pherank

The technology behind a YouTube or Amazon is immense. Just the hardware alone, in state-of-the-art data centers (multiple) with 24/7 air-conditioning to keep the servers from overheating, costs insane amounts of money. A government could certainly afford to play on that level, especially one that doesn't need voter approval of budgets - they could eventually get to something similar (that's what the Chinese are doing fairly successfully). The sad part is that it's all about control of information and people for those governments, and nothing more. There's no vision behind any of the developments, they're just trying to shadow (and counteract) any technology being developed in the West. A policy of paranoia isn't very glorious.

Farrell at least still has Mr. B's voice in her head. Very possibly this is a remark he made long ago.

The Nobel committee was very careful in their wording, at it basically skirts the whole "Is it poetry?" question by speaking to something perhaps larger, and more abstract: "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition" "Poetic expressions" could entail a great many things, and yet people do tend to understand what is being referred to. That's the interesting part.

From the Gounod Symphony rehearsal: "Now you dance because of him, not for him." -that's an interesting distinction, and I wonder if the dancers even understand what the difference would be.

I ran across this quote in The Guardian - Salman Rushdie: "We live in a time of great lyricist-songwriters – Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits – but Dylan towers over everyone. His words have been an inspiration to me ever since I first heard a Dylan album at school, and I am delighted by his Nobel win. The frontiers of literature keep widening, and it’s exciting that the Nobel prize recognises that. I intend to spend the day playing Mr Tambourine Man, Love Minus Zero/No Limit, Like a Rolling Stone, Idiot Wind, Jokerman, Tangled Up In Blue and A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall." The real issue for many, is that there is just the one Award for Literature each year, and there are so many talented artists working with language that deserve some recognition. Fortunately, very few artists work with a Nobel prize in mind. Maybe Hemingway got that idea into his head, he was that type of personality, but few of the best artists mention worrying about awards. I tend to like the more 'psychedelic' songs of Dylan - here is a lesser known gem from the middle years (as sung by Judy Collins): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5WIdaDTvE4 "They tell me to be discreet for all intended purposes, They tell me revenge is sweet and from where they stand, I’m sure it is. But I feel nothing for their game where beauty goes unrecognized, All I feel is heat and flame and all I see are dark eyes."

Next year: Kanye West, who will give an impassioned speech against the Nobel Peace Prize award to Taylor Swift. Meanwhile, at the Grammy's...

This is more about general policy in Russia - away from Western tech company solutions (YouTube is not an open platform, for one thing, but even if it was truly open and free, it's unlikely the Russian or Chinese governments would want their citizens using platforms that they can't control every aspect of).

Dylan may seem a surprising choice, but not so much given the huge influence his lyrics have had on both songwriters and, yes, literary writers. But it is true that lyrics are accompanied by and coordinate with, music, they do not often make music of their own as poetry is often called upon to do. So was this award a mistake? Perhaps, but I think they are essentially giving a 'lifetime achievement award', taking all things Dylan into account. Here's the link to the NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/arts/music/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-literature.html

I was able to watch most, but not all of the live broadcast. Definitely fun to watch the Concertantes and Gounod excerpts. I really enjoy these coaching sessions (the Gounod presentation), and it goes well with all the World Ballet Day footage we have to watch. I was definitely left wanting to see more of Gounod.

Thanks for posting this interview, Dirac - love those vintage photos. That first photo instantly reminded me of what a pain it was to park sideways on any of the steep hills and try to open the driver's door. Especially in the cars of the 1970s which were still made of steel. I concur with Lyon that you don't see children playing throughout the day in the city anymore. Probably in any large city. Crime, and general attitudes about how children should be spending their time, have made that a rare occurrence. 'Unsupervised' children are simply not allowed.

That would be Vanessa Zahorian (a wonderful dancer). But I think it is Ellen Rose Hummel that is seen dancing with SVP and Strongin in the Cinderella rehearsal. There's going to be a number of casts though, I would think. It wouldn't be a surprise to see Jahna Frantziskonis in one of these roles as she is being used frequently. [Jahna appears in the front right bar group along with Dores Andre, Luke Ingham and Lauren Strongin. She also can be seen dancing briefly at 1:12:50 - on the left in pink and black, with Norika in the center in pink and black. And next to Masha at 1:14:20.]

YYT is a treasure, no doubt. She will be the first to say that it gets harder each year to sustain the energy and flexibility that she once had. But few people watching her rehearse and perform would guess that she will be turning 40 in just a few months.

