LMAO!!!!!!!!!!! Your definition of Opera is hysterical!!! This is such a funny thread. There is nothing like a LIVE performance of your favorite singer or entertainer. There is such a "high" experiencing that. On occasion, I am willing to drive out of town and listen to a famous person. But ya know?? I am just as happy listening to the vocal chords of Petrina, Sue Schuler and others in the Villages. Yeah, I can be a snob, but I'd rather open my ears than have my nose up in the air. I might trip. :sing: --> FIGARO FIGARO FIGARO FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE GAH ROW.

When I hear Giovanni Paisiello's The Barber of Seville, I always have a picture of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in my head. William Tell's Overture conjures memories of The Lone Ranger.

Bloviating
 

IMHO, I think most people associate 'culture' with dressing up in uncomfortable clothes and attending some activity they would really not care to attend but 'really should'. 'It's the thing to do.' Just because I don't attend operas, ballets and spend my time wandering through art museums doesn't mean I don't appreciate them or the talent involved. To me, the talent required to produce an opera, art, dance, plays, orchestral arrangements, etc. is what I admire. My hat is off to the hard working people who spend so much of their life to produce those works for us to enjoy. I believe there is a goodly percentage of people at these events for the sole purpose of 'see and be seen'. I really don't care for 'pretentious'. To those who truly enjoy those things, I am sorry you have to put up with those types. Being 'cultured' doesn't mean attending all the right plays, operas, museums, making the right comments on them or the wine or which fork to use first. Culture is first and foremost courtesy, good manners and common sense. I appreciate talent wherever I see it. Popularity is not the same as talent which is why most of what we watch on the tube is generally around 50 years old or more. What currently passes for entertainment isn't very. Too many stand-ups think the sure way to get a laugh is to embarrass someone or use crude humor. Not really a prude but can't help thinking of people like Bob Hope, Will Rogers, George Goebel, Red Skelton, Bill Cosby, Etc. I can appreciate the talents required to prepare the food for a fine dining experience and the talent required for the presentation of same but, sometimes you just want to dive into a really good cheeseburger and fries. Broadway stage shows are great but I can watch 'Arsenic & Old Lace w/Jimmy Stewart over and over. A really good performance of the works of Mozart, Brahms, etc. is enjoyable and stirring but 4th of July with Arthur Feidlerand the Boston Pops can really stir you too. To paraphrase another quote, 'Life is too short to do what you don't enjoy.' Sometimes you feel like Charley Daniels in the Geico commercial. 'That's how you do it, son'. ............But I digress....

You're so right, GG. What a great perspective!

Brewery
 

We had a great micro brewery here, golf medal quality, but it was sold by The Villages.:cryin2:

:agree:

No doubt many people-- in don't know about most-- who attend "fine arts" activities don't really care to, but think they should. However, to paraphrase your earlier insightful comment...

"How [someone else] choose[s] to be entertained is [their] choice, not to be judged by others, but accepted."

I think that's true-- even if their choice fits the "classic" definition of "culture". It seems unfounded to assume, just because some people dress up and attend such an event, that they are stiff shirts who look down their noses at others.

Now... I can't wait to hear Tweety Bird and Schuler, and I LOVE Guilligan's Island, even if I don't know how to spell it.

Sorry PT
 

Didn't mean to imply they were all 'stuffed shirts' but was referring to the general impression held by those who are not into that sort of thing. You would have to admit that there is probably a fair number of attendees of those events whose sole purpose is to "be seen in the 'right circles' " with no appreciation or valid interest in the art form. Those were the ones that I think give fine arts a bad rap. As I stated, I can't tolerate 'pretentious'. On our cruises, my wife looks forward to the formal nights and High Teas and the chance to dress up a bit and enjoy the atmosphere. For myself, I would be happier in the casino but will dress to accomodate the dress code and enjoy the time with her. And no, I was not being judgemental of those who choose to be entertained in that manner but rather those who are there for 'show' and try to tell us how much better they are. Not meaning to offend, just some ramblings of an aging mind. Any one seen my car keys? thought I left them in the refrigerator?

Don't know if this is cosidered "culture" but I heard The Villages Swing Band practice
Friday at Mulberry Rec. I'm not of the Swing Band era, but, boy, were they fantastic!!

