Juarez Machado : a bit outré!?

I like the art of Juarez Machado, provactive, stylish and definitely sexy. The following text has an interesting use of english in french ("elle est trop hard" which roughly equates to the English expressing "a bit outré")

JUAREZ MACHADO ET LA FERIA DE BEZIERS

lundi 27 juillet 2009  Actu  Alerter la modération

Les autorités muncipales de Béziers ont refusé la proposition du Galeriste Pierre Pastre qui leur proposait pour affiche de la Féria de Beziers cette superbe oeuvre du célèbre peintre brésilien Juarez Machado. Motif invoqué : elle est trop hard. Chacun appréciera.et au besoin rira, car l'affiche acceptée au lieu et place, due à  l'imagination de Jean Nouvel a du être placardisée au lieu d'être affichée, le publiciste ayant utilisé sans son accord l'image du rugbyman Chaval qui a fort mal pris la chose. Résultat : Toutes les affiches ont du être détruites devant huissier? Qui de quatre palettes de tee shirts qui ont fini déchiquetés, broyés, compactés et de 50.000 programmes officiels qui ont du être pilonnés. Quant à la toile de Machado, elle a trouvé acheteur pour...un bon prix.

Ci dessous  l'oeuvre de Juarez Machado

http://blog.francetv.fr/MOTAMOT/index.php/2009/07/27/133687-juarez-machado-et-la-feria-de-beziers

It is an amusing story too!

outré |oōˈtrā|

adjective

unusual and startling : in 1975 the suggestion was considered outré—today it is orthodox.

ORIGIN French, literally ‘exceeded,’ past participle of outrer (see outrage ).

I love Brighton

This is one of my favourite photo's of 2009... Brunswick Square in the sunshine, the bright red colours, Myriam looking radiant and my boyfriend's new hair cut which make's me think of the 80s and the Thompson Twins:

In 1977, the original Thompson Twins line-up consisted of Tom Bailey (born 18 January 1954, Halifax, Yorkshire[3]) on bass and vocals, Pete Dodd on guitar and vocals, John Roog on guitar, and Jon Podgorski (known as "Pod") on drums.[4] Dodd and Roog first met when they were both 13 years old.

Arriving in London with very little money, they lived as squatters in Lillieshall Road, London. Future Thompson Twins member Alannah Currie lived in another squat in the same street — which is how she met Bailey. It was in this ramshackle and run-down house that they found an illegal way of "borrowing" electricity from the house next door. Bailey described themselves (laughingly) as "spongers" (meaning parasites) back then, as they were living on very little and scavenging everything they could lay their hands on. He even said that the only instruments they had were bought, or had been "stolen or borrowed". Dodd managed to get a council flat not far away. Their roadie at that time was John Hade, who lived in the same house, and who later became their manager...

At the end of 1983, a new single, "Hold Me Now", was released. The song was an international chart success, peaking at #3 in the US in the spring of 1984, becoming their biggest American hit,[7] and also hitting #4 in their native UK where it became the band's biggest seller earning a gold disc.[11] Further hit singles followed in 1984 with two UK Top 3 hits; "Doctor! Doctor!" and "You Take Me Up" (which reached #2, their highest UK chart placing,[2] and earned a silver disc).[12] Further singles included a new version of the album track "Sister of Mercy", and "The Gap" (though this was not released in the UK). The corresponding album, Into the Gap, was one of the biggest sellers of 1984, selling five million copies worldwide and topping the UK Albums Chart.[2] The band also embarked on a world tour in support of the album.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thompson_Twins

radiant |ˈrādēənt|adjective1 sending out light; shining or glowing brightly : a bird with radiant green and red plumage. See note at bright .• (of a person or their expression) clearly emanating great joy, love, or health : she gave him a radiant smile.• (of an emotion or quality) emanating powerfully from someone or something; very intense or conspicuous : he praised her radiant self-confidence.2 [ attrib. ] (of heat) transmitted by radiation, rather than conduction or convection.• (of an appliance) designed to emit such energy, esp. for cooking or heating.

