to invite them on my own web site when I open it. 
Until then I send them my respect and appreciation.


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## geralmar

KenOC said:


> I believe the Amazon forums disappeared because:
> 
> 1. They made no business sense, as Amazon discovered.
> 2. Amazon ceased to promote the forums and even made them impossible to find.
> 3. Amazon also gradually "defeatured" the forums, eg, removed the search function.
> 4. When memberships shrank enough to limit complaints, they shut the forums down.


Not long before Amazon deleted its forums imdb.com cancelled its community forums, including an informative and friendly if not heavily trafficked classical music forum. I do not know if anyone took my advice and migrated here.


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## Open Book

Some of you must remember a man named John Ruggieri from the amazon forums. Is he on here under another name? Besides being knowledgeable he stood out as being nice on a site that could get contentious.


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## elgar's ghost

I used to lurk on the Amazon UK forum (I can't ever recall posting, though), but I think the classical section ended up being somewhat moribund before the facility was removed altogether. I distinctly remember some jarring exchanges between two posters who I think were called Basilides and Piso.


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## science

elgars ghost said:


> I used to lurk on the Amazon UK forum (I can't ever recall posting, though), but I think the classical section ended up being somewhat moribund before the facility was removed altogether. I distinctly remember some jarring exchanges between two posters who I think were called Basilides and Piso.


I still have questions about Piso....


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## KenOC

science said:


> I still have questions about Piso....


That would likely be Piso Mojado, a cantankerous gent from Chicago, elderly and suffering from failing eyesight. I haven't seen him here. Few knew what his moniker meant.


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## Luchesi

<a flash from the past>

In reply to an earlier post on Dec 31, 2011, 2:19:12 PM PST
KenOC says:


Millions writes, "Or would you prefer a burning at the stake, like they did to witches during the Spanish Inquisition?"


Actually, few witches were burned in the inquisition. The gravest crimes against the church (and the state of course) included conversion to Judaism, Freemasonry, various perceived heresies, etc. Being rich and being a Jew also helped, since the Inquisition was financed entirely by wealth confiscated from its victims without contributions from the church.


"In general...the Inquisition maintained a sceptical attitude towards cases of witchcraft, considering it as a mere superstition without any basis."
Reply to this post
Permalink | Report abuse | Ignore this customer​1 of 1 people think this post adds to the discussion. Do you? 
Yes


In reply to an earlier post on Dec 31, 2011, 3:46:03 PM PST 
Last edited by the author on Dec 31, 2011, 3:50:04 PM PST
Edgar Self says:


To KenOC somewhere in North Korea -- Spring-loaded? The order-of-arms drill will go: "Human Rifles, atten-SHUN! Ground arms! Shoulder arms! Present arms! As you were. REST! Fall out." Everyone in the canteen for Korean beer?
Reply to this post
Permalink | Report abuse | Ignore this customer​1 of 1 people think this post adds to the discussion. Do you? 
Yes
No​end post start post


_In reply to_ your post on Dec 31, 2011, 4:57:22 PM PST​[Deleted by Amazon on May 22, 2012, 8:57:19 AM PDT]




end post start post


In reply to an earlier post on Dec 31, 2011, 4:59:24 PM PST
[Deleted by Amazon on May 22, 2012, 8:57:20 AM PDT]


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## CnC Bartok

elgars ghost said:


> I used to lurk on the Amazon UK forum (I can't ever recall posting, though), but I think the classical section ended up being somewhat moribund before the facility was removed altogether. I distinctly remember some jarring exchanges between two posters who I think were called Basilides and Piso.


I had some very unpleasant exchanges with basiledes, I seem to remember. He knew his stuff, but he also knew how to express opinions in a manner both designed and guaranteed to offend. I can't remember Edgar/Piso being a particularly standout victim of his venom, though...


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## millionrainbows

Open Book said:


> Some of you must remember a man named John Ruggieri from the amazon forums. Is he on here under another name? Besides being knowledgeable he stood out as being nice on a site that could get contentious.


I remember John Ruggieri. I liked him. His relative was a famous jazz musician. Do you call who it was?

Also, if I'm not mistaken, I am partly responsible for scarecrow's presence on the Amazon forum. I read some of his Amazon reviews on modern CDs, enjoyed them, saw him as a potential fellow advocate of modern music, and invited him over. As I remember it, he started posting shortly after that.


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## millionrainbows

I read that scarecrow was a composer from Chicago. I forget the name. I think he was definitely a Marxist.


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## elgar's ghost

CnC Bartok said:


> I had some very unpleasant exchanges with basiledes, I seem to remember. He knew his stuff, but he also knew how to express opinions in a manner both designed and guaranteed to offend. I can't remember Edgar/Piso being a particularly standout victim of his venom, though...


Towards the end they were at loggerheads - that was until Basilides stop posting. Piso, who struck me as quite unperturbable in these exchanges, used to refer to Basilides as an aggressive Welsh Corgi or words to that effect and I do remember one time when Basilides lost it with Piso and called him an idiot. I recall one post from someone else likening their spat to two schoolboys fighting over a bowl of rice pudding. Basilides was knowledgeable as you correctly said, but he had a short fuse and seemed to have little patience either for classical greenhorns or anyone who had the temerity to disagree with him.


