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Unhappy Fingers's avatar

GAAAH!!! Sorry for the delay in me responding!!! (I hid in my cave for a while there.)

Adams conducted the Met premiere of Nixon in China in 2011 and it was shown on WNET. I grabbed it with my TiVo. I like the performance better than the CD set with de Waart. I saw the opera live under de Waart at BAM years ago when it was touring after the premiere in Houston. The opera is a fave of mine. I dunno if the Met performance is online anywhere. I should get my nerdy/techy ass off the couch and figure out how to transcode the 18GB file to something shorter so I can give it away.

I also saw Klinghoffer at BAM.

I'm a semi-retired engineer/scientist/researcher. No formal music training other than classical guitar lessons as a kid and my sis being a violin major until she thought better of it. I started what you might call "seriously listening" as an undergrad. Then in my two years of grad school I discovered Tower Records on Columbus in SF. Goodbye savings!! Then not long after coming back to NJ Tower opened in lower Manhattan - but then I had a decent income.

My interest generally ran from mid-Classical period through the present if you lop off Schoenberg and his acolytes/devotees. But I like some weird stuff - my most prized item is a recording of the professional premiere of Harry Parch's "Revelation in the Courthouse Park" I grabbed off of WNYC. I also got to see THAT live later in Alice Tully. (if you don't know Parch he was the 43 note scale built-his-own instruments guy.) Again, I like the premier better than the CD set.

My unhappy fingers? Two things - do you know where the"Happy Fingers" reference comes from? It's Dr. Seuss's only live-action movie "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T." It's my know-every-detaill fave, one I show to every musically-inclined friend I have. Unfortunately the Un- part comes from chronic tendonitis and diabetic neuropathy in both hands, along with having my hearing blown by an accident 3 years ago that mostly ended my listening to music.

I don't remember any SNL skits of Nixon as I didn't watch much TV during that time. I'll have to see if I can find them. Should be funny. But you're quite right about him being a tragic, internally tortured figure.

Wish I could borrow the TARDIS. Sigh.

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Cat Cafe's avatar

My dad was an engineer/scientist. I think it is related to being a music-lover! Your recordings sound awesome. I'll have to go look for that Dr. Seuss movie! Sorry about the tendonitis and neuropathy, that can really be a bitch. My hubs has neuropathy in his legs following hip surgery, it's hard. Definitely search for "Dan Aykroyd Nixon." He did a fantastic Nixon. Actually, I just went to look for the sketch in question--can't find it anywhere. Maybe there's a Dan Aykroyd on SNL DVD somewhere. It's a really hilarious sketch.

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