Forum members who have actually met face-to-face

[Dundonnell]

There is a real opportunity here for you, Johan

Set yourself up as a tour guide and show people round the lovely cities in your country. GMG members get a discount

Seriously, glad that you had a great time

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

There is a real opportunity here for you, Johan

Set yourself up as a tour guide and show people round the lovely cities in your country. GMG members get a discount

I am brooding on a business model, Colin... 

Seriously, glad that you had a great time

Thanks.

[Dundonnell]

I am brooding on a business model, Colin... 

Thanks.

Oh, I forgot........return visitors get a 100% discount, of course

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Oh, I forgot........return visitors get a 100% discount, of course

I notice my brooding has suddenly stopped.

[Dundonnell]

I notice my brooding has suddenly stopped.

.....but-of course-return visitors will be expected to entertain their guide to a slap-up meal in an excellent Amsterdam restaurant

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

.....but-of course-return visitors will be expected to entertain their guide to a slap-up meal in an excellent Amsterdam restaurant

I am going to sleep on this. Your excellent suggestion will form the main plank of my business plan...

[Novi]

Next week; Edinburgh and a few days at a loch. Might meet up with an Edin member, we shall see.

Mike

I am only 45 miles and 1 hour's journey from Edinburgh, Mike!

Should you still be in Edinburgh after Wednesday - when my (academic) duty calls - I would be very happy to make the face-to-face acquaintance, your schedule permitting. Do let me know.

There seems to be a wee cluster of us up north. Should there be anything group-oriented afoot, it would be nice to meet everyone . In any case, enjoy your trip, Mike.

[vandermolen]

Although I can't furnish you all with a telling picture, I just want to report I had a great evening with Brett Stewart (Catison). It was non-stop talking from 7 PM till past midnight, interrupted only by pizza, coffee and drink (hot chocolate for me, beer for Brett). An incredible amount of topics were touched, from Star Wars to Seinfeld, the merits of Bernard Herrmann vs. John Williams, Aquinas, G.M. Hopkins, Dutch history, brassbands in Texas, the wondrous world of GMG...

I have offered Brett to show him around Amsterdam, which we probably will do next weekend.

How very nice! Glad you had such a nice time. Very restrained of you to stick to the 'hot chocolate'. I seem to recall that your abstemious attitude to alcohol had diminished after an evening with me and my family in Leiden 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

How very nice! Glad you had such a nice time. Very restrained of you to stick to the 'hot chocolate'. I seem to recall that your abstemious attitude to alcohol had diminished after an evening with me and my family in Leiden 

You have broken your vow of silence! 

(I want my bribe money back.)

[Dundonnell]

How very nice! Glad you had such a nice time. Very restrained of you to stick to the 'hot chocolate'. I seem to recall that your abstemious attitude to alcohol had diminished after an evening with me and my family in Leiden 

Ha, Ha.....Johan's secret is out

[springrite]

(I want my bribe money back.)

You should have written a check dated for several months later.

[Wanderer]

(I want my bribe money back.)

Evidently, money well spent. :-)

[Catison]

Just to give an update, I really enjoyed my time last night with Johan.  Indeed we did discuss many things, including a short cultural history of the Netherlands and western Europe.  In the third hour of our conversation, I had a marvelous introduction to poetry.  Johan recited a few Gerard Manley Hopkins poems from memory.  I will admit it was the most beautiful recitation of poetry I have heard.  Johan was trying his best to open me up to this art for which I haven't had much appreciation.

There was also talk of Brian (of course) and Feldman (of course).  Religion, great literature, television programs, movie scores, even a little Vermeer.  There were few corners left untouched.

Johan has great diction, and, thinking back, he would excel as a narrator for Peter and the Wolf.  Here is a poem Johan recited.  As I read it now, I hear his words.  So bravo Johan!

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.   
  It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;   
  It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil   
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?   
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;           5
  And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;   
  And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil   
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.   

And for all this, nature is never spent;   
  There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;           10
And though the last lights off the black West went   
  Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—   
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent   
  World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.   

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I am touched, Brett. Thank you.

On 5 June I'll be reading from my own work at a literary evening in Amsterdam. Yesterday was excellent practice...

[Dundonnell]

That is the Gerard Manley Hopkins poem set by Sir Arthur Bliss for the 1969 Aldeburgh Festival and scored for mixed chorus and brass choir(three trumpets and four trombones).

Bliss's setting was first performed at Blythburgh Church because it was in that year that the Maltings in Snape-where most of the Aldeburgh Festival performances had been given-was gutted by fire.

[Brünnhilde forever]

The new edition is out of stock, but you can buy a used one here:

http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Choral-Arthur-including-Cantata/dp/B00003XB4Z/ref=sr_1_30?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1242017663&sr=1-30

It's not news to GMG members that the world is very small, but it sure was a surprise when my friend, professor of English, specialty poetry, told me last night that Gerard Manley Hopkins's was the object of his last poetry class last Wednesday - he lives in Missouri, USA. Tom gave me the link for the recording. 

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

The new edition is out of stock, but you can buy a used one here:

http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Choral-Arthur-including-Cantata/dp/B00003XB4Z/ref=sr_1_30?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1242017663&sr=1-30

It's not news to GMG members that the world is very small, but it sure was a surprise when my friend, professor of English, specialty poetry, told me last night that Gerard Manley Hopkins's was the object of his last poetry class last Wednesday - he lives in Missouri, USA. Tom gave me the link for the recording. 

!!!! 

[Lilas Pastia]

My admiration is further compounded by my own sloppy try at reciting the poem: it's a tongue twister !!

Sir Arthur Bliss set it to music (I have that Priory disc Lis mentions). He dedicated to "For Peter Pears, who selected these poems for me". Somehow, I was not exactly surprised. I can very well imagine Pears reciting it. His peculiar brand of musical intelligence included tremendous flair for diction and verbal projection. There are two more stanzas. BTW this Bliss disc a splendiferous display of how cathedral music ought to go. A very specialized genre for non anglicans. I think I sent a copy to a member a few years ago. Anyone interested may let me know . I bought mine at BRO. It comes back in stock from time to time.

Johan, if I ever meet you I want to hear you recite some Walt Whitman!

[Dundonnell]

It is also available on this Lyrita disc-

http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//SRCD225.htm

[vandermolen]

You have broken your vow of silence! 

(I want my bribe money back.)