This has been on the newswire for the last couple of days, but it is still making waves so I thought I'd comment on it. Basically, some MIT kids did a study which demonstrated that, even if you are not out on Facebook, they can guess whether you are gay or not by seeing who your friends are.
No duh.
What amazes me is that people are surprised and worried that this means that their privacy is compromised. The linked article has this pithy comment:
Discussions of privacy often focus on how to best keep things secret, whether it is making sure online financial transactions are secure from intruders, or telling people to think twice before opening their lives too widely on blogs or online profiles. But this work shows that people may reveal information about themselves in another way, and without knowing they are making it public.
Is anyone surprised in the least by this? That a stranger can tell your interests/ inclinations by the friends you hang out with?
I think we are in fact missing the bigger picture, which is that people (a) are compelled to micromanage their relationships and (b) feel a need to even be in the closet still, in this day and age. I can vaguely understand the first - sometimes you want to keep work and play separate. But as for the second, surely we've moved beyond that, especially in a forward-thinking computer-literate society?
Now here's an interesting subject: choir competitions. The reason it has even come up is that the Pinkies are, for the first time in my travels with them, entering such an event. On the face of it there is quite a lot of interest from many Pink Singers, particularly in light of the recent successes with Various Voices London. But the difference is that Various Voices was a festival and not a competition, a small but very significant difference.
Prior to joining the Pink Singers I was in several church and university choirs, some of which were semi-professional, and at least two of which regularly entered competitions. I have some idea of the amount of blood, sweat and tears it takes to put up a competition-level performance. It involved an awful amount of work and committment, much more, dare I say it, than many Pinkies realise.
We are a community choir, and many members join because they love singing. I know I adore being in the Pink Singers because I like the relaxed environment. Not everyone has the same vocal or choreographic ability, innate or acquired, by the time the season ends, but that's okay because it is about getting together and enjoying both the concert we put on and each others' company.
Add a little competition to the mix and the emphasis changes somewhat. If you've been to one of our concerts you will know that the Pink Singers already perform to a very high standard, but to take it to the next level requires far more attention to things like blending, dipthongs, breathing, consonants, dynamics, posture, choreography etc. Then you go to the competition itself and have to deal with the added stress of performing in front of critical eyes. I must admit to being a bit apprehensive about turning a hobby which I enjoy into something I just know I will fret about.
Thankfully, the competition we are getting our feet wet in is the Manchester Amateur Choral Competition, organized by our counterparts in that city, the Manchester Lesbian and Gay Chorus. Despite my concerns I am reassured by their statement that:
The competition is not solely focused on the winning choir and there are no great financial rewards at stake - simply the satisfaction of having sung to a high standard and had an opportunity to experience and enjoy the diversity of performance from other amateur choirs.
Perhaps more importantly, it looks like all the choirs which took part in last year's inaugural contest had a really good time, so it was, in spirit, more like a festival with the competition component thrown in for added frisson. Despite my reservations I've been won around and not only am I going to go, I'm actually quite looking forward to it. In fact, I think a bit of concentrated preparation will improve our choirs general performance as well. And of course a trip anywhere with the Pinkies is bound to be fun!
I'll leave you with some videos of the kind of competition we are up against. These are all from last year's inaugural MACC.
I can't believe that we are finally doing a gospel song in the choir, and a doozy we've picked too: an arrangement of Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water. Interestingly, at the start of the sheet music is a recommendation to see Luther Vandross and Jennifer Holliday singing the song for "stylistic authenticity". Well, thanks to the magic of YouTube there is a video of the pair singing it, ironically with Paul Simon, and totally stomping the composer vocally in the process. Watching the video and listening to Jennifer Holiday's vocal pyrotechnics, I am not sure we can be that authentic, but we sure can try!
The Pink Singers season has started again, and none too soon I might add. It was with a bit of a hop, skip and a jump that I went to rehearsal, running into Ali, Gill and Kate O on the way (the last actually missing gay Sunday at the zoo!) and it was like the first day of school all over again, but with classmates you actually like. Of course there were many new members too, some of whom looked shell shocked even before we started rehearsing! Now that we have auditions, I imagine that it is quite stressful, but I think we did our best to make them feel welcome. Fingers crossed for them. We have 4 slots in the tenors this season, but there are about twice as many would-be Pinkies for our voice part, so there has to be some selection process.
