I was 'put on hold' on the phone today. What passes for modern music played, or rather assaulted my ears, whilst I waited. Thankfully it was just a few moments but the damage to my sensibilities was done. Our civilisation's decline is screetched at us by teenybopper 'Divas' who have never taken a singing lesson in their lives and rely almost entirely on strutting their pudendas across the stage as they warble. My ears needed healing. Thank goodness my eyes were spared.
The singing voice is a marvel. Can be. My phone call was to my pharmacist and later in the day after picking up my meds (I am an old and knackered Knight, remember) I sought some healing salves for my aural sense .... I sought visual too. Older era music can lift my soul and heart, and coupled with modern technology (which does not improve the aforesaid teen divas' efforts) can provide a gentleman's pleasure. So, a short post, of just three short songs with beauty, sensuality and delight. Let me start with Elīna Garanča recording Dopo l'oscuro nembo (from Adelson e Salvini) - by Bellini. Dressed for work, not 'Performance'. To me, she is the epitome of the Opera Diva.
You could put her in a muddy field in the rain, wearing just a work-worn smock, and the Angels would gather to listen to her sing. The orchestra fits, but for some pieces the voice itself is all you need. Several, harmoniously, can render an orchestra redundant. So... Miserere mei, Deus - by Allegri - sung by the Tenebrae Choir.
OK, one more. A 'proper' performance. Renée Fleming performing Casta Diva (by Bellini, again) in the Palaces of the Czars in Saint Petersburg in 2009.
This is an astonishing rendition of this aria. Such a wonderful interpretation of this difficult piece of music. Everything that is required is in place: the support is solid, the resonance full, the registers blended, the dynamics carefully controlled, the timbre is beautiful and finely textured, the central coloratura section is sung in one breath; the line remains seamless, and the text is gently inflected with colour and real sentiment. People have to remember that here, in 2009, Fleming was 50, and so of course not a match for the singing of her absolute prime (nor perhaps for the up-and coming Elina). Neither Caballe nor Sutherland maintained their voices in this immaculate condition at this age. OK, your taste may not be mine but we can all do with extending into areas (and arias) where we have not previously ventured, and leave modern trash .... er... tracks, behind us. My ears are back in working order again. Enjoy. And have a drink. Pax
No sooner had one splendid Mexican Spanish-singing lady entertain us and depart the Tavern to applause , than we had some Italians turn up seeking fame too. This time they insisted on bringing the Tango flavour to the dance floor. They may have been put up to it by a mob that operates in Hobart that teaches the dance to the local farm-boys and girls. Tasmania is becoming a tad cosmopolitan.
Not that I am complaining. Despite my total inability and inclination to dance, I do like those who do it expertly. The only issue I have with the tango is the dancers' insistence on careering through the bars knocking tables out of the way. The Italian mob? They all seem to have 'day jobs' independently but get together to make music for sultry girls and rather 'mano' boys. They call themselves The Voga Experience.
There were four of them as the three main characters were joined by a chap who could be their dad.
Giulia Baldo (Singer), was born in Verona in 1993. I like the voice. It has all the hallmarks of smokey rooms and bars. She'd fit well in the Tavern.
Yeye Dj (Deejay - Producer), was born in Verona in 1978. He is a well-known Veronese DJ on the scene since 1994. He seems intent on his electronics, very like someone close to home. Filadelfo Castro (Guitarist - Producer - Arranger) was born in Como in 1976. He seems to be the serious musician of the troupe.
He studied classical guitar with Maestro Guido Fichtner and modern guitar attending internships and seminars with internationally renowned musicians: Frank Gambale, Pat Metheney, John Scofield, Steff Burns, Mike Stern, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Jim Kelly and many others. He publishes 4 didactic books dedicated to the guitar with the Ricordi Bmg (The scales for modern guitar, Fundamental rhythmic technique, The encyclopedia of Virtuosism 1 and 2.)
They ought not to be confused with Voga Furniture (the reputation of which has taken a bit of a tumble of late) although I am pretty sure I have seen some of this talented musical trio's latest offering used in adverts on the TV. See if you can guess what could be being advertised in this video. Or perhaps parts parsed out to stand alone with a 'product'. I think the World Cup, Coffee and Furniture would be a safe bet. Maybe flooring? To the music !! (er.... this is just one of several versions. I shall leave you to chase down others).
