High brow or low brow?

I would never paint my toenails because my mother always taught me that it was common.

Only joking!

snailspeak the concept of commoness did exist back in the 1950s and probably beyond whether we like it or not, and ruled some people's lives. Now we say chavvy instead.

I have always assumed that when Gransnetters post on what is common (or whatever) they are not saying they believe it themselves, just that they have noticed that some other people do (or used to).

Yes, I thought it was just light-hearted (like the 'Posh' thread). No one was actually judging anyone or anything - it was mainly about what our parents and grandparents considered 'common'.

I NEVER paint my toenails! I can't reach them. I get them done instead!

I never paint mine either. Makes my feet hot!

I know.....

For those educated middleor upper class women who wrote books about how not to be common, there were two sorts of people, common ones and "us". Those who actually lived real lives in mixed neighbourhoods saw endless layers of respectability or lack of it, the lowest lying dead drunk in the gutter. No wonder they tried to make their children aim for the better path!

Eh!

Wha' ?

U and non U

My tastes are catholic in every art form
Books, music, art,theatre if the review sounds interesting I'll read it,listen to it,admire it or watch what ever I like. I'm open to new experiences all the time.

Must admit that I have trouble reaching my toes to paint them these days but would never dream of having them done for me. That would really be too self-indulgent. Self-indulgent, moi? Finger nails .....well, that's another matter.

Don't like the word posh. Never have especially since I was once compared (by children I hasten to add) to Margot in The Good Life - ouch!!! However, our road is rather posh and it is considered decidedly common to let one's kids play football in the street. Common? No but definitely annoying as footballs are kicked forcibly against walls and it gets worse as you get older I find . The gentle throb of lawn mowers is currently annoying me as I type this on the patio on a strangely sunny Sunday but at least my husband will be revving up his mower soon. Revenge is sweet - lol. Funny how our own mower is not as annoying as other people's.

Must have taken the 'common' article too seriously so I'm not going there or am I? No. But I can discuss something called gross and that brings to mind an exceedingly large breasted and overweight American girl at Heathrow Airport yesterday. Well, they were falling about unsupported all over the place out of a very low cut top and then she started discussing them loudly with her straight-faced, under-endowed travelling companion. Yuk! The hot weather certainly brings out a lot that might be best kept out of view.

Sorry not to contribute much but when I do I tend to go on too much

Just what I was trying to think of Jeni. I think that the definition starts with whether you call a WC a lavatory or a toilet. Opting for loo is apparently OK.

Hyacinth bucket would never admit to even using such a facility, let alone calling it anything at all.

Sorry Bucket. No, she prefers Bouquet.

Bucket more useful in that context.

If pushed, she probably referred to it as 'the little girls' room'

I watched Coronation Street from its beginnings right up until -- the Battersbys. That was my cue to jump ship... a pity, because it had had such warmth and recognisable humanity, and some very fine playing and writing... but it all seems to have gone - rather like the Archers on radio which just seems to irritate poeple nowadays.

on the other hand I sat through episode one of Eastenders, hated it, and haven't watched it since.

Popular music? Had to play it to earn my living at one time... it wasn't great then, but seems to be utterly moronic now -- although I suppose there are exceptions at any time.

Didn't you like the Battersbys then feetlebaum? I agree Les was a bit much sometimes but I thought Janice did her best by the girls.

They're long gone now.

I've watched Corrie since Ken Barlow was a young student. Some excellent drama sometimes, good script, convincing acting.

Sometimes exasperatingly silly and on those occasions I fast forward through the unbearable bits.

kittylester - that brought back memories as I wasn't allowed to watch ITV or read Enid Blyton as my dad ( a teacher thinks it did/does not stretch your vocabulary)

But goose Enid Blyton had such fabulous stories as opposed to ITV which had Chris Tarrant and Timmy Mallet! Mind you, the children's school advised against letting them watch 'Grange Hill' in case it gave them ideas!!

I used to watch all the soaps.
Now I have a life

While I was teaching a module on Soaps and Society in my Access Media Studies course, I watched most of the soaps, except for Emmerdale. My favourite was Brookside - a big body count, including the one under the patio, but a lot of humour as well. I was glad not to have to watch East Enders any more - nothing good ever happens in that - and now I have given upon Corrie. What do I do instead? Gransnet, of course!

I love corrie. I also love chopin. I paint my toenails too!!

Greatnan said:
^Laurence Olivier considered Coronation Street to be a wonderful piece of theatre and never missed it. It has nurtured some great actors, especially child actors. It has tackled very difficult subjects with sensitivity. I love it.

I have very broad tastes in music, anything from 1950's Rock and Roll, through Brass Bands, Welsh Male Voice Choirs, Gregorian Plain Song, African folk music, sentimental love songs, =jazz-, blues, and classical. I find most opera boring, as there is so much run-of-the-mill stuff between the great arias, so I buy compilations. I enjoy ballet music.

I like Shakespeare and modern dramatists like Miller and Pinter but still enjoy Rattigan and Priestley. I had a very boring night and a numb backside by watching a Greek tragedy at The Barbican. I can't stand plays or films where anything supernatural can intervene in the action.

I love courtroom dramas, like Kavanagh Q.C. (I miss John That, in that and Morse).
I am pretty high brow with literature, which I studied for my degree, and I really love Austen, Elliot, Trollope, Waugh, Golding, and Lessing. I don't like Dickens or the Brontes -I find them too overblown. I don't read 'chick-lit'.
.
I don't watch films with violence in them, and some war films upset me because I know they are close to the truth. I like some musicals and romantic comedies. Very low brow.

In art, I think there is a touch of the Emperor's New Clothes about much art appreciation. I love the impressionists - Musee Quai D'Orsay has a wonderful collection, and it is cheaper than the Louvre , with less waiting time. Most modern art is a con - especially Damien Hurst and Tracy Emin.

I am too old to pretend to like anything because it is fashionable or deemed to be high brow.^

I've copied the post because it eerily echos my own feelings, so much that when I read it at first I thought it was an old post of mine! Don't like modern jazz though.