The Thread for Those Who Wish to be Digressive

Started by kishnevi, July 08, 2016, 09:48:09 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 3 Guests are viewing this topic.

kishnevi

taking off from this comment

Quote from: (poco) Sforzando on July 07, 2016, 08:46:15 AM

"Also, it is worth noting that the President, whoever he or she may be, does nothing so grand as run the country."

- Todd: Reply #238 on Brexit thread (now shut down for the unforgivable crime that some of us were being digressive).

But if the president doesn't run the country, just what does he or she do?

The only offtopic posts in this thread will be those that are on-topic. >:D

Digress away, my friends!

Todd

Quote from: Jeffrey Smith on July 08, 2016, 09:50:26 AM
Since I never buy from Starbucks (not really convenient for a lunchtime coffee, and don't need them elsewhere.  And I don't like how their coffee tastes, anyway.),  won't cost me more!



I don't mind if Starbucks raises prices.  It's not that much, and increasing minimum wages must be covered somehow.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

Brian

Definitely going to be following Peter Doig's trial in Chicago with great interest. Truly bizarre that an artist is forced to prove he did not paint a painting.

(poco) Sforzando

"What was the trouble?" Mr. Antolini asked me. "How'd you do in English? I'll show you the door in short order if you flunked English, you little ace composition writer."

"Oh, I passed English all right. It was mostly literature, though. I only wrote about two compositions the whole term," I said. "I flunked Oral Expression, though. They had this course you had to take, Oral Expression. That I flunked."

"Why?"

"Oh, I don't know." I didn't feel much like going into It. I was still feeling sort of dizzy or something, and I had a helluva headache all of a sudden. I really did. But you could tell he was interested, so I told him a little bit about it. "It's this course where each boy in class has to get up in class and make a speech. You know. Spontaneous and all. And if the boy digresses at all, you're supposed to yell 'Digression!' at him as fast as you can. It just about drove me crazy. I got an F in it."

"Why?"

"Oh, I don't know. That digression business got on my nerves. I don't know. The trouble with me is, I like it when somebody digresses. It's more interesting and all."

"You don't care to have somebody stick to the point when he tells you something?"

"Oh, sure! I like somebody to stick to the point and all. But I don't like them to stick too much to the point. I don't know. I guess I don't like it when somebody sticks to the point all the time. The boys that got the best marks in Oral Expression were the ones that stuck to the point all the time--I admit it. But there was this one boy, Richard Kinsella. He didn't stick to the point too much, and they were always yelling 'Digression!' at him. It was terrible, because in the first place, he was a very nervous guy--I mean he was a very nervous guy--and his lips were always shaking whenever it was his time to make a speech, and you could hardly hear him if you were sitting way in the back of the room. When his lips sort of quit shaking a little bit, though, I liked his speeches better than anybody else's. He practically flunked the course, though, too. He got a D plus because they kept yelling 'Digression!' at him all the time. For instance, he made this speech about this farm his father bought in Vermont. They kept yelling 'Digression!' at him the whole time he was making it, and this teacher, Mr. Vinson, gave him an F on it because he hadn't told what kind of animals and vegetables and stuff grew on the farm and all. What he did was, Richard Kinsella, he'd start telling you all about that stuff--then all of a sudden he'd start telling you about this letter his mother got from his uncle, and how his uncle got polio and all when he was forty-two years old, and how he wouldn't let anybody come to see him in the hospital because he didn't want anybody to see him with a brace on. It didn't have much to do with the farm--I admit it--but it was nice. It's nice when somebody tells you about their uncle. Especially when they start out telling you about their father's farm and then all of a sudden get more interested in their uncle. I mean it's dirty to keep yelling 'Digression!' at him when he's all nice and excited. I don't know. It's hard to explain." I didn't feel too much like trying, either. For one thing, I had this terrific headache all of a sudden. I wished to God old Mrs. Antolini would come in with the coffee. That's something that annoys hell out of me--I mean if somebody says the coffee's all ready and it isn't.

"Holden. . . One short, faintly stuffy, pedagogical question. Don't you think there's a time and place for everything? Don't you think if someone starts out to tell you about his father's farm, he should stick to his guns, then get around to telling you about his uncle's brace? Or, if his uncle's brace is such a provocative subject, shouldn't he have selected it in the first place as his subject--not the farm?"

I didn't feel much like thinking and answering and all. I had a headache and I felt lousy. I even had sort of a stomach-ache, if you want to know the truth.

"Yes--I don't know. I guess he should. I mean I guess he should've picked his uncle as a subject, instead of the farm, if that interested him most. But what I mean is, lots of time you don't know what interests you most till you start talking about something that doesn't interest you most. I mean you can't help it sometimes. What I think is, you're supposed to leave somebody alone if he's at least being interesting and he's getting all excited about something. I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It's nice."
"I don't know what sforzando means, though it clearly means something."

XB-70 Valkyrie

I'm worried about the baggage retrieval system they've got at Heathrow.
If you really dislike Bach you keep quiet about it! - Andras Schiff

Karl Henning

I remember the last several times I flew, but I do not remember the last time I flew, when both legs of the trip went smoothly, as scheduled.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

drogulus


     One explanation for the extraordinary friendliness of the CowCat is supplied by the master, that it was raised by a dog from kittenhood and then raised the incumbent dog from puppyhood.

     I want someone to build me an amplifier that uses 7591a power tubes in a circuit popularized in the early to mid '60s, not long after the tube was introduced. The tube was designed for high power in a small package, to fit in the new stereo integrated amps of the day (Scott, Fisher, McIntosh and others). The path to improved design was then redirected towards transistors and the 7591a never got to where it ought to have gone for instrument amplification.

