Back to index of "this and that in my life" pages by Donald Sauter.
Dedicated to the proposition that every thought that's ever been thunk may be of interest to some tomfool . . .
Note that there is about a three-month gap between this and the previous batch. I lost lots of email in shakeups with my email providers during that time. Somehow or another, though, the world seems to keep turning . . .
ME: l o n g... letter about MSPAP
I was hoping to get a letter/article/editorial/opinion piece(?)
printed in the Gazette about MSPAP. It's something I feel very
strongly about. I know it's long, but I don't see how I could
make the same impact in a third of the space. Is there any
chance you could make an exception? If it absolutely can't be
printed in one shot, could it be printed in two or three parts?
Thanks for your consideration.
Donald Sauter.
MSPAP - enough is enough
The release of the 2001 MSPAP test scores have been held up
because of "unexpected increases and decreases" at various
schools (Gazette, Nov 8, 2001). The first thought that comes to
mind is: if the MSPAP people know in advance what the results
should be, why do they even bother with the test? That's a bit
flip, of course, but the recent problems and the hiring of
outside consultants to figure them out are further evidence, if
any is needed, that the MSPAP people themselves have no idea what
sort of monster they've created. I can only hope that the
repercussions from this latest debacle will put this limping dog
of a state-mandated test out of its misery. If we're really
lucky, they will send state level educrats packing (but, heaven
forbid, not up to the national level.)
It may take a while to vent my spleen, so if you already know how
insane the MSPAP is, feel free to jump in at the end for my
suggestions of what we can do to bring it down. Here goes. [See:
http://www.donaldsauter.com/maryland-mspap-test.htm ]
THEE: Re: thanks (to somebody)
Okay, Donald, so am I gonna have a heart attack & keel over right
here on the spot? Another e-mail so soon???? What's this world
comin' too, anyway?
>You'll never believe what I found in my mailbox yesterday!
"Ragtime", by Ed Berlin! I can't imagine who sent it. They
must've typed my address by accident (a million monkeys at a
million typewriters?), but if they think I'm gonna return it,
forget it.
Monkeys . . . typewriters . . . yeah, that must be it! But it's
really cool that they came up with an out-of-print book.
>It's already undergone a rebinding operation - into 2 volumes
actually. The 2nd booklet is all the footnotes so I can have
them laid out while I read the chapters.
Odd, but not a bad idea at that. Sure would be handier, but
imagine trying to sell books that way. Most people wouldn't
bother to buy the footnotes if they were sold separately.
Probably wouldn't even bother to pick 'em up if included for the
same price.
I've frequently included quiz items from footnotes, but only when
major substantive footnotes appearing on the page of text. Do
students get the answers right? Sure, they do . . . Seriously!
After about the second time losing points.
>Glad to see I wasn't the only one kinda confused about what
ragtime is, precisely.
No one seems to have a definitive answer . . . at least not one
people can agree on. Hself, for instance, refuses to include
anything that doesn't have "rag" in the title.
>When I'm done I'll let you know if Ed addressed my most burning
ragtime question.
If he doesn't, e-mail him and ask. He'd probably answer it, or
tell you that he doesn't have a clue. He'd like the story about
the monkeys and the typewriters, anyway. You'd definitely have
to include that one. Might even like the two volume story; at
least, it would let him know you're a serious reader . . . even
if the monkey story might have blown your rep. as a serious
person.
As for the book, some of it was much too deep for me; Ed advised
me to skim certain portions and skip others, though I don't think
I skipped anything. Just read and failed to understand. Other
chapters were easy, and, yes, even great fun. "The Ragtime
Debate" will provide some belly laughs!
On the whole, I suppose I got more wrapped up in the Joplin
biography. It reads almost like a mystery, full of problems to
solve, unexpected discoveries, research anecdotes. It's unusual
in the sense that it employs first person, not obtrusively, but
it's rare to see at all. I pointed that out, adding that it
seemed the right approach even though most scholars would
probably frown on it. The book would have lost much without the
story of the search. When it comes right down to it, so many
unanswered questions remain that a book confined to straight
facts, without the quest stories & the acknowledged speculation,
would be pretty slim.
I was already confronting somewhat similar problems even though I
was only a couple of months into my research. I looked for
Ragtime and failed to find it for several months, but the bio. I
found in a local bookstore. Later, Ragtime mysteriously arrived
in my mailbox. Darn, those monkeys are good, aren't they? Too
think that could happen twice! What are the odds? There's a
problem for you, huh? In my case, they even managed to inscribe
my book: "For Hself, a true child of ragtime, Christmas 1998."
They're either very bright monkeys, or the odds have just
skyrocketed.
ME: thoughts on GDFN [greater detroit freenet] crisis
I live in Maryland and surely won't make the GDFN survival
meeting but, for what they're worth, here are a few comments from
one GDFN user (who has no idea how typical he is.)
The only thing I use GDFN for is email. If GDFN were to pare its
functions back to only email, that would be perfectly ok with me.
I suggest a reasonable way to control disk space consumption is
to simply delete enough files, oldest first, in an overflowed
account to bring it back under the limit. (The thing that's
always scared me, though, is somebody sending huge images which
may exceed the limit in one email.)
I came to GDFN from the Cleveland Freenet when it terminated
itself. I had gotten used to the FreePort menu way of handling
email and USENET discussions. When Cleveland pulled the plug, I
had to find alternatives. I eventually found that, not only
could I live with Deja's (now Google's) newsgroup handling on the
web, I actually preferred it. Not so with email. Try as I
might, I could not get used to handling email on the web, as with
Yahoo! or Email.com. For one thing, saving emails is
tremendously easier using the freenet system. (I archive
everything that isn't junk mail.) In general, using a web-based
email system feels like slogging through knee-high quicksand.
[nb. I still feel that way. DS Jun 2012]
If GDFN ultimately can't be saved, would you please suggest to us
users another freenet which has the FreePort system, that would
welcome us? My life was thrown into turmoil when Cleveland went
down, and I dread going through that again.
