Auth: Theresa Moriarty
Pub: ILHS/Unison
The subtitle is Episodes from the History of Women’s Trade Unionism. This is a glossy A3 foldover of 24 (A4) pages, in all. Twenty-one (numbered) pages contain Ms Moriarty’s text. There is also a short, unsigned Introduction. This includes the odd phrase, “… the understated hostility of men towards women workers.” In context, this must mean trade unionist men. It’s odd, because, any woman trade unionist will tell you, the hostility is anything but “understated”. Stella Mahon, (a former President of NIGRA), one of a dozen members of NALGO in NI (as a clerical worker with the Open University) was called “a stupid f**king cow”, and worse, at union conferences. NALGO (the National Association of Local Government Officers) was, allegedly, terminally “PC” – politically correct.
It’s doubly odd, because one William Walker, who levied 3d (1.25p) on members of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, raising “about 2,000” (these highly-skilled workers with a six-year apprenticeship behind them would have earned between 2 and 3 per week – and absolutely nothing in slack periods) to help unionise women workers, especially in the textile industry, is given more space than any individual woman except Mary Galway. She was a major figure in the Irish Textile Operatives Society, and addressed every [Irish Trade union] Congress between 1901 and 1913, except 1906. In 1906 there was a great strike in Belfast’s linen mills.
There is a mass of fascinating information in this mercifully short pamphlet, it has many quotations from contemporary sources printed in the large page-margins in green on white. There is a wonderfully pompous one from the Dundalk Democrat for January 13, 1912, on the unladylike conduct of striking workers. Green, white and purple, the Suffragette colours, prevail in the design, making some of the people in the fine selection of photographs look slightly bilious. This latter is not a criticism, more an aside. This is a beautifully produced and very well written bit of Labour “herstory”.
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GA Y USA
Gay USA
By: Andrew Collins
Pub: Fodor
This chunky, but portable, book covers forty different venues in the States, ranging from cities like New Orleans to resorts like Fire Island, NY, and Russian River in northern California. The only way to review such a book is to read about the bits of the country one knows: New York (all of a fortnight), Philadelphia (about eight to ten hours!).
The piece on New York (actually, on Manhattan: there are some places in Brooklyn mentioned, but none in the other Boroughs – you’d have thought Queens would have had at least one place, just to take the bad look off it). There is information on every conceivable sort of venue, entertainment and cultural establishment from the Rawhide bar to the St Patrick’s Cathedral, by way of the Guggenheim Museum.in this, and all of the other city sections, there are reasonably charitable run-downs of the size and type of bares) and clientele (and, in some cases, their staff). There are also very lengthy and useful lists of accommodation, ranging from the pricey to the dirt-cheap. There are good guides to eating places, again with a range of prices – and directions as to where it is the done thing to be seen. There are also directions as to where to go for good food, not just venues but cities too. The book points out that while New York has 12,000 options “it’s pretty easy to strike out” (the Big Apple is the last refuge of the Anglo-Saxon soggy salad). But New Orleans and San Francisco are good for grub.
There is also information about getting around, which is mostly pretty easy, as the large cities have very good public transport systems, and the Gay venues are mostly in central areas. Philadelphia is a bit of an exception proving this rule, as a good part of its scene is in New Hope on the outskirts of the town.
An interesting aspect of all of this is that Philadelphia, Baltimore and even Boston, though all larger than Belfast, have rather modest social scenes, though they all have their local publication (sometimes more than one) and their LGB Centres.
Our review copy is an uncorrected proof bound in gray paper and with lots of spaces for city maps; but the book in the shops has a sturdy glossy cover and crisply printed city maps, sometimes more than one per city (or holiday venue).
There are a number of small criticisms to be made of this book. For one thing, it’s more-ish: I wanted to go to Baltimore one day and New Orleans the next (there is a fair amount of easily digested history in the write-up). Backpackers, and the seriously skint, aren’t really catered for, there’s no info on Youth Hostel or campus accommodation.
But it is an excellent book for the real (and the armchair) traveller, and is genuinely cheap at the price.
Lavender and Pink Images
I have just bought Raymond Murray’s compendium ‘Images in the Dark’: An Encyclopaedia of Gay and Lesbian Film and Video, and I am thoroughly enjoying page after glorious page of it. (Some nice pics too!)
This weighty tome is a sort of Lesbian & Gay Halliwell containing (according to the cover) “More than 3,000 films and videos, over 400 photos, fully indexed and cross-referenced by titles, directors, stars and themes.” It lives up to all these claims.
The extensive cross-references include a 7-page index headed “ThemeSeand Countries”. Under the heading “Ireland” you will find a single word – “Pigs”.
