Pink Singers Folder Icon

Do you ever look at your file explorer and wish you had a special folder icon for all your Pink Singers stuff? No? Well I do and it bugged me enough to do something about it! For your pleasure I present the Pink Singers folder icon suitable for use in Vista or Windows 7. The Pink Insider made one for XP a while back and it should be available somewhere still... As for OSX or Linux, would anyone like to buy me a new computer?

Mack Het Mes

Normally I amalgamate these videos with the main post about the concert, but the "Glee"-fulness of our performance of Mack The Knife in the Hague - even if we're not a show choir - deserves an entry all its own!

An Ad Appears

Another brief one! If you look in this month's Gay Times (May 2010, now rebranded a much more magazine-rack-friendly "GT magazine") on page 94 you will see an ad for the Pinkies' summer concert 2010, A Little Light Music. Have I said how much we need your help with this project? Of course I have - get your tickets ASAP, pretty please!

Wither Various Voices 2013?

Just a quick "update" to let you know that Legato meets in the Hague early next month. On the agenda: a decision about where Various Voices 2013 will be. I am rooting for the Netherlands, partly because the last three were in Berlin, Paris and London, and it is time for Amsterdam to host one - although perhaps one of the Nordic countries could host it, and partly because the Pinkies really loved being in Den Haag this time round. We're waiting with bated breath and "VV" can't come soon enough!

Sangerstev... what?

Why it's a "Sangerstevne" of course! The Pink Singers are going all Scandinavian choral festival and performing at the Sangerstevne in Ealing. It will be at St. Matthew's church, and no, I don't know what to expect either as it is our first time there. Looks like it will be huge fun though, and there are some amazing choirs on the list. I see Chantage has performed there previously... But then again, it is non-competitive, and for the audience, entirely free too. So even more reason to head west.

There And Back Again

...or how even a volcano can't thwart the Pink Singers!

It was the first concert of the season, and an overseas concert to boot. The Pinkies were invited to perform with the ever-amazing Mannenkoorts at their annual concert in Den Haag, the Netherlands, and naturally we were excited. Mannenkoorts is easily one of my favourite LGBT choirs. Actually, they transcend the LGBT choir label and are easily one of my favourite choirs full stop. They have a very slick sound and their peformance, including their choreography, is always flawless. The Pink Singers are really good too of course, but there was some trepidation as this concert was also seeing the trial of five of the new songs this season, two of which included choreography.

Over the last few weeks we've been polishing the dance moves, which in Pinkie parlance, means we've been simplifying the actions so that they were achievable in the time allowed. I am sure this frustrates our choreographers so end, but needs must, and the more complicated manoeuvres will undoubtedly be reintroduced later on for the summer concert itself. Anyway, thanks to the marvels of the internet, the Pink Insider, who has been in New York, missed most of the Den Haag rehearsals, but was quite thankful for the editing of the choreography for this concert.

It was with some excitement, therefore, that this Pinkie flew back from JFK to Heathrow, but an hour out from the airport, the captain of the plane made an announcement on the tannoy that, owing to a volcanic eruption, we would be diverting and landing in Paris instead. Now, don't get me wrong, I love Paris, but after ten days away I was really looking forward to returning to good ol' Blighty. Instead, I found myself with a few hundred bewildered passengers in Charles De Gaulle. Because it was so early on in the catastrophe, no-one really had any clue what was going on. I decided I'd take my chances, bite the bullet knowing that I'd have to pony up more cash, and buy a train ticket straight to the Hague.

I was grubby and smelly, not to mention somewhat hungry and dehydrated, and while I felt sorry for myself, on the balance of things, I was actually pretty lucky. By some quirk of fate the Pink Insider had decided to make the crossing by ferry, and so my transportation links, apart from this first leg, were not disrupted. Several of the other Pinkies, however, were still stuck in London, or already in the Netherlands, wondering how to get back. In true Pinkie spirit, and led by the indomitable Tanya, together with the driving skills of Mark W and Jenny Co, a little convoy crossed over to Dunkirk and made the 12 hour journey up to Holland. Through a variety of trains, boats and cars then, the majority of the Pinkies made it to our performance venue, and in fact we were only missing four people, due in part to illness.

So, how did the gig go? Well, we were all incredibly tired after the trip across, and our rehearsal was quite painful. We kept going out of tune, the blending was bad, we seemed to be racing through the songs and the choreography was messy. Part of it was due to the auditorium, which was a converted swimming pool and was therefore quite acoustically challenging. Still, we were running on a bit of a high, having already survived one challenge and looking forward to the next.

Mannenkoorts opened and closed the show, sandwiching the Pink Singers, and we had a chance to sit in the audience to watch them perform. As always, they were absolutely stunnning with a great blending of sound, some outstanding voices, and a great stage presence. I must confess to being a secret fan of Eric, the countertenor in Mannenkoorts, whose facial expressions were hilarious, and whose dulcet falsetto has a beautiful ring. In a way, that was probably good for us, because it made us all the more aware of just how good our own performance had to be.

And of course we pulled it out of the bag. The funny thing is that no matter how bad the rehearsal, we do seem to come together in the end. And, despite a rather tentative start, it was a really fun performance. It was telling that all the new songs were sung the best we have ever done them, which bodes well for our summer concert which is still quite a way away. Even the choreography, which tends to flummox us, came off pretty decently too. The audience, while seeming a little cool, eventually warmed up to us, and by the time we got to the end of the set, the stamping on the floor in appreciation threatened to sink us into the swimming pool below!

