Nick on Quora

I think I may have triggered this question from you, Habib, because it came after I used the phrase in an answer.

I do in fact have a rule of thumb answer. It’s based on Laura Hale’s observation of how many followers and views typically get you Top Writer.

(If only it were that transparent, of course.)

I may misremember, but I think she said it was at least 300, and my own rule of thumb has been 500.

Yes, yes, I have 650.

The goatee, of which I am a proud if unkempt bearer, is a GenX thing. I adopted it in 1995, when they were everywhere, and I have stubbornly held on to it since—although by default it is nowadays surrounded by 9 pm stubble.

1995

2009

2016

“Disaffected Gen-X’er” and “goatee” go together in the Googles, though they used to go together more.

Stuff I want to know more about in boldface

• Dixieland Jazz
• Country Blues
• I got 7 CDs of anthologies, just need to rip them now
• Grateful Dead, Phish, those kinda guys
• I don’t think I’ll get it, but humour me
• James Brown
• Hendrix
• Chicago before they turned into mush
• Pink Floyd, Pink Floyd
• Love the Wall and Dark Side, need to know what else they did
• 80s crap
• 90s crap
• 90s good stuff
• Loved Nirvana. What happened next?
• What happened after I stopped listening to Western Vernacular Music? (It was when I started the PhD, ’95)

Stuff I already know:

• West Side Story. Not quite a musical, is it.
• My Fair Lady. Perfect musical, and astonishingly faithful to the play.
• Sweeney Todd. And Assassins. I don’t know other Sondheim pieces, but I’m sure they are excellent as well.
• Wicked. My wife’s fave, and I did not expect to fall in love with it, but hey, we don’t always disagree! I did fall in love with it. Never got around to buying the German recording, so I’ll need to put *that* in the list too: Willemijn Verkaik is astounding.
• Chicago. It’s an encyclopaedia of ’20s music, and wickedly biting.
• South Park Bigger Longer and Uncut. So totally counts as a musical, and one that adheres very closely to the form.
• Godspell. Meh. Jesus Christ Superstar is better.
• Jesus Christ Superstar.

From Michael Masiello

The devotional poetry of George Herbert.

Going with me to a deckchair in Broome, in two weeks’ time.

Because nothing says fun in the sun like 17th century poetry about God.

Hey. That’s MY version of fun!

As a guide to contributors, this is what I already know in music, and what I’d like to know more of. The latter is in boldface.

Classical Music.

• Perotin
• Stuff between Perotin and Ars Subtilior
• Ars Subtilior
• Stuff between Ars Subtilior and Corelli
• Liked Byrd. Freaked out by Vincenzo Galilei. Liked Schutz.
• Corelli
• Bach, Bach, Bach
• Mozart, Mozart
• Love the Clarinet Quintet, the Requiem, the last symphonies, the Violin Concertos. Liked the operas, need to revisit. Need piano concertos. Needs to be convinced everything else is not fluff
• Beethoven, Beethoven
• Love the symphonies. Challenged by the Grosse Fuge. Know very little else.
• Anything between Beethoven and Wagner
• Love Berlioz Requiem and Symphonie Fantastique, enough not to call him French. Will gradually make peace with Chopin
• Wagner
• Have heard the Ring once, and that was 30 years ago
• Brahms
• Love the 4th. That’s all I know.
• Mahler, Mahler, Mahler
• Berg, Berg
• Love the Violin Concerto and Wozzeck. Not sure I’d love anything else
• Shostakovich, Shostakovich
• Love the symphonies, the preludes & fugues, the cello concertos, and the 8th string quartet. Am OK with Rayok, but it’s not as subversive as he thought it is. Need to know more.
• Stravinsky, Stravinsky
• Know the standard Stravinsky Mark #1 stuff; fascinated by Les Noces. Loved Pulcinella, Symphony of Psalms and Oedipus Rex, need to know more Stravinsky Mark #2 stuff. Doubtful will like Stravinsky Mark #3, but I’m OK with the Requiem Canticles.
• John Adams
• I think I’ve tuned out of what he did post-Klinghoffer though.

https://www.quora.com/Chopins-pr…

From Michael Masiello

Nick, I propose this as your next homework assignment. You can find six minutes, right? Resist this — I dare you. It’s a stupor mundi any which way one looks at it, but in Ivan Moravec’s hands it’s touched by something superhuman. What do you think, Curtis — good pick?

And then you might try this one on for size:

From Mary C. Gignilliat

Apocalypse Now

Because it makes no sense at all that I’ve never seen it.

The horror… the horror…

Another blog for Nick?

Yes, another blog for Nick. It’s not like I’m paying for extra. Or that anyone’s going to see it anyway.

*sigh* And why this one?

My Chrome browser has too many open tabs.

So? Why is this Quora’s problem?

My Chrome browser has too many open tabs, because I get suggestions of music, or poems, or movies I should be experiencing from the good folks on Quora, and I’m not keeping tracking of them properly.

And…

… and if I track them here, success!

*rolls eyes*

So I’ll jot down each request here, solicit others in moderation; and if I accept, I’ll post my reactions to each piece in comments.

How very self-indulgent of you.

And screw you too.

Aphy-… Aphyre-… Ameri… WTF?

Aphypnēsis Amichaiou.

And screw you too.

The inspiration for this, and oldest open tab on my browser, is this comment from Michael Masiello, when I finally listened to some Chopin:

https://www.quora.com/Chopins-pr…

The awakening of Nick Nicholas continues!

Aphypnēsis is Greek for Awakening, you see.

And Amichaiou is…

Greek for “of Amichai”. Which Uri Granta has informed me is the closest name Hebrew has to Nicholas: Uri Granta’s answer to If you were to Hebraize your surname, what would you choose?

So. Aphypnēsis Amichaiou. The Awakening of Nick.

You really are a pretentious shmuck, aren’t you.

And screw you too.

From Dimitra Triantafyllidou

ΤΟ ΑΛΑΤΙ ΤΗΣ ΓΗΣ

36 episodes, isn’t it, of an awesome ethnomusicologist inviting some Greek folk musicians for a banquet in the studio on Greek Government TV, where they jam and talk. And joining in the dance.

Only watched two episodes, and both were wondrous: one on Southern Italy, one on Istanbul.

There will be more. I will comment on each here as I get to them.