Wednesday 27 March 2013

Sasquatch and Fiddle.

I often wonder why certain people choose to play certain instruments. Take the man in the white shirt playing the violin, for example.


He looks too big to play a violin. He looks as though he should be riding an elephant across the Alps, or leading a band of desperadoes in 19th century Mexico. He looks as though any one of his fingers would be unable to avoid pressing three strings at a time and he’d play all the wrong notes. And when he gets to the fast bits, you’d think the chair would collapse.

So what made him choose something as delicate as a violin? Was it a response to some deep psychological trauma, perhaps, like having had the nickname ‘The Abominable Snowman’ when he was at school? Does the white shirt give the clue to it all?

*  *  *

I played the trombone in the school orchestra, you know. Everybody else was rubbish, even Jennifer Howell who played the cello, which is an awful shame considering the knee positions of lady cellists. Not that Jennifer was any lady. She got me into trouble in the school play: she forgot her lines, and I got the blame. What I could never understand, though, was why the string section was perpetually flat. How could they all get their fingers in the wrong place at the same time? Seems they did.

When I left school I took up the guitar.

I could have been someone.

Well, so could anyone.

Best Christmas song ever. If only it wasn’t March, I’d listen to that instead.

15 comments:

Anthropomorphica said...

Ah yes The Pogues, that is a good one. Glad to be back reading, smirking and chuckling!

JJ said...

Glad you're amused, Mel. And it's good to see you back.

Anonymous said...

I like it when these huge, bear-like men do something seemingly out of character. He reminds me of Beorn, a little.

I used to play the cello. Though I LOVE the way it sounds, learning was more trouble than it was worth. I'm too small to tote a full-sized cello around.

JJ said...

I like it, too. But I can't take my eyes off this guy. There's something about the incongruity that fascinates me, especially when he smiles, for some reason.

Oddly, the cellist with this band reminds me of you a bit. Big hair and the Levantine look, mainly. And she plays the cello beautifully. She's best seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km79e9GWvRU

Anonymous said...

His smile was the golden moment for me.

Hmm, the similarity's there I suppose, and I certainly would like to be able to play the cello as well. And I have to say: my hair hasn't quite gotten to the point of hers, haha.

Soul-stirring, the çello is.

JJ said...

I generally prefer smiles to laughs, not because they're more restrained, but because they're capable of more subtle variation. Galadriel does a smile in LOTR that still gives me goose bumps every time I see it on YouTube.

I'm going to place a small wager that you blog fan comments on your hair before too long.

Somebody once said to me that the viola makes 'sunset music.' Would that make the cello moonlight music, do you think?

Anonymous said...

I agree, and seeing his smile, I very much wanted to feel what the Bear Man was feeling in that moment. A secret: Galadriel gives me the chills, and not in a good way. I find her profoundly creepy.

Hah!

Cello IS moonlight music. More specifically moonlight on snow in deep winter. Yet, I don't feel cold listening. :]

JJ said...

Mmm, I'd say you're empathic. I never thought you would so respond to the smile. Best beware overload.

So, you got me thinking. It seems to me that three images of female beauty are being presented in that film (David Lynch did the same thing in Twin Peaks.) There's the earthy, forthright image in Eowyn, the ethereal, Romantic image in Arwen, and the self-possessed, mystical image in Galadriel. The first two would sacrifice themselves if necessary for their beloved. They're warm, and essentially creatures of the light. Galadriel, by contrast, is cold, powerful and self-protective, and lives as much in the dark as the light. I find them all magnetic, just in different ways.

Hah, indeed! How's it feel to be even more beautiful than cows, dogs, and fruit blossom?

Interesting that the moon music analogy should arise on the very night when a full moon shone on a cold, wintry landscape here in the Shire.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps.

I agree with your assessment,though I'm not so moved by the women of Tolkien's universe. It could just be because I'm female, myself. That said, I quite enjoyed Aragorn, whom I wish I could adopt as my Cool Uncle.

Didn't you hear? The very same day I took those photos, the cows, dogs, fruit blossom, and I all participated in a beauty contest. When the camel (he declined a photo) pinned the 1st place ribbon to my blouse, I damn near cried.

I'm magic, man.

JJ said...

If I remember correctly, only those who get tiaras are entitled to cry.

But of course you're magic, Sara. That's why you're one of the few people allowed into my world-of-one. I do hope you don't take that as a compliment. It works the other way, obviously.

Anonymous said...

If the feckin' tree hadn't been so affronted at my winning, I might have lent me some twigs and blossoms to make one.

I didn't?

Anonymous said...

*it might have...

Damn.

JJ said...

Your typos are perfectly normal, you know. I'm always typing 'I' for 'it.'

Erm... OK, maybe they're not normal. Maybe they're mad people's typos.

I should clarify (actually, I should be more careful!) When I wrote 'it works the other way,' I didn't mean that you should take it as the opposite of a compliment, but that 'tis I who should be the recipient.

Anonymous said...

Crazy people don't know they're crazy, so... I don't know.

I see. How about a compromise? It's a compliment to us both.

JJ said...

See? Idioms again. I was going to say 'crazy' because I knew that's the word you'd use. But then I didn't.

OK, compromise it is.