WITHOUT PREJUDICE (or spell-check)

Dear Rick,

Firstly, please know that my opinions do not constitute a personal attack on
your good self. Secondly, let me attempt to answer your quick-response questions
in a swift and sure order:

1-a) As you are "curious about my background", please know that I, too, am even
more curious about my background. It never ceases to amaze and baffle me.

1-b) Indeed I did have "some connection to Virgil". I was his pupil and, I
believe, his friend for, as he would say, "a span of years".

2) I am not, sir,  "an Allen demo artist". I am 100% free-lance in every sense
of the word. (The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - CBC - is responsible for
the memorable and entertaining quip "Mr. Curley has inherited the mantle of the
late Virgil Fox", during a live transmission from a large Toronto hall in the
early 80s. It is by no means a self-imposed title, far from it.). I loved Virgil
dearly and warmly treasure his blessed memory to this day, as do so many friends
on this List. I never agreed with him (by far) on every subject, no bad thing.
Incidentally, the last thing I ever wish to be called is 'a poor man's Virgil
Fox'. Enough players exert untold efforts to claim that sad title already.

That I choose to play on Allen's instruments when performing in pipeless mediums
is a matter of pure choice to which I am surely entitled. If the Allen Organ
Company wish for me to perform an inaugural recital, they engage my services
through a booking representative, as is done by all pipe-organ and orchestral
sponsors. In the early 70s, I was only too pleased to show the possibilities of
the new and visionary Allen Digital Computer Organ. All electronic firms were
given a 'bite of the cherry' by North American Rockwell, who pioneered the
digital organ prototype - - only Jerome Markowitz and the Allen team had the
foresight to invest in and run with it. I am confident this forum does not
require the services of a professor of history on this subject at this juncture.

3) You ask what was "the fork in the road for you to ally with Allen". Answer:
two normally inanimate but necessarily sensitive objects called EARS.

4-a) As far as 'pipes at Carnegie go', Rick, how can you write that "Carnegie
officials then, as now, wouldn't hear of such a thing"? Do you speak for the
Hall? I will lay a public wager here and now that if the general public were
provided with glitzy pipe-organ marketing identical to the magical
Torrence/Rodgers/Fox efforts of the early 70s which saw that ersatz monster
placed in the Hall, a place-of-honor would be provided like a rocket for the
pipes. AND, while on the subject, there is little doubt in my mind that Mrs.
Stocks-and-Bonds and Mrs. Worldly, not to mention Mr. Gold Brick, Mr. Park
Avenue, Mr. Citibank and an impressive bipartisan collection of corporate
America, Europe and the Far East would enthusiastically appear in a seemingly
endless queue from stage right-left-and-center as if by magic should a proper,
international, well-thought-out plea be launched to provide the world-class
stage and surrounding environs of Carnegie Hall with a superb, concert
pipe-organ - - gold-plated, if need require - of the highest standard. In other
words, IF THEY WISH A PIPE-ORGAN, SPACE CAN AND WILL BE PROVIDED. To claim
otherwise is pure BALLS (please forgive my being so forward).

4-b) The day Issac Stern or (the late) Horowitz sail onto the Carnegie platform,
no proper violin or piano near-to-hand, and proceed to perform after engaging
the 'string' or 'piano' setting whilst seated at a one-manual Roland keyboard,
is the day I'll jump into the Thames, hopefully never to re-surface. Fact: the
Carnegie Hall organ was never the best electronic 'organ' in the world. Fact: It
never for an instant truly merited the appellation 'organ'.

5) With great respect to my revered Manhattan colleagues, where the HELL was the
American Guild of Organists, particularly the New York City Chapter when all
this Rodgers Carnegie business was being put into place in the early 70s? Did
they not know? Not even a wee clue? I find it most strange and curious that no
major public awareness media plea was launched through their
well-and-long-established offices. Comments? Please respond through the normal
channels.

Enough. I stand by my previous posting(s) on this topic with head held high and
no regrets.

Is this possibly the 'fork in the road' where the List takes up arms and seeks
to accomplish something public and 100% positive? Why not get really  organized.
There's no time like the present. I know that I'm not alone in wishing for a
wonderful pipe-organ to be placed in Carnegie Hall. Hello. Your thoughts? . . .
. Cheers!

Organ-lovers, ARISE!!

Kind regards,

Carlo-by-the-Thames
[log in to unmask]

P.S. - Dog-bite-it, my Baby Belling is belching flames in the kitchen. My dinner
awaits. Bi- bi! C.