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The place where I buy sausage sells Texas Brats. I see that and think of my little brothers, who live in Texas! (Not so little any more! Nor as bratty!)
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As you might imagine, I have a Bratwurst story, but I can't post it here for fear of causing an international incident.
I played my concert at the lovely Düsseldorf Steinway Haus last night and one of the PW members came to me afterwards and introduced herself. What a pleasure to meet someone from PW! The charity that benefitted from this concert was a group that provides concert tickets for school kids in this area. Love that!
My daughter's choir concert was on Wednesday night. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, more glorious than the sound of 45 teenagers singing together. 500 people showed up to cheer them on, many of them kids supporting their friends. Warmed my heart, it did.
Robin Meloy Goldsby www.goldsby.de Available June 18th, 2021--Piano Girl Playbook: Notes on a Musical Life Also by RMG: Piano Girl, A Memoir; Waltz of the Asparagus People; Rhythm; Manhattan Roadtrip Music by RMG available on all platforms RMG is a Steinway Artist
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There is nothing, and I mean nothing, more glorious than the sound of 45 teenagers singing together. 500 people showed up to cheer them on, many of them kids supporting their friends. Warmed my heart, it did.
I love the sound of young voices. I sing with a mature choir, and there is some good musicianship there. But none of us can match the purity and clarity of tone of young singers. It's trumpet vs tuba. Or maybe oboe vs flute.
gotta go practice
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As you might imagine, I have a Bratwurst story.... So do I, and I don't think it will offend anyone. Years ago my wife and I went to an international glass trade show at the Cincinnati Convention Center. I went to the concession stand for a bit of lunch. Cincinnati cuisine is chiefly known for its, um, unusual 5-Way Chili (spiced with cloves and served over spaghetti) but American versions of bratwurst and mettwurst, known as brats and metts, are also popular. As I walked up to the window, the man ahead of me looked at the little thing in a bun he'd just been handed. In a plaintive, German-accented voice he said "But, ... but I ordered a braht-voorst!" Poor fellow should have tried the 5-way chili.
AndyJ
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Thanks for the story, Andy--- very innocent, as tales featuring bratwurst go. I hated to press Robin for her story. I'll admit I was curious, but when she says it would set off an Incident... well, I think she probably declines for some very good reason. She holds very little back, when you get right down to it.
Naturally, my mind went immediately to the EU horsemeat scandal, which has led to so many urpped-up lunches in the capitols of Europe within the last few weeks. To be fair to bratwurst, it hasn't been mentioned so far--- though any sausage product is bound to be suspect--- but lasagna and burgers have both been accused, by name, on cable news. A Romanian abattoir, which supplied repackagers for the mass market, has tarnished the reputation of slaughterhouses all through the Eastern Bloc.
Then there was the fish scandal. This was an America-only affair, which has blackened the name of restaurants, taco trucks, and grocery stores (mostly the former), whose fish were discovered to be not what they said they were, and not what they should have been. Drat those busybody tale-carrying USDA food inspectors, and drat cable news double!
It is a wicked world. If even Robin dare not mention the bratwurst affair, it must be very hot stuff indeed. I am not sure if five-way chili is the same thing as Texas-five-alarm chili, but it could be even hotter than that. It could EVEN be hotter than Mrs. Smith's Apple Pies--- but no, I can't tell that story until the new Pope has been invested (it was a tricky case, which involved both sins of omission and sins of commission, and the tale has to be cleared from the top or not at all).
Clef
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I am not sure if five-way chili is the same thing as Texas-five-alarm chili.... Cincinnati five-way chili is quite possibly the opposite of Texas five-alarm chili. It's not hot at all. Legend has it the stuff was invented by a Greek immigrant with a diner. A customer walked in and asked for chili and, not wanting to lose a sale, the Greek guy threw something together. The five ways of Cincinnati chili are the meat in a clove-and-cinnamon-spiced tomato sauce, spaghetti, chopped white onions, shredded cheddar cheese, and kidney beans. You can order one-, two-, three- or four-way if you prefer, leaving out more or fewer ingredients.
