G.\\lBA NEWS Volume l5, Number 4 Viola da Gamba societymacifica April I, 20o2 Violone Barbie Tens AIl! Barbie, a worldwide icon fior girls Of all ages and per- haps for some boys, recently found time in her busy schedule to speak with Gamba News. GAMBA NEws: Bard[.e, you're lmown for your fash- ion sense and for being a role model for young girls. But how did you come to play the violone? BARBLE: I was living at the Wal-Mart in Albuquerque, New Mexico, dressed in a green bikini. Can you imag- ine how bored I was? My real life began when Linda Shortridge came in and took me to her home, where she and her husband, John, have a patio with a little niche in the inside wall. CAN YOU SPOT ME in this picmre with the Sex Chordae of Viols? This was outside John had mentioned wanting the Reichssanl in Regeusburg, Germany. I'm the one with the really good ham. something pretty for the Photoshopped by Annetle IIiguchi niche, which was empty. So Linda brought me home from Wal-Mart to sur- forgot to pack me (I think John really wanted to prise him. Well, the look on John's face when he keep me there in that niche), so the Shortridges got saw me standing there in the riche! a friend to stop at a store on the way to the Con- I was a favorite member of the Shortridge clave and buy another Barbie just like me, in a household. Linda made a little viol for me. John green bikini. It was not me, but it wasjust the and Linda planned to take me to the VdGSA Con- same as me (to understand this concept you have clave in Minnesota a couple months later and put me to work fund-raising at the auction. But they Continued on Page 3 VIOLA DA GAMBA SOCIETYffACIFICA GAMBANEWS Published nine times a year by the Pacifica chapter of the Yes! Iwant tojoin Viola da Gamba Society. It goes on vacation during the months of June, July and August. VdGsffacifica! PRESDENT JUJie Jeffrey ®efhey@l{bTary. berkeley edu) VICE-PRESDENr Lyle York ([email protected]) SEchE.rAR¥ An n€tte Higuclti (annette.higuch]@es is com) Just fill out the form below, wnte a check and TREASURER Helen TyTrcl] ([email protected]) : mail themboth in. BOARD ME^CERS AT LARGE I Cindy Sliare, Coaching liaison (cyuthia_share@peoplesoft. com) ' Johl[ Ma rk, Rental prograni coordinator (mark_bach8@homail. com) I ' Lee MCRac, VdGSA chapter representative (LmcR@aol com) Jol]n Dornci]b urg [email protected]) : YOURFIRST ANDLASTNAME Alvin Roper (925426J)829) EIle a F&rwel] [email protected]) Robin Eastel.bi.ook (snooky4176@aol com) Contributions welcome: send concert listings and reviews, opinions, workshop experiences, CD reviews, Crrv, STATE ~ Zlp drawings, or photos to Lyle York, Editor, 1932 Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Berkeley, CA 94707, or via e-mall: [email protected]. Phone (510) 559-9273. : YOURE-MAILADDRESS Classified ads: Short classified text advertisements in ( ..._.I I YOURPHONENUMBER Gombc] Ivew§ are free to VdGSpacifica members. For non- I members, ads are $5 per issue. Please mail your check to I I Lyle York (address above), made out to VdGsffacifica. S Playing Member ($25): You can at- tend monthly consort meetings for free, Newsletters by e-mail: If you'd like to receive you gct a free subscription to Gamba your monthly Gam6a Iviani5 on-line, please e-mail Lyle York News, and you get a discount on con- at [email protected]. Your reply postcard will take e- sortooaching sessions. mail form as well. Two-Person Membership ($35): Two Web Site: Our VdGSpacifica chapter Web site, playing members in the same house- http:/thome.pacbell.nct/hesuome, is maintained and regularly hold. You share all the rights and privi- updated by Helen Tyrren. It contains the Viol Players' leges of a Playing Member. Calendar, which is often more up to date than the Gambcr Ivew5 calendar - along with a list of local teachers, sources Newsletter-Only Membership ($10) for music, supplies, inexpensive viols, repairs, and travel tips. Donations ($10, $25, seo, $100 or The VdGSA (national) Web site is www.vdgsa.org. more!) to VdGS/PacirLca will help us Rent a Viol: Pacifica has trebles, tenors and basses to buy sheet music and rental instnments. rent. Donations of viols and bows to our rental program are extremely welcome -we'll accept them in any condition. S TOTAL ENCLOSEI) Rental fees range from $ 10 to $25 per month. In charge of rentals is Jolln Mark, at 10 Holyrood Manor, Oakland, CA 946ll;(510)531-147l;[email protected]. Make out checks to 