Forum members who have actually met face-to-face

[Cato]

It's official: Cato and I have met, and more than once!

Yes!  Karl is somewhat taller than I thought.  For some reason, I had pictured him around 5' 8" or so, but he is closer to 6' even.  (I am 6' 3", but will probably start shrinking as age 70 approaches.  I intend on resisting that!  (Shrinking, that is!  Resisting the onslaught of 70 is futile!) )

[Kontrapunctus]

I've met David Ross...a very nice person. (And his son is a very fine classical guitarist.)

[Karl Henning]

I've met David Ross...a very nice person. (And his son is a very fine classical guitarist.)

There's a couple of folks I must make a point of meeting.

[Brahmsian]

There's a couple of folks I must make a point of meeting.

---------->ChamberNut

[Karl Henning]

Aye!

[Herman]

Applause in between and even during movements has become endemic throught the world, including New York, London, Paris and Berlin.

This is your own experience, in these places?

I havenever heard applause during the music, and maybe once or twice the inevitable applause after the scherzo in Tchaikovsky 6, but that's all.

I've also noted people who come to Concert Halls to do as others do in museums, i.e., harass music lovers (as they harass art lovers in the Museums), not enjoy the music:

in what way do people go to museums to harass art lovers?
[/quote]

[EigenUser]

So far I've met Bruce (a few times) and sforzando (in the Juilliard Music Store on the way to the Ligeti concert).

Brian -- it turns out that we'll be meeting at Mahler 6 w/NYPhil next month! Bruce mentioned to me that you'll be traveling for the Saturday performance which is the one my friend and I were planning on going to. See you there!

[(poco) Sforzando]

So far I've met Bruce (a few times) and sforzando (in the Juilliard Music Store on the way to the Ligeti concert).

Brian -- it turns out that we'll be meeting at Mahler 6 w/NYPhil next month! Bruce mentioned to me that you'll be traveling for the Saturday performance which is the one my friend and I were planning on going to. See you there!

Oddly enough, I distinctly remember meeting EigenUser and Bruce in the Juilliard store on the way to the Messiaen-Ligeti-George Benjamin concert too. It was a completely accidental unplanned encounter, as I had time to kill, stopped in the store, and EU was looking through all the overpriced scores finding something to buy.

Looking back on my many years (perhaps 20 at this point) of posting to classical music boards, I have somehow managed to meet many users face-to-face. This may well be because sooner or later a lot of people find themselves gravitating to New York for a visit. But I've also hooked up with several users on my own travels, a number of whom have remained close friends.

I can't remember all the people I've met, and some have stopped participating on music boards of any type. (I don't think because of me, but ya never know.) Of the people most active here, I've met Bruce Hodges quite a few times, and Karl Henning as well (both in Boston and NY). Scott Spires too, who I think now calls himself Archaic Torso of something or other, and Joe Barron.

Other names may not be as familiar to the newer posters here, but veterans will surely remember the great late Ralph Stein, law professor and bon vivant extraordinaire. Ralph always bought two subscriptions to the NY Philharmonic and invited guests to each concert, so I met him this way many times. I would pay for dinner and Ralph for the performance. I visited Ralph in the hospital after his heart attack, but just a year or two later he passed away from complications of diabetes. I still miss him.

Some more names: Steve Molino, with whom I still e-mail frequently. On a few occasions he, Ralph, Barry Zuckerman, and I got together at fine NY restaurants for an extravagant lunch. Joe Henry, who wrote beautifully about Boulez; we have met in NY and DC quite a few times. Catison (Brett Stewart), who was once quite roly-poly but dropped a lot of weight and married a beautiful girl. Nigil Wilkinson, whom I visited in Paris. Ellie Edwards, the voice teacher from Boston. Owlice (Alice Ryan). Ellie Kett, who visited once from Israel. Wilma Monlouis. Guy Fairstein, the lawyer whose primary interests were Mahler and Bruckner. Yasser Yeman. Joshua Lilly, lover of Mozart and chess, who came up to NY from Virginia. Karl Henzy, a great Carter fan. Al Moritz, the great lover of Bruckner and Stockhausen. Utah Bill, with whom I spent a great afternoon in the SF area. Niki (Emmanuel) Beer and I have had dinner together both in NY and SF.