AndyJ
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No. I will not go there. Although I am tempted to write a three-way Bratwurst story, I shall err on the side of decency and control myself, at least for the time being. I shall save my Bratwurst story in the event that I decide to write a soft porn book. Maybe I will call it Fifty Shades of Brides.
I am a vegetarian (and a hopeful, but backsliding vegan) so I am not particularly alarmed by the horse meat scandal. To me, a cow, a horse, a pig, a chimp, it's all animal meat. The alarming thing is that the labeling is false and people are not getting what they think they're getting. That's bad. And I'm sure the faulty labeling crosses over to plant foods, too. Could there be sawdust in that chamomile tea? Glue in the peanut butter? Bratwurst in the veggie-wurst? Who knows? You can't trust anything these days.
Except music, you can usually trust that—nourishment of a different kind.
I met a bride this weekend, who booked me for her wedding. She was wearing black leather thigh-high boots and a Prada mini skirt. Can't wait to see what she comes up with on her wedding day. She's a June bride, so I imagine it will be over the top.
AndyJ, nice to meet you! Keep me away from that chili. Yikes.
Robin Meloy Goldsby www.goldsby.de Available June 18th, 2021--Piano Girl Playbook: Notes on a Musical Life Also by RMG: Piano Girl, A Memoir; Waltz of the Asparagus People; Rhythm; Manhattan Roadtrip Music by RMG available on all platforms RMG is a Steinway Artist
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This week marks the tenth anniversary of Mister Rogers' death. This week's essay is my little shrine to his memory. Fred Rogers was a pianist before he was a television star. He loved music and he loved those of us who play the piano. You Were Special: A Tribute to Mister Rogers
Robin Meloy Goldsby www.goldsby.de Available June 18th, 2021--Piano Girl Playbook: Notes on a Musical Life Also by RMG: Piano Girl, A Memoir; Waltz of the Asparagus People; Rhythm; Manhattan Roadtrip Music by RMG available on all platforms RMG is a Steinway Artist
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That's a great photo of Mr. Rogers and your dad, Robin.
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Thanks, Monica! My dad played on Mister Rogers Neighborhood for 35 years, with that exact group. You can imagine how heartbroken he was when pianist Johnny Costa died. Costa was a piano hero, if you ask me.
I wish I had a photo credit for that shot, but I don't. It was one of hundreds of photos taken every year in the studio, but I like it because the guys look so relaxed. It was snapped sometime in the very early nineties.
Absolutely no wedding news, I am sad to report. Some bookings are trickling in and now that spring is in the air I expect things to pick up a bit. The Dubai bride is next week.
In an attempt to drum up some business I have included two wedding-appropriate tunes on my new CD (coming in May). I have a nice arrangement of "What a Wonderful World" on there (brides always ask for this), and, because my starry eyed daughter tends to know exactly what songs will be popular with the young crowd, I've included the song "A Thousand Years," which is on the Twilight soundtrack. I've yet to have a bride request this, but Julia assures me it will be the wedding song of the summer. You heard it here first. Think of it as the Vampire-Bride song.
Robin Meloy Goldsby www.goldsby.de Available June 18th, 2021--Piano Girl Playbook: Notes on a Musical Life Also by RMG: Piano Girl, A Memoir; Waltz of the Asparagus People; Rhythm; Manhattan Roadtrip Music by RMG available on all platforms RMG is a Steinway Artist
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"...Think of it as the Vampire-Bride song...."
Well, six brides...
The upside of the slow season: more time to write. A time will come when the occasional light rain of royalty checks will offer some nice variety to the weather report. In fact, the weather in Las Vegas--- that ram-jet of matrimony--- may someday prove to be more acceptable to the elderly wedding pianist than that of another winter in Saxony.
Then again, if the rain is brisk enough, the service is better in Monaco.