Would it make sense for GDFN to talk with other freenets to see
how everybody else is doing? Might it make sense for GDFN to
pool resources with other freenets? Maybe that's absurd - just
talking off the top of my head here. Still, I'd be glad to pay
just for GDFN-type email handling. It seems to me one
organization or company could handle that for the whole world.
(I only ever see 2 or 3 people logged onto GDFN at one time.)
THEE: Re: thoughts on GDFN crisis
>The only thing I use GDFN for is email. If GDFN were to pare
its functions back to only email, that would be perfectly ok with
me. I suggest a reasonable way to control disk space consumption
is to simply delete enough files, oldest first, in an overflowed
account to bring it back under the limit. (The thing that's
always scared me, though, is somebody sending huge images which
may exceed the limit in one email.)
Presently with our current computer, what we need is a once a
week cleaning of all email, the same as the once a week cleaning
of all files in your work directory which is done automatically
by the system. That would clear some much needed disk space but
we have no one left on staff who knows how to write the UNIX
script to do it. Once we get a new computer, we can give members
much more disk space.
>If GDFN ultimately can't be saved, would you please suggest to
us users another freenet which has the FreePort system, that
would welcome us? My life was thrown into turmoil when Cleveland
went down, and I dread going through that again.
We will survive. What we need is a $25/year membership fee so we
have money for emergencies like the present one. This will be
voted on once we get a new computer to stop the system crashes.
ME: bloomin boooooks?
Music Man at the U of M Saturday night was a tour de force. The
entertainment started before the show because their computer had
sold 20 or so seats twice, including the ones directly in front
of us. Like overbooking a flight, I guess, but everybody showed
up. I would have gladly given up our seats for free tix to a
later performance, but my friend said no way.
There were some interesting things in the "latest" Beatlefan,
foremostly that Raymond Jones has apparently bounced back from
his banishment to the realms of fiction. This is the craziest
story ever...
Still on for the Brandeis book sale Sunday morning? I have
verified that Sunday is a bag day. I'm presuming the 9 am
opening time applies to Sunday, although I haven't seen that
stated explicitly.
THEE: Something's missing!
I just unpacked the bags to show Mary the loot and I found ONE
book that doesn't look like one I bought. It's:
Edward J. Dent, "Opera" (Pelican, 1940, 1968, 206 pp.)
It's safe here!
ME: re: must be fate! (was: something's missing)
Strange that you should end up with E. Dent's "Opera" - I kept
meaning to put it back. Dunno why I even picked it up since I
already have a copy. Happy reading! (By the way, remember the
strange case of trying to track down Dr. Johnson's "famous
definition of opera" referred to on page 27? The index doesn't
show an earlier reference, so where is it, where is it???)
Mom apologized for the ironing board in the living room (I didn't
even notice it.) She said she was ready to take it back down the
cellar just before getting ready for church when the phone ring.
Mom also asked if I found another old book for her. Whoops. She
really enjoyed the last one, a novel about some preacher in the
mountains, published in 1917. Anyhow, that one came from the
free book place in Baltimore [the book thing], which I can visit
any ol' time.
I've read about 40 of the kids' books I bought for the daughter
of a friend of mine who's in 2nd grade. [Don't have a heart
attack; you will see further down that the fractured grammar
was in jest.] One is autographed by the author. Favorite was
"The Man Who Lost His Head", which was once checked out by Don S.
[not me; just a coincidence] at Hebbville Elementary School.
Thanks again for joining me on the book/record jaunt.
ME: any students looking for a guitar?
Any of your students in the market for a new guitar? I just got
a Rawdon Hall cutaway - the first and only in this country - but
I'm not satisfied with it. I figured before sending it back next
week, I'd make one little shot at seeing if anyone in the area
wanted it. It's $925, including case. Rawdon Halls get glowing
endorsements from Ben Verdery, Robert Trent, etc. in the
Soundboard ad, which is what caught my attention.
ME: cutaway arrived...
The guitar arrived in perfect condition yesterday (Tuesday). I
apologize, but I can already tell it's not "me". The cutaway
feature is great - now I know for sure that's a requirement on my
next guitar. But, otherwise, it's not quite as playable as my
beat-up, $100, 40-year-old Guild classic, and my next guitar has
to be better in every way. Sorry to be so picky, and for getting
up my hopes that it might be comparable to $4 and $5 thousand
guitars (not all of which I see as all-around improvements on my
own.)
I really appreciate you giving me first shot at it. That was a
major drawing card, since one of my hang-ups in shopping for a
new guitar is a resigned belief that guitar stores or brochures
just offer the "leftovers". Guitarists have a gene for grabbing
up new guitars to try them out, and it's hard for me to imagine
any really good ones not getting snapped up even before making it
to a shop.
THEE: Re: any students looking for a guitar?
<< Any of your students in the market for a new guitar? I just
got a Rawdon Hall cutaway - the first and only in this country -
but I'm not satisfied with it.
I have been dissappointed in these as well... especially after
Hself gave it such glowing reviews. I don't think it has much to
offer. Sorry.
THEE: Re: Comin' home
Naturally, I am disappointed that this guitar wasn't "you." I
suppose I always knew the day would come when a Rawdon Hall
guitar would be returned, and you have achieved that honor. Oh,
well. I am actually grateful that you didn't wait until the very
end of the 7-day trial period...
THEE: Re: orlando furioso
It it good to hear from you again after such a long period. I
hope you are doing fine. Thanks for all the background
information. Operas are my blind spot i have to admit. But can i
mention a title of the piece where the folia is sung Act 3 Scene
4 (i mean 2,5 cm from the end of the record is hardly scientific)
and the place and date, and duration of the track to keep things
in span with the other Folia-listings?
THEE: Famous firsts
Thanks for a great evening. Hmm, what did we do? I saw my
oldest bootleg and I heard the first rap song. Not bad work for
a couple of hours.
It was also a famous first: It was the first time I listened to
an album of the week that was so bad that I actually just forgot
about it and left it behind. I'm sorry to stain your house with
its presence. If you want, just throw it in the box under the
table. Alternatively, if you're getting tired of that thing you
stick at the foot of the door to keep drafts out, you're welcome
to use that record to block the gap.
