Best posts made by barliman2001

Update for everyone: I'll probably be out of hospital some time next week.

This question is one that hits me very directly as it is connected to my permanent condition as an Autistic... We in the Autistic Spectrum tend very much to overemphasize our shortcomings and belittle our capabilities - it's just one of the expressions of how our brain is functioning. I don't say that only we experience this; but most of us are more prone to thinking we are not good enough than Neurotypicals. I'm looking at my own example: I finished my Leaving certificate with best marks, being third in a class of 129; I completed undergraduate university in record time with an MA in history as third of a class of 355. I then completed my PhD in record time - less than a year - coming second in a class of 88. And yet I always sought after becoming better still because being second was already a cause for depression - I was simply unable to put my achievements in relation to what others managed to do. Even when I reached the absolute pinnacle of my chosen profession and was awarded a Professorship in Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, I was not content. I could not strive for more, but there was that nagging thought I was not good enough... it ended with a divorce and deep depression; several years of therapy which did not help me at all because the therapists did not recognize the root of the problem, i.e. my Autism (and please forget everything about Rain Man and similar movies: There are such people about, but they are at most one % of the Spectrum). Only when one clever psychiatrist, at the goading of my wife, took the trouble of testing me for Autism did I suddenly receive the master key to everything that had ever happened in my life, and to my own mind. Since then, I have found the key to compromise and happiness; and now, I am not driven any more to try and reach unattainable goals, but am content to be what I am, and - in music - to be a good player within my own comfort zone. I still try to do as well as I can; but I now accept my own limitations while still trying to improve. And I am happy that way.

Hope you could make some sense out of this.

Well, after mourning TM and my hard-earned status as fortissimo user, I'm here.

Whether you are celebrating Christmas, or Hanukkah, or Diwali, or the 12th Week of Halloween, or Birthday or Wedding Anniversary or Happy 9th Divorce, my Season's Greetings to you. May all of you enjoy the best of health, the best of food, the best of company, and the best of trumpets!

@BigDub In a local paper: "The inventor of Autocorrect just pissed away. He was an anthole. Restaurant in pieces."

@bigdub Sir Thomas Beecham is best remembered for this incident... He loved to mingle with the audience in Covent Garden during the interval. One day a guy rushed into him and without apology, asked him where the loo was. Sir Thomas told him to follow a certain passage, adding, "The first door is labelled "Ladies". Don't go in there. The second door is labelled "Gentlemen". Go in there nevertheless."

Two trumpet players in Rome, in the only caffè possible!
barliman2001, left, and ssmith1226, right.

Suddenly, after a longish wait, I found "Global Moderator" beside my name... well, quite a few people here know about me from TM, but for all those who don't or who did not really care at the time, here's all about me. I don't have a fancy website - more or less because I'm busy updating my wife's website. But here's everything of interest about me:
I'm a 53-year-old Bavarian (well, German national, but I prefer my local tribe) living in Austria, near Vienna. Married to an opera singer (www.reginaschoerg.com). By trade, I am a historian.
My musical past consisted of children's choir, then the local church choir and finally, after studying voice with several renowned teachers, soloist with the Passau Cathedral Choir and the Dublin Guinness Choir. From age four, I played piano - did not really like it, but was good at it.
Until I accidentally put my hand through a glass door and cut a nerve. Fortunately, the same year I had won my first trumpet in a raffle... went on to Kinneil Band in Scotland (current British National Champions!), then back to Germany. Seven years in Ireland, playing with a number of brass bands and the Greystones Symphony, eventually conducting this orchestra. Since then, Principal Trumpet of the one and only Vienna Klezmer Orchestra (www.klezmerorchester.at) and webmaster for Munich-based Markus Fluhr Big Band (www.bbmf.de).
So far, I have performed on trumpet in twelve different countries and a total of 97 orchestras or bands (usually as a sub). I have been known to pack the car at a moment's notice and drive several days just for one interesting gig...
My finest moment in history? When I walked into a Vienna coffee house and they had a clarinet converted into a table lamp!

Feel free to contact me - I'm sure to answer.

Three important points:

1. I would be extremely honoured if Rowuk were to consent to share the Holy Office of Moderatorship.

2. I acknowledge that administrators are human beings with all human failings. But perhaps the administrator could be persuaded to open a second account as "admin - private" to voice those topics he/she/it can't address in an official capacity. Then we could soundly abuse him without abusing the office...

3. The main reason for the disappearance of TM was that no one knew who the admin was, where the community was based and how to access the server and such small technical details. I am not aware that the situation as to TB is in any way different. If we don't want to have the same thing happen to TB, we need to make sure someone else apart from the admin knows how to manage things in case the admin has toothache or the runs or is incapacitated by the three main reasons why trumpet players disappear: Drink, Dungeon or Death.

@Dr-GO
Old chestnut... Two guys are carrying a grand piano up a skyscraper - the lift was too small. Finally, on the 29th floor, one guy says to the other, "I've got good and bad news for you." - "What's the good?" - "We're on the correct floor." - "And the bad?" - "We're in the wrong house."

Just to clear up things before any misunderstandings crop up.

In the thread about graduate schools Dr. Mark became unnecessarily and personally abusive to Kehaulani. He was asked to apologize and avoid abusive language (in a Private Message), was then warned publicly and became directly abusive to me and refused to adhere to the Rule of Respect. He left one last very abusive message and left.

The Good Lord told Man, "I am going to create women for you, beautiful, obedient, and submissive. And you will find them in all four corners of the world."
And then he made the world round, and laughed.