Royal Academy's Wild Thing: Epstein, Gaudier-Brzeska & Gill

After a very nice coffee and chocolare brownie in the Royal Academies members room watching the snow fall, we proceeded to the exhbition of three of the great artists/sculptors of the 20th century. 

Probably Epstein and his rock drill are better known than Eric Gill, both are better known than ....

Seeing Epstein's Rock Drill scultpture in it's full glory was dramatic. I have sense the torse version before in the Tate, which is very striking on it own; especially when you realises that this peace is now nearly 100 years old.

My image of Eric Gill was rather shattered by mother's revelations regarding his terrible, private life. This was totally at odds with the image I had of Gill. His drawing are beautiful, his calligraphy/very fine pen work are distinctive and his naturalistic/romantic full-breasted mother and child stone statues are absolutely adorable. However his private life, despite an appearance of being religious was depressingly awful, as mother pointed out - "you wished you didn't know about him".

The suprise highlights for me were the work's of Gaudier-Brzeska and the images of Ezra Pound:

The exhibition contains more than 90 works featuring mainly sculptures, drawings and pastels. With rooms dedicated to the work of each sculptor the exhibition focuses on the key achievements of each artist and reveals their impact on British sculpture. The show brings together spectacular works, including Epstein’s robotic masterpiece Rock Drill, Gaudier-Brzeska’s innovative carving of Birds Erect, and Gill’s controversial carving of the sexual act called Ecstasy.

The title of this exhibition is taken from the American poet Ezra Pound, who vividly remembered meeting Henri Gaudier-Brzeska for the first time in 1913. Pound was impressed by the young Frenchman, and likened him to “a well-made young wolf or some soft-moving, bright-eyed wild thing.” But those last two words also sum up the feisty and daring spirit of rebellion driving the young Jacob Epstein and Eric Gill.

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/wild-thing-epstein-gaudier-brzeska-gill/

It is tradgic to think that  Gaudier-Brzeska talents were lost in the first World War.

White heat - Meng Yang Pan

I recently spent a very pleasant short break in London with my mother.

The lunch time piano concert by the superbly talented Meng Yang Pan, she played with breath taking fluency and passion. It was incredible to see such a perfect and skilled performance. 

The music: Scarlatti, Haydn, Poulence and Liszt was varied from the gentle and melodic to the crashing complex cords of Liszt. My mother commented that she didn't look heavy enough to have played this last piece. Her whole body and in particular were very expressive as she throw herself into this work body and soul.

I really was quite breath-taking to see such a powerful young talent perform at her very peak. 

Watching her perform, I was reminded about a recent article about measuring brain activity in an MRI scanning. The article compared popular past times and activities like go to the gym, having a drink, ... not surprisingly top of this "pop chart" was sex.. However watching this incredibly intense performance I couldn't help feel that her level of engagement was off the scale and it made wonder if the "white heat" generated by a top perform must be hard to rival in their person relationships. I could help wondering if being "better than sex" might also be a bit of a burden?

The setting - St James Church Piccadilly is a beautiful old church with lovely stained glass windows and fine carvings and fittings. According to Mum, it was a "Wren Church".

Feel the pain (Empathie extrême?)

This is an interesting story about MRI scans demonstrating that some of us really do "feel the pain"

Deux chercheurs britanniques, Jody Osborn et Stuart Derbyshire, de l'École de psychologie de l'Université de Birmingham, pensent maintenant l'avoir vérifié scientifiquement.

Ils ont exposé 108 participants à une série d'images de situations douloureuses, comme des athlètes blessés ou des patients recevant une injection. Ils ont utilisé la technique d'imagerie à résonance magnétique qui permet d'étudier le fonctionnement du cerveau en observant les régions cérébrales activées lors d'une tâche ou d'une émotion.

Environ le tiers des sujets ont dit avoir non seulement ressenti une émotion au moins sur une image, mais aussi avoir vite ressenti une douleur à l'endroit exact de la blessure.

