Here's a quick reminder about the Pink Singers' New Year concert. It is called 'A Burst of Song' and we've been working hard to craft the show. This time round we are mixing things up with classical and pop/jazz mixed together, we'll be dancing like Tina Turner and doing the hygeinic form of scatting. What's not to like? Get your tickets on the website.
Time: 7.30pm
Date: 8 January 2011
Venue: Cadogan Hall, 5 Sloane Terrace, London SW1X 9DQ
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The Pinkies are singing this song as our joint number with Manchester Lesbian & Gay Chorus and Gay Abandon. I always like to know a little about the song, and Michael was wondering what the tempo of the song is supposed to be. We ran through it for the first time on Thursday and it sounds a bit of a dirge. So I googled its writer Andrew Swain.Billy Lucas was just 15 when he hanged himself in a barn on his grandmother's property. He reportedly endured intense bullying at the hands of his classmates—classmates who called him a fag and told him to kill himself. His mother found his body.
Nine out of 10 gay teenagers experience bullying and harassment at school, and gay teens are four times likelier to attempt suicide. Many LGBT kids who do kill themselves live in rural areas, exurbs, and suburban areas, places with no gay organizations or services for queer kids.
"My heart breaks for the pain and torment you went through, Billy Lucas," a reader wrote after I posted about Billy Lucas to my blog. "I wish I could have told you that things get better."
I had the same reaction: I wish I could have talked to this kid for five minutes. I wish I could have told Billy that it gets better. I wish I could have told him that, however bad things were, however isolated and alone he was, it gets better.
But gay adults aren't allowed to talk to these kids. Schools and churches don't bring us in to talk to teenagers who are being bullied. Many of these kids have homophobic parents who believe that they can prevent their gay children from growing up to be gay—or from ever coming out—by depriving them of information, resources, and positive role models.
Why are we waiting for permission to talk to these kids? We have the ability to talk directly to them right now. We don't have to wait for permission to let them know that it gets better. We can reach these kids.
So here's what you can do, GBVWS: Make a video. Tell them it gets better.
I've launched a channel on YouTube—www .youtube.com/itgetsbetterproject—to host these videos. My normally camera-shy husband and I already posted one. We both went to Christian schools and we were both bullied—he had it a lot worse than I did—and we are living proof that it gets better. We don't dwell too much on the past. Instead, we talk mostly about all the meaningful things in our lives now—our families, our friends (gay and straight), the places we've gone and things we've experienced—that we would've missed out on if we'd killed ourselves then.
"You gotta give 'em hope," Harvey Milk said.
Today we have the power to give these kids hope. We have the tools to reach out to them and tell our stories and let them know that it does get better. Online support groups are great, GLSEN does amazing work, the Trevor Project is invaluable. But many LGBT youth can't picture what their lives might be like as openly gay adults. They can't imagine a future for themselves. So let's show them what our lives are like, let's show them what the future may hold in store for them.
The video my husband and I made is up now—all by itself. I'd like to add submissions from other gay and lesbian adults—singles and couples, with kids or without, established in careers or just starting out, urban and rural, of all races and religious backgrounds. (Go to www.youtube.com/itgetsbetterproject to find instructions for submitting your video.) If you're gay or lesbian or bi or trans and you've ever read about a kid like Billy Lucas and thought, "Fuck, I wish I could've told him that it gets better," this is your chance. We can't help Billy, but there are lots of other Billys out there—other despairing LGBT kids who are being bullied and harassed, kids who don't think they have a future—and we can help them.
They need to know that it gets better. Submit a video. Give them hope.
I just read a rather intriguing article in the Guardian today about the possibility of 'renting a friend'. Yes, you can look at it and roll your eyes at the commoditisation of our social lives, and in this world where everyone appears to have a few hundred Facebook 'friends' you have to wonder why this is even necessary.The reason Pride - which is a celebration of all human sexualities [...] - includes a march as well as the rally is because Pride began as a protest march against intolerance and injustice. Nobody marched for any special rights or privileges. The Gay Rights movement worked towards equality, to bring their rights and their place in society into line with the straight majority.
We're almost there and getting closer every day. The freedoms that I enjoy today were won through blood, legal oppression and police brutality. I honour that struggle every year at Pride, while acknowledging that every human is born able to grow into someone to be proud of.
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One of the big problems facing Pride nowadays is that there is a tension between those who see the parade and festival as a celebration, those who see it is a marketing ploy and those who want to use it as a platform for social change. I have no problems with celebration, but the chasing of the pink pound really does grate. 
The concert has finally arrived and kicks off at 7.30pm at Cadogan Hall. On-line sales are now shut, but you can still get your ticket by phone (box office phone line 020 7730 4500 message code L305) or you could try your luck on the door.
We're not quite a show choir a la Glee yet though, nor do I think should we be. The main appeal to me of the Pinkies, and to the audience as well I believe, is that we are extremely diverse musically. There aren't that many concerts you can go to where the choir sings both Vivaldi's Gloria and ABBA's Does Your Mother Know. That is exactly what is promised on Saturday. So see you there!
It is now under a week to the big concert. The choreography is being polished, the final flourishes on the words are being put together, all we need now are bums on seats. That's where you come in! Do make sure you get your ticket for Saturday's performance at Cadogan Hall. And bring a friend or three while you're at it!