ME: earth school
Thanks a million for letting me show off all my dumb junk to you
- makes it all twice as valuable! Yep I discovered Polly And Pop
soon after you left and chased you all the way to Silver Spring
before I gave up. (Not really.) I will make use of at least 3
or 4 cuts on it. I'd put it up near the top o' the album of the
day heap, myself. I've already played Kitty Brazelton's "All The
Freebies" cd about 1.5 times. It was great the first time and
getting better. I can't figure why they stopped Yin And Yang
after only 3:30. Still hit or miss regarding whether it will
crank up or not. Went online this morning to see what USPS would
charge for sending the guitar. It looks like the combined
dimensions of the box put it about 1" into the "Oversized
package" class - which would run $38.94 (not including
insurance). An inch less would get it down to about $15 ($20.80
with insurance.) Guess I'll make the trek back to Fedex with a
pocketful o' nickels.
The Detroit Freenet has been having some problems for a while
now, but it looks like they have some new equipment and a plan to
make it something really outstanding. This is great news for me
- I was afraid they were going belly up.
THEE: I read the news today, oh boy ...
Hello There!
Thinking about u today, and remembering John, and i was looking
for something online, couldn't find it but i found this. This
story broke in the summer, but i missed it, and happily i
discovered it today. Maybe u already know, maybe u don't. But
this is so fitting, i'm glad it's finally being done, and i am
happy to be hearing about this today.
So here it is; i hope u enjoy.
The thing i was looking for was the BBC "Tribute to John Lennon"
interview, the very long one done by Andy Peebles on Dec. 6.
1980. I have it on homemade audio tape, which was very poor to
begin with, and gets poorer over time. I wish the BBC would put
out a clean copy of it.
I wonder if maybe they have? At one point in the interview,
Peebles mentions something about being able to see John's face.
Was the interview filmed? That i've never seen.
Friday, 29 June, 2001, 19:03 GMT 20:03 UK
Airport renamed after John Lennon The move is a "lasting tribute"
to John Lennon
Liverpool is to honour one of its greatest sons by renaming the
city's airport after the musician John Lennon.
It will be called Liverpool John Lennon Airport when a new
terminal opens in the spring.
This is the first time an airport in the UK will have been named
after a famous person. ...
ME: on it's way
The guitar is (finally) on it's way back. I won't go into all
the trouble I had, first with the pain-in-the-neck jerks at UPS,
and then a snag at a FedEx office. (They wouldn't accept cash.)
So I finally got it off at another FedEx office yesterday
(Tuesday).
Rest assured it is packed every bit as well as the way it came,
with some extra packing, even. You should get it in a day or
two.
ME: orlando info
Here are some brief answers to your questions about "Orlando
Furioso".
Composer: Antonio Vivaldi. Opera: "Orlando Furioso" (actually
called "Orlando" by the composer.) Place: Venice.
La Folia is heard in Act 3, Scene 4, at the end of Orlando's
recitative beginning "All'invito gentil che Amor le fa Madame la
Crudelta".
La Folia timing: 4.81 seconds.
========================================================================
Here's the first message, in case there's anything useful in
there:
I am writing to confirm the claim that a snippet of La Folia is
used in Vivaldi's 1727 opera "Orlando Furioso".
I have the performance recorded on the Musical Heritage Society
lp set, MHS 3918/19/20. Orlando is sung by Marilyn Horne. Music
is by I Solisti Veneti, directed by Claudio Scimone (who revised
and edited the opera down from the original 5 or 6 hours.)
Vivaldi actually titled the opera "Orlando". "Orlando Furioso"
was the name of an earlier opera with music by G. A. Ristori and
a libretto by Grazio Braccioli. Vivaldi made modifications to
that opera in 1714, and in 1727 wrote completely new music to
Braccioli's libretto, which is why Scimone calls it "Orlando
Furioso".
In Act 3, Scene 4, Orlando says this in his madness:
All'invito gentil che Amor le fa / To the kind invitation which love gave
Madame la Crudelta / Madame Cruelty
Con guardo torvo e minaccioso aspetto / With sullen glance and threatening look,
Disse "Petit fripon; je ne veux pas!" / Said: "Petit fripon; je ne veux pas!"
Ed il rigor, presa belta pre mano / And Monsieur Severity, taking my beauty by the hand,
Lascio con passo grave e ciera brutta / With solemn steps and an ugly face,
Il mio povero amore e bocca asciutta. / Left my poor love with a dry mouth.
Deh, appaghi ella il mio amor meco danzando / Ah, this woman here may satisfy my love by dancing with me.
Danziam, Signora, la follia d'Orlando. / Let us dance, madam, the folly of Orlando.
Suonate! suonate! / Play ! Play!
La la la la la la (in atto di danzare) / La la la la la la (dancing)
The last lines are directed to the sorceress Alcina. The 6 "la"s
are sung to the Folia tune, just making it into the 3rd measure.
This snippet can be found about .9 inch (2.3 cm) from the end of
side 5. English translation is by Edward Houghton.
THEE: Subject: Hello
Are you THE Donald Sauter? (actually you are - I somehow found
your webpage and wanted to say Hi)
I am an old acquaintance. I also attended Johnnycake Junior High
and Woodlawn Senior High. I was in your sister's class. Trying
to relearn guitar after not having played for a while.
I am not much of an emailer.
THEE: D. Aguado Study #1
Your web site devoted to Dionisio Aguado was very informative. I
am a beginning classical guitartist and have just been given the
Aguado Study #1 to practice. I have not been able to find any
recordings of this piece, and in fact have found very few of
Aguado's compositions on C.D. Do you know of a source to find a
recording of Aguado Study #1?
ME: Nice to hear from you! Kind of coincidental, in that our
family just had a real nice visit from Hself not so many weeks
ago (I lose track). She hasn't been home in years. Any chance
you've been in touch with her lately?
She moved to Florida some years ago (like I say, I lose track!)
after spending many years in San Francisco. It was too cold
there.