Watching horror movies makes me quite sick... "Antichrist" (Lars von Trier) was truly terrible (except I liked the idea that the woman was the evil character and the man/husband was the victim).

empathie

nom féminin
(calque de l'allemand Einfühlung)

• Faculté intuitive de se mettre à la place d'autrui, de percevoir ce qu'il ressent.

Oedipus and climate change

The idea that the Oedipus myth also has a link between the quality of the land and the quality of the ruling class intrigued me:

Natasha Mitchell: Well many would be surprised possibly to hear that you've pulled out the Oedipus myth, for example, and applied it to climate change. I mean just a reminder, you know Oedipus unknowingly came to fulfil a prophesy that he would kill his father king and marry his mother Queen Jocasta and the result was that that happened and the city of Thebes became overrun with plagues and failed crops. Isn't that the story -- what's that got to do with climate change?

Jonathan Marshall: Well the myth does several different things: it talks about balance, it talks about the relationship between violence and knowledge. Oedipus does not want to know things, he does know certain things and he tries to avoid them from coming out. All the way through there are people trying to kill each other to avoid the consequences of their knowledge, like Laius tries to kill Oedipus when he's a child.

Natasha Mitchell: His father.

Jonathan Marshall: His father, yes, but also the land itself rebels against the rulers and I think this is quite an important myth which we don't talk about nowadays that in fact the quality of the land, the life of the land reflects the quality of the ruling class.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2009/2746165.htm#transcript

Checking this on wikipedia, I think I see the connection:

As Sophocles' Oedipus the King begins, the people of Thebes are begging the king for help, begging him to discover the cause of the plague. Oedipus stands before them and swears to find the root of their suffering and to end it. Just then, Creon returns to Thebes from a visit to the oracle. Apollo has made it known that Thebes is harboring a terrible abomination and that the plague will only be lifted when the true murderer of old King Laius is discovered and punished for his crime. Oedipus swears to do this, not realizing of course that he himself is the abomination that he has sworn to exorcise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus

In my life, I am very frustrated at the dangerously slow pace of government and big business regarding adapting to a low carbonworld

computing: Charactersets, Storage and Endianness

I've been listern to an excellent Scott Hanselman podcast about Internationalisation, the focus of much of the podcast as about unicode charactersets and their storage formats.

Scott and Carl Franklin really got down into the detail and the subject of big vs little endianess came up. I guest the new Intel macs must be little endian, like PCs (the old PowerPC macs were big endian - which matched the http protocol - saving a bitwise switch / rotation of every word...)

Here is a little background of the key concepts

In computing, endianness is the ordering of individually addressable sub-units (words, bytes, or even bits) within a longer data word stored in external memory. The most typical cases are the ordering of bytes within a 16-, 32-, or 64-bit word, where endianess is often simply referred to as byte order. The usual contrast is between most versus least significant byte first, called big-endian and little-endian respectively.

Etymology

The term big-endian comes from Jonathan Swift's satirical novel Gulliver’s Travels, where tensions are described in Lilliput and Blefuscu: whereas royal edict in Lilliput requires cracking open one's soft-boiled egg at the small end, inhabitants of the rival kingdom of Blefuscu crack theirs at the big end (giving them the moniker Big-endians). The terms little-endian and endianness have a similar intent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness

endian |ˈendēən|

adjective Computing

denoting or relating to a system of ordering data in a computer's memory whereby the most significant ( big endian) or least significant ( little endian) byte is put first.

ORIGIN 1980s: a reference to Swift's Gulliver's Travels, in which the Lilliputians were divided into two camps, those who ate their eggs by opening the ‘big’ end and those who ate them by opening the ‘little’ end.

Jesus Camp - the dangers of religion and indoctrination

I've just watched Jesus Camp, a film/documentary about the upbringing of children by extreme christains in America, quite scary really: Harry Potter is the devil and must die... but George Bush is the best. They are very powerful and very scary. The trailer gives a feel for the film (although the film has a slower more measured paced)

Fischer is shown preaching a sermon where she mentions the Harry Potter character and claims that had he existed in biblical times, he "would have been put to death". Fischer admonishes the children—many whom are in tears—to "clean up your act" and not be hypocritical in their actions. As several tearful children gather around her, she pours water on their hands to be "washed in the water of [God's] word." ...

