I was very fortunate to see Loreena McKennitt last night at Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville. Apart from a pure, amazing and overwhelmingly beautiful voice in the Irish folk style, she said a lot! Including a (fairly) short history of the Celtic tribes and their wanderings and music; a long commentary on the downside of progress and the inherent mistakes in that often greedy quest – including the use of fossil fuels in the last two hundred years and how that is destroying the atmosphere (these gases and pollutives were never meant to enter the atmosphere and thus are toxic); the effect of overuse of computers by adults and the addiction to video games by children which has brought about conditions such as ‘digital dementia’ and ‘electronic screen syndrome’ (I’ve been calling it ‘computer sickness’); plus stories of why she plays a small harp (it fit in her Honda Civic back in the ’80s) and all sorts of other stuff. So yes, she had a lot to say and it didn’t spoil the show one bit – made it more meaningful.
I was on stage with Michelle Shocked at a festival once and a guy yelled out, “Shut up and sing!”. Maybe they have been yelling that at us for years. Don’t hide your brilliance. Often there is something that must be said and we are the only ones who will say it. So, in the words of Bette Midler, ‘fuck ’em if they can’t take a joke…’
Interesting Link: http://anxietyfreechild.com/gaming-and-child-anxiety/
