Everybody Says Don't!

The edge is the most interesting place to be. But the pressure to remain dead centre is always there. Sometimes those who venture further afield get the distinct feeling that “Everybody Says Don’t”. Well, not so much as "Don't do this" but rather "Be more normal".  Here is a great fight song for all those who make the journey out to where it isn’t "normal". It is sometimes lonely there, but also strangely joyous.

 "Everybody Says Don't" is a composition by Stephen Sondheim from the musical "Anyone Can Whistle".

 The vocalist you will hear is my sister Michelle.  She recorded this when she was in the US in 2007/8. This recording project, consisting of several songs, was a culmination of a series of vocal technique classes she had been taking. Here it is:

Blog Idea: "Stand by Me" - A Metaphor for Teamwork?

It's not often that you cheer at the end of a YouTube video clip, but cheer I did at the end of this one.  I discovered this in the "featured video" section of the YouTube homepage as I was browsing through the site one day. (Btw, this is not the first time I have found gems in the featured video section.) I was intrigued by what I heard, and I was very inspired by the joyous interpretation of the piece, which I have known since I was young.  But I have never heard it it done this way before. In the description, the authors wrote that this clip is from an award-winning documentary called "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music", It adds that “this is the first of many "songs around the world" being released independently”, and that this video “is a cover of the Ben E. King classic by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it travelled the globe”.

I was thoroughly impressed by this unique kind of collaboration which transcends geographical boundaries, done with much love and facilitated by technology. I had a vague idea that this is teamwork at its purest and finest. So I thought that I will make this great video and the idea about teamwork the basis for a blog activity. Here's the video. The activity description follows.

 

Blog Idea:

Based on this video, students will embed the video into their own blogs and answer the following questions through a new posting.

 

·         Do you like this video? Why?

·         Do you think that this production is a good metaphor for teamwork?

 

Happy blogging :-)