Day 235: Old friends
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
235 — Old friends
24-March-1972
(Freitag–Fri.)
TRANSCRIPT
Nothing new.
REFLECTIONS
Nothing new in 1972.
Old
friends. In 2009, I
have been increasingly discovering some long lost
college friends through the social networking
mechanisms of Facebook and LinkedIn. It’s amazing,
really. Like a world-wide phone book that you can
search. What is fun is catching up with each person
after all these years, using wall-to-wall comments.
Everyone is “older.” Gosh, jolly, wizbang! Many are
married for many years, successful, and with grown-up
kids who are also becoming successful.
Jack—Montclair
State College. Jack was
a colleague in our class at Montclair State College.
A great guy and an excellent pianist. Jack has
been incredibly
successful,
forever, in the music field. How do you spell, Dean?
Married and with an aspiring musical daughter.
Wonderful. President of our music frat, if I
remember. Here is a picture of our fraternity, Phi Mu
Alpha. Jack is one of the guys in the front row and
he doesn’t wear glasses. (opening photo) Can we name
the rest of the clan? John, Bobbie, Marius, Bob,
John, David, Eric, Bob, Dave, me...
Remember, I am the very last guy in the last row. I
don’t think I had body odor that day. I think it was
my camera that took the picture and after setting the
picture up, I ran to the back. I can’t remember.
Chris
and Alexis—Indiana University. I didn’t
live with Jack. I did live with Chris and Alexis.
Yes, in Eigenmann Hall at Indiana University. Sure,
there were 800 other people living with us as well.
Chris and Alexis are two great college friends from
my IU days. We were all going for our Master’s
degrees. We used to enjoy great conversations and
great meals ?? in the dorm cafeteria. IU was a tough
school for music and having good friends reduced the
stress. Alexis is also an excellent pianist—you have
to be at IU—and is happily married with a great
daughter and husband and has been a university
professor, forever. Chris is a wonderful girl and has
worked at Indiana University for many years. A music
theorist, historian, and vocalist, she can sight-sing
the do-re-mi’s around anyone. I think Chris may not
be spoken for at the moment. If you are a wealthy,
stable, and single man, let me know. I’ll hook you
up.
I miss you guys.
Another close friend of those days, Sue, has passed
and is truly missed by all of us who knew her. The
picture below shows the Eigenmann gang.
The Eigenmann Gang 1975
Chisai, Sue, John, Alexis, George, Chris, and Fred
Richard—Ohio State University. Richard
was a good friend at Ohio State University when I was
trying (emphasis on trying) to get my doctorate in
composition. Never finished. Well, he finished his
doctorate, also in composition, and so I need to call
him Dr. Richard. Just a couple of weeks ago, I
managed to get a hold of him and found out he has had
a successful life in marriage, a daughter, a
university professorship, owning a recording studio,
and in actually continuing his composition through
commissions, grants, and his natural desire to write
music. I bought his orchestral CD Hauntings,
recorded in Prague. It was wonderful. Contemporary
music, with a solid basis in traditional melody,
harmony, tonality, and a good dose of dissonance,
when needed. Powerful, haunting, and filmic in many
regards. “Kafka’s
Cafe” in
Suite
for Prague is quite
traditional and just delightful. Check it out on
iTunes. Type “Richard” and “Hauntings” into the
search field.
Great writing, Richard.
Me. I’m
feeling a bit depressed, not having quite so many
successes in my life as my friends. I’m sort of
normal and boring. Oh well. When I retire, I am
suddenly going to become quite successful. Let’s see.
Note: my policy is not to mention last names in most
cases.
John
- - - -