You ask:
Are you THE Donald Sauter?
Nope, just *a* Donald Sauter, a guy with a few thoughts on
this and that - like all the other ones. (I live in Lanham in
Prince George's County, and there are, or were, at least 2
"donald sauter"s in the PG phone book.)
After all these years I am still in awe of people, like you, who
can pick up a guitar and just start *playing*. I'm still locked
into black dots on a page - but, fortunately, there have been
lots of people to write lots of black dots of guitar music over
the centuries to keep me busy and more or less happy. If you
detect a hint of disappointment in there, it's just that I've
always wished there were more classical guitarists, and classical
musicians in general, who like to play for the pure fun of it.
Hey, send me your address and I'll send you a couple of recent
newsletters of the Washington Guitar Society. You can see the
nutty sorts of things I write trying to drum up enthusiasm.
ME: Subject: (email's back)
(Only thing that jumps to mind since writing the email below is
that I read and enjoyed tremendously James Thurber's "The
Thirteen Clocks".)
I went down LC yesterday (Monday, Dec 10) for the first time
since summer, and had some good successes. One reason I chose
yesterday was because there was a noon-time lecture by Todd
Harvey, who just published a book about the origins of 70 of Bob
Dylan's earliest songs. It was a great talk. I mean, I'm a
long-time Dylan fan, but everybody there seemed to dig it, too.
One of his examples was Dylan's "Restless Farewell", which Dylan
took from the Clancy Brothers' "Parting Glass." I had stumbled
on that one myself a few years ago, leading me to believe I was
some sort of master musicologist!
I also checked out and photocopied a few missing pages from one
of my recent bag-day treasures - "A Treasury of Grand Opera" by
Henry W. Simon (1946). It took 2 slips since the first one
brought up the 1965 second edition. That was my mistake, but it
was interesting to note the differences. The later edition has
an extra 100 pages devoted to 2 operas left out of the first
edition - strictly for reasons of conserving paper for the war
effort.
I also fired up some microfilm in the newspaper and periodical
room, but just as I was getting up nerve to punch the print
button (25 cents was at stake), an alarm (fire alarm? bomb
threat?) sent us all outside. No matter - we were eventually
allowed back in; I hit the button; and out came a copy of notices
about Emory & Co.'s lottery, Mary Ann Parry's death at 46, and
Christopher and Ann's wedding.
I've been on the go lately, culture-wise. The new performing
arts center at the U. of Maryland is really something. When they
were constructing it, I was thinking, what's the big deal? A
building's a building. The old concert and recital halls were
fine with me. But their idea was far bigger than just a
building; they were shooting for one of the leading performing
arts programs on the east coast, and they might have succeeded.
Last Sunday I saw a really nice chamber ensemble program of Peter
And The Wolf, and Leopold Mozart's Toy Symphony (with the
daughter of a friend of mine who's in 2nd grade, plus the friend,
herself.) On Tuesday was an honors chamber recital. On
Wednesday was Le Nozze di Figaro. The opera theater has a
turntable floor. My seat was in the center of the 3rd row.
All in Italian, no surtitles, but I was in heaven! Saturday
evening was a "reading" of a new opera called "Pope Joan" -
"reading" in quotes because the performance was almost fully
acted. However, the only stage props were white hankies
draped from the music stands signifiying the scenes in heaven.
Sunday afternoon was the world-renowned Salzburg Marionettes
doing the Nutcracker. The schedule of events had said this was
supposed to be highlights of Die Fledermaus *and* the Nutcracker.
I was really disappointed when I saw in the program that it was
the Nutcracker only. I had pulled out all my Fledermaus records
and write-ups to prepare myself, of course. Before the show
began, I went to the box office to let them know I was
disappointed. They were completely sympathetic. The lady
herself said it was "news to me" after she confirmed the
peformance was, in fact, to be the Nutcracker only. So they gave
me 2 complimentary tickets (70 bucks worth) to that evening's
show - which was the *complete* Fledermaus. Even though by that
point I was starting to run down a little, I gladly hauled myself
back again. One of the tix went to waste, but that show wasn't a
complete sellout anyway. My big disappointment was not being
able to get the autograph of Gretl Aicher, the director of the
Salzburg Marionettes. At one of my recent booksale bag days, I
got a real neat, old book (Salzburg, 1956) about the Salzburg
Marionettes. Gretl is the granddaughter of the man who created
them in 1913. The book has a picture of her (late 20s?) with her
family and father, who was the director when the book was
published.
Keep in mind that each of these shows I've mentioned may have
been scheduled at the same time as 2 or 3 other shows at the
center! I think there are 5 main halls and theaters. To give
you an idea of how eager and determined they are to make sure
everybody's happy, listen to what happened to me and my friend
Hself. A few weeks ago, we tried to make it to an open rehearsal
of the Guarnieri string quartet, which we have done often over
the years. But the traffic was horrendous because of one or two
sporting events at the university. So we finally got there 20
minutes late, only to find that the rehearsal was over. They had
rescheduled it for 2 hours earlier because of the games. Fair
enough; nothing to get upset about. BUT... they had somebody
there to apologize profusely, AND offer free tickets to the
Guarnieri's real concert next year. All that for people who
missed a free event! And not only that, they were happy to
accommodate those, like Hself, who wouldn't be able to make it to
the Guarnieri concert, on a Friday night. So Hself got a Tuesday
ticket to Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea - which
coincidentally, I already had a ticket to.
I came across a sand dance mention in O. Henry's "The Defeat of
the City": "He [Robert] turned handsprings on the grass that
prodded [brother] Tom to envious sarcasm. And then, with a
whoop, he clattered to the rear and brought back Uncle Ike, a
battered colored retainer of the family, with his banjo, and
strewed sand on the porch and danced "Chicken in the Bread Tray"
and did buck-and-wing wonders for half an hour longer."
The local paper couldn't print my MSPAP rant for space reasons,
which disappointed me. Anyhow, I put it up on the web at ...