I really liked all of that. Great fun. Great timing. That Tasmanian mob, by the way, should you be in town and want to have a go, is, the Tasmanian Club de Tango Inc. You could look them up:
Meanwhile we need to remember that the Tango is not Italian. It is Argentinian.
Argentine tango is a musical genre and accompanying social dance originating at the end of the 19th century in the suburbs of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. It typically has a 2 4 or 4 4 rhythmic time signature, and two or three parts repeating in patterns such as ABAB or ABCAC.
Its lyrics are marked by nostalgia, sadness, and laments for lost love.
The typical orchestra has several melodic instruments and is given a distinctive air by the small button accordion called the bandoneon. It has continued to grow in popularity and spread internationally, adding modern elements without replacing the older ones.
It is a feature in films. It is danced in ballrooms, in the streets, in old buildings, in daylight, at night, with super-couth people and the very rough mob. It is very watchable although the dancers themselves may or may not give a hoot who sees them.
Where it is danced in the streets (mainly, I suspect, predominantly in Argentina rather than the Hobart waterfront) crowds will always gather to enjoy.
Here are Jessica and Colin, not very South American sounding, strutting their stuff at a fancy do. The ladies seem to be impressed.
A question came to mind watching that. What did she do with the glass of wine ? Someone taught her sleight of hand? Anyway who better to teach such a tactile dance to a nice girl, than a blind man who knows his way around (with a bit of help). From the film 'Scent of a Woman', blind Frank (Al Pacino) teaches the beautiful and charming Donna (Gabrielle Anwar) how to dance the tango.
It is enough to tempt a portly old Knight to leave his armour off, put his Tavern Keeper towel down and get some lessons. (But not from Frank. Donna when she has got it buttoned down).
Trists happen, even in the Tavern. In springtime, as it is now, especially in the Tavern. The gardens are blooming and young folk gather with no idea of the troubles they are going to get into. Love is in the air. Tristesse may follow. So it was that I left the towel and the main bar in the capable hands of a level headed barmaid, and headed out to the patio for a pipe. There I caught the sounds of a guitar and sort of Spanish melodies. It was a lady due to sing this evening, some ditties from furrin climes.
Now, I cannot recall the last time I had a Spanishy troupe to play for us. There were some Flamenco dancers a while back. We even had some Tango recently. (Not that I dance of course). But this time we had a Mexican. I had not heard of the lady until quite recently. Guadalupe Pineda came to be known as one of her native Mexico's grassroots musical icons. Performing music from all over the Spanish-speaking world for audiences large and small, Pineda built a reputation and fan base, concert by concert, over the course of a career that spanned decades. Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Pineda early on relocated to Mexico City, where she studied sociology and political science before embarking on her career as a vocalist. A much better idea than sociology and politics ! She began singing in the local coffee shops and small venues, building her repertoire and reputation while she supported herself selling real estate and teaching guitar lessons.
Pineda (as she is called) collaborated with a number of local groups, one of them being Sanampay, with whom she recorded three records and got her first chance to tour internationally. In 1980 Pineda recorded an album with Carlos "Caíto" Diaz, launching her career as a solo performer. Throughout the early '80s Pineda performed anywhere she was invited, including venues like prisons, mental hospitals offices, and city squares. The less-than-glamorous performance career honed her skills and gained support punctuated by the 1984 release of the song "Yolanda." Her breakthrough hit, also known as "Te Amo," performed as a duet with Pablo Milanés, sold better than a million and a half copies, announcing Pineda as an international star. Not that I had heard of her, nor most of my anglophile customers. We can get a tad parochial if we are not careful and do not broaden our minds. In the years to follow, Pineda would add many successful records to her discography, soon including more than 25 titles, several achieving gold and platinum status. She has appeared before audiences all over Latin America and Europe, performing folk and pop repertoire from all over Latin America. She seems to be popular with film-makers who 'illustrate' her work, especially the one I was hearing. I shall show a few below. I started a count but gave up after a handful and a half. What I was hearing was her "Historia De Un Amor" - the story of 'lost love'. But as I said before, it has to start somewhere and the Tavern orchards are as good a place as any.
Call me an old romantic but I think that was charming: warm, humourous, mischeivious even. A good start for a young couple. Even the very young girl and boy.
