Well, I was approached after the Liederkranz Competition by an older tall gentleman with a neck problem---his head hangs down a little in front of him---he handed me his card for American Symphony Orchestra and Town Hall--and said he'd like to take me to lunch to talk about singing my own concert on the Free for All at Town Hall. Watch out, if you are a soprano. I searched on the Forum, but couldn't find anything. Googling showed he was telling the truth about some of his bio. Later, he asked for a list of my expenses and income and said that was for him. Lunch was changed to dinner and red flags went up---but went anyway. He seemed old and harmless. Very nice dinner, gift on my plate, charming, smooth conversationalist, very knowledgeable about music and what a singer goes through. I read on a thread later that he likes to show pictures of his mansion in Hawaii---yep, still doing that, and discussing how much he paid for Vivaldi's signature and how many people he knows---says he's Peter Gelb's second cousin. No talk of business, except that we would be getting to the topic of finances soon. Later, he made a move, which I nonverbally refused. So I gently confronted him as to what was going on. He hemmed and hawed, flattered and fawned and finally said he might be able to get me a tiny recital at one of his clubs, hardly paying anything---it was clear it wasn't going to happen. Felt pretty stupid later, definitely vulnerable, and then a friend told me there IS an entire thread about this creepy tall man, and I had missed it on the forum. So if you are a soprano---watch out---he seems to hang out at competitions and performances just waiting for his next prey. I felt sorry for him though----he's a man with good people skills, but wants to be a sugar daddy. What an empty soulless pursuit.

Sorry that happened to you. Ick.

He's so disgusting. Same thing happened to me, and he had the nerve to show up at my fundraiser for John Kerry a few years ago and had ever MORE nerve to tell people there that we had "dated."

**feeling nauseous**

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." CONFUCIUS

dated - in his dreams apaprently, don't you recall?. that's seriously gross.





"There is a difference between outrageous and fabulous, ... you can decide to be outrageous, but you have to be crowned fabulous."

- PRESTON BAILEY

I say ladies, if he asks you to dinner to "talk about your career," tell him you have always dreamed of dining at Le Bernardin http://le-bernardin.com ... Order the best thing on the menu and look at him with passion in your eyes as you order a nice champagne. Then go powder you nose, leaving him with the bill.

He deserves it.

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"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." CONFUCIUS

But eat first --- Le Bernardin is worth it!

Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints.

nt

nt

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"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." CONFUCIUS

Why you mention Le Bernadin? I ask because another of these guys took me to lunch at le Bernadin, then repeatedly asked me to last minute dinners and events on Friday and Saturday nights because his wife just couldn't make it suddenly. It as always to talk about my career (he happens to be closely associated with a very prestigious opera award). I kept turning him down and he eventually lost interest. His last big try was to invite me to his hotel room... at midnight... again to talk about my voice. Yah, um, no thanks.

I know others do fall for his trap, and HAVE actually gone to the hotel room, where he was lying on the bed half-dressed.

These guys are disgusting. I'm sorry you all had to go through this!

R.

Horrible about that guy! I never heard about him and his tactics. Jeez.

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"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." CONFUCIUS

It's just so... wrong. When I joined him to "talk about my career", it was at Orsay on the East Side. So sad. And yes, I'm a soprano.

Martin Riskin approached me a while back (while I was supporting my dearest Radamaxifal at a competition) and slipped me his card, called my cell, asked me to dinner...the whole enchilada. I refused dinner, he called the next day. Lunch, perhaps? No, Mr. Riskin...

Watch out, ladies. Keep yer wits about ya.

What does he hope to ACCOMPLISH with a much younger girlfriend? Even if he has friends in the music business, they must think he's an utter fool.

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"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." CONFUCIUS

Egads, I remember this guy too! He is such a creep.

Gals, he has been pulling this for EVER.

And he's been old forever too, at least he was old already when he crossed my path. He must be Father Time by now!!!!!

I just googled this guy and the first thing that came up was a book by this name in Amazon called "Great Bachelor Parties"...

***There is no spoon***

my roommate was this zaftig red-headed soprano who went through the SAME THING YOU GALS ARE DESCRIBING! As I recall, he had a co-op on CPW in the 60s and she visited him several times there, coming home all starry-eyed about his beautiful place and how he was going to help her with her "career." Of course, the "payoff" came soon enough when she realized what he was really after, and she, too, was too grossed out to get any further involved. I mean, really, there is only so far a girl will go for her career...even "just dinner" with that creep sounds bad enough. I wonder how many young things have taken the bait? Hopefully, very few. He is a predator, no other way to describe him.

