Mormon Tabernacle Choir Singer & Rockettes Refuse to Perform at Trump's Inauguration

It's no secret that Donald Trump has struggled to secure celebrities to perform for his inauguration—Elton John, Celine Dion, John Legend and others have all said no. There have even been reports that Trump's team tried offering bribes of positions in his cabinet. Not surprisingly, he had no takers.

Finally, three days before Christmas, he managed to get the Rockettes. The day they learned the news, one of the dancers cried her way through a Christmas show, so distressed that she would have to dance for Trump. Another dancer posted her violent objection on Instagram: 

"I usually don't use social media to make a political stand but I feel overwhelmed with emotion. Finding out that it has been decided for us that Rockettes will be performing at the Presidential inauguration makes me feel embarrassed and disappointed. The women I work with are intelligent and are full of love and the decision of performing for a man that stands for everything we're against is appalling. I am speaking for just myself but please know that after we found out this news, we have been performing with tears in our eyes and heavy hearts #notmypresident" 

A senior-ranking official of the American Guild of Variety Artists stated that full-time dancers had to dance where they were told to. But there was such a public furor that the Guild backed off, stating that dancing at the inauguration would be voluntary. So the Rockettes can choose, but many are afraid that if they don't they'll lose their jobs or future opportunities, as only thirteen have permanent positions and the others dance ad hoc.

A dancer who spoke anonymously to Marie Claire, risking getting fired for it if she's exposed, said "This is making our show, our job, our name, branded as right-wing. An extreme right-wing. There's a reason why everyone else is turning this down. Why are we not?" She also noted that  no minority dancers had signed up.  

Then we learned that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir would sing at the inauguration. Lifetime Mormon Randall Thacker started a petition against the Choir performing,

"and especially for an incoming president who has demonstrated sexist, racist, misogynistic, and xenophobic behavior that does not align with the principles and teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church's participation will harm this spectacularly talented and beloved choir's image, misrepresent the diversity of Mormons worldwide, and sends the wrong message to LDS children as they will perceive the Church's participation as endorsement of a president whose words and actions do not align with our values."

And one singer in the Choir, Jan Chamberlin, chose to resign. She posted a letter of explanation on Facebook. That post has since been taken down but you can read it here. Below is an extract. 

"Since “the announcement”, I have spent several sleepless nights and days in turmoil and agony. I have reflected carefully on both sides of the issue, prayed a lot, talked with family and friends, and searched my soul. I’ve tried to tell myself that by not going to the inauguration, that I would be able to stay in Choir for all the other good reasons… 

But it’s no use. I simply cannot continue with the recent turn of events. I could never look myself in the mirror again with self respect. I love you all, and I know the goodness of your hearts, and your desire to go out there and show that we are politically neutral and share good will… 

I also know, looking from the outside in, it will appear that Choir is endorsing tyranny and fascism by singing for this man. And Choir’s wonderful image and networking will be severely damaged and that many good people throughout this land and throughout the world already do and will continue to feel betrayed.   

I know that I too feel betrayed. Tyranny is now on our doorstep; it has been sneaking its way into our lives through stealth. Now it will burst into our homes through storm…
 In the show Wicked, the Wizard says “ I create conflict to stay in power.” This allows those in office to do whatever they want to unchecked. I believe this has been done to us, both cunningly and intentionally…   

I could never “throw roses to Hitler.” And I certainly could never sing for him… My heart is shattered and broken............. but my conscience is clear. And THAT, really is all that matters." 

Breakfast with the Pope, Sanders, Rubio, Putin & Elton John

7:00 am. I wake up, heavy lidded and limbed. Yesterday I vowed to go to bed early so I could wake up before dawn this morning and not when half the day was already gone; used up by busy important people making something of their lives. 

While I... Come evening I succumbed to the devil. And couldn't unsuccumb myself until after midnight.

I lie in bed for a while, wasting more time, pondering yesterday, today and tomorrow. Until the world—aka coffee—calls. 

I shuffle off duvet and sheets and do a few quick bicycle exercises on my back. It helps to keep up the illusion that I’m doing something about getting fit again. I jump out of bed and glance at my body in the mirror. Do I look any fitter? Sure, honey, whatever you say. Actually I’m not in too bad of a shape, all things considered. All things being that I’m somewhere between forty and death and, more to the point, that I haven't achieved a state of sustained exercise yet apart from when I was cycling from New York to Key West. I don't even cycle at the gym. That's probably because I never go to the gym. 

Maybe it’s all the brain activity that keeps the weight off. Not that I’m a rocket scientist, mind you; it’s more rampant imagination than anything else. Maybe I’m just lucky; I love stale chocolate cake seeped in cold full-cream milk and carrot cake with cream—mind you, cream option works pretty well with chocolate cake, too—but that’s it for sweet things. I just don’t like them. I like salty things like chips.

Apart from a spoonful of sugar in my coffee and honey on my Ryvita in the morning. Huh. That’s quite a lot of sweet stuff after all. Ah well, life is a mystery sometimes.

I roll up the blinds. It's grey out there but not cold. Winter is over. It always seems to happen from one day to the next out here at the southern edge of Africa, the end of the world. I sit down with my coffee, switch on my laptop, bring up the New York Times. 

