The Night Mail

[SM42]

Its 18C and climbing here in sunny Poznan 

 

Mrs SM42 has suggested going cycling later. 

 

I may have melted by this evening. 

 

Andy

[Tony_S]

18 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

though possibly not the most useful vocabulary for everyday conversation.

I haven’t yet been able to use “che gelida manina” in conversation.  

[Dave Hunt]

When it comes to music, like art, I am in the,”I may not know much about it but I know what I like,” brigade. About the only music genres that I don’t have any time for are rap/hiphop and the so-called modern classical such as John Cage, Harrison Birtwhistle etc. that  I really don’t regard as music. In my music collection I have all sorts of pop, rock, folk, c& w, big bands, crooners, light classical, heavier classical, opera etc. I don’t have much pop post about 1995 or so and of the classical I’m not keen on much Mozart or Baroque and very heavy/thrash metal leaves me cold. Since the closest I have ever come to being a musician is learning half a dozen chords on a guitar I can’t really criticise the playing of others but again I know what I do appreciate.

 

Dave

[Happy Hippo]

18 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I haven’t yet been able to use “che gelida manina” in conversation.  

I use Wumba, Wumba, Wumba all the time.

[Happy Hippo]

3 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

When it comes to music, like art, I am in the,”I may not know much about it but I know what I like,” brigade. About the only music genres that I don’t have any time for are rap/hiphop and the so-called modern classical such as John Cage, Harrison Birtwhistle etc. that  I really don’t regard as music. In my music collection I have all sorts of pop, rock, folk, c& w, big bands, crooners, light classical, heavier classical, opera etc. I don’t have much pop post about 1995 or so and of the classical I’m not keen on much Mozart or Baroque and very heavy/thrash metal leaves me cold. Since the closest I have ever come to being a musician is learning half a dozen chords on a guitar I can’t really criticise the playing of others but again I know what I do appreciate.

 

Dave

So my Heavy Country Baroque is not really going to fly your plane.

 

To my highly attuned ears, Garage music is the whine of power tools reforming timber and metals.

Edited March 30 by Happy Hippo

[Dave Hunt]

22 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I haven’t yet been able to use “che gelida manina” in conversation.  

One of my squadron bosses had done some operatic training and as a consequence had learned some Italian but it was of the heavily archaic type. We were once a passing through Brindisi when there was a bit of a problem with one of the fuel bowser drivers and the boss went to try to sort it out with his ancient Italian. The driver’s face was a picture as the boss tried what I later learned was the equivalent of something like, “Haste varlet, hast thou some problem that convivial discourse could perhaps solve?” In the end I slipped the guy a few thousand lire and the problem went away but he still looked at the boss and shook his head as he left.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

11 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

So my Heavy Country Baroque is not really going to fly your plane.

No, nor would John Cage’s variations of a theme by Mozart as interpreted by Snoop Doggy Dog.

 

Dave

[DaveF]

I've just been reading the posts about tastes in music.

 

I like most classical music, but not all "modern" music in classical style.  I do like opera (and operetta) but rarely have the patience to watch and listen properly.  Some musicals and film music are OK.

 

 I enjoy folk music providing it is sung/played well, also most country and/or  western.  Then almost anything written from the late nineteenth century up to the early 70s.  After that I lost interest in "pop" music except on rare occassions.

 

My pet hate is radio stations who only play parts of pieces of music, I can underestand why but I don't like it unless I just have the radio on to blot out other noise.

 

When I was young I learnt to play the piano, one of my regrets is that I gave it up before I could do much more than pick out a basic tune.

 

David

[Oldddudders]

2 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

So my Heavy Country Baroque is not really going to fly your plane.

 

To my highly attuned ears, Garage music is the whine of power tools reforming timber and metals.

Garage music can be quite good. "Go Bang #5" by Dinosaur L (1982) comes to mind. But then it was mixed by Francois K (Kevorkian, I think) who has made a lot of stuff I like. At the other end of the scale the Russian romantics (not to be confused with '60s group Ruby and the Romantics) do quite a lot for me, as do bits of Beethoven, but never opera, with its essentially-tortured voices. Much more Chopin than Schubert - you can keep Winterreise. And probably not Berio or Stockhausen.

 

Sherry and I in our skool choir sang in Messiah, Magic Flute, Bartered Bride and Haydn's Seasons (no, not Vivaldi), with trained soloists, in the Dorking Halls. But very little of that has stayed with me. In jazz, Miles Davis's Bitches Brew remains the most important record of the post-war era to my mind, challenging but tuneful if you get to know it, w musicianship at the highest level. 

