There's Nowt So Queer...

Picture this: it is 1999, I am still at university, back - temporarily - in the closet, and this ground breaking television show comes along called Queer As Folk. I'm from a country where being out is barely discussed in private, let alone in the public arena, and on telly at that! What a revolutionary concept.

Anyway, today, while looking for a Gok Wan show (I know, sad) on 4oD I chance across QAF on-line. So, would the show have the same effect? Well, for one I am now much more out than then. At the time, when as far as I knew all my friends were straight, I had an incredible curiosity about what it was like to be out on the scene. Nowadays, I have no problems meeting my friends for an evening drink down on Old Compton Street, but at the time such a simple act would have been difficult on so many levels. Watching the show today, therefore, does not provide the same experience it originally did 9 years ago. 1999's joy of discovery, has given way, with the benefit of hindsight, to 2008's pseudo-anthropological study of the gay urban male.

At the time, for instance, I identified most greatly with the tragic Vince. Now, I identify with none of the major players, realizing that these roles are simply caricatures, grounded in a vague reality but taken to the extreme for the sake of plot and storyline. That said, the themes of parenthood, jealousy, sex, growing up and coming out are fairly universal and still resonate today. What I found interesting (as a self-professed geek) was the size of their - wait for it - mobile phones, the ugliness of their PCs and the fact that Vince uses IRC (internet relay chat)over a dial-up modem to hook up with a shag. How antiquated!

Anyway, as iconic a TV show as it is, I strongly recommend watching Queer As Folk, for old times' sake!

Mobile Music

One can never have too many gadgets, but it is even better to have all your gadgets incorporated into your mobile phone. Indeed, my current mobile, an HTC Touch Diamond, is a veritable swiss army knife, with dozens of functions I would never have expected of a phone just a few years ago. When it comes to the choir though, the one tool which I find really useful is the mini piano keyboard called JB Piano (the Windows Mobile smartphone/standard equivalent is Smart Piano). It is really handy when you want to pick out note for the choir to harmonize too, and has been a life-saver for those random rehearsals where a regular keyboard was not available.

One thing I will say though, is that when it comes to making music, as opposed to playing a single note, it is infinitely better to have a hardware keyboard rather than tap something on a touch screen. I am already amazed at what my Prodikeys keyboard is capable of, with its velocity-sensitive keys, but I have always longed for the same thing on my mobile phone. Well, I am pleased to report that I am not the only one, and Japan's kddi has teamed up with Yamaha to produce a range of concept mobile phones with musical instruments built in. The picture here is of the piano version, but there are other variants including a harp and drumsticks. Here's hoping they make it into production!

Team PS At The London Pride Run 2008

"Citius, Altius, Fortius" is the Olympic motto, and this last week it has been impossible to avoid being caught up, at least a little, in the Games over in Beijing. Unfortunately, for the somewhat less athletic of us, taking part in any sport is more a case of "Rubor, Calor, Dolor" than anything else!

With that in mind, a group of more the adventurous Pink Singers decided to brave the risk of inflammation, and went on an jaunt on Saturday through Victoria Park for this year's 10km Pride Run. There was, initially, quite a bit of enthusiasm for the run from the choir, but with the usual attrition rate for various reasons, the numbers were whittled down to a hard-core six: Annie, Ben P, Claire G, Hsien, Mark and Michael Da.

The biggest fear had been that it would rain on the day, and given that it had been pouring down just two days' prior, it was definitely within the realms of possibility. As it turns out, meeting at Mile End tube, the sun was trying to peek out from behind the clouds, and there was a pleasant breeze blowing - the perfect weather for a run. I know all of us had been training a little for the run. Some Pinkies like Michael go for runs regularly, and since I joined the Frontrunners, so does the Pink Insider. But that said, for the majority, 10km was an unimagineable distance which they had never even attempted before - just showing up to the start was a definite victory!

We all met at the northeast end of the park where were got changed and pinned the conveniently matching number tags to our Pink Singers T-shirts. There were loads of people there, but the run was very well organized, and it never felt chaotic. Of the 800 people who registered, 577 people (or thereabouts) actually ran. After dropping our bags off in the clubhouse, we went on to the start point. Ooh ooh! Andy Bell from Erasure was there to honk the horn to set us off.

And away we went! The route itself was a fairly simple one: three laps of the park though shaded avenues with no hills. I started the run at a leisurely pace alongside Michael Da, but before long some of the last year's worth of running paid off and I pulled ahead. There were some tremendous runners competing, and I was lapped at 6km by the eventual winner. What is most annoying is that I put my slow running down to my short legs, but this guy was actually significantly shorter than me (damn!). He completed the course in 32 minutes, an unbelieveable time, considering that I finished a good quarter of an hour or so later. The real dark horse was Claire. I know she runs quite a bit, and she certainly has the physique (i.e. long and lean), so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at how fast she actually ran, but she really was a speeding bullet, and she finished right next to me.