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My daughter's choir concert was on Wednesday night. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, more glorious than the sound of 45 teenagers singing together. 500 people showed up to cheer them on, many of them kids supporting their friends. Warmed my heart, it did. I have two things to mention which seem related to me, albeit in an odd way. Our group is, well, re-grouping these days. Our leader left for warmer climes about six months ago. We have been put in the unfamiliar position of actually needing to rehearse. We have a new vocalist and we're trying to work in some new material as well. We've been having these rehearsals at a semi-legendary place that most of us have been to on and off for the past thirty years. It's called Roxy Rehearsals and it's in an industrial area in Queens, NY. It occupies the top floor of a triangular building; there's a body shop underneath it whose decor is probably a little nicer. There's no rhyme or reason to the layout of the place; it's a rabbit warren of oddly-shaped rooms, hallways and storage nooks. Even the floor is on many different levels, and covered with mismatched bits of ancient low-pile carpet. The walls of the waiting room are wallpapered with music magazine covers dating back to when the place opened, lacquered over to preserve them. No one alive has any idea how the place was built, or what is inside the walls, except what can be seen from outside the building through the windows. There are of course no windows visible from the inside. Nor is there much light to speak of. There are five "studios", A,B,C,D and E. There's also a bathroom - "Studio P", of course - whose walls display the inked wisdom of the patrons. I mention the place for two reasons. The first is that we have just found out that it is closing down. It feels like the end of an era, several eras actually. I think that a nicer place wouldn't evoke the same sadness. Those walls are landmarks, man. The second reason has to do with what my daughter has come to think of when she hears "rehearsal hall". She and 45 members of her school choir have been rehearsing for a concert at Carnegie Hall. This will be their second time performing there. Last year they were one of three school choirs chosen to perform three new choral works with the Orchestra of St. Luke's. The kids were treated like adults, professionals even. The music was impossibly complicated, both harmonically (one piece called for a tone cluster consisting of the eight notes of the A minor scale) and rhythmically (another piece was littered with time signatures, some changing in successive measures). Despite the difficulty, they were expected to perform it accurately, no "handicap" was allowed for their age. This year the project is La Pasion Segun San Marcos. http://www.carnegiehall.org/Calenda...-San-Marcos-A-Creative-Learning-Project/ They have been rehearsing for several months, sometimes at the DiMenna Center, a place that is the precise negation of Roxy Rehearsals. I went to one rehearsal in the "big" room; a room designed to accommodate a full orchestra. It has a thirty foot ceiling and something like 15000 hardwood slats on the walls and ceiling. The "kids" are again expected to master some very difficult music of an entirely different variety. The piece incorporates musical styles from around Latin America: Samba, Salsa, Bata, Sambareggae and more. To help them "feel" the rhythms, they had a "creative work retreat" that took most of a Saturday. The day involved stomping, clapping and playing a wide variety of percussion instruments. At the rehearsal I attended, they were polishing the tougher parts. The voices sounded ethereal at one moment, then combative, mournful and joyous. These kids have been given a great challenge, and have risen to it. The show is this coming Sunday and it promises to be wonderful. I can scarcely believe that Amy has been given an opportunity like this. Besides the singing, there will be costumes, dance steps, coordinated rhythmic clapping, and foot stomping. They will be joined by the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, a music troupe that has just flown in in the last few days to rehearse. Anyone interested in hearing the performance can catch it on WQXR radio online. http://www.carnegiehall.org/Pages/WQXR-Broadcasts/ Amy's final dress rehearsal will be tomorrow evening at Carnegie Hall itself. There's quite a chasm between Roxy and Carnegie Hall. But hey, she's my daughter, so I'll shrug off the terrible unfairness of it all.