But the song is actually about lost love ! It brought to my mind a little girl, Mary Moriarty, who was six when I was just five. I was in love for a few days - my first time - and have never forgotten her. The song tells of a man's suffering after his love has disappeared. I can understand that, having lost several in m'time. "Historia de un Amor" (Spanish for "a love story") is a song about a man's old love written by Panamanian songwriter Carlos Eleta Almarán. It was written after the death of his brother's wife. It is also part of the soundtrack of a 1956 Mexican film of the same name starring Libertad Lamarque. The words? For those many who do not speak Spanish.
You're by my side no more, my love and in my soul all I've left is loneliness and if I can't see you anymore why did God make me love you just to make me suffer more?
You were always my reason to exist; to worship you was my religion. In your kisses I could find the warmth you gave to me; the love and passion
This is a love story there's no other that's the same and it made me understand all that is good, all that is bad. It brought light into my life just to extinguish said light later Alas!
What a dark life without your love I won't survive: You're by my side no more, my love and in my soul all I've left is loneliness: and if I can't see you anymore why did God make me love you just to make me suffer more?
Tristesse indeed ! The song was first recorded as a tango by Héctor Varela and his orchestra along with singer Rodolfo Lesica. This isn't it, but similar....
This song has been sung or played by many artists: Dalida, Irvys Juarez, Mietta, Guadalupe Pineda, Eydie Gormé & Trio Los Panchos, Los Paraguayos, Julio Jaramillo, Nicola Di Bari, Abbe Lane, Julio Iglesias, Angélica María, Nana Mouskouri, George Dalaras, Hrysoula Stefanaki, Perez Prado, Pilita Corrales, Laura Fygi, Iva Zanicchi, Mietta, Dizzy Reece, Pedro Infante, Ana Gabriel, Luis Miguel, Luz Casal, Yasar, Cesaria Evora, Lili Boniche, Los Tres Ases, Dany Brillant, Eartha Kitt, Krystyna Janda, Stanisława Celińska, Sargis Maghakyan Sr., Zaz (singer), Il Volo, Felipe Pirela, Miri Mesika, Diego El Cigala, Margarita Suvorova and Il Divo among others. Yes, I know. I haven't heard of any of them either. Well, OK, Four I have heard of. Which just goes to show !
The song was featured several times in the Colombian telenovela "La Hija del Mariachi", performed by Carolina Ramirez. In the film "Visage" by Tsai Ming-liang, Lebanese singer Mohammed Jamal recorded the song in the 1980s in Arabic under the title "You and Dancing And me". A Turkish cover called "Bütün Dualarım Seninle" ("All My Prayers with You") was performed by Berkant in 1972.
It has also been covered in Chinese, with the lyrics written by Chen Die-Yi 陳蝶衣 (Oct 17, 1907 in Wujin, Jiangsu to Oct 14, 2007 in Hong Kong). The song title in Chinese is 我的心裡没有他 (literally: Inside my heart, there is no him/her).
Il Divo, along with Colombian producer Julio Reyes Copello, recorded the song for the album Amor & Pasión from Il Divo (2015). So there ! Now you know. I shall leave you with several other video-film 'illustrations', perhaps the most disturbing 'lost love' being that between Mr and Mrs Smith, the assassins tasked with whacking each other.
And this one. The Nun's story. Torn between the irresistible lure of romance and the life she once knew, the song is used to tell the story of a nun as she navigates love, loss, betrayal, adventure, and ultimately, faith!
Hey, even the Good have trials, trists and tristesse. I hazard that Guadalupe's song and arrangement has earned her a very comfortable life. Now't to be sad about really. Have a drink. Pax
I like music, despite having a dreadful voice and failing with every instrument I even so much as touched. And I despair of the modern wailing 'lerve' and lust and screetching lewdness from under-dressed young women and from pseudo-blokes with four days beard growth who rap filth. But, as a chap rides slowly across field and through forests searching out dragons and the occasional small beast for supper, I do like to hum to m'self. And my mind goes to favourites artists, usually people whose career I have followed.
One such who I have admired from afar for more years than this tavern has been around visited the Music Room for the evening. The delectible Elina Garanca. I swear that were I 40 years younger and she had played her cards aright, she could have had me. But I am content to be an admirer of her womanliness and superb voice. And her choice of repertoire. For example, here, "Mon Coeur S'ouvre à Ta Voix" (My Heart Opens Up At the Sound Of Your Voice) from the opera "Samson and Delilah" by Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns. On May 2018 Garanča made her stage role debut as Dalila in Camille Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila at Wiener Staatsoper conducted by Marco Armiliato.