As usual, the first rehearsal is also when we get a peek at the repertoire for this season. It is typically diverse, and we sang two songs yesterday: Rutter's For The Beauty Of The Earth which is is typical saccharine sweet loveliness, and Brecht's Mack The Knife. I think we did a fairly creditable job all considered, and the latter inspired the album art for this season's rehearsal tracks. My Pink Bits is actually open for business, but I won't be posting access until the foruth week when the choir has settled down. In the interim, get in touch if you want to take a peek!
If you've never been to the Pink Singers twitter page, or even if you have but your monitor is less than 1024 pixels wide, you have probably missed the slightly updated image which sits behind our tweets. It is a pic of us performing at Various Voices in May this year, with the updated logo. I thought I'd post it here in all it's glory so you can get an idea of what it looks like. If you are going to visit our twitter page, why not follow us while you're there?
Here's a bit of morning happiness courtesy of the ever brilliant Mandy Patinkin. I love this version because the song itself is wonderful as it is, needing no embellishment, and Mandy's crystal voice is a perfect fit.
When all the world is a hopeless jumble, And the raindrops tumble all around, Heaven opens a magic lane.
When all the clouds darken up the skyway, There's a rainbow highway to be found, Leading from your windowpane, To a place behind the sun, Just a step beyond the rain.
Somewhere, over the rainbow, Way up high, There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere, over the rainbow, Skies are blue, And the dreams that you dare to dream, Really do come true.
Some day I'll wish upon a star, And wake up where the clouds are far behind me. Where troubles melt like lemon drops, Away above the chimney tops that's where you'll find me!
Somewhere, over the rainbow blue birds fly, Birds fly over the rainbow, Why then, oh why, can't I?
Someday I wish upon a star, And wake up where the clouds are far behind me. Where troubles melt like lemon drops, Away above the chimney tops that's where you'll find me!
Somewhere over the rainbow blue birds fly, Birds fly over the rainbow, Why then, oh why, can't I?
If happy little blue birds fly, Beyond the rainbow, Why, oh why, can't I?
Just a quick reminder to one and all that the Pinkies' winter season will be starting in just over a week's time, on Sunday the 20th of September. I've just received word that one of our friends, Bernard, from Malta Gay Rights Movement will be coming to visit, and we have the usual bunch of newbies giving us a try too, so there's lots to look forward to. I've only heard rumours on the grapevine about this season's repertoire, but needless to say it is entirely new, and Michael De's arrangement of Wind Beneath My Wings is definitely in there. As for events, we are taking part in a competition in Manchester and our winter concert is some time in January, so not before the 25th of December as it was last Christmas (sorry, had to fit the Wham! reference in because of the gratuitous and not-at-all-gay photo above).
In the wake of the farce that was the passing of Proposition 8 in California, one John Marcotte is taking the logic of 'protection of marriage' to its logical conclusion and asking that divorce be banned. He has set up a website called Rescue Marriage which makes for an amusing read. There is also an interview with him on Cockeyed.com. It is full of wodnerful quotes like:
People who supported Prop 8 weren't trying to take rights away from gays, they just wanted to protect traditional marriage. That's why I'm confident that they will support this initiative, even though this time it will be their rights that are diminished. To not support it would be hypocritical.
There are some tragedies which are just too appalling to even think about. One of those is that of Alan Turing, the brilliant mathematician who cracked the Germans' engima code in World War II, helping to change the course of the war. In 'gratitude', he was arrested in 1952 for gross indecency (read 'being gay') and then chemically castrated. Two years later he committed suicide. Thankfully most of society has left that kind of bigotry behind, but it is important to recognise that a grave injustice was done, and apologise for it, if only to prevent such prejudice from ever rearing its ugly head again.
This is why it is so important that Gordon Brown issued an official apology to Alan Turing, and to the thousands of LGBT men and women who suffered at the hands of Britain Victorian laws. Bravo. And about time too.
In The Pink(ies) is an unofficial blog mainly about the Pink Singers, London's lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) community choir. Born on 7th April 1983, the Pinkies are going stronger than ever! Here's an inside look at what it's like singing with this wonderful bunch. Why not come to one of our events or join us?
This has been on the newswire for the last couple of days, but it is still making waves so I thought I'd comment on it. Basically, some MIT kids did a study which demonstrated that, even if you are not out on Facebook, they can guess whether you are gay or not by seeing who your friends are.