[Dave Hunt]

One of my great heroes was Sir John Barbirolli. On one occasion he is reputed to have responded to a question as to whether he had conducted much Stockhausen with the retort, “No, but I trod in some on the way here.”

 

Dave

[Northmoor]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Peter Schickele, like Victor Borge, performed as though he could barely play, but playing music “badly” requires a lot of musical talent and skill (plus considerable knowledge of, and understanding of, classical music genres to write such clever pastiches)

The same was rightly said of Les Dawson on piano.  Hysterical and brilliant.

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

I haven’t yet been able to use “che gelida manina” in conversation.  

 

See Dad's Army, series 4 episode 5 Don't Fence Me In, with Pte Godfrey offering to communicate with the Italian POWs.

[Tony_S]

Although his attempts at communicating in Dutch were generally rebuffed when he lived in Utrecht, Matthew wasn’t keen on starting by assuming everyone spoke English so would at least try to start with not using English. He was in the university library and realised his laptop was about to run out of battery. He looked around and could see a few people with the same Apple Mac and looked up the word for charger and went and asked if he could make use of theirs. Much amusement as he had looked up the word for  a cavalry horse. 

Edited March 30 by Tony_S

[Tony_S]

51 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

One of my great heroes was Sir John Barbirolli. On one occasion he is reputed to have responded to a question as to whether he had conducted much Stockhausen with the retort, “No, but I trod in some on the way here.”

 

Dave

The boys who controlled access to the sixth form common room music system were very keen on Stockhausen and the more atonal end of jazz and progressive rock. Any other music was derided.  I have happily listened to what I like since then. Interestingly I think now that they had cult like attributes and the rest of us “couldn’t be expected to appreciate their erudition”. Similarly, I have had to put up for years with criticism from one extended family member as I just can’t share his beliefs about conspiracy theories and paranormal stuff. Fortunately I am no longer required to politely tolerate as I have ceased communicating with him after he really annoyed me. Annoyed, as in got me so livid, I needed my angina spray. 

[Canal Digger]

Being taught to enjoy anything artistic (music or paintings) is never going to work, least of all to kids who would rather  be outside. You have to want to hear/ see more, either it 'clicks' or it passes you by. As someone said 'Education is wasted on the young'. I now enjoy doing maths puzzles, as a kid hated the subject.

I have a wide taste in music, however one slightly strange thing is Musical Theatre, have watched some of the 'classic' film musicals, which left me cold, watched (or got involved backstage locally) the same musical live, fantastic! Is it an emotional thing, where you are involved?

[Tony_S]

40 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

See Dad's Army, series 4 episode 5 Don't Fence Me In, with Pte Godfrey offering to communicate with the Italian POWs.

We were in France and I had an inflamed gum so we went into a pharmacy to get some medication. As she reached the counter, Aditi had a forgetful moment and couldn’t recall the French word for gum, at least not the mouth part gum. Instead of pointing , she said she knew what it was in Latin and said so and the pharmacist laughed and said it was more or less the same. They both then had a chat about how useful Latin was even in modern times. I had no idea what was going on but did get some ointment. 

Edited March 30 by Tony_S

[Dave Hunt]

10 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I have had to put up for years with criticism from one extended family member as I just can’t share his beliefs about conspiracy theories and paranormal stuff. 

I have a friend who is a great believer in UFOs being visitations from other worlds and that they are subjected to governmental cover-ups. He is sure that in my previous employment I must have seen, or at least know or have met someone who has seen, a UFO and nothing I can say will persuade him otherwise. His answer when I say that I have never even heard of anyone that has seen one, apart from in the press or media, is that is because I am sworn to secrecy and am therefore part of the conspiracy. He is not a nutter, nor is he fanatical about any other subject (apart from being interested in railways and having worked at the NRM) but his UFO conspiracy beliefs are unshakable.

 

Dave

[SM42]

4 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

We were in France and I had an inflamed gum so we went into a pharmacy to get some medication. As she reached the counter, Aditi had a forgetful moment and couldn’t recall the French word for gum, at least not the mouth part gum. Instead of pointing , she said she knew what it was in Latin and said so and the pharmacist laughed and said it was more or less the same. They both then had a chat about how useful Latin was even in modern times. I had no idea what was going on but did get some ointment. 

 

I know someone who used O level  Latin in Italy to ask about car parking and directions to same.

 

Parking cars. 

 

It was a major problem 2000 years ago too. 

 

I do try and learn at least thank you in the language of any country I visit. 

