A black fly in your Chardonnay

Isn't it ironic? I heard that song on the radio yesterday and I never really payed much attention to the words but the metaphor it's like a black fly in your Chardonnay struck me. What an interesting analogy.

The Youth Symphony

The Surrey Youth Symphony rocks. So does Abbotsford. Surrey is very traditional while Abbotsford is very progressive yet both kick ass. It never ceases to amaze me seeing a sea of young kids kicking ass on the violin to some complicated classical piece and another sea of kids on cellos and bases doing the same thing.

High school band is one thing but the symphony is another. In high school you see the progression from grade 8 to 9 to 10. The trumpets don't sound as squeaky and the saxophones have a much richer sound. Yet hearing those woodwind instruments with a huge passe of strings changes things completely. That is a symphony.

Surrey is very talented and hard working playing very complicated pieces sitting in a traditional setting. Abbotsford on the other hand have their strings move around with dry ice and looks like something out of Riverdance or the Trans Siberian Orchestra.

Recently they were playing a magnificent Johann Strauss waltz and I thought to myself that was awesome. Then they had a couple come in and waltz to the song like I had never seen before. It wasn't your average box step, they were all over the stage and a light went on. The great composers that wrote those waltz's for the symphony meant for them to be danced. Sitting in a chair listening to the symphony play the music was wonderful but it was incomplete. The music was meant to be danced and seeing it danced made it come alive. It was magnificent.

The video game Guitar Hero has brought back a lot of old songs only this time we get to appreciate the talent behind the complicated guitar solos of old. Those aren't just four chord rock and roll. Those really did take talent to perform. I saw a clip of the Scorpions playing Rock me like a Hurricane with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. It actually went well together. That's kind of what TSO does.

So here's my point. It's really easy to get depressed in the dark and dreary world. Yet once in a while we get a glimpse of the magnificent and it makes us stand back in awe. It could be a sunrise on the perfect peak or a paddle on a perfect day. Sometimes it could be the symphony of life when the stars align and we have the privilege of witnessing something magnificent. Now that is what I'm talking about.

Dream Weaver

Dream Weaver: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hdx9JjzDfo

How are things in Glocca Morra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anuDJ2pvdho

Arms of an Angel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVbkz_3lO3c
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God Bless the Dixie Chicks

They ran the Dixie Chicks documentary Shut up and Sing on TV tonight. What a farce. Americans prohibiting free speech. Just like the Americans who fought a war for the right to keep slaves. Shameful.

George Bush was a liar and an idiot. "Mission Accomplished?" They didn't find any Weapons of Mass destruction! That was a lie. MI 6 was caught giving false information about Iraq's WMD to the media in Operation Mass Appeal. Prior to the invasion America sold Iraq chemical weapons to use on Iran.

I was talking about Bush after the invasion of Iraq and someone said "They crashed a plane into the World Trade Centre." That was Afghanistan not Iraq! (and now we're not so sure it was Afghanistan) Bush did not invade Iraq for 911 he invaded Iraq because he said they had WMD which they didn't. It was a lie. Mission Accomplished indeed. Their lie was successful at stealing their oil. It was the invasion and occupation of a foreign nation.

The hillbillies who threatened the Dixie Chicks after that are no different that Stalin. They claimed the Dixie Chicks were Communists for expressing their opinion. The hillbillies are the Communists because they ban free speech.

It's understandable how they caved in to the hillbillies and coughed up an apology. Likewise it is understandable how that apology just didn't site right and didn't feel like the right thing to do making their song Not Ready to Make Nice a masterpiece: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwc5YSAc-7g

Fuck the South: http://www.fuckthesouth.com/

Redemption song

When the going gets tough, the tough play Bob Marley. He was a rebel so he was. An activist in his own right and very inspiring. This is a video clip of Ziggy Marley singing Redemption song with Lauryn Hill: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwNlQRvV-b4

And this is Ziggy Marley singing Redemption song with the Chieftains. I kid you not: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnJgIq48C9k

This is the mp3 of Bob Marley doing the song back in the day: www.emp3world.com/mp3/52224/Bob%20Marley/Redemption%20Song