English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Cerberus

00:27

@CowperKettle If that is true, it is crazy. But I believe not even American law is that crazy.

Such news articles are wrong 99% of the time.

So I would either find the actual sentence, or ignore it has nonsense.

Robusto

00:53

@RegDwigнt: Remember when we were talking about too-old-to-be-youngest-anything?

That is getting younger and younger every year.

Mozart, Piano Concerto No 3 in D major Елисей Мысин Young pianist and composer @Classical Tunes

►

So I figure if you're nine years old you're already too old to break any new ground.

"Sorry, kid, we're looking at seven- and eight-year-olds only."

RegDwigнt

02:08

@Robusto yeah my brother's fiancée sent me that video a few months ago.

I fondly remember closing it in disgust a couple minutes in, thinking to myself just how much music differs from circus, and just how few people seem to understand the difference.

Jul 6 '18 at 19:49, by RegDwigнt

That's why you can go to the Royal Albert Hall and listen to a crazy talented three-year old prodigy and they will sound like a frigging robot to you, but then you walk home and some hobo in the gutter who misses half the notes and holds the violin all wrong actually moves you to tears. One of them has a story to tell. He's seen things. The other has seen jack all, knows nothing, has nothing to say, and will not say anything of any value or importance for many years to come.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt I also wonder how this boy will develop.

I suspect lots of admiration at a young age may be bad for one's mental health later.

The same applies to lots of competition/pressure.

RegDwigнt

Yes, there is that.

But there's the other side of the coin.

I don't care one bit about the kid. But there's all the other people watching him. Like you and I.

Cerberus

Not I!

I have closed the tab.

RegDwigнt

Most people will watch that kid and think, "oh well, no point in me starting with piano at my age. That kid is 34 years ahead of me."

Cerberus

I want to hear Janet Baker be Dido again.

@RegDwigнt True.

RegDwigнt

02:16

Yeah, but it's completely wrong. It's exactly the other way round.

You are 34 years ahead of that kid.

Cerberus

I don't know about that.

I am of an age immemorial.

RegDwigнt

What he has, you can have in less than six years. He's a testament to just that. It will take you less than six years to catch up with a six-year-old.

Cerberus

Also known as 36.

RegDwigнt

But it will take him 34 years to catch up with you.

What he has, you can have in six years. What you have, will take him decades to acquire.

And if you're of an age immemorial, he will literally never catch up with you. Ever.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt Can I really?

Isn't it much more difficult to learn all that at a later age?

RegDwigнt

02:23

Languages? Fuck yes. Everything else? Fuck no.

What he has learned so far is just how to push all them buttons. You can learn that, too. Except that you've also been listening to music your whole life. You know what music is supposed to sound like. He doesn't.

Cerberus

Hmm.

Will my fingers be as quick?

RegDwigнt

It's not even difficult music, like. It was Mozart, if I remember correctly.

Cerberus

I was teaching some of my pupils from a chemistry book this week.

RegDwigнt

It takes quite a lot of talent to make Mozart sound rubbish. I should know, I am rubbish and my Mozart sounds like music.

@Cerberus why should your fingers not be as quick?

Cerberus

I took only a single year of chemistry a century ago, and I remember nothing about it. And yet, it is so much easier for me to understand the book and do what is needed, compared to them, who saw it as an insurmountable mountain.

RegDwigнt

02:26

See, that's exactly what I mean. That kid has spoiled it for you. You may have picked up an instrument. But now because of him you won't.

Cerberus

Yeah.

RegDwigнt

So maybe you were the next Rachmaninoff, but now the world will never know.

Cerberus

Poor world.

By the way, Janet Baker!

She is still alive and kicking!

Still sharp and dignified, at least in 2016 she was.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus I can teach you how to play a Beethoven sonatina with both hands in less than a month. I can teach you to compose your first song in a week, and fairly sophisticated music in less than a year.

Cerberus

I found an interview of her, with Joyce di Donato.

RegDwigнt

02:29

And it will take me no effort at all because you are not a stupid six-year-old.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt That is fast!

Maybe you overestimate me based on who you are yourself, though.

I only took piano lessons for a year or so, when I was maybe 14.

RegDwigнt

It will literally take me half a sentence to explain an advanced concept to you that takes a child months to understand because they simply lack the foundation. They don't even know half the words that you know.

