Deixa-me rir...

"Caros audiophiles, during this past week I have been observing and experiencing a common theme of communication, and lack of communication, and miscommunication.

Firstly, I have watched 3 films each one in some way revolving around communication - 127 Hours, a true story about a young free-spirited adventure climber who becomes trapped by a falling rock and is forced to cut off his own arm to escape, because he finds himself alone far away from civilisation and realises he has not told anyone where he was going; Blue Valentine about the ups and downs of a dysfunctional married couple who increasingly find it impossible to communicate on the same wavelength; Love & Other Drugs about a couple who begin a casual relationship but gradually realise that they love and need each other more than they imagined.

And I look forward to watching The King's Speech, with actor Colin Firth winning awards around the world this week, about our Queen's father King George VI's relationship with a speech therapist who helps him overcome his terrible inability to speak in public.

And then there was the comical (and politically engineered?) situation when the Chinese President Hu (or should that be Who?) did not reply to Barack Obama's questions about Chinese investment in America, in front of the world's media, because simultaneous Englsh-Chinese interpretation mysteriously broke down at that moment.

And finally, I have just started reading a biography of a song-writing musician who suffered two devastating brain haemorrhages which result in aphasia, an inability to use or to understand language, to express thoughts or to understand the thoughts of others; happily, he begins unexpectedly to recover and is eventually able to record an album of songs about his experiences.

Music and song are of course great communicators. And so it was pleasing that also during this past week Pink Floyd have at last agreed to permit their music to be reproduced and accessed through digital online media such as Apple i-Tunes.

Here are some extracts from their most famous and enduring masterpiece Dark Side Of The Moon, a commentary about trying to live your life in spite of the social pressures of time, of money and greed and poverty, of human division and conflict, alienation and insanity, and death, but ultimately climaxing with Eclipse, evolving a kind of hopeful unity through this shared humanity.

Us, and them,
And after all we're only ordinary men.
Me, and you.
God only knows it's not what we would choose to do.
'Forward' he cried from the rear
And the front rank died
And the General sat, and the lines on the map
Moved from side to side
Black and blue,
And who knows which is which and who is who.
Up and down.
But in the end it's only round and round.
Haven't you heard it's a battle of words
The poster bearer cried.
'Listen son', said the man with the gun
'There's room for you inside'.

Down and out
It can't be helped but there's a lot of it about.
With, without.
And who will deny it's what the fighting's all about?
'Out of the way', it's a busy day
I've got things on my mind.
For the want of the price of a tea and a slice
The old man died.

Eclipse:
All that you touch, all that you see
All that you taste, all you feel
All that you love, all that you hate
All you distrust, all you save
All that you give, all that you deal
All that you buy, beg borrow or steal
All you create, all you destroy
All that you do, all that you say
All that you eat, everyone you meet
All that you slight, everyone you fight
All that is now, all that is gone
All that's to come
and everything under the sun is in tune
But the sun is eclipsed by the moon.


A proxima,
PO