> How many little strips of wood must an organ have for James to
> consider it "interesting"?
. . .
> Conceptually (and I don't think I'm insulting either builder by
> saying this), the differences between the WDCH organ and the organ at
> "Our Lady of Perpetual Traffic Jams" are frankly slight in comparison to
> the differences between WDCH and, say, Busch-Reisinger or the
> Seattle Flentrop.
>
> Don't misunderstand me: as a person who primarily builds tracker
> organs, I share James' interest in them, and am flattered that the
> little Dobson he saw on the South Bay crawl apparently met with his
> approval. But personally, my first interest is in *good* organs, not
> only those that happen to have trackers.
. . .

Touche.

But I, too, am more interested in the instrument being *good* than anything
else. This despite the fact that, during my vacations, I'm primarily, nay,
exclusively interested in visiting trackers. (They're vacations, not
two-week-long organ crawls!) After all, I've had all but two of my lessons
on an Austin (the other two being on a fairly unremarkable [as trackers go]
A&S tracker that the "Tracker Trek" also visited), and I do make it down to
Spreckels (another Austin) two or three times a year (and am a card-carrying
member of the Spreckels Organ Society).

And yes, I'm aware that the organ at Disney Hall is mixed-action.

Somebody spoke of "variety." That if the convention were to visit two
notable tracker installations by Manuel and Caspar, there wouldn't be much
"variety." So where's the variety in a convention that visits two of the
places where the current AGO President used to work, both with huge EPs,
one of which is to take up the better part of a day, with no "official"
alternatives? And even though they wouldn't be to my own personal taste, and
even though this isn't an ATOS convention, I don't remember seeing any
theatre organs listed even as optional activities. All in all, with the
exception of Claremont, and of a few instruments that are only remarkable
because of sheer size, the convention organizers seem to have gone out of
their way to visit the least remarkable organs available.

And yes, I suppose that being a long-time Toyota owner might entitle one to
attend the premiere at Disney Hall just as much as having been a
Philharmonic subscriber for nearly one's entire adult life. But my point,
and the major source of my bile on the subject, is that most of the
Philharmonic subscribers (i.e., the ones who aren't AGO members, or are, but
aren't attending the convention) will have to wait until October, while a
couple thousand visitors, most of whom had nothing to do with the organ
being there, and many of whom are probably openly prejudiced against it, are
bumped to the head of the line.

Kind of reminds me of those recent cellular phone company ads where the new
kid in class, just because he's new (and therefore "more special"), gets the
deluxe paint box, while everybody else gets what they've been using.

Oh, and as to finding or making time to attend the whole thing, and treating
it as a summer vacation, well, (1) I only get so much vacation time, and I'd
rather use it exploring the country, mainly by rail, and (2) why should I
waste that vacation time in the summer, visiting someplace hot, crowded, and
miserable, and missing Hollywood Bowl concerts, when I could spend the
summer in a nice, air-conditioned office, and take my vacations in the
Spring and Fall, when the weather's nicer, and the crowds are thinner?

And for that matter, being local, I can visit Claremont on my own, sometime
when the temperature won't be pushing triple digits.

--
JHHL

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Note:  opinions  expressed on PIPORG-L are those of the  individual con-
tributors and not necessarily  those of the list owners  nor of the Uni-
versity at Albany.  For a brief  summary of list  commands, send mail to
[log in to unmask]  saying  GET LSVCMMDS.TXT  or see  the  web
page at http://www.albany.edu/piporg-l/lsvcmmds.html .
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::