Somebody’s been dropping hints about meerkats, not that I need a lot of prodding to post some meerkat video. They’ve gotten very popular because they like to stand on their hind legs and look like they understand what’s happening around them.
These are actually African mongooses (mongeese?) who live in small colonies–sort of like mongooses trying to be prairie dogs.
Thank you. These little critters can get me chuckling quicker that almost
any other. They can think of more things to do in less time than just about
any I have seen.
They look like happy, curious, fun-loving creatures. Loved the music, by the way.
A lot of people like that music.
The human mind vs computers. Listen to the garbage being produced in our day and peddled as music, then compare it to this, which involved an inkwell, some staff paper and a brilliant mind, but no silicon chips or Al-Gore-Rhythms (algorithms). There is no comparison.
BTW, you can hear the joy in this music. It’s being performed by an orchestra and every sound you hear is made by a human, interacting with an instrument. A good musician “plays their heart” into every piece, and that’s the magic of music. Music is alive, because it’s made by live artists with beating hearts and living minds (which includes the faculty of imagination).
The wind instruments are, literally, inspired; the music is breathed into the instrument by the player. The strings and percussion are the product of a human body moving in such a way as to impart energy into the instrument and produce sound. There are no oscillators, no computers controlling the sound production; there are humans creating these sounds with mechanical devices. The result is music which is filled with humanity and human emotion. The joy, sorrow and dignity of every musician is part and parcel of the sound.
I started disliking popular music about two days after I was born.
Sounds like me and TV. I don’t like most popular music, but I do a mean Chuck Berry when the occasion calls for it. Once Rock n’ Roll became all about distorted guitars, I took a major step back.
And then there’s… rap.
Properly spelled with a capital C at the beginning. Our band played a community event yesterday, a benefit. As soon as we finished playing, some dolt in one of the vendor’s booths put on some rap. I wanted to puke.
Anyone remember that show “Meerkat Manor”? It was surprisingly entertaining for a nature show. And the meerkats were adorable.
Must’ve been in cable–I missed it.
I saw it, more than once, and got such a kick out of it.
Watched Meerkat Manor. It was very good.