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contours provocations
journal - 2001-0702 - mon 2000 Chicken Wigs, Anger Management, "Smalltown Boy" Last week when I had dinner with a friend, I glanced at the menu and misread it. One of those strange moments when you perceive something a couple of seconds before your brain realizes what has happened. In this case, I thought it said "Chicken Wigs." I mentioned this and my friend laughted and said, "We'll have an order of chicken wigs." It took me all of five nanoseconds to respond, "And make sure they're powdered!" Yesterday at lunch I was reading "The New York Times," and there was a big article on the front page about the business of anger management classes. I read part of the article and suddenly thought wouldn't it be perverse if the person in charge of one of the classes suddenly lost it and slapped a student. Friday as you may remember, I re-watched the last part of QAF. And one of the reasons was to hear the music again. With digital tv, I normally listen to the audio via the receiver as opposed to the monitor. But when I played the tape back, I couldn't get any audio from the receiver. Saturday, I decided to look at the wiring to see if I could find the problem. This is not something I like doing. First because I have to move the unit out from the wall. Second because there always appears to be miles and miles of wires and cables. Third because the cats think my efforts are purely for their amusement. So they all gather round and sniff at everything. Took about ten minutes to figure out that audio out on the VCR has to go to audio in on the receiver. Instead one plug was going to audio out; the other, audio in. Once I corrected the wiring, I wanted to test the VCR. Which meant I needed a tape that I knew had a hi-fi stero soundtrack. I fumbled through the tape drawers and suddenly saw a tape about Jimmy Somerville and Bronski Beat. I totally forgotten I had it. Jimmy was one of the first artists to be openly gay, and frequently his songs related to that. I'm certain the reason I bought the tape was for the video of "Smalltown Boy," which is the story of a young guy, portrayed by Jimmy, leaving home. Although you never hear the characters, the story is easily discernible. It starts on a train with shots of Jimmy gazing out the window which are intercut with flashbacks. Jimmy longingly watches some divers, chats with one, and then shortly is bashed by the diver and his friends. Somerville has an incredible falsetto voice that never loses its lustre. Several years ago, I came across the term "counter-tenor" but didn't know what it meant. Then I discoverd it refers to falsetto singing. Recently it has become something of a fashion in classical circles with a sizable number of singers appearing on the scene. Within the last year, I noticed a promo for a program on the subject. I watched it, and jimmy was one of the singers interviewed. "Smalltown Boy" is a plantive story that mixes pathos and bravery. In the video, he is joined by two friends on the train, and the three are shown walking away in the final scene. A happy ending, one hopes, to a sad tale. One little, or not so little, sidelight, is that Jimmy appears to have a noticable bulge in the video. PAX!
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