Um, there's not much more I can add to this... it does mean I will be reinterpreting the books in a new light.
The revelations emerged at an event at New York's Carnegie hall:
The biggest revelation of the night came when Jo [J. K. Rowling] revealed to her audience the fact that Albus Dumbledore is gay and had fallen in love with fellow wizard and friend, Gellert Grindelwald.
I also wonder who will play the young Dumbledore in the film version - I favour Ryan Reynolds...
As I said in a previous blog, our choir has really increased in size over the last few seasons, and we are nearly full. At the rehearsal on Sunday Lynne announced that with the confirmed new members we are running at maximum capacity for the tenors and sopranos, and are just a few off filling the altos and basses. I keep revisiting the issue because it is really wonderful: the current group is just manageable in terms of getting to know everyone, but more importantly we are beginning to sound really warm and rich.
Ironically, none of the new tenors could attend this last rehearsal, so I ended up chatting with some of the new basses and a new soprano in the break. As ever, being in the tenor section means that the altos are physically the most remote of the sections, and getting to know them on the far side of the rehearsal space always proves to be problematic! I’m sure they feel the same about the tenors.
One implication of the larger choir is that we have outgrown our previous rehearsal space at the Royal Academy of Music. In the last few weeks I have noticed that we are not only bursting the rooms at the seams, the venues have taken on a decidedly unpleasant whiffiness, the result of sixty lungs breathing in and out in a confined space for four hours no doubt. Not the place for hypochondriacs!
So this week we went back to one of our older rehearsal venues, the Place. It is a dreadful name which can lead to silly conversations like, “Where are we rehearsing?” “The Place”, “Which place?”, “You know, the Place!”, “No, I don’t know what place we are rehearsing at, that’s why I’m asking you!” Ugh.
Anyway, the Place (definite article, capital “P”) is nominally a dance studio by day with beautifully sprung floors, and, as we discovered, decidedly warm central heating with windows which cannot be opened. My other relatively minor complaint was having to see myself in the full-length wall-to-wall mirrors during warm up. I like to delude myself that I look effortless when reaching the high notes, and do not need a reminder of how contorted my face actually appears.
In the end, the dance studio proved to be especially useful for the blokes as we started our choreography practice for I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair and ABBA Pink. Lynne had already sent her warning to wear socks with no holes, but few unfortunately, heeded Jo’s comment about loose leg warmers. The rooms are surrounded by warm-up bars which I presume dancers gracefully swing their legs up on to in a Jennifer Beale moment. Johnathon gave us a demo with a little less elegance, but which was achievable for him because he is so tall. Being somewhat shorter, Sue and I decided that it was not worth taking the risk of dislocating our hips for. We all need a whole lot more practice with the dance moves!
So, this season is bedding down nicely. Can’t wait for Paris!
Yes, we are singing this song this season, and yes, three weeks in we are still murdering it.
This clip also begs the question, how do people have so much free time that they can spend it creating a home-brewed music video?
Not that I'm complaining mind...
One of the side effects of being in a social group like the Pink Singers is that you meet people who have other interests. Case in point: Celso, one of the new tenors, jogs with the Front Runners, and, partly out of politeness, I agreed last Sunday to give this group a shot with Johnathon. By yesterday afternoon I was already chickening out, but Johnathon, very slyly I might add, decided to call me while he was already on the way down to the meeting point.
Great.
I was comfortably sitting on the sofa with a nice cup of cha and the Simpsons on telly, but had to then pack my running gear into a bag and head down to the South Bank.
To cut a long story short though, I had a really good time. I haven't really run properly in years, but the stretch along from the Houses of Parliament to Tower Bridge is wonderfully scenic, especially in the failing light of a London autumn. Johnathon is a little more out of shape than I, but I was actually quite glad for the excuse not to run at the pace of the rest of the group.
The biggest appeal of such groups though, is the people, and I met some really wonderful members yesterday like Steve, Nicholas, Dylan and Toby. Interestingly, when we went to the pub later, all the new members sat together while all the older members congregated elsewhere. Thankfully, there were some who made the effort to come across and involve us, and conversation flowed smoothly.