There are quite a few articles about the Pope’s visit to the US and his message about poverty, climate change and the dark side of capitalism, the downside of greed.

The wrong-headedness of arms dealing. I hope he finds time to talk to Marco Rubio, who said:

“If the United States military is going to be engaged by a commander-in-chief, it should only be engaged in an endeavor to win. And we're not going to authorize use of force if you're not put in a position where they can win.”

But Il Papa would probably have more in common with Bernie Sanders, who said: “It is my firm belief that the task of a great nation with the most powerful military on earth is not how many wars we can engage in but how we can use our strength and our capability to resolve international conflicts in a peaceful way.” 

Amen Bernie Sanders. I wish you'd talk to the Pope about gay marriage. I wish you'd persuade him it's not a good idea to support Kim Davis and tell her that her bigotry is purely standing up for her right to speak her mind. She did a lot more than that, ace.

On other things Francis is doing well; addressing pedophilia, corruption, rampant capitalism and greed within the Vatican. He's defied a lot of the odds. The last pope who tried to do that allegedly died in his sleep from a heart attack, never having had a problem with his health up to that point. What followed was what looks like a cover-up by the Vatican; one that, if it was real, was outrageous.  

This Pope has even gone so far (for a Catholic it’s pretty far) as to say “who am I to judge” of homosexuality. It's not far enough though and no amount of other-goodness can balance out his and the church's attitude to gay marriage. His attitude to gay marriage also doesn't negate all the good things he's doing.

I tell you who Francis should speak to: Elton John. He can stand in the queue with Vladimir Putin, who, according to a tweet that made the rounds, intended to call the great musician. When the fraud was exposed, Putin decided he really did want that conversation. I couldn’t find any content on that, but I did find an interview with Elton John talking about LGBT rights in the Ukraine. What a great guy. He's done what he wanted with his life since forever, with his leaping-about laughing energy. He's still doing it, only now he's also using his wealth and clout to promote global tolerance. 

He was asked if he thought he could really get Putin to change. He said he didn’t know, but you either try or you don’t. You tell your truth and you may not succeed but at least you know you did your best.

I finish my coffee, thinking about that. I have boundless respect for people who tell their truth when it’s life promoting, because it’s never easy. They have to push through monstrous barriers erected by bullies who don’t want to hear it and want to shut them down. It’s crushing, painful, frightening, soul-destroying, even if you’re only doing it in your personal life and you don’t have global attention. And, you’re not just taking on other people, you’re essentially confronting everything in you that believes their resistance to your truth to be valid. Add sobering to the list. 

It’s also rewarding. And nothing is worse than keeping quiet. I’m sure of it. It’s definitely better to suffer slings and arrows of outrageous fortune than to stay mute and in hiding. 

This is Elton John’s speech at the 12^th Yalta European Strategy (YES) meeting, talking about LGBT intolerance and about so much more. 

8:07 I head off to the shower. The Pope, Bernie Sanders and Elton John make good breakfast companions. Marco Rubio and Vladimir Putin not so much. I doubt anyone can change Rubio, but Putin? Strangely, I don’t think it’s inconceivable that Elton John could have a positive influence on the man. 

Go for it, I say. Between you and Obama you might be able to achieve miracles.

'Unbroken', Oscars,Golf, Egos, Presidents and Things

What a competitive world. Shows like Keeping Up With The Joneses – uh, that Kardashian 'show', if you can call it that; Idols, X Factor, America’s Got Talent, outpicturing of Simon Cowell’s massive ego. Shows that have drawn furious criticism from greats like Elton John who said Cowell has destroyed the integrity of the music industry and who refused to be a judge on Idols because he wouldn’t descend to slagging performers. Shows that have convinced musicians the world over that if you don't win, your life and your [potential] performing career are over. Elton John said of Cowell’s empire that it’s “become boring, a***- paralysingly brain crippling.”

Politicians slaughtering each other in broad daylight at election time for, in too many cases, the coveted positions of not representing those they’re supposed to represent. The altered universe of brain washing aka advertising, making it impossible to go anywhere without some message, if not a gazillion of them, coming at you saying we're better, we're the best.

People will go to extreme lengths to compete. Like Angelina Jolie noticeably abandoning sexy outfits and power dressing [down] conservatively as she campaigns for the Oscars for her movie Unbroken and does her best to try and convince Hollywood and the Queen of England world that she’s not a drama queen but a serious filmmaker as in writer, director and producer and that Unbroken is a work of genius that didn’t deserve to be passed over for Golden Globe and Screen Actors’ Guild awards. Well, it did get a SAG nomination for its stunt ensemble and it opened on Christmas Day and grossed $15.6 million, which is the 3rd highest Christmas Day opening figure - if you don’t adjust for inflation, which no doubt Unbroken’s producer would rather we didn’t.

 

But that’s just good marketing and the big name Angeline Jolie (who, ironically, has always seduced the world with her sensuality) and a fantastic trailer. It was brilliantly executed; I watched it over and over and each time I got goose bumps and my heart felt fit to explode.

