5 things that are related just by being in my brain at the same time:

[capri0mni]

1) This video

Why did this never get to the same meme level as Troll Face? 'Cause I think it's just about the most pro-fun thing ever...

2) At the other end of the spectrum is this video, about the ultimate fates of the dogs seized from Michael Vick's Dog-fighting establishment: The Dogs are Alright (content notes: the "Ending" is far happier than anyone first expected, but there are several specific mentions of cruelty -- and it was not a happy ending for all the dogs); watched it yesterday, and it made me have ALL THE FEELS. (it's a smidge over 15 minutes)

3) There's a cultural meme floating around in the ether of Zeitgeist-dom that terminally ill children/teens/youth are somehow extra-special founts of angel-blessed Wisdom... But really, I think that most kids are equally "wise" -- or foolish. It's just that there's this attitude in the culture that kids are to be ignored until they have the legal autonomy to be money-makers... But when kids have a terminal, or potentially terminal disease, and the grown-ups around them realize that they may never live long enough to enter the economy, they get listened to now, and the grown-ups are astounded by how insightful they are about so many things...

4) The other day, someone posted a comment on my song video "Simply Human," which I posted last year:

"I really liked the lyrics..you've got more work to do on your singing though"

I know life is too short to let such criticisms get to me... But I let it get to me, and posted this in response:

"Thank you. I do consider myself more of a writer than a musician.... I don't pretend to be anything else. (And I also believe, as a general philosophy, that refraining from singing because your voice is less than perfect misses the point of being human -- the same goes for any other talent).

As for my voice in particular: I have cerebral palsy, which means I can't control the muscles of my voice (or legs, or hands) as well as someone who was born with a normal brain."

Not so much to try and convince that guy, but just as an opportunity to get those ideas into the discussion, for people who wander by later.....

5) I really should make another video... I was in the middle of making a video of my Art Garden "Harvest" poem when my old computer died... :-(

Comments

[raze]

1. Ah, I love Seven Seconds Of Love and rathergood.com; so funny, so goofy. Great pick-me-up.
2. I had the wonderful opportunity to visit and volunteer with Best Friends Animal Society, who took most of the sanctuary-only dogs. They have an *amazing* program for all dogs, but the advocacy work they've been doing for fighting pits lately has been very heartening. There is a misconception that these dogs are inherently dangerous, and having worked with several myself, have found only the opposite to be true. That public opinion is beginning to shift in their favor makes me happy.
3. Yes, this.
4. I think it's good that he was informed; perhaps it'll make him think different on what constitutes a "good" voice. I think yours is lovely :) And despite my "normal" voice control, I wouldn't have the cajones to post a video of my singing.
5. I would very much like to see that video!

Sorry I've been a turd and not commenting, ftr. It doesn't mean I'm not reading! I'm having a very difficult time with social.

[capri0mni]

You are not now, nor have you ever been, a turd -- unless maybe you trace the atoms in your body back to a turd that fertilized the food that fed an ancestor and got metabolized into one of the amino acids in your DNA... In which case, we are all equally turds. No sweat.

1. I wish this were at a meme level, so I could say, in a crowd: "Who's winning?" and have someone call back: "We're all winning!"

2. IIRC, both Buster Brown's dog Tige and Nana from Peter Pan were originally pit bulls...because a hundred years ago, it was understood that they were great companions to children...

3. I was thinking this, if I recall, as part of a constellation of thoughts around the prevalent belief that CP = retardation -- whether someone is judged as "intelligent" or not, depends, to a scary degree on whether someone in power deems you worthy of being listened to.

4. Which leads to a peeve of mine that "only perfectly pretty voices should sing."

5. I would, too! I may get back to work on it once I get used to the new MovieMaker, and it no longer makes me want to pull out all my hair...

[jesse_the_k]

1. CHANT fodder! That's awesome. (Two years ago, there were many folks rallying around our capital, against our Governor. We always need more chant fodder. Great ones spread fast, and I'm going to take yours for a spin the next time I have a chance.) "What does democracy look like?" and the crowd roars "This is what democracy looks like."

3. Is so wise it could have come from a four-year-old /runs for cover

4. You're brave to post a video in the first place. Enabling comments is super-bold.

[capri0mni]

Re: 1 --

Just teach the response you want to a few key fellow chanters, so that when you call out: "Who's Winning?" you don't get the answer: "They are!" ;-)

Re: 4 --

The thing is, my mother was active in the Clearwater organization (she was president for several years), which meant that most of my childhood was spent growing up in a culture headed, and to a large extent, shaped, by Pete Seeger; raising your voice and joining in on the chorus was simply part of proper social participation.

Then, I move down here, and am dismayed to find that nobody sings, but that prerecorded music is piped in everywhere (so it hampers conversation). If I want more people to sing with, I have to start somewhere... Also, I want to gain more open acceptance for the "CP accent"

[smw]

(3) Interesting thought! It seems to me that the narrative of Wisdom requires a person to be in some ways Other; "normal" people can be intelligent, but Wisdom comes with old age*, illness, disability, traumatic experience, etc. That there's underlying factors for why any particular trait qualifies you to have it makes sense.

* Tangential to which, in the Middle Ages, "You're old!" was considered a clever insult and quite funny. It also meant anyone who was over ~35.

(4) You're right, I think, to linking singing with humanness. While appreciation of very good voices makes sense to me, it makes me grumpy that this too has been connected to the profit motive—I think people assume you want to make money off it someday if you're singing to an audience.

[capri0mni]

Regarding 4 --

I have a sneaking suspicion that the (relatively) modern idea that A: only flawless voices are worth listening to is directly linked to B: the assumption of profit-motive.

If you believe A, then your only experience of singing will be that which you've bought -- through the mechanism of B.