You know you are getting old when:

[Seb Lucas]

If you haven't found a novel in the interim that you like more, yes. "Favorite" is a measure of appeal, not time.

Not for me. You see the point is, if I read it again tomorrow, I may find it no longer appeals. This happens to me and movies a lot when I re-watch them. "Favorite" isn't a permanent category.

 

[Harp]

And we mustn't forget Shaw had a virulent hated for William S too, calling the cult of Shakespeare, Bardoltary.

Wilde is certainly an appealing Victorian celebrity and used language delightfully, but I can probably live without his work (I prefer Huysman's Against Nature). Deathbed conversions are far from compelling. I am reminded of the palliative care director I worked with who told of all the clergymen and priests he'd known who renounced their faith as they died. Dying, like most human activities, generates a multiplicity of equivocal responses.

You know you're getting old when you realize it's been twenty-five years since you read your favorite novel. Can it still be called a favorite after such an absence?

Shaw envied Shakespeare; virulent hate accounts Eros blindfold worn.
Wilde is to English what Cicero is to Latin; or, Huysman to French. A rebours, master splendor.
Absence allows forfeiture excepting Vatsyayana for The Kama Sutra.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Speaking of classical art forms that the upper classes use to keep the downtrodden downtrodden...

https://www.dw.com/en/opera-star-placido-domingo-at-80/a-56287145

Happy 80th birthday, Placido!

I confess that, in nearly twenty years of living in Vienna and within twenty minutes of one of the world's great opera houses, I have been to exactly three operas. (A tip I was given early on: beginners should go to comedies, not tragedies.) Nonetheless, we own many CDs of Operatic "greatest hits". Culture-lite strikes again! But in my office, you at least have to know who's in town and whats on offer for the current season. On many an evening in downtown, you can see parties in tuxes and gowns going out for a stroll or a light dinner before the performance. Also, during the summer in the good old pre-COVID days, there was a summer outdoor food market in front of the city hall and they would always have shows from the Opera House on the big screen. If ever there was an Opera loving town, this is it.

 

[Harp]

Speaking of classical art forms that the upper classes use to keep the downtrodden downtrodden...

https://www.dw.com/en/opera-star-placido-domingo-at-80/a-56287145

Happy 80th birthday, Placido!

I confess that, in nearly twenty years of living in Vienna and within twenty minutes of one of the world's great opera houses, I have been to exactly three operas. Culture-lite strikes again! But in my office, you at least have to know who's in town and whats on offer for the current season. On many an evening in downtown, you can see parties in tuxes and gowns going out for a stroll or a light dinner before the performance. If ever there was an Opera loving town, this is it.

I missed Anna Netrebko several times when she visited The Lyric Opera here, c'est la vie.
Chicago has a vibrant arts scene and opera plays a large role within circumference,
but it is catch-as-catch can all too often. I am a maverick opera fan at the office,
certainly not alone but I show the Lyric flag with seasonal programs scattered about.
I envy your residence in Vienna.

 

[belfastboy]

Speaking of classical art forms that the upper classes use to keep the downtrodden downtrodden...

https://www.dw.com/en/opera-star-placido-domingo-at-80/a-56287145

Happy 80th birthday, Placido!

I confess that, in nearly twenty years of living in Vienna and within twenty minutes of one of the world's great opera houses, I have been to exactly three operas. (A tip I was given early on: beginners should go to comedies, not tragedies.) Nonetheless, we own many CDs of Operatic "greatest hits". Culture-lite strikes again! But in my office, you at least have to know who's in town and whats on offer for the current season. On many an evening in downtown, you can see parties in tuxes and gowns going out for a stroll or a light dinner before the performance. Also, during the summer in the good old pre-COVID days, there was a summer outdoor food market in front of the city hall and they would always have shows from the Opera House on the big screen. If ever there was an Opera loving town, this is it.

Placido won my permanent respect when we saw him in Nabucco at the Met just a few years ago. He sang his death aria whilst laying prone on the stairway. We budget for three operas a year. When the lights begin to dim I always ask my wife in a loudish voice..."Is this the one with the happy ending?" or "Is this the sing along version?"

 

[LizzieMaine]

I learned to enjoy opera courtesy of Mister Rogers, who often had opera stars as guests, performing in specially-written operas featuring his puppets -- with music done at a very high level for kids' entertainment. I graduated to the grown-up stuff courtesy of the radio, and I still enjoy listening when we have the Met in HD features at the theatre.

There was a big push in the Era to make opera a mainstream attraction, with opera stars regularly featured as guests on variety and comedy programs on radio, and appearing in movies. There are still a few efforts in that direction today, but it's nowhere near the way it was in the 1940s, when you could have people like Lauritz Melchior or Rise Stevens gagging it up with Fred Allen or Lawrence Tibbett singing "Shortnin' Bread."

