dirac

sandik, I confess I started the topic with a malicious desire to spread the pain. All too vividly. I think I liked it, too. “Wildfire” also boasts a memorably weenie vocal from a guy who makes Terry Jacks sound like James Brown – I’ve forgotten his name, thankfully.

From the Guardian, a piece by Alex Hannaford describing the experience of the “socially excluded” at a Royal Opera House performance. http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/st...1438260,00.html

James Sullivan, for Slate, looks at the surprisingly long afterlife of the hideous early-Seventies hit, “Seasons in the Sun,” by Terry Jacks, lyrics by Rod McKuen, and speculates on possible reasons why this song has proved durable (no, it doesn’t get much airplay any more, but it’s been covered several times). Although I hadn’t heard this song for many, many years, this article brought it all back again. Sullivan quotes some of the memorable lyrics, although not my own personal favorite: “We had joy/We had fun/We had seasons in the sun/But the stars we could reach/Were just starfish on the beach.” http://slate.msn.com/id/2114863/ Warning: this article may be hazardous to your mental functioning, at least temporarily. Sullivan mentions, in passing, the song “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero,” and all morning long my brain has processed little apart from “Billy, don’t be a hero/Don’t be a fool with your life/Billy, don’t be a hero/Come back and make me your wife.” Another half hour of this and I will throw myself out the window.

I'm desperate enough to see it with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, at this stage. Fortunately, it's been in the San Francisco Ballet rep a long time as a stand-alone piece and now as part of Jewels, so I'm not wholly deprived.

Daniel Swift reviews two new books, one non-fiction, one fiction, on the life of the playwright Christopher Marlowe, for The Nation: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050321&s=swift He also mentions that two new biographies of Shakespeare are in the works.

perky, better late than never, I suppose. I found a collection of essays edited by Alan Walter called “Robert Schumann: the Man and his Music,” to be very useful. It contains a biographical essay as well as musical commentaries. Charles Rosen has an interesting discussion of Schumann in his book, “The Romantic Generation.”

Thanks, dewdrop. If anyone reads it, I hope they'll report back.

I cast my vote for Fille and Four Ts, too. Regarding Apollo, I much prefer the Stairway to Olympus. It's a real ending, showing us the completion of Apollo's journey from cub to fully fledged god and leader of the muses.

Haven’t seen this in some time, but I thought Fracci and Dolin were wonderful – they came off better than the pros in this movie. There’s also a very young and callow Jeremy Irons as Fokine. Me, too. “The Red Shoes," which is fiction, is a much better treatment of the same story, with obvious alterations, of course.

What a nice idea, perky. My list: Ashton Andre Levinson Bournonville Violette Verdy Anton Dolin Diaghilev and Misia Sert Tchaikovsky Nureyev Camargo

Not to beat a dead horse, but when Acocella referred to the first and second wave of feminism, clearly she did not mean to suggest that feminism didn’t get underway until 1967. She was speaking only of the contemporary movement and changing perceptions related to ballet. Yes, indeed.

Yes, it sounded as if the lecture audience was laughing at the openness of the sexual reference and the dominance of the Siren -- they seemed to start laughing when von Aroldingen wraps her leg around Baryshnikov's waist and he gazes up at her, stunned. Fortunately, the comments from Mitchell cited by Acocella that I recall had less to do with matters of fact than matters of style: that Adams was insecure about her technique (hardly seems justified!) and this lent the pas de deux a sense of precariousness that is lost today – the women who dance it now have a confidence in their ability and technique that detract from the aura of danger and tension that the dance should have for maximum effect.

A comment by atm711 on the Five Top Works thread reminded me of a thread we had many moons ago that might be worth another go-round. You are cast away, a la Tom Hanks in the film of the same name. When you are not impaling fish, banging coconuts against a rock, or otherwise eking out your meager subsistence, which ballet or ballets -- you can only choose two (well, maybe three, but we have to be stern) -- would you select to while away the lonely hours? And why? (Your justifications are important, so please don't omit this last.) As I mentioned recently on another thread, my own choice is Ashton's La Fille Mal Gardee. While its radiant vision of young love might accentuate my isolation, and the dancing chickens might make me hungry, it is also the ballet that is guaranteed to bring an unwilling smile to my face, and I can't imagine getting tired of it. Your thoughts?

Very true, Gina. I didn't really think of La Fille as what Arlene Croce once referred to as a gut-cruncher, but it really does require an enormous amount of athleticism and energy. It would also be a candidate for the new category suggested by Ostrich, although Colas is offstage for a bit. As for really loving the ballet, I think many of us would second you on that! It's my desert island choice.