Ellsworth J Benson, III - made a fortune through the oil business or something like that

This was about 2 years ago. I met him (and his wife which is why I thought it was legit) at a summer program after a performance and he wanted to discuss helping "my career" and told me to contact him when I got to the city. I did and he asked me to meet him and his colleagues at swanky hotel bar on 5th ave to discuss things. I went (and his wife wasn't there this time...) and after he talked my ear off about his life and how he made his fortune (snore) he pretty much put it flat out on the table and said, "So I guess the only problem with our relationship is that you're 25 and I'm 78...that could work out for you though". He then proceeded to offer me anywhere between 10-20 grand a month to be his "friend". Meanwhile, his business colleagues (Cruise knows who they were) all looked at me like I was an escort and assumed I was such. I made a hasty exit and with the exception of a couple random emails never heard from him again.

So there you go, avoid this one too girls. Freakin sickos.

Hahaha!!! Sorry, but that's some funny shit!

There's a song you have to hear ... The Beastie Boys "Boomin Granny" ...

A sexy, sassy, sophisticated lady
Well I'm 26 and you're 80 ...
I saw you in the checkout line
You dropped your coupons, and you was lookin fine ...

Boomin granny, good and plenty!


-----------------------------------

The trouble with love is, it'll tear you up inside - Kelly Clarkson

That's also the trouble with the "Chernobyl" wings at the Candlelight Inn - Ben Venga

If it hadn't been so disgusting at the time I probably would have laughed too. I laugh now though . You're right, that's a pretty ballsy statement. Guess he figured he didn't have much to lose....

...well, at least every city has a resident one or two or several.

There's one in Pittsburgh too. Don't even get me started on that revolting creep. I still have nightmares.

"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts." William Shakespeare.

"Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great." Mark Twain

nt

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"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." CONFUCIUS

I am not "worthy", but he's always asking after my singer friends saying how he "loves artistic women".

My friends have a joke about the boolean or sql search strings accessed on his "little blackberry". Here is one me and a buddy parodied at lunch based on prowling we saw at a party and stuff the predator asked me. It isn't that i am racist - I am jewish and the opposite of this search criteria. it's a close representation of the preferences this guy has asked me about "my single friends who aren't taken"

SEARCH TITLE: ONE BUXOM JEWESS NEEDED FOR FRIDAY
SELECT hottie_name, hottie_phone, hottie_email, hottie_im
FROM h.hottie
WHERE bra_size >= 'dd'
and religion = 'jewish'
and height > 5'8"
and size <= '2'
and location = 'boston'
and alma_mater = 'ivy league'
/

-dg (the madam???)

edited sql and added explanation
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It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I'm wearing milkbone underwear." Norm Peterson (Cheers)

someone who knows SQL and sings.... now that's cool... oracle, mssql, db2 or sybase?

-nt


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It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I'm wearing milkbone underwear." Norm Peterson (Cheers)

and sybase also. good luck with the singing and coding!

gettin' ANSI in my cube at this hour (singing)

-dg

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"They are writing checks our asses can't cash." (DG's coworker commenting on our workload)

sometimes the singing career feels LITTLE-ENDIAN...at least for me.

Word. these hours really byte.

to moderator: sorry for the geeky thread; relieving some stress.

-dg

edited to fix quote.

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"They are writing checks our asses can't cash." DG's coworker (commenting on our workload)

crazy double post...apologies to moderator.

5'8", size 2, with a DD rack. Alright. One can dream, I guess.

Love,

Chharli

I'm 5'8" and not sure a size 2 would fit over my bones let alone my bod. And I really don't want to find out.

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"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop." CONFUCIUS

-nt

eta spelling of a nonsense word
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It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I'm wearing milkbone underwear." Norm Peterson (Cheers)

can one find a 5'8" size 2 double d. All that holiday food may result in a double d but not much else.

he's clearly a goy .

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"They are writing checks our asses can't cash." DG's coworker (commenting on our workload)

My SO, though not a TWO necessarily, is of the skinny and busty variety. As is the last ex. Jewish women do have a certain knack...

And remember, the J in JTenor DOES stand for Jew

____________________________

House: You don't have cancer.

Cuddy: You don't have dwarfism.

House: You have no proof of that.

Yea... I'm not kidding. She's short, but definitely a size two, and wears a 32DD.

