Mikhail Sharkov

° Chi è questo bel ragazzotto? Si chiama Mikhail Sharkov, è ballerino col Bolshoi da molto tempo. You can google him all you like, you'll find a series of "empty" biographies. And these fotos, taken from the 1989 dvd collection The Bolshoi Ballet (Arthaus Musik, Euroarts Music International), are the only ones I have found on the internet.
° Why am I such a fan?
° First, I'm a sentimental fan of the Bolshoi. The Bolshoi has survived everything so far: tsarism, revolution, Lenin, Stalin, Cold War, dissolution of Empire, rebirth of Empire. And it has survived without any great cross-pollenisation with Western dance. So it remains pure at best, idiosyncratic at worst. Idiosyncratic’s good too.
° One might think that 1989 was a particularly harsh time of transition. But it doesn't show.
° True, there're barely any sets in the Swan Lake, just immense darkness outside the spots, even the principal dancers are often only slightly illuminated. But what rich costuming! Alla Mikhalchenko, Yuri Vasyuchenko, the outrageously sinister Aleksandr Vetrov.
° And whirling across the stage like a perpetual motion automaton, the scene-stealing Court Jester, il nostro Mikhail Sharkov.
° An old-fashioned Nutcracker, with Clara dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy numbers. A proto-Nutcracker, perfect for children forever. Enchanting use of that oldest of special effects, the trap door. Natalya Arkhipova, Irek Mukhamedov. Mikhail Sharkov billed as Devil (with Witch), don't blink or you'll miss him.
° Sleeping Beauty. Sets, costumes, dancers--I can't imagine a more perfect production, down to the original Petipa special effects for the boat trip. The dvd notes, by the way, are the freshest and deepest I’ve ever come across. Nina Semizorova, Aleksei Fadeyechev, Nina Speranskaya, the perfect Carabosse of Yuri Vetrov. The erstwhile sinister Aleksandr Vetrov all glamoured up as the lithe and elegant Blue Bird.
° Mikhail Sharkov unbilled, except in the final credits. But I recognised his legs. You will too.
° Romeo and Juliet, with more of Prokofiev's music than we hear in the West. Natalya Bessmertnova, Irek Mukhamedov, and a pugnaciously swaggering Aleksandr Vetrov as Tybalt. Hard to seduce on stage the boss's (Yuri Grigorovich) wife. Hard not to be Nureyev and Fonteyn. Nobody's fault, unless Nureyev and Fonteyn's. (The very first well-mounted ballet I ever saw was the 1965 film version of MacMillan's R & J, screened at the British Embassy in Rome. Tea and scones afterwards.)

° Mikhail Sharkov, as Mercutio, steals the show. Just watch it and you'll see.
° So yes, a fan.
° What has become of him? No bios, as I say, but he danced Petrouchka with the Bolshoi tour this year. And is apparently a "trainer" at the Korea Ballet.
° An athletic guy, with huge charisma, and easily the handsomest of the lot, has he never been used as a danseur noble?
° I noticed in Sleeping Beauty that Puss was possibly shorter than White Cat. Probably, in fact.
° So what. Worth breeding up some short prima ballerinas if that was all the problem.--Giac.

solidarietà con federico e cristian

° Not my solidarity, that goes without saying. Practitioners of aggres- sive violence disgust me.
° I refer to the solidarity shown by the Mayor of Rome and by so many provincial department heads, who all immediately denounced the cowardly attack on two men holding hands in the moonlight near the Fori Imperiali, early the other morning. Ten or more ruffians spat on the lads, pelted them with stones and bottles, and assured them, in best Jim Crow style, “We don’t want your kind in Italy.”
° The same attack, in an American city, would go unreported, lest the victims be abused by the police in the very act of reporting. Indeed I recall reading this warning from the D. A. in Pope, Piers’s former home: “Same-sex hand-holding may go over out in California, but it won’t fly here.” The law enforcers are as lawless as the citizenry.
° My brother and I weren’t permitted to join the other kids in our neighbourhood in rocking, as we called it, any Negro so bold as to walk down our hill. We were told it was wrong so to do.
° Why did Daddy know it was wrong? Because he and his brother once hid in a culvert and stoned the children of their black cook. What a beating Granddaddy gave Daddy and Uncle when he found out.
° Worse than that, Grandmother said she was ashamed of them. So they grew up then and there.--Giac.

Hugh Jass

° This is a close-up foto of Hugh Jass. I realise it looks something like a watch. But just look at the face, look at the flawless precision of parts, look at the rock-solid reliability.
° Don't look at the price, Hugh's worth far more than that.--Giac.

Foto from AD Orologi

It's the End of the World As We Know It

° Not a prediction, just a big If. The upper trend line rises from the 1994 bottom that led to the great Greenspan blow-off; the S&P can fall another 15% from current levels (127) without interrupting the secular bull market. The lower trend line rises from the 1982 secular bottom; the S&P can even fall to this level (85 something) without terminating the secular bull market.
° But if the S&P should eventually rupture even the lower level, it will set up a secular double top at 155.
° It would be the end of the world as Americans know it. Time to relocate to that $30,000 condo with maid service and Quechua organic veggies in Ecuador.--Giac

Chart drawn with software from Ultra Financial Services.