Here Come The Boyats!

Thought I'd post a link to an interesting article in this week's Economist on boyat, Qatari women who dress like men. Frankly, since Qatari men don't seem to wear "baggy trousers" anyway, I'm not sure exactly how this allusion is made, but it is clearly causing some consternation in the rather conservative society.

What I find much more interesting is the UAE's "Excuse me, I'm a girl" campaign which "[stresses] the virtues of femininity and [raises] awareness of the presumed dangers of women looking like men." Ironically in London the "women who look like men" are the ones who I "presume to be dangerous". Tongue firmly in cheek, you know I love you really!

Why I Take Photos

I am no Ansel Adams but I guess the one thing the Pink Insider is known for is the almost obsessive photography, and now videography, of all Pink Singers’ events. Over the years, I’ve had a couple of friendly gibes sent my way about it, and this week Joanna came round for dinner, and asked me why I’m so fastidious about capturing every event, so I thought I’d put my thoughts down on this subject. Why does the Pink Insider take so many photos?

I can tell you what precipitated it: about 4 years ago when the Pinkies’ website was being redesigned I remember looking for new photos to fill the pages. Sadly, at the time we were hamstrung my rather oppressive guidelines regarding photography and privacy, and that meant we had a grand total of a dozen photos which we could use. It also put people off taking any photos at all, and the ones which were taken weren’t really shared with others, so the choir didn’t really have any access to them anyway. It was then that I decided to fix the situation by at least taking some pics, principally for use on the website, but also as a memento of events we had organized or participated in.

Fast forward to today, and we live in a digital age where most phones have cameras, and sharing pics is as easy as pressing a button on Facebook. The choir itself has much clearer guidelines on the use of photography and are now striking a good balance between the privacy needs of individual members of the choir and the publicity needs of the choir as a whole. And we also have regular pro photographers taking our pictures, which helps in developing a good stock of photographs which can be used for the choir’s promotion.

On the face of it then, some of the pragmatic demands for photography have been satisfied. But at the same time, some of the more fundamental uses of photography must continue to be addressed. I hail from a former British colony, and as such, am very interested in issues to deal with culture and identity, and how they are represented in history. For that reason I love the field of post-colonialism, and am a fan of writers like Edward Said who question the foundation of historiography and its wealthy, white, straight, male bias. Certainly the views of the minority are often left out in the narrative of society, often because these views are not considered important.

In that context then, I particularly enjoy speaking to people like Philip R and Michael De because they have such fascinating stories about the Pink Singers in the early days. My fear is that unless we capture these tales, they will be lost to history. Liang has been working on a project to collate and archive all the material the Pink Singers produced in our first quarter century; being given such a window into our past is an amazing privilege. The sad thing, however, is that material from that time is both scanty and patchy, and so our early story is not a continuous one.

Recently Bill, one of our longest-standing members, decided he was going to retire from the choir. As a thank you for being such a dedicated member we created an album of his pictures over the last ten years. Thankfully when the request went out, members who had been in the choir as long as he were forthcoming about sharing their photos, but the reality is that this is only possible because these Pinkies were still in the choir. When members leave the choir they take their memories with them, and as a choir we lose a part of ourselves in the process.

So I take snaps, and I share photos, and I write about my experiences in the choir because I love the Pink Singers and I want to let people know about what my experience of being in London’s LGBT community choir is like. And it is not just the big events which are important, the small moments are as key in painting our picture. Not just for now, but for the future too.

Een Bezoek Aan Den Haag

Yes, we may be in-between seasons at the moment but that doesn't mean the Pinkies are hibernating. No, this Friday is 'You're A Vision (in Pink)' the basses' social down at the Two Brewers, followed by some singing of the more formal variety for the launch of LGBT History Month at Islington Council on the 2nd of February. And then - phew! - the summer season begins in earnest on the 21st of February.