Greg Guarino
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I have been reading about singularities, Greg. I say reading, not understanding, for it requires much more math than I command. All the same, it is interesting. One construct suggests that the collapse of one universe creates the formation of the next, which avoids the singularity with its troublesome infinities of dimensions and its graphs which run off the page. So. Not only was your post interesting, but also somewhat comforting, since the collapse of the Roxy Rehearsals universe was balanced (in a way) by the rise of the lovely new rehearsal space you told us about. I wondered why, since the demographic is hardly vanishing (the opposite, if anything). But, some black holes which lack an event horizon are thought to evaporate. So, go figure. I also wondered if Roxy Rehearsals was connected in any with with the New York movie palace impresario, Samuel_Roxy_Rothafel Roxy_Theatre_New_York_City Maybe and maybe not. There seem to be a lot of Roxies in the performing arts world. My beautiful Basenji bitch was named Roxie, and my neighbor liked the name (and the doggie) so much that her child named his bitch Roxie Junior. Such musings probably mean I should be practicing more. But anyway, thanks for your note, and congratulations on your daughter's wonderful success. My musings and curiosity also led me to examine the websites http://alfred.com and http://halleonard.com (the publisher, or distributor anyway, of Robin's last book). To my surprise--- to judge by the website anyway--- Alfred would appear by far to be the larger house, a hundred mouseclicks later. And, it seems that between them there are at least twenty books currently in print devoted to wedding music for solo keyboard, never mind the ensembles. Could be thirty, in fact. It could lead one to doubt that the widely-heralded discussions of the woes of marriage, and the demand for piano music (and, I suppose, pianos to play them on) really amount to all that. Let us just say, there is still a market out there. People have put their money where their mouth is, and what is food for commerce is also food for thought. The dispute about singularities is even hotter, but I did glean this valuable thought from one of the web pages [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renormalization ] which told of them, and it makes a good last word on the whole pack of questions: Quoting Bertrand Russell's postscript to the third volume of his Autobiography, The Final Tears, 1944-1967 (George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., London 1969) p.221: "In the modern world, if communities are unhappy, it is often because they have ignorances, habits, beliefs, and passions, which are dearer to them than happiness or even life. I find many men in our dangerous age who seem to be in love with misery and death, and who grow angry when hopes are suggested to them. They think hope is irrational and that, in sitting down to lazy despair, they are merely facing facts."Though I like this comment on the matter, (from the cited site) just as well: "Dirac's criticism [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Dirac ] was the most persistent.[6] As late as 1975, he was saying:[7] "Most physicists are very satisfied with the situation. They say: 'Quantum electrodynamics is a good theory and we do not have to worry about it any more.' I must say that I am very dissatisfied with the situation, because this so-called 'good theory' does involve neglecting infinities which appear in its equations, neglecting them in an arbitrary way. This is just not sensible mathematics. Sensible mathematics involves neglecting a quantity when it is small - not neglecting it just because it is infinitely great and you do not want it!"
Last edited by Jeff Clef; 03/12/13 04:30 PM.
Clef
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Wow, Clef, you have a very big brain, that's all I can say. Greg, I am thrilled for your daughter and so happy for you. Parents with singing children are the happiest parents of all. And I like Clef's theory about the collapse of Roxy being balanced by the construction of the new rehearsal space. There is hope. I should have some wedding news by the end of the weekend. I am playing for the Bride from Dubai on Friday afternoon. She has an orchestra or something booked for the actual wedding on Saturday, I have been hired to play for the guests as they are checking into the castle. But I will be there on Saturday playing my steady gig so I should get to see some of the hoopla. I took a left turn a couple of weeks ago and ended up doing a MODELING JOB at a fancy-pants boutique not far from the castle where I play. For those of you who don't know me, I am 55 years old, so it's kind of an unusual time to start modeling. Anyway, I mainly took the gig because I knew I would be able to write about it. The essay features Tempest Storm (the stripper), high heels, and Heather McCartney. Clef, this has your name on it. Here's the link: A Catwalk Down Memory Lane
Robin Meloy Goldsby www.goldsby.de Available June 18th, 2021--Piano Girl Playbook: Notes on a Musical Life Also by RMG: Piano Girl, A Memoir; Waltz of the Asparagus People; Rhythm; Manhattan Roadtrip Music by RMG available on all platforms RMG is a Steinway Artist
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Love the story, Robin. My favorite line was "I am, in fact—gasp—a Medium." But I have to ask: How old was Tempest Storm in the photo you included? (And here I'm hoping that the answer isn't "84", because that just wouldn't be fair...)
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Monica, that photo of Tempest Storm was taken ten years ago, so Tempest was 74. I just saw a recent video of her (2012) and it was very funny—her voice sounded quite elderly, kind of shaky and thin, but she still had the big red hair, the boobs, and the sequined dress. She was pushing her new line of jeans, of all things—which had the back end cut out of them—they were ass-less jeans. And this is what she is marketing at age 84. "Ladies," she said, "You need to show off your figures." I guess that's one way to do it.