7iJas/Pac7j#ccr. Mail The VdGSA, Pacifica's parent organization, also rents vi- them with this form to: ols. For VdGSA members, rates are $250 per year for trebles Helen Tyrrell. Treasurer and tenors, $300 for basses, and $750 for a complete consort VdGS/Pacifica of viols. For more information, contact Stephen Morris, 2615 Tanglewood Road, Decatur, GA 30033-2729; (404) P.O. Box 188 325 -2709; smmorris@mindspring. com. 0rinda, CA 94563 The VdGSA has instituted a Rent-To-Own program. If interested, contact John Mark, address above. Con[inuedfrom Page 1 to read the scholarly article on me on Page 4). Kathleen Merfeld's father made another tiny viol for me. I was auctioned off to Neil and Liz Scaly. Since I had earned some nice money for the VdGSA, the organizers decided to make my auc- tioning a yearly tradition at Conclave. I was thrilled. I get to visit one house after another and listen to people play viol music. After a few years of that life, I leaned to play myself. All you do is draw the bow back and forth! After only a few lessons from John Domenburg, I toured with the Sex Chordae of Viols in Germany. GALMBA\NE.WS.. You're not holding a bow in lha[ photo. BARBIE: My nails weren't dry. Anyway, Neil Sealy built me the violone I play now, which has pegs that actually turn. Everyone realized that the violone was the best instrument for me, since my knees don't bend. I can't sit to play, can I? Linda Shortridge bought me back the next year. And she then built me a harpsichord, using draw- JTg,s,a?t£:r;Jo,.::g::P,:?;eJ#:#Tggce:„Z:;,.es' NO, IT'S NOT MY WEDDING. I was invited as a guest to published by the Smithsonian. It's a copy of a the Grill-Luis wedding in Minneapolis. Ken is hiding behind Rodolfo,1665. the wedding cake. So now that I had a harpsichord, I needed a harpsichord player. That's how Ken came to live marriage, he changes the subject. with me! I picked him myself for my duet partner. Anyway, we were raffled off together at the Ken and I go way back with music. It's in the Portland Conclave in 2000. Ken Perlow won us, Barbie videcLask Mary Elliott about it. We trav- but he loaned us to Dominik Zuchowicz for the eled in a time machine to the '50s and met at a year. Last sulrmier in Fort Worth we were won by sock hop and formed a rock 'n' roll band. Lauretta Feldman of New York. Lauretta, who understands what a girl like me wants, brought me GA.NIB^NEWS.. It looks as if Ken's knees don'[ and Ken to be guests at the wedding last Septem- bend, either. ber of Rob Grill to Leisa Luis in Minneapolis, Just look at that picture -it says it all! Me in BARBIE: That's true. But he's a cool guy, he's re- full wedding outfit, and Ken hiding behind the laxed at the keyboard, and he plays fine. You wedding cake. I don't think that boy is going to don't play the harpsichord with your knees, you take a hint. know! Ken and I get along great -he's a pal -but he won't tell me he loves me. When I bring up DECONSTRUCTINGBARBIE Barbie subverts her own paradigm By Rosacea Violetta da Gambo, Ph.D. States) in an over-air-conditioned Wal-Malt in Al- buquerque (next 27 exits, I kid you not), Barbie Edrtor' s "o+a.. Gamba News asked the distin- has been sold like commercial chattel to millions guished gender studies Professor da Gambo to of whining little girls. comment on our interview with Violone Barbie. As the interview reveals, Violone Barbie was From Quan Yin to the Virgin Mary to Britney fortunate to be bought and protected by a loving Spears, there have always been fe- household of musicians. She was male icons who so embody or burst given toys and nicer clothes, spoiled a the bonds of the embodiment of the Barbie turned bit, then - sold again! Auctioned off female figure as to transcend gender to the highest bidder! The well- itself. Barbie is the goddess of such her own intentioned fund-raising committee of goddesses. enslavement the Viola da Gamba Society of Amer- With changes of costume and ica saw a gold mine in Barbie, and race, Barbie adapts to her tines. We intojoy. they exploited and continue to exploit have African-American Barbie, Chi- She sings in her for hundreds of dollars each year, nese Barbie, Soccer Barbie, Moun- as Barbie is sold and re-sold, passed tain Bike Barbie. Barbie becomes her chains ! from one bourgeois household to an- what Mattel Industries dictates; she other, with her only stable companion becomes whatever her little girl her fellow consumer-slave Ken.