     Contrary to what you may have heard, you can watch UHD on a 1080p TV if you let the media player downshift. Find a free UHD video on YT, DL it don't stream it, load it onto a capable player and go. It takes a little research but it works. I use the Roku Ultra.

     
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:123.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/123.0
      
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/115.0

Mahlerian

Traffic lights play an important function in human society, which one might say is similar to that of dominant chords.  They function as temporary stopping points at times, and as places to be breezed through on the way to an immanent destination at others.
"l do not consider my music as atonal, but rather as non-tonal. I feel the unity of all keys. Atonal music by modern composers admits of no key at all, no feeling of any definite center." - Arnold Schoenberg

Maestro267

Ah! Finally! A thread to express my one desire in life, to be transformed into a nice crunchy round biscuit with "Sweetmeal" written......Ohh! Digressive! OK!

Karl Henning

The occasional pocket of snow squall fakes one out, and one almost expects there to be accumulation.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

drogulus


After leaving my previous job 12 months ago, I've had some good luck to learn about this website which was a life-saver for me... They offer jobs for which people can work online from their house. My latest paycheck after working for them for 4 months was for $4500... Amazing thing about is that the only thing required is simple typing skills and access to internet...Read all about it here >>
See Here =>>> http://www....................
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:123.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/123.0
      
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/115.0

ComposerOfAvantGarde

On the topic of digressions, is anyone a fan of Michel de Montaigne?

Florestan

Quote from: jessop on January 23, 2017, 02:39:44 PM
On the topic of digressions, is anyone a fan of Michel de Montaigne?

Talk about diggressions....

When plague burst out at Bordeaux, the mayor, one Michel de Montaigne, quickly left the city. When plague burst out at Milan, the archbishop, one St. Charles Borromeo, quickly came back to the city.

;D ;D ;D
Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

Karl Henning

Holy cats, Prokofiev's Paddy Wagon had drifted out to page 12—two pp. later than a Khrennikov thread, for mercy's sake.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

drogulus

#14
Quote from: Florestan on January 23, 2017, 02:50:09 PM
Talk about diggressions....

When plague burst out at Bordeaux, the mayor, one Michel de Montaigne, quickly left the city.

;D ;D ;D

     That's the coverage Bordeaux used then, a prevent defense. Take it up with the coaching staff.

     Nobody uses the 7199 phase inverter any more. You can use a Thing with the 6GH8A.

     

     Thing

     
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:123.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/123.0
      
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/115.0

Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Sef

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 25, 2017, 05:41:41 AM
It never really does trickle down, does it?
I beg to differ - as you get older it does seem to trickle down somewhat unexpectedly.  ;D
"Do you think that I could have composed what I have composed, do you think that one can write a single note with life in it if one sits there and pities oneself?"

Ghost Sonata

In a 20th Century French poetry class I took long ago, we were reading La Pluie by Francis Ponge (btw, France has the best rain poems IN THE WORLD) and I pointed out that the word eau (water) while curiously absent from the poem, is subtly present in the fair number of words the poet used that have eau in them.  The professor stopped dead in his tracks, bouche ouverte, and stared at the text many minutes.  Then he began to pace.  The class looked curiously at me, then him, and back.  This went on for many long silent minutes.  "D'accord," he finally said and explained that he was ABD and that Ponge was his dissertation topic and his focus was on rideau (curtain) and réseau (network) in his poetry and that he would have to cite me in his dissertation.  Dunno if he actually did...

La pluie

    La pluie, dans la cour où je la regarde tomber, descend à des allures très diverses. Au centre c'est un fin rideau (ou réseau) discontinu, une chute implacable mais relativement lente de gouttes probablement assez légères, une précipitation sempiternelle sans vigueur, une fraction intense du météore pur. A peu de distance des murs de droite et de gauche tombent avec plus de bruit des gouttes plus lourdes, individuées. Ici elles semblent de la grosseur d'un grain de blé, là d'un pois, ailleurs presque d'une bille. Sur des tringles, sur les accoudoirs de la fenêtre la pluie court horizontalement tandis que sur la face inférieure des mêmes obstacles elle se suspend en berlingots convexes. Selon la surface entière d'un petit toit de zinc que le regard surplombe elle ruisselle en nappe très mince, moirée à cause de courants très variés par les imperceptibles ondulations et bosses de la couverture. De la gouttière attenante où elle coule avec la contention d'un ruisseau creux sans grande pente, elle choit tout à coup en un filet parfaitement vertical, assez grossièrement tressé, jusqu'au sol où elle se brise et rejaillit en aiguillettes brillantes.

    Chacune de ses formes a une allure particulière : il y répond un bruit particulier. Le tout vit avec intensité comme un mécanisme compliqué, aussi précis que hasardeux, comme une horlogerie dont le ressort est la pesanteur d'une masse donnée de vapeur en précipitation.

    La sonnerie au sol des filets verticaux, le glou-glou des gouttières, les minuscules coups de gong se multiplient et résonnent à la fois en un concert sans monotonie, non sans délicatesse.

    Lorsque le ressort s'est détendu, certains rouages quelque temps continuent à fonctionner, de plus en plus ralentis, puis toute la machinerie s'arrête. Alors si le soleil reparaît tout s'efface bientôt, le brillant appareil s'évapore : il a plu.

Francis Ponge - Le Parti pris des choses - 1942
I like Conor71's "I  like old Music" signature.

snyprrr

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on January 24, 2017, 04:23:59 AM
Holy cats, Prokofiev's Paddy Wagon had drifted out to page 12—two pp. later than a Khrennikov thread, for mercy's sake.

that's wild stuff there man

Karl Henning

No pleasing some people.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot