Day 051: Standing room at the Staatsoper, friendly letters
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day 51
— Standing room at the Staatsoper, friendly letters
22-September-1971 (Wed.)
TRANSCRIPT
More busy work. Not getting as much work [done] as I
should. Decided to try for composition
exam—developing an ulcer over it.
I am getting quite a few letters from friends. I
really enjoy keeping in touch with everyone. I enjoy
writing funny letters and also reading what’s
happening to everyone. Satisfying.
The King and Queen of Belgium have been here the last
couple of days. And wherever they go, there is an
entourage of ambassadors, police, etc. All in all,
it's very impressive.
Went to another Staatsoper concert—for a student
discount of 1s [approx. 4.5 cents]. It's unbelievable
when you think about it. Went with Mike—Canadian
musician who is a great opera fan. He showed us the
"ropes" for standing-room techniques. (Good kid. Very
musical.) — A lot of waiting in line. But when you
enjoy the opera, it's worth it.
REFLECTIONS
Going
for composition. I decide
to focus on studying [music] composition for this
year and to take the entrance exams. I am not certain
if I will be qualified for this study since I have
only taken one previous composition course. We’ll
see.
Letters
from friends. Finally, I
am getting letters from friends to whom I have
written. (Otherwise they wouldn’t have known my
Vienna address.) I enjoy the contact and reading
about their adventures. Being away from home and your
friends is not easy, and so receiving letters from
them is enjoyable. Letter writing makes it easier.
It’s also fun to write back and tell them your new
adventures.
2007—email is it. If you own
a computer, I suppose that almost none of us
write
personal letters
anymore (on stationery). Sure, we buy Hallmark cards
for occasions and scribble a few words, but letter
writing? When is the last time you remember writing a
true personal letter? I can’t. [Business letters
don’t count—too boring.]
Letter writing for most people, at least those with
computers, has been replaced by email. It’s easy,
free, faster, reliable, and searchable. There is a
disadvantage—it’s electronic. Thus, you get hundreds
of them (many of which you don’t want, some referring
to male body parts), they clutter your email program,
you easily erase them, forget them, store them and
never look at them again, and best of all, they all
disappear when your computer or hard drive crashes.
What’s nice about letters? You can hold them in your
hand years later and re-read them, remembering fond
memories.
Forget email—it’s social networking, instant
messaging. If you’re
young, email is dead. Young people don’t email
anymore—they do MySpace, Facebook, BeBo, Ning, Virb,
Twitter, Jaiku, and many other Internet,
social-networking, and instant-messaging based
platforms to communicate with each other. I think
it’s great. It’s not letter writing, but at least
it’s writing. You may disagree if you see the arcane
abbreviations of those youngsters. OMG is one of the
few I understand.
That’s still fine, it’s the “communication” that’s
important. And it is writing.
Belgium
royalty. I didn't
get to see the King and Queen of Belgium personally,
but it was all over the news and there was plenty of
traffic.
Standing
room at the Staatsoper. I mention
a new friend, Mike, who will be studying music at the
academy this school year. He is an opera buff and
shows us the ropes on how to see the opera in the
cheapest manner possible—standing room.
I believe I made a mistake in the price I mention (or
I'm misinterpreting). The price of standing room at
the opera is NOT 1s (1 schilling) but 10 schillings,
or about 1 dollar. Still that's a bargain and it will
help me see many operas this year. One day, I'll
elaborate on how standing room "works." It was
amazing.
Take care.
John
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