User talk:Wspencer11

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You have new messages (last change).

I see you've been here several days and no-one's welcomed you yet. Allow me… Welcome!

Hello, Wspencer11, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! 

I'm always glad to see new Wikipedians editing in the classical music sections. I particularly agree with your comment about the content of the article about Vaughan Williams' 6th. Best wishes, RobertG ♬ talk 09:39, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Greetings Wspencer! Let me add my own welcome, since I see you've already met Robert: I'm also quite happy to see another person editing in the "classical" music area. If you enjoy English music, there's plenty more that needs to be written in that area! Happy editing, Antandrus (talk) 15:54, 6 July 2006 (UTC)
Oh, and another greeting... great to see another classical musician and another bassoonist as well! (I have, alas, done precious little classical music writing lately... one of these days I will give bassoon another push, really.) Nice work so far, and looking forward to your further contributions! Mindspillage (spill yours?) 02:58, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Userboxes

I am fooling with creating a new userbox. I have a basic idea of how I want it to look, and I have a generic photo for the ID but am not certain how to proceed. Thanks in advance!

Have you read Wikipedia:Userboxes, particularly designing a userbox? — FireFox (talk) 14:41, 15 August 2006
Yes I have. I don't know how to define the colors, for example...is there a list of the codes used and their equivalent colors? And how do I upload the picture I have?
I find there is a useful list of colours and their codes here. Your image can be uploaded using Special:Upload. — FireFox (talk) 15:07, 15 August 2006
Thanks! Here's what I have come up with so far.
'' This user is a conductor

How do I get the picture to fit the space (i.e. not have any white margin the way it shows now), and how do I get the link in the info space to show up as white also? Thanks again!
How's this? — FireFox (talk) 16:17, 15 August 2006

This user is a conductor
Yes! I don't know how you did it but that's exactly right. (Now I just have to figure out how to submit this for others to use, but that's not a pressing problem right now.) Thank you so much!
No problem! — FireFox (talk) 16:28, 15 August 2006

[edit] Greetings again

Hi Wspencer: I realize I never answered you about your career-changing question back in July. (Your note on the Hindemith talk page reminded me.) That's not an easy thing to pull off, either way, but if you have comfortable employment in IT, hey, it pays the bills (and probably better than much in our doctoral fields!) I find I rarely regret my decision to make a living in the high-tech sector, and Wikipedia is a great outlet for my need to ramble on and on about musical things. You just have to make an extra effort to keep your musical chops, be they conducting, performing, score-reading, or others. Oh, and while I'm thinking of it, hello from a fellow M.  :-) Antandrus (talk) 17:31, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I've been a member since I was in grad school, but haven't gone for a few years: now mainly I read the bulletin, but I keep my eye out for interesting events. The most fun for me was the games nights where we played Scrabble and other things, but also the weekly happy hours, and monthly gatherings where there were speakers, were quite a lot of fun: I always had a good time, talked to a lot of people, and got home late. The one negative is that there are a lot of big, bloated egos in the organization (duh ... and for all I know, maybe other people thought I was one), and therefore a lot of loud hot-air dispensers. But overall I enjoy the events, and keep paying my annual dues. Cheers! Antandrus (talk) 15:41, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
Ah, yes, I too love Whitman. The authentic American voice, and so inspiring. I think my favorite is still Lilacs, maybe the finest elegy in the English language ... and that Hindemith setting is pretty good. Antandrus (talk) 15:43, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
I've only heard it once, but it was one of those car-radio experiences where I was driving, heard this extremely moving piece, (in German, and my German is not good enough to decipher choral singing), and had to know who wrote it and what the heck it was, because it grabbed me; so I just sat in a parking area until it was over. When I found out what it was, I was amazed that someone had translated Lilacs into German, and that Hindemith had set it: and being right after the war, it seemed right that his feelings of loss must have paralleled Whitman's, approximately (no correlate to Lincoln, but to the devastation of the war generally, rather like Strauss's magnificent Metamorphosen of the year before). I need to hear it again to see if it would strike me the same way. Antandrus (talk) 15:55, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

I never responded to your career-change question either, did I? While music is a consuming hobby, I think my decision not to pursue music as a career was purely economic (helped by the fact that I realised I'm no second Brendel). I find that I have enough outlets for my musical talents to avoid feeling I've "wasted" my musical training, and am quite content that I am still able to hold my own in musical discussions with the really notable musicians I know. I am also often struck by the similarity in outlook required to write or perform music and to solve difficult software problems! It's something to do with collaboration, alertness, holding tenaciously to principles acquired through experience, and trying "during performance" immediately and imaginatively to grasp every tiny opportunity. Anyway, enough of my twaddle… Best wishes, RobertG ♬ talk 13:24, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