Summer already has a number of events lined up, but one to look out for, especially if you are Dutch, is our performance in Den Haag on the 18th of April. It is at the theatre De Regentes, kindly hosted by the ever amazing Mannenkoorts (although it also sounds like the LGBT choirs in Amsterdam are also doing a bit of hosting). The venue itself is a converted swimming pool, and if that doesn't 'w(h)et' your appetite, then come along and hear us sing!

Chillin' After The Big Pink

Every concert is a special event, not only because we have been rehearsing for the twelve or so weeks prior to it, but because every single one is different. The Pinkies’ last concert – the Big Pink Chill – this Saturday just gone, was no exception, but for me, there were a number of changes this time round which made this particular experience more memorable.

The most significant difference actually began a week or so before the concert itself when we had news that the tickets had sold out. This is an achievement in and of itself, and it was with some disappointment that I had to turn away some of my tardier friends. I’m not sure of the ins and outs of it, but it looks like this was due to a combination of more tickets sold by members, combined with a trebling of the tickets we sold through the website. Now, usually we do, especially in the winter season, sell out, but to do so so far in advance certainly caused Simon W a bit of a headache and more than a few late, sleepless nights.
We aren’t a professional organization by any stretch of the imagination, so our systems are constantly being developed. In the past it was easy to have tickets both for direct sale by members, as well as on line, because we knew that even if the exact numbers of membership sales was not known, there would be enough of a buffer to meet the on-line commitments. With the growing scarcity of tickets though, it looks like this process will have to be tightened up.

This does beg the question why it is that this has happened now. One can only conjecture, but on-line at least, the Pink Singers’ web presence has stepped up, with a more active Facebook fan page, MySpace page, Twitter feed and even a number of YouTube videos (all the links are in the column to your right). It certainly helps that in the popular press as well, shows about group singing, including Glee, have kept choirs in the limelight. This is all good, especially for those of us on stage, because there is nothing like performing to a packed and wildly appreciative audience.
The Royal College of Music is fairly familiar to us now, given that this is our second time there, so there are fewer surprises in terms of the venue itself. Nevertheless, since this time we were performing with two other choirs, Purple Harmony and Sing Out Bristol, rather than by ourselves, it took significantly more organizational work to make sure everyone was in the right place at the right time. None of this would have been possible without the volunteers like Kate D who kept Sing Out Bristol entertained and updated, but a great deal of credit goes to our UK Concerts director Ben P.

I have no idea how he does it, but he manages to co-ordinate moving nearly 150 people in and around the theatre, set out instructions to the production crew, and act as the general lynch pin of the whole operation, while still keeping a calm exterior and still singing! The fact that, as a choir, we just have to concentrate on our own performance, and not worry about all the extraneous logistical issues is down in no small part to Ben’s hard work. Ben, for going above and beyond the call of duty, I salute you!
Indeed, I wish to salute all the Pinkies in general, not only for putting on a great performance, but for contributing to it in so many different ways. The Pink Singers are about singing, true, but the creation of the end product requires so much input from a huge number of people. It is salutary to observe that it is no longer just the people in the committee doing all the work; there is a whole phalanx of Pinkies helping out in other ways, from choreographing our moves, to making announcements, to performing solos, to arranging sectionals, to recording multimedia, to organizing social events. All of these things create a much richer experience for all the members. And all of these Pinkies are doing this as volunteers at that, so it is good that we now have a tradition of recognizing their efforts at the concert. This Pink Insider loves his new key chain thank you very much!
One of the big events this season has been our inclusion of religious music in our repertoire. To be correct we have, for a long time now, sung music with a sacred theme, but the songs have largely been in Latin or classical, or about Christmas. So if you really want to split hairs, this is the first time we have sung modern Christian songs which are not carols in English. Hopefully that just goes to show how arbitrary the classification is, but it would be remiss of me if I did not acknowledge that this caused some consternation in the choir. We are an LGBT choir, and many of our members have an uneasy and occasionally fractious relationship with the Christian faith. So it is with some pride that the choir still stuck together to perform these songs well, despite any individual reservations.

