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Chicago IS a Cultural Backwater


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Okay, I've defended this city enough. I've diligently posted about all the Joffrey's performances. I've pretended that dance does exist here.

I'm so MAD!!!!!!! Our local PBS outlet, Channel 11-WTTW ("Your Window to the World"), has NO plans to air the Great Performances on the men of the ABT. Not this month, anyway. We are the third largest TV market in the country!!!!

(For the rest of you lucky viewers, PBS will be sending this out tomorrow, Feb. 3. Check YOUR local listings...)

Don't worry, they will be hearing from me. Hubby works closely with Channel 11 professionally. For cripes sake, hubby used to be the one who scheduled Great Performances for the national PBS ...

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oh, one way or another I'll be able to see it. I can get someone to tape it, or could even buy the video.

My gripe is that our programming geniuses don't think the local masses will be interested. Or that it's worth providing it in the hopes that someone might accidentally tune in and acquire some culture.

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Hi Treefrog from your friendly ex-Chicagoan,

No sign of Men of ABT on my local PBS station either -- grrrrr. Although oddly enough I see an upcoming airing of Rudolf Nureyev's Don Q. I always knew Baltimore was in a time warp -- maybe Men of ABT will air ten years from now! If they can fit it in in between endless Antique Roadshow broadcasts, that is... :eek:

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Hi scoop,

Well, although MPT is not airing this in Maryland (confirming my long-held belief that Maryland is a backwater in more ways than one), WETA is doing it 10 times .....check their site (www.weta.org) or the general PBS site (www.pbs.org) to find other local airings. You should be able to get it on channel 26.....

Treefrog, there used to be ballet, symphony, and opera in Chicago, I promise. Maybe times will change.....one can always hope.

;)

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On Christmas Day evening, while many PBS affiliates screened RB Nutcracker or Ahmal, here in Portland Oregon we feasted on "The Natural History of the Chicken". Classy, huh?

Spend a month here, Treefrog, and you'll run screaming back to Chicago, begging for forgivemess!

At least the raunchy Canfield years are coming to an end at OBT.

Word is out that new AD Christopher Stowell has lined up Christopher Wheeldon and SFB's Julia Adams to choreograph.

Or perhaps he should just present the chickens from La Fille Mal Gardee?

Kentucky Fried Ballet, anyone?

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Out here in Mid-Maryland, we are also getting Nureyev's Don Q, to which I am looking forward. No ABT, though; however, there was a review of it in today's Washington Post. Every time I think Maryland is a cultural backwater, I look at the local performing arts center's brochure and see that Ailey, Momix, Pilobolus, and Trinity Irish Dance Company are coming for another year. I don't know if they just stop here on their way to/from DC, but I love the center's director! Not to mention that our local Nutcracker always features NYCB principal dancers...

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Out here in the Bay Area, Nureyev's Don Q was on once, NYCB's Diamond Project show not at all, and "Born to Be Wild" will be shown tonight...at 11:00 p.m.

I don't mind Antiques Roadshow. It's not a bad show in its way, although I'm not a regular viewer. I find the constant rebroadcasts of Royal Family documentaries and brown-nosing Jackie Onassis specials -- hey, she's gone, you can stop now, people-- far more annoying.

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Well, having left my personal backwater this a.m., some 12 hours later I find myself in -- don't hate me, it's a business trip, really! -- in Hawaii. Where the PBS station is indeed airing the elusive Men of ABT -- but at 10 pm, which by my personal, still-on-Eastern-time clock will be 3 a.m. Is this what they mean by suffering for one's art?:confused:

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But, Treefrog, did you watch "The Natural History of the Chicken?" Funny, informative, funny bizarre, original, funny, and heartwarming. And did I mentionfunny?!! Given a choice, I'd just as likely opt for Chicken over another Nut. Unless, of course, the Nut were ABT's with Gelsey.

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Hey, that wasn't me, Carbro, that was Watermill.

I'm a biologist. I'm sure I'd LOVE the "Natural History of the Chicken." I don't think our local PBS outlet has aired that, either.

We DO get a lot of "Antiques Roadshow", though, just like Scoop. Hey, Scoop, have fun in Hawaii. I liked your quip about suffering for one's art.

Vagansmom, thanks hugely for your offer of the tape. I'll contact you privately to arrange details.

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So, WTTW-Chicago has finally come around. Hubby saw the program manager recently and asked, "What gives?" The PM apparently rolled his eyes (in a "yeah, we messed up and boy, did we hear about it" kind of expression) and said that due to numerous complaints -- from the Joffrey, among others -- they would be running "Men of the ABT" in April.

Ballet triumphs over all!

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Treefrog, check out this

Hedy Weiss of the Chicago Sun-Times previews the Joffrey Ballet's upcoming Diaghilev program: Nijinska's Les Noces, Massine's Parade, and Nijinksky's Rite of Spring.
over on the links forum, today.:(
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