Elīna (born 16 September 1976) is a Latvian mezzo-soprano.
With a musical family background, she began to study singing in her hometown of Riga in 1996 and continued her studies in Vienna and in the United States. By 1999 she had won first Place in a significant competition in Finland and had begun a career in Europe. Worldwide engagements quickly followed her 2003 Salzburg Festival appearances. Her father was a choral director, and her mother Anita was a lieder singer, a professor at the Latvian Academy of Music, an associate professor at the Latvian Academy of Culture, a vocal music teacher at the Latvian National Opera, and also a private voice tutor. Her brother Jānis (sometimes spelled Jaanis) Garančs, three years older than Elīna, started out in music studies, but is now an artist and consultant working with interactive computer-generated visual media. Since 2015 she has been continuing her vocal development with voice teacher Dale Fundling.
She entered the Latvian Academy of Music in 1996 to study singing with Sergej Martinov. She continued her studies in Vienna with Irina Gavrilovici and in the United States with Virginia Zeani. Garanča began her professional career at the Meiningen Court Theatre in Meiningen, Germany, and later worked at the Frankfurt Opera. In 1999, she won the Mirjam Helin Singing Competition in Helsinki, Finland. Here is a very early appearance, in competition. Villa-Lobos' Aria-Cantilena, a piece not played and sung often enough, From the Mirjam Helin Contest 1999.
Elina's international breakthrough came in 2003 at the Salzburger Festspiele when she sang Annio in a production of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Major engagements followed quickly, such as Charlotte in Werther, Dorabella in Così fan tutte at the Vienna State Opera (2004) and Dorabella in a Paris production directed by Patrice Chéreau (2005). In 2006, she returned to La clemenza di Tito, this time singing the part of Sesto. On 12 January 2008 Garanča made her company and house debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in the role of Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia. Of her debut, Bernard Holland wrote in The New York Times:
"Ms. Garanca is the real thing ... Modern singing techniques adapt with difficulty to Rossini's early-19th-century emphasis on speed, lightness and athletic articulation, and Ms. Garanca was the only one onstage sounding completely comfortable. The lyric passages sang out; the episodes of racecourse delivery were fully in hand".
She spoke for herself too, impromptu, sitting in a quiet corner of the Tavern's music rooms.
Garanča sang the leading role of Georges Bizet's Carmen in the 2010 production of the Metropolitan Opera. In the opening concert of the 2011 Rheingau Musik Festival in the Eberbach Abbey she performed Alban Berg's Sieben frühe Lieder with the hr-Sinfonieorchester, conducted by Paavo Järvi.
She is also very well known, not only for 'spirited gal' roles but for her renditions of Sacred music.
Elina Garanča: "To me it’s not professional to go onstage and burn up. My first goal is to present my voice. To this, I add—in no particular order—expression, character, emotion. But first of all it’s about the voice. I’m a singer after all. Otherwise I would have been an actress." Awards 1999: First Place: Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition (Finland) 2000: Latvian Great Music Award 2001: Finalist: Cardiff BBC Singer of the World Competition (UK) 2005: Nominated: Grammy Award for the recording of Bajazet 2006: MIDEM Classical Award: "Best Opera", recording of Vivaldi's Bajazet with Fabio Biondi, conductor; Patrizia Ciofi, David Daniels, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, Vivica Genaux and Marijana Mijanovic. And she is a fine duetist. Here singing the Flower duet with Anna
Netrebko (Lakmé de Delibes)
2006: European Culture Prize in Music (Soloist Category) awarded by the Pro Europa / European Foundation for Culture (Switzerland/Germany) 2007: Echo Klassik Award: "Singer of the Year" for the solo CD "Aria Cantilena" 2007: Three-Star Order: awarded by the Latvian State 2009: Echo Klassik Award: "Singer of the Year" 2010: Musical America Award: "Vocalist of the Year" 2010: MIDEM Classical Award: "Singer of the Year" 2010: Latvian Great Music Award 2013: Austrian Kammersängerin 2013: Echo Klassik Award: "Best Solo Recording of the Year", (duets/opera/opera arias for Romantique, works by Berlioz, Donizetti, Gounod, Lalo, Saint-Saëns, Tchaikovsky and Vaccai). Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Dir. Yves Abel
2015: Echo Klassik Award: "Solo recording of the year" I could look at and listen to her all day. There is music that can set feet a'tapping. A pleasant background when doing something. There is music that can raise the heart rate and pump the blood. Or fists in the air. The mindless young seem to be captivated by it... and often not in a good way.
