Friday, April 17, 2009

What the World Could be Like (and already is like, when we know where to look)



A big thank-you to Almira for sharing this. I'd not heard of Playing for Change and as beautiful as is this first gorgeous 20C spring day here in Toronto, it is the more beautiful still for learning of this global collaboration. I've been singing a whole lot of lullabies and gospel and folk songs and shape notes hymns lately (it's great to have the audience of such singular devotion that an infant can be) and i've been marveling at how universal the joy and peace of music seems to be. I'm especially fond of two lullabies - one from Samoa and one from Malta - that i have learned only through their sounds. And, though worlds apart, yet these beautiful melodies and lyrics carry love and joy and peace that can bridge the vast distances of geography and culture. What a marvelous idea to use this internet technology to connect people - not just in artistic collaboration, but also for the sake of world peace. What if we used all our clever industrial and digital technologies in this way? (Check out the Playing for Change website for other videos - click on "The Media" link).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've seen this and liked it except for the fact that there are so few women singing.

Chris cavanagh said...

Yes, indeed, it continues to be the condition of our world that women's participation in virtually anything is something that has to be balanced after the fact.

i do hope that Playing for Change proves more mindful and pro-active about this. There is one simply stunning female singer on their video Don't Worry which you'll find through their "The Media" link.