New members.

[(poco) Sforzando]

oh, so we can call you David now?
(how many Italian people are there named David? lol)

[Harry]

For the second time, please remember the theme of the thread.......

[greg]

ha, good point.

[(poco) Sforzando]

ha, good point.

Stay on topic, G...R...E...G... .

[greg]

Stay on topic, G...R...E...G... .

you're not staying on topic by telling me to stay on topic, Sforzando.
Stay on topic, Sforzando.

[Kullervo]

wow, you're crazy......

I've heard that before.

[m_gigena]

I'm 46, male, married with one daughter (8 on 30 December).

And where do you live, that such thing is legal?

[m_gigena]

I'm sorry, but this notion about the inferiority of food in America is simply a tired cliché. Of course there's plenty of fast food and crap to be found here, but that is true anywhere (some of the worst meals I have ever eaten were in Paris). Someone who lives near a major American city can certainly find more than decent Italian food and food from many other cultures. (Boston's North End is great for Italian, for example.) Living near New York City as I do, I would say there is a wealth and variety of cuisines that I have not experienced in many other cities, and that emphatically includes Europe. You just have to know where to find it, and be willing to pay for it.

This only means one thing: that you never ate Argentine food, cooked by Argentinians, in Argentina. Too bad Nigel left, he would have been able to settle my point, in a more fashionable grammatical construction than mine.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

And where do you live, that such thing is legal?

Interested?



[But funny, isn't it, that in English 'with' is not the preposition to go with 'married'...]

[m_gigena]

[But funny, isn't it, that in English 'with' is not the preposition to go with 'married'...]

But it makes a good joke for a lazy translator anyway.

[(poco) Sforzando]

This only means one thing: that you never ate Argentine food, cooked by Argentinians, in Argentina. Too bad Nigel left, he would have been able to settle my point, in a more fashionable grammatical construction than mine.

No, it means what it said, which is a response to your claim that "if you want to taste good italian [sic] food, came [sic] to Buenos Aires." It has nothing to do with either Nigel, whoever he may be, or with "Argentine food, cooked by Argentinians, in Argentina," an culinary pleasure I freely admit to never having had experienced.

[Harry]

I am closing this thread for a while, because my constant request to stay on topic, falls on deaf ears.
I am sorry.

[Harry]

Food is a delightful thing to discuss about, but please somewhere else.
Stay on topic, for I think this is a fine thread, for the benefit of us all.
Thank you.

[Bogey]

Name: Bill

Place of birth: Maine

Now living in: Colorado.  Right outside of Denver.  Been here since '84 and absolutely love living here.  Suspect this is where they will spread my ashes.  We live in the same house that my wife grew up in...pretty cool. 

Family: Married for 15 years+ to a wonderful gal I met here in Colorado.  Proposed to her after only knowing her for 19 days.  We have a son (9) and daughter (5) and never lose sight of knowing how blessed we are to have them, but are sometimes saddened to see how fast they are growing up before our very eyes.  We currently are the owners of three basset hounds, who are an absolute riot and make us smile even when we've had a difficult day.

Some Favorites
Favorite Composer: LvB...but am always pleased to listen to Bach, Haydn, Mozart, or Copland.
Favorite movie: Casablanca.
Favorite book: This changes, but as of now, LOTR or To Kill A Mockingbird.
Favorite TV show: Toss up between M*A*S*H* and Andy Griffith (only the ones with Don Knotts).  Also enjoy a good mystery such as Columbo, Cadfael, the Brett Holmes works.
Favorite food: Fresh lobster with a side basket of steamers or Chinese take out.
Favorite drink: As of this year, coffee (thank you David Ross)....and also love trying different teas.  For something cold, hand me a root beer.

Hobbies: Bird watching with my son; model rocketry (small time stuff); gardening.

Misc. indulgences: Listening to the baseball game on the radio or actually going to the ballpark with the family (all four of us enjoy this).

Collections beyond classical music: Universal monster stuff; Disney items (though both of these are minimal now as we are out of room); cacti and succulents (however, I know nothing about them and just enjoy adding new ones to the "growing" collection).  I am also beginning to dabble into old-time radio shows, but this may just be a passing phase.  We'll see.