There is also a scene at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where Levi and his family go on vacation to hear its now-disgraced pastor, Ted Haggard. Levi highly admires Haggard, and is thrilled to meet him. He informs Haggard that he too wants to be a pastor and has already preached sermons. Afterward, Levi, Rachael, Tory, their families and several other children take part in a Justice House of Prayer rally held by Engle in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Additionally, there is a debate between Fischer and Mike Papantonio, an attorney and a radio talk-show host for Air America Radio's Ring of Fire. Papantonio questions Fischer's motives for focusing her ministry efforts on children. Fischer explains that she does not believe that people have the freedom to choose their belief system once they pass childhood, and that it is important that they be immersed in evangelical Christian values from a young age.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Camp

Here are a just few frightening quotes from the film:

Levi: At five I got saved...
Becky Fischer: Yeah?
Levi: ...because I just wanted more of life.

---

Rachel: [preaching to a group of guys sitting in a park] If you were to die right now in this moment, where do you think you'd go?
guy in the park: Heaven
Rachel: [subdued] Really?
guy in the park: Yeah. Sure.
Rachel: Oh... okay. Have a nice day!
[runs back to her friends]
Rachel: I think they were Muslims!

---

Home-schooled kids: I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag...

---

Levi's Mom: Did you get to the part yet where they say that science hasn't proven anything?

---

Becky Fischer: It's no wonder, with that kind of intense training and discipling, that those young people are ready to kill themselves for the cause of Islam. I wanna see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam. I wanna see them as radically laying down their lives for the Gospel as they are over in Pakistan and Israel and Palestine and all those different places, you know, because we have... excuse me, but we have the truth!

---

Becky Fischer: I can go into a playground of kids that don't know anything about Christianity, lead them to the Lord in a matter of, just no time at all, and just moments later they can be seeing visions and hearing the voice of God, because they're so open. They are so usable in Christianity.

---

Becky Fischer: [Referring to President George W. Bush] He has really brought some real credibility, um, to the Christian faith.

---

Ted Haggard: If the Evangelicals vote, they determine the election.

---

Levi's Mom: We believe that there's two kinds of people in this world: people who love Jesus and people who don't.

---

Rachel: There are certain churches, they're called "dead churches," and the people there, they sit there, like this
[blank stare monotone]
Rachel: - "We worship you God, we worship you God."... The churches that God likes to go to, are churches where they're jumping up and down, shouting his name, and just praising him, they're not acting - they're not quiet
[pious frown monotone]
Rachel: "We worship you... ," they're
[exuberant jumping]
Rachel: "Hallelujah God!" And depending on how they invite him, he'll be there, or not.

---

Ted Haggard: We've decided the Bible is the word of God. We don't have to have a General Assembly about what we believe. It's written in the Bible. Alright, so we don't have to debate what we think about homosexual activity. It's written in the Bible.
[pointing and looking into the camera]
Ted Haggard: I think I know what you did last night.
[audience laughs]
Ted Haggard: If you send me a thousand dollars, I won't tell your wife.
[audience and Haggard laughs]
Ted Haggard: If you use any of this, I'll sue you.

---

Becky Fischer: And while I'm on the subject, let me say something about Harry Potter. Warlocks are the enemies of God! And I don't care what kind of hero they are, they're an enemy of God and had it been in the Old Testament, Harry Potter would have been put to death!
Crowd: Amen!
Becky Fischer: You don't make heroes out of warlocks!

---

Becky Fischer: It's almost like being on the cover of "Rolling Stones"!

---

Levi: I think Galileo made the right choice by giving up science for Christ.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486358/quotes

Actually the parts which probably shocked me the most were Becky Fischers clear contempt for democracy and that indocrination of children is good!!

It all made think of that great Al Gore quote:

Al Gore [quoting Mark Twain] "What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so."

I also liked this forum post from imdb:

Jesus Camp is serious business., 14 September 2006

Author: mmckelley from United States

This film intrigued me for several reasons: First it is filmed in my home state of Missouri, not the deep south as so many people think, in fact it is filmed near Kansas City.

