Don't worry, be happy... and the grand-daddy of beatboxing should know!

You won't be surprised to hear that Bobby McFerrin's 1980s hit single Don't worry, be happy is already in my collection of Bouncy Happy Tunes. Few songs are as cheering and chilled as this one!

But I'd never listened to any of his other music, until last night when I casually clicked on the Bobby McFerrin YouTube playlist. And what a revelation. I'm not a music critic, and the only words I can find are inadequate cliches like "Wow" and "Oh. My. God", so I won't even try. If you don't already know this music, just click on some of the links and listen.




Even if you do know some of McFerrin's music, you may not have made a connection between it and beatboxing - one of the most amazing music forms - a sort of awe-inspiring acapella hip-hop. Back in 2008 I enthused here about ReepsOne, a young beatboxer who left me joyfully stunned when I listened to him making his mouth-music in my friend's sitting room. ReepsOne won the UK Beatboxing championship the next year, but of course there was no such competition back in the '80s. Yet listen to Bobby McFerrin's version of Blackbird above, and you'll see he's obviously the funky grand-daddy of beatboxing!

How can people possibly make such unbelievable, beautiful sounds with only their voices?!

Flow x

Better than Telly

Leo Brazil and his Twitch

I went to a house gig last night.

Now, when I say 'house gig', I'm not describing the type of music: I literally mean that the gig was in a house. Yes, a house on a street, with a front door and windows and a kitchen and all the usual housey things. The sitting room was set up with rows of chairs, and the musicians were squeezed into a tiny sort of 'stage' area in a corner under a frilly standard lamp.

My friend Bar organises these gigs, in the house where he lives with his partner Jaq. He bills them as 'Better than Telly' nights, which is a great reminder that we can do more with our evenings than sit in front of the goggle box. I won't go all political on you (or not for long) but they're a fantastic antidote to the credit crunch, crazy Christmas consumerism and all the recent greyness!

Last night we heard Terry and Julie play great blues, then Leo Brazil playing a solo set of his bouncy, bluesy, funky, pyschedelic songs. (And look, doesn't his video have a very appropriate animation?!) Last time, it was Bar himself and the London acoustic hip-hop band Squab, with their totally gob-smacking human beat box guy, Reeps One.

If you look at either of the You Tube clips below, you'll see that this really is just an ordinary, smallish sitting room...

James 'Bar' Bowen

Squab

Better than Telly? Yeeaah - too bloody right! Now I'm wondering what exciting things I should do with my sitting room this Christmas!



Flow x

P.S. I promised you a new word every week. So here's this week's: Pasticulate (V.) To wave a spaghetti-entwined fork about while making a passionate point during a meal-time conversation.

Why yes, I do occasionally just burst out in song!

This morning I was fed up: I had to get up in the dark, and when it finally got light (about quarter to eight, for goodness sake!) I discovered my village was stuck inside a cloud and the day promised nothing but rain and greyness. This afternoon I was still fed up: more greyness, plus an added soupcon of grumpiness for good measure. This evening, I started out fed up ... but then I went to a singing group... and now I am HAPPY again!

Singing has got to be one of the BEST good things in life!

I know a lot of people will find this hard to believe. A lot of us get embarrassed for our singing when we are just little kids. My own humiliation was when I was eight, and our music teacher Mr Joiner (see - I remember his name) picked me last for our class choir. It took me decades to dare to open my mouth again. And of course, on the rare occasions I tried, it didn't sound good, 'cos voice muscles (like every other muscle in your body) won't work well when they're tense. Fear and singing don't mix well.

But my oh my oh my! If you can find a singing group to join - or if you're really shy, a secluded spot to indulge in secret singing - then GO FOR IT, please! There's nothing quite like singing for getting the endorphins going ... Yes, when it comes to the Happy Hormones, singing even gives sex a run for its money!

And if I really, really can't persuade you to try it yourself, then at least have a look at this Food Court Musical. It's singing as it should be: communal, spontaneous (well, maybe not!), just a little bit silly, and joyful! It'll make you smile - which is especially wonderful on an otherwise grey day!

Flow x

P.S. I adapted the title of this blog from a facebook group I'm rather fond of - thanks!

The sun HAS got its hat on!

Don't you just love it when the doom-mongers are wrong?!

First up is the weather forecaster on Thursday, who told me I could expect heavy rain again today. But as I write, I'm looking out my window at the blue sky and fast-scudding white clouds of a perfect autumn day ... well, HAH!

And just a couple of months ago, plenty of heavy-weight commentators were saying Obama couldn't win the US presidential elections, whether because of his race or because some other dirt could be dished that would spoil his chances ... well, HAH again!

And then there are those famous - or infamous - gloomy brickbats. Like the IBM chairman who, in 1943, so modestly speculated "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers". Or the DECCA music company executive who rejected the Beatles demo in 1962, saying "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out". Or - perhaps the most pessimistic prediction of all time - the World Health report in 1989 that claimed "There will be one million cases of AIDS in Britain by 1991". In fact there were around 8,000.

Why DO we seem to have got into such miserable habits? It's time for some more GOOD news stories! There are a few US sites, of which the best (by which I mean least schmaltzy and/or religious) seems to be http://www.happynews.com/, but I haven't found a British or European equivalent.

So here are my headlines... They're all TRUE, though it's just possible that not all of them made the national news.

• Mortgage rates now lowest since 1965!
  
• Youth rescues trapped dog by jumping in canal!


• Thief sends apology and £100, years after stealing cigs!


• "Tiggers Don't Like Honey" sketch fetches £31K at auction!
  

And if your taste for good news stories stetches as far as a willingness to listen to semi-amateur rock bands, then you might like to check out 'Canary Wolf' http://www.myspace.com/canarywolf . Their new song 'Credit Crunch' is at least as much about carrots as finance. As their lead singer says "It's not the end of the world, is it? There's benefits. We were all — myself included — spending money on things we didn't need".

They certainly know how to go-go with the flow!



Flow x