Holiday Entertainment Omnibus

[Jeff Wrangler]

I was reminded this evening of another of my favorite holiday entertainments. It's pledge season once again at our local PBS affiliate, and the "special event" of this evening was a broadcast of Mikhail Baryshnikov's version of The Nutcracker.

I actually own my own copy of the program on DVD. Still, it was an unexpected pleasure to find it on TV where I was expecting the weekly episode of As Time Goes By (actually one of my favorite Britcoms). The production actually dates from 1977, so it's nearly 30 years old, but, on the other hand, it's Baryshnikov, when he was young, at the height of his power as a classical dancer--and very, very pretty. ... 

[Meryl]

I agree about the Nutcracker, Jeff!  That's a marvelous production of it, and it's great that Baryshnikov's genius is preserved for future audiences to enjoy. 

[Jeff Wrangler]

I agree about the Nutcracker, Jeff!  That's a marvelous production of it, and it's great that Baryshnikov's genius is preserved for future audiences to enjoy. 

Tell you what, Meryl, a television broadcast of Baryshnikov's version was actually the first Nutcracker I ever saw. Hate to say it but must admit, my folks was philistines, their idea of high-class Christmas entertainment was Lawrence Welk's Christmas show, or an Andy Williams or Perry Como special (remember those?  ), so it wasn't until I had come to years of discernment and could seek out artisitc things, like The Nutcracker, that I had only heard about, that I finally saw this Christmas entertainment classic.

Of course I've now seen the George Balanchine/"traditional" Nutcracker that the Pennsylvania Ballet does every year, and it's lovely, and of course they do a beautiful job, and our beautiful old Academy of Music is the perfect venue for it, but since Baryshnikov's was the first Nutcracker I ever saw, for me it will always be THE Nutcracker. (And, of course, it has Baryshnikov, forever young. ...  )

[Ellemeno]

This is SO off-topic, but I used to watch Sex and the City, and as any of you may or may not know, for a while Mikhail Baryshnikov played the lover of Sarah Jessica Parker's character, Carrie.  There was one scene where they get out of a taxi and Carrie realizes that she left her purse in the cab.  Chasing and catching the taxi is an opportunity for Baryshnikov to run and leap and sail and soar down a Manhattan street in front of the camera.  It was filmed just a couple of years ago or so.  Fun.

I was at the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center quite a few years ago, and it was intermission.  I was out in the throng, when all of a sudden the quality of the chat changed to whispers and little oohs, and the crowd pushed me back a bit.  I stood on my highest tip toes, and watched as the people parted to make way for a medium-aged man who was escorting an old, slow woman.  I recognized Baryshnikov right away.  "Who's he with?" I breathed to the person next to me.  "Martha Graham."  I didn't know enough to recognize her, but I knew enough to recognize her name, and to know two of the greatest dance legends in memory were a couple of arm's lengths away.  He was being beautifully solicitous of her, and she needed it.  It's a very nice memory, the tenderness he was showing her. 

[Jeff Wrangler]

I was at the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center quite a few years ago, and it was intermission.  I was out in the throng, when all of a sudden the quality of the chat changed to whispers and little oohs, and the crowd pushed me back a bit.  I stood on my highest tip toes, and watched as the people parted to make way for a medium-aged man who was escorting an old, slow woman.  I recognized Baryshnikov right away.  "Who's he with?" I breathed to the person next to me.  "Martha Graham."  I didn't know enough to recognize her, but I knew enough to recognize her name, and to know two of the greatest dance legends in memory were a couple of arm's lengths away.  He was being beautifully solicitous of her, and she needed it.  It's a very nice memory, the tenderness he was showing her. 

OMG, Clarissa, that gave me goosebumps, reading that. What a fabulous experience!

I remember reading about Baryshnikov's Sex and City role. Bet that sequence of him chasing the cab was real high class entertainment!

Really, folks, I'm not trying to turn this into the Ballet Appreciation Thread, but about two years ago, the Miami City Ballet played our Academy of Music one weekend. MCB was founded by Edward Villela, THE hot male ballet star of the generation before Baryshnikov. He was the first male ballet star I ever saw dance, and that was just on television, and seeing him dance sparked my interest in ballet as an art form. Anyway, MCB was performing Balanchine's Jewels, and during the first intermission, Edward Villela came into the theater and SAT DOWN RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! 

[Lynne]

I have fond memories of seeing The Nutcracker at the Wang in Boston - must have been 1997.  I took my mom, who was visiting for the holidays.  It is one of my fondest memories of time spent with her before she became so ill.  As far as I know, there were no famous performers in it (but I probably wouldn't have recognized anyone unless it was a household name like Baryshnikov).  She was enthralled with the music and the scenery and that was lovely to share with her.

[Meryl]

I love all the ballet stories!  I used to be a huge groupie of The Stuttgart Ballet, The Royal Ballet and ABT when they visited the Met in the '70's.  That was a kind of golden age.  I saw Baryshnikov's debut and Nureyev's farewell among other things, like the partnership of Antoinette Sibley and Anthony Dowell.  Nice memories!

Lynne, though I saw the Nutcracker in NY a number of times, my favorite memory is similar to yours, when my Mom and Dad bought tickets for the Cleveland Ballet production because they knew how I loved ballet.  The production was nice, but the real enjoyment was being with my parents, eating Greek food beforehand, and feeling the Christmas glow with them.

[Jeff Wrangler]

It's like that song from A Chorus Line, which I just recently saw for the first time: "Everything's Beautiful at the Ballet."

[dot-matrix]

another gift idea, I picked up a couple of copies for the two guys in my office who still have Brokeback Fever 



ISBN: 1573442410
ISBN-13: 9781573442411
Format: Paperback, 228pp
Publisher: Cleis Press


The real rodeo starts when the spurs are hung up and the chaps come off.
Twenty-four stories of ropin’ and ridin’ on the open range.
Saddle up and go for a long, hot ride. There's nothing in this world like a sexy cowboy...mounting another cowboy. In this fiery collection of gay erotic fiction, today's top erotica writers offer up stories of devious cattle rustlers seducing naive farm hands; dangerous outlaws breaking in small-town deputies; young, hung buckaroos wrangling each other; and duels not on the streets but between the sheets. These maverick writers take readers on a hot and heavy, no-holds-barred trip through the Old West to the New West, where "ramrod," "six-shooter," and "hog-tied" take on entirely new meanings.


available from Barnes and Noble and Amazon for around $14

[Jeff Wrangler]

another gift idea, I picked up a couple of copies for the two guys in my office who still have Brokeback Fever 



ISBN: 1573442410
ISBN-13: 9781573442411
Format: Paperback, 228pp
Publisher: Cleis Press


The real rodeo starts when the spurs are hung up and the chaps come off.
Twenty-four stories of ropin’ and ridin’ on the open range.
Saddle up and go for a long, hot ride. There's nothing in this world like a sexy cowboy...mounting another cowboy. In this fiery collection of gay erotic fiction, today's top erotica writers offer up stories of devious cattle rustlers seducing naive farm hands; dangerous outlaws breaking in small-town deputies; young, hung buckaroos wrangling each other; and duels not on the streets but between the sheets. These maverick writers take readers on a hot and heavy, no-holds-barred trip through the Old West to the New West, where "ramrod," "six-shooter," and "hog-tied" take on entirely new meanings.


available from Barnes and Noble and Amazon for around $14

Good choice. My copy lives on my nightstand.