dirac

A fair point.

I don’t know that it’s actually a turf issue. (I’m not sure if Laura Barton is an actual pop music critic or if she just doesn’t like opera.) As with ballet and modern dance, hackles and voices become raised when one side regards the other as a kind of threat or as competition. Also, there can be genuine aesthetic issues to be argued over. Rock criticism developed as a specialization because so many of the traditional music critics covering classical and/or jazz were unable or unwilling to understand it and thus write about it intelligently and in a way that would appeal to readers/listeners who knew the music well and could make distinctions. Jonathan Cott, who once did a fine interview with Balanchine, is a rock critic who can write well about classical and pop. Alex Ross is a classical critic who writes well about rock. It's not always a war.

Not necessarily. If their minds aren't open to it and they aren't empathetic enough to understand other people's responses, they can be quite as resistant and uncomprehending as this writer.

Thank you for posting the link to this item, Mashinka. I have as little use for this sort of thing as anyone else posting here, although I do remember in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll that the mainstream press used regularly to trundle out some uncomprehending classical music critic or fan to shout “Bah! Humbug! Don’t understand a word of it!”

That does indeed sound like a rather stiff punishment given the offense, but I suppose the school doesn't want to take any chances. Any responsible (and cautious) school would have a policy in place no matter what the degree of use.

Babies are expensive. A family to support and a less than amicable divorce later on, as Helene noted, explain the need for funds fairly readily. Also, from Villella’s account it sounds as if the marriage didn’t go so well generally. Maybe he was just looking to get out of the house. However, as Paul says, he was a performing animal. That probably has something to do with the concept – the ballerinas interviewed in ‘Dancing for Mr. B,’ for example, are there to talk about, well, dancing for Mr. B, and many dancers are interviewed in films made primarily about Balanchine and not centered on their own careers. (Farrell talks about Balanchine a lot but then it could hardly be otherwise, given her story and the structure of ‘Elusive Muse.’) In addition, because Villella was a man I suspect he would go out of his way, consciously or otherwise, to establish his independence of the big guy. A woman wouldn’t feel the need to do this, not in the same way. Melissa Hayden, to take only one example, could speak very clearly and cogently for herself. Villella is not in general as deferential as many former Balanchine dancers, but then his love-hate relationship with him was more complex. I have not seen this documentary, but if it was focused more on Villella alone as opposed to a Me-and-Mr-B type of thing, that would make a difference both in the questions asked and how they were answered. I think a rivalry between the two men was natural and probably inevitable, given their personalities and ambitions. I don’t know that d’Amboise wanted to be the ‘only man’ but he surely wanted to be number one, not unreasonable or unprecendented. Any male performer of Villella’s caliber would be a threat and some jostling for position only to be expected. As Paul mentions, they were both similar in their audience appeal and and their appetite for the stage.

I'm withholding judgment on the casting of Fergie, myself. We'll see. Chicago wasn’t bad by any means, it just wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Dreamgirls, for all its faults, had a goddess-in-waiting in Beyoncé, who looked and sounded gorgeous.

Cotillard was dubbed in La Vie en Rose, but I'd think she'd be right for this part, anyway - I think she has sung before.

Yes, Kennedy’s aversion to hats was well known. If handed a cowboy hat or any other exotic headgear on the campaign trail, he wouldn’t put it on and grin sheepishly in the manner of most candidates but would only hold it and smile. This didn’t make his staff happy but he was stubborn on this point. He also didn’t like the look of the hatted Boston pols of his youth and made it a point to be as unlike them as possible. There were larger fashion trends at work in the Sixties, though, and hats would most likely have fallen out of favor with or without Kennedy’s example, although I'm sure he gave the shift away from hats a boost. The relaxation of dress codes and changes in hairstyles also had an effect.

