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POPSThe Nutcracker: Bolshoi Ballet
The legendary holiday ballet performed by the Bolshoi Ballet. Featuring Natalya Arkhipova and Irek Mukhamedov. Choreographed by Yuri Grigorovich. Performed by thousands of ballet companies around the world every Christmas, The Nutcracker has become the most popular ballet of all time. This week, we looked into the enduring appeal of this balletic masterpiece.Tchaikovsky started writing The Nutcracker two years before his death in 1893. It was first performed in 1892. The plot is based on a story by Hoffman, although in Tchaikovsky’s hand the story lost a lot of its “grimness” to become the piece of seasonal confectionary that we know today. Act one begins with Clara and Fritz preparing for a Christmas party. Their uncle Drosselmeyer arrives with presents for the family, and entertains them with magic tricks. His present to Clara is a magical doll (the Nutcracker) and the children watch in amazement and delight as the life-sized doll dances in front of them. . . .
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POPSA Positive Example suitable for Clipmarks Devotees
I have often used clipmarks as a sounding board, to flesh out my own premature ideas in the delightful cloak of semi-anonymity. Not everything that I say I fully mean. Some thoughts are sounding boards to my own opinions until I firm them up and watch them gel in my own head while my fingers are flying across the keyboard. In the beginning, I spent every day reading comments people left behind mine, opening them up like christmas presents. For awhile, I left clipmarks because the animosity became so acrimonious that I suffered indigestion along with the cup of coffee and cookie I was enjoying while I read CM in the late morning. I have enjoyed clipmarks and enjoy reading the clips from people I don't necessarily agree with as well as those of whom I do agree. I hope in the spirit of the late Ted Kennedy we can take his example of leadership and disagree without rancor and argue passionately with tolerance for an opposing view. Thank you for reading. Good Day.
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POPSFantasy Flight: Granting Sick Children a Christmas Wish Children with a range of terminal illnesses from Hodgkin's disease to cancer are given a magical Christmas gift. United Airlines employees volunteer time and services each year to make it an extra special Christmas for such children, just to see the smiles on the faces of the children who are suffering.... "It just tugs at your heart," said Christine Smith, the head flight attendant, who has volunteered on Fantasy Flights for 18 years. "To me, this is Christmas," she said.
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POPSWhat is love? -- the unedited version "Listen to the children." Some of these actually choked me up. In spite of all the hell I hear parents go through, God I want kids, just to hear them say thimngs like these.
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POPSStand up against RUBBISH gifts! Do you REALLY want another hideous jumper or Cd you'll never listen to. Choose an Oxfam Unwrapped Gift and change a life! Prices range from £5 for " a little bit of a classroom" to £1700 for a whole classroom, with water, pigs, geese, plants, AIDS prevention, counseling, education and numerous other exciting gifts in between. Say NO to unwanted gifts and help lift people out of poverty
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