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<DIV><FONT face="Courier New">You must have heard the lore associated with the
original Ghan, whose tracks were only informally associated with the sand they
were laid on. One trip to Alice dragged on and threatened to set the record, and
a very pregnant woman complained to the conductor that she feared her time was
approaching, and, if possible, would prefer to give birth in the Alice hospital.
The conductor was startled. "Madame, you should not have boarded this train in
that condition!" The woman replied, "When I boarded this train, I was not in
this condition!"</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New">My Ghan was modernized but the final leg from
Alice to Darwin was still just a dream.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New">GG would have loved the Ghan. At night we stopped
at two or three open platforms, each for at least 15 minutes, one for a full
hour, probably to off-load freight for a sheep station. There can't possibly be
clearer night skies anywhere else on the planet. Burke and Wills recorded that
sleep was impossible from the brightness of a full moon. </FONT><FONT
face="Courier New">Like GG I'm a night owl; the freight cars were far from me,
and no other passengers got off and took in the view on the platforms. That
interlude was the dictionary definition of solitude. For those moments, the only
deal you can make is with yourself, with your thoughts.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New">And he couldn't have had the same experience
in the Canadian wilderness. The tilt of the Earth points to a denser view of the
Milky Way, a few billion more stars, and the mind just knows the constellations
are strikingly different; for a northern hemisphere guy, it's an experience like
night on an entirely different planet.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New">Our piano was the world's Afterthought Upright,
and if it had been tuned once every three years, I'd have been surprised. A
unique noise comes out of such forgotten, abused pianos; a fine
Steinway can't reproduce the sound the ear expects in a rough wilderness saloon
or pub. Weill's "Mahagonny" calls for this kind of piano throughout, and it
exudes a rich but rarely accessed part of the musical spectrum; it brings forth
memories a perfectly tuned perfect grand simply can'</FONT><FONT
face="Courier New">t. I think GG would have had a ball with the Ghan
piano.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New">I've so wanted to come back, first to take the
India-Pacific, and now to take the new Ghan all the way to Darwin. At night on
the Winnipeg-Churchill train I had the eery sensation GG's ghost was sitting in
the bar car with me, grinning from ear to ear. I'm sure he haunts the Ghan,
too.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Courier New">Bob</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=timcon@comswest.net.au href="mailto:timcon@comswest.net.au">Timothy
Conway</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=f_minor@glenngould.org
href="mailto:f_minor@glenngould.org">Discussion of the Canadian pianist Glenn
Gould.</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, December 30, 2010 1:07
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [f_minor] urgent need HI HO,
TIM !!! - Attention Tim!!!</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Hello Bob,
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN
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<DIV
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><FONT
size=3 face="Palatino Linotype"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Palatino Linotype'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Hey, I been
to<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><ST1:CITY
w:st="on"><ST1:PLACE w:st="on">Adelaide</ST1:PLACE></ST1:CITY>! Loved it!
From there we took the Ghan to<SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><ST1:CITY w:st="on"><ST1:PLACE
w:st="on">Alice</ST1:PLACE></ST1:CITY><SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>to see Halley's Comet (in the
previous Millennium). We camped in the <ST1:PLACE
w:st="on"><ST1:PLACENAME w:st="on">MacDonnell</ST1:PLACENAME><SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><ST1:PLACETYPE
w:st="on">Range</ST1:PLACETYPE></ST1:PLACE><SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>where the Chamberlains camped the
night before the dingo etc.! When Ozzies in the Ghan bar
car realized we were Yanks, they played and sang "Waltzing Matilda" 300
times for us on the tinny little piano! Sure made the time
fly!</SPAN></FONT><O:P></O:P></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR class=Apple-interchange-newline></DIV></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE><BR></DIV>
<DIV>My wife and I did the Ghan, Darwin to Adelaide, a few years ago. As we
left Darwin, the train shuddered to a halt and a nice man came to tell us that
our carriage had faulty air-conditioning and we would have to move up front to
the spare one, which meant tramping through private carriages (on the Ghan you
can hitch up your private carriage, at a cost, and bring along your own chefs,
champagne, guests, bands, etc -- millionaires only, I should think). On no
account were we allowed to tramp through the private carriages again. When we
got to the spare carriage we found that it had its own Ghan-staff chefs and
barmen and because we were isolated from the rest of the train (which is about
2 miles long when they have a full load), we didn't have to worry about
regulation eating-times, and the bars stayed open all night. We could also
order special dishes, if the chefs had the ingredients. It was one of the best
train trips we have ever done.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I wonder if GG would have joined such a trip, isolated for 36 hours from
the world except for about 40 passengers, and be cajoled into playing a few
bars of this and that, maybe give a lecture or two, complain about the ambient
noise of the train but perhaps ad lib a bit of Villa-Lobos [sp?] and those
other guys who emulated trains in their compositions (Honneger?). I doubt it,
but who knows?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>-- Tim</DIV><BR>
<DIV><SPAN
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<DIV>_______________________</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Tim Conway</DIV></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV>Geraldton, Western Australia</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV></DIV>
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