418 Tango Music, etc,etc,etc...
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 12:51:47 -0800
From: Bugs Bunny <bugsbunny1959@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Tango Music, etc,etc,etc...
I hope I get this story right. Chuck Jones was one of the directors &
animators of Bugs Bunny. He wanted to put some of Dorothy Parker into the
character. Hearing him speak of Bugs, one day on a TV documentary, I could
really feel his love & affection for both Dorothy & the bunny. I'm quite
fond of all 3 of them, so why not be a little creative with email names? A
bit unorthodox, but symbolic of 3 characters I really care about. I remember
having to choose a confirmation name in Catholic grade school. I really felt
that all the religious dogma was a little extreme, so I chose St. Bernard.
My 8th grade teacher was non-plussed :o)
Anyway, I just don't enjoy being buried under multi-set avalanches of golden
age Tango music. It doesn't seem terribly creative or original to play music
like that, to me. I wish the golden age had happened like 10 or 15 years
later, so we could all dance to higher-fidelity records, & then I would have
no issue with it. I'm sure this music was beautiful when it was played live.
I don't hate Tango music, I just dislike huge blocks of 1 genre played at
the expense of others. A lot of people switched to color TV sets as they
became available. I wonder how many people are still watching black & white?
There is an awful lot of beautiful, high-fidelity, quite danceable,
genuine-authentic Tango music out there. It didn't make sense to me to
rarely play the stuff. I wouldn't doubt that I'm rigid & single-minded in my
own ways, as some purists of GA music might be as well. Knowing myself, I'm
sure I got carried away with my postings. I'm sorry about that. I'm trying
to sort out my own feelings & thoughts on the subject. I'm not trying to
bait anyone into anything. I have a differing opinion than some people &
last time I checked, this was an open forum. I hope I haven't abused the
privledge of posting here. If so, again I'm really sorry.
It hasn't all been heavy duty ideas, I do have a broken time machine in the
corner that barely makes it down to the corner & back. And a sort of 1/2
functioning electronic DJ, that is beaming Pugliese & Canaro at the
neighborhood squirrels and some other channel at the local birds. I'm a
little concerned though, the squirrels are breaking into small factions &
strongly disapproving of how the others are cracking nuts & climbing trees.
The bluejays & the crows are barely speaking to one other as well.
In closing, I have a funny story to share about shoulds/shouldn'ts,
must/must_nots. If some of you have children or were children once, you may
have read some of Beverly Cleary's books. I believe some of the titles were
Ramona, Henry Higgins, Ribsy & so on. She actually spent part of her
childhood here in Portland & went to Fernwood grade school & Grant High
School & the children's room at our main library downtown is named in her
honor. Anyway, in her memoirs she writes about college life at Chaffey
Junior College in southern California in the 1930s:
"The required course in hygiene was taught by short, stout Mrs. Harriet
Fleming, whose gray hair was twisted and coiled into a snail on top of her
head. She not only waded through our papers but was the guardian of our
morals who chaperoned college dances. She stopped the music if she felt it
was too fast or too slow. She once attended a dance in a wheelchair with her
leg in a cast, a disability that did not stop her from whizzing out onto the
dance floor to reprimand a couple she felt were dancing too close to each
other. At one dance I attended, she ordered a girl who was wearing a black
dress that left 1 shoulder bare to leave the floor until she covered her
shoulder with a sweater or jacket. Mrs. Fleming did not object to boys
lying on the grass on sunny days, but girls must always sit up or they could
expect a reprimand. In her class she once informed us that any girl who wore
red was 'asking for anything she got'. Of course word spread through
Chaffey. The next day every girl who owned a red dress, skirt, or blouse
wore it to school."
Now whenever I meet a woman wearing red, I always tell her its the color for
attracting men & to watch out! I share this story if time permits :o)
Rick Anderson
Portland, OR
