Macho men also can hear the sound of violins ...

My version of macho is all about standing up for ideas. It is never macho in the sense of muscles. Which is also why I have often commented that Hillary Clinton has a lot more cojones than many American males combined!

When people see me, and hear me talk, there is a high probability that they think I am an easy pushover.  Poof you blow and Sriram falls flat, they assume. Except, that is not a correct estimate.  They then find me, and annoyingly so, a hard rock to even nudge.  My version of macho is different.

I suppose the level of empathy I have for the suffering can also make me look less macho.  But, I have always wondered how one can not feel that pain.  And, at the other end, how can one not find pleasure in the intoxicating bubbly laughter of a two year old?  Such emotions do not make one any less macho.

So, why all this rambling on machismo?  All because of Michael Bublé.  I think I was finishing up my toast and coffee on a pleasant Sunday morning when I heard him say on NPR:

I don't know what happened to this world where - look it, there was a day when these guys from Elvis Presley to Frank Sinatra and The Rat Pack sang these incredibly romantic songs. And you know what? It was macho. You know what? There was something that was very manly about having the strength and having the courage to sing about love and romance. And that was looked at as [macho]. And I don't know what happened in our world where that was turned into being soft, because I don't think it's soft at all. I think a man can be in touch with his emotions.

I agree with Bublé.  Presley or Sinatra or Dean Martin or Sammy Davis ... were not any less macho.  Certainly different from the John Wayne machismo, yes.  Macho is not about beating the daylights out of somebody else.  Perhaps that is also why I wasn't a big fan of John Wayne's movies?

A few years ago, thanks to my wonderful neighbors who paid for the ticket, I got to watch Bublé perform live in Portland.  I still remember his cover of Fever.  The first finger snap signaled to the audience that it was Fever and we were pumped up right away.

Back in graduate school, when I was rapidly immersing myself into the popular music that I didn't care for when I was in India, two young men (I was also young then!) seemed to be creating their versions of this image of singing macho men with emotions: Chris Isaak and Harry Connick, Jr.  Who can ever forget that awesome video of Wicked Game!!!

YouTube quickly answered my question of whether Bublé had performed with either of these guys.  Here is Bublé "swaying" with Isaak, for a double-shot of macho: