On the road…again!
Afghanistan to Zambia
Chronicles of a Footloose Forester
By Dick Pellek

Self-Hypnosis For The Music Lover

As he sat at the keyboard of his computer listening to the muted horns of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol on a 33 1/3 rpm record that he had not listened to in about 40 years, the Footloose Forester knew why he refused to discard his music collection of an earlier period in his life. He was aware of the pace in the music industry and their development of 8-track tapes, then diskettes, then CDs; and he had his share of music on those media.  But the cautious Footloose Forester thought that some music selections just would not be available in all those media, without exception; thus kept his collection of High Fidelity records intact during his many moves, starting in 1960.  Remarkably, most of his 33 1/3 rpm records retain their clarity. 

Over the years the Footloose Forester fretted about how he could keep his favorites together; or how he could transfer them to a more advanced technological medium such as CDs.  He was able to transcribe some of them but did not own the specialized equipment required to capture music from one medium automatically into the other media.  Thus his music collection was scattered throughout various devices and isolated within the limitations of each of them.

The arrangement of famed classics is important to listeners, as is the instrumentation of the orchestra.  As the best example he can think of, the Footloose Forester cites the orchestral rendition of Maurice Ravel’s Bolero. It has remained popular in the intervening years since Ravel wrote it in 1928, and has been recorded numerous times. Yet, the Footloose Forester has been unsatisfied with every single one of them except for the one he is listening to at this very minute.

The rendition of Maurice Ravel's Bolero by Eugene Ormandy has retained its fidelity of sound

The orchestration by the Philadelphia Symphony and conducted by Eugene Ormandy in the late 1950s produces the climax that enthralled a self-hypnotized Footloose Forester whenever he chose to listen to it.  He selfishly avoided listening to Ormandy’s version of Bolero until everything around him was quiet and he was alone. That is why he chose to go into the soundproofed listening room at the University of Hawaii with his personal copy of Bolero; put himself into a hypnotic state; and then listened with his full attention and awareness to the notes, the instruments, the score, and the intensity of Bolero while lying hidden behind large bolsters on a deep shag carpet. Otherwise, anyone peering through the glass walls of the listening room would have thought that he was odd. Since he was in a hypnotic state, he sometimes conducted the orchestra with his fingers and hands moving in concert with the musical score.  Each session of listening to classical music while self-hypnotized was satiating of his senses; and he always came away deeply contented.

The reason that this chronicle is only now being written is because of the early birthday present gift by his loving wife of a retro music system that plays 33 1/3 rpm records on a turntable from a period of now moribund musical devices; but also plays cassette tapes and CDs; and has an AM/FM radio, all contained within the same “music box.”