SandyMcKean

I'm not sure I buy the premise that something is "odd and awkward" because of what is not said, but even given that premise, perhaps there is some sort of disagreement, or perhaps there is not. I imagine there are lots of reasons why a dancer and management (and whatever "board" may exist) can disagree. For example, a dancer may desire to leave a year later, but management has a long range plan for promotions that is best facilitated by opening a principal slot sooner. Dancers are also notorious for down playing injuries that management might consider highly risky. There can even be disagreements due to loyality if a dancer plans to move to a competing company. So much is possible (even such items as occurred between Mr B and Farrell). I guess I'd rather stick with what is said and assume that the parties know what they are doing.

More importantly, I will add my voice to those who will miss Ariana very much. Ariana is a very special dancer to me personally. It was she (and her tall exotic look, plus her powerful dancing) that had me, for the first time, notice a dancer as a person instead of just another nameless, faceless, goregous creature of many who danced upon the stage like so many perfect dolls in some sort of dream world. Somehow before Ariana, I never cared who the dancers were, I just loved to watch them dance. It was Ariana many years ago who had me, for the first time, start to see the individual styles of dancers. It revolutionized ballet for me, and I have Ariana to thank for that (indeed, I ran into her once in a restaurant some years ago, and I told her just that). Such a thing only happens once. Thank you Ariana.

I'm curious......besides Ariana mentioning that she would have prefered one more year, what is odd and awkward about this announcement?

If you are still having trouble, I would recommend that you search your "cookies" folder and delete any cookie that contains the character string "invisionzone.com" (without the quotes).

I continue to track my use of "View New Content" under many different scenarios and it performs flawlessly. There was a time when it seemed to mess up my "Last Visit" time, but that works perfectly now. I am only guessing here, but on my system everything started work totally without problems right after I deleted my previous "invisionzone.com" cookies. I don't know if that fixed it, or if it's a coincidence, but you might try it. (The only downside is that you will need to logon again.)

I continue to track how "View New Content" works (in a Firefox, Windows XP environment).

It is completely consistent now. I wonder if the administrators changed anything? For the last 3 days, and 20+ website visits, BT always gives me all new posts, and displays my last visit time correctly to the minute. That last visit time used to vary all over the place. Maybe something changed, maybe it didn't.......it seems to be working perfectly now.

I give up on how the forum software determines the "Last Visit" time. Above I said:

The time of your last visit, as displayed, can be confusing. The remembered time is when you log off, not when you logged on.

And I certainly stand by that first sentence!! . But the 2nd sentence does not seem to hold true for all situations. When I wrote that 2nd sentence, I was opening the BT website each time, and then closing it (with auto logon-on enabled). Lately I've been leaving the BT website up in my browser to see what would happen (I use IE and Firefox under Windows XP), and just hit the "View New Content" link from time to time. If my 2nd sentence were true, I shouldn't see my "last visit" time change at all, but I do. It seems to change to the last time I hit the "View New Content" link. So now I have no idea what the software is doing. In fact, I'm just going to give up trying to figure out how this process works. All I seem to have proved is that it is confusing, and that "View New Content" works for me at least.

Good luck everyone.

Well, I've completed my testing. The result? "No problem found".

I have been tracking my usage of "View New Content" for several days now -- purposely logging on under many different conditions. I've also compared the topics reported under "View New Content" to those reported under "Active Topics". I find both facilities work as one might expect them to, and there are no inconsistencies between the two methods. I carefully checked to see if any new posts where somehow missed under either method: I could find no case of that happening.

A couple of thoughts did occur to me along the way.

1. Both these methods, I'm pretty sure, are nothing more than a "canned" use of the forum software's built-in "Search" function. In both methods the software simply does a search for any post time-stamped after the search criterion time inputed; namely, the time of your last visit in the case of "View New Content", and the selected time period in the case of "Active Topics". The only way I can see for "View New Content" to miss posts is if the time criterion used (i.e., the time of your last visit) is being used by the softwared improperly. I kept careful records of over 30 BT visits, and never saw any evidence of this happening.

2. The time of your last visit, as displayed, can be confusing. First, the remembered time is when you log off, not when you logged on. This could cause problems for those of you who log on and stay logged on....(I don't know). Second, the remembered time does not change every time you visit (even with a log out and a log in). As I mentioned in a previous post, the system purposely doesn't change the "last visit" time each time you log on. I've seen it wait 12 hours or more before changing the "last visit" time even if I logged on a dozen times during that time period. I've also seen it change the "last visit" time in just an hour or two. How it decides when to change the "last visit" time I haven't been able to fathom, but whenever it does it, it does it consistently without leaving any gaps.