I've been on many mouthpiece safaris in my life, and in consequence, I've assembled a heap of mouthpieces... many of them now obsolete for me. This thread brought me to think over my collection; and I've found that there are only a few things that I have learnt that are really of help to anyone:

1. If you are a beginner or a re-starter, don't start off with the expensive mouthpieces. Try out sizes and shapes with Arnold & Sons (aka Stoelzel). They are exact and durable Bach clones, at less than a quarter of the cost.
2. Have at least one plastic (or rather non-metal) mouthpiece of your size - invaluable for those mid-winter outdoor gigs that pay well because conditions are so poor.
3. If you are trying out different cups while staying with the same kind of rim, think of the Stomvi Combination System: One rim, two stems, eight cups... somewhat like the Warburton or Breslmaier screw-rim systems, but less expensive.

And if there are mouthpieces around your home that you will definitely never use again, donate them to deserving causes. I sent a box of 20 assorted mouthpieces (and a few instruments) to a friend of mine who was starting a school band in Bulgaria to keep kids off the streets. The band is going strong, juvenile crime in the area has halved, and the band are now regularly invited to play at civic events.

A string quartet are on the road to a recital, and their car is run over by a big truck. All of them pass away, and meet again at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter welcomes them, saying, "Well, that truck somehow was not quite planned... as compensation, you can now do almost anything, rehearse without a single cracked note, play concerts before the greatest composers of all time, and they will applaud you... there's only one caution: Never, NEVER ever step onto one of those little black clouds."
And everything goes well in heaven. They rehearse to their hearts' content, and play concerts; at one, Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Bartók are in the audience together. But after a few weeks, the First Violinist comes to rehearsal with a horribly ugly old woman at his side... when his colleagues ask him how that came about, he just swears, "those d##n b####y little black clouds... I stepped on one, there was lightning and thunder, and there she was." The other three renew their determination never ever to step on a little black cloud... but they get careless, and first the cellist, then the Second Violin appear at rehearsal saddled with the ugliest and most screwish women in history.
After a few more months, the viola player appears at the morning rehearsal with a stunning young blonde at his side, in an extreme minimum of clothing... of course, his colleagues are curious as to what happened to him... "Oh, nothing happened to me, guys", is the viola players reply. "It's her who stepped on a little black cloud."

Just happened on this snippet... a truly all-star cast!

Two trumpet players, in a nicely lit-up state, talking about their fears...
Player 1: "I've got that constant fear of death."
Player 2: "Don't we all; what's so special about yours?"
Player 1: "That my wife, after I'm gone, will sell all the trumpets for the price I told her I paid..."

Quite a few people - even in the old TM days - have discussed how to store and present a trumpet collection. I always told them that my tame joiner made a special cabinet for me, holding up to forty trumpets... naturally, there were many shouts, "Pics! Pics!", and I never got round to doing that. But now, with the "quiet time of the year" coming up, I managed a snapshot.
Originally, that cabinet was more or less the only large bit of furniture in the room. But then, the piano had to move in there, my wife's desk followed, and after the sale of one or two trumpets, my wife decided that the other horns should stand closer together for warmth so that she could take over one of the compartments... sorry for the mess...
From top to bottom, keft to right:
B&H Sovereign trombone (in case)
Vintage trombone, from a Bavarian maker (in gig bag)
Weltklang Euph (in gig bag)

1952 Courtois Balanced
2019 ACB Doubler Bb/A picc (almost invisible)
1982 Conn International (Amati stencil) lacquered blue and with an enamelled drunken vulture on the bell
1969 Selmer G picc
1980 Courtois D
1940s Buescher Aristocrat 265
1980s Gaudet (Courtois) C
1950s Olds Recording

1960s Besson International cornets x 2
1990 Courtois 154 Flugelhorn
1970s Courtois Bb cornet
1992 Ganter Eb Soprano cornet
1950s Besson International Baritone

1930s bass trumpet, unplayable, in memory of a passed friend
1900s HP Bb cornet, engraved "Kinneil Memorial Cornet" presented to me by Kinneil Band at my leaving Scotland and remembering my being an Honourary Member and Honourary Conductor...
Besson Imperial Eb Sop cornet
Besson Imperial Bb cornet
Jupiter Soprano trombone
... and the thing that started the schemozzle... Imitation of a cavalry trumpet, in fact a bit of bent tubing with something remotely like a mouthpiece at one end and something like a bell at the other... won it it a charity raffle, and never looked back...

Odds and ends of my wife's, including her Grammy medal hanging from the handle...

Storage for gig bags underneath, and lots and lots of sheet music and bits and pieces in the middle...

Now, yesterday we had our only rehearsal for Easter Sunday. The conductor, when questioned beforehand, had firmly promised, "it's Schubert Mass #3 in Bb and Mozart Ave Verum (which has no trumpets), and nothing else." Accordingly, went there with just my Ganter Bb rotary and a deep cup mouthpiece, as I was supposed to play 2d chair. So far, so good. End of Schubert rehearsal, conductor hands out additional music with the comment, "you should be able to do this as well quite easily." One look... Handel, Messiah, Hallelujah... original pitch... scream, shout, throw grenades... call in the Cavalry (which refused to climb the 84 step staircase to the organ loft...)... tried to do Handel first trumpet part on Bb rotary with flugel mouthpiece... failed miserably, sounded like a goose with hiccups... got out the Selmer high-G at home... that's better...

OK, I think this topic has now been discussed enough. Let's get on with our regular business - discussing trumpets, trumpet playing, being good friends and how to avoid trolls.

Topic locked.