Hi,

I think that much of what Al writes is not to be taken literally, rather
just go with the flow and the intent will come across. Some of his
writing reminds of John Lennon, one of the most illustrative and classic
pieces is "I Am The Walrus."

Applying the intellect to posts like this is using the wrong tool for
the job. Read viscerally.

The MTBF comment is, IMO, a reiteration of the idea that when you're
listening to the system, (perhaps pondering your probable position on
the composite MTBF bell-curve), you're not listening to Bach.

Reminds of a story told by Peter Pringle, arguably the greatest
thereminist alive today. He was visiting a friend, who happens to be a
world-famous Japanese symphony conductor. As he arrived, this fellow was
listening to a cassette tape on a crappy little table-top cassette
recorder. Flabbergasted, Peter exclaimed, "Here you are, a world-famous
conductor, what in Sam Hill are you doing listening to that thing?"
Replied the conductor, "Oh, I'm not listening to the tape deck. I'm
listening to Bach!"

Whether we're listening to a crappy little cassette deck, or to a
Macintosh or a homebrew or a Krell, almost doesn't matter. If we're
aware that we're listening to a machine, then the machine isn't doing
its job. If the machine is so "good" that we admire how realistic "it"
sounds, we're still listening to "it"!

Cheers,
Fred

Steve O'Neill wrote:

Hi:

I didn't understand most of the content of the original post and was too
intimidated by the references to head locations to ask Al directly for an
authors insight into the intended message. Many authors of profoundly
philosophical statements such as this one seem to take offence when those of
lesser reasoning abilities ask for elucidation. Apparently the very act of
asking demonstrates a certain intellectual laziness. So...could you, not
being the author AND clearly having achieved a certain intellectual
resonance with the author please translate the entire passage for me?

The one statement I mostly did understand "Pretending MTBF has any useful
application relative to listening to Bach is
simply posturing one's ego as greater than one's soul." strikes me as
potentially wrong (pending translation). My experience indicates that if
one intends to listen to Bach using electronic music reproduction devices,
the concept of MTBF does indeed have useful application and may be the
difference between listening and poring over a schematic.

--
Steve


Fred Nachbaur wrote in message 9Wu4b.118401$K44.58799@edtnps84...

Wow. Another great post, hopefully to appear in Al's "Zen in the Tube
Garden." I especially liked the line, "Each of us hears what we listen
to and only learn anything epiphanally useful by happenstance and ironic
cognitive dissonance."

Thanks, Al. Live long and prosper!

Cheers,
Fred


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