The film is a well-presented view from the perspective of the ultra conservative, Evangelical movement. It is honest in its intent. Minister, Becky Fischer, is honest in her goals for the camp and its attendees.

I did find that the film seemed to play fast and loose with numbers. For example it is stated that 75% of all home schooled children are evangelical. I come from a liberal background and have many well-educated friends who home school and none of them are evangelical so I am skeptical about their claim.

As one might expect, statements are made such as "there is no such thing as global warming" and that "all homosexuals are going to hell." That doesn't surprise me. The fact that not one of the adults or children questions any of these statements or offers to provide proof or seek an alternative explanation is the elephant in the room.

However; the film is filled with passion and filmmakers present the information honestly. The sad issue is that the evangelical movement seems not to have learned anything from the War in Iraq. Our presence there will only result in civil war. This was predicted long before the war started, now, four years later, if the U.S. were to leave, full blown civil war would certainly result. Why, because the church and state in Iraq are inseparable.

I will eagerly await the sequel five years from now when the filmmakers return to Jesus Camp and reinterview these children. On second thought, perhaps they had ought to wait ten years.

I also feel sorry for more moderate christains:

"It shows the Midwest evangelicals are comparative to Muslim camps in the Middle East as if we're training up warriors to battle the world," said Andy Braner, director of the Christian camp Kanakuk Colorado. "It gives people a bad taste of what camps are all about."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/novemberweb-only/146-12.0.html

But I also think Andy Braner is possibly missing the point about the dangerous cocktail of the church taking over the state (government/corporate&miltary power) in America?

I hope common sense and moderation wins-out in the worlds biggest super-power!

indoctrinate |inˈdäktrəˌnāt|

verb [ trans. ]

teach (a person or group) to accept a set of beliefs uncritically : broadcasting was a vehicle for indoctrinating the masses.

• archaic teach or instruct (someone) : he indoctrinated them in systematic theology.

ORIGIN early 17th cent.(formerly also as endoctrinate): from en- ¹ , in- ² [into] + doctrine + -ate ³ , or from obsolete indoctrine (verb), from French endoctriner, based on doctrine ‘doctrine.’

Jeremy Clarkson: "alpha male" or "alpha tw*t"

I don't like Jeremy Clarkson and every time I hear his "toxic views" forced upon me in the name of humour, I think he is a sad and selfish macho man. Here are a few of things I find so upsetting about Mr Clarkson...

Clarkson scaled Ben Tongue in Sutherland in a new Land Rover Discovery for the BBC2 show, reportedly churning up fragile peat bogs and heather as he went.

The damage done will be lasting, according to the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, which says the stunt was irresponsible and likely to encourage similar destructive behaviour on other private estates.

"The virgin land Clarkson has chewed up will now take hundreds of years to be regenerated," said the council's president, John Mackenzie, the Earl of Cromartie.

"There's no excuse for this, no matter how good the Land Rover might have been. This sets a precedent and it is going to encourage even less disciplined individuals to act irresponsibly."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2004/nov/16/environment.broadcasting

His response to this criticism was totally un-apologetic - no surprise.

I think he is very toxic:

• Clarkson has long been noted for his pro-smoking viewpoint, with him even publicly smoking as much as possible on National No Smoking Day.
• On the environment, Clarkson is not sympathetic to the green agenda. He once said: "I do have a disregard for the environment. I think the world can look after itself and we should enjoy it as best as we can".
• He has little respect for groups such as Greenpeace, and believes that the "eco-mentalists" are a by-product of the "old trade unionists and CND lesbians" that hadn't gone away but merely found a new cause.
• Clarkson is not however a climate change denier, commenting on the effects of global warming - "let's just stop and think for a moment what the consequences might be. Switzerland loses its skiing resorts? The beach in Miami is washed away? North Carolina gets knocked over by a hurricane? Anything bothering you yet?"