Froustey would be perfect for a number of these dramatic/comedic roles, but I don't know that she has been learning/rehearsing for Cinderella (at least I haven't heard or seen anything to make that seem likely). I'd like to see her train for Diamonds in the upcoming season, but she seems to be scared stiff by Balanchine pieces - it's all in the head though. ;) I'm glad someone else is noticing that the navigation scheme is not good, yet. The new SFB site is entirely oriented towards smart phones, but makes little sense on a desktop computer. It simply isn't intuitive in its organization.

They do tend to be rather slow about announcing casting, but it could be anytime. SFB has a brand new website too and it isn't clear yet where casting is going to appear. I would bet that Masha (Kochetkova) will be in the title role at least once, probably opening night. I'm curious to know if Sarah Van Patten will be one of the step sisters - she's only just returned from maternity leave. SVP and Frances Chung make a great pair of step-sisters.

Wow, I'm sorry to hear this. Rest in peace Sir Neville.

It was great to see Sarah Van Patten participating in the company class, and in the Cinderella rehearsal for World Ballet Day.

On the positive side, the Facebook stream that was being pushed by marketing, that has turned out to work very well. I just find the text and emoji interface to be a big distraction. I'd rather read comments after the segments rather than watch them compete for my attention with the video stream. Too chaotic.

The best thing to do seems to be to just hit the page refresh button in your browser, then you will see the large play icon displayed across the now still video, click that to restart the stream. I find that the stream can be restarted immediately. The individual web pages should provide some instruction, but for some reason there are none. The archived videos are likely to get much larger viewership than the live streams - it's just easier to deal with. NOTE: I have to admit that the Facebook feed seems to be more accurate than what I'm seeing elsewhere. The stream on the SFB website keeps getting interrupted by BNC footage, which is a rather bizarre technical problem. The SFB Facebook feed does not have that problem, but it does have endless streams of emojis. "We’re experiencing some technical difficulties - the broadcast is replaying video from earlier in the day. We’re currently working on fixing this issue. In the meantime we recommend watching on Facebook."

Although the WBD and individual company websites seem to be pushing people to watch live on Facebook, I'm not convinced that this would be the most reliable connection. I may watch from one of the individual company pages as that worked well last year. But I'd like to hear of people's experiences watching on Facebook. To use SFB as an example, it will be possible to watch from their website: https://www.sfballet.org/season/events/2016-world-ballet-day And from their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sfballet/ And possibly from their YouTube page, but that may not be available until SFB's program begins on 10/4: https://www.youtube.com/user/SFBallet

SFB just sent out an email with this schedule listed: All of the times listed below are in Pacific Daylight Time (PDT). October 3 7 pm The Australian Ballet 11 pm Bolshoi Ballet October 4 3 am The Royal Ballet 7 am The National Ballet of Canada 11 am San Francisco Ballet This refers to SFB's portion only: Rehearsals Haffner Symphony Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Choreographer: Helgi Tomasson Frankenstein Composer: Lowell Liebermann Choreographer: Liam Scarlett Diamonds Composer: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Choreographer: George Balanchine Pas/Parts 2016 Composer: Thom Willems Choreographer: William Forsythe Cinderella Composer: Sergei Prokofiev Choreographer: Christopher Wheeldon Interviews Artistic Director & Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson Principal Dancer Frances Chung Principal Dancer Joseph Walsh Principal Dancer Maria Kochetkova Hosted by former SF Ballet Principal dancer Joanna Berman Special Guest Companies (whether any of these will be live, or pre-recorded and edited, is not mentioned) Houston Ballet Ballet Nacional Sodre Pacific Northwest Ballet

Sasha De Sola posted this information on her Instagram and Facebook pages, but I don't know if she's referring to the SFB Facebook page (presumably) or her own page: "Join me on Facebook Live this Monday morning, October 3 at 9:45am PDT for a sneak peek into #WorldBalletDay. Learn more about what’s in store and how we’re preparing for the big day! I'll guide you on a behind the scenes look at @sfballet ! See you all there!"

Thanks for the notice, Jack. Hopefully I'll be available at (presumably) 3pm PST.

It is sad to learn of this, though not a complete surprise. To me, some of her most important work is done as a repetiteur, and so I wonder if that is going to come to an end in favor of more general teaching in ballet technique.

From PNB's reminder email: "Tomorrow (9/21) from 6:30 - 7:30 PM PDT, we'll host a live stream event as Benjamin Millepied rehearses excerpts from his ballet Appassionata with the Company. After the live stream is over, we won't publish the video! It's a one-time chance to see this master choreographer at work on the PNB stage."

From the P.R. release: "This year World Ballet Day LIVE will also include pre-recorded footage from a wide range of other dance organizations from across the world. Confirmed companies are: Ballets du Monte Carlo, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Boston Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, English National Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, Houston Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Northern Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Queensland Ballet, Scottish Ballet, and West Australian Ballet."