Cerberus

Intellectual stuff, sure.

But memory, reflexes, intuition?

RegDwigнt

Memory comes for free. Reflexes are inate. Intuition is just experience.

Robusto

Memory isn't free after a certain point.

RegDwigнt

02:32

Play a couple months a day for a month, and you'll start getting intuition. Play not a single note ever, and you'll get none.

Cerberus

But some intuitions are perhaps easier to form in one's early youth.

And players of Starcraft often retire at 25!

RegDwigнt

See, I'm glad Rob is here because now he can just make you shut up with a simple "that's loser talk".

Cerberus

Tsk.

RegDwigнt

Dec 12 at 23:20, by Robusto

I don't want to hear excuses, just music. /nod

Robusto

But even Mozart needed to acquire some maturity before his music became memorable.

Cerberus

02:33

@RegDwigнt Well, you know more about music than I do, so you may be right.

But I would argue that some things are easier to learn when one begins early.

skillpatrol

tsk tsk :)

Cerberus

@Robusto Fair enough.

@skillpatrol Hiya.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus no thing is easier to learn if you never begin.

Cerberus

No, indeed.

skillpatrol

@Cerberus hi pal

Robusto

02:34

@Cerberus Yes, they are. But the problem comes when you don't keep growing as a human being.

There are plenty of Suzuki Method robots out there.

Cerberus

I'm sure.

Suzuki Method?

RegDwigнt

Dec 4 '18 at 12:31, by RegDwigнt

"Talent" is a commonly accepted shorthand for "I could do that, too, but I am lazy".

Robusto

Wait, WTF hat are you wearing?

RegDwigнt

Who now.

I am wearing the only hat that I has gots.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt True.

Robusto

02:36

No, you have two others.

RegDwigнt

Dec 18 at 16:00, by RegDwigнt

So I went and checked, and apparently all the hats are all rubbish this time, and basically noöne has none anywhere.

Robusto

THAT hat looks like a Nazi forage cap.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto where? I last checked just yesterday, and there was none.

Robusto

Complete with Adler and all.

I just checked you on ELU right now.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto thank you. I put in the hours to make it look just right.

Robusto

02:37

You have Wear in the World, Amazing Grace, and one other. Looks like a Soviet fur hat with a red star.

RegDwigнt

OOOOOOHHHHHH FUCK YES I HAS RUSSIAN HAT

Robusto

Red Army.

RegDwigнt

But why red star is red heart

Robusto

Because they're trying to water down the whole Soviet hegemony thing.

RegDwigнt

Let me re-dress.

Robusto

02:38

A re-dress of grievances.

RegDwigнt

Well fuck that did nothing. Do I need to flush the cache or what.

Robusto

You still look like a Nazi to me.

RegDwigнt

My grievance exactly.

Robusto

Better to flush the cache than to flush the cash.

RegDwigнt

Well I'm stuck with this one for now.

Robusto

02:40

Heil Hatter.

RegDwigнt

And knowing SE, for now is for ever.

I'm not goering to wear this forever.

Robusto

The last time they cleared their caches Monica was still an über-mod.

On onlies haz the Cosmic Brain hat, and I'm damned if I'll wear a hat this year.

RegDwigнt

I'm gonna be heil as a keitel by then.

Robusto

A Harvey Keitel?

RegDwigнt

Wilhelm Keitel

Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (22 September 1882 – 16 October 1946) was a German field marshal and war criminal during the Nazi era who served as Chief of the Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, OKW) during World War II. In this capacity, Keitel signed a number of criminal orders and directives that led to a war of unprecedented brutality and criminality. Keitel's rise to the Wehrmacht high command began with his appointment as the head of the Armed Forces Office at the Reich Ministry of War in 1935. After Hitler took command of the Wehrmacht in 1938, he replaced t...

Robusto

02:44

Harvey Keitel

Harvey Keitel ( ky-TEL; born May 13, 1939) is an American actor and producer. He has starred in films such as Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), The Duellists (1977), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Bugsy (1991), Thelma & Louise (1991), Reservoir Dogs (1992), Bad Lieutenant (1992), The Piano (1993), Pulp Fiction (1994), From Dusk till Dawn (1996), Cop Land (1997), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Youth (2015) and The Irishman (2019).Keitel has been nominated for a number of accolades in his career, including Academy and Golden Globe awards, and has won an Australian Academy of Cinema...

