u/thoroughbredftw

I've seen lots of posts about TV placement in living rooms; it is now often the main driver of all other furniture and decor decisions.

I've been wondering about what American middle-class living rooms were like before they all had huge TV's in them. I've actually lived through some of those pre-TV years but was too little to remember where everything went. In my earliest memories, the TV "cabinet" is already the focal point of all seating etc.

Was there some other central organizing principle, did all seating just face each other, how did this space get set up before TV took over?

I just recently discovered that a Brahms piece I have adored for years as a clarinet/piano sonata was also written as a viola sonata. There are some differences and octave jumps to accommodate range variants, but all the gorgeous melodies are there in the viola version. I immediately ordered the sheet music.

This piece is decisively beyond my skill level, and I am a little apprehensive about ruining it by trying to work on it. I'm a violinist who came over to viola about 2 years ago. Plus I have had the experience with Brahms (in the violin/piano sonatas) where a lovely melody that looks approachable suddenly reveals itself as ferociously difficult and eminently ruinable (like, yes you can play these notes, but you will be shifting from 2nd position to 4th and back 6 times in as many measures).

What is the line between daring and desecration? Anyone have a rule for music that is too good to touch?

From Crimewatch app around 5 p.m. today: "As discussed in the dispatch call, a welfare check was requested for two males sitting in chairs in a driveway near the Kenwood shopping center, appearing passed out and holding a sign that says, 'You honk, we drink.'"

A few honks too many? Hope these lads are OK.