It just occurred to me to ask, do you know anything about
writing? If so, here's the deal: the next 2 dollars worth of LC
photocopying is on me if you can make the same points with the
same forcefulness in one third of the space. Sound easy enough?
Feel free to work in your Bill Gates joke, if it doesn't put us
over the limit. (Just kidding, of course. Don't waste any of
your time on this.)
Right now I am back in email heck. I thought fer sure that I
could trust my freenet again, but their disk filled up again just
like that, and I can't see my mail for the time being. (So far
they have been pretty good about not actually losing anything.)
I might try turning off mail forwarding and just access mail from
email.com, although that has driven me crazy in the past.
>especially doesn't matter that I consistently get great
evaluations from my students,
I guess they don't even ask 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders. I bumped
into one of my former students in a store last month and he said
all of the kids have been asking, "Where's Mr. Saw... saw...
sawster???" And he's not the sort who would just say something
like that. I've left behind little friends at 3 schools now, boo
hoo hoo.
>>You wouldn't believe how annoying and horrible the line breaks
look in your emails on yahoo.
>Yours are no picnic here, either. Sometimes I see all of one
word on a line . . . and the word is "a" at that!
Some of your lines are nuttin' but a space - so there!
>>About 40 of the books were kids' books for the daughter of a
friend of mine who's in 2nd grade.
>A young friend to have a daughter. ;-) Here I thought Oklahoma
was second only to Arkansas in young mothers, but maybe
Maryland's got us whooped.
I assure you, it is absolutely impossible that I wrote that
sentence! It was either sabotaged, or an internet data packet got
out of order on the way to grbonline.com - I swear! (You gotta
believe me!)
>>Most enjoyable for me is one called "New Orleans Ragtime
Orchestra".
>Don't think I know the group. There's a New Leviathan Ragtime
Orchestra that I know of from Nawl'ans, but on an LP, gosh, these
folks may be rotting away in the swamps or bayous by now . . .
or, perhaps, gator bait.
The album dates from 1971. In fact, the NORO violin player was
only 66, the trumpeter only 60 and the drummer only 55. No
reason they couldn't still be kickin'...
>He [David Reffkin] now has a credit card...
I've actually been trying to get one lately. Of course, I can't,
because I've never been in debt (which would seem to make me the
best credit risk, no?) I've begged, but nobody wants to look at
my last 20 years of utility bills paid on time.
>>A couple of the non-music books were Modern Library editions:
"Great Modern Short Stories" (ca. 1940) and "The Best Short
Stories Of O. Henry". I'm getting a kick out of the O. Henry -
still chuckling over "From The Cabby's Seat".
Other faves: "Roads of Destiny", "A Retrieved Reformation", "The
Renaissance At Charleroi", "The Duplicity of Hargraves" (the most
guessable ending, but a wonderful story), and "A Blackjack
Bargainer" (sad).
>Gonna be a quiet Thanksgiving--just the three of us.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, O. Henry's "The Thanksgiving Day
Gentleman" is another good one. Not action-packed, but thought-
provoking - all about tradition. You'll never guess the ending.
THEE: Signing guestbook...
Donald: ...just huge! I will need more time to delve into it.
Looks so interesting though; will get back with you... Really
enjoy the sections on Spanish Baroque, especially Sanz and
Mudarra. My love is the guitar and my hope is to play it well;
thanks for helping in that regard. Best wishes.
THEE: What an amazing resource!
What an amazing resource!
I found your page after looking for sources of public domain
guitar pieces. I'm sorry but I haven't really read all of your
page properly yet, but I suppose there's no way to actually find
hard copy of all these pieces [all in one place] is there?
THEE: I enjoyed reading your monopoly page. I think I can help
you with some of your frustrations about the game. I read your
article about fixing the rules. I want you to know that they are
already fixed.
First, If A lands on B's property and C slams down the dice, B
can still collect rent. You better read the rules again because
they allow B to collect anytime before D rolls the dice.
Second, I have been involved in a number of regional, national
and international Monopoly events. In official tournament play,
a player who owes more money than he can pay is allowed to
negotiate any deal he can to raise money to pay his debt to avoid
bankruptcy. The only caveat is that what ever deals he makes must
result in raising the money to fully pay the debt or else all
deals are off and he goes bankrupt. Your proposed house rule 2,
while well meaning, is a misguided attempt to improve the world's
most perfect game. Your rule would remove a significant amount of
strategy from the game.
Third, while players can initiate and negotiate deals whenever
they want, the other players do not have to pause the game during
negotiations. in fact, the tournament judge will instruct you to
continue to roll the dice and will not allow the game to pause
for negotiation. I often make a point of moving the game along to
disrupt negotiations because I believe any deal that does not
involve me can only do me harm.
Please accept these few game tips which I hope you will find
useful.
THEE: Kaufmann Index
You asked, in your report on Helen Kaufmann's Little Book of
Music Anecdotes, for anyone who made use of the appended name
index, to let you know. Well, I have!
Your review interested me so much that I did indeed purchase a
second-hand copy, and my one displeasure with the little book was
that it had no index. Then, looking through my files today I
came across your review which I had printed out and, lo and
behold, there was the index.
Thank you for this! Oh, by the way - you must be younger than
some of us (and luckier, too) if you have not heard, "Tonight We
Love," sung to a tune in Tchaikovsky's B flat Minor Piano
Concerto. I'm sure you've been told this by now.
Thanks again for the index!
THEE:
>Only thing that jumps to mind since writing the email below is
that I read and enjoyed tremendously James Thurber's "The
Thirteen Clocks".
Oooooh . . . Loved that one when I read it years ago. Here's
another fun one in case you don't know it, Ellis Parker Butler's
"Pigs is Pigs"--guaranteed to set you howling:
http://www.bookrags.com/books/pgpgs/PART1.htm
Despite the site address, it's in one part.
>I also fired up some microfilm in the newspaper and periodical
room, but just as I was getting up nerve to punch the print
button (25 cents was at stake), an alarm (fire alarm? bomb
threat?) sent us all outside. No matter - we were eventually
allowed back in; I hit the button; and out came a copy of notices
about Emory & Co.'s lottery, Mary Ann Parry's death at 46, and
Christopher and Ann's wedding.
