it's got me hypnotised

I'm just steppin' in the room like,
waiting for the bassline,
speakers that can dry my hair,
I'm just lookin' in your eyes like,
ready when the time's right,
poppin' like we pop this here,
I'm just banging on a beat like,
checkin' out ya feet like,
tip it like you just don't care,
dance like you never did dance before,
got love for the beat but hate for the floor
whatchu waiting for?

The afternoon went by a little too quickly for my liking. After my 2 hour lunch, I suddenly found myself with a million and one things to do before the end of the day,
including handholding someone through how a test client worked and having to kick off a 2 hour code build (at 4pm) when I had to be at the Barbican at 7pm for a concert. Luckily, even though I got sidetracked at the pub enroute to the Barbican I still managed to get there before everyone else :)

The concert wasn't my choice. My hugely cultural friend wanted to go see the Singapore Chinese Orchestra and I agreed to give it a go. In actual fact, I really enjoyed it. The conductor was amazing. I've never seen any other conductor move around so much - he totally reminded me of Jackie Chan in Twin Dragons :)
The second half was a multi sensory experience (except when Michael Nyman turned up and introduced his piece which was like 5 groups of musicians playing different tunes in the same key) One piece, called Divine Melody was played whilst a painting was 'painted' on a projection screen. The painting appeared stroke by stroke, first in black and white, then the colours filled in. Whilst my eyes were mesmerised by the movement of the invisible brush, the music worked it's way into my head. It made me think of a conversation I had about how much the lighting could enhance the experience at a concert. There's a bit in the piece that I remember over everything else - towards the end where the whole picture (fully formed by this time) was edited in such a way that certain parts of it were highlighted. Given that the painting was of a buddha/god with a halo around their head surrounded by birds and clouds, this made the entire experience quite surreal.

I am fascinated by orchestral conductors. They have so much power. The whole orchestra orbits around the conductor who has a responsibility for every movement, every sound. With a flick of his wrist or nod of his head (and I'm not trying to be sexist here, I am not ignoring female conductors/conductresses?? :) ) he can alter the mood of the whole piece. Tsung Yeh this evening was very athletic. He jumped and grimaced and turned as if he were dancing to the music. Like a god, he had total command and respect of the musicians. I wondered what it might be like to be where he was standing. I could imagine his stand to be like a bubble, a war chamber. Such concentration it must take to follow his music, section by section, giving orders simultaneously in real-time. No wonder they're all so eccentric :)