A BLOGGER’S OBLIGATIONS: SHARING FINDS
When we find something that blows us away, that touches us somewhere in the deep recesses of our hearts – sometimes for an odd reason – in this case because something about Mark reminded me of our middle son, so that when they appeared in my FaceBook feed, with an instrument (the Chapman stick) I’d never heard about, I was intrigued enough to listen: we need to share.
They travel – and busk.
There are, according to Mark’s website, about 8000 Chapman sticks in the world.
It’s like saying ‘there are about 8000 pianos in the world.’ Not a very big number. Not surprising I’d never heard of them (the Chapman sticks) or seen them played.
Their music is unique. There are links on his site to the inventor and pictures, if you care to follow.
The music is the important part
The first video I saw, on FB, was them playing ‘Hallelujah cover on two Chapman Sticks – performed by Cascade,‘ and Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah is one of my favorite songs. Their instrumental cover is simply beautiful.
Because of my ME/CFS, I have a very hard time listening to music, instrumental or otherwise, and have a horrible tendency to get earworms from it, and to not be able to get it out of my head for literally weeks (I think it’s one of the many processing problems from the damage the disease does to the brain).
So I don’t listen much any more – but Cascade’s versions don’t kick that pile of dust up. I just went through making up a weeks’ pills, listened to 3-4 of their pieces, and none of them wrangled my brain to the ground, so I was immediately prejudiced in their favor, because I LOVE music, and miss it greatly.
So here are a few links for the like-minded
Let me know what you think:
Lost in Time, filmed at Lake Constance in Germany.
The Way Home, new from July 2022.
Floating away, street performance in Molde, Norway.
May you find something you love.
They have the usual CDs and digital downloads – I’ll explore them in the future and definitely get some of their music.
Bon appetit!
***********
NETHERWORLD is a few tiny steps from uploaded to Amazon – but Mark and Steffi were a beautiful interruption, and I needed to find something like Cascade.
**********
liebjabberings 
Mark and Steffi travel through Norway in July 2022, shown to the new piece, “Razor’s Edge.” Some SPECTACULAR… cascades.
LikeLike
Never heard of them before. 🙂 … what a sublime sound. 😀
LikeLike
It is lovely – and I’ve never done what they do, take their sound to public plazas around the world to share (or what you’ve done with your RV) – and I wish I had.
Maybe it’s just wanderlust, but the novel instruments, the sweet playing (and original music!) – it got to me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a wonderful gift that feeling is. 🙂
LikeLike
But it is also painful, and I can’t take the adrenaline – so I thought I’d share it with my readers and at least feel I’ve contributed a tiny bit to Cascade’s visibility.
LikeLike
Thank you for sharing, Alicia. I really enjoy the sound. And I’m looking forward to the release of ‘Netherworld’.
LikeLike
Thanks, Jennifer. It’s driving me crazy to have to be involved with a physical problem I MUST deal with, the launch – waiting for a good hour, and the paperwork problem I have to get done BEFORE I go in for surgery – and not being able to advance a millimeter on any of them.
I’ll get there – I usually do, eventually – but it’s exhausting! And the main part of the work is done, but something keeps jumping ahead in line.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! I’ve never heard of Chapman sticks so I had to look it up. Amazing that it/they were only invented 50 years ago.
On a separate note, I’m so sorry that so much of music is denied to you. Do classical instrumentals have the same effect?
LikeLike
Anything I can remember will turn into an earworm. And I can’t get rid of it.
Most good classical instrumentals are very memorable.
LikeLiked by 1 person
True. I thought perhaps not having lyrics would make a difference.
LikeLike
Though I anyway know very little about ME/CFS – mostly what you have shared – I must say that what you described about earworms was fairly surprising; and creepy, too. May I ask, do you get them only through aural input (that is, listening to a song)? Or does it happen if you e.g. read about a song you know and you then start remembering/”hearing” it in your head?
PS. Interesting instrument, this Chapman stick!
LikeLike
All of those ways – except singing an dplaying with a group, which we haven’t done for a while in our senior community, because singing seems to project the coronavirus very nicely.
I read somewhere that ‘God save the Queen’ is one of the best ways to get rid of earworms; there have been nights when it took MANY rounds of that before I had any peace.
It has to do with the ability to process – which takes more energy than people realize.
The whole traveling and playing on the public square was lovely, and the instrument unique.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Another thought: ME/CFS is so close to Long covid in symptoms and effect, that you are going to be hearing a lot more – unless they manage to sweep these illnesses under the rug again, and ignore millions new sick people.
LikeLiked by 1 person