And here I thought you sent that page for ICELAND MOSS COUGH
CANDY.
>Oh yeah, I also called up 24 Witmark Collections of Male, Female
and Mixed Quartettes, containing about 40 arrangements by WC.
These include WFACG, WTRSF, TH, MD, TR, TSMMUTS, ALATWRO, and the
ever-popular THH, among others.
How on earth could you have ignored TYLBO????
>I didn't do any copying. I don't think I'm up-to-date on your
vocal ensemble collection. Let me know how to proceed. Your
suspicion that 10 volumes of Male Qtets preceded No. 11 was spot
on.
I'm no math wizard, but . . .
Nonetheless, I'm a little puzzled since the column I have is 12.
>There were also Nos. 12 to 16 following it (where all the
goodies are, except none in No. 16.) Not surprisingly, No. 11
itself was missing.
As for the copies you found, copy 'em. Not No. 12, of course,
but of the others, I have only one title--the ever-popular THH
;-) from Female qtets No. 7. You noted a duplication of ALATWRO,
but looks like ED, TH, and SLY,D also repeat. Or are they
variant arrangements? Anyhow, go ahead and copy 'em next time
you go in to the LC.
Last weekend, we attended a performance of Oliver, done mainly by
Tulsa's Theatre Arts School, always excellent productions with 1-
2 stars brought in from outside to enhance the cast. Fagin was
played by Jamie Farr of MASH fame. Ne delivered an outstanding
performance without once having to dress in drag. Not exactly
"Culture,! " but fun.
>To give you an idea of how eager and determined they are to make
sure everybody's happy, listen to what happened to me and my
friend . . .
What a deal! Here's my free ticket story, a frustrating one that
doesn't compare. Yesterday, we went to the new Meg Ryan film,
"Kate and Leopold," a fun story. She's a rather tough, jaded
career gal who meets a Duke from the 19th century brought back
through a "portal" in time by her ex-boyfriend, who's been trying
to build a time machine. Yeah, I know; it sounds idiotic, but
it's quite charming really. Won't go into the details. Near the
end, Leopold is returned to his past (present???) where he'll
have to make a decision whom he'll marry. He's a poor noble, who
has been sent to Old New York to pick a wealthy American bride,
his only chance of living well. Although the announcement of her
new vice presidency in an advertising agency is just being made
that night (at a party in the old home where Leopold's uncle once
lived and where Leo (upon his return) is to choose his bride at
another party), Ryan's character opts to follow Leo into the
past. (To do so, she has to leap from the Brooklyn Bridge
before the portal closes since it won't open for another 20
years. Although the ending was more or less obvious, some loose
ends remained to be tied up. Then, suddenly, the film stopped .
. . and the trivia shown before the film came back on. Clearly,
there was some flub. Several people walked out, but most
remained in the theatre, trusting that the technical difficulty
would be resolved. A few minutes later, a theatre employee came
in, saying that a projectionist would get the film going again.
We waited another 5 minutes or so. The lights dimmed, and we
were hopeful. The film started again . . . the music . . . and
the credits. The end of the film was never shown! Most people
exited to the parking lot just to the end of the hall from the
theatre entrance. (This was a place with 20 theatres.) We went
to the main ticket counter in the central lobby, where a few
other people had lined up, but only 4-5 of them, surprisingly.
The manager wasn't very pleasant about the whole thing. "We don't
know how much was cut off," he insisted. "What difference does
it make?" I wondered. Even if it was 20 seconds, it was an
important 20 seconds. in the end, he gave us free passes for the
next time we visit the theatre. Guess we'll try to find out the
ending of this one and use the passes for another film. On the
way home we theorized about the ending. Clearly, Kate and
Leopold would end up together. After all, it's a romantic
comedy. But if so, they'd have no income. She'd given up her
promotion. All may not have been lost, though. He was an
amateur inventor, who'd created a model elevator among other
things. We envisioned a invented a scene in the present, where
the brother and former boyfriend returned to the apartment
building where they all had lived. (There'd been some elevator
problems.) A new elevator was being installed. It was no longer
an Otis Elevator, but a Leopold Elevator or a Montbatten
Elevator. Kate would have been in a position to market his
invention. It'll be interesting to see if we were close.
>I came across a sand dance mention in O. Henry's "The Defeat of
the City" . . .
This is nice. Will save it with my "Sand-Dance" materials and
music. Maybe someday it'll have a use, and readers will marvel
at my knowledge! Actually, I have some terrific literature
examples to go in my discussion of African-American hoodoo magic
as portrayed in Treemonisha. Part of what I'm trying to do is put
the opera in its artistic context, and I've found literature,
popular songs, and theatre filled with hoodoo, though treated
differently than Joplin's handling. Much of this I found, or at
least began finding, thanks to the Internet. A Southern
literature e-text site at Univ. of VA has a search engine that
allows one to enter keywords and search the full site for that
word. Picking several appropriate words, I was lead to numerous
novels and short stories that I'd never have found on my own.
Great stuff, too!
>Right now I am back in email heck. . . .
I had trouble with email.com, too. Try yahoo.com or hotmail.com.
Both are easy to use. Hotmail automatically scans all
attachments for viruses before opening them, a nice feature.
Both also have junk mail detectors that will sort out most
incoming spam mail rather than put it into your regular inbox. I
get more of that on hotmail than on yahoo. Heaven knows where it
comes from, but one can readily tell from many of the subject
lines that it's nothing one wants to read . . . or see.
>Please don't write up your student strangulation stories just
for my reading pleasure, but if and when you do, put me on the
mailing list.
Time off work is gradually calming me . . . but perhaps I'll get
to them yet.
>>>You wouldn't believe how annoying and horrible the line breaks
look in your emails on yahoo.
>>Yours are no picnic here, either. Sometimes I see all of one
word on a line . . . and the word is "a" at that!
>Some of your lines are nuttin' but a space - so there!
