Apparently this is my week for weird gendered interactions.

I'm in Stephen King country. Specifically, I'm at Indian Acres Boys' Camp, near Freyburg, Maine. I'm here to help the ever-amazing Susan de Guardiola teach a week of Titanic-era dances at an International Folk Dance camp (the dancers rent the camp from the boys' camp). It's stopped raining ( Read more... )

More reporting from a Toronto High School: It's the 1950s now, so most of the "Baby Bags" have graduated. For context, I have just edited an entire page that lists all the citywide athletic championships that the Boys' athletic teams won.

Oh authors with your casual sexism!

When the old auditorium was converted into the Boys’ Gym, the girls ( Read more... )

From a history of a local high school that I am editing:

During the war, the Girls' Club had become the War Services Club; the Girls’ Club was not reinstated after the war. However, a "Baby Bawl” was organized during the First Form initiation party in 1945. During the day, the girls went to class with their clothes on inside-out, wearing one long ( Read more... )

Wow, you guys. Beethoven kicked my butt tonight. Then Bruckner stomped on my groaning nearly dead form, and now I have no voice. Whose brilliant idea was it to program Beethoven's 9th and Bruckner's Te Deum in one concert? Someone who hated sopranos, that's who!

Seriously, Beethoven, who could not hear the tortured noises the real-live sopranos ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Gluck wrote this opera, Paride ed Elena. I've been learning one of Paride's arias, O del Mio Dolce Ardor, as a mezzo piece. In learning the piece, I betook myself to Youtube to brave the unfortunate recital videos in search of a nice professional rendition.

Like, say, this one, by Renate Tebaldi. I think she sings it in the soprano key, but ( Read more... )

You know where is not a good place to try to pick people up?

Okay, I know, there are many such places, among them the office, your class (if you're a teacher), and pretty much anywhere if you're a politician. But somewhere near the top of the list should be the waiting room at your medical clinic.

And if you're a men's rights activist, do you know ( Read more... )

Scientific knowledge is based on empirical evidence, and is appropriate for understanding the natural world, but it provides only a limited understanding of the supernatural, aesthetic, or other ways of knowing, such as art, philosophy, or religion.1
Here follows a very short rant. Maybe a rantlet ( Read more... )

I do not watch Dollhouse.* Various friends do, and I'll probably download a bunch and see what Joss has been up to so that I can opine sensibly a couple of years after the fact. But troubleinchina's most recent post about Dollhouse ('ware spoilerz) has raised an Interesting and Important Question. It's a question that's been raised before, of course, but it's ( Read more... )

I've been sitting out RaceFail, for a lot of reasons: because I didn't want to speak on behalf of other people, who are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves with eloquence and grace. Because it's not about me, and I didn't want to be one of those would-be helpful people who throws oil on things. Because I don't want to hurt people, and I ( Read more... )