EMP in the US

One of the great things about needing to make a whole new set of friends is that you have to catch up on shared references really quickly! Our new friends have been recommending lots of films for us to see, which have been varied and interesting.

One of them I found particularly inspirational:
August Rush (click to watch a trailer)

It’s quite cheesy at times, and full of Hollywood sentimentality, but it tells a good story and there’s some fun music-making to be enjoyed too. Robin Williams is good in it too – he doesn’t ham it up, like he has in some of his films.

Anyway, it inspired some music-making of our own. This may seem ridiculous but in all my teenage-angst guitar-playing years, it never occurred to me to change the tuning of my guitar, other than to lower the low E-string to a D for a couple of songs. I never experimented with anything – I was far too conventional! So the above movie inspired me to dig out my old teenage guitar (which I STILL haven’t managed to part with!) and tune the strings to “other”. We had a bit of fun, and of course the kids got to have a go. It may not make sense unless you see the August Rush film, oh, and I normally edit the ends of the footage, but Ollie was just too funny in this one!

Thomas took it all very seriously, as ever:

Incidentally, before we leave the subject of tuning, I have to alert people to this, as it’s totally fascinating, and indeed Bobby McFerrin is now high on my list of minor deities, with Terry Pratchett and Howard Goodall. Thanks actually go to David for showing me this:
Bobby McFerrin Pentatonic (YouTube link)

And finally, I thought I’d let you see our now naked climbing tree, as we are now officially in “stick season” (which preceeds “snow season” and then “mud season”).

Ollie still likes it though!