Two different flavors of joy via Youtube

[anagramofbrat]

The best thing about the Internet is that you can start in one place, on one subject, and by accident of twists, turns and weird links that catch your eye from the corner of the screen, end up someplace new different and strange with your world rocked. Something like that happened to me yesterday as I sat staring into the pixels after work. I was idly researching an old pipe dream of mine, which is starting a secular/pop music-centered handbell ensemble. It's a pipe dream because bell sets are HIDEOUSLY expensive - 3 octaves are $10K and change, not to mention the other supplies needed. It's a dream at all because about the only place you find handbell groups? Churches. Don't get me wrong, I love the little group of Ringers up at the Sunderland church, but when you're relationship with Jesus is at best friendly but distant, you do get a wee bit sick of playing nothing but hymns, pretty though they may be.

I've spent quite a bit of time longingly watching Raleigh Ringers vids on youtube and making grumbly noises about how maybe next summer I'll be able to afford to go to bell camp or just being horribly nostalgic for the Smith bell choir (though to be fair, most of the repertoire there was church/Christmas music; the only time we got to play anything fun was the annual pops concert), or asking myself if I have the time or the dedication or even the big swinging brass ones (see what I did there?) to try out for the New England Ringers sometime since they rehearse in Greenfield. yeah. I make this mental circuit a lot; it tends to end up in a weird depressing place.

This time, however, it ended up in a weird, awesome place. While poking at various alternatives to the hardcore, professional bells (and resolving the burning question of "how the hell do you pronounce 'carillon' correctly anyway?" along the way; it is, after all, perfectly acceptable to pronounce it so it rhymes with "vermilion"), I ended up in an online store that sold instruments and accessories for childrens' music education, and there I discovered boomwhackers.

What the hell are boomwhackers, you ask? Watch the video. Boomwhackers are the colored tubes these guys are using for the melody.

These guys, btw, are a Virginian group called Plastik Musik and are generally all around pretty amazeballs. I know because I think I watched almost every video containing a boomwhacker on Youtube last night, and they are the one group consistently incorporating them into their act and getting pro-grade results out of them. They apparently made it all the way to the semifinals in America's Got Talent a few year's back but their performances were never broadcast. Which sucks, cause maybe I could have stumbled on this new obsession three years ago, but neither here nor there, lol.

Anyway, like I said, I think I wasted almost my entire evening on watching any video I could find featuring boomwhackers. I think i may be in love. I think I may need a full set of these. I think I need to hang out in Home Depot and make instruments out of plumbing again, because I ALWAYS need more excuses to hang out in Home Depot. But yeah, I have IDEAS and WANTS and PLANS for these things. I just need a full set of them and some like minded people to help me execute them. Considering a full set of these is three and a half octaves plus extra tubes for a little under $200 (the one octave diatonic starter set is $20), that might be actually manageable. Plus they look like fun things to have around for the kids to play with too.

Yeah, because I need ANOTHER creative iron in the fire. >_<




This afternoon on Facebook a friend shared a story about two performance artists, Marina Abramovic and Ulay, who were intensely involved both romantically and creatively for about a decade and a half, and then parted ways in 1988. (I looked them up after reading this story, and I suggest you do too - some of their collaborations were fascinating to read about.) Fast forward to 2010, where Abramovic is opening a piece at MoMA in NY where she shares a full minute of silence with whatever person happens to sit at the table opposite from her... and out of the blue Ulay shows up and sits down at the table.

Oh.

Y'all KNOW I'm a hardcore romantic who cries at the end of anything with any sort of highly emotional ending, be it happy or sad. I cried at the end of Independance Day the first time I saw it, for fuck's sake. And y'all remember what a mess I was over that Super Bowl Clydesdale commercial a month back. I think you can probably make a reasonable guess at the state of my feels after this. I went back and watched again when I was somewhat less of a mess... just watching their faces in that moment is amazing and intense; it's like they have an entire conversation of expressions. I think my favorite bit is her smile of surprise when she opens her eyes, and his tiny, somewhat sheepish "hey, what's up?" shrug in reply. And then after their minute is up... he rises from the table and fades back into the crowd, leaving her to compose herself for the next person. Which she does. Like an art performing boss.

Part of me would love to know what happened after that, if there was any more to the story. I think the grand sweeping romantic in me wants the story to end right there - he gets up from the table and they disappear from each other's lives again. If it were a fictional tale, that would certainly be where I'd end it - no need to complicate such a fleeting moment of loveliness with a later "So... how about those last twenty two years? Crazy huh?" conversation. Of course, being real people it could go either way and be equally satisfying. Hell, they're performance artists, the cynic in me acknowledges the likelihood that this encounter was entirely staged. (The applause the crowd breaks into lends a bit of credence to that idea.) For the most part, I'm willing to suspend disbelief and let myself be moved by such a story told in a very short time with no discernable dialogue. It also makes me wonder what that sort of experience is like, sharing an unexpected moment with someone who meant and probably still very much means a great deal to you, with no words to get in the way?



My only plans this weekend are Burlesque tomorrow night, and Rome on Sunday - hopefully the remainder of the time can go towards creativity (web and bead stuff) and much needed cleaning - despite the fresh snow on the ground, I'm feeling the spring cleaning bugs beginning to awaken. For now, there is some more five buck cluck downstairs with my name on it that I should go get, and an evening of being amused at cell23's end of the Vent session he's on with the usual suspects as they frantically beta a new game together. Maybe Lost Girl? Hmm, I could go for some sexy Canadian supernatural cheese, and I'm enjoying that variety so very very much...

Comments

[endlessblush.livejournal.com]

Agreed! Clicking around the internet you can lead you to some pretty amazing places (and some pretty disturbing!)

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, that video of the artists. That really got me.

[breakableheart.livejournal.com]

I fucking love art. Doesn't matter if it's staged or not I felt something happen. He apologized. He was wrong! I saw it!* She withdrew first, he stayed a bit longer. She hesitated like she was going to reach out again, he sat back. The whole thing was an entire book, a story. LOVED IT!

The lady in the audience who looks like "WTF?" then turns away. LOL!


* I could be inserting my own feels here.