Thursday, March 31, 2011

Your music

To celebrate the first signs of spring, I would like to offer a light topic this time. Music is an important element of our lives regardless of age, but it seems that young people are especially attracted to it. Blogs are an obvious opportunity to share it with others, and hence our new task:
Please write about a music performer  - a singer, an instrumentalist, a band, or maybe a choir - whatever or whoever you like listening to. Say what it is that makes their music special to you and share some of it with us. The most convenient way is to place a YouTube video in your post, but you can also add a link to their website or some other online features. I know that some of you have already done something of the kind, but I'm sure you can find more to share with us.
I would like to use this opportunity to present to you one of my old-time favorites: Annie Lennox's Walking on Broken Glass. You may be surprised to recognize some familiar faces there. ;) (This is what you might call 'a star-studded cast'.) The music itself is amazingly dynamic, with the string section so well suited to the 18th century style of the video, whose story is based on Dangerous Liaisons, an excellent film of the late 1980s.


The same music has been used in a YouTube video that smoothly combines various dance scenes from period drama movies. Since embedding has been blocked for that video, click here if you want to see it. I think I like it even better than the original one.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Good news?

Here is my next task for you:
With all the misery in the media these days - the tsunami and nuclear pollution in Japan or the unresolved situation in Libya - I was wondering if there is any good news around. Please browse some online news services, preferably in English, to find some news which makes you feel optimistic or inspired. It may be international, national or local news. Report the details of the story to us and say why you've chosen this particular one. Please add a link to the news story you've decided to share with us.