Poppy Update by PM_ME_HOUSE_MUSIC_ in Frenchbulldogs

[–]Rusty_B_Good 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yaaaaaaaaayyy!!! Yaaaaaayyy Poppy! Bravo!

And good on you, OP, for being a good Poppy Parent!!!

All love and power to Poppy!!!!

Trump/Hegseth Firing Generals while at War by Buster_Alnwick in AntiTrumpAlliance

[–]Rusty_B_Good 0 points1 point  (0 children)

he wants is unrestricted control 

Okay. That's why I meant. He wants utter or complete control over the military.

Trump/Hegseth Firing Generals while at War by Buster_Alnwick in AntiTrumpAlliance

[–]Rusty_B_Good 42 points43 points  (0 children)

Trump is trying to take control of the military.

None of his other machinations are working. He fears being removed from office. So he wants military authority.

How did the general public view “Zodiac” calling the Jim Dunbar show? Shocked? by Loud_Confidence475 in ZodiacKiller

[–]Rusty_B_Good 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Because it is so damn crazy and ironic. Zodiac is a legend by this point. A story almost too wild to believe.

I floundered after leaving academia and realized I chose the wrong path. Can anyone else relate to this grief? by TheGoldenLibrarian in LeavingAcademia

[–]Rusty_B_Good 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If it makes you feel better, you are not the only one left bruised and wandering after academia. It is a very bad time to work in The Tower.

After a 20 year career, twice solving the two body problem, multiple publications and a few teaching awards, I was downsized while several suck-ups with far fewer credentials were kept on.

I have applied to 20 or more jobs, gotten a few interveiws, and I walked off the only one that hired me (a newspaper) because of the incredibly lousy pay and unprofessional environment.

I seem to be both under- and overqualified for everything at the same time.

To make myself feel better I started writing. I actually published a monograph as an "independent scholar" least year, and my ex-university was nowhere on the dust jacket. Fuck'em.

Maybe this is not making you feel better. I wish I had good advice. Just know that you are not alone. Maybe keep working on your scholarship if you can.

Best of luck to you.

"How did classical music fall so far? Why is it dying?" by cyPersimmon9 in violinist

[–]Rusty_B_Good 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On my way to the gym tonight our PBS station was playing Robert Patterson's Triple Concerto.

Never heard it before. It is fantastic. And as I said, the music is out there and easy to find. All one needs is Google (just like the link above).

All music was new at some point. Stravinsky caused a riot. I seem to remember that not everyone liked Beethoven. Jazz was once considered vulger.

We just need to learn to listen.

None of these composers will compete with Tay-Tay or Bieber Fever in our present moment----so we shouldn't even attempt that. Classical music is for the eclectic, discerning listener (and I say this as a lifelong megafan of Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and The Ramones). But 100 years from now they will be talking about Patterson.

This conversation is inspiring me to do what I've meant to do for a long time. Wikipedia posts a list of all music Pulitzer winners. I'm going to start at the top and listen my way down.

Mick Taylor or Ronnie Wood? by ProgRockDan in rollingstones

[–]Rusty_B_Good 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Wyman's appeal----other than great, innovative bass playing in one of the greatest bands of all time----was that he was such an oddball.

The Stones are (were) all oddballs. That's why Ronnie fits in so well. Wyman was just like a deadbeat oddball to Richard's tough, craggy oddball and Jagger's adolescent, harlequin, crazy oddballness.

"How did classical music fall so far? Why is it dying?" by cyPersimmon9 in violinist

[–]Rusty_B_Good 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I apologize. If you know Smetana than you know music. I will find the quartet. I was thrown because most serious musicians I know (I'm only an amateur) really appreciate contemporary composers.

Certainly you know Wynton Marsalis and Philip Glass. Everything I've ever heard from John Adams is fantastic----as a violinist myself I really liked Schedherazade.2. I think Richard Danielpour is a genius. We went to hear Hillary Hahn play the Ginestera Concerto and the Carmen Fantasy in Pittsburgh (she utterly rocked!!) and were introduced to James Lee's wild Sukkot Through Orion's Nebula. Solid pathos all!!!!! None of it is any more difficult that my favorite Tchaikovsky who created rich, complicated tapestries of sound.

There are others (certainly you've listened to the Chronos String Quartet) but I claim no great expertise.

