-=> Quoting Michael Loo to Nancy Backus on 06-24-19  12:35 <=-

 >  ML> he's done it only once on a roof but several times safely
 >  ML> in an orchestra pit. I have heard of other productions
 >  ML> where an image of someone playing on a roof was projected, 
 >  ML> but that seems kind of hokey.
 > In the movie version, there is a spot where you do see a fiddler
 > fiddling from atop the roof....  Dunno as I ever have seen a stage
 ML> In the movies, they can do anything. In the play, the
 ML> fiddler is more along the lines of a dream or hallucination.

That's somewhat the implication, even on the movie...  

 ML> I'm not sure, but I think he's symbolic of the character's
 ML> mental anguish or the breakdown of society, much in the
 ML> same way that boomboxes were when they came out.
 
According to the script, it's symbolic of the precarious balance of life
between tradition and modern forces...  As to boomboxes, that breakdown
has continued to happen... it was cars that functioned as boomboxes,
driving through the neighborhood... and now it's whole houses booming
out the sound.... We can hear the neighbor's "music" booming through
their and our closed windows at times.... 

 > production of Fiddler... though I did see Zorba the Greek on the stage
 > (in Syracuse) once... 
 ML> I never had anything to do with the theater in Syracuse but
 ML> did see The Menaechmi once.

I've seen only a few plays/musicals on stage over the years... not from
lack of inclination exactly, just haven't done....
 
 > ... A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and my Blue Wave reader.
 ML> I read "and my Blue Shield Blue Cross," more appropriate
 ML> to me nowadays. I've also seen ... "and Occupant."
 
I think I have that one, too... but I think it's "and [occupant]" or
some such.... 

 >  > The one time that I actually charged for my counseling, a client
 >  > referred to me by my massage therapist friend Deb, I was told how much
 >  > to charge, too... I think I might have charged less, but Deb said I was
 >  > easily worth that much and not to worry about whether or not the client
 >  > could afford it.... 
 >  ML> We also seem to have a more vexed relationship with
 >  ML> the dollar than most.
 > It does seem so... 
 ML> Someday I will be guaranteed to have enough money
 ML> for the rest of my life. With my luck, I'll die the
 ML> next day.

I expect that I'll not run out... but I'm not really thinking much about
it now... We've done our saving and collecting, and there are cushions,
even if relatively slim... 

 >  >  >  ML> Eh, it probably is better for your psyche not to
 >  >  >  ML> have to rush rush and scramble scramble.
 >  >  > Probably... I didn't have to make a living at it... which was a good
 >  >  > thing... 
 >  >  ML> And there's that too.
 >  > Might have had to scramble a lot more if I had....
 >  ML> Sometimes I forget that corporations have their uses.
 > Yeah... they can be useful to employ some people... at least until they
 > lay them off....  
 ML> Spoken from bitter experience. I've had similar but not
 ML> at the hands of the faceless corporations.

It could have been a lot worse.... 
 
 >  ML> No; I am an accomplished violinist. He was a great one,
 >  ML> though no Paganini, nor a Heifetz. When he heard the
 >  ML> latter, he turned to his friends and said, well, we all 
 >  ML> might as well pack up and go home.
 > OK... helpful clarification....
 ML> When you see in someone's obituary that they
 ML> had been an accomplished musician, that can mean
 ML> anything from could carry a tune in a bucket to
 ML> someone like me who could carry two tunes in a
 ML> bucket at the same time.

At that, I suppose I'd be considered accomplished... enough, anyway... 

 ML> Beyond that level are
 ML> respected, eminent, renowned. I'd say Kreisler
 ML> was in his day those things, but calling him
 ML> accomplished is like calling Ralph Terry 
 ML> merely accomplished because he wasn't Whitey Ford.
 
OK...  You do remember that I have a talent for understatement...?  (G) 

 >  ML> Believable, as the pieces, though unimportant in the 
 >  ML> larger scheme of musical things, have eclipsed their 
 >  ML> composer largely because of their range, from the 
 >  ML> Rondino, which young students play, to that Sicilienne, 
 >  ML> a pleasing and uncomplicated thing that often appears 
 >  ML> on concert programs, to the Praeludium and Allegro, 
 >  ML> which the most virtuosic performers trot out as a 
 >  ML> particularly splashy encore after a major recital.
 > That is a wide range....  And they are enjoyable pieces, besides... 
 ML> Most of them I could play immediately, if I could
 ML> find the music, but a few would take work, and the
 ML> Praeludium and Allegro would require substantial
 ML> woodshedding (I did perform it about 40 years ago).

Maybe it would come back to you as you worked on it... 

 >  ML> alcoholic beverage, that's the rule. It's not so much for
 >  ML> my benefit but to advertise to others what one can get
 >  ML> with higher status:
 >  ML> - Why does he get free stuff?
 >  ML> - If you were one of United's best customers, you
 >  ML> could get free food, too.
 >  ML> - Oh.
 > And how often does it actually entice someone to try for higher status,
 > I wonder...  
 ML> Probably a lot more than it should or than we know.
 ML> It tugs at people's sense of self-worth - a sort of
 ML> multilevel consuming if you will.

I suppose...  
 
 >  ML> It also serves as a consolation prize when I'm not
 >  ML> getting upgraded, which is more and more frequent.
 > That's somewhat of a benefit... 
 ML> The free food and booze helps a lot, even though 
 ML> it's (by the rules) one drink only. That's a little
 ML> skimpy (a drink an hour is a sensible allowance), but
 ML> the crew tend to bend the rules a bit. American is
 ML> more generous with the alcohol but not the food.

Apparently, as in the hospital settings, rules are there to be enforced
only when the situation would otherwise get way out of hand....

 ML> Luckily I fit nicely into a skinny coach seat,
 ML> and in fact first class seats I slide around in
 ML> too much for real comfort. It's the legroom that
 ML> I most covet (though as you know I'm not tall). 

Being able to stretch out the legs completely is a Very Good Thing... I
find that more and more important as my knee joints tend to tighten and
need to stretch out and "click" to keep from hurting...
 
 > ... If I were here more often, I wouldn't be gone so much.
 ML> If you were here more often, you'd hear more.

Possibly... although I do eventually get caught up eventually... after
all this is a print medium... not simply an aural one... 

ttyl        neb

... I want to be what I was when I wanted to be what I am now

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