It was an act of kindness to leave one! I dropped by his/her page to say thanks, but didn't go overboard! I have received a couple of them that I was so pleased with I have polished them up and put them on my user page! And s/he was right: you do deserve one! --RobertG ♬ talk 17:17, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bassoonists

Indeed I am! I did some minor formatting edits to them; nice to see. There aren't enough articles on classical performers in Wikipedia... seems like the pop stars get all the attention! (But then, they get all the controversy and edit-warring, too...) Mindspillage (spill yours?) 19:28, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Grad school

Hey, I'd love any input I can get. I'm looking for a musicology program with good professors who have interest in early music and/or performance practice, and if they're interested in feminism all the better. I have a list of places I'm pretty sure I'll apply to, but it's still somewhat fluid. Thanks for your offer of input! Cheers, Mak (talk) 13:35, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Kindness campaign

Ah, yes, that's something that is much needed around here, and I'm almost tempted to post an invitation on the Administrator's Noticeboard for everyone not signed up to go and join, considering the diminishing civility I see around Wikipedia ... but to join, simply add your name to the list at Wikipedia:Kindness_Campaign, and put the userbox on your page if you like. I think it's an excellent idea and I'm glad you reminded me I'm a member; I'd forgotten. :-) Cheers! Antandrus (talk) 21:42, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] re SI Hi

Hello there in NH. Either there's a missing word, or for some other reason your post left me bewildered, but it's still good to communicate via this thing. I stumbled upon WP doing some random googling last year, and find it the funnest and easiest way to get info fast ... as long as the positioning of a major weight-bearing beam doesn't depend upon its accuracy. I can't recall if it was me or Ezra or who started the SI page, but it's fairly accurate, and only occasionally irreverent and non-encyclopedia-like. Sfahey 21:18, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Anniversary

Many happy returns to you too! It's the Sea Symphony's 96th birthday today, too! Best wishes, RobertG ♬ talk 13:41, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] E. Power Biggs

Oh, yes, there are POV issues with that article. It reminds me of the way many "classical music" articles were when I first joined the project. This appears to be where the POV came in [1]. That part should probably be toned down or excised, though an appropriately cited section of a quoted POV by a published writer might be all right (it certainly is true, as far as I remember, that he helped popularize pipe organ music here in the U.S.). Cheers, Antandrus (talk) 15:34, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Gary Graffman

I don't think you did anything wrong; the revert appears to have been an error. I changed it back. It might be good to cite sources (e.g. his book; I have it at home, and can add it to a references section if you don't get to it first). Cheers, Antandrus (talk) 15:47, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Antandrus was the name of an ancient city on the coast of Asia Minor, populated by Greeks. It's mentioned by Xenophon, Thucydides, and a few other ancient writers. Has a personal significance ... :) Antandrus (talk) 16:26, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Barnstar

The Original Barnstar
For many contributions with limited reward, I present you with this Original Barnstar. Sharkface217 01:14, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Enigmas

That's a strange one indeed. It makes no sense at all; it appears to be a vandal/troublemaker. If he/she/it does it again I'll do what's necessary ... it's on my watchlist now. Cheers! Antandrus (talk) 21:09, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Strange sentence

Greetings again; that's an odd one indeed. My first guess is that it is a machine translation, perhaps from French.

"One can also borrow a narrow and difficult track leading to the road of Beni Mellal while descending the gorges from the "wadi el-Abid" by a canyon sometimes which one does not distinguish the bottom with nearly 600 meters."

Perhaps means:

One can also follow a narrow and difficult path leading to the road of Beni Mellal while descending into the gorges from the "wadi el-Abid" by a canyon route, from which you can sometimes see the bottom of the canyon up to 600 meters below.

But I'm not sure. Maybe put it on the talk page?

Cheers! Antandrus (talk) 16:00, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nymphes des bois

Hey, I just saw this light up as a new article; thanks!! (This piece has my vote as the most hauntingly beautiful and eloquent composition of the late 15th century ... it's incredible.) I look forward to the day when Wikipedia has as many articles on Renaissance compositions as on top-40 songs. Cheers ... :) Antandrus (talk) 17:53, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Lute composers

Thanks for the link! It was a good writeup, and I love Paul O'Dette's playing. Not all of those composer articles are well-developed yet; for the most part I haven't written much about the instrumental composers (well, I did write the Vincenzo Capirola article ... and Claudin de Sermisy was mainly a chanson composer). Sure is a lot of work to be done here still. Oh, and for the edit counter, you can use [2], which is the only one I know that currently works (though I get an error on my own edit count--"too many page fetches" -- so it won't go past about 45,000). Have a great Thanksgiving! Antandrus (talk) 17:52, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Visiting UK

Just realised I never replied to your message on my talk: you have email. --RobertG ♬ talk 11:46, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

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