Dylan Thomas

If you like words and the sounds of words and the unusual combinations of words then Dylan Thomas fits the bill.  He did not Go Gentle into That Good Night but raged through his life leaving a body of work that includes poems, screenplays, short stories and longer poems for radio - he called these 'plays for voices' such as Under Milk Wood.

The Outing is my favourite short story.  I love the descriptions of the characters, the humour and the combination of sounds which mean that if you read it out loud you just can't help but use a Welsh accent.

He had a complicated love life and smoked and drank excessively.  He lived in England, in London for a time, and spent time in America, but he is best known for living at The Boathouse in Laugharne, which is now preserved as a museum.

The links here take you to, firstly, Philip Madoc reading The Outing in two parts.

Richard Burton Reading from the start of Under Milk Wood.



And finally Thomas himself reading A Child's Christmas in Wales.



The Dawn Chorus

One of the most serene and pleasing sounds is the dawn chorus of wild and garden birds.  Sit back and listen to the first clip.

This one has comments by the sound archivist at the British Library.

Sacred Harp Music

We discovered this sound when we watched Antony Mingella's wonderful film of Cold Mountain (in there with Top Films - fantastic performances by all of the cast and a great soundtrack.)

I knew nothing about Sacred Harp music and the wonderful harmonies from the Baptist tradition but this version of  'I'm Coming Home' shows exactly how it works.  The singers sing the sounds of the song first then when everyone knows the 'tune' the words are added.  This is the choir who sang for the soundtrack of the film rehearsing.  You can see more on the DVD extras if you have the film.  Get it if you don't.  It is a most unusual sound. 

You need to have the film to see the family in church singing this song - towards the start of the film.

Should also mention that the other songs on the soundtrack are also wonderful, many of them written by Jack White, from the White Stripes, who also appears in the film.

Influential Thinkers

Came across this fascinating website when looking for speakers around the education theme.  Called TED Ideas Worth Spreading it engages speakers who are influential in their sphere and lets them take an idea or theme to develop and films it so that others can hear what is said and comment or build on the thinking.  have a look around for areas you might be interested in but below are some of the videaos that I found engaging and engrossing. (Some of them are quite long but worth it.)

RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms based on talk by Ken Robinson

Do Schools Kill Creativity? 

Ken Robinson

Bring on the Learning Revolution

Ken Robinson

 Can Kids teach themselves?

Sugata Mitra

New Experiments in Self Teaching

Sugata Mitra

My Desert Island Discs

Went for a walk in the sun to think this through.  Remember that this is as of today and that they might be different at another time!

Dancing in the Moonlight - Toploader

Kooks - David Bowie

Love and Affection - Joan Armatrading

Hey there Delilah - Plain White Tees

Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol

Misere - Alegri

Adagio - Barber

(and the choral version)

Sail Away - David Gray

The Spaghetti Western Orchestra

Five guys from Melbourne who are fans of the music from spaghetti westerns and who use strange and unusual instruments to recreate with audience participation and lots of laughing and fun.

The Spaghetti Western Orchestra

Listen to them at the BBC Proms 2011

 

Today I have been listening to...

A classic:

Olympic Bid Win

Going for a bit of a theme with the posts today, starting with a piece of video that never ceases to make me smile, not necessarily because Britain won, but how can you not smile along with people when they are sooo happy and ecstatic in their response after all of their hard work.

History of the World in 100 Objects

One hundred programmes each dealing with an individual object which when put together tell the history of the world. 

The programme was written and presented by Neil Mac Gregor, Director of the British Museum with experts from around the world.  The whole programme created a big picture joining up elements of world history to give a sense of the inter-relatedness of humanity.

You can still hear all of the programmes here and link to the British Museum website for even more details here.

These are just a tiny sample of the objects.

What would you have chosen?  The final object was not announced until the last minute.  It had to represent now and into the future.  What would you have chosen for that?  You can see the full 100 objects here.

Elephants

I don't know why it has taken me until now to get round to posting some pictures about Elephants.  They have always been my favourite animal and have kept me smiling since I was a very little girl.

 I grew up with pictures from Africa in my dad's albums and then have a very vivid memory of the Blue Peter team, especially Valerie Singleton going to the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka as one of their expeditions in 1969.  It was still Ceylon then.

I started to collect elephants and now have a lots.  On our last long travels I bought a new elephant in every country that we visited and I intend to do the same when we set off this time too.

In 2010 we were lucky enough to go to Sri Lanka ourselves and we got to visit the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage.  I got to feed a baby elephant milk and we got prime seats on the edge of the river to watch as they all came down to bathe.

But not only did we do that.  We hapened to be in the ancient capital, Kandy, at the same time as the start of the Perahra.  This is a Festival which lasts for several days linked to the display of the Tooth of the Buddha which is normally housed in the Temple of the Tooth in the city.  Elephants come from every corner of the country to take part in this prestigious event.  As do dancers and families and travellers.   It was like a dream to sit and watch as the elephants paraded with dancers and drums and fabulous howdahs, their beautiful costumes all lit with electric lighting.  An amazing sight.

You can watch a video of the Perahara here.