Clichés

[vandermolen]

Pettersson 'self-pity' (I totally disagree)

[Karl Henning]

Proactive

[Ten thumbs]

Oh, it's dumb considering half the time it isn't intended to invite a conversation at all. When it genuinely is, that's okay, though.

Half the time? Clearly you don't meet many Yorkshire people. Surely for a casual greeting most people say 'Hello' or 'Hi' or 'Good day' or similar.

[ibanezmonster]

Half the time? Clearly you don't meet many Yorkshire people. Surely for a casual greeting most people say 'Hello' or 'Hi' or 'Good day' or similar.

I'm quite far from Yorkshire...
well, in my situation, this is the case. It's more like part of a greeting, that is often said when people are walking past you, and often, it's inappropriate to say how you really feel, especially when it's strangers asking you. I don't think the random people that ask me that every day really want to know that I feel like a zombie that wants to walk off a bridge.

[chasmaniac]

'sit goin', eh?

Trawna's a long way from Yorkshire too, but this is what we say often enough and, no, one is not expected to answer honestly, specifically or at length. A nice brief meh is acceptable though.

[Ten thumbs]

'sit goin', eh?

Trawna's a long way from Yorkshire too, but this is what we say often enough and, no, one is not expected to answer honestly, specifically or at length. A nice brief meh is acceptable though.

Mm! I can see why it might become a little annoying. The impression we have that Americans use the casual greeting 'Nice Day' appears to be wrong. Though that's scarcely appropriate when the weather's lousy.

[classicalgeek]

I'll often directly compare a lesser-known composer to a better-known one, i.e. Ries sometimes reminds me of Beethoven, or Stanchinsky has some similarities to Scriabin.

But a cliché along those lines that does irritate me - calling a lesser-known composer "The [nationality] [better-known composer]". 

For example:
Niels Gade: "The Danish Mendelssohn"
Etienne Méhul: "The French Beethoven"
John Field: "The Irish Chopin"
Cyril Scott: "The English Debussy"
Hans Christian Lumbye: "The [Johann] Strauss of the North"
and many more...

I suppose it's nitpicking, but somehow this equivalence galls me more than a simple comparison.  Sometimes these nicknames aren't even accurate - to me, Field and Chopin don't really sound that similar.  I guess they both wrote Nocturnes for the piano, but still...  I say use the better-known composers to give listeners a reference point, but let the lesser-known composers stand on their own!

[Ten thumbs]

I suppose it's nitpicking, but somehow this equivalence galls me more than a simple comparison.  Sometimes these nicknames aren't even accurate - to me, Field and Chopin don't really sound that similar.  I guess they both wrote Nocturnes for the piano, but still...  I say use the better-known composers to give listeners a reference point, but let the lesser-known composers stand on their own!

I must say I agree. In any case, as Field came first, surely Chopin must be the Polish Field. I don't think calling Emilie Mayer the female Beethoven has done her cause much good either.

[Karl Henning]

John Field: Not really of any particular interest, only he was roughly contemporaneous with Chopin, whose music is an enduring classic.

[Ataraxia]

I like John Field and that's all I need to know. 

[Karl Henning]

. . . but let the lesser-known composers stand on their own!

This. Sometimes, once finds a lesser-known composer whose music earns a place at the table, and the fact that the composer is unknown, is a confluence of chances and accident.  Quite often, though, the composer is lesser known for entirely musical reasons.

[Karl Henning]

I like John Field and that's all I need to know. 

That's cool. It's when someone tries to bamboozle us with "John Field: He's just as great as Chopin" that the Snake-Oil-o-Meter kicks into overdrive.

[Karl Henning]

I like  and that's all I need to know. 

And if I were Irish, I should resent the John Field: The Irish Chopin wheeze; implying as it does that Irish is code for mediocre.

[Polednice]

Brahms's orchestration: "autumnal". Ugh.

[Ten thumbs]

John Field: Not really of any particular interest, only he was roughly contemporaneous with Chopin, whose music is an enduring classic.

Surely you weren't taking my joke about a Polish Field seriously. Field was original but not in the same league as Chopin. He was born 28 years before Chopin (1782) and that is a whole generation.

[eyeresist]

Brahms's orchestration: "autumnal". Ugh.

I guess you aren't synaesthetic, then.

[Mirror Image]

A cliche that is the furthest from the truth I've encountered is that all classical listeners are a bunch of snobs. Not all of us are thankfully. I've met a few classical snobs, but everybody here on GMG seems to be level-headed, friendly, and approachable.

[Mirror Image]

Pettersson 'self-pity' (I totally disagree)

How about a bumper sticker that reads "Pettersson is the epitome of self-pity"? Maybe this is too cliche?

[eyeresist]

How about a bumper sticker that reads "...So I thought, "Hey, that would make a great bumper sticker!" "

Your mind - blown.

[Mirror Image]

How about a bumber sticker that reads "...So I thought, "Hey, that would make a great bumper sticker!" "

Your mind - blown.

Cool! I'll be wearing a T-shirt that reads "This is a T-shirt" while I'm driving my car with that bumper sticker.