As I mentioned, for some of Team PS, 10km was a never-before-attempted distance, and completing it was quite the achievement. When things were getting rather shakey on the ground, it was good to hear the calls of support from the Pinkies who had come to cheer us on. Joey and Charles were there, as was Emelda, and Celso and his friend. Warren also had a word with the race commentator, and whenever a Pinkie ran past the stand, he'd call out "Go Pink Singers!" which was a great psychological boost. Thanks to their help, I am really happy to say that all of us made it through the final rainbow arch, and in pretty good time too. We all walked away with our medals and our goody bags. Then there were the unexpected perks, as Ben discovered, of sharing a changing room with dozens of fit, sweaty atheletes...

Congratulations to all of us - go Pinkies! Pride Run 2009 anyone?

Roman Rings

Here are some completely gratuitous shots of, in my humble opinion, two of the sexiest gymnasts out there at the moment: Benoît Caranobe of France who won bronze in the men's all-round final yesterday, and Chen Yibing (陈一冰)of China, the current world-champion on rings who will be competing in the apparatus finals on the 19th.

How Low Can You Go?

The Pink Insider has been semi-religiously following the Olympics on telly. I feel I am also slightly compromising my integrity by confessing that I am fastidiously recording every single gymnastics and diving contest. Not, I hasten to add, because I think these guys' bodies are just amazing, but because I am genuinely interested in the sports. Genuinely! Hey, I record the women's events too, so I am not really fabricating excuses...

That said, there is an interesting debate at present about the fairness of using the new suits swimmers wear which shaves their race times significantly, hence the flurry of new world records this year. Clearly, that is not the only thing they shave, because there is a somewhat less intellectual discussion about how low slung on the hips these suits can go. Above, a picture of Michael Phelps congratulating his team mates on winning the 4x100m freestyle relay (cropped for your viewing pleasure of course, original picture here!)

I certainly think he can pull it another inch lower if he really tried...

Gaily Browsing The Future Web

I am a geek. I live in my web browser for 90% of the time I am on my PC, which in turn feels like 90% of my waking hours. It should therefore come as no surprise that I have a deep interest in anything which going to try to make my experience better in the future. Mozilla, the very progressive company which has given us products like the simply awesome Firefox and Prism, is working precisely on that. Together with Adaptive Path, they've come up with a concept of how we might be browsing the internet in the not so distant future.

All four videos are really interesting, and incorporate technologies and interfaces which are wildly different from anything we are seeing today. However, of itself, it is not something which would justify a post here on In The Pink(ies). No, the reason I am bringing it up is that the last video shows a very domesticated gay couple shopping for a birthday present for their niece. It is always suprising when a little gay pride pops up in a place you weren't expecting. The girl's mother even says some very progressive things like, "When you have a family of your own, you will understand."

Isn't Mozilla the coolest company on the planet?

A Very Diverse Repertoire

One thing the Pink Singers are justifiably proud of, and something which is almost a second tag line for us (after London’s lesbian and gay community choir of course!), is our “diverse” repertoire. This title is most assuredly justified – we perform all kinds of music including operatic choruses, classical music, pop and jazz. This diversity is simply a reflection of the fact that our music is suggested by the various members of the choir who, being very varied, naturally have very varied musical tastes. The final choice is a result of its filtration for entertainment, educational value and challenge by Mladen and Michael D. Most choirs usually attempt just one of these categories, and it is certainly to our merit that we even attempt doing all these different styles and sing them well too.

After watching The Last Choir Standing last Saturday, however, what was noticeable was that there were no classical choirs in the mix, not one. Instead we have choirs which sang golden oldies, musicals, gospel music and a bit of pop, but no choirs which tackled the really difficult and more nuanced classical works. I wonder whether this is because there were no classical choirs who applied to this contest, or whether they were all eliminated early on as being insufficiently telegenic? by the way, that picture is not of us, but one of the choirs on the TV show called Handbag of Harmonies.

It cuts both ways though, and even though the Pinkies sing all sorts of music, there are certain choral styles in which we are noticeably lacking. We tend not to perform any sacred or gospel music for instance, and with some justification. As a choir we have a history of helping to support and promote the gay rights movement back in the 80s, a role which extends to this day. 25 years ago, this meant that many of our original goals were at odds with the performance of what was thought of as “music of the enemy”. In fact, I believe it is what led to the formation of Diversity, the other great lesbian and gay choir in London, whose original remit was to perform that half of the musical cannon which mentions the word “god”.

