Last to Post

[Giant Communist Robot]

I may be the last to post.

[dai bread]

No way. I've got a time zone advantage.

[monkeymd2b]

This is pretty funny...I'll have to see tomorrow who truly was the last to post. Though to be fair, it was never specified what the end point is for this. Like last to post before tonight, the current lunar cycle, the end of the world. LOL!

[Giant Communist Robot]

Well, of course I meant the last to post before this board disappears. I think three days passed and I was to only one to post. Sooner or later Beethoven Radio will come to the conclusion maintaining this board for four or five posters is more trouble than it's worth.

[dai bread]

From my experience with a website I'm involved with, I think it likely that the bulletin board doesn't take much maintenance at all unless it's hacked. Next time that happens, I expect the board will be closed, but until then I think they'll leave it running.

[Trumpetmaster]

Well, of course I meant the last to post before this board disappears. I think three days passed and I was to only one to post. Sooner or later Beethoven Radio will come to the conclusion maintaining this board for four or five posters is more trouble than it's worth.

I hope you are wrong.....

[Giant Communist Robot]

Just when I felt this board was unused a flurry of posts arrive.

[Trumpetmaster]

Just when I felt this board was unused a flurry of posts arrive.

you awoke the sleeping giants...

[Shapley]

Sorry. I've been rather busy lately, and internet access has been spotty. I hope the board is around to let me catch up later.

[Schmeelkie]

Busy plus a few weeks where I couldn't sign in for some reason. Got it fixed now... This will be my most hectic of the summer months, but at the moment it's not too bad...

[Trumpetmaster]

[dai bread]

Famous last words?

[Trumpetmaster]

Famous last words?

you beat me....

[Shapley]

Just back from vacation. We left for Barcelona on May 18th, and took a cruise out of there on the Norwegian Spirit beginning May 22nd. We enjoyed stops in Toulon, France; Livorno (Pisa), Italy; Civatavecchia, Italy; Naples, Italy; Mykonos, Greece; Istanbul, Turkey; Izmir (Ephesus), Turkey; Heraklion, Crete, Greece; and Venice, Italy. From Venice, we traveled by rail to Rome, where we spent a day and half before flying home.

We passed over Greenland on the way home, with clear skies providing a beautiful view of that expansive piece of icy real estate. It was something to see. I've flown over or near it in the past, but always at night or when it was overcast. This was my first chance to actually see it, albeit from 38,000 feet.

[barfle]

I sometimes wonder whether or not there'll be a bulletin board when I stop in to check it.

Fortunately, there are still a few of us die-hards around. I wonder how the radio station is doing.

[dai bread]

I hope they're thriving. Goodness knows, they deserve to.

[Trumpetmaster]

first to post today...

oops... wrong thread...

[Giant Communist Robot]

I wonder how the radio station is doing.

When I was a boy I used to see the flyers for record clubs--classical music was always the largest category, and the rock and roll I was interested in was either absent or represented by about five albums. Times have changed. Interest in classical music has shrunk to a niche. A specialized format for radio. Not an area of growth. Nevertheless, there's revenue available.

[Shapley]

When I was a boy I used to see the flyers for record clubs--classical music was always the largest category, and the rock and roll I was interested in was either absent or represented by about five albums. Times have changed. Interest in classical music has shrunk to a niche. A specialized format for radio. Not an area of growth. Nevertheless, there's revenue available.

I was in the Columbia Record Club for years. There was actually a separate 'club' for classical music, although you could always order from the jazz, rock, soul, or pop music listings. The preference you specified when you joined the club determined which flyer was sent. Being in the Classical Club, my flyer usually included about a dozen pages (working from memory) of classical, four or so of jazz and blues, and about two each of pop, rock, and soul. I always assumed the other 'clubs' had a similar ratio for their interests, but I could not say for sure.

In my own area, classical music clubs and symphony societies were the best way to find classical music recordings, since music stores, or stores that carried music (we had no actual music stores in my immediate area), had smaller selections of classical music, if they carried any at all.

When I joined the club, you had your choice of reel-to-reel tapes, LPs, Cassettes, or 8-tracks (showing my age here). Actually, I don't recall 8-tracks being an option in the classical club, but there fore the pop and rock clubs. Reel-to-reel tapes dissappeared from the listing, and then 8-tracks. CDs were added. Laser disks may have been an ordering option at one time, but I don't think they were ever available as an automatic selection. At one point, I recieved notice that there discontinuing the LPs,and that I had to choose cassettes or CDs. I ignored the order, such that they no longer sent me a selection automatically, which was nice. I had long since met my obligated purchase, so I enjoyed having the selections available, but I hated having to send in the card to tell them not to send me the 'selection of the month'. Not specifying the format ended that annoyance.

[dai bread]

I belonged to the World Record Club at one stage, many years ago, and got some real gems from them, notably Solti's recording of "The Ring of the Niebelungen" for Decca. But there came a dry patch when I didn't fancy ordering anything. They complained, and told me if I didn't buy something my membership would lapse. I thought about it, then tallied up my records and realised I could listen non-stop for a couple of months at least, and let them cancel.

Even then, they were moving into the pop field, using the term broadly.

It wasn't always like that. Once upon a time, classical music was a common part of an entertainer's repertoire. Comedians would write skits set to it. The British weather forecast as an opera, for instance. To the tune of "La Donna e Mobile" "Biscay and Finnisterre/The outlook is sinisterre/Somewhere (I forget) and Lundy/Clear up by Monday." Brilliant! But commercial interests gradually dominated. When that sketch aired, everone knew "La Donna e Mobile" because it was played on the radio regularly. Not any more.