Okay, you win . . .
>>>About 40 of the books were kids' books for the daughter of a
friend of mine who's in 2nd grade.
>>A young friend to have a daughter. ;-) Here I thought
Oklahoma was second only to Arkansas in young mothers, but maybe
Maryland's got us whooped.
>I assure you, it is absolutely impossible that I wrote that
sentence! It was either sabotaged, or an internet data packet got
out of order on the way to grbonline.com - I swear! (You gotta
believe me!)
Then it happened twice:
>"Last Sunday I saw a really nice chamber ensemble program of
Peter And The Wolf, and Leopold Mozart's Toy Symphony (with the
daughter of a friend of mine who's in 2nd grade...
>The album dates from 1971. In fact, the NORO violin player was
only 66, the trumpeter only 60 and the drummer only 55. No
reason they couldn't still be kickin'...
. . . and bowin', and tootin', and beatin' . . .
>>He [David Reffkin] now has a credit card...
>I've actually been trying to get one lately. Of course, I
can't, because I've never been in debt (which would seem to make
me the best credit risk, no?) I've begged, but nobody wants to
look at my last 20 years of utility bills paid on time.
Strange how that works, huh? Yet by the time they were
graduating from high school our daughters were getting piles of
junk mail and incessant phone calls offering them credit cards.
Both got them easily without any income other than summer jobs.
Granted, the credit limit is low, but, like us, they never use
the cards for anything they can't pay off the next billing
period. Over the years, our limit went up much too high. Not
that we increased our spending proportionately, but we've been
victims (temporarily) of credit card fraud a couple of times
recently. In one case, someone on the East Coast used our card
number to buy a car! I can't believe that anyone would accept
such a transaction. Anyway, in the couple of cases something
like this has happened to us and in the one that it happened to
our older daughter (someone spent about $1200 in a day from her
checking account with her check card number), we've not ended up
losing a cent in the long run. As a result, though, we
contacted VISA and had our credit limit dramatically reduced.
They thought we were nuts, I think, but what would we need with a
credit limit that could buy someone a new Lexus? Seems these
card companies must hope that people will spend and spend up to
their limits and then have to pay interest for life. But only
some people are that dumb. I think we had to pay a couple bucks
interest once when somehow we accidently overlooked paying a bill
one time.
>Your discoveries still amaze me. Did you read the book simply
because you had finished "Ragtime" and figured you had another 20
minutes to kill?
No. A couple years ago, Doctorow spoke at the Tulsa Public
Library on a Saturday morning. he'd received a substantial--as
in about $20,000--literary award given annually by a local
millionaire through the library. Of course, I attended the
lecture. Knowing that he'd sign books after the lecture, I took
my first edition of Ragtime. Hself had mentioned being
jealous that I was getting to attend, so when I was browsing the
paperbacks on sale while standing in line to get my book signed,
I noticed "World's Fair," the story of very young Jewish boy in
NY in the late 1930s. It was a long line, so I read a bit of it
and got hooked. We'd been told Doctorow would sign two books per
person, so I bought that one for Hself and got it inscribed for
him. Then I picked up a copy at the library, and we read it at
the same time and had fun talking about it. He found the
experiences astonishingly like his own, including the kid's
description of visiting a sick Jewish relative in a Catholic
hospital with a crucifix on the wall.
>Great job on the Billee Taylor discovery!
Did I mention Rodney Sauer's silent film find related to Irenee
Berge, a film composer. It's a similar story, with Irenee
showing up in books and on a website as female. Rodney tracked
down his marriage license!
ME: Congratulations on rigging up your own baroque guitar. I had
plenty of fun with mine, even though it's not perfect. But even
a real baroque guitar wouldn't be "perfect", for a lot of
reasons.
Thanks a million for catching the problems with my Carre
tablature pages. No, no one else ever informed me, which
disappoints me since it means that, after all this time, no one
can possibly have made use of the "big suite" for 3 guitars.
I've re-uploaded the problem files now. I don't know whether the
problem is with the browser or with geocities, but I have noticed
on other occasions that things get mixed up when I upload several
files at once. So now I just upload files one at a time.
ME: big bang reply
You wrote so long ago you probably hardly remember me. I've had
major email problems for months, and I get so behind, I can
hardly face it.
In any case, I appreciate your interest my big bang thoughts.
You asked if I knew of any pages that would explain on a 9th
grade level what's wrong with the big bang theory. I know it's
too late now anyhow, but I wanted to respond. No, I haven't
sought out any such pages, but my suggested approach would be to
look for pages that *do* describe the big bang theory
convincingly on a 9th grade level. If nobody can do that (and I
don't believe anyone can, of course) I would think that would
have to be interpreted as a strong argument against the theory.
What value does a theory have if even its proponents can't
explain it in a way that it fits in with, never mind derives
from, what we know from experience to be true?
ME: happy new year
Sorry about the rapid-fire response. Don't have a cow. One of
the big reasons I can hardly face email is that I've almost
completely lost control of it. I've mentioned I can't get into
yahoo anymore; well, email.com has done me dirty. They have
revoked mail forwarding as part of their free service. I had
figured to use the email.com address for as long as they stay in
business, just changing the forwarding when need be. If that's
not bad enough, they code their HTML in such a complicated way
that I can't even access the unforwarded mail from home. The
upshot is that I can only see mail in email.com or yahoo on other
computers, like at the library. And even there, I can't download
it electronically. The best I can to is manually forward it to
the freenet address, which is a bigger pain in the neck than it
sounds like, plus I lose track of what's where, what's been
responded to, etc. I need to spend a whole day bringing things
under control. What it may shake down to is having the world
switch over to donaldsauter@yahoo.com and have yahoo forward
messages to whichever convenient final destination I'm using.
Right now, nothing will be lost no matter where you send it, but
I suggest:
iz710@detroit.freenet.org
Whew, the number of bytes people burn up explaining their ever-
changing email situations!
Great news! I started working at the school again today (Jan 2).