It does need reminding, however, that in the last concert we did perform Karl Jenkins’ Requiem, which is of course, entirely religious in content. For that matter we sang Schubert’s Ave Maria, also unabashedly Christian. I don’t think anyone objected to the content per se – memorizing the Latin alone was sufficient cause for objection – but this may partly have been due to the fact that the lyrics were in Latin and thus the meaning was obscured. I think that if the songs had been in English and we were singing “Hail Mary, mother of God”, rather than “Ave Maria, mater Dei” there may have been a little more discomfort.

Why am I even mentioning this? Well, because I have this internal conflict too. On the one hand the choir should never be deprived of singing some truly stupendous music. A higher deity inspired (and paid for) some of the most beautiful, most challenging choral works of the 17th to 21st centuries, and it would be a shame indeed if we were to exclude it all based on an unwillingness to approach religious themes.

At the same time, we are in more progressive times, and if Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, can write that a gay relationship may be akin to marriage in God’s eyes, then it suggests that that bridge over troubled waters is being built. Is the gay militancy of the early 80s relevant to us in the mid naughties when we seem to be trying to meet the “other side” half way?

Yet, despite this intellectual justification, I must confess that emotionally I am not all that keen on singing pieces of music with a religious bent. It is not specific to the Christian god either, I’d feel uncomfortable singing any song which praises, say, the Buddha for instance. Having been brought up Roman Catholic, I fully realise the confusion and unhappiness that religion can cause on a young man growing up gay.

I had a chat with Carsten, one of the blokes I’m working with on Various Voices, at the pub after the last meeting, and his view was that there were many other choirs out there to sing religious music anyway – a gay choir should be about showtunes. In the end though, all play and no work makes Jill a dull girl, and the Pink Singers would never have reached the technical musical heights we have, or constantly improved, if we just sang songs from the theatre and our voices had not been put to the test by more complicated classical works.

I’m still not sure I can articulate my view that well still, but in the end it is about the music and how much fun we have performing it. If that includes Christmas Carols for instance, then so be it. All it does mean in practice is that religious music has to be that much more inspirational, more complicated and more enjoyable before the Pinkies will even consider doing it, and I get over my hangups. That, and I think it might be fun to do a few gospel pieces! Long may this diversity continue.

Won't Someboday Save The Goatee?

As you know, I am a bit of a beard fetishist, and for a while was trying to grow my own goatee. Sadly due to a few misplaced strokes of the razor, I managed to gouge a hole the size of a 5p coin in the moustache of my left upper lip. Rather than let it grow out over 3 weeks, i decided to forgo the agony and shaved it all off the morning of the Pink Singers' trip to Brighton, so I am now back to my bare-faced cheek once more. If only I had known in advance of the goatee saver, a wondrous device which you clamp with your teeth (très S&M, non?) and shave around to give you that perfect moustache and beard. Check out the video and tell me the guy giving the spiel is not gay!

Seeking Out The Pink Insider

Although it purports to be, In The Pink(ies) isn't really a personal blog. For one there are actually multiple Pink Insiders, and any Pinkie is very welcome to contribute if they like, just get in touch with me (if you are a Pink Singer you'll know who I am!) and I will gladly give you access.

When I first started blogging about our choir, there was indeed an ulterior motive - it was to get some kind of informal representation of the Pink Singers out there on the web. We have the website, and we have MySpace and Facebook, but these are official websites, so no matter how much we try to make them more human and approachable, the "official" stance is bound to cut some people off.

I was originally hoping that people would get in touch with the Pink Insider from outside the choir, and if people were looking to see what it was like to be in the Pink Singers, Google would lead them here. This has actually been moderately successful, and I hope that you readers who are not Pinkies realise how great our choir is, partly from what we write here. Leave a comment dammit!

This year has been a little tougher for In The Pink(ies) because of a justified caution about the use of photography in the choir. It has been necessary to resort to stock photography in some cases, or take photos of the usual suspects who don't mind their mugs all over this moderately read blog. You know who you are, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart! In restrospect, I don't think it has affected the personality of these pages much. As our policy on photography is implemented next season I'm hoping the guidelines will be better defined which would simplify what the Pink Insiders currently do.

If you are a Pinkie and have been reading this blog and think, hey yeah, I could do that, then why don't you? Let me know!

P.S. The picture has nothing to do with the post but it comes from Red Nose Studio and I like it!

Oh Paris!

In common (I suspect) with most people who live outside of America, I have a moderate, but not pressing, interest in the presidential election. Barack Obama's recent visit to Europe certainly did a lot to raise his profile here, but then again Europeans seem to favour the Democrats in general, or at least object more to George W. Bush, which amounts to the same thing. Either way though, change is in the air, and it is going to be a gruelling contest between John McCain and Obama.

What has made the news this week is McCain's campaign ad comparing Obama's popularity to the cult of celebrity. In fact, he even drew parallels with Paris Hilton. What is the appropriate response in this case? Make your own ad of course! Paris, because she really is hot!

The Original Ad


Paris' Spoof Ad

Sing With Me!