I prefer music that can touch my heart: caress it; shed tears on it. Music that enters my Soul and lifts it: turns my attention to Higher matters and is a Gift to Him in the Crypt. It is a counter to the Dragon's breath. But now I have ale to serve. Drink up and drink in real music from a most excellent songstress. Pax
The unquiet night earlier in the week (the stormy weather) was countered by a huge influx of customers yesterday. 1324 of them, which had me rushed off my feet. Someone has been drumming up trade. I do not think it was one of my critics, a lady who stands outside the hedge heckling. She reckons the Tavern customers won't reach double figures anytime soon. But the drums say otherwise. I don't know whey she bothers.
The world loves a beat, and while I do not even play drums or any instrument for that matter, my chain mail-socks can tap one out when others play. It has been mentioned to me as I pull pints that the Drummer in the Tavern name hardly gets a look in. So tonight we put that to rights. Down in the streets the word was put out by a young fellow, Alistair, who can get a beat out of almost anything. I think he may have had something to do with all the tickets for the big bash this evening. We have a big line-up, from all over, but more of that in a moment.
Not that the biz is just for young fellows. In Japan a little girl whacks the skins like a professional much to the astonishment of shoppers. And me. I must get her onto the patio next summer.
It did not used to be the case back in my day that girls played drums. They usually stood around looking decorative. These days they are beating their own drum. This youngster reckons her Dad helped a lot.
But wait. Let's look at the line up for tonight. There are very decorative big girls playing with the boys. Or should that be competing. Here are the flowers of the Ukraine, lined up to battle it out.
Of course Battle was one of the earliest uses of drums. They signalled. They kept the timing. They lifted the spirits. But it took quite a bit of training and discipline which still has to be applied. Cadets here do their thing under the watchful eye and ear of their Sergeant before joining the field. Splendid lads too.
And the result? The Swiss Top Secret Drum Corps show us, dressed for combat.
The 'Drum Battle', has a history going right back to,,, oh 1966. The famous one between the 'Greats': Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich, as I was reminded by my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
Now, if all works out we shall have the latest 'Great', Phil Collins, to round off our evening. And I shall leave you dummaniacs with it. I shall pull and pour pints while you enjoy.
(B)eat your heart out Sarah. You were almost right. My AdSense figures are in two digits. $20 ! Pax
Blokes and Ballet. I don't think about them much but I do like to see some girly ballet in the Tavern. When I shed my armour and bar-keeper apron I can scrub up well in a Dinner Jacket and watch the pretty girls prancing...er, dancing. Its a feminine bizzo, ballet. Girls in tiny or whispy skirts, gracefully - and I have to acknowledge, athletically - leaping around on the restaurant stage area is a real treat. But the blokes? Hmmmm. Still, during the rehearsals for this evening's show, I learned a few things. For instance it seems to be a good gig for the lesser competent chaps who like to cavort with girls.
Not that the blokes are not athletic in their own way, just lesser 'skilled' than the gals it seems, and less 'appealing' to a girl in the manly department, but I am not a dancer m'self. Oz does not have the American entertainment history of 'musicals' where jackaroos dance in from from the outback from herding cows or knife-wielding Somali thugs sashay down Collins street Melbourne to confront an equally hilarious mob of leaping Lebanese 'skins' or 'jets'. Nor coloured street gangs in Wagga Wagga who 'rap' and spin, trying to convince onlookers that they have a bit of manliness about them or even that they can dance. They don't. They can't. Michael Jackson just looked silly most of the time. One has to wonder about their genders though and there are so many these days. 'Man' does not figure highly. So we do not have that many of them nor many manly ballet dancers. But for some in the Tavern (I won't name names) who are always looking for me to say something about Manliness, let these ballet-guys serve as negative examples. A very brief display of femininity from Anna Sysoeva seems to underscore the point.
Ballet seems short of manliness somehow, and would you believe short of feminists too! But apparantly it pays well. Pays men well, that is. Not a peep or a point from the 'wimmin' who are usually magnavocal about pay gaps. Have you ever given that a passing thought? Me neither. I shared a table with Madison Breshears as the rehearsals progressed.
Feminists don’t care about the gender gap in ballet.
Why should we care about the one in tech?
What, if anything, do ballet and tech have in common? The obvious answer is that both fields show highly disproportionate gender distributions.
