Why Young Men Sound Less Manly

Your Head Trucker has noticed in the last several years that many girls and young women have developed the irritating habit of ending every sentence on a higher note - as we normally do when asking a question.  For example:  I live in Boston?  I am majoring in biology?  I want to work in hydroponics?  This is a childish habit born of insecurity, it seems to me:  as if the speaker is asking permission to say something, or unsure if she is saying the right thing.  A careless, highly annoying habit they should have gotten over by third grade.

Recently, I've noticed boys and young men adopting this same rising tone at the enf of their sentences, which is so girly.  It also sounds to me (and I'm not a vocalist) as if many of them pronounce their words at the front of the mouth, just behind the teeth, instead of vocalizing from the back of the mouth.  This naturally produces higher-pitched sounds (trying saying a few words at the front and at the back of your mouth), and in some cases tends to produce a slight lisp.

Probably these young people are not choosing to speak as they do, but are unconsciously imitating the sounds of women they heard when they were forming their speech habits.  I wonder if it is a natural result of so many kids growing up without fathers in the home, as well as being parked in daycare with nearly all female teachers from the time they can toddle across the floor.  Perhaps the pendulum has swung too far in one direction.

Adults, men and women, should speak clearly and confidently, not like shy little kids.  That's my opinion.  But here is Dr. Taylor Jones, a linguist who explains what the research shows about this "unmanly" speech phenomenon.  I don't have the experise in that field either to agree or disagree with him.  See what you think.

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Sixteen Going on Seventeen

I'd always wanted to see this delightful scene from The Sound of Music played by a couple of gay men - and whaddaya know, somebody else finally had the same thought.  Here are Andrew Keenan-Bolger and Jay Armstrong Johnson flawlessly performing the scene at the Broadway Backwards benefit in 2017.  Both were about 30 at the time.  Johnson, the taller one, is a Texas native and rather studly, too.  Enjoy.

For comparison, here's the lovely 1965 original, played by Charmian Carr and Daniel Truhitte:

What I Say:  The lyrics don't quite work between two boys, though it's all in good fun.  But I dare say, they wouldn't work between a boy and a girl either, in this modern age.  For a couple of generations now, girls have been raised to be as tough and indpendent as boys.  How well that has succeeded, others may judge.

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God Is Good

Today I just want to share an excerpt from a poem I happened to come across that speaks to me in the midst of this foolish, frantic, fractured, frightful modern world, so cruel and so cynical.

Excerpt from "God Is Good" from Bees in Amber by John Oxenham, 1913.

God has been good to me and M.P. here in our little bungalow, and I am deeply grateful.  Gratitude is one of the secrets of happiness.

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Sunday Drive: Begin the Beguine

 One of my all-time favorite tunes, from MGM's Broadway Melody of 1940.  Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell were the top dancers of the time, and it shows.  Consider this:  there is no animation or special effects in this film.  All the music was performed by human beings on real instruments, and all the dancing was done by human beings who rehearsed and rehearsed for weeks on end until every step, every move was perfect. 

Computers hadn't been invented yet - hell, even transistors hadn't been invented.  There was no videotape. either - all that you see was created by light and sound on 35 millimeter film, which had to be bathed in chemicals before it could be projected and viewed.  A great collective work of artists in many fields, in front of and behind the camera.  Human creativity at its peak.  I'm afraid we will never see such a thing again. 

Part 1 is slow and languid as a tropical night:

Part 2 picks up the pace:

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Trooping the Colour, 2026

The King's Birthday Parade, also known as Trooping the Colour, live from London on what the news commentator says is "a perfect summer day" there - temperature 68 F:

Bonus, 4 p.m.:  It's 93 degrees here Texas on a beautiful sunny afternoon.  English historian Allan Barton, who styles himself The Antiquary, gives an in-depth explanation of the Trooping and its history, if you can stand it:

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Waitin' for the Weekend

"Born in Brazil," a male-nude drawing demonstration by artist Douglas Simonson:

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Sandow the Magnificent

Life-size bronze statue of Sandow, taken from plaster casts of his body in 1901.  Better views of the statue can be seen here.