I'm going to take my round jewish ass back to the gym now.

-gbg

.. who doesn't go after sopranos for sex, but he's just interested in singing -

- and perform for him FOR FREE.

He'll go to concerts, recitals and performances around Chi-town and introduce himself as a true 'lover of music' and will go on and on AND ON about how wonderful you are. He'll usually have his wife with him; they seem to be nice, honest people.

THEN he'll say that he's having a 'small soiree' at his home in Northbrook (a fairly ritzy northern suburb) and his group would be 'honored at [your] attendance.' You should start to wonder when he says the 'soiree' goes from 2 to 'at least midnight.'

OK, I did this ONCE. Never again. You drive past beautiful houses and end up at a fairly basic street with cars lined up on both sides for as far as you can see. His home is a small two-story. There's a sign on the front door that asks you to enter from the back...

The place is PACKED with people. Even in the kitchen. It takes a good ten minutes to get to the living room, to see that recitals are going on. He has a small grand piano in the room, chairs set up for (what I guess is) his friends from his synagouge. The concert is being RECORDED, both audio and video. Some of the people singing/performing are 'regulars,' doing this any time he wants. The quality is not good, to be kind. Then he'll spot you in the crowd (poor schmuck you are), have whoever is singing finish, and bring you up. The audience is very attentive and learned - I found out that some of the people are on various boards and guilds for operas and symphonies in the area (not that it will matter much - no one special attends these things).

BUT, you're singing for FREE.

THEN comes the clincher - on this occasion, he was throwing a birthday party - FOR HIMSELF - and you're supplying entertainment. FREE ENTERTAINMENT.

Those in Chicago who know him avoid him like the plague.

Yep, they're everywhere...

OH, I'll throw in a 'ewwwwwwwwwww' as well...

SBJ

"Thusly, I come full oval."
- Bucky Katt

And a couple of my singer friends got duped into going to one of those "parties" last summer. I told them they should have asked me first because these people (although harmless) are 6 kinds of crazy. They had a loooooooooong afternoon!!!

Back in the early 80's I has a colleague who was a very handsome American tenor. There were always females throwing flowers, giggling at the stage door.... the usual fan stuff. But,there was one who constantly, called, sent him expensive gifts, and promised to finance all kinds of projects. Then, she actually moved into an apartment across the street from his and would watch him with binoculars. It got so bad he had to hire a lawyer.

A very handsome and darling friend of mine emailed an old boss looking for production photos and in the email back there was a p.s. line that said, "If you're looking to make some extra cash, I may have something for you". Well, he responded with interest thinking that this was referring to a wedding/funeral/church gig type situation. Long story short, through a series of cryptic emails saying things like "Well, it doesn't have anything to do with singing" and "Well...you wouldn't really have to do much of anything..." he deduced that basically a woman (or a gay man) was looking to "fellate" him for cash!!!!

How freakin disgusting is that?! He said that while intrigued by who in the world would have the cojones to do that, he felt pretty damn filthy....

gross gross gross

And I would have told him to get lost, if grandma didn't need the money for her medication.

Hey, did you know that when your hair turns white, so do your pubes? Today's trivia!! That reminds me, I have to go floss.

by him at a Bel Canto evening at Monastero's. He seemed to be mumbling so I didn't know exactly what he was talking about, but he mentioned "singers" and "performances" and he got my phone number, and a few others. He has called me a few times now (this was two years ago that he got my number), as recently as this summer, and I've never returned the calls b/c I actually live several hours away....that and as soon as he mentioned "his home" I got a bad feeling (plus, hello, no money involved).

Sigh what is wrong with people....

I'm so glad that I saw your post!
I was approached by him tonight actually and he proceeded to give me his card and suggest we go for lunch sometime to "talk about my career." Later, he asked if instead I wanted to grab a bite to eat tonight. Red flags went up and I politely declined, for which now I am VERY glad.
My point is he's still very much at it. Thanks for the warning!

So....I work at the Met, and this older gentleman just called to ask about some CDs he gets with a donation...of course I take every oppotunity to throw into conversation the fact that I'm a singer as well..This guy tells me his name is Martin Riskin, he's Peter Gelb's cousin, runs all these things, etc. etc....even asks me to google him while we're on the phone to prove he is who he says he is. He asked me to send him my materials as he's always looking for new singers for things. I was soooo excited....then the bells went off about reading this post a couple years ago and THANK GOD I searched before getting caught in the trap!

How can this guy still be at it? He has to be older than dirt.