 

If I'm feeling brave maybe some numbers. 

 

Other useful terms, such as cake and beer, I pick up as I go

 

Andy

[GMKAT7]

Good morning folks,

 

Like Andy (SM42), I like to pick up and use the local language for please, thank you and beer. Since the latter is similar in many European languages (bier, birra, etc) it's not too difficult 😊

Although the Czech word pivo was a bit of a curveball.

 

A long-distant (1993) Euro rail weekender to Prague, Budapest and Vienna resulted in my reverting to German to get some food ordered.

Having travelled to Kralupy north of Prague (not sure why?) the only place open to eat was the station cafe.

One of my travelling buddies was vegetarian, so the meat and tinned veg lunch was not an option.

The cook had no English and our Czech was limited (see above), so I ended up ordering a cheese omelette and potato salad in German.

 

Surprisingly the meal actually ordered arrived. The waitress advised later that I could have ordered in Russian, but that was a non-starter.

 

Cheers, Nigel.

[SM42]

Conspiracy theories often fail the which is more likely test. 

 

For me UFOs the jury is out.

 

Yes there are flying objects that can't be explained till they can.

 

Maybe it's a secret project, maybe it isn't.

 

Is there a cover up of real aliens. Unlikely.

 

Other life out there.? Possibly 

 

Is it likely that it has developed interstellar travel and can change the laws of physics

 

Unlikely.

 

Why do they always look a bit like us? 

 

 

Another example.

 

Did man land on the moon? 

 

Which is more likely? 

 

They did

 

Or

 

Thousands of people involved kept it secret all these years and more importantly the Russians are in on it and have kept the secret too. 

 

Any conspiracy can be put to the same test. 

 

 The test is really courtesy of Scott Adams under the title " Great Lies of Management" but it has many other uses in life.

 

Andy

[DenysW]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

the operas of Benjamin Britten

I attended one - same daughter was singing. Paul Bunyan. One of the worst musical experiences of my life. Plus massive irritation that he was putting out a gratuitously anti-American 'plot' whilst hiding from the privations of WW2 on Long Island.

 

ENO is the victim of the purists being forced to (now only 50%) relocate whereas Royal Opera House isn't, and suffering significantly more severe budget cuts.

[TheQ]

There is an assumption anyone who's worked in or on radar must have seen or know about UFOs..

Not one ever..

[SM42]

5 minutes ago, GMKAT7 said:

Good morning folks,

 

Like Andy (SM42), I like to pick up and use the local language for please, thank you and beer. Since the latter is similar in many European languages (bier, birra, etc) it's not too difficult 😊

Although the Czech word pivo was a bit of a curveball.

 

A long-distant (1993) Euro rail weekender to Prague, Budapest and Vienna resulted in my reverting to German to get some food ordered.

Having travelled to Kralupy north of Prague (not sure why?) the only place open to eat was the station cafe.

One of my travelling buddies was vegetarian, so the meat and tinned veg lunch was not an option.

The cook had no English and our Czech was limited (see above), so I ended up ordering a cheese omelette and potato salad in German.

 

Surprisingly the meal actually ordered arrived. The waitress advised later that I could have ordered in Russian, but that was a non-starter.

 

Cheers, Nigel.

 

Piwo in Polish 

 

Mrs SM42 once used Russian in Riga to ask directions. 

 

The older police officer was reluctant to use it, the younger, not a word,  but it was the only common language we could come up with. 

 

Paldies.

 

Andy

 

 

[PhilJ W]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Peter Schickele, like Victor Borge, performed as though he could barely play, but playing music “badly” requires a lot of musical talent and skill (plus considerable knowledge of, and understanding of, classical music genres to write such clever pastiches)

Another talented musician who specialised in playing the piano badly was Les Dawson.

EDIT @Northmoor beat me to it.

Edited March 30 by PhilJ W

[Northmoor]

13 minutes ago, SM42 said:

Conspiracy theories often fail the which is more likely test. 

 

Another example.

 

Did man land on the moon? 

 

Which is more likely? 

 

They did

 

Or

 

Thousands of people involved kept it secret all these years and more importantly the Russians are in on it and have kept the secret too. 

 

Any conspiracy can be put to the same test. 

 

There was a University study of conspiracy theories not so long ago and concluded that the likelihood of them being plausible could be summarised with an equation:

Probability of being true = 1 in [(No. of years since the event) x (No. of people who would have to been party to the truth)]

 

Hence the moon landings, for which a few thousand people were directly involved, and fifty plus years have passed with none of them crying foul, have something less than one in hundreds of thousands of being faked.