Stumbolero

While looking for something else I came across a flash mob take on Ravel's "Bolero" . I had seen a wonderful one for Beethoven's "Ode To Joy" from his Ninth Symphony and this is just as charming in the way it draws the crowd of all ages, races, sexes and any other division we have and they all love it. Enjoying the music, taking photographs and videos, and loving it.

The great thing about these flash mob performances is that you learn how the pieces are actually made up. It is truly fascinating.

There are many Classical Flash Mobs on Youtube, check this list here.

I know this is not a very meaty post but I just wanted to share this phenomenon with anyone who stumbles across this blog post.

Enjoy and maybe learn, and hopefully one day you will be lucky enough to see one......

No Time

Just reading the excellent "Notes on a Nervous Planet" and something came up that applies to me. I continually feel that I do not have enough time to do things (may that's a symptom of getting older) but as Matt Haig points out, we can now communicate faster and more easily than every before, we have rapid travel options , washing machines, lawn mowers , microwaves , etc speed up things that took a lot more of our time than they did before.

When I left EE I didn't realise at first that I didn't have to travel, on general three hours a day to get to and from work. That's fifteen hours a week (I was stopped from working from home before I finished), that's sixty hours a month. Given that the average working week is 37 hours (150 hours a month) I gained more than 20% time by leaving. That is a lot of time.

The problem is life overload, to watch a TV program or a film , still takes as long as it takes, reading a book takes time, listening to Beethoven's 9th Symphony takes about 70 minutes to listen to (you could play it at 78 rpm but that would sound silly), but basically we do not really appreciate the extra time that modern life is giving use, and we should do.

Writing this takes time, and reading it takes time (though not as much time as it takes to write).

It is a beautiful Sunday Morning and it's an excuse to share the wonderful Flash Mob take on "Ode To Joy" from Beethoven's 9th . I showed this to the lady in the the Oxfam Shop in Helmsley and she loved it because she said it makes you realise what instruments go together to make this wonderful music.

Christmas Day

I wasn't going to write anything today but I am having the most relaxed Christmas Day for a long time. Last night we watched Christmas films, "Scrooged", "Muppets Christmas Carol" and "Die Hard"

I had missed the sheer amount of Christmas References in "Die Hard" closing with "Let It Snow" sequing into Beethoven's "Ode To Joy" , the motif of which plays throughout the film, I suppose a reference to the German baddies, but "Ode To Joy" from Beethoven's 9th Symphony is one of the most uplifting pieces of music ever, although as I write this I'm listening to the beautiful "Once I Awakened" by Kevin Ayers from possibly his finest album "Confessions of Doctor Dream", I'd love to share both pieces with you and maybe I will.

Today I have hardly left the house, just to feed my neighbours' tropical fish, and that's a sort of coincidence because I think Kevin Ayers played with Gong who had a song called "Tropical Fish" on "Camembert Electrique". See that's me going off on a total tangent again, but that's the way we generally discover new things, which is usually a good thing.

Well I found a brilliant Flashmob take on "Ode To Joy" and it's wonderful to see the joy in everyone's faces when this is playing, the children loving it, who said classical music can't be cool, fun and joyous. It's possibly one of the most joyously brilliant things I've seen. Watch it, you'll love it.

Now go on, there's plenty of Christmas to enjoy, go and share the joy, smile and have fun.