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## Luchesi

millionrainbows said:


> I remember John Ruggieri. I liked him. His relative was a famous jazz musician. Do you call who it was?
> 
> Also, if I'm not mistaken, I am partly responsible for scarecrow's presence on the Amazon forum. I read some of his Amazon reviews on modern CDs, enjoyed them, saw him as a potential fellow advocate of modern music, and invited him over. As I remember it, he started posting shortly after that.


I learned how scarecrow thought. I didn't post much to him because I didn't have the background to argue with his opinions (but many of his posts were worth saving and I wish I had saved more of them now).



In reply to an earlier post on May 18, 2016 7:18:03 AM PDT 
Last edited by the author on May 18, 2016 7:23:05 AM PDT
scarecrow says:


It's quite easy now in retrospect that modernity,12 tone serial to minimalism was really a renewed romanticism;
certainly Carter's entire oeuvre was Romantic in substance, Glass, Reich, Riley, was a renewed Westernized Asian romanticism,all playful most of times; it's the easy way out, safe, secured by a following fan-base, the quest to be loved.... and really refuses to think... a common language was the agenda since culture was becoming common,global, plural, accessible, no one has time to begin again, so you utilize what you got, and markets accelerate the process, profits gotta be made right now, no stalling the process,no time to waste,gotta buy a home in Nova Scotia... no borders....We can say all this odyssey began in the Seventies....Boulez,Stockhausen, Berio as well;now that Europa was finally turning a profit, (recall the 1950-1960s was not the USA, not till 1970 was capital restored in Europa) with a;
for Boulez he sought a career in conducting, good for him, and his music became more predictable...,then New Agey for Stockhausen, and a safe lyrical surface music for Berio;the surface is where the buzzz is, then as time wore on a pedagogical, with,Boulez: Notations, for Orch. the various post-repons pieces where he had to make good on the millions $$$$spent on electronics at IRCAM.


Babbitt,Wuorinen as well, and Shapey all true 12 Toners with a Romantic angst to grind.


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## Open Book

millionrainbows said:


> I remember John Ruggieri. I liked him. His relative was a famous jazz musician. Do you call who it was?
> 
> Also, if I'm not mistaken, I am partly responsible for scarecrow's presence on the Amazon forum. I read some of his Amazon reviews on modern CDs, enjoyed them, saw him as a potential fellow advocate of modern music, and invited him over. As I remember it, he started posting shortly after that.


I didn't know Mr. Ruggieri had a jazz musician relative. Yes, Mr. Ruggieri was likable. I wasn't that big a presence on the amazon board so a few encounters stand out, like when he called me "friend" as a way of saying Welcome.

A few encounters weren't that nice. Edgar Something(?) was combative, aggressively challenged me on something when I didn't deserve it. Meh, who cares, it was just silly alpha behavior.

There are some well-written reviews on amazon and they are a pleasure to read. Most of their authors didn't post on the amazon board, which was a shame.


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## philoctetes

After the way you pestered me this week about math this is really very funny... oh did Edgar hurt you?


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## Luchesi

Open Book said:


> I didn't know Mr. Ruggieri had a jazz musician relative. Yes, Mr. Ruggieri was likable. I wasn't that big a presence on the amazon board so a few encounters stand out, like when he called me "friend" as a way of saying Welcome.
> 
> A few encounters weren't that nice. Edgar Something(?) was combative, aggressively challenged me on something when I didn't deserve it. Meh, who cares, it was just silly alpha behavior.
> 
> There are some well-written reviews on amazon and they are a pleasure to read. Most of their authors didn't post on the amazon board, which was a shame.


Edgar Self was probably kidding you. It's difficult to tell when you're new to a tight group. It seemed that in every post he was kidding about something.


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## Open Book

Luchesi said:


> Edgar Self was probably kidding you. It's difficult to tell when you're new to a tight group. It seemed that in every post he was kidding about something.


I don't know, he was kind of humorless and pedantic about it. Maybe I didn't get it. Or maybe it was another Edgar.

Has anyone noticed that DrMike is gone? His posts now read as "guest". Anyone know what happened to him?


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## elgar's ghost

I may be wrong but I wouldn't be surprised if the constant baseline rallies on the coronavirus thread had something to do with it.


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## Open Book

He gets into scuffles but I wouldn't say DrMike is ever out of line, though. Not enough to be banned. There is a way to see if someone is banned, I think.


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## elgar's ghost

Yes, it would say 'Banned' if that was the case. I think 'Guest' means that you've thrown in the towel and asked the mods to suspend/terminate your membership.


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## Luchesi

Open Book said:


> I don't know, he was kind of humorless and pedantic about it. Maybe I didn't get it. Or maybe it was another Edgar.
> 
> Has anyone noticed that DrMike is gone? His posts now read as "guest". Anyone know what happened to him?


Our Edgar was a manager at Tower Records in CA and Chicago I surmised from his posts. He was often called upon to offer advice about CM purchases. He met all the newbies to collecting, and the puffed up 'connoisseurs'. He also had the old age infirmities/accidents. He was legally blind, I believe. Yes, he could be harsh to me also.


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## Donna Elvira

Hi,
I was and still am Donna Elvira.
I think I may have used lower case letters previously...not sure, it was a long time ago, and I was on this forum for a while but got turned off by some political stuff, which I wanted to avoid.
Perhaps now this forum will be better because they strictly monitor it...I hope.

Back in the Amazon time I lived in MA, USA


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## elgar's ghost

Welcome back. Apart from the current coronavirus thread which may occasionally dip its toe into political waters there isn't really anything like that on the main forums right now - any political discussions are supposed to be restricted to the semi-private Social Groups.


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