tangents

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by dal mcintire

That real masculine critic of things musical, Irving Kolodin, in a nasty bit in the July 25th Saturday Review, half praised and snidely damned Gian-Carlo Menotti's "Festival of the Two Worlds," held in Spoleto's Teatro nuovo. Describing the Italian hill-town unflatteringly, as a poor spot for tourist comfort, and characterizing the festival as "involving what might be called the three sexes," Kolodin acidly mixed flagrant prejudice with facile aesthetic cliches. He conceded that the two little-known operas chosen for this season, Donizetti's "Il Duca d'Alba'' and Prokofiev's "Angel of Fire,' might even appeal a bit to others besides those who have "for queer reasons of their own become campfollowers of this peculiar art."

What it is that's peculiar about this art, he doesn't say.

"Works of this standard all along the line would give Spoleto a reputation for quality it does not yet possess.

"What it does already possess is a reputation for being the happy hunting ground of all the 'boys' who have previously made the ballet their particular, bloodless passion. On-the-spot observation validated the reputation, which may serve to keep away as many as it attracts.

do not deny anyone the privilege of gathering where they will, but I find distasteful the precosity and the prejudices that this group brings with it."

Alfred G. Aronowitz in the New York POST from July 27th to August 2nd gave a long, readable and tolerant account of the interactions between the "gay" and "straight" crowds in Fire Island, a string of hard-to-get-to beach communities near New York. With catchy phrasing and broad sympathy, he told how the gay crowd lives on the beach, how they think, how their neighbors react, how a few responsible homosexuals successfully fought off attempts to exclude them from the area. The article was as gay and lively as the place. Recommend writing the POST for copies.

MUY MACHO

which, in Mexico, means something like "real butch."

Phyllis Battelle recently revealed, in Newark STAR LEDGER "The Trouble With American Men." The male child today gets a blowsy-sweet image of his mother, she says, but doesn't find Pa much differentmerely "a mother-substitute or nursery assistant.'

Going Philip Wylie one better, Miss Battelle says, "The mid-20th century baby, then, finds himself with two moms and not a he-man in sight. By the time he is old enough to watch television, he tunes in on Westerns 'Look, mom, a man!' and at the same time he becomes more and more like his father: dependent upon the woman of the

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