Less acknowledged but no less relevant is this uncomfortable commonality: Both are industries where it pays to be in the sexual minority. I know, because I was a ballet dancer for 16 years.
In the ballet world, men’s unfair advantage in hiring and casting is as widely understood and as rarely acknowledged as is the rampant anorexia.
A less skilled male dancer is more likely to land a role or get a job than a female dancer of comparable skill. Due to the scarcity of men, the hurdles to a professional career are distinctly lower than they are for most women.
Anyone who says something similar about women in the tech industry does so at their own peril. It is assumed and unquestioned that pervasive sexism and systematic discrimination against women are to blame for their underrepresentation. But then, how did a field like tech, once dominated by nerds regularly bullied by their more athletic and popular peers, suddenly become replete with toxic masculinity?
The answer? It didn’t.
I was born in the mid-nineties, and I’m still old enough to recall a time when demographic trends by sex weren’t a titillating subject of conversation for anyone other than advertisers interested in strategic marketing, let alone a source of widespread concern.
Today, gender patterns once regarded as the facts of life elicit outrage, investigation, and legislation across our country.
Particularly telling was the 2017 controversy over Google employee James Damore’s infamous memo. As you might recall, the widely-circulated manifesto made headlines for its subversive use of statistical trends, psychology, scientific data, and several well-placed bullet points. His thesis? The underrepresentation of women in the tech industry may not necessarily be the result of sexism or discrimination, but of differing interests, choices, or personality trends seen between genders on average.
Damore went on to say that the tech giant’s programs and practices intended to eliminate the gender gap in question were manifesting in unjust treatment of men within the company.
This seems like common sense to a lot of people, but it certainly upset the prevailing assumptions at Google. The well-researched but socially suicidal document led to Damore's termination, catapulting Damore into an overnight viral sensation as the antichrist of the feminist Left and the champion for the politically-incorrect everywhere.
I was sitting in a ballet studio, warming up before class, when I was unexpectedly prompted to revisit the idea of the “gender gap.”
Surrounded by that standard 20:1 female to male ratio, I asked myself, where is the public outrage?
If we tend to assume that occupational gender disparities are invariably the result of injustice, then, by all accounts, ballet was suffering from an epidemic of anti-male sexism.
Lucinda Dunn, the artistic director at the Tanya Pearson Classical Coaching Academy, addressed the question of whether there were more boys going in to ballet. But Dunn, a former principal artist at the Australian Ballet, said there was one reason why men would always be important for classical ballet.
"The reality is you can't be a female ballerina if you don't have someone to stand behind you."
So, most often he is just a 'prop'.
Looking at Auditions and the wannabees can illustrate for us. A point to note is who is in charge!
But that obviously isn’t the case, and you don’t need to launch an investigative campaign into casting or hiring practices to know why.
Men, on average, simply are not as interested in ballet as women.
It isn't even close, and thus neither are the numbers of men and women in ballet.
I remember distinctly from my youth the tinge of jealousy and injustice I felt watching my less talented male peers win medals, receive scholarships, and land company positions that I never did. I understand Damore's point from a deeply personal perspective.
But there is one crucial caveat: While my experience and those of women like me in ballet are an unfortunate but inevitable fact of the industry, Damore and other male Google employees are, in fact, suffering from blatant sex discrimination.
Ballet, after all, can't be done without male roles.
Its canonical repertoire demands opposite-sex partnering choreography. There is no analogous constraint in the tech industry to excuse its discrimination in favor of one sex over the other. There is no inherent reason why women need to work in tech; coding is as colorblind as it is sexually indiscriminate.
Notice him, back there?
Yet, Google is employing discrimination against one sex and in favor of the other to combat an assumed problem — latent sexism supposedly causing the enormous gender disparity in tech — for whose existence the evidence is elusive.
The selective outrage of feminists over disparities like the one in tech is revealing.
There is a conspicuous shortage of school programs, campaigns, marches, and hashtags to end the gender gap in, say, teaching, or counselling, which according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics are professions overwhelmingly dominated by women.
Nursing is a pretty good gig — it pays well, is flexible, and nurses can find work anywhere. So, where should we look for the anti-male bias that made it so that more than 90 percent of nurses are women?
Meanwhile, you will search in vain for the calls to eliminate the overrepresentation of men in mining, trucking, sewage, and garbage collecting. The reason for all this is that the feminist Left isn't so much a political movement for equality with a consistent philosophy as much as it is an expression of rage over the fact that men and women tend to make different career decisions.