I prefer this Keitel.

RegDwigнt

Wilhelm, Bodewin, Johann, Gustav. No Harvey. Sorry.

Robusto

This one is The Wolf.

RegDwigнt

This one thinks fast, talks fast, and need us two guys to act fast.

If we want to get out of this Nazi party here.

Cerberus

listens to the Red Army Choir

RegDwigнt

As you well should.

Robusto

02:46

Your Red Army Heart Attack is showing now.

RegDwigнt

I am wearing the correct hat for the occasion now.

Jinx.

Dafuq kind of name is Bodewin anyway.

Robusto

RegDwigнt

Adolf I can understand. But Bodewin. You're just asking to raise a war criminal at that point.

Cerberus

Now I've accidentally watched / listened to André Rieu.

It's so very...bland.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto gotta hand it to you, that's the most hideous d I have seen in quite some time. Don't let @tchrist see.

Robusto

02:49

Too late. He's lurking atm.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus just like that kid in the video earlier.

Now anyway. Why am I here, even.

I did get a hat out of it, so there's that.

Cerberus

Probably worse.

Robusto

I'm just waiting to go to the airport to pick up my son.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus nah, that's not fair. Just give that kid another 50 years and he'll become the next Andre Rieu alright.

Cerberus

Rob is always so cute when he is affectionate about his son.

In a good way.

RegDwigнt

02:51

If he won't kill himself 30 years prior. Russian music education can do that to people.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt Oh, marvel!

tchrist

@Robusto It was 62 here today on the hibernal solstice. There's no place like home.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt Oh, he is Russian. That explains a lot.

RegDwigнt

There's no business like no business.

Robusto

@tchrist Colder than that here in the high desert.

@Cerberus I must be cute all the time, then. Because I am always affectionate about my son(s).

Cerberus

02:52

We have not seen anything close to freezing yet.

6 is coldest I remember.

@Robusto There you go.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus well just what kind of name did you think Елисей Мысин was? Danish?

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt Bulgaro-Ukrainian?

RegDwigнt

You're Bulgaro-Ukrainian.

Robusto

:53001471 Even in Tour de France riders, their brains burn 20% of the calories consumed.

Cerberus

Really?

I think it's 30% or so when at rest?

RegDwigнt

02:53

@Cerberus I have been freezing my ass off for the last six weeks, what are you on about.

Robusto

@Cerberus That is what I read.

RegDwigнt

I'm like three miles away from you.

Cerberus

Hmm.

@RegDwigнt Russian space miles?

RegDwigнt

Every Sunday after the Mass, I'm down with a cold for two days straight.

Robusto

Seems like a solution would be to not go to mass.

Cerberus

02:55

Temp?

Smuglianka.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto Yes, I figured as much and didn't go today.

Cerberus

So many good songs.

RegDwigнt

Concert's in less than two weeks.

I need to watch my core temperature.

Cerberus

They say colds are not at all caused by cold.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus see, and the Bulgaro-Ukrainian hasn't even heard half of them yet.

Cerberus

02:56

Hmm.

Aren't they on national telly all the time?

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus and yet it's literally the same word in all the languages.

Erkältung in German, простуда in Russian.

Cerberus

Doctors and scientists continually tell us this.

Verkoudheid in Dutch.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus you think that kid is allowed telly? Now you're just being silly.

Also no, Russian telly is the worst. I'd rather watch Rush Limbaugh for 26 hours every day. And so should you.

Cerberus

But...

Where can we watch Putin singing Blueberry Hill?

> Risk factors [for getting a cold] include going to child care facilities, not sleeping well, and psychological stress.[5] The symptoms are mostly due to the body's immune response to the infection rather than to tissue destruction by the viruses themselves. ... Additionally, influenza is less likely to result in a runny nose.[13]

RegDwigнt

That kid has definitely never seen that

@Cerberus it's adorable how you fixed "saing" into "signing" and thought that should do it.

Cerberus

02:59

Ugh.

Singing is such a weird word, with that repetition.

RegDwigнt

Putin will not sign Blueberry Hill. He'll just annex it.

