[78-L] impuring the pure

[Michael Biel]

A similar thing happened to my daughter a few years ago in college.  She 
was beginning work on a project for an audio class and she was 
discussing her concept with her professor.  This was the history of 
audio manipulation that she and I expanded for the ARSC presentation in 
Seattle.  She was explaining that she was not considering comedy records 
that were just using unusual instruments like Spike Jones.  "You mean 
Spike Milligan, don't you?" he asked condescendingly, thinking that she 
probably didn't know who Spike Milligan was.  "No, I don't mean The Goon 
Show and Spike Milligan," she replied, "I mean Spike Jones."   Then he 
made the mistake that was fatal to his reputation in her eyes: "Who's 
he?"  She dubbed off a bunch of stuff onto a CD and gave it to him the 
next day.  How could a professor who thought he knew everything about 
everything not know who Spike Jones was?  She never trusted his judgment 
again, especially when he kept on trying to get her to move into areas 
that had nothing to do with her purpose for the project.  She just 
reminded me that she has that conversation on tape because she was 
recording an interview with him that HE thought she might use in the 
project. Yeah, right. 

Mike Biel   mbiel at mbiel.com    


Bill McClung wrote:
> Ten years or so ago my daughter was first chair cello in first orchestra (our public high school was lucky enough to have three full orchestras).  The concert master of first orchestra was a very fine violinist, a very devout young man  who spent most of his evenings playing in his family's string quartet at home.  Music for him came from sheet music and not from electronic  sources.
>
> He was over at our house one day and I asked him if he ever played any jazz on his violin.  He assured me that there was no such a thing as "violin jazz" and dismissed me as a parent gone mad.
>
> I looked at my daughter and she just smiled and gave me the look that said, "This should be fun."  And it was.
>
> He shook his head and squinted his eyes as I played some cuts from "Paris Encounter" by Gary Burton and Stephane Grappelli on the turntable.    Then his ears got red and his body shook as I played the Stuff Smith cuts from the Nat Cole "After Hours Sessions".   And then he excused himself pretty quickly after about a minute or so of Jean Luc Ponte.  (I couldn't help myself.)
>
> He didn't come over to the house much after that.  I still liked him and loved to hear him play.  I can only hope Stephane and Stuff and Jean Luc opened his ears a little bit.
>
> Which is what you guys on 78-L do to/for me.  You lead me down some paths I never thought I'd go down.  And it's fun.
>
> Bill McClung