I’m not inclined to beat the drums of doom just yet. There aren’t any ‘singing stars’ today as there were back when, and large scale musicals are sufficiently expensive and risky undertakings these days that some star insurance is thought to be needed. I have no problem with casting a star and then dubbing if it’s done right (‘Lost Horizon’ is a great example of dubbing NOT done right), but there’s a stigma to it these days. Even if 'Nine' is not a success, I’d not expect a failure of ‘Lost Horizon’ proportions because the source material is much stronger and Rob Marshall has a far better understanding of what a musical requires than Charles Jarrott. And Day-Lewis and Cruz couldn’t possibly be more at sea than the unfortunate Peter Finch and Liv Ullmann.

An interesting distinction. Do others who listen to audiobooks have preferences?

Audiobooks are nice for commuters, too. The advantage of audiobooks is that they allow people with limited time to sit down with a book to hear it – if you have a long commute you can listen to it in your car. Often people come home at the end of a working day with not much energy for intense reading, or kids underfoot, and during the week that’s almost their only opportunity for ‘reading time.’

Absolutely. The two books, Vaughan's and Kavanagh's, complement each other very well.

Well, it makes a certain kind of sense to me, innopac. A transcribed lecture, while useful, isn't quite the same as hearing or seeing it delivered, when voice and tempo and body language can mean a great deal. A podcast isn't the same as being there, but it's a lot closer to it.

Thanks for posting those pictures, AngieLynn. This has been an interesting thread to read.

Not a good sign for Fraser. Bolt does seem to have given every evidence of great promise and steady improvement. He just turned 22, which means there’s reason to expect he will get even better, a scary thought. Anyway, I’m happy for the Jamaicans after the U.S. meltdown in the relays. I noticed too that many of the women have clearly visible tan lines around the chest, midriff, and thighs. They don’t wear those outfits for practice, plainly.

I missed that one. What's next - "Anne of Green Gulag"?

You know, that's the Olympics. Some of these athletes stake everything on one race or event every four years, and then there's some terrible blooper and it doesn't work out. The swimmers have the best deal - everyone usually qualifies for more than one event (and there are so very, very many of them). I watched part of the women’s 200m walk last night. The eventual winner, Olga Kaniskina, took a huge lead early on and kept it so there wasn’t much in the way of suspense, but it was interesting to watch because everyone looked so weird. You know how dorky people look when they’re power walking? Well, they look even odder at Olympic level going really fast. Also, there are these folks with yellow paddles used for warning walkers when they’re not keeping to the rules (one foot on the ground at all times, etc.) and they pushed into the crowd of competitors following haplessly in Kaniskina’s wake with these things whenever they saw someone trying to sneak into an an actual jog. (It was kind of like watching the Hambletonian.) I also note that the women’s outfits, here and in other sports, are getting skimpier and skimpier. I hate to get all Taliban and everything, but when the Nike logo has to be slapped on your buns because there’s nowhere else to put it, you’ve gone too far, ladies. Usain Bolt, like many of the men, was wearing a shirt and baggy shorts, not bikini underpants – didn’t seem to slow him down any. Put some clothes on in London, please, it’s going to be a lot chillier.

Penelope Cruz is interviewed about singing her songs in “Nine.”

Usain Bolt is terrifying. Never was runner more aptly named. I sure hope he isn't doping.

Thanks, vagansmom. I have listened to very few books on tape, so I can't really comment, but perhaps others will. I can read pretty much anywhere, but I agree, quiet is nicer.

I note for the record that the balance beam event will not be shown on NBC till tonight and there may be people not monitoring the Internet streaming who may prefer to enjoy the events without knowledge beforehand of the outcome. Please bear this in mind while commenting. Thanks!

Thank you for telling us about this. It sounds fascinating. I'll have to see if the tour will be in my neck of the woods, if I haven't missed them already.

Thank you, dancerboy87, for starting this very interesting discussion. I can't put it better than popularlibrary.

My comment on legality wasn’t meant to refer to the manumission laws on the books at the time. As you note, they weren’t too bad. My point was that Jefferson had notes and mortgages on some of his slaves, and in that case I don’t think it would have been legal to free them. I’m no expert and could be wrong, of course. Thanks for posting, glebb. Was there anything in particular you especially liked about the show?