An excellent documentary about the Father of Modern Bodybuilding, whose physique and feats of strength awed the Victorian world:

 

In other places, I have read that he had a longtime male partner the public did not know about, but you'll have to look that up on your own.  It's my nap time here.

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Sunday Drive: Baby Blue

This song recalls for me another springtime and the bittersweet memory of my first love, more than half a century ago. I've written about Pat before, if you care to read the story - that chaste and secret love we shared came to a sad ending, but I've never forgotten the sunshine days of fun and friendship - that special cameraderie of boys becoming men together.

Other loves and other disappointments followed; but at this late age, living contentedly with M.P., I realize how blessed I was to have those friendships and passing joys. How true the saying is - better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.

Yesterday, I happened to come across this recording by the Mike Faraci Band, a local NYC group, which is an amzingly good cover of the 1972 Badfinger original.  Huh.  How do those young'uns even know about such antique music, I wonder.

By the way, Mike is a man of parts: lead singer, guitarist, composer, artist, interior designer, and is highly skilled at carpentry and other DIY projects.  Rather studly, too.  Check out this tour of his New York City apartment - his aesthetic is not mine, but I can appreciate what he's done with colors, textures, and light:

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Waitin' for the Weekend

Hooray! June has returned with beach weather and fun in the sun.  Here's "He and Him" by Vintage Photomontage:

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Why Pride Month?

This was my "coming out music" - reminds me of happy times, hot summer nights, and one very hot guy in particular.  Much fun.

Today's Google doodle celebrates the beginning of "Pride Month" with a spinning disco ball:

I got to wondering, just when did this Pride Month business start, so I looked it up on Wikipedia.  To my surprise, I find that Bill Clinton first recognized Pride Month in 1999.  I must have missed the memo.

I've never changed my belief that gays and lesbians make up about 3 percent of the population; that's 3 out of 100.  You can look at the whole field of statistics on this subject and debate it all you want to, but I'm not going there.  So by very simple arithmetic, that tells me there are about 10 million gays and lesbians in the United States, the population of which is 342,543,550 as I type this sentence.  

(See the  U. S. Census Bureau's Population Clock for up-to-the-second figures on the U. S. and world population.  See Statistics Canada for Canadian figures.  And here's a cheat sheet for you:  roughly speaking, the U.S. population is about 8 times bigger than Canada's, and about 3 times bigger than Mexico's or Russia's.  However, both India and China have about 4 times more people than the United States.)

Well, anyway, is a whole month of Pride really necessary?  It matters not to me, because I'm an old man who doesn't get out of the house much anymore.  I've never been to a Pride parade.  M.P. and I did go to a Pride celebration at the county fairgrounds on a June night in 2019 - we got there in the cool of the evening about 9 p.m., when it was all winding down.  

We nibbled things from the food trucks, listened to a few speakers and singers, and bought some trinkets to take home:  a friendly, pleasant, down-home crowd of all ages, very like what you'd find at a real county fair - plus a lot of rainbow flags.  There were even some straight couples there, pushing babies in strollers - why, I have no idea.  The next year, it was cancelled on account of the pandemic, and we've never heard any more about it in this vicinity.

But I guess there has to be a Pride Month, because you just know that 10 million screaming queens could never agree on a single week, let alone a single day!

P. S. -- M.P. is offended by the disco ball.  He says it only represents the little twinkly barflies, and leaves out the butch gays and the lesbians.  I guess he's right.  We are thinking of suing Google now, and we will certainly file a discrimination complaint with the Grand Gay Cabal.  Stay tuned for further updates.

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Sunday Drive: Chopin, Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2

Gleaming Waters by Henry Scott Tuke, 1911

As performed by Vadim Chaimovich, 2010:

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