My name is Michael M. Thomas.  I am a columnist for the New York Observer
and have been collecting classical music since 1950.  For 14 years
1978-1992 I owned and supervised a classical vinyl-then-CD shop in NYC
called Orpheus.  My CDs are my second family:  one that, even at mya
dvanced age, keeps growing!  I gave my vinyl to the local college staion
when I rusticated to Eastern Long Island ten yearsa go.  Thatr station has
just abandoned classical music for "what the audience wants," whatever that
may be.

However classical music as most think of it is kept alive in these
barbarous days is to be accepted.  we are living through one of the
great ironies in history:  in a reaction to statism, the high art types
made common cause with Market Man in the '80s and this is what resulted!
Many of us have our doubts about organized religion, but ancient learning
was kept alive in the monasteries during the so-called "Dark Ages," a
circumstance that may provide some comfort whenever we hear the theme
from Titanic described as classical.

Michael M. Thomas