It is a situation I noticed with the Pink Singers when I first joined all those years ago. This has changed over the years, and there is now a much larger contingent of gregarious souls who make the effort to engage new members. At the same time though, it really is a two way street: being a newbie means stepping outside your comfort zone (as Johnanthon likes to say) and requires you to reawaken the dormant socializing genes.
Really glad I went, and will go again tomorrow, and even on Saturday. I ache all over, but it looks like I've found a new hobby.
Week 2 and the new members keep rolling in. For some reason this season there seems to be a lot more interest than last year, and there is still one more week to go for potential newbies. I am always interested in finding out how people find out about the Pink Singers, and also why they join us rather than one of the other gay and lesbian choirs in London. It turns out the majority hear about us through Google (no duh!) and our website. Remarkably few have ever heard of us through any other route, and even fewer have come to our concerts. I guess that means lots of room for improvement in terms of self-promotion. As to why people would rather join us than the LGMC or Diversity, or any of the other fledgling choirs for that matter, well, the new members I’ve spoken to seem to think that we seem really friendly and fun (and we are!) and have a good mix of voices and repertoire (which we do!). I’m glad that comes across. At the same time London is large enough to sustain three major LGBT choirs with very different social approaches, management and vocal styles, so really, there is something for everyone.
At the pub yesterday after rehearsal I was speaking to one of the new members, and he was saying that he was amazed at how fast we go through the music. This is in comparison to his old choir which seemed to slog through the pieces. In contrast, I actually find our progress slow going. For a brief period in college I was in the Gilbert and Sullivan society, and you were expected to just pick up the sheet music and start singing – our musical director was horrible in that he’d pick you out if you hit a bum note. It really was needlessly stressful. Thankfully Mladen is a much calmer influence, and is a good combination of firm and fair. In addition to last week’s songs, this week we started learning Hymne a l’amour (refer to video of Edith Piaf at her finest above), You’ll Never Walk Alone (another of Michael’s outstanding arrangements) and Lacrimosa from Jenkins’ Requiem, for a total of six songs in a fortnight. Balancing the needs of different people in the choir, from those who can sight-read music to those who have never seen musical notation before, is a real problem, but I do believe that people who sing have a natural affinity for a melody so pick things up quickly, and the Pinkies do it at a pace which caters to the greatest number of members.
The other news is that Johnathon, whose birthday it was on Friday, has convinced me to join him on a run around the South Bank with the Front Runners. This is after a conversation with another one of the new members who also runs with that group. I used to run competitively, but it has been a while since I did anything of the sort, and I am woefully out of shape. This does sound rather appealing though, and jogging along the South Bank in the cold winter evenings has a certain Rocky Balboa-esque attraction for me. Once it starts raining, of course, all bets are off.
The new season started on Sunday. I hadn't been away to Helsinki, so for me the break from choir really was a break, and I was very keen to get back into the swing of things. Having been in the choir now for a number of years, and having missed just one season in all that time, I can safely say that one of my favourite times of the year is the start of the winter season. It is almost like being back at school again after the long summer holidays - you get to catch up with friends who have been away, see your old (double entendre) "teachers" again, and meet a whole slew of new faces.
In the last few years our little choir really has been growing. When I joined the Pink Singers were probably about 30 members, which would mean between 7 and 8 members per section. This year I think we are aiming for 8 members per voice. With 8 voices, that means a total of 64! Of course, the reality is that when it comes to the concert we will not have all 64 members on stage, but it does give us room to accomodate the inevitable cold or food poisoning on the night. At the same time, it is my strong belief that we should not get any bigger than that. At the moment everyone knows everyone else, and there is a strong sense of community in the Pinkies. The larger you get the more fragmented the choir becomes and we will lose the very element which makes us such fun to sing with.
