Learning from Dogs

Big thanks to John H. for forwarding this to me.

Sit back and relax.

Nothing more except to wish everyone, wherever you are, a peaceful week-end, above or below the surface of the ocean!

Great reminder of the power of a smile and a laugh!

With grateful thanks to Merci O. from here in Payson who emailed the link to me.  Apologies if you have seen it before; well over 1.8 million have!

Dancing like you have never, ever seen it before!

Unless you are one of the several million that have watched a couple of versions on YouTube.

Anyway, the YouTube link was sent to me by Katie S.

Watch and be overwhelmed.

Duo MainTenanT

Composed by Nicolas Besnard (former guest hand to hand of Cirque du Soleil “Zumanity” 2005-2009) and Shenea Booth (formerly of Duo Realis and two time Sport Acrobatic World Champion).

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Nicolas Besnard developed his art at National Circus School and at the University of Dance of Montreal. In 2005, Nicolas was invited to be a guest act in the sexiest production of Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas – Zumanity where he performed over 2000 times in four years.

He has performed all around the globe and has appeared in many different TV shows: Le Plus Grand Cabaret du Monde, Benissimo, …

He also won the Silver Medal in Paris at the most recognized Circus Festival in the world – 31st Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain and made it to the finals of French Got Talent.

Shenea Booth is a former two time World Champion in Acrobatic Gymnastics, and is a recent USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame Inductee.  In 2004 she retired from the competitive arena and evolved into a world renowned artist, creating a groundbreaking genre of entertainment as an acrobatic duo.

As an entertainer, Shenea has made special appearances on Dancing With The Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, Cirque Du Soliel premier special events, NBC’s Ice Skating and Gymnastics Spectacular, and was a finalist on Americas Got Talent.

Today, Shenea and Nicolas have come together to combine their unique and original artistic knowledge of acrobatic dance and create a breathtaking master piece.

Just be amazed!

Another gem sent to me by friend, Dan Gomez.  Make sure you watch/listen to the end!

Have a great Boxing Day! (the Brits will know what I mean!)

Enjoy!

The following video was sent to me a week ago by Cynthia S.

The Carlson School of Management received a surprise visit from a saxophonist…and nearly 300 of his friends from the University of Minnesota’s School of Music this November.

“Deck the Halls” arr. Francisco J. Núñez and Jim Papoulis from “Coolside of Yuletide”

Special Thanks To: Greg Wrenn (saxophone), Campus Singers Maroon, Gold, and Mosaic; Men’s Chorus, Women’s Chorus, University Singers, Kathy S. Romey (coordinator), Judy Sagen and Kelley Sundin (choreography), Phillip O’Toole (audio), Boosey & Hawkes, Northern Lights Video, Michael Teachout, Bryan Koop (director of photography), Steve Rudolph (producer)

And my second contribution for this Christmas day was sent to me by local roofing contractor here in Payson, Bill Shreeve (greatly recommended, by the way!).  Here’s what Bill sent,

The Amazing Grace Christmas House. Designed and programmed by Richard Holdman in Pleasant Grove, Utah.

FAQ
The display uses about $130 of electricity per season.
It has raised over $40,000 for the Make-a-wish foundation.
There are about 60,000 lights and located in Pleasant Grove, Utah.
Traffic at one time was backed up over a mile for people waiting to see it.
It takes about 4 people to manage the traffic.
Music is transmitted over the radio while people view it.

Wherever you are in the world, have a wonderful, loving and peaceful day.

Continuing the advice you might offer to the next generation?

On the 1st December I published the first message.  It had been inspired by a conversation with Peter McCarthy, who lives and works in Bristol, England.  Here’s a little of what I wrote,

Anyway, Peter and I were talking about the sorts of qualities that enable some young people to take a risk-based entrepreneurial approach to life.  Peter gave me the links to three videos that he thought were especially relevant to the notion of achieving success in life.  So over the next few days I want to share those videos with you, dear reader.  To me, these videos are, indeed, the essence of the messages that any person, especially those the wrong side of 60, would wish to leave in a bottle floating down the river of life.

So to the second message which is a recording of the talk that Sir Ken Robinson gave to the TED Talks conference in Monterey in February, 2006.  It has been widely seen for all the right reasons; Sir Ken offers some powerful common-sense and a wonderful message for all the young people out there.  As Sir Ken’s website says,

Sir Ken Robinson, PhD is an internationally recognized leader in the development of education, creativity and innovation.  He is also one of the world’s leading speakers with a profound impact on audiences everywhere.  The videos of his famous 2006 and 2010 talks to the prestigious TED Conference have been seen by an estimated 200 million people in over 150 countries.

Read the rest of Sir Ken’s background here.

So with no more ado, here’s the film, watched by nearly 3 million people!

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

The above is a quote attributed to the Buddha.  It is perfect as an introduction to today’s piece.

When I sat down at my PC yesterday afternoon I was planning to finish off a Post about the BBC’s fabulous Frozen Planet TV series.  But a check of my email changed all that.  Because there was an email from Merci O., someone in Payson that Jean and I know well.  Merci had sent me an email with a link to the following YouYube video.