I haven't seen "Black Swan" yet, but I can't wait to do so.

As an aside.....the best movie I saw in 2010 was the 2008 movie "Julia" starring Tilda Swinton (who is my current most admired actress, altho it's difficult for me to place Helen Mirren in any position but first). I call it the best for many reasons, but mostly for Swinton's remarkable and brave performance. Not that I couldn't write a review of the movie that points out the prostitution, child abuse, drug usage, blood and murder, and overall moral dipravity in the movie, and dismiss the movie as gratuitous, but I'd be making a mistake if I did that. It's not like those nasty things don't exist somewhere in the world; it's not like those things shouldn't be looked at; but true, looking at them is likely to make some people uncomfortable (I can't imagine how uncomfortable Swinton must have felt as she "became" her character in this movie.....which is the main reason I use the word "brave" to describe her performance).

I've always felt that my aversion to hunting, where I shutter to think of a gorgeous elk being dropped in a mountain meadow, to be hypocritical no matter how strongly felt. Everytime I buy a pound cleanly wrapped hamburger beef at the sanitized and pleasant local super market, doesn't mean that the cow involved wasn't hit over the head by a sledge hammer at the slaughter house. Reality exists whether I see it or not. What should I do?......Blame the slaughter house?

If I go to the full search screen (where I have full options), and set up a search, there is a section in the lower part of the screen that allows one to choose whether the results of the search are returned as a list of topics or as a list of posts. If I chosse the "As Posts" option, I get a result that lists topics; and conversely, if I choose the "As a Topic List", I get a list of posts.

This is backwards. (I suppose I could be doing something wrong, but it is so simple I can't see how. Some widget must be plugged into the wrong socket.)

I think it's very sad that so many people are Chocolate-Centric. I admit that it's a good flavor but it's certainly not so good that all other flavors should fall by the wayside because of it. In my experience, it seems that people who have lived on the east or west coasts are unwilling to accept that any other flavor could be just as good, if not better than Chocolate. I find it incredibly difficult to comprehend that these people also go as far as to say Vanilla is "boring" and have not even heard of Strawberry, Peach, Rasberry or Rocky Road.

(....with apologies).

Very cute......and what a great publicity idea!

I'm seeing the opposite of you Amy. I check BT the first time about 9:30am today. I'm checking it now at about 8:30pm for the 2nd time. It shows my last visit as being 9:30am which is correct. "New Content" shows 10 new posts; "Active in 24 hours" shows 11 entries. The one extra post in "Active" is one that was posted before 9:30am. So for me these two ways of looking at for new posts are completely consistent......(so far anyway).

I have a suggestion for those of you who suspect that "View New Content" does not show you all new posts.

Use "View New Content" as you normally do. If you think you might be missing soimething (or even if you don't think so), go back to the home page of BT, scroll to the bottom of the page and select "Today's Active Topics". See if there are posts on that screen that were not on the "View New Content" screen (I have done this a few times, and I see no difference so far). Presumably it is not possible for the "Today's Active Topics" to have missing posts.

Note to fully understand what differences you might see on these 2 screens you will have to consider the times when the posts were made. The "Today's Active Topics" screen defaults to the last 24 hours (but note you can change that to be the last week or even longer). By comparing the posts listed on the "View New Content" screen since your last visit (using the "last visit" time shown on the "View New Content" screen, not when you actually did last visit), and determinng which of those posts should be included in the "Today's Active Topics" screen given their time stamp, one should be able to figure out if indeed one is missing posts.

BTW, I am still testing a theory that would explain why some are seeing this and others may not be. It will take me a few days to complete testing since I have to allow several 24 hour periods go by in order to do the tests.

On the other hand, I search using Today's Active Topics....

Where does one find this function. I can't find it.

I'm not sure deleting cookies is the best idea.

I don't think anyone is advocating that. The question was whether or not one has disabled cookies.....that is, it is possible in a browser to turn off the creation of cookies altogether which I suspect would interfer with the operation of BT. Amy correctly pointed out that if cookies are disabled, one woud likely have to logon everytime you went to the site.

BTW, I have a theory of what might be going on here.....and if I'm right, it would explain why some are seeing this and some are not. I am doing some testing to see if my new theory pans out. Stay tuned .