They are, however, right about one thing. Perhaps the only feasible way of totally eliminating their favourite misread statistic and rallying cry, the “gender wage gap,” would be to strong-arm the nation's most prestigious companies into discriminating against men, or alternatively, to coerce very large numbers of women into professions and career paths that they consistently opt not to pursue when given a free choice, in spite of the incentives.
I salute women who work in fields where they’re outnumbered, but I don’t appreciate or support policies that patronize women at men’s expense for the sake of “diversity” in any occupation, under any circumstances.
My female friends in STEM agree, and they aren’t the ones pushing for these ridiculous reparations.
As for the radical feminists, you might ask them, if they feel so strongly about equal representation, why didn’t they themselves pursue a degree in engineering? Expect to hear something like, “well, I did always prefer English, and calculus was such a bore.”
While all that chat was going on, some girls were taking the stage to do what a military chap like m'self might call 'Drill'. And as ever, there is always one!!
We like a bit of fun with our arty evenings. But I sat back to watch the rest of the show, which you could see if you came by in person this evening. I am open to learning about the bizzo.... and watch pretty girls. The 'Chorus' girl was always a fantasy but in Ballet they work hard.
It isn't as though they get paid all that much. They are paid on gigs and rehearsals. Often just 38 weeks of the year. Your superstar can pull in big bucks but the rest? Many ballerinas have been training for most of their lives to become a principal dancer, usually starting classes around the age of seven. Dance students can train between eight-to-10 years before landing professional work.
Professionally, dancers start out as apprentices before moving to the lowest level of their company, the corps de ballet. There, they can be promoted to coryphées, where they may be given small solos. The next step is becoming a soloist, who often learns principal parts as an understudy should the principal have to miss a show. Principal dancers or senior principals are the highest-ranking in every company – the stars of the show. How much do ballerinas make throughout this process? It varies greatly but generally sticks to the following range: (US$) •Apprentice (New Dancer): $125 – $800 per week •Corps de Ballet dancer: $325 - $1,500 per week
•Principal Dancer: $53,000 - $150,000+ a year for the top companies Pay gap? At 20 gals for every chap, it is surprising the chaps want any pay at all. ! Maybe feminists and their acolytes who like to be the only gals in a man-work place, should consider the 'side-benefit' aspects of the pay differentials too. I can hear the outrage already. Hahahahaha. I gave all the guys drinks on the house. All the ladies too, of course. I leave you with one more. The very famous. Yes, Nureyev and Fonteyn. I was never impressed by his attempts at manliness. An oversized cod-piece does not convince. But you assess for yourselves.
Get men together in a pub or a Tavern these days and it is unlikely they will burst into song, unless it is a Karaoke night. We don't have that here but hey, it is something to think about, eh? And then too one can come across 'garage bands' doing a gig. But we do have a music area here which opens into the resaurant and patio and we do do entertainment. All three were busy today. But it is the bar where men used to sing a lot in an earlier era. And this evening we had not one mob of men but two, competing and cooperating to do the very best for us.
My friend Mary Sternhagen brought them in. "Hey, Sire", she smiled, "look at all the men who follow me around" I was delighted. After days of dire and dark conversations we were in need of cheer. She had the choirs. The choirs had the best songs, most appropiate for this sort of Tavern. Cantus is a full-time, professional vocal chamber ensemble, made up of eight men singing in a TTBB (tenor, tenor, baritone, bass), changed male voice arrangement. The artists are self-led, with programming and musical direction coming from within the group itself. The ensemble is known for innovative concert programming, often tying together works of numerous genres to explore a selected narrative, including classical music, orchestral-vocal repertoire, folk music, art song, popular songs, spirituals, and newly commissioned works.
These men of fine voice are.... Jacob Christopher, tenor Zachary Colby, tenor Adam Fieldson, tenor Chris Foss, bass David Geist, baritone Matthew Goinz, baritone Samuel Green, bass Paul Scholtz, tenor The vocal group maintains a schedule of around 70 live concert performances and 30-40 education/outreach activities in a given season, both in the United States of America and abroad. And the Knight & Drummer Tavern, of course. Cantus is an active proponent of music education, encouraging people of all ages - especially men - to sing. The ensemble has worked with tens of thousands of singers throughout the country in educational activities ranging from master classes to festivals and collaborations. New members are acquired through annual national auditions.
