Philip Spiess

Wow!  My modest inquiry about where everybody went certainly -- and suddenly -- elicited responses!  And some more glorious Buchholz pictures!

Jeff:  You didn't say where you vacationed.

Nelson:  Don't worry that you don't have a thing to wear to the Reunion -- don't wear a thing, and I'm sure it will be charming.

Bruce:  Yes, my computer does underline things, much to this English major's irritation.

Barbara and Jerry:  That reference to a giant olive attracted my attention, too; I love a variety of different types of olives in my martinis -- almond-stuffed, feta or blue cheese-stuffed, and those amazing orange peel-stuffed ones -- but in my  "dirty martinis" (beloved of FDR) I prefer marinated mushrooms.

Murdock:  I like the Isle of Islay single-malts the best, particularly Laphroaig (because -- I hate to admit this -- its taste reminds me of the way that Johnson & Johnson Band-Aids used to smell).  I also like the several cask variations of Glenmorangie.

Dale:  Is that a giant marijuana plant you're staring through?

Dave:  Would you describe that photo of an Indian girl balancing things on her head to Dale as a picture of a "pothead"?  And is that last picture you posted for Murdock what Dale Gieringer is apt to look like in twenty years?

Jerry:  I think you've got it backwards -- at a seance you're supposed to hear the ghosts, not see them . . . but they can see you!   Some day I'll tell you all about my investigation, circa 1970, of an 1850 "haunted" house in Clifton, paired with England's "white witch," Sybil Leek, who conducted the seance, and who worked with Hans Holzer, the so-called "ghost hunter." 

Jeff Daum

Phil you most definitely got things rolling again. 

 Post #2060 might give a hint as to where we vacationed. We were supposed to be off of Rio for New Years but a change in plans had us in Florida.   We had a great time catching up with a lot of friends who have moved down there or winter there, and even a couple from Canada (who I know from one of my car clubs) that we were able to meet down there as well.

Barbara Kahn (Tepper)

Loved your vacation picture Dale.  Dave your photos are stunning.

Jerry - Long Beach NY - the ocean on one side and the bay on the other, go over bridges to get here.  Beautiful place and believe me we are much in the minority as far as drinking goes.  There are bars and restaurants all over the place.  A lot going on here in the summer. 

Steven Levinson

Dale:  Thanks for calling while you were in Hawaii!

Jeff Daum

For those of us flying (or perhaps kayaking) in for the reunion, is there a feel from the Committee as to approximately when activities are planned to start on Friday the 17th?  Thanks in advance   

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

I'm on the committee, but have no details. A reception/cocktail gathering hosted by Dave and Betsy Schneider is usually the first event.  It has started in the late afternoon/ early evening in the past. I'm sure you will be notified soon. 

Jeff Daum

Thanks Ann.  Plane, car and hotel reservations are now all set.  Ready to go 

Rick Steiner

Happy New Year everyone!

In answer to your questions, we are soon going to post the schedule of activities for our LXX Birthday Bash  June 17-19..  Also included will be a list of hotels that  have blocked   rooms for us.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

There was a great article about our favorite coach and social studies teacher, Dean Giacometti, in the Cincinnati Enquirer.  Here's the link: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2016/01/29/dean-giacometti-still-teaching/79518306/

Below is a picture that I took of him with Ira at a Walnut Hills High School Alumni Foundation dinner last fall.

Susan Patterson (Schramm)

Just finished " A Paper Son", Dave Buchholz.  Your son is a talented author.  I'm sure you are very proud of him.

Philip Spiess

You may ask (but I know you didn't) "Why is it called the 'Super Bowl'"?  Have you ever seen what dishes all of those game snacks and other foods are served in?  (Just sayin'.)

David Buchholz

Susan, thank you.  I'm going to copy your post and send it to him.  BTW, the initial premise of the book—the trip back to China, the second wife, the expectation that Henry will become the patriarch of the family in China,  the return to the US, a lengthy incarceration at Angel Island—are all true.  It's a story of my wife's family, and although the novel is fiction, there are many elements that aren't.