 

[Tiki Tom]

The day I first tipped my hat to Placido Domingo was thus: I was living in D.C. and he was on the local news because he was taking over the role of Artistic Director (or something like that) at the D.C. Opera. A reporter asked him a question in English, and he responded in English. A reporter asked him a question in French, and he responded in French. Italian: Italian. Spanish:Spanish. I was gob-smacked. The guy is fluent in five languages. Nothing to do with opera, per se, but I was very impressed. Plus, he can sing like nobody’s business.

 

[Turnip]

...you get an idea of what the ancestors meant when talking about winter cherries.

 

[Harp]

The day I first tipped my hat to Placido Domingo was thus: I was living in D.C. and he was on the local news because he was taking over the role of Artistic Director (or something like that) at the D.C. Opera. A reporter asked him a question in English, and he responded in English. A reporter asked him a question in French, and he responded in French. Italian: Italian. Spanish:Spanish. I was gob-smacked. The guy is fluent in five languages. Nothing to do with opera, per se, but I was very impressed. Plus, he can sing like nobody’s business.

Opera as a rule requires fluency in basic European tongues to sing standards.
Gaelic, for inexplicable reason, is excluded.

 

[belfastboy]

The day I first tipped my hat to Placido Domingo was thus: I was living in D.C. and he was on the local news because he was taking over the role of Artistic Director (or something like that) at the D.C. Opera. A reporter asked him a question in English, and he responded in English. A reporter asked him a question in French, and he responded in French. Italian: Italian. Spanish:Spanish. I was gob-smacked. The guy is fluent in five languages. Nothing to do with opera, per se, but I was very impressed. Plus, he can sing like nobody’s business.

One of the requirements of a top level opera singer is they need to, if not be fluent, at least have solid understanding of the language, vocab, verbs, tenses etc in the language in which they sing. And if they have been around long enough performing in Europe the likely become fluent speakers as well. In order to emote they need understand the meaning of the words they sing. A pejorative term for singers with great voice yet can't emote.......what they do is called "park and bark".

 

[Trenchfriend]

Damn, you Europeans eat some weird sh...uhh, stuff.

Try Sauerkraut juice, if available, it's really good!
The supermarket tetra-pak stuff got 1% ocean salt, which is fine.

 

[Trenchfriend]

When you quit your Youtube-account ten or eleven years ago...

 

[Edward]

... you clearly remember when a million bucks seemed an impossibly large sum.

I remember back in the seventies a guy who worked with my dad inherited a quarter of a million pounds, and was given a month off work to see if he wanted to retire early (I think he was in his forties). He lasted three weeks before he came back, couldn't fill his time and got bored.... but the point was, in those days a quarter of a million would be enough you could, if sensible, live off it for the rest of your life. In 2021, it wouldn't but you a one bed ex-council flat in the East End of London. Where my folks are it would buy a nice, large house, but while being mortgage free is a dream, it's not quite the same as never having to work again!

 

[Harp]

I remember back in the seventies...but while being mortgage free is a dream, it's not quite the same as never having to work again!

Back in the seventies I retired to Kaneohe Beach on Oahu with a crash pad in Honolulu's Makikiki Heights at 20,
mortgage free and never having to work again; waves, wahinies, a rich older lady whom wanted a boy toy.
Guilt eventually caught up and like a high wave tossed me back stateside. A beach barrister silk surfer bum
existence traded for a normal life chasing risk and reward.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Can you still feel it? I mean the intro itself.

 

[Turnip]

Already hated it decades ago. Such a crappy piece of trash-show, almost good again...

 

[Seb Lucas]

Can you still feel it?

You know you're getting old when you remember when cheesy network TV used to be taken seriously.

 

[Zombie_61]

You know you're getting old when you remember when cheesy network TV used to be taken seriously.

I never even knew Lee Majors had a sense of humor until I saw him in The Fall Guy. The first time I heard him make fun of himself, even in character, his stock went up more than a few points.

 

[Harp]

I never even knew Lee Majors had a sense of humor until I saw him in The Fall Guy.

Always liked Majors, seemed quite credible in The Big Valley. But, ahh, the Rock Hudson connection,
and his later marriage to Karen Velez--if I recall her name correctly--Playboy Playmate of The Year
sort of threw a curve; admittedly low and inside, not intending to toss any dirt his way, but still....

Have a few Hollywood connects, and the stuff casually thrown over a dinner plate can amaze....

 

[LizzieMaine]

We used to say that ABC stood for "Always Bringin' Cheese." One of the great joys of my teen years was reading Cleveland Amory's reviews in "TV Guide" (which was once a very fine magazine featuring serious journalism by serious journalists) and enjoying how he'd completly blister that network's latest proof that Newton Minow Was Right.