Unfortunately I also think he is very influencial:

• Clarkson has been described as a "skilful propagandist for the motoring lobby" by The Economist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Clarkson

IQ and Politics: Childhood intelligence predicts voter turnout, voting preferences, and political involvement in adulthood: The 1970 British Cohort St

This fascinating story, obviously as an active member of the green party (who has previously voted lib dem) it is rather flattering.

Based on matching IQ data to voting patterns, at top at around 108 are the Greens and Lib Dems. Next at around 103/4 are the conservatives and labour and lastly at the both of the heap are UKIP and the BNP 98.

Monday 3 November 2008

Childhood intelligence is linked to voting preferences and political involvement in adulthood according to a recent study.

People with a higher intelligence in childhood were more likely to vote as adults, and were more likely to vote for the Green Party and Liberal Democrats in a general election, researchers have found.

The study, funded by the UK Medical Research Council, suggests that childhood general intelligence is associated with a person’s political allegiance as much as social class – which has been studied previously as a marker of British voting habits...

http://www.mrc.ac.uk/Newspublications/News/MRC005139

and from a The Guardian commentator:

If the results of general elections are anything to go by, voting Green or Liberal Democrat must be a thankless task. But now the supporters of these parties can console themselves with the knowledge that, although they may not elect a prime minister, there's a good chance that they are cleverer than the people who do.

Academic research published in the journal Intelligence compares the way people voted in the 2001 election with their IQ at the age of 10 (using data from the 1970 British cohort study). The results are fascinating.

On a party-by-party basis, the average (childhood) IQ scores for 2001 voters were:

Green - 108.3

Liberal Democrat - 108.2

Conservative - 103.7

Labour – 103

Plaid Cymru - 102.5

Scottish National - 102.2

UK Independence - 101.1

British National - 98.4

Did not vote/None of the above - 99.7

The research was based on a survey involving 6,000 people, so it's obviously pretty authoritative...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2008/nov/03/greenpolitics-liberaldemocrats

The scientist behind this study seem to come from very reputable institutions:

Childhood intelligence predicts voter turnout, voting preferences, and political involvement in adulthood: The 1970 British Cohort St

Ian J. Deary^a,, G. David Batty^{a, b} and Catharine R. Gale^c

^aMedical Research Council Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9JZ, UK

^bMedical Research Council Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, 4 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8RZ, UK

^cMedical Research Council Epidemiology Resource Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK

Ian J. Deary BSc, MB, ChB, PhD (Edin), FRCPsych, FRCPE, FBA, FRSE, FMedSci Professor

G David Batty , lecturer in epidemiology. Epidemiology Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT

Dr Catherine Gale PhD

Principal Research Fellow

After studying Classics at the University of Cambridge, Catharine Gale worked in archaeological research. She then studied Population Sciences at the University of Southampton and joined the MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit in 1994. She obtained a PhD in 1998 for a thesis on the role of antioxidant vitamins in determining risk of cerebrovascular disease and cognitive decline in elderly people.

Orpheus in the Underworld

I love opera / classical singing but am a bit intimidated by the £70+ticket prices and the posh-atmosphere of the opera world.

The background to this operatta is quite interesting in itself

The work, first performed in 1858, is said to be the first classical full-length operetta.^[1][2] Offenbach's earlier operettas were small-scale one-act works, since the law in France did not allow certain genres of full-length works. Orpheus was not only longer, but more musically adventurous than Offenbach's earlier pieces ..

The operetta is an irreverent parody and scathing satire on Gluck and his Orfeo ed Euridice and culminated in the risqué galop infernal (often copied, widely used as the background music for the Can-can dance, and erroneously called "Can-can") that shocked some in the audience at the premiere. Other targets of satire, as would become typical in Offenbach's burlesques, are the stilted performances of classical drama at the Comédie Française and the scandals in society and politics of the Second French Empire ...