I had gotten a call from the principal a few days before
Christmas. This time around I'm working with 5th graders. There
are 2 classes of regular ed 5th grade I'll divide my time
between. Things went very nicely the first day in Ms. M_'s
class, and I have no reason to expect different in Ms. S_'s
class. Ms. M_ is new this year; I already know Ms. S_, and
she'll take all the help she can get. About half of the 38 5th
graders, including 6 special ed, have IEPs (individualized
education programs - I don't know if that's universal jargon.)
In other words, it's a 5th grade that is very far behind. What
happens at a school like this is that the higher grades get
weaker and weaker because, with each year, it's more likely a
parent will pull a good student out of the school, since there
are so many problem students. You can see it's a vicious cycle.
Just today, the first day back after the holidays, Ms. Mitchell's
best student was absent. A classmate informed Ms. Mitchell he's
not coming back. In any case, Ms. Mitchell's class was quite
well-behaved, and I had a great time. Lots of warm reunions with
staff and kids from last year...
>"Floating Ancillary Ants" sounds intriguing, and I'd love copies
of these recordings, if possible someday!
I'll definitely keep you in mind. I have a few other ideas of
recordings for you, too. Nothing listenable, mind you...
>>Only thing that jumps to mind since writing the email below is
that I read and enjoyed tremendously James Thurber's "The
Thirteen Clocks".)
Nuts! Here I'm the one who always objects to spelled out numbers
- and I see that Thurber actually titled it "The 13 Clocks".
Good for him! By the way, even though I enjoyed it tremendously
on the first go through, I didn't get the punchline until the 2nd
reading. Hey, I never said I wasn't a dummy...
>Last weekend, we attended a performance of Oliver, done mainly
by Tulsa's Theatre Arts School, always excellent productions with
1-2 stars brought in from outside to enhance the cast.
When the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan in Feb 1964, there was
an excerpt from Oliver, with a young Davy Jones - soon to be of
the Monkees - as Oliver.
Your "Kate And Leopold" ending sounds like a good guess - very
Twilight Zone-y.
>>>Also, I finally got myself started on writing a scathing
letter to a local paper in an effort to destroy that insane MSPAP
test I've talked about. . . . the next 2 dollars worth of LC
photocopying is on me if you can make the same points with the
same forcefulness in one third of the space . . .
>Sounds like fun, actually, and I like challenges, but right now
I'm swamped. Will take a look at it though, and see if I'm
inspired. Don't hold your breathe though.
Again, I was jokin'. I try not to ask for $250 worth of work for
2 bucks worth of photocopies, plus, I would hope that I'm not so
wasteful with words that 2/3 can be hacked off without losing
anything!
>>Some of your lines are nuttin' but a space - so there!
>Okay, you win . . .
Not necessarily. Your last email got through without any email
reader adding line breaks (in other words, your paragraphs were
all on 1 line) - so I had to do all that formatting manually.
>>I assure you, it is absolutely impossible that I wrote that
sentence! It was either sabotaged, or an internet data packet got
out of order on the way to grbonline.com - I swear! (You gotta
believe me!)
>Then it happened twice:
>>"Last Sunday I saw a really nice chamber ensemble program of
Peter And The Wolf, and Leopold Mozart's Toy Symphony (with the
daughter of a friend of mine who's in 2nd grade, plus the friend,
herself.)
Man, it's gettin' rough being a comedian. I planted the first
one to get you primed with a big ol' smile, so that when I hit you
with the follow-up, desperate denial, you would be rolling on the
floor, chokin' for breath. It ain't the same when you have to
explain 'em... Anyhow, thanks (I think) for noting one of the
all-time great misplaced modifiers.
>but we've been victims (temporarily) of credit card fraud a
couple of times recently. In one case, someone on the East Coast
used our card number to buy a car!
Whew! No wonder everywhere I go I'm heard muttering, "Back to
cash, gosh darnit!"
THEE: Re: orlando furioso
I know it is very late but the December-days were awefully busy.
Thanks once more for all the details I have tried to list it as
accurate as possible in the pages. It is much appreciated. I like
it a lot because it is not an obvious Folia, yet very much in the
spirit of the Folia.
>I am writing to confirm the claim that a snippet of La Folia is
used in Vivaldi's 1727 opera "Orlando Furioso".
ME: Kaufmann index
A very belated and a very big thanks for your note about Helen
Kaufmann's Little Book of Music Anecdotes. I had wanted to
reply, but thought I had accidentally clobbered your message with
a bunch of others. Well today I found a copy I had forwarded to
another account! It thrills me to pieces that a) you were
inspired to find a copy of the book and b) you felt a need for
the index I made. Also, thanks for answering *my* question about
Tchaikovsky's pop hit. You were the first one. I will be on the
lookout for "Tonight We Love". This is what the internet is all
about! Thanks again. (By the way, I'm no spring chicken - will
hit ?? this year.)
ME:
First of all, here's a paragraph I tried to send when you said
you were moving to San Francisco. It got returned, for I don't
know what reason.
This year I am working with 5th graders. I quite enjoy it still,
although I'm working in the classrooms themselves rather than my
own cubicle, which means I'm not being used anywhere near my full
capability. If you're at all interested in education, you might
take a look at the page below for my rant against maryland's
MSPAP test. I've just sent a slightly improved version to each
of the state legislators and have gotten some positive feedback.
George [Harrison]'s death made me sad. It took me by surprise,
even with being aware of his prior health problems. I suppose I
thought his doctors would be able to beat it. There were some
deaths among my relatives last year, and I guess George's death
made me realize I can't keep pretending my parents aren't getting
older, never mind me.
Thanks for the news item on the Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
No, I hadn't heard about that.
For a few years now, my main music interest has been opera.
I doubt I've ever mentioned that to you. Lots of good music, and
lots of great fun.
Contact Donald Sauter: send an email; view guestbook; sign guestbook.
Back to Donald Sauter's main page.
Rather shop than think? Please visit My Little Shop of Rare and Precious Commodities.
Back to the top of this page.
Parents, if you're considering tutoring or supplemental education for your child, you may be interested in my observations on Kumon.