I wondered, though, whether they hadn’t just extracted the only worthy scenes in the whole film and strung them together cleverly. It seems my suspicions might have been founded. Rotten Tomatoes already gives the film a measly 51% rating and the general consensus among those who are unhappy with the film is that it crawls and somehow never quite comes to life. The famous and mightily well paid Cohen brothers adapted the script from the [alleged] 300 page monstrosity that was written from the book by William Nicholson and Richard LaGravenese. It just goes to show something or other. My green-eyed monster jealousy more than anything else, probably.

I’m straying from my point. Your own bitchiness will do that to you. My point is that it’s hard to get away from competitiveness at all levels of life. I mean look at me, wanting to compete with Angelina Jolie and the Cohen brothers. I’d love to have got my hands on that script.

Actually, the other side of my coin is that I think the spirit of it is great, I like it; I love the rough and tumble of engaging in life, aiming for the stars and doing everything you can to get as far as you can. Good for Jolie for being smart enough to know what an effect her fashion statement makes on the world and for holding her head up high despite the awards snubs and going for gold.

Still, that rough and tumble tends to make the world one of chaos and din so it’s beautiful when somebody who has every reason to have an inflated ego just doesn’t. Have one, I mean. But does have a great sense of humor.

American Presidents love to play golf. If they’re any good at it, they let everybody know their scores. If they’re not so good, like Clinton, they claim Presidential Pardons for mulligans and gimmes, all in good fun of course. But Barack Obama sticks to the rules. He’s a pretty lousy golfer, which he readily and laughingly admits. Retired basketball great Michael Jordan, who’s crazy about golf, quipped that he wouldn’t choose Obama for his ideal foursome because “he’s a hack, man. It’d be all day playing with him.”

Obama was quick to quip back. He’ll do it with a straight face so you can’t tell if he’s joking or not. Until he breaks out into that million dollar smile. He isn’t a good golfer; he’s got lousy posture, for one, but he loves the game, so he plays. With a sense of humor about himself. IMO there’s a whole lot of dignity in that and I’m sure it makes him fun to be around. And he is getting better, so that’s something. Another golfer said of him that the way he plays gives the measure of him as a President. He’s honest, he keeps his cool through rank adversity, he smiles and he doesn’t give up. I raise my glass to that.

And to Angelina Jolie, good luck with the Oscars. She has spirit in spades, that’s for sure, for which she deserves the highest accolades.

Billy Joel, Still More of an Original Artist than an Egotist

Out of the generation of musicians that produced Mick Jagger, Elton John, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Billy Joel, only the last two have stayed true to their originality. Who knows what Lennon would have produced if he’d lived, but somehow it’s hard to believe he’d have followed in the path of Paul McCartney. At their peak these musicians all poured their emotions out in their music and each of them had their own unique stamp, kind of like the Impressionists. 

They pretty much emptied the barrel, though, yet when the music industry changed Mick Jagger, Elton John and Paul McCartney tried to hold onto the fame they had by towing the line and doing badly what young musicians were excelling at.

What of Billy Joel? It seems that it's more important for him to be real than to be famous. Andrew Goldman recently interviewed him for the New York Times and revealed a man who has remained as unique as he was when he wrote My Life. Billy Joel is 64 now, and lives in Sag Harbour with the woman he’s been seeing for three years, his two pug dogs, a boat and a couple of vintage motor-bikes with sidecars. Unlike Elton John, Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger, he hasn’t written a pop song for 20 years. Because he’s run dry? No. Because that medium doesn’t inspire him anymore. He excelled at it back then. Just as the others did, in their own way. Unlike them, though, he continued to be unique. 

Now he composes different music: dramatic pieces and pieces for piano and orchestra. He doesn’t seem to care what the world thinks of him. Elton John has accused him of backing out of promises to continue the duo act in concert but Joel says he kept the promises he made, he just didn’t want to make any more. He got tired of being an ‘oldies’ act. 

Back then, his music was so full of life and energy and came from the truth of who he was. The flame of that will never die. Trying to cling onto fame by writing songs that don't come from the heart hasn't worked with Elton John, Paul McCartney or Mick Jagger. Their talent lay in their originality. There's nothing original about what they've done after their peak. It's just desperation and pandering, and a considerable amount of plastic surgery I suspect. It's kind of grotesque watching them try to sustain their popularity. It diminishes them horribly. Billy Joel hasn’t done that. 

In the Goldman interview he comes off as an ordinary guy, which also makes him unusual amongst that generation of performers. Actually, as an ordinary guy he's quite boring; he won't deal with his emotions and he seems to have a pretty a one-dimensional view of women. Which might account for 3 failed marriages. Maybe, maybe not, who knows?

The thing is, we don’t love artists for their private lives, we love them for their art. As a musician and artist he poured his emotions out in a very original way, which is what made his music so spectacular. That he's still being authentically creative despite that it won't bring him pop fame is extraordinary. It takes a courageous artist to do that and step out of the limelight instead of trying to cling onto fame by prostituting his creativity. Letting that era go and doing something completely different now proves he's still the original artist he was back then. It gives him dignity, truly sets him apart and cements his legacy.