Before you fly off the handle, assuming Murray is doing a Princess Margaret on us inhabitants of the Emerald Isle, you should check the main listings, where you will learn that PIGS is, in fact, a 79-minute film produced in 1984 by Cathal Black in Ireland, about a group of outcasts squatting in an abandoned mansion in inner-city Dublin. Jimmy Brennan, who wrote the screenplay, plays the “sweetly hopeless” gay man who is the main organiser in making this dump a “home” for all the other exotic characters.
At the back, it has 6 pages of titles available from TLA Video, Philadelphia, the vast majority of which I have never yet seen – but would certainly love to. What say we set up a Lesbian & Gay Video Club, to give regular screenings of videos and films of lesbian and gay interest? If you think this is a good idea ( and especially if you would be prepared to support a venture), please let us know through the blog.
The only disappointment for me with the book was that it had no nice revealing photos of my old heart-throb, Tab Hunter!
[P A Mag Lochlainn
An Outing for The London Gay Symphony Orchestra
Daniel Bush took a bow (actually two bows, the conductor Simon Bowler practically ordered him to take the second one) looking laudably bashful and modest after the World Premiere of his Rhapsody for Orchestra.
If one were a ‘proper’ music critic (especially a London-based one) one would probably bitch at this point that he had much to be modest about – but I found the experience of listening to his music intensely pleasurable. And interesting: the ghost of Debussy hovered over parts of the score.
It “was inspired” by the Emperorconcerto, and Daniel Bush showed that he is a genuine composer by avoiding what could be called, without disrespect, the ‘big bow-wow’ element in Beethoven’s work. The Rhapsody is nearly as quiet as a Webern piece. But it meets the audience more than half-way, being less rarefied than Webern.
Having mentioned Beethoven and Webern implies that Daniel Bush may have a great future – I am not in a position to say – certainly this particular item is well worth listening to more than once. Maybe the London Gay Symphony Orchestra might consider making a CD of thiSeand other bits of new music to which they have given a first outing?It is also worth wondering why ‘real’ criticSeand reviewers were not at this concert – is the word ‘gay’ the turn-off? It certainly can’t be the competence of this group of professional musicians. The rest of the concert consisted of Britten’s Simple Symphony extremely well-played (this may sound like ‘damning with faint praise’ – but it is a quite difficult thing to carry off – the jaunty bits were fine and the Sentimental Saraband was genuinely poetic. (Richard) Strauss’s Serenade for Windswas quite beautiful (and rather shorter than I anticipated, the last time I heard a piece for winds by Strauss, in the Octogon in King’s Hall, Balmoral, Belfast, it ‘went on forever’).The ‘big’ piece was Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony (the one with the big, hammer-like chords at the end), I felt the conductor, Simon Bowler, was happier with the poetic elements in the structure than with the dramatic finale. That is not a major problem for a musician and I would not like to over-emphasise this, the interpretation was beautifully conceived.
This event took place in
(just by the bridge and the railway / tube / bus station. It is also a matter of minutes from the South Bank ‘complex’ – so presumably the professional journalists did not give the place a miss because it is inaccessible.
My next visit to St John’s will be to hear the Southbank Sinfonia (a group made up of young musicians, in essentially a training orchestra) it’ll be interesting to see if any reviewers are able to find the place.
If you felt like giving the band a big bag of money they probably would be quite delighted.
Sponsorships of individual players or sections (no, you do not get to take them home) can be investigated on: sponsorship@lgso.org.uk.
You can also contact the Orchestra Manager (Pete Reynolds) on: playing@lgso.org.uk
My credentials for writing a music review consist of a love of music of fifty year’s standing, a pair of (rather large) ears, and an ability to do joined-up writing.
Dee Flatt
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Gaydar in dispute over bareback scandal
In the wake of up to 10-12 men possibly being infected with HIV by South Australian man, Stuart McDonald, detained by authorities late last week, a spokesperson from Gaydar denied being told by South Australian Health Authorities to remove McDonald’s profile from the site.
Homicidal transsexual spits on a trooper
A transsexual convicted in the castration death of her husband pleaded guilty to threatening prosecutorSeand spitting on a Pennsylvania state trooper.
Riga Pride wins legal battle
The Alliance of LGBT and their friends ‘Mozaika’ is gratified by the Regional Administrative Court’s April 12th appellate ruling which states that the decision of the Riga City Council to ban the Pride march planned by the LGBT community and their friends last year was not legal.
Documentary tackles gay refugees
The vast majority of the world’s LGBT population live in fear of arrest, torture and criminalisation- this is the claim in a new 10 minute documentary produced for IDAHO.