tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post3266981132452477620..comments2024-03-28T01:17:42.336-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: BY POPULAR DEMAND (HEM HEM)Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-52927527978746210992020-09-15T20:38:06.668-04:002020-09-15T20:38:06.668-04:00Eric -
I was a piano student who started at the ri...Eric -<br />I was a piano student who started at the ripe old age of 6. I have never had the opportunity to play a pipe organ. One of the best concert I ever heard, though, was a Bach organ recital at the Kennedy Center. My brother and I had second row center seats. Keeping two hands functioning correctly is hard enough. The Lowery organ in my small parish church at least had pedals, and for an 11 yr. old kid, they were fun to mess with, or with which to mess. My brother, who lives near St. John’s University MN, kept me updated as they recently had their pipe organ rebuilt. i was amazed at how electronics and motors have replaced the basically medieval operating system. On the other hand, I have a NORD keyboard with very good B-3 simulation which keep me entertained (and no pedals!). Do you still play organ, or have you switched to piano, which, after all, has its virtues!?Christopher J. Mulvaney, Ph.D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/15817420454023465228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-16603491463899394082020-09-15T10:29:05.153-04:002020-09-15T10:29:05.153-04:00Prof. Wolff, have you ever tried writing fiction? ...Prof. Wolff, have you ever tried writing fiction? You're obviously a born storyteller, though of course fiction is a different animal altogether. But I would be surprised if it hadn't at least tempted you at one point or another.Jordanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06185714592855577979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-55043350613436385322020-09-15T07:26:36.019-04:002020-09-15T07:26:36.019-04:00Thank you for the story, Prof. Wolff. Thank you for the story, Prof. Wolff. Ásgeirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04451629074318400232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-49200468401944002092020-09-15T07:11:10.043-04:002020-09-15T07:11:10.043-04:00My favorite story of someone meeting Russell actua...My favorite story of someone meeting Russell actually is from Sartre - one of his biographers tells that, when Sartre met Russell, to work on their committee looking into war crimes in Vietnam, Sartre (who wasn't super young himself, but quite a bit younger than Russell) asked Russell how he manged to stay so active at his age, says that Russell pulled out a bottle of scotch and said he drank one a day. The story doesn't say if if was a full fifth or just a flask size, but it's still a good story. <br /><br />As for myself, the most famous person I have ever really spent any time talking to or around is probably the Beat Generation poet, Allen Ginsberg, who wrote an impromptu poem for couple of friends and me, and who invited us to sit at his table at a book signing after a reading and then go to a party with him. It was pretty fun. <br /><br />Eric - on first reading in thought you were talking about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Manson" rel="nofollow">Marilyn Manson</a> , and was surprised to hear that he was a concert organist! Sadly, the world isn't quite that interesting, I guess. Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01446428606119200980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-8386223547450774922020-09-14T21:11:43.286-04:002020-09-14T21:11:43.286-04:00Great story, Prof Wolff. I think I know how you fe...Great story, Prof Wolff. I think I know how you felt. I had two "meeting great men" experiences as an undergraduate in the mid '80s. The first was with Douglas R. Hofstadter, whom I'd become a fan of from reading his articles in Scientific American while I was in high school. I was ecstatic when I found out that he was teaching a course at my college (I think it was in the psych dept). I didn't think I could afford to enroll in his class because my schedule was already packed with very demanding premed courses (with a curriculum that compressed four years of courses into three years), and I also don't think I had completed the prerequisite courses. Still, I could not possibly pass up the chance to meet him. I decided to try to audit the course. I hadn't found out he would be teaching until after the course had already begun, so I started out on a bad foot by missing the first class. After sitting through a couple of lectures, I worked up the courage to introduce myself and ask him a few questions as he was walking across campus to his next appointment after a lecture. I don't remember what we discussed, but he seemed so completely uninterested in the interaction that I felt utterly deflated and never went back to his class. <br /><br />The other was with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDkY4q7tHZA" rel="nofollow">Marilyn Mason</a>, who was a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/obituaries/marilyn-mason-dead.html" rel="nofollow">world-renowned concert organist</a>. I had no idea who she was, other than that she was the chair of the music school's organ department, which meant she was the person whose permission I needed to be granted access to use one of the organs to practice on. I'd been studying the organ since I was 4, and while I'd never been a particularly adept student, I wanted to be able to practice so I could maintain the few skills I did have. There were plenty of pianos freely available for anyone to play on, but the organs were under lock and key and required permission. When I met with Prof Mason to plead my case, she initially seemed sympathetic, and mentioned that I could turn out to be another Dr Schweitzer. I think she was aghast to hear me say I did not know who Albert Schweitzer was. The conversation went downhill from there (from my perspective lol). She said that, sure, I could get access to a practice organ—but only if I enrolled in an organ class. Unfortunately, my schedule was already overburdened, so that just wasn't going to happen. In the end, I ended up becoming a much better piano player than I'd ever thought I would be, as a result of having to make do by practicing in my free time on the pianos instead of an organ.Ericnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-50680321202549011732020-09-14T19:55:23.341-04:002020-09-14T19:55:23.341-04:00I always thought the BR vastly overestimated the i...I always thought the BR vastly overestimated the intellectual importance of Sheffer's stroke. What else did he do apart from inventing it? Incidentally , as his Autobiography reveals BR worked quite hard to save Sheffer's career from his anti-semitic enemies at Harvard. Charles Pigdenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01131765562671298571noreply@blogger.com