What's Your Expertise?

[BeBop]

From discussions here, I know we have some people with considerable expertise in some topic of interest: an artist, a geographic area, an aspect of the music business...

If you want to claim or admit to your expertise, I'd invite you to post it here, something like a reference thread.

I don't really have any expertise (aside from being an old timer). I was once a Wardell Gray completist, so I've got a little knowledge here.

And you?

[Larry Kart]

Modern poetry, perhaps, though my tastes are not all inclusive.

General literature almost as much, though my tastes there also are not all inclusive, and besides there's too much for anyone (this side of Martin Seymour-Smith***) to claim expertise. But it's likely that I know something about a whole lot of stuff.

I used to be well-versed in the history of old-time baseball and probably retain a lot of that information.

The U.S. Navy in WWII (used to be able to diagram entire battles).

Not quite expertise, but my head is full of a whole lot of general political/social/cultural history, dating back to Ancient Greece and the times of Abraham and Isaac.

Pretty good on the history of the movies.

I think that's about it.

*** Seymour-Smith was a somewhat eccentric/contrarian English critic, poet, and biographer (of Robert Graves, Thomas Hardy and others) who wrote a massive guide to modern literature that speaks with would-be authority of a great many works in just about every language in which notable works of of modern lit have been written. The whole project seems impossible on the face of it, but mistakes/howlers are not to be found (as far as I can tell) and Seymour-Smith's literary judgment is damned shrewd for the most part. Can't begin to count the number of good things I've found because of him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Seymour-Smith

Apparently his polyglot wife Janet Seymour-Smith did a good deal of the reading/spadework for "The Guide to Modern Literature."

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-janet-seymoursmith-1198422.html

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

When I retired, at the farewell do, I said that I wasn't qualified; just got by on talent

One of my responsibilities at work was smart-arse remarks.

There's a serious point here, but I'm going to Cardiff shopping in a few minutes, so I'm not prepared to go into it at present. See ya this evening.

MG

[paul secor]

I have a number of interests, but wouldn't say I have any level of expertise in anything.

[jazzbo]

Over the decades I've crammed my mind with Egyptology, and a study of the origins of "Christianity" and religion in the ancient world, focusing on gnosticism.

Doesn't make me an expert, but I sure can prattle on and run wild inside my head with thought.

[WD45]

U.S. agricultural equipment from 1940-1965. IT'S NOT TERRIBLY USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

[Dan Gould]

Does double-fisted drinking count?

[A Lark Ascending]

Buying records.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

In my view, professionals and other kinds of experts want to sell you something; they want their advice to be followed. But no kind of advice is fully informed by all the circumstances of the recipient(s) of the advice. So advice should be regarded as ONLY advice, and should not be regarded as decisive.

That's not the way professionals work, however.

Well, it's the way I work.

MG

[A Lark Ascending]

U.S. agricultural equipment from 1940-1965. IT'S NOT TERRIBLY USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

Could be if you entered for "Mastermind"

So advice should be regarded as ONLY advice, and should not be regarded as decisive.

Heretic!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

So advice should be regarded as ONLY advice, and should not be regarded as decisive.

Heretic!

No, anarchist

MG

[Jim R]

EA 216 Aluminium Group Soft Pad Lounge Chair Designed In 1969 By Ray & Charles Eames For Herman Miller, Inc., Zeeland Michigan.

You're welcome.

[A Lark Ascending]

EA 216 Aluminium Group Soft Pad Lounge Chair Designed In 1969 By Ray & Charles Eames For Herman Miller, Inc., Zeeland Michigan.

You're welcome.

Clever clogs!

[John Litweiler]

One of the most annoying people in Chicago got hired on the same day I did. She couldn't stop talking and was an expert about everything. For example, if someone ask you something about a jazz musician, before you could answer she would tell him about that musician (she didn't like jazz). The most annoying part was that she talked in cliches. Used to be a Quiz Kid on the radio (some of you graybeards might remember the Quiz Kids). Fortunately for me she refused to do any work and got fired after awhile.

[John Tapscott]

U.S. agricultural equipment from 1940-1965. IT'S NOT TERRIBLY USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

I grew up on a farm surrounded by farm equipment of this vintage and later. Both my grandfathers were farmers, my father was a farmer, as were his two brothers. Why I didn't become a farmer is a long story. But this could well be useful knowledge. Lots of people these days are into restoring vintage stuff.

[Neal Pomea]

U.S. agricultural equipment from 1940-1965. IT'S NOT TERRIBLY USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

I grew up on a farm surrounded by farm equipment of this vintage and later. Both my grandfathers were farmers, my father was a farmer, as were his two brothers. Why I didn't become a farmer is a long story. But this could well be useful knowledge. Lots of people these days are into restoring vintage stuff.

I'd ask about it but I only know the terms in Cajun French!

Do you have a charrue? A charette? A herse double?

Edited April 17, 2013 by Neal Pomea

[RayB]

I was an expert on where to find my CDs, but my wife rearranged everything and now I'm a novice again!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I was an expert on where to find my CDs, but my wife rearranged everything and now I'm a novice again!

MG

[Noj]

I have a number of interests, but wouldn't say I have any level of expertise in anything.

Ditto.

Does double-fisted drinking count?

And ditto.

[cih]

Surely there are some experts on jazz around here?

[erwbol]

Surely there are some experts on jazz around here?

So I signed up to a board of dilettantes in the hope of being fed a steady stream of expert information?

[Larry Kart]

Surely there are some experts on jazz around here?

Nah.

[BeBop]

Surely there are some experts on jazz around here?

When I started this thread, I didn't think anyone would be foolhardy enough to step forward as an expert on jazz, in its entirety (or any broad subject, for that matter). But I thought we might have some confessions/offers of expertise in selected areas (artists, periods of history, record labels...)

That said, I'm glad to have self-identified experts - at least in a relative or limited sense - in "Egyptology, and a study of the origins of "Christianity" and religion in the ancient world, focusing on Gnosticism" and agricultural equipment.

[Christiern]

Many moons ago, in a land far, far away, I spent about three years playing 78 rpm discs on a floor model HMV gramophone, using my right index finger. The spring had broken and people has gone to electric turntables, so replacing it was beyond my means.

I found out that if I pressed hard, the record could not spin any faster than 78 rpm. It took some practice to avoid bumping into the tubular arm, but it became second nature to me. The advantage (yes, there was one) came from not being able to get up and walk around whilst the music played, so I absorbed every note.

Of course, this method of playback soon wore all my labels down to an unreadable state, so—and here's where the expertise comes in—I committed to memory the matrix numbers and learned to identify individual sides by the look of the grooves. I recall, for example, that Woody Herman's "Happiness Is Just a Thing Called Joe" was instantly recognizable because the brass built up in the middle of Frances Wayne's vocal. That created a grayish ring that to this day is as familiar to me as Rembrandt's Mona.

Then, of course, those damn LPs took over—I felt cheated.

BTW, the callus on my index finger is long gone, and some collectors might have wondered how the record they found in a second-hand bin became so oddly worn. I am not making this up.