The result was, for me, the most significant event of the evening, which was when Purple Harmony joined us on stage to perform. They are a children’s choir from Surrey, and the choir in which Cass used to sing when she was a little one. Thanks to her hard work, she managed to get them to perform with us where my own efforts at securing a children’s choir had failed. To me their being on stage with us was a profound statement of how far our society has progressed in terms of inclusiveness and equality. In rehearsal, our joint song Rutter’s Look At The World sounded beautiful, but with children’s voices it was sublime. I had to stop myself from choking with tears during the song itself it was so transcendent. The performance defied all stereotypes of what an LGBT choir is, and I certainly hope that the more conservative elements will at least have had some of their prejudices questioned.
I also want to highlight our other guest choir, Sing Out Bristol. They are one of the newest LGBT choirs in the UK, being just over two years old, but already they have over 60 members, 40 of whom came to London. I met them for the first time at Various Voices back in May 2009. Speaking to some of their members, they face the same problems we do – deciding on a direction for the choir, managing a large group of people and dealing with the right balance between the needs of the individual and needs of the choir as a whole – but at least we have had a quarter century lead on them! There is so much to learn, from each other, and it is wonderful what we can give each other the platform to perform at and support each other in the way we do. I can see our relationship growing from here on in.
All of this is wonderfully virtuous, but the best part is that the Pinkies really know how to have fun, so after the concert it was on to a raucous karaoke at the Imperial College bar, followed the next day by an understandably more subdued post-concert brunch at the Ku Bar in Lisle Street. Time to put away the pink accessory for another season; see you at the end of February for Summer 2010!

Being Part Of Something Special

"Being a part of something special makes you special, right?"

Just watched Glee last night on E4, and it was great. Reviewers have compared it to High School Musical on steroids, but that is selling it short as it is nowhere as near as saccharine.

First of all it reinforces my suspicion that if I had grown up in an American High School I would have been a major social reject. One good thing about being in Singapore is that, while sports achievements are laudable, so too are academic prowess and musical talent. This was just as well as I have never been particularly athletic, my closest brush with sports being on the cross-country team when there was absolutely no-one else who would do it. I was also the non-sports co-ordinator designate for my house. What that basically meant was that I organized the drama nights, the talent contests, the chess tournaments and the science and maths olympiads. A recipe for murder if ever there was one, certainly in the Glee universe.

Secondly it comes up with some amazing quotes like the one above. Said by Rachel to her teacher, it was conveyed with such a sense of hopeful self-deception it rang a chord in me. Do I disbelieve it? No, I think contributing to something special does make you special. Certainly the feeling I have from years of theatrical productions and concerts never seems to die with every new performance.

The Pink Singers' winter concert happens on Saturday and looking back at the season it is with great justification that I can say that what we've created is special, and that's just one reason why the Pinkies are special.



Random track from Glee included above because I love it.

You're A Vision (In Pink)

I opened my inbox today to find a new poster waiting for me, courtesy of Anthony B and designed by the ever talented Nathalina. Yes, even if you can't make it to our winter concert, then all is not lost - you can still enjoy some Pinkie lovin' and come along to our Eurovision party. This time it's organized by the basses and will be at the Two Brewers' Pub in Clapham on Friday the 29th of January 2010. More details as I get it!

The Big Pink Chill - Sold Out!

So while I was away (with apologies for the lack of updates on this blog) the poster for our winter concert came out. It is called "the Big Pink Chill" courtesy of the altos. It is amazing how time has flown because in just over a week we will be performing at the Britten theatre, and not only that, we have two amazing guests: Puple Harmony, a children's choir from Surrey, and our friends from Avon, Sing Out Bristol.

Here are the details:

Time & Date:
Saturday 16th January 2010, 7.30 pm
Venue:
The Britten Theatre, Royal College of Music, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BS
Tickets:
£15/£12 available from the Pink Singers website

See you there!

Update: Whoops! It looks like we're sold out of tickets. There is a chance you may be able to get returns on the door. I can't tell you how super-pleased we are about this!