mw
cernez
just out ▼ august 1902 ▼ 29
Girls and boys of
summer
It’s time for baseball, movies, all-stars and music
• Stress
• Depression
• Coping
with injury
or illness
• Childhood
molest
b y D r . T a n ta lu s
he Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus, M armer-
Minne of Berlin, Germany, and the Port
land Gay Men’s Chorus delivered one of
the better chorus performances in recent memory
I on June 27 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
Chicago opened the evening with the night’s
strongest performance. Beginning with some
great dancing in “Jitterbug” from The Wiz, the
chorus grabbed the audience by the throat and
didn’t let go until
it was time to
leave the stage.
Regular readers of
this column know
that it takes more
than a couple of
flashy dance steps
to impress Dr.
T
Tantalus and his
scalpel-wielding assistant. Nurse Consuelo. For
tunately the chorus also put on a fine display of
musicaJity throughout their set
Chicago’s chorus and small ensemble, En
core, also enjoy the benefit of accompanist Patrick
Sinozich, whose stellar play at the keyboard was
impossible to miss. Encore’s enthusiastic perfor
mance also reflected well on Mr. Sinozich, as he
serves as their director. Their best performance
came in a rousing version of “Chicago, Illinois.”
(Not the schmaltzy “Wind beneath My Wings,”
which was well performed, but which deserves to
be retired by all gay choruses for about three
years.)
The costs of travel limited Manner-Minne to
only 14 of its members, which makes an evalua
tion of their chorus a somewhat difficult job.
Nevertheless, festooned in berets and colorful
scarves, they easily charmed the crowd. Nurse
Consuelo was impressed with their simple but
ingenious costume changes, obviously designed
for the rigors of travel.
Their drag version of “Brüderchen” from
Hansel and Gretel, with chorus members dressed
as trees, mushrooms and a bunny, was the audi
ence favorite. A '60s medley, including a version
of “Downtown” in German, was also a success.
And not to be out-schmaltzed, the chorus per
formed “Somewhere Out There.”
After intermission, Portland and its small en
semble, Cascade, performed. Of particular note
during Cascade’s performance was Jeff Prather’s
clear and high tenor voice, which stayed within
the overall blend of the group and gave it an upper
end of great clarity.
A commissioned work, “In Solemn Defiance”
by John David Earnest, based on a poem by Edna
St. Vincent Millay, provided the most interest
during Portland’s performance. Mr. Earnest’s
program notes indicate his attempt to produce a
work that reflects the conflicting emotions inher
ent in Millay’s work, and by and large he suc
ceeded. The contrast between oboist Fred
Korman’s solitary and sad musical voice and the
chorus’s was particularly effective. Good job,
Fred!
▼ T ▼
t’s summertime, and the girls and boys of
summer are stepping up to the plate to see if
they can match last season’s success or sur
pass last year’s performance.
Like baseball and the movies, summer brings
out the heavyweights of the music business to
capture an audience-generally youthful-that has
extra time on its hands. Unlike the major leagues,
however, one successful performance in every
three tries is not a guarantee of an invitation to
spring training the following year.
This summer we follow three all-stars in their
attempts to duplicate past feats of glory.
I
Annie Lennox: Diva
She’s been in the senior circuit for more than
10 years. Her former team, the Eurythmics, had
some problems in recent years and slipped badly
in the standings. Despite that fact, the Doctor and
Nurse Consuelo have remained two of her biggest
fans, staying to cheer when others have rudely
discarded her into the recycling bins. ,
While we won’t pretend that the diva on this
recording is Maria Callas or that the effort is
perfect, it comes a lot closer to living up to its
namesake than we had any right to expect.
Lennox’s voice is its usual great self, all strength
and clarity, but the world is full of good singers
stuck with bad material. It is the quality of the
songs that makes her first solo effort worth hear
ing.
Soul H Soul: VoL III, Just Right
Another record, another title that dares you to
contradict it. '
Like some sluggers, Soul II Soul has found life
at the plate either feast or famine, hit or miss. On
its first two efforts, this collection of soul-pop-
jazz-fiision artists hit a couple over the centerfield
fence with soaring tunes like “Keep on Movin’,”
“Back to Life” and “A Dream’s a Dream.” Oth
erwise, it engaged in the quasi-rap dialogue of its
spiritual-musical leader, Jazzie B., which no
amount of sincerity could lift into the first row of
bleachers.
Given the fact that members of Soul II Soul
were in a bad auto accident some time ago, one
wonders whether they pulled songs out of their
musical closet to keep their name in the public
eye. From this box seat, buy “Keep on Movin',”
the remix of “Back to Life,” Vol. II for its consis
tency and wait until next year to buy your season
ticket with Soul II Soul.
k.d.lang: Ingenue
Wow. Three out of three. Calling yourself an
ingenue is even worse than being a diva. At least
divas get to be sarcastic, bitchy, unreasonable and
intolerant because they are talented (a theory
popularized by many unreasonable and intolerant
people who are short in the talent department to
explain their unbearable behavior).
In contrast, my faithful, if outdated, Webster's
defines an ingenue as a “naive girl or young
woman.” It must lose something in the transla
tion. But really, k.d.lang, an “ingenue”? Give me
a break. Whatever happened to that “big-boned
gal” she used to sing about? Maybe she is not
getting enough protein in her diet these days.
Make no mistake, lang’s vocal talents arc
tremendous, a veritable vocal clean-up hitter.
(Sings right, bats left) But as we said earlier, if
you get stuck with poor material, you can sing
your guts out and only sound so good. (Just look
at what happened to that poor Roseanne Barr
when she tried to sing the national anthem. It
made her-ahem-cough.)
On this recording, lang and her longtime
songwriting partner, Ben Mink, bear the brunt of
this blunt assessment. The songs are all languid
and dreamy, and indeed, the listener is sorely
tempted to fall asleep. One longs for the days of
songs that she could belt to hell and back without
stopping for a breath of air.
But lang ain’t no ingenue, whether she likes it
or not And that’s what we say about Ingenue:
Not!
What I'm doing to fight the OCA:
I try to talk to people outside of the gay
community about the impact of the OCA's initia
tive. I speak to people who might not be aware of
the seriousness ofamending the state const it ution
in this manner. I talk to people so that they see me
as a real person who will be hurt if this initiative
passes.
Dr. Tantalus
Kristine L. Falco, Psy.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
• 3903 SW Kelly, Suite 210
Portland, OR 97201
223-8071
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