[Harry]

Thanks Bill I really enjoy reading this.
Cacti and succulents are also in our living room, but somehow they almost always die, eaten by little animals or fungi.
The basset hounds are adorable, like them very much....

[Harry]

It seems that there are a lot of new members coming in from another forum, so if you feel so inclined, maybe this thread will appeal to you..... , and is still open for business for all the rest of us...

[ChamberNut]

When I saw this thread, I thought I'd post a more detailed introduction of myself, so here it is:

My name is Ray, 33 years old.  I'm from Winnipeg, Canada.  Yes, it's very cold there in the winter 

My favorite composers (in approx. order):
Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Mozart, Schumann, Bruckner, Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Bach, Vivaldi, Prokofiev, and many more.

My favorite type of classical music is chamber music, especially string quartets/trios/quintets, piano trios, piano quartets and piano quintets.  But I certainly enjoy orchestral music nearly as much.

How long have a been a huge fan of classical music?  A little over 3 years.

How did my curiosity and interest in classical music come about?  Interestingly, from watching Stanley Kubrick films.  I watched them often, since I'm a big fan of his films.  I realized how much I enjoyed some of the music used in his films.  I started buying the soundtracks to his movies (Barry Lyndon, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut).  A Clockwork Orange introduced me to Beethoven's 9th Symphony, and I found I was really drawn to the powerful Scherzo of the 9th.  From there, I purchased a copy of Beethoven's 9th symphony, and enjoyed it so much, I went to the complete symphonies.  That was it!   From that point, I became enthralled and passionate about classical music, and went on shopping sprees of CD's, buying books, etc.  I've never discovered anything more exciting in my life!

Other hobbies/interests:  Sudoku puzzles (the hard ones), discovered Chess in April and love it!  Board games.

I have concert subscriptions to both the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Winnipeg Chamber Music Society.  I feel so blessed to have these in my city!

I'm engaged to be married in June 2008, and my fiancée has a 9 year old son.  We have 2 fat cats named Bunny and Sunshine, and a pug puppy named Beatrice.

And there is my life story......well, sort of.

[Harry]

Thank you very much Ray, I enjoyed reading your life story.
Two fat cats, and a Pug puppy called Beatrice, that made me smile big time.
I hope your marriage will be all you expect from it, it is that Winnipeg is a tad to far away from the place I live, but otherwise.......

[Sarastro]

Let me then introduce myself too. 

My name is Vladimir, I was born and then lived for 17 years in Saratov (on the Volga river), Russia (it was very cold in winter too there!). Then we suddenly immigrated to USA...so I'm here approximately a year and a half.

Two years ago I heard a little passage from the second Queen of the night aria and then my introduction to opera began (I was looking for that aria in the Internet - that was the first thing I looked for in the Internet and my beginning of using it, I'd never gone in the Internet before). I can say that before my mother took me to some ballets, operas, classical music concerts...but without any success  and once I even told her that would never go to theater again. Anyway...you never know what will happen to you some day. During those two years I heard a lot...but still opera is my favorite genre of them all. Different styles, different composers...though I'm just enrolled and don't know much Wagner and Vivaldi (he did a lot of wonderful operas!), the second half of the 20-th century...though I was lucky enough to visit Metropolitan opera, listen to domingo, Pons, Netrebko and Villazon (and very proud of it  )...and I'm happy that I found that classical music forum.

The only problem is that my stepfather now and my mother (just fancy! he was trying to make me love classical music and now...) are very angry with my hobby, and say it's abnormal and I can't listen to opera so much, that I'm mad. It's a little funny, but mostly sad.

I also like designing (fashion designing - here in California I even brought my works to the design institute, but my parents told that I'd be a designer over their dead bodies. so I'll be an engineer, it's not bad too, I think, as I studied in a physics-mathematics school in Russia), swimming and water in common, history, mythology, culture and architecture of Europe and East (oriental cultures), classical music in common, Shakespeare, Pushkin, Russian and English literature...there is a plenty of wonderful things...though now I see them all in the "Old World", not in Los Angeles. And I can say I like British English. 

I think I can write more...just now have to go, if somebody has questions - just ask! 

[Harry]

Great write up, thank you very much Vladimir.
I have strong ties with Russia, and Saratov is not unknown to me.....