On Sunday the first group of newbies came along. This is basically a chance for potential new members to get a feel for what the choir is about and whether they feel they would fit in. There was a tenor and several basses - which is a good thing because that section needs a bit of a boost, especially in the bass twos - and there were several women as well, a couple of new sopranos and altos. I hate to be an old fogey, but I remember when I first joined just how downright frightening it was, especially since I didn't know anyone. Things are quite different now, because everyone new joins at the same time, so they at least have each other in common, and the oldies are also much friendlier once they know a member is committed.
At the pub after rehearsal I had a chat with a guy who sang with Gloria in Ireland, and Andrew F found a compatriot in a guy who also hailed from Malta. Who would have thought it? They both professed to loving the Pink Singers, so here's hoping we will see them again.
One thing I was concerned about the last time was how terrifying an initial rehearsal can be. Last season we started off with Big Band Bash which is a complex piece with rather odd rhythms and harmonies. Needless to say, by the end of that first session we still sounded pretty painful. If I had joined for the first time I would have been put off. I am pleased to say that on Sunday, however, we started off with When I Fall In Love, a simple song which we pretty much nailed straight off. Then again, we also tried our hand at Come What May which has potential, but which we still managed to utterly slaughter. Can't let the newbies, or the oldies, get too complacent!
It is hard to imagine that in this day and age people still associate the colour pink with gay. Well, I guess kids still do, especially in the provinces. That said, here is a wonderful story from Canada about some salutory behaviour from two kids and how they combatted bullying.
Two Nova Scotia students are being praised across North America for the way they turned the tide against the bullies who picked on a fellow student for wearing pink.
The victim — a Grade 9 boy at Central Kings Rural High School in the small community of Cambridge — wore a pink polo shirt on his first day of school.
Bullies harassed the boy, called him a homosexual for wearing pink and threatened to beat him up, students said.
What? No post since Pride - time to rectify that...
We kicked off our winter season in style by performing in Helsinki with Europe's youngest gay choir - Out 'n loud. While most Pinkies flew there directly to take in the best of Helsinki, some of us took the scenic route by flying to Tallinn and catching the ferry to Helsinki. From all accounts, the night before the show was one to remember with Pinkies exercising their vocal cords as only the Pinkies can - by singing all night in a karaoke bar (gay, of course).
The day of our concert (Sat 15 Sept)dawned wet, dull and cold. Our rehearsal reflect the weather with Mladen tearing his hair out as we were all flat. But as the day brightened to reveal a sunny blue sky, so did our voices so by the time of the show we were raring to go.
Our host choir provided the warm up act by performing in the first half. Stepping onto the stage to rapturous applause, we knew we were onto a winner. We kicked off with Fancies, and followed up with the classical section.
After a brief interlude of Nathalina and Carol provided the audience with an amusing take on a Brit learning a foreign language, the rest of the concert flowed effortlessly. "Love Song For A Vampire" hit new peaks and "This Woman's Work" was a treat especially for one of the Helsinki choir members who declared this his favourite song. "Abba Pink" brought the house down and we closed the event singing a joint song in Finnish with Out 'n loud (a song about ducks and being by the water). The audience was hugely appreciative and the reception we received was heart warming.
We trooped off to a bar-come-sauna afterwards for some entertainment. While some Pinkies warmed themselves in the sauna, others were dancing to the perpetual stream of Eurovision songs blasting from the speakers. As Adam said "...all the songs sound the same..."
However, Andrew F seemed to know every word to every song... What more could a Pinkie want except to go clubbing afterwards - so while Hercules was being explored by the men, DTM was being invaded by the women.
The next day found just Ben and Liang accompanying our single Finnish host Jaakko (hope I spelt this correctly) on the proposed city tour. I guess everyone else was just too tired or partied out... Later on, a number of bleary eyed Pinkies were seen at the airport checking in and waiting for their flights home.
We had enjoyed marvellous hospitality, experienced a Finnish sauna and tasted a Finnish sandwich (chemical) cake.
Thank you Nathalina for getting the ball rolling and thank you Tanya for completing the organisation. Roll on Paris...
PS. I mustn't forget to thank Lynne for her endless organisation energy, Mladen for conducting us fabulously, Michael for his tireless nimble fingers and Andy for his wonderful arrangements.