I saw the "Live HD" of Don Carlos last Saturday too. I can't add much to what Helene has so ably said (and I agree with her about 98%), but I will add a couple of thoughts.

I'd never seen, or even heard, Don Carlos before. I've seen plenty of other Verdi, and love it all. I was really looking forward to this opera since I had heard so much about it over the years by knowledgeable opera lovers. I most often heard it described as a "masterpiece" but that it was difficult in some sense.

Indeed it is a masterpiece (IMHO), and the music superlative, but I did struggle with some things. The singers were universally terrific (to these ears).....especially the incredible Marina Poplavskaya who I had been blown away by as Lui in the Met's 2009 Turnadot (and as re-b'cast last summer). True, the plot is a bit overwrought, but I find that easy to overlook. My problem is with the character of Don Carlos himself. I just don't like him. It isn't Alagna's version of Don Carlos I have problems with, it is who Don Carlos is in the libretto. Elizabeth loves him to extraction as, of course, does Eboli. Don Rodrigo idealizes him and even happily lays down his life for Don Carlos even when it is unclear that it is necessary. Only the King seems to dislike his son, but even that seems more about fear of usurpation than of dislike.

I just can't see why these other characters think so highly of Don Carlos. He seem indecisive to me. He doesn't commit to anyone or anything (not really). True, he is head over heels in love with Elizabeth, but her noble commitment to duty and to her people just seems to go over his head. He loves her only to the extent that he wants her, not the sort of mature love that wants the best for her. I'd take Don Rodrigo over Don Carlos any day of the week. Carlos isn't even very smart.

So how do I take the libretto seriously when practically every solid person around is gaga over Don Carlos and I find him a bit of an empty suit?

P.S. I'll add one other thing. I agree with Helene that the auto de fe scene didn't work well. But for me it wasn't the fake bodies burning at the stake, it was all the skirming, blood soaked actors at the front of the stage forever and ever. The costumes were horrible and the blood about as fake looking as it gets. (I guess this could be the closeness of HD b'cast....perhaps in the house these actors and costumes looked believable.)

P.P.S. Helene.....your "Pee Wee Herman" quip was not only hilarious, but so on the money!

Oh, and I do have evidence of threads not showing after all... I notice there was a new addition on a Ballets Russes centenary thread, something I've been very interested in, but it never appeared in my "view new content".

Amy, do you mean the "Ballets Russes Celebration" forum, or is there a topic in some other forum titled "Ballets Russes Centenary". Is that the exact name of the topic? I can't find it.

I notice there was a new addition on a Ballets Russes centenary thread, something I've been very interested in, but it never appeared in my "view new content"....

We should be careful about terminology....it can get very confusing when we all end up talking apples and oranges .

I see now that this forum software uses the term "topics" where I have been using the term "threads". "Threads" is used in a lot of places on the internet, but here in BT I should be using the term "topic" You are calling "Ballets Russes centenary" a thread, but here it is called a "forum" (I assume you mean "Ballets Russes Celebrations").

So each forum such as "Ballets Russes Celebrations" or "Links" is called a "Forum"; some forums have sub-forums (such as "Pacific NW Ballet" sub-forum under the "American Ballet Companies" forum); a new thread in a forum or a sub-forum (that is: the very first post where you give it a subject) is called a "Topic"; and each msg posted to a topic is called a "Post". So forums have multiple topics, and topics have multiple posts.

My experience of "view new content" seems like yours except that there is rarely much there and it posts these strange times as my "last visit"...

That can be confusing. When the software says "since your last visit" it doesn't really mean that. The software does not count every visit you make. It waits a certain amount of time (I don't know how long, but it would be measured in hours) before it considers that you have re-visited the forum. IOW, if you log on at noon, and then log on again just 10 minutees later at 12:10pm, it will still say "since noon". It does this so that if you log on again very quickly (let's say you make a mistake and accidentally logged off), you don't lose your list of "new content" as would happen if it counted that immediate re-logon as a new visit. BTW, you can tell which thread in the "new content" list you have already read all posts in because they do not have that little orange icon in front of them. Only threads with new posts that you have not read at all have that icon. Also my guess is that the time stamp on the "since your last visit" line is Eastern time regardless of where you are. I logged on this time at about 2:50pm Pacific time but that line says "11:11am"

It may be possible that all that's on the "new content" list are threads that existed last time you logged on and have a new post added. Brand new threads started since you last logged on could be missing......but that sounds like very strange software behavior to me.

P.S. I do know that in the old forum software, it was possible to miss threads with new content. It didn't happen often, but under some circumstances (which I don't remember) it could happen.

