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"Have a Nice Time at the Ballet: Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!


bart

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What? No review of the performance? Jon definitely needs to get his priorities straight! I recommend registering on Ballet Talk.

Based on reports of strange audience behavior on other threads, Jon would seem to fit right in nowadays.

One thing that always amazes me is the people I've talked to who justify not going to the ballet THIS year, while maintaining a certain amount of credentials as a cultured person, with statements like: "I've seen Swan Lake." or,

"I saw them do something a few years ago." Some actually add, "I love ballet."

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And of course, there are those fervent fans who say, "Oh, I saw 'The Nutcracker' last year, and I just LOVE ballet!!"

I can't resist adding a true story I think I've posted before, about a woman who attended NYCB's "Nutcracker" every year and when asked about possibly subscribing to NYCB, said, "I don't like ballet."

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Gee, I like ballet. That's why I don't go to NYCB. :speechless-smiley-003: (Oh, I'm going to hear it now . . .)

I mentioned to my friend's girlfriend (remember, I'm relatively new to ballet) that I don't care for Balanchine, and she (a former dancer), said, "No, you don't care for NYCB. You haven't seen Balanchine."

Actually, the Nutcracker Woman raises a good point, although she didn't intend to. I mean, I know someone who told me she likes opera. What opera has she seen? "Rent".

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Gee, I like ballet. That's why I don't go to NYCB. :speechless-smiley-003: (Oh, I'm going to hear it now . . .)

Maybe not. It more reminds me of the time one person in the office was discussing The Winter's Tale and an attorney walked by and asked her what she was reading.

"Shakespeare?" He bellowed. "I hate Shakespeare!"

The office ground to a halt, but nobody said a word.

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That sounds like this investment banker I know. Every argument ends with him asking "how much do you make?" If it's less than he makes, and it generally is, or he wouldn't ask the question, he says, "Then, what the ___ do YOU know? Wall Street, baby!" I'm sure if you mentioned Shakespeare to him, you'd get an answer like "Shakespeare - I made more money on one trade this morning than Shakespeare made in his entire life. So how good could his plays be?"

He has no respect anymore for Lew Ranieri. Imagine being the guy in "Liar's Poker" - a real-life Gordon Gekko - and throwing your money away on the ballet.

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As Saturday Links person, I read the synopses for every article in a Google search with the word "ballet." Filtering out the inevitable references to "Spandau Ballet," and "ballet flats," and numerous biographical references to having take ballet lessons as a child, at least one-third of what remains is an analogy of sports and ballet, and these references are meant as highest praise. But if a sportwriter is talking about ballet itself -- then the ridicule starts.

I found it telling that last weekend, there were three independent articles in the Australian press about the all-male Les Ballets Grandiva. Were they performing in Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane? We they performing at a resort on the Great Barrier Reef? No, they were performing in Japan. The fascination with men in drag in macho cultures and macho environments seems to never end. When it's time to take ballet straight, that's when the problems start.

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Gee, I like ballet. That's why I don't go to NYCB. :devil: (Oh, I'm going to hear it now . . .)

I mentioned to my friend's girlfriend (remember, I'm relatively new to ballet) that I don't care for Balanchine, and she (a former dancer), said, "No, you don't care for NYCB. You haven't seen Balanchine."

Actually, the Nutcracker Woman raises a good point, although she didn't intend to. I mean, I know someone who told me she likes opera. What opera has she seen? "Rent".

she might have a point. Last season an article in the NY Times said that if you wanted to see pure Balanchine, go see Miami City Ballet. I am paraphrasing slightly.

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Since you brought up Shakespeare, I will retell for anyone who didn't hear it the first 23 times the story of my date in the late '70s. On screen: Zefirelli's Romeo and Juliet. As the credits roll, my date says thoughtfully, "Wow ... I never imagined it would end like that!"

On a high, after watching some old Charlie Chaplin films, I mentioned Chaplin to two undergraduate music students. They both looked at me blankly - neither of them had heard of him.

Maybe my reaction is unrealistic but I just felt very saddened.

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Young people today - even young executives - aren't literate, even in their chosen fields. Ben Stein tells the story of his pitching a screenplay to a young film studio executive as being similar to "My Fair Lady". She had never heard of "My Fair Lady".

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Young people today - even young executives - aren't literate, even in their chosen fields. Ben Stein tells the story of his pitching a screenplay to a young film studio executive as being similar to "My Fair Lady". She had never heard of "My Fair Lady".
Perhaps Stein should have gone to a tv executive and presented this as a cosmetic make-over realty show.

Another cynical thought: Failure to remember Chaplin (as reported by innopac) may have been hastened, in this generation, by the lack of a cute Disney cartoon version of the Little Tramp.

Alas, my good humor about such things has been permanently crippled by reading about a poll a few years ago in which about half of American college students could not find France on a map of the world. :dry:

But ... let's not lose sight of ballet in all this. Any more ballet-related stories? Keep them coming. :)

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"but Jon (the owner) is a dweeb, and won't even know which way to face in his seat."

Which he proves today, by making a fool of himself and make his date embarrassed.

http://www.uclick.com/client/pbi/ga/

Go swans!!!!! :dry:

Why not bring one of these to the ballet :) C'mon wilis, go and get him!

Uh, I clicked on your link but NO WHERE did I see anything with a ballet context. I think they change the comic each day, and today it was something about Jon sticking his head under a tractor!

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I had one boss (for 5 years), about 15 years ago, who would repeat the same stupid joke every season opening night at NYCB (which was always on a Tuesday): "so who is going to toss out the first tutu?"

It's mildly funny -- while being really stupid -- the first time you hear it. He had a repetition compulsion.

When the ballet/opera/Concert Association Season open up here in Miami, for the most of the performances on friday and saturday nights, i have to go straight from work, because i finish late, and have no time to go home to change, so i bring my cloth and change at the salon. Everytime my co workers see me in the process, and ask me where am i going , they always seem really amazed at my answers (ballet, opera, etc...) Sometimes I even get some weird looks from some of them, and one time i overheard one of them saying "he's crazy..." :dry:

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You can see the series (it ran for a few days) here (it actually started on September 17, a day before any of us noticed it - and the September 17 cartoon explains the mystery we've been debating here. We now know why Jon was getting laughed at by Garfield and Odie).

http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_arch...l?2007-ga070917

http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_arch...l?2007-ga070918

http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_arch...l?2007-ga070919

http://www.garfield.com/comics/comics_arch...l?2007-ga070920

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Thanks Adam for that archive. I must have missed the first one.

"Arabesque boy" -- now THAT's an insult!

Speaking of insults, when I was young one still occasionally heard the term "Philistine" used to describe someone of no culture, or of coarsened culture. Believe it or not, in those days that was something that wasn't generally admired! :dry:

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