A side note: My dad actually played for Tempest back in the early sixties when she was on the Burlesque circuit. What a job—he played six shows a day and got to play dirty drums for all the strippers. That was back when Burlesque was still very clean-cut. Tempest wasn't a bump and grind rhythmic kid of dancer—but she was very good with that floating thing she did. Watch one of her videos and then try to walk like that—it's not easy!
Off I go to meet the Bride from Dubai.
Robin Meloy Goldsby www.goldsby.de Available June 18th, 2021--Piano Girl Playbook: Notes on a Musical Life Also by RMG: Piano Girl, A Memoir; Waltz of the Asparagus People; Rhythm; Manhattan Roadtrip Music by RMG available on all platforms RMG is a Steinway Artist
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Gee, it looks like we missed Tease-O-Rama last year at Bimbo's. But burlesque is alive and well in the Bay Area, I guess! I wish they would use the piano for it, though. You can hear and see my work there here.
Semipro Tech
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Cool, BDB!!! Piano sounds quite nice.
Robin Meloy Goldsby www.goldsby.de Available June 18th, 2021--Piano Girl Playbook: Notes on a Musical Life Also by RMG: Piano Girl, A Memoir; Waltz of the Asparagus People; Rhythm; Manhattan Roadtrip Music by RMG available on all platforms RMG is a Steinway Artist
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Indeed, you interest me with your story about Miss Tempest Storm. Isn't there a saying that goes, "It's not how much you show a man, it's how you don't show it to him." I suspect she is one of those women who could take the stage dressed in a gunny sack, and no one would notice anything except the way she walked and moved.
And you had lessons from this woman--- what wonderful good fortune for a performer. For it is true--- too true--- that props and costumes will turn against you at the worst possible moment. I think of a large meeting (and a long one), at which the parliamentarian took the podium with a FEARFULLY LARGE pile of notes, to explain some tedious point. BUT, what do you know, someone opened an outside door and a mighty wind blew the whole stack across the stage and into the audience.
Now, if Tempest Storm had been up there, all would have been well. (Actually, from our point of view at the back of the house, all was well anyway, for we were having a laugh riot.)(It was the same group where, a disgruntled candidate who lost an election, stormed out that same door, chucking a folding chair at the audience who--- for some reason--- didn't vote for him. And again, if only Tempest had been there, such an unseemly thing would never have gotten off the runway.)(And I don't know what she would have done, but she would have done better.)
So, I think you should hook up with Tempest Storm, to give lessons to brides about the art of Stage Presence. I would dare to say, she also probably knows the art of getting the musicians on her side and treating them right, and some mothers-in-law should be getting a lesson or two as well. With her knowledge of costumes, she would revolutionize that perennial horror, the bridesmaids' dress, and they would be such as would cover up any tattoos, which are not a good look for a wedding. Talk about a place that is ripe for rebellion.
I look into my crystal ball. It is a wedding in the future. The best man and all the groomsmen are Elvis impersonators. The bridesmaids and matron of honor are all Tempest Storm. But the groom is buff and studly, handsome, funny, charming, and ardent, and the bride is Ann Miller (minus 65 years). Sparks fly from her tap shoes, for the aisle is tiled, and she could be dressed in a gunny sack and no one would notice anything except the way she moved. The wedding pictures come out, too--- they are eye-popping, even though the bridesmaids outfits are not so bold as to feature a plunging ass neckline. Chances are better than you think that some of them have tattoos back there, and we're having none of that at this wedding.
There are plenty of other occasions for them. As Elvira, Mistress of the Dark used to say, "A little danger never hurt anyone."
Last edited by Jeff Clef; 03/16/13 05:56 PM.
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This is the most inaccurately labeled thread on the internet.
We should call it "The Piano World Writers' Showcase."
"Don't let the devil fool you - Here comes a dove; Nothing cures like time and love." -- Laura Nyro
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Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:34 PM
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Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:23 PM
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