And several others from That Other Board. Ralph invited me to a couple of their get-togethers, so I have met John Brousseau, Lenny Goran, John Francis, The Horn, and I'm pretty sure "some guy," even though I didn't know most of these people well. I used to see Frank Berglas a lot when he was living in NY and attending the Met; we often met for Chinese dinner at an excellent little-known hole in the wall near Lincoln Center, since then torn down. John Bleau, Ralph Stein, and I had dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant right next to the Chinese hole in the wall; John had some odd ideas about AIDS, but he also self-published a wonderful memoir about traveling in India. And yes, I've also met the notorious Randall Wetmore, but perhaps before he became so entrenched in his political views, or perhaps I just didn't see it then.

Also David Gable, who was very active at RMCR and some other boards, but not I think here. David is a true scholar, a trained musicologist who wrote his dissertation under Charles Rosen and who has published on Boulez and Verdi, among others. And his friend Pradyut Shah, who also studied at the University of Chicago.

There may have been others. There must have been. The first time I met Ralph Stein, he organized a big lunch in NY's Chinatown for a dozen people. I think Larry Rinkel was there too, but like most sensible people I instantly realized he was a boor and a nuisance, and so I always ignored his PMs and emails. (Somehow he's too dense to ever get the point and he still continues attaching himself to me.) I think Brian and I may be meeting next month besides, and I certainly would be happy to get together with anyone else who comes to NY.

[(poco) Sforzando]

I think Brian and I may be meeting next month besides . . . .

And so it came to pass. As good fortune would have it, Brian did make the arduous voyage from Dallas, TX, to our fair city NYC, where he had the truly good fortune to catch Hamilton, that overpriced sold-out Broadway show I haven't seen myself, hear some Mahler, and do sundry other things, one of which included meeting with moi for a tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I promised Brian that if he were willing to spend virtually a whole day at it, I could show him virtually the entire museum (which is about as large in itself as your typical US city), and I'd say we accomplished about 90% of what I had planned. Subway delays on both sides caused a bit of a rocky start, but we finally met for breakfast, headed over to the Met, and toured the entire world in the space of four city blocks and seven hours including a long lunch. I had to cut out a few minor departments, like Drawings-Prints-Photographs and the Costume Institute; and the Robert Lehman wing was closed, which meant we couldn't see Ingrès's great portrait of the Princesse de Broglie. But otherwise we got to virtually everything on my "must-see" list and more besides.

Brian is a nice-looking young man and in person is as you might expect from the boards: quiet, scholarly, well-informed, and not without a droll sense of humor. During breakfast and lunch we discussed all kinds of topics, musical and otherwise, and I think we saw eye-to-eye on most things, including our opinion of at least one controversial composer. Brian was visiting some friends here and unfortunately I could not entice him to join me the next day for a matinee at the NYC Ballet - where he would have seen Bournonville's La Sylphide (sporadically interesting) and Balanchine's choreography for the 2nd Tchaikovsky Concerto (absolutely spectacular, and starring NYC's hottest ballerina of the moment, the wonderful Sara Mearns). But I'll bet that in the few days he visited, Brian could see how for some of us,"you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave New York. No, sir, when a man is tired of New York, he is tired of life; for there is in New York all that life can afford."

Well, be that as it may, Brian was going to stay in our delightfully balmy city that Saturday night to meet Brewski and EigenUser to hear the NYP in Mahler 6; I might have joined them, except that I was already half-frozen by the time my matinee let out, and I didn't want to read reports in the next day's NY Times of four frost-bitten GMG posters found congealed under the arches of the Metropolitan Opera. But hopefully Brian is safely thawed out and back home where it is only 65 degrees, and that he found our day together as pleasant as I did.