Susan Patterson (Schramm)

Dave, that's really fascinating!  I love knowing that certain parts are true.  You have had such wonderful travels, and I'm sure your children are well traveled also.  What wonderful experiences you have all had.

Barbara Kahn (Tepper)

Dave, I have ordered A Paper Son.  It sounds wonderful - will read it for my next book. 

David Buchholz

Thank you, Barbara...once again copying this and sending it to my son.

David Buchholz

And yet another photo from India...occasionally a little Photoshop...in this case, desaturating the colors in the temple and leaving the praying woman's clothes as they were makes for an interesting juxtaposition of black and white and color.

Jeff Daum

Well done Dave.  However, my guess is she is actually praying with gratitude that she stopped at that temple, and not this one outside of Varanasi that we saw on our recent visit there:

Margery Erhardt (Schrader)

Phil and other opera enthusiasts! A year ago we had a running thread about opera. I design the Austin Opera newsletter, Libretto, and just had the latest edition printed. I was reminded to mention a wonderful singer who I had the honor of meeting at a friend’s home for an educational event/party about our then upcoming opera, Of Mice and Men. As we introduced ourselves to each other I was delighted to learn that he is a graduate of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and in fact, Walnut Hills. He is bass-baritone Thomas Hammons and his performance as “Candy” in our current opera is superb. He is also the brother-in-law of one of our ’64 classmates though is a mere youngster since he graduated in the Class of ‘70. So a “call out” to another Very Special Walnut Hills Alumnus. I am including just a brief history of this very talented singer as well as a photo taken that evening. Cincinnati classmates may want to try to catch him at a performance there (or anywhere actually!)

“Bass-baritone Thomas Hammons has been acclaimed throughout the United States, Canada, and across Europe, for the depth and richness of his portrayals and the strength and beauty of his singing. A versatile singing actor, Mr. Hammons has an active repertoire of over 60 roles spanning a variety of genres from the classical buffo repertoire, to the world of contemporary music, to modern musical theater.  Mr. Hammons is a graduate of CCM where he studied with Italo Tajo. He began his career as an Apprentice Artist at Santa Fe Opera in The Duchess of Malfi. He made his début at The Metropolitan Opera as Sacristan in Tosca during the 1996-97 Season, and took part in the première of Jonathan Miller’s acclaimed production of Le nozze di Figaro. He has returned to The Met in over 250 performances since, most recently for Lulu, Le nozze di Figaro, and La bohème.”

Philip Spiess

Margery:  Thank you for apprising us of Thomas Hammons!  For a variety of reasons, I'm not as au courant with the current opera scene as I used to be.  And since my youth I've been a fan (now from afar) of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, having spent my early days watching my sister learn ballet from Marian LaCour with Susie Ficker (now known as Suzanne Farrell, currently America's most famous ballerina) when the Conservatory was located at the old John Shillito Mansion site in Mount Auburn (I myself appeared on the stage there in a performance of Cheaper by the Dozen as a student at the Schuster-Martin School of Drama in Walnut Hills, whose most famous graduate was the Hollywood film actor Tyrone Power).

I'm glad to learn that a great bass-baritone who's also an actor has emerged, for I have long mourned the passing of my all-time favorite opera star, the late Norman Treigle, not only a gifted bass-baritone, but a superb actor as well, who moved around the stage with a most balletic grace.  I think that the force and effort with which he threw himself into his roles was what killed him at an early age.  I first saw him at the Cincinnati Zoo Opera (the old music pavilion) in Carlisle Floyd's 1950s American opera Susannah as the sinning preacher, a truly fine and truly American opera.  I later saw him in the roles of Escamillo in Carmen and as Mephistopheles in Gounod's Faust, but his most spectacular roles in Cincinnati (again at the Zoo) were as the four villains in Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann, playing against Beverly Sills as Hoffmann's four loves; his Doctor Miracle in Act IV was truly unforgettable, and always raised a spontaneous gasp from the audience when he smashed his glass violin!  His last appearance in Cincinnati, just before he died, was at Music Hall in Boito's Mefistofele in the title role; unfortunately, I missed it, being away at graduate school, but it was apparently his crowning triumph.