After that it was time for a much-deserved three or four glasses of beer and a chance to chat with our very friendly hosts and their friends. We are hoping to see Mannenkoorts as our gusts in the very near future, so do watch this space.

Yesterday was filled with the journey back: tram, train, ferry, bus and tube. I cannot tell you how glad I was to see my bed at long last!

We Have Lift Off!

Although the Pink Insider is wending his long way to the Hague this weekend for the Pink Singers' concert with Mannenkoorts, things are heating up on other Pinkies' fronts. As I have said before, the summer concert "A Little Light Music" is the real biggie this season. We are performing solo (no guest choir) and also in Cadogan Hall which is twice the size of our normal venue, so my nails are well and truly chewed down.

We really need your support! The publicity machinery is winding up, and today sees the release of the concert poster, to augment the box office. What are you waiting for? See you at the summer concert.

On Drowning

I watched two films in quick succession last night: A Single Man and Twilight: New Moon. Before you ask, yes I realize that these films cater to very different audiences, but I do these comparisons so you don't have to! They actually share much in common: thematically, both look at the subject of lost love, and interestingly, both prominently feature the motif of drowning.

Tom Ford's directorial debut, based on Christopher Isherwood's book and aimed as it is, to a more adult audience, is a beauty in restraint. The eponymous main character played by Colin Firth only voices over at the start and at the end, and even then more to provide a structural symmetry to the film than to elaborate, so you are left to experience the ravages of his loss, the struggles with containment of his emotion under a sedate demeanour, and his subsequent recovery and salvation, all obliquely through observation. The drowning imagery appears interspersed throughout the film and draws upon his helpless stuggles, despair and sense of morbidity. It was so moving the Pink Insider teared up at least twice.

In contrast, New Moon, based on Stephanie Meyer's vampire book and therefore aimed at peri-pubescents, follows Bella's own experience of a lost love, only instead of dying, her partner talks about it for about half an hour before just moving somewhere else. This of course, causes the heroine a considerable amount of pain and angst which she reminds you of incessantly by screaming at night and, lest you missed that she was upset, goes on and on about it in her non-stop voice overs. So when she decides to jump off the side of a cliff into the cold seas below, you almost wish she would drown, if only to stop all her inane chatter.

I know which film I prefer.

The Evolution Of Design

If you've been paying attention to In The Pink(ies) you will notice that there have been a few design tweaks going on across all the sites. The new Pink Insider twitter page gave us the opportunity to make things a little more consistent across the main blog and the YouTube and Vimeo channels. If you visit on a daily basis, you will see the tweaks happening live. Some of these are very minor, while others are quite radical, but overall, if you are only seeing the end product it is hard to see how the design evolves.

In many ways, though, it is the evolution which is much more interesting, particularly if it gives you a chance to see what might have been. Recently, for instance, there was a wonderful article on how the design of the La Cage Aux Folles poster for the Broadway revival has changed. This week I was watching The Art Of The Steal, a tremendous film on the Barnes Foundation. Regardless of the merits of the film, however, what really caught my eye was the film poster, a marvellous blend of turquoise, strong shapes, typography in relief and highlight colours.

But the design was not always this way. Indeed, because the film actually came from Frank Abagnale's book, there are a lot of designs kicking about. All try to focus on slightly different elements of the story, in an attempt to cater to a different market. Take a look and see how much difference choice of colours, typography and layout can make!

Doctor... Who?

Sorry, couldn't help feeling a little distracted after last night's Doctor Who. Yes, Matt Smith, as the 11th Doctor, and Karen Gillan, as the new sidekick Amelia "Amy" Pond, are actually really good, and the story was exciting, and the CGI could still be improved, and the smugness of the Doctor was annoying as always, and it looks like the new series will be full of mysteries to be leisurely unravelled (witness the prominent logo for MΨTH on the laptop)...

...but who could concentrate when the gorgeous Tom Hopper was on screen? Here's hoping the character Jeff has a "meatier" role in future episodes...

Edit: Added more gratuitous nudity... but for a good cause!

And the outcome of this photoshoot is here. I've not displayed it as it is marginally NSFW.

I Give A Damn, Do You?

The big news today appears to be Anna Paquin coming out as bisexual. I love her in True Blood, but not being a particularly obsessive person, have never really thought about what she is like in real life. It turns out that things aren't really so different as she is actually in a relationship with the actor who plays Bill the vampire. Anyway, that's by-the-bye.

Ms. Paquin's closet busting move was in aid of Give A Damn, an on-line campaign to promote LGBT rights, with a focus on the law - employment protection and marriage. However much people may or may not doubt the efficacy of these efforts, for those of us who are out or even coming out, it is reassuring to see statements of support by famous people, both straight and gay, trying to fight injustice.

Here's the main promo video. This Pink Insider totally loves Jason Mraz! Check out more on their YouTube channel.

Never Say Never Again

Uh. Okay. This is a bit embarassing. You know how yesterday I stated that:

...this is one blog which is not likely to go all twitter any time soon!

Well, not more than 24 hours later and I have entered into Sean Connery territory and discovered that twitter is actually a pretty good way of syndicating content. And you really don't have to know how to use RSS either. I guess it's just another way of distributing information.

So, yes, it is with a rather red face that I hereby announce that the Pink Insider now has a twitter feed, even if it is simply a reflection of the blog posts here in In The Pink(ies). Who knows? I may even set up a Facebook group at some stage!