We've been doing our own bit to spread the word, and led by the intrepid Jerome some of the Pinkies decided to brave the stares and mobile phone cameras and walk down Old Compton Street singing songs and handing out flyers. Not being that much of a diva I am always slightly self-conscious when it comes to drawing any kind of attention to myself, but once we started doing "our thing" it was clear that the whole event was going to be amazingly fun. Crowds started gathering and we had applause and cheers after every song, and even the odd smile from the scene queens in Rupert Street!
If there is one adjective which really annoys me, it is the term "straight-acting". To me it carries so much internalized homophobia and self-loathing that anyone who uses it on themselves immediately creates a negative impression. While I do understand that society sets sexuality up as a straight/gay binary, this is completely presumptious. Just because one does not have a penchant for footy team shirts or walks with a certain swishiness does not make one homosexual.
Courtesy of @brettshane I was presented with this rather lovely photo of rugby players Gareth Thomas and Nick Youngquest today. Gareth Thomas is quite the celebrity at the moment, and has quite unconsciously taken on the role as unoffical spokesperson for LGBT sport. Nick Youngquest is an Australian who is straight, but knows his fan base very well. In any case, I would never have heard of the latter were it not for the wonders of twitter. It turns out that he caused a bit of a furore for the following photo which appeared as the June page of the Naked Rugby League Calendar 2007-2008. The version here is SFW, click on it for a slightly more NSFW version!
Yay! In what has become a bit of a tradition, the Pink Singers are fielding a team for the Pride Run. This is organized by the London Frontrunners, and is always a fun day, with a run in the late morning, a picnic in the afternoon, and a party after that! At the same time we will be raising funds for the London Lesbian & Gay Switchboard, so it really is all good. If you are Pink Singer, join the Facebook group and register now - places go very quickly.
My interest in the football is, at best, marginal, but once every four years the World Cup swings round and everyone goes into this weird state of soccer fixation. It is almost impossible to not be caught up in the action, particularly when there is so much to ogle at. Annie Leibovitz does a great photoshoot over at Vanity Fair. There's even a 'making of' video over there, but here are a few choice shots. Think I'll be keeping my eye on Brazil and the rather talented Ricardo Izecson Dos Santos Leite (a.k.a. Kaká)...
Naturally, if you are sick to death of football (and if you are, I pity the next month for you...) then may I also suggest a welcome distraction on the Saturday 19th of June? Come to the Pink Singers' concert! Get your tickets here.
I feel a need to explain why the Pink Insider now has a public Facebook page. Until recently there hasn't really been any need for one, but now that Facebook allows a limited amount of coding on their pages (much like MySpace did back in the day) the Pink Insider has decided to take it for a spin. As you can see the blog feed automatically gets posted to the Facebook page, and I am also embedding videos from the Pink Insider YouTube channel onto the page directly too. Everything is a bit of a testbed at the moment. Do check the Facebook page as I try out some cool stuff there. And remember you can still follow the Pink Insider on twitter, by email updates and by RSS.
The Pinkies ran through our entire season's repertoire and the concert yesterday. It was the first time we had properly sung through everything, and worked in the choreography and entrances and exits, and the first real chance for us to see how the whole concert comes together. It feels like ages, but it was really just in February that we started putting the pieces together, and even technically challenging pieces like Eric Whitacre's With A Lily In Your Hand are very close to performance standard. We have just two weeks to polish things up a bit, but otherwise, we are in a pretty comfortable position as things go, and will be ready for the summer gig.
Since you are reading this on-line, you probably won't need this, but the Pink Insider has been looking at making real world items "clickable" too. There are basically two different types of patterns you can use for this: Microsoft Tag (above) and QR Codes (below). You may have noticed in the column to your right that these colourful or black and white squares have appeared. Basically, these are bar codes which can be printed out onto real world objects. If you see these patterns around you can actually visit the URL they link to super easily.
Yes, I realise that That Sounds Good To Me was an extremely derivative piece of work, but it had a decent melody and was so anodyne as to be widely accepted, and Josh perfomed it commendably, so I really don't understand how, at the end of a rather long evening, the song ended up last, behind corkers like the ones from Belarus and Russia as it really wasn't that bad, and at least made no references to "god of mercy" or other deities, so should have done better, and if it had, would not have made me as upset about the total lack of taste in the European continent (although I will add that I thought Lena was an okay winner, conrgats!).
Well, the first semifinals are over and here are my predictions so far...
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I think it goes without saying that as a choir with the LGBT tag line we are indubitably proud of our lesbian, gay, bi and trans credentials. The dilemma is knowing how far our identity should be labelled as such when we are equally proud of our musical ability. When I was in college one of the freshers would introduce himself as, "My name is X and I am gay." Good on him, but at the same time the reality is that people do, inevitably, pigeonhole you which then means you are judged based on different criteria. The Pink Singers name does not lead to immediate conclusions about who we are necessarily, and I am much more an advocate of demonstrating how good you are before springing any categorization on outsiders.
It appears the Pink Singers are entering the mobile digital age. With all the possible sources of news coming out of the Pinkies' website, twitter and the Facebook fan page, haven't you often wished for a one stop hub, preferably on your phone, which would gather and present all that information to you? Well, the good news is that now you can... if you have a Nokia phone that is. Head on over to the Ovi Store for the Pink Singers news app. Loads of phone models are supported, including the Nokia 5230, 5235, 5530, 5800, N97 and N97 mini, X6 and the upcoming N8. Stay in the loop! Click on the pictures in this post to get a zoomed in look of what's available!
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?
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!
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!
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.
...or how even a volcano can't thwart the Pink Singers!.jpg)
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..jpg)
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..jpg)
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..jpg)
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..jpg)
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.
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.
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.
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!
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)... 
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.