[Karl Henning]

Cool.  Though I blush to consider that now, Brian must have see more of the Metropolitan Museum of Art than have I, and I've been there a dozen times at least.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I think we saw eye-to-eye on most things, including our opinion of at least one controversial composer.

So are you going to name name(s), or leave us hanging?

[(poco) Sforzando]

So are you going to name name(s), or leave us hanging?

Let's just say that if this is a composer you admire, it's not something I'd jolly well brag to your saints about.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Cool.  Though I blush to consider that now, Brian must have see more of the Metropolitan Museum of Art than have I, and I've been there a dozen times at least.

To be truthful, I offered a tasting menu rather than a full-course meal. I could and often have spent 5-10x the time in many of the departments we visited.

[jochanaan]

Our estimable Bogey came to the recital I put on, and said some very kind things about my playing. 

[Brian]

I can confirm (p) Sfz's account! (And I was going to PM you a thank-you note, but might as well do so publicly.) We crammed in a truly incredible amount of stuff to our Met tour, aided by the tour guide's printed-out itinerary of essentials. I offered a quick summary to my parents last night in an email: "Washington crossing the Delaware, Monet water lilies, an ancient Egyptian temple, giant Polynesian sculptures, John Singer Sargent portraits, the historical musical instrument collection, iconic Van Gogh and Vermeer, the Roman sculpture hall..."

I also got to introduce Sforzando to my favorite museum game, "What would you steal?" This is where you think about all the things you've seen and, well, decide what you'd steal. And after a few days' reflection, my answer has changed from the original pick of "the Damascus Room": I'd steal the giant Jackson Pollock. Second choice: that 1830s Conrad Graf fortepiano, which I forgot to tell you (Sfz) was very similar to the Conrad Graf which Penelope Crawford owns and records on.

And we did indeed have a very good day! I had a very good trip overall, start to finish, including the extraordinary Hamilton; an interesting if often bizarre taping of "Late Show with Stephen Colbert"; superb meals in Chinatown dives, at the Singaporean restaurant Chomp Chomp, at High Line brunch staple/bubbly bar Trestle on Tenth, and at a superb James-Beard-winning home of modernist continental delights, Bâtard; stops at the Grolier Club and Natural History Museum; a set at Smalls Jazz Club, with the Kenyatta Beasley Septet playing the music of bandleader and Basie collaborator Frank Foster; and a bookstore-hopping expedition that took me to the Drama Book Shop for play scripts, Chelsea Market for intriguing nonfiction, and briefly the MoMA bookstore for photography volumes.

But I'll bet that in the few days he visited, Brian could see how for some of us,"you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave New York. No, sir, when a man is tired of New York, he is tired of life; for there is in New York all that life can afford."

I do believe I've lived in the place Dr. Johnson was referring to.

including our opinion of at least one controversial composer.

So are you going to name name(s), or leave us hanging?

Beethoven. Dude's so overrated.

Well, be that as it may, Brian was going to stay in our delightfully balmy city that Saturday night to meet Brewski and EigenUser to hear the NYP in Mahler 6; I might have joined them, except that I was already half-frozen by the time my matinee let out, and I didn't want to read reports in the next day's NY Times of four frost-bitten GMG posters found congealed under the arches of the Metropolitan Opera. But hopefully Brian is safely thawed out and back home where it is only 65 degrees, and that he found our day together as pleasant as I did.

Indeed! And in addition to Nate/EigenUser, who must be the GMGer who most physically resembles a football player, and Bruce, who took about 4 pages of notes during the Mahler, I got to quickly meet a couple of Nate's friends, who also joined him for the concert (and who could be entertaining GMG contributors...hint). One of them is the first 20-something farmer (!) I've ever met; I'll be writing to her after finishing this post. Both announced that, after the impressive tragic snarl of the last movement of Mahler's Sixth, they were going to an EDM rave.

