It seems to be a quiet day, so…

[HordHolm]

Antimacassar does not mean what I thought it might mean (hint: it has nothing to do with mascara lol)

And, as it turns out, Interrobang has nothing to do with being questioned by a bunch of horny detectives!

Now there's something I haven't thought about for many a long year: my grandmother (born during the reign of Victoria) actually had antimacassars on all her comfy chairs, despite the fact that absolutely nobody used hair oil by the time I was aware of the things and their purpose (1970s). And woe betide anyone who left the antimacassar skewiff after sitting in one of the chairs.

Side note, the heated debate about how to pronounce it filled many a Sunday afternoon following family dinners (though now I think about it I'm sure my Aunts and Uncles mispronounced it on purpose just to wind her up).

 

[Zootonius]

When I'm sad, Beethoven. When I'm happy, Chopin or Schubert or Elgar. When I need my soul to sing, Ralph Vaughan Williams.

When I want to see someone give a concert grand piano multiple orgasms, Liszt.

p.s: if you like classical piano at all, do yourself a favour and watch what Valentina Lisistsa can do with her fingers

If you like Vaughan Williams, may I suggest Bernstein's album Adagio for Strings His Barber's adagio is to die for.

 

[onehitwanda]

If you like Vaughan Williams, may I suggest Bernstein's album Adagio for Strings His Barber's adagio is to die for.

Barber's adagio is nice, but there is nothing on earth which gives me shivers like Williams' Fantasia on a theme by Tallis

There's this one bit of it from about 1m14s into it that literally gives me chills. It always makes me picture someone like Indiana Jones entering a vast ancient tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt - staring around at the Heiroglyphics in awestruck wonder.

 

[onehitwanda]

@EmilyMiller sorry, babe, I guess we derailed this again. I'll go stand in the naughty corner.

 

[MrPixel]

If you like Vaughan Williams, may I suggest Bernstein's album Adagio for Strings His Barber's adagio is to die for.

Heart-wrenching. I was playing in a 150-piece orchestra when it was programmed for us. Of course I was sitting there with nothing to do... strings, you know... but being in the middle of a large orchestra playing their hearts out for such an emotional work was an incredible life experience.

Wanda, I'm with you, too, on the Williams Fantasia. Had a friend 40 years ago who transcribed it for symphonic winds, and - rest his soul - there was just no way a wind ensemble could emote like strings.

@EmilyMiller sorry, babe, I guess we derailed this again. I'll go stand in the naughty corner.

Why should this thread be an AH exception, huh?

 

[EmilyMiller]

@EmilyMiller sorry, babe, I guess we derailed this again. I'll go stand in the naughty corner.

You’d never catch me derailing threads.

I’ll think of a suitable punishment .

Em

 

[Zootonius]

Bernstein's interpretation of Williams' Fantasia on a theme by Tallis from that album is one of the finest I've heard.

Barber's adagio rings in my ear because of a live performance I heard. A pianist was scheduled to play on the program but die unexpectedly some months before. The conductor ask to play Barber's adagio as a memorial to him, requesting no applause after. The silence when the conductor walked off the stage was figuratively deafening.

 

[Bramblethorn]

…I used “epitrochoid” in a story today. It’s in my Geek Pride contribution, so maybe forgivable . Also everyone will have forgotten about this thread by the time it’s published. I may be dead by then.

What’s the most pretentiously recherché and exclusionary / elitist word you have used recently and how smug did you feel about using it?

In one of the sex scenes in Red Scarf, Sarah mentions that her tattoo is "a minimal-order three-geodetic regular digraph of degree two". But she does then go on to explain what that means, so I don't know if it counts as exclusionary.

Not "recently", but my most obscure word here would be "heptatych" in Magnum Innominandum.

 

[onehitwanda]

Wanda, I'm with you, too, on the Williams Fantasia. Had a friend 40 years ago who transcribed it for symphonic winds, and - rest his soul - there was just no way a wind ensemble could emote like strings.

