response 48 of 194:

Jan 21 14:33 UTC 2001

It's appalling that a city which has a large university with a
major music school can't support a decent classical music store.

response 50 of 194:

Jan 21 15:04 UTC 2001

ann arbor considers itself
to be a croissant but it is
just another buttermilk
biscuit floating in the sea
of sausage truckstop gravy
which is the midwest.

response 52 of 194:

Jan 21 16:37 UTC 2001

Re: 50:  Actually, Ann Arbor *is* just another buttermilk biscuit, but it's
made with expensive Swedish buttermilk (from Zingerman's, natch) and Argentian
organic flour.

So Thbbththpb to you...

response 54 of 194:

Jan 21 18:57 UTC 2001

compared to Grand Valley State

response 56 of 194:

Jan 21 19:58 UTC 2001

And let's not forget the Michael Delizia School of Web Design.

response 58 of 194:

Jan 21 22:29 UTC 2001

remmers in resp:48 :: on the one hand, the issues which took out SKR 
Classical were specific to that business.  Jim Leonard bet the store in 
a gamble that he could revive the old Schoolkids storefronts on Liberty 
Street, and he lost, no surprise.  

On the other hand, the classical share of the CD market 
has been sinking precipitously: the last number I heard was that it was 
down to 3% of sales, and that included The Three Tenors, Charlotte Church,
and all the crossover stuff.  (Classical sales were reported to be 10%
of the market in the 1980s, and they still run 7% in Germany, by 
contrast.)  Jim Leonard *may* have thought that there
wasn't going to be much future in classical music retailing and he'd
better try to broaden his base.  I vaguely recall that he wrote somewhere 
that in a recent year SKR Classical hadn't done badly; his sales were only
down half as much as industry-wide classical sales.

response 60 of 194:

Jan 21 22:58 UTC 2001

From the same article:  "Andersen Consulting found that online classical and 
jazz sales accounted for 31 percent of sales in 1999, while instore 
classical and jazz sales made up just 5 percent of total retail sales."
That's a suprising differential to me.

response 62 of 194:

Jan 22 02:11 UTC 2001

I don't find it all that surprising.  I don't even bother to go to local
chains for CDs I know are going to be rare, anymore, because it's easier
to buy them online than to talk the clerk into special ordering them.  I
also find it difficult to find classical music in stores; I guess I just
don't understand how the albums are arranged.  Online I can just keyword
search for what I want.

response 64 of 194:

Jan 22 04:50 UTC 2001

My question was a teaser, but okay anyway, U-M might be elite "when put 
in the context of United States Universities not within an hour's drive 
(or so) of an ocean" (and is certainly so when compared to the Michael 
Delizia School of Web Design).  The fact remains that the taste in 
music of the students and faculty won't support a classical music shop 
in AA.  

Why is this so "appalling"?  Is it really a bad thing?  And if so, why?

response 66 of 194:

Jan 22 16:45 UTC 2001

Michael? You, tease? I'm shocked. My entire image of you has just been
shattered.

As I said before, I think the implication is that "well-educated" = "cultured"
and "cultured" = "classical music lover." I think that (a) we're trained to
believe those equations in our society (taking American society as a whole)
and (b) neither of those equations is objectively necessitated. So I tend to
agree with you that John's use of the word "appalling" -- as opposed to, say,
"disappointing" or "surprising" -- is heavy-handed and excessively culturally
biased.

But then, I'm a well-educated liberal arts major who finds U-M-styled culture
to be affected pseudointellectualism and likes a mere handful of classical
composers (Mozart, Stravinsky, a few others), and merely in passing, and
thinks there's a good reason why most folkies have trouble selling albums,
and it has nothing to do with superficial American tastes in music (it has
more to do with most folkies being "self-righteous, pretentious, and
politically correct, [with views] slilghtly to the left of Karl Marx and
Bertoldt Brecht" [Wally Pleasant]). [I mention folkies because they tend also
be in the equation "liberal and well-educated" = "cultured and folk music
lover".]

Not that I have a particular opinion on this (or any other) matter.

response 68 of 194:

Jan 22 23:05 UTC 2001

Man, my little comment sure touched off a tempest.  Guess I struck a
nerve or two.  Some folks sure are touchy.

To clarify:  No, I don't think that "cultured" equates to "classical
music lover".  How in the world did anyone infer that from what I said?
But consider this:  The University of Michigan houses a large, major
music school.  What's more, there are enough classical music lovers in
and around Ann Arbor to support several ongoing concert series that
bring in first-rank classical musicians from around the world.  Ann Arbor
sports an excellent community symphony orchestra, a summer symphony
orchestra, a life-sciences symphony orchestra, an Academy of Early
Music, and various other groups devoted to classical music.  And yet
Ann Arbor seems unable to support even a single decent classical music
store to service the obviously sizeable community of classical music
lovers.  How sad.  I'll stick by the "appalling".

response 70 of 194:

Jan 23 01:26 UTC 2001

I admit that I'm bummed because the Ann Arbor record stores don't carry 
enough of my favourite music, but I also don't expect them to. Not 
really. The problem is that classical music is supposed to have a 
larger base of listeners than, say, Brit-folk music -- which is my 
personal addiction. I really think that any largish community should be 
able to support an interesting and wide-ranging music store, just as 
any largish community should be able to have a really GOOD bookstore. 
If I want to buy classical music, I should be able to do it reasonably 
easily (not that I *have*, I blush to admit, it just doesn't do that 
much for me...), just as I should be able to buy the classic books in 
whatever field I'm interested in. That is how an ideal world would 
work. That's how Ann Arbor used to be, at least, that's how Schoolkids 
and Borders were... I don't knock the Best Buys and the Waldens, but 
I'd like to have more choice than they allow.

response 72 of 194:

Jan 23 03:34 UTC 2001

"appalling" does not mean "surprising in the context of the climate
described," John. I'm sure you own a dictionary. If you're appalled, it's
because you think the situation SHOULD be the way you expect it to be, on some
moral or ethical level.

As in: "I'm appalled that a university professor would pretend that a common
word of English means something other than what it does."

Just to use an irrelevant example.