You mention Italo Tajo.  I saw him perform in several operas at the Cincinnati Zoo.  He was popular in those days (the1950s and '60s) as being a sort of successor to Ezio Pinza (mainly because he looked like him).  I think I also saw him perform as Mephistopheles in Faust.

I do not know the opera Of Mice and Men (of course, I know the story).  By whom?  Written when?

Dave Buchholz:  Your picture at #2093 is spectacular.  I don't know what it looked like originally, but you've certainly made Art out of it!

Jeff:  Um, is this the sort of temple that depicts scenes from the Kama Sutra?

Nancy Messer

Dave - today I received you son's book so I haven't started reading it yet.  Getting it was a simple process - through amazon.com!  I see you took the author photo!

Margery Erhardt (Schrader)

Phil  - your vast knowledge and experiences just leave me speechless. In answer to your questions -

John Steinbeck wrote the work, a novella, in the thirties and it was published in 1937. It is about two migrant ranch hands who move from place to place in California during the Great Depression. Steinbeck (not my favorite American author) writes about his own experiences as a bindlestiff or hobo. The title is from Robert Burns (he does the Scots proud), “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men . . . often go awry."

The opera, by American composer Carlisle Floyd, was first performed in 1970 in WA. It was performed in NYC in 1983 and has been performed in other cities and Australia.

The set they did here was wonderful for it is a hard opera really to do. It is not beautiful! The music, to my ear is okay but then I prefer European operas. But Thomas, playing Candy (you would not recognize him on stage for in reality he is most distinguished as you can tell from his photo), is just wonderful. His role is an aging farm worker/handy man. He has a dog on stage (who is killed but of course our dog came to no harm as he was “killed” off stage.) So there was the responsibility of keeping the dog from becoming the “hero” or should I say most likable character and Thomas pulled it off beautifully. So yes…the singing and acting – fabulous!

Jeff Daum

Spot on Phil, that and several other temples around there depict scenes from the Kama Sutra. And they leave absolutely nothing to the imagination.  It was very interesting how incredibly detailed the stone carvings were and anatomically correct. It also included beastiaility in the scenes with the army.

Larry Klein

Philip Spiess

Margery:  Whoa!  Another American opera by Carlisle Floyd!  As I indicated in my remarks, I enjoyed his Susannah immensely the one time I saw it; I found it reasonably melodic, in the modern idiom.

Larry:  Well, that was a surprise, but important to know!

Jeff:  When it comes to sex and its depiction, I prefer to leave nothing to the imagination, given that the imagination can go way off track!  As to bestiality, see William Bradford's Of Plimouth Plantation (1630 and after), chapter 32 ("Wickedness Breaks Forth" -- 1642), wherein a youth, Thomas Granger by name, about 16 years old, was "detected of buggery, and indicted for the same, with a mare, a cow, two goats, five sheep, two calves and a turkey" [!  Um, How does one have sex with a turkey?  (Don't even think of Thanksgiving!)].  Bradford adds, "I forbear particulars."  Granger confessed to the magistrates, etc.; when the sheep "were brought before him and he declared which were they and which were not."  [So, did they have names?]  The resulting execution included killing the mare and cow and lesser cattle "before his face" [per Leviticus 20:15], casting their corpses into "a large pit"; Thomas himself was hanged (apparently, according to the animals, he was well-hung).  This, I suppose, was the first practice of animal husbandry in the American colonies.

Oh, and Margery:  Do you know why Robert Burns?  Because they're always toasting him in Scotland!

Margery Erhardt (Schrader)

Phil – LOL Yes, they are always toasting good ole Robbie (Rabbie Scottish style) throughout Scotland.  When we lived in England we made several trips to Scotland (it is my fav country) and toasted him ourselves. They are so proud of him that you see historic markers everywhere.

Larry – Yes, hence my mention of a brother-in-law though I didn’t want to get too personal. Thomas commented to me that he had a BIL in our 1964 class but I might or might not remember him, “Henry Cohen.” I looked at him a moment and said “Oh…you mean Hank” and he smiled – very charming!