I mean... that's a good effort, but trying to play most RVW on woodwinds is like trying to play Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor on a glockenspiel. Technically it will work but the heart of it is just entirely wrong.

I'm extremely opinionated about music. I don't care about the technical adroitness of a performance if the soul isn't there.

 

[onehitwanda]

You’d never catch me derailing threads.

I’ll think of a suitable punishment .

Em

I'll go slip into something less comfortable, shall I

 

[Zootonius]

I mean... that's a good effort, but trying to play most RVW on woodwinds is like trying to play Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor on a glockenspiel. Technically it will work but the heart of it is just entirely wrong.

I'm extremely opinionated about music. I don't care about the technical adroitness of a performance if the soul isn't there.

I once hear Ride of the Valkyries played on kazoos. Same idea.

 

[Zootonius]

You’d never catch me derailing threads.

I’ll think of a suitable punishment .

Em

This is starting to sound like that scene in the Castle Anthrax.

 

[MrPixel]

...trying to play Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor on a glockenspiel.

You made me think about a YouTube vid with a fellow playing Winter on a concertina that's incredible. I'll have to find it when I'm not throwing myself together to get out the door for... uh... orchestra rehearsal!

 

[SamScribble]

Yikes! I fell into my own trap. I dipped into Mrs Byrne's Dictionary and came up with... varietist n. an unorthodox person, one who practices unorthodox sex

Please feel free to weave it into your next story

 

[Zootonius]

Barber's adagio is nice, but there is nothing on earth which gives me shivers like Williams' Fantasia on a theme by Tallis

There's this one bit of it from about 1m14s into it that literally gives me chills. It always makes me picture someone like Indiana Jones entering a vast ancient tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt - staring around at the Heiroglyphics in awestruck wonder.

If I may put on my pretentious hat a moment. While all of 'Tallis' is great, the crescendo starting at about 10:30 in you link really hits me. The Bernstein album is a go to for long drives.

 

[onehitwanda]

I love the word Libertine. And Ungulate. Because I'm always tempted to spread Unguent on the Ungulate to prevent it becoming to Uxorious.

 

[Zootonius]

I love the word Libertine. And Ungulate. Because I'm always tempted to spread Unguent on the Ungulate to prevent it becoming to Uxorious.

Throw in Unctuous and you'll have a set.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I love the word Libertine. And Ungulate. Because I'm always tempted to spread Unguent on the Ungulate to prevent it becoming to Uxorious.

Ungoliant?

Em

 

[Handeguy]

Onomatopoeia .

Em

View attachment 2220453

 

[onehitwanda]

Ungoliant?

Em

Vampires, yes. 8-legged incarnations of crawling darkness with fangs? Not so much. Too many masticating mandibles to maneuver one's mons around.

Plus all those eyes. Far, far too many eyes. Gollum, gollum.

I guess that's tonight's nightmares sorted then. Excellent.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Vampires, yes. 8-legged incarnations of crawling darkness with fangs? Not so much. Too many masticating mandibles to maneuver one's mons around.

Plus all those eyes. Far, far too many eyes. Gollum, gollum.

I guess that's tonight's nightmares sorted then. Excellent.

I don’t much like spiders, has to be said.

Em

 

[onehitwanda]

I don’t much like spiders, has to be said.

Em

I grew up in a country where Australia exiled all the spiders that were nasty but not nasty enough. The runner up fuckers, the fucking stab you slash you bite you fuckers instead of the fucking murder you fuckers.

It left an impression. I'll take snakes over spiders any day of the week, and I hate snakes.

 

[EmilyMiller]

It left an impression. I'll take snakes over spiders any day of the week, and I hate snakes.

Said in a Harrison Ford voice?

You go first!

Em

 

[onehitwanda]

Said in a Harrison Ford voice?

You go first!

Em

Get out of my head. I was literally just looking for that bit of the movie.

Asps! Very dangerous! You go first!

 

[Zootonius]

I don’t much like spiders, has to be said.

Em

The oldest memory I have is my mother walking me down the stairs. And there at the landing was a daddy long legs. The rest of it is a blur. But yeah, it's primal.