trog

A bit of opera for you to enjoy

I work in a college and the general feeling is that it will be business as usual in September. Of course, what happens before that is unknown. There is a rumour that support staff will be back in early June, although who and what we are going to support is a good question. Our job basically requires the students and staff to be there. Late June is when we think students will be back. The year 13s would normally be on exam study leave, but with no exams, they will just be on leave. The year 12s will be in and as they represent half of the college, we can spread them out more. Of course, this is all complete speculation. The students who have contacted me have all said they want to be back; distance learning is difficult. One problem will be getting to college. Most students travel on the bus and trains. With the trains running on a 1/2 timetable, I and those who catch the train at my local station, cannot get there on time. My mother is a teacher in Australia. Schools reopened two weeks ago, with the option of parents not sending their "little angels" to school. Her school had a 90% attendance rate on the first day, and now it is at largely full strength. Clearly most parents are glad to see the back end of their brats, after 4 weeks of having them at home, and fob them off on the long suffering teachers. It might be the same here. Her school is a suburban primary; 80% of Australians live in the cities. At 86, mother is probably one of the oldest working teachers anywhere. PS. Enjoy a bit of fun Penguin Classics Cover Generator

People of a certain age will remember her https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/06/boy-lollipop-singer-millie-small-dies-aged-73-12660582/

Here is a bit of an email I received: We hope that you are still keeping safe and well during this challenging period of time. We continue to create new content through our Home From Home initiative and re-share some of our favourites from past years to help keep you entertained in these difficult months. The latest piece we would like to share premieres tomorrow (29 April) at 11am to mark International Dance Day. Company dancers Kit Holder and Tom Rogers have created Alone|Together, a beautiful piece of isolation dance and music, featuring five members of the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, six of their fellow dancers, Assistant Director Marion Tait and Artistic Director Carlos Acosta. You can watch this and all our other Home From Home creations on our website or you can keep up to date by following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported our #BeRightBack fundraising appeal. Over £19,000 has been donated to help continue our work during these unprecedented times. For more details of this appeal please see below. Stay safe and look out for one another. The link to the performance, which starts shortly https://www.brb.org.uk/home-from-home

Good idea. I do International Talk Like A Pirate Day - I answer the phone in my best Robert Newton voice "Arrgghhh Jim Lad!"

I found this old road safety advert the other day. There is another one too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBXr2DA276k

You would hate to visit my place Lisa - loads of spiders. I leave them alone - they don't interfer with me and I don't interfer with them, and they don't eat much. UK spiders are mostly harmless. I grew up in Australia, where we have spiders that can kill you. I used to leave them alone too.

Artrix Arts Centre is a small venue in Bromsgrove, and it has sadly ceased trading due to the coronavirus. I suspect there will be more small venues going out of business. https://www.artrix.co.uk/?utm_source=Artrix+Newsletter&utm_campaign=cd716048f1-4+July+2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_31cd750040-cd716048f1-302392337&mc_cid=cd716048f1&mc_eid=7abd75969a

One of these on its side? https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/wooden-crate-40cm-x-30cm-x-18cm/636897-1000

Nice class to do in limited space. Did you see Mathias Dingman's children running around the garden? Miki Mizutani's little dog is cute too!

What about a sheet of plywood? Bunnings have 2400 x 1200 x 21mm for $128. I use a sheet of plywood as a tap floor.

That's what I use.

The DanceXchange in Birmingham has some coming up. https://mailchi.mp/dancexchange.org.uk/2020-4821773?e=6fc76aa788 I will be doing the ballet class.

Tomorrow there is an auction of some of Peter Wyngardes collection. Some fascinating things! https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/east-bristol-auctions/catalogue-id-sreas10388/

I found this today https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/news/theatre-and-comedy-you-can-wat-11798

Talking Pictures TV is a great source for old series and films. If you like old scifi series, such as Lost in Space and Time Tunnel (starts Thurday), The Horror Channel is your choice.

Birmingham Hippodrome has closed until 28th March - currently they have The Book of Mormon. I think this means the Alexandra in Birmingham and all the other ATG theatres (Leeds, Bristol, etc) are closed too. The Town Hall and Symphony Hall are still open at the moment, but are expected to close soon. No news on the other Birmingham theatres. I have bookings for some theatres in the near future. Pinkies crossed, it wil all be over soon.

Sleek Technique offer live streamed classes. I've got the DVD which is very good (although too hard for me).

I work in a college and the official line is that we're open and will remain open. We are, however, ensuring that all staff and students know how to access the learning resources online. There is a feeling amongst some staff, that there will be a nationwide shutdown of schools closer to Easter, which will enable a four week closure. After Easter, there will be exams, which could be affected. Some teachers think the summer break might be cut short to allow exams to occur later. We'll just have to wait and see.

Lachlan Monaghan Backstage is a small exhibition of photographs of dancers of the BRB. You can view this at the RBSA Gallery until 21st March. I went this morning and I really liked the photos. I am sorely tempted to buy one (but I'm not going to say which). http://www.rbsa.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/lachlan-monaghan-backstage/

The National Art Schools (Cuba) is one of the segements in Abandoned Engineering, Yesterday (Freeview 25), on Friday 6th March, 21:00 The program was on last night, and the buildings still look fab, if sad. I didn't know that there were some students who studied there, although the ballet school was never finished and never had any students.

I've found Catalina causes no end of problems on the Macs at work, especially after upgrading from Hign Sierra. We're rolling back. Have you tried GarageBand on the Mac? That's what students use at work, even though they have access to the full Adobe suite.

Custom made is the way to go. It doesn't cost much more and you have a choice of whatever fabric and colours you want. I've used https://www.esmedancewear.com/content/6-special-orders in the past but there are others. Google is your friend https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=custom+made+dancewear

When Symphony Hall was built, the facilties for outside broadcasts were part of the design. Have you ever noticed the hooks that run along the balcony? That is where the cables go for TV broadcast. If you go behind Symphony Hall (near the canal), you'll see some little doors high on the wall. The broadcast van is parked outside here and the cables run through these little doors. Sadly, there have been few broadcasts from Symphony Hall of any kind. It's easier for the BBC to go to the ROH than trek to Birmingham and the BBC presence in Birmingham is minute.

Mr Google says 2nd to 10th July 2015 at the Manchester Opera House and 11th March 2017 at Sadlers Wells