Cerberus

> The primary methods of prevention are hand washing; not touching the eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands; and staying away from sick people. ...there is no good evidence for cough medicines.[5][16]

> The average adult gets two to three colds a year, while the average child may get six to eight.

That is a lot!

RegDwigнt

Right anyway. As I was saying. I only dropped in to see what condition my condition was in. After spending most of the day writing and then orchestrating my Waltz №16.

Cerberus

I don't get two to three colds a year, but rather one.

RegDwigнt

Well, writing was 1 minute as usual. Orchestrating was all the rest of the day.

Oh, by the way. You're on Facebook, right. Go check my, what they call it, timeline? My most recent post from today.

Cerberus

03:03

I'll try, if I can find out how Facebook worked again.

RegDwigнt

Someone from the US sent me a video of them playing and dancing to my Waltz №5.

Guitar, violin, and flute.

Cerberus

> The traditional theory is that a cold can be "caught" by prolonged exposure to cold weather such as rain or winter conditions, which is how the disease got its name.[40] Some of the viruses that cause the common colds are seasonal, occurring more frequently during cold or wet weather.[41] The reason for the seasonality has not been conclusively determined.[42] Possible explanations may include cold temperature-induced changes in the respiratory system,[43] decreased immune response,[44] and low humidity causing an increase in viral transmission rates, perhaps due to dry air allowing small…

Hmm Wikipaedia says a cold body may cause colds after all!

Very surprising.

RegDwigнt

Cerberus, whom are you posting this for? We all know that. Heck, some of us probably wrote parts of that.

Cerberus

For all of us.

But now I'm done.

I'm waiting for Facebook to load.

RegDwigнt

No you can carry on. I'm just saying in that same time you could have learned to play one bar of Beethoven. Or composed your first nursery rhyme.

Cerberus

03:05

Ah, you appeared at the top of the page immediately after I logged in!

RegDwigнt

Well fuck me I'm famous.

Cerberus

I didn't need to go to your profile or type your name or anything.

RegDwigнt

Seriously tho, that's why Facebook sucks balls. You reload that page again, it'll look completely different.

It's completely random what they show to whom and in which order.

You can have 2000 followers, and only 10 will ever see any of your posts, and only halfway down the page.

Anyway. I must be off to watch YouTube and play Fallout on the Switch.

You enjoy my lovely waltz.

Toddlepips.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt Quite lovely!

Do you know how they found your music?

And what made them decide to perform and dance to it?

The Christmas Spirit, I should think!

Mitch

03:22

blorp

Cerberus

04:26

Quite.

RegDwigнt

14:54

@Cerberus yeah. Back when I first recorded this waltz for YouTube, I posted it on Reddit. The guitarist found it there and emailed me that he'd like to play it together with his wife who plays the violin. I then helped him with the lead sheet (what chords to play on the guitar).

That was a year ago. I've forgotten all about it.

Back then I also had a piano teacher from Germany contact me about the sheet music. She played it home for herself. And then sent me the fingerings she used in the trickiest passage. Because me, I just use whatever. And obviously as a piano teacher she could tell just from watching my video. :-D

It's my most popular piece so far, by a long shot. The most views and likes and everything, everywhere I posted it.

Closely followed by my etude for the left hand, then the waltz I wrote for my mom, then Mandelstam's The Fog. Everything else is less popular, in part because I just didn't do any promotion for it.

Etude for the Left Hand

►

A waltz of days long past

►

Osip Mandelstam — The Fog

►

And yeah, in terms of just the pure number of views on YouTube, "Learn Russian in 1 minute" is more popular than all of these combined. But it's also got the most downvotes lol. Quite a few people didn't get the joke. Apparently they genuinely expected to actually learn Russian in just one minute.

Learn Russian in 1 minute

►

Promotion is everything, really. You can't just finish a piece, or a book, or a painting, and move on to the next one. That's not where the actual work ends, that's where it only just begins.

I know a few painters. They have it even worse than me. They have to physically get people over to come and look at their stuff.

At least I can just post my shit online. Everyone listens to music all the time. But nobody ever googles for paintings to look at.

And from what I'm hearing, it's even worse with books.

Don't be a writer.

Gigili

16:45

@RegDwigнt I couldn't agree more. And you just did it. Not unnoticeable exactly, but less in your face.

Mitch

17:18

@Cerberus Exactly. This guy gets it.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…