The piece was not immediately a hit, but critics' condemnation of the travesty, particularly that ofJules Janin, who called it a "profanation of holy and glorious antiquity," only provided vital publicity, serving to heighten the public's curiosity to see the piece

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus_in_the_Underworld

Nadjib who knows greek mytholodgy very well, while really liking the character of "public opinion" did feel that something of the original love story of Orpheus was lost:

The Greeks of the Classical age venerated the legendary figure of Orpheus as chief among poets and musicians, and the perfector of the lyre invented by Hermes. Poets like Simonides of Ceos said that, with his music and singing, he could charm birds, fish and wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance,^[4] and even divert the course of rivers. He was one of the handful of Greek heroes^[5] to visit the Underworld and return; even in Hades his song and lyre did not lose their power.

The most famous story in which Orpheus figures is that of his wife Eurydice (also known as Agriope). While fleeing fromAristaeus (son of Apollo), Eurydice ran into a nest of snakes which bit her fatally on her heel. Distraught, Orpheus played such sad songs and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and gods wept. On their advice, Orpheus traveled to theunderworld and by his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone (he was the only person ever to do so), who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her and not look back until they both had reached the upper world. He set off with Eurydice following and in his anxiety as soon as he reached the upper world he turned to look at her, forgetting that both needed to be in the upper world, and she vanished for the second time, but now forever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus

I understand Nadjib's point, the following synopsis shows that this Wondering Ministrals production (while holding true to Offenbach's work) is quite distinct from the original Greek myth:

A slightly different version of this classic romp with the ancient gods..

Orpheus and Eurydice have been married for years-and they just can’t stand each other! They have both been “playing the field” and Eurydice is now having an affair with a shepherd. What she doesn’t know is that her shepherd is non other than that little devil Pluto, God of the Underworld, and does he have plans for her !

When Pluto abducts Eurydice and whisks her off to Hades, Orpheus is ecstatic - but he bows to pressure from Public Opinion to go and plead with Jupiter, Father of the Gods, for her release. Those naughty little Gods just can’t help interfering in the daily lives of us mere mortals.

Anyway all is not well up on Mount Olympus - the Gods are bored and fed up with a diet of nectar and ambrosia. When they get the opportunity to descend to Hell for the party of a lifetime they’re off like a shot.

The world-famous operetta was written in 1858 with music by Jacques Offenbach. Intended as a satire of the gods of Greek and Roman antiquity, it caused outrage when first presented as French audiences were shocked to see figures from Classical Antiquity lampooned this way! 2009 audiences, however, would be hard-pressed to be shocked about such a thing.

The WMs are delighted to present "Orpheus in the Underworld" and are sure that you will enjoy listening to Offenbach’s well known music performed by an enthusiastic and talented cast.

http://www.thewms.biz/

The Wondering Minstrals were amazing - a real Brighton/Sussex jewel!

I am looking forward to their concerts next year :)

The cast were quite fantastic - here are a few of my highlights:

JUPITER, father of the gods (Mike Mackenzie) great acting and singing. He carried the father of mount Olympus role off really well and was like a modern politician when it came to covering up his own indiscretion.

JUNO, his wife (Karen Hollamby) – the long suffering wife of Jupiter and with that many children you understand why

DIANA, goddess of hunting (Sally Wilson) - fantastic voice and 60s mod-style outfit

MERCURY, messenger of the gods (Toby Willis) – great poise – his movement and costume were great – I kept think of the Correggio painting in the National Gallery (Venus with Mercury and Cupid - 'The School of Love') but that could have been the wings ;-)

VENUS, goddess of love (Vicky Rodgers) – I loved her Marilyn Monroe outfit – she really did look like the modern "goddess of love"

CUPID, Venus's son - Ciru James – a powerful voice with an impish gleam in the eye

ARISTEUS, a shepherd / PLUTO, ruler of the underworld - Jonathan Nulty - like Jupiter, this role required poise confidence and bravado + a damn fine singing voice

JOHN STYX, Pluto's factotum - Bob Hinton - not a very charismatic role to play but played well

ORPHEUS, a music teacher - Tony Adams - great voice, a good amount of style

EURYDICE, his wife - Sue Fleet - she sung quite beautifully and played her role superbly – possibly the star of the show

PUBLIC OPINION - Sam Brennan – a classic English matron role, crisp, precise and slightly strict – beautifully sung.