Annoying R3 Trailers

[cria]

Curiously, since becoming a gentleman of leisure I have better things to do...

... a proper GOL would never ever say he's a GOL. - he will exude it ...

[LMcD]

It was - though without your post I would never have remembered. He worked for OUP (and didn't read The Times!).

12-times winner Mark Goodliffe 'suffered a shock semi-final defeat' last year, but says he'll be back.

[kernelbogey]

Would that be John Sykes?

It was - though without your post I would never have remembered. He worked for OUP (and didn't read The Times!).

[kernelbogey]

Very abused word “immersive.” It’s used to mean music to relax into and let all other thoughts leave your mind....

This is the current R3 marketing ploy - flogging Classical music as a meditative crutch. There are many interpretations of mindfulness, but I don't consider listening to music per se to be mindful - nor, I believe, did the Buddha! Just as the bathwater is not in itself immersive, nor is music mindful. Both require the actions of the bather or the meditator.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Very abused word “immersive.” It’s used to mean music to relax into and let all other thoughts leave your mind. But real immersion as a listener or performer is something completely differently . It’s a total focus on the piece . It’s not at all relaxing . With a piece you’ve got under fingers it’s almost as if there’s nothing between the notes on the page and the action of the fingers and the music coming from the instrument . You’re not having to “think “ what to do . Of course the greats can do this with any piece and from memory and make subtle constant instinctive modifications. They are
truly “immersed “ -but their brains are working furiously. I guess in tennis it’s called flow - an instinctive state in which all the mental blocks about playing the perfect shot disappear. The gap between seeing ball , shot selection and execution is imperceptible.
It’s sort of Bhuddist . Like the target drawing the arrow - the instrument is almost sucking the music out of the player - almost as if the keys are pulling the fingers down. The piano is “playing “ the pianist .A very weird feeing.

[french frank]

" O, I always say I'm a writer. In much the same way that certain ladies call themselves 'actresses'... "

When asked Auden used say he was a medieval historian because "it withers curiosity". This I can understand

[vinteuil]

As for 'gainful employment'.......being a humble CD merchant, both words are gross exaggerations.....although the public's conception of the trade was more like semi-legal banditry!

... I was too young to understand it when I first heard it, but later came to appreciate the self-description of one of my parents' friends, a scholarly hack -

" O, I always say I'm a writer. In much the same way that certain ladies call themselves 'actresses'... "

[Roger Webb]

... never knew of that. He wd've been a hard case for What's My Line?

When I was in gainful employment I did the crosswords regularly. Well, it passed the time. Curiously, since becoming a gentleman of leisure I have better things to do...

.

Much the same here, now retired I have little time for mere 'pastimes'.

As for 'gainful employment'.......being a humble CD merchant, both words are gross exaggerations.....although the public's conception of the trade was more like semi-legal banditry!

[LMcD]

I had an indirect involvement with the Times Crossword Competition circa forty years ago; the man who won regularly for several years running (until they asked him to stop entering) usually took IIRC under four minutes.

Would that be John Sykes?

[kernelbogey]

There was a lengthy discussion in The Times a few years ago about timing ones completion of the crossword. The competition was fierce to prove ones prowess, timing ones egg (Vinteuil) was often given....soft-boiled was just boasting! One poor chap ended the discussion by claiming he too timed his crossword with his egg.......and then revealed he liked the Chinese 100-year eggs!

I had an indirect involvement with the Times Crossword Competition circa forty years ago; the man who won regularly for several years running (until they asked him to stop entering) usually took IIRC under four minutes.

[vinteuil]

... is the chap who had a small office in Fleet St. who daily solved all the 'difficult' newspaper crosswords and then sold the solutions... still in business?

... never knew of that. He wd've been a hard case for What's My Line?

When I was in gainful employment I did the crosswords regularly. Well, it passed the time. Curiously, since becoming a gentleman of leisure I have better things to do...

.

[LMcD]

... particularly as a piece takes less than four minutes

.

Yes, but Night Tracks lasts 90 minutes, and sometimes even that isn't long enough, in which case I then play one of my set of six beloved Readers Digest 'Dance Band Days' CDs.
(My best time so far is 11 minutes).

[Roger Webb]

On the subject, and you being London based, Vinteuil, might know, is the chap who had a small office in Fleet St. who daily solved all the 'difficult' newspaper crosswords and then sold the solutions to those who wanted to impress their workmates, or were on their way to job interviews, still in business?

[vinteuil]

.

.... it was MR James who started it. He liked his eggs soft-boiled

[Roger Webb]

It's ideal Music To Tackle The Times Crossword By.

There was a lengthy discussion in The Times a few years ago about timing ones completion of the crossword. The competition was fierce to prove ones prowess, timing ones egg (Vinteuil) was often given....soft-boiled was just boasting! One poor chap ended the discussion by claiming he too timed his crossword with his egg.......and then revealed he liked the Chinese 100-year eggs!