The ensemble began as a student-run organization at St. Olaf College in 1995. After a successful northeast tour in the summer of 1998, Cantus transitioned into a professional ensemble and non-profit organization by 1999, based out of Minneapolis, MN. Cantus is the only artist-led full-time vocal ensemble in the United States, and is one of two professional classical male vocal ensembles in the United States that pays its artists full-time salaries, while maintaining a year-round schedule of performances, the other being San Francisco’s Chanticleer. So let us look at them too. But..... first. let's see and hear the all, by way of introduction to pub singing.
Called “the world’s reigning male chorus,” by the New Yorker magazine, and named 2008 Ensemble of the Year by Musical America, Chanticleer performs more than 100 concerts each year around the globe. These guys are.....
Gerrod Pagenkopf, countertenor; Logan S. Shields, countertenor; Timothy Keeler, countertenor; Cortez Mitchell, countertenor; Adam Ward, countertenor; Alan Reinhardt, countertenor; Matthew Mazzola, tenor; Brian Hinman, tenor & road manager; Andrew Van Allsburg, tenor; Matthew Knickman, baritone; Zachary Burgess, bass-baritone; and Eric Alatorre, bass Chanticleer - based in San Francisco - has developed a remarkable reputation for its vivid interpretations of vocal literature, from Renaissance to jazz, and from gospel to venturesome new music. With its seamless blend of twelve male voices, ranging from countertenor to bass, the ensemble has earned international renown as “an orchestra of voices.” This is Chanticleer.
Since 1994, Chanticleer’s recordings have been made available worldwide by Warner Classics. Most recently Let it Snow, a new collection of Christmas music, was on the BillBoard charts for twelve weeks. Colors of Love won the GRAMMY® Award in 2000 for Best Small Ensemble Performance (with or without Conductor) and the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award for Best Classical Album. The world-premiere recording of Sir John Tavener’s Lamentations and Praises was released in January 2002 to critical acclaim and garnered two GRAMMY® awards for Classical Best Small Ensemble Performance (with or without Conductor) and for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.
Cantus
With the help of individual contributions and foundation and corporate support, the group brings the gift of singing to young people by conducting an extensive education program including in-school clinics and workshops, Chanticleer Youth Choral Festivals™ in the Bay Area and around the country, master classes for university students nationwide, and the Chanticleer in Sonoma summer workshop for adult choral singers. 2008 saw the release of The Singing Life- a documentary about Chanticleer’s 2007 Youth Choral Festival™. I was reading and watching some American Civil War history the other evening and specifically the Shenandoah Valley campaign. Here is an echo.
Chanticleer’s long-standing commitment to commissioning and performing new works was recognized in 2008 by the inaugural Dale Warland Commissioning Award and the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming for the 2006-07 Season in which the group premiered ten new works. Among the seventy composers commissioned in the group’s history - past commissions include works by Mark Adamo, Régis Campo, Chen Yi, David Conte, Douglas J. Cuomo, Brent Michael Davids, Anthony Davis, Guido López-Gavilán, William Hawley, Jake Heggie, Jackson Hill, Kamran Ince, Jeeyoung Kim, Tania León, Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, Michael McGlynn, John Musto, Shulamit Ran, Bernard Rands, Steven Sametz, Carlos Sanchez-Guttierez, Paul Schoenfield, Steven Stucky, John Tavener, Augusta Read Thomas and Janike Vandervelde.
Named for the “clear-singing” rooster in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Chanticleer was founded in 1978 by tenor Louis Botto, who sang with the group until 1989 and served as Artistic Director until his death in 1997. In 1999, Christine Bullin joined Chanticleer as President & General Director. Artistic Advisor Joseph Jennings joined the ensemble as a countertenor in 1983, and shortly thereafter assumed the title of Music Director which he held until 2008. A prolific composer and arranger, Mr. Jennings has provided the group with some of its most popular repertoire, most notably spirituals, gospel music, and jazz standards. In 2008, tenor Matthew Oltman was named Music Director. By the way, there is a lady choir called Cantus as well, and guess what. They came in too. Enough talk for the moment. Let's see and hear these fine gals.
I had a lot of exercise on the pumps and cork-puller this evening, I can tell you. Throats and vocal chords need lubricating and what better to do that with than the finest ale and wine from my Supplier. Have a few yourself. Pax