I noticed under View New Content there were two options: either show all content that I have not read or show new content since my last visit. I notice that show all content that I have not read is checked... Now, would that show me quite a bit of content when I click "view new content" rather than less? Do you think I should change it?

I use the "show new content since my last visit" option. I've never used the other option, but I would think that option would show you more content because from the wording of the option it would seem to me that the option you've been using would show you not only threads with new posts since you last logged on, but also all threads that you have never read regardless of when you last logged on (or maybe it's done at the post rather than at the thread level).

It can't hurt to try the "show new content since my last visit" option. That's the option I use. See what happens....you can always switch it back.

Amy,

I'm not sure what you mean when you say:

....and indeed whole threads never show up in my "view new content"

Here's what I see when I hit the "view new content" button. I see a list of threads by title (not the individual posts in that thread whether the individual posts be previously read or brand new). Then I can pick any thread I like, click on the little orange icon (with what looks like a right pointing arrow in it) that sits right in front of the thread's title. That takes me to the thread in question so I can see the individual posts.

What I'm not sure of at this point is whether once I hit that icon does my browser positions me in the thread at the very last post in the thread regardless of when I last logged in, or alternatively deos it position me at the first new post after the last one I read last time I logged on. I beleive it is the later, but after bart's post earilier in this thread, I'm now not sure.

Ah, bart sheds a whole new light on this possible problem. When I first read Amy's post, I interpreted what she said to mean that when she did a "View New Content", entire threads were missing from the list where a new msg had been posted since she last logged on to BT. But with bart's description I see now that perhaps folks like Amy are seeing all the threads with new postings as they should, but just that the system does not position their browser to the last post in that thread since they last logged on.

This may well be how it works. It may be happening to me too (now that I understand the actual problem). I'll have to look more carefully. I just naturally do what bart does (i.e., scroll up). When I see a thread on the list of new content I am interested in, I go to that thread. I nearly always scroll up to see the last post I had read before (I can remember since I don't follow very many threads). I guess I never expected the system to positon me at the exact last post I haven't read in that thread. Maybe it does, and maybe it doesn't, on my system, I just don't know. I'll have to wait a few days without going to BT to find out.

P.S. I believe how most forum software works is that the system simply presents to you all the threads that have had a posting since you last logged on (that is, the system simply remembers....likely in a cookie.....the time and date of your last log on). Where in that thread the system positions you could depend on a lot of things....including how your browser works. This will be interesting to see how things are actually working.

P.P.S. I wonder if problems occur if you disable cookies in your browser?

I can't imagine how that could happen. There is no way for the BalletTalk (BT) website to "know" that you were on the internet unless you visit the BT website. This behavior most certainly does not happen to me. I am on the internet all day, every day, accessing websites 10 times or more per hour. If I don't go to BT for several days, I have pages of "new content" waiting for me....dozens and dozens of msgs.

I have looked thru all the BT software settings, I can't figure that any of them would create the behavior you are witnessing. If I were you, I would try to figure out how and why your system is accessing BT *without* you knowing it (perhaps your browser always opens when you start the computer and automatically accesses BT.....something along those lines).

P.S. A long shot......check to see if your time zone is set properly in BT.....if it's wrong, it could be throwing off your timing calculations. Another thing to check might be to see if you are subscribed to any topics or forums; I don't think it likely, but I suppose if the BT forum decides to send you a notice when you are not logged on, it could (unlikely) reset your "last visited" time to the time of the notification.

It's scheduled to be seen in the small town of Mt Vernon (maybe 30,000 people) here in Washington state, so I would hope NYC would get it .

I take it they didn't change Edgardo's awful blue jacket...

Nope.....same dorky jacket.

WOW......I saw this production last night. My guess is the cast did take it to the next level just as Helene suggested they might. The performance was positively electric and solicited a near instant standing ovation with nearly everyone in the audience standing and applauding wildly. The performances of Aleksandra Kurzak, William Burden, and Arthur Woodley were particularly stunning (and each recieved extra "bravos"). There is no question in my mind that a new, and destined to be famous, Lucia was born in this production (it is Kurzak's debut in the role). As Speight Jenkins said at the Q&A, we will soon see her booked all over the world in this role.

I just re-read Helene's review (I had read it a week ago the first time). I am struck, having now seen the production, how Helene hit every nail on the head (or at least I agree 100%).....even to the snow. Helene sees/hears opera like a laser......NYT critics watch out!