Note to Bruce: your goal of making sure I experienced a NY taxi before departure was fulfilled, as I hailed a cab the next day to get to LaGuardia.

Note to Sforzando:

Scott Spires too, who I think now calls himself Archaic Torso of something or other, and Joe Barron.

Surely you can't be serious!

This poem is heavily featured in A.O. Scott's new book Better Living Through Criticism, which I read on the plane and is a very worthy essay in the purpose of critics in art history. Might, in fact, be a good subject for a GMG Book Club!

The list of GMGers I have met, chronologically, is now:
Greta/Isolde
Olivier/Papy Oli
Luke
Jeffrey/vandermolen
Colin/Dundonnell
Johan Herrenberg
(poco) Sforzando
Nate/EigenUser
Bruce Hodges
(not counting a friend of mine who joined a few years ago, posted like 10 times, then never became a regular)

[(poco) Sforzando]

(And I was going to PM you a thank-you note, but might as well do so publicly.)

Aw. You still can if you like . . .

We crammed in a truly incredible amount of stuff to our Met tour, aided by the tour guide's printed-out itinerary of essentials. I offered a quick summary to my parents last night in an email: "Washington crossing the Delaware, Monet water lilies, an ancient Egyptian temple, giant Polynesian sculptures, John Singer Sargent portraits, the historical musical instrument collection, iconic Van Gogh and Vermeer, the Roman sculpture hall..."

. . . the Chinese scholars' court with the goldfish pond, the wooden models of Egyptian daily life, the Breughel scene of harvesters eating and resting after work, the little Goya boy with his cats, Regnault's erotic scene of Salome gloating after the death of John the Baptist, the armor worn by Queen Elizabeth's tournament champion, the Islamic swords and scimitars, Bronzino's arrogant young nobleman, Greuze's "Broken Eggs" with the little kid, Lucas Cranach's heroic painting of St. Maurice as an African youth, Picasso's Gertrude Stein ("She doesn't look like that, Pablo." "She will."), the Renaissance studiolo all in trompe l'oeil 3D, Thomas Hart Benton's panorama of America Today, Carpeaux's statue of Ugolino about to devour his four sons, Big Bertha the Egyptian sarcophagus, the special exhibit on clocks, the little statue of the boy extracting a thorn, Caravaggio's homoerotic musicians, the pre-Columbian gold, the African power statue studded with nails, the two Pierre Cot paintings of the lovers, the Velasquez portrait of his personal slave, El Greco's Cardinal, the Indian Hindu gods, the little Madonna and Child by Duccio that the Met bought for $45 million (I wouldn't have paid that much) . . . .

Have I left anything out?

Beethoven. Dude's so overrated.

Yes, that must have been the composer.

Nate/EigenUser, who must be the GMGer who most physically resembles a football player. . .

A quarterback, not a fullback.

Note to Sforzando:Surely you can't be serious!

Am I ever?

[(poco) Sforzando]

It is now close to 50 degrees in the NY area, with one more Mahler 6 tonight.

Brian will have to come back.

[Brian]

Am I ever?

About art, you most certainly can be!

Reading that list I felt bowled over all over again, in an exhilarated kind of way. There is something irreplaceable about having all of these things as concrete, personal memories, rather than just ideas.

[Karl Henning]

Our estimable Bogey came to the recital I put on, and said some very kind things about my playing. 

I do recall!

[EigenUser]

And in addition to Nate/EigenUser, who must be the GMGer who most physically resembles a football player...

Unfortunately (if high school PE has taught me anything about myself) I am also probably the GMGer most likely to run away and duck from a football being passed to me.

...and Bruce, who took about 4 pages of notes during the Mahler...

When we see the Messiaen next month I will bring my copy of the score to help out .

A quarterback, not a fullback.

Is that better or worse?