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(TV) A few words about Richard



Hello, all!  

I am sorry, I haven't been reading or writing on this mailing list as much
as I used to.  But by chance, I seem to have gotten back on at a funny time.
Well, I know Richard personally as I used to be one of his guitar students
(though I haven't been keeping in touch with him recently), and in person,
Richard is an opinionated person but not lacking in social graces at all.
He can be stubborn (like anyone else) but he is also intellectual curious
and open-minded (when he realized that I have a degree in philosophy and
religion, he asked for recommendations of books to read, I gave him 4 very
short books, but each an authority in its own field -- I gave him
Descartes's "Discourse on Method," Kant's "Prolegomena to any Future
Metaphysics," Hakeda's translation of "The Awakening of Faith" -- and I
can't remember the fourth one -- it was either Plato's "Symposium" or
Frege's "Foundations of Arithmetics").  

Now, a complete "mystical bad-ass" wouldn't probably have the patience to
sit down and read through Kant; besides, you have to be a saint to try to
teach me how to play guitar.  And compared with Tom, I cannot imagine that
Richard is the one with less social graces (I don't know Tom, but I can tell
you that Richard plays baseball with his son and talks lovingly of his
family, so to those near him, Richard is a loving father and husband, that's
more than Tom can ever be (truly sorry, if that rubs you the wrong way)).  

I have to agree with Rex, Richard is the best guitar-player of all three --
he's not just a great player, he's also a consistently great player and a
more "complete" one (and the latter is much harder).  Not only can Richard
make the guitar ululate like a Touareg singer, but if you asked him to, he
can probably also play the same three chords for hours and hours with the
precision and the consistency of a machine (but with obviously more soul).
Richard can do so because he just works harder than anyone else.  Richard is
like the Derek Jeter of the guitar (so what if he's not so friendly with
Alex Rodriguez anymore?).

For the moment, of course, all of our wishes and thoughts are for Richard's
health, but I imagine that Richard himself is upset that he may not be able
to play on Summerstage.  Does anyone know whether we can go visit him at the
hospital?

Emilie
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