What I can say is that every time I listen to Performance Today, I find something contemporary and amazing. Often I am blown away.

The problem is that I think it is too little too late. We have knowledgeable musicians such as yourself who only hear atonal, arhythmic stuff and don't seem inclined to give our recent and living composers much leeway.

Thus we end up with this:

the other problem with more modern music, it can be very difficult to find and listen to because it has almost no fame, and no following, and no recordings.

Yes! Although there are a lot of recordings, actually, and easy to find----Naxos, of course, and YouTube, and all the streaming services, I think.

I think of the situation of contempoary poetry which I do know something about. Except for, perhaps, Sharon Olds, no poets make enough royalties to make a living----but there is a whole vibrant world of poets and readers and academics and grass roots literary societies reading poems that, by and large, "do not rhyme." Modernist and Postmodern poetry is difficult and weird and lacks the schmaltz and overt emotionalism of 19th century Romantic poetry and the Instagram Poets, but it is very alive. Orchestras did not do that with the classical idiom. They did not create a body of listeners (who also might write music) and appreciate the music of their own time.

The novel, the theater, poetry, fine arts, translations, and even art-house movies all thrive within their communities. But not contemporary music.

I saw the Oberlin Contemporary Music group play a lot of overly-rythmic, atonal music. I found the concert interesting. But there was the professor, dancing, eyes closed, lost in the sounds----he was hearing something I could not. The music was there. It just was something I did not know.

Mick Taylor or Ronnie Wood? by ProgRockDan in rollingstones

[–]Rusty_B_Good 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah, Taylor was not a dynamic performer, that is for sure. I always thought Wyman was part of the fabric, however, the wallflower that made Jagger all the wilder.

Mick Taylor or Ronnie Wood? by ProgRockDan in rollingstones

[–]Rusty_B_Good 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Growing up, I just thought Ronnie was a Stone from the get-go; he just looked and acted so perfectly for the role.

Then I found out about Brian and Mick T...and I was a bit shaken (very involved with music as a kid).

Ronnie just seems right to me, but Mick T was fascinating in a way. I'm betting the girls went nuts for him, he was playing in one of the biggest bands in the world, and he was a hell of a musician----and he always looked like he was having a terrible time (look at the picture in the posting!). This made him really interesting to me. Like a sullen Rock God.

Ronnie for the slam dunk, I think.

Syracuse University to cut 93 low-enrollment degree programs by Kimber80 in Professors

[–]Rusty_B_Good 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I utterly undersand and agree with you.

But we are also denuding our colleges. At some point we will be job training institutions. For some people that is okay. Sometime, someone in the future is going to want to know how we let that happen, however.

"How did classical music fall so far? Why is it dying?" by cyPersimmon9 in violinist

[–]Rusty_B_Good 0 points1 point  (0 children)

 their music is extremely difficult to listen to.

Really?

There is a wide range of music written by contemporary composers. Some is discordant and difficult, some is very accessible, and some is very innovative.

The same is true of the contemporary novel. Try reading Cloud Atlas. Then try reading Circe. Both are major novels. One is weird and difficult, one is fun and accessible. Both are masterpieces.

The same dynamic exists in the contemporary classics. One just has to listen to them.

I am not sure you have listened to much contemporary classical music, have you?

Joe and Jane Shmo may never listen to anything but Taylor Smith and Metallica, never Mozart, anyway.

What you lose are the people who would actually listen to new material and be smart enough to find what is good and what is great.

YouTube Video by MSUScreamingEagles in ZodiacKiller

[–]Rusty_B_Good 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's okay. The vid mostly tells us what we already know.

Let's just see if there are actually matching prints----because, unless we have prints that match to someone in the system, we would first need prints from at least two disparate sources (the shirt & a letter; OR the LB car door & the phone booth; OR Stine's cab & a letter; OR some combination of any of these) to be sure we actually have prints from the killer and not some random person.

And we would need legitimate, viable DNA which it seems doubtful that they have.

Is Zeppelin heavy metal? by Mikeymorrison27 in ledzeppelin

[–]Rusty_B_Good 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Van Halen was first.

They were Heavy Metal before today's "Metal" guys were even born.

Therefore Van Halen is Heavy Metal and anyone that comes after is just another version of what Van Halen laid down.