As Paul notes, Acocella’s comments on feminist criticism of ballet was intelligent and nuanced. I do feel obliged to say, however, that I’ve had the privilege of reading a number of distinguished academic critics over the years on a variety of topics, and disagree strongly with any blanket condemnation of them as a group. Parenthetically, I note that the correct word is “suffragists,” not “suffragettes” – although the latter term is often seen and heard, it’s a term of disparagement. (No offense intended, BalletNut – just pointing it out for the record. )

Forgot to add that the footage of Diana Adams and Arthur Mitchell in "Agon" is awesome -- especially Adams, not to take anything away from Mitchell --and Acocella's commentary on same excellent.

I, too, have always had a little thing for Fred, but I was going strictly by beauty, so I couldn’t include him. Astaire’s secret is charm, I think. Immense charm, greater even than Cary Grant’s. (I recall reading that Fred’s sister, Adele, was possessed of even more personal charm than her brother, a frightening thought.) Gable always struck me as very likeable, but not that sexy. Until I saw a casual photograph of him from the early Forties. He’s astride his Harley and wearing a black fitted shirt (this is from memory), and suddenly I took a different view. I saw him again recently in It Happened One Night on Turner Classic Movies, and was struck by his warmth and humor, too. The third Mrs. Gable, Carole Lombard, was one I forgot. And how could I have failed to mention Tyrone Power?

I think the current ration of female vs. male plastic surgery is something like 80%-20%. It’s rising for men, but not that much. As for the lips thing, it’s is really getting out of hand, I think. And actresses who don’t have the requisite sofalips blow their own up to troutlike proportions, like Meg Ryan and Melanie Griffiths. At her recent UC Berkeley lecture (link available in the Anything Goes thread), Joan Acocella responded to a question about dancers and weight by saying, in effect, “Thin is better for dancing. Sorry.” And she's right -- thin is better and that's absolutely true as far as it goes, but. Sure, it’s better to be thin – but after stipulating that, the issue gets much dicier.

The lecture proper runs just under an hour, and then there’s a question and answer period. I can think of many adjectives to describe Acocella’s writings and style, but “stupid” is not one of them. It certainly does not apply here. I don’t have time to comment in full right know, but I’ve listened to the entire webcast and seen bits of it. Acocella says that the lecture should have been called “The Use of the Female Crotch and Its Armature in Ballet.” She focuses for obvious reasons on Balanchine, but also discusses Ashton, Forsythe, and Armitage. She shows the audience excerpts from Balanchine, Ashton, and Armitage. Her subject is the use of the woman’s body in ballet, how this has changed over the centuries and the political, social, and aesthetic context of these changes. “You see the dance, and then you feel it,” she says, and her talk emphasizes kinetic as well as visual considerations. Some eyebrows may be raised by her mention, at the conclusion of her lecture, of Balanchine’s reported preference for performing a certain chivalrous service.....

Limiting myself to Most Beautiful, as opposed to Sexiest or Most Attractive, and in no particular order: Jean Marais Robert Taylor Montgomery Clift Gary Cooper (check him out in those early thirties movies with Dietrich; he's stunning, with beautiful eyes) Marlon Brando Robert Redford Jude Law Antonio Banderas Gael Garcia Bernal Gordon Warnecke (he played Omar in My Beautiful Laundrette) Tony Leung Vivien Leigh Greta Garbo Michele Morgan Elizabeth Taylor Kate Winslet Rita Hayworth Sophia Loren Madeleine Carroll Dolores Costello Francoise Dorléac (just as pretty as little sister Catherine D. for my money, and a lot livelier) Hedy Lamarr Gong Li Thanks, Old Fashioned!

Now, now............

Old Fashioned, it isn’t so much a health issue, I’d suggest, as a double standard where looks are concerned. The women tend to be kept to a rail-thin ideal (except for huge breasts and lips, which are encouraged), while men like Travolta and Tom Hanks heedlessly sport their double chins, and others display crow’s feet and gray hair without self-consciousness. Also, men’s foreheads still move. (They replayed Halle Berry’s hyper-emotional acceptance speech, and while the rest of her face was working, all activity ceased at her eyebrows. It was really odd to see.)

At least the colonel probably had a little pension to fall back on.

And sometimes, not even that. Well, Norma Shearer wore some pretty startling backless numbers back in 1932, although of course the ladies didn’t go quite so far then. I didn’t see Griffiths’ dress, but I used “conservative” in the sense that actresses and their stylists are staying very close to a certain template: solid colors, bias cut, very similar bodices, etc. I don’t think you don’t have to look like Cher, Geena Davis, or Bjork to be daring or unusual. It seems to me, though, that in recent years the actresses are dressing not so much to excite comment as to avoid it. Which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Harold Pinter says he has no plans to write more plays: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4305725.stm