Would be worth seeing in concert.

Hardy har, har, har
 

Thanks, Macro. I needed that.

:mademyday:

I agree with all of the previous posts; and there is such diversity of experience and talent here that even within The Villages, we are able to enjoy alot of great music, plays, and other performing arts; the jazz clubs here bring in wonderful performances, for example.

However, if one really wants the fine performing arts, they are available just 90 minutes away in Orlando - the Broadway Series, symphony and ballet; and also has museums. (Unfortunately, even in a city as large as Orlando, the opera folded earlier this year for decreased ticket sales - as have several other opera companies in prominent U S cities). Tampa, too, has some performing arts performances; and museums. When we lived in Louisville, many people drove an hour or two to come to the arts performances, and thought nothing of it.

After all, The Villages is less then 100,000 people (and even fewer during the summer), so one could hardly expect to have available right here the full performing arts calendar that would be available in metropolitan areas; but a fun night outing to Orlando is not that far to go for premium arts performances (at least until we eventually get a performing arts center built here; which is probably, and I hope, inevitable).

For a community of our population size, I would bet that The Villages offers far much more in arts that in areas with comparable population size. What other retirement communities, or even 'regular' communities of this size, even come close in the diversity and quality of arts offered?

Freeda, great post. I think you are right!

IMHO - I am a native New Yorker, (Westchester County, not the city) who lived within driving distance of everything the city has to offer, (plays, museums) which some people consider to be culture in it's highest form.
I have visited the Statue of Liberty once and have been to the Empire Sate Building twice. I would be willing to say that a great majority of New Yorkers don't go to these cultured events as frequently as they claim but go home after a hard days work and watch television. It's nice to know that it is readily accessible. There is a vibrancy to the city in terms of having many places to visit if one has enough money to party seven nights a week. If someone moved away from this type of culture, a vacation to New York where they could attend as many of these functions as possible would be a way to look at it. My impression is that people in other parts of the country have taken vacations to see broadway plays, etc. that most New Yorkers have.
They only culture I care about is living in a place where the people are nice and willing to help others. Where there main goal in life is to stay healthy and happy and share their lives with people they care about.
To each his/her own.

People are as happy as they make up their minds to be. Abraham Lincoln

Cuture
 

Culture, we don't need no stinkin Culture!

Just ask your friend if there is culture in her real estate development or does she have to go to a city to find it?

Culture Shock
 

Oh my goodness and lah-dee-dah. How so very hoity-toity. It sure is aggravating when people say things like that. And besides, assumptions are more often wrong than right.

I made an assumption about a club in TV. May I tell you about it........

While we were in TV on a recent visit, I was reading the Recreation News or whatever that paper is called that comes out once a week and lists the schedules for club meetings. As I glanced through the names of the clubs listed, I saw games and music and art and books and sports and dancing and singing, all kinds of stuff. Something for everybody.

But the club name that really caught my attention and made an impression was “The Gray Owls.” When I saw the name of the club, I got an instant picture in my mind of a Gray Owls meeting.......

In the picture, there were several sophisticated looking men who had gray hair. They were wearing tweed jackets with patches on the elbows. -- Yeah, I know. We were in Florida so those tweed jackets would have been pretty hot I guess. But the picture was in my mind and I don’t think there is a thermometer in there. -- Anyway, they were wearing the jackets with Bermuda shorts, open-collared shirts, and loafers with no socks. Some of the Gray Owls were smoking pipes. And some were wearing horn-rimmed glasses.

In the picture in my mind, these guys had the wardrobe down. They were the Gray Owls after all. All that wisdom at one meeting. Just imagine.

I swear to you. I do not make this stuff up. I get pictures.

I actually thought this was a club for intellectual types, perhaps retired professors or philosophers (Do philosophers ever retire?) I thought that the Gray Owls had meetings to discuss things like great books or theories or history or art or..... ohhhhh, who knows??? But that’s the picture I got by looking at just the name of their club.

Then I read the part that tells what the Gray Owls really do.

These guys meet someplace and carpool to a Hooters somewhere. But hey, who’s to say that they are not discussing great ideas while they are there.

Boomer the Assumer

Solution to the culture problem.......................if you don't like what TV has to offer then don't buy here. Problem solved.