Watch and be moved.

This is a non-commercial attempt to highlight the fact that world leaders, irresponsible corporates and mindless ‘consumers’ are combining to destroy life on earth. It is dedicated to all who died fighting for the planet and those whose lives are on the line today. The cut was put together by Vivek Chauhan, a young film maker, together with naturalists working with the Sanctuary Asia network (www.sanctuaryasia.com).

Content credit: The principal source for the footage was Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s incredible film HOME http://www.homethemovie.org/. The music was by Armand Amar. Thank you too Greenpeace and http://timescapes.org/

Another musing from Neil K.

I want to write a little more about Neil but, first, let me show you what he passed to me a few days ago.

 Ten years ago we had Steve Jobs, Johnny Cash, Bob Hope and Jimmy Saville; now we’ve no jobs, no cash, no hope and no one to fix it.

I’m aware that there will be many people who read this who may not be familiar with Jimmy Saville and his long-running television programme Jim’ll Fix It.  Here’s a taste of that programme,

Sir Jimmy was an amazing man and natural performer.  More on his life later.  Let me turn back to Neil.

Those of you who are regular readers of Learning from Dogs will have seen over the last few months a number of entries from Devon friend of many years, Neil K.  Neil’s surname is Kelly, no relation to the infamous Ned Kelly!  Do a search from the home page of the Blog for more of Neil’s contribtions.  Or try this one, The Story of Adam & Eve’s Pets.

Anyway, Neil has very kindly offered to contribute on a regular basis and, of course, I welcomed that with open arms.  So a big ‘thank you’ from me and I’m sure many others will look forward to Neil’s contributions.  Neil is updating his website, at which point I will ask Neil to say a little more about himself.

Back to Jimmy Saville.

Read the rest of this entry »

Two moving films.

I am indebted to Merci O. who regularly comments on Learning from Dogs for sending me the first film, see below.  In my efforts to find a YouTube link (there didn’t appear to be one) I came across the second film.  Both are good for the soul.

So click here to watch the first film.  The film is comprised of a series of slides melded together with a beautiful music track. Do watch and listen.

Then here is the YouTube video, Morcheeba’s Enjoy The Ride.

Have a peaceful day wherever you are in the world.

A wonderful tribute to Yuri Gagarin and all his team.

When I recently wrote of it being 41 years since Swigert on board Apollo 13 transmitted “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” I also included a closing reflection as follows,

Finally, this Post is published, not only on the 41st anniversary of that memorable Apollo Flight but the day after the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s first flight of a human into space, the 12th April, 1961.

Coincidentally, our favourite documentary film website, Top Documentary Films, featured on April 14th the new film First Orbit.  We watched the film that night.  It was a most unusual format for a film, yet a most haunting experience.  Watching the credits, it then became clear that the film was a co-operative venture made especially for the 50th anniversary of that remarkable, historic flight.

Of course, had I previously been aware of the venture and this remarkable film then it would have been promoted on Learning from Dogs in good time before the anniversary date.  However, better late than never!

Indeed, there is a dedicated website in recognition of this First Orbit.  Here’s the background to the film,

April 12th 1961 – Yuri Gagarin is about to see what no other person has seen in the history of humanity – the Earth from space. In the next 108 minutes he’ll see more than most people do in a lifetime. What sights awaited the first cosmonaut silently gliding over the world below? What was it like to view the oceans and continents sailing by from such a height?

In a unique collaboration with the European Space Agency, and the Expedition 26/27 crew of theInternational Space Station, we have created a new film of what Gagarin first witnessed fifty years ago.

By matching the orbital path of the Space Station, as closely as possible, to that of Gagarin’s Vostok 1spaceship and filming the same vistas of the Earth through the new giant cupola window, astronaut Paolo Nespoli, and documentary film maker Christopher Riley, have captured a new digital high definition view of the Earth below, half a century after Gagarin first witnessed it.

Weaving these new views together with historic, recordings of Gagarin from the time, (subtitled in Englsih) and an original score by composer Philip Sheppard, we have created a spellbinding film to share with people around the world on this historic anniversary.

The music in the film is most beautiful, quite moving.  Here’s the background to the music from the First Orbit website,

The music in our film is all composed by Philip Sheppard and comes from his album Cloud Songs.

First Orbit’s producer Christopher Riley first worked with Philip in 2006 on the Sundance Award winning feature documentary film ‘In the Shadow of the Moon‘ and since then Philip had been working on a new suite of music inspired by spaceflight.

“We’d been working with some of these tracks on another project” says Chris, “and we suddenly realised how perfectly they could compliment ‘First Orbit’ as well. We contacted Philip to ask his permission to use them, only to find that his entire Cloud Song album was already in orbit onboard the International Space Station!”

“NASA astronaut Cady Coleman, had them on her iPod” says Philip. “Her husband Josh Simpson is a friend of mine and they’d listened to a lot of my music together before she left, so I made up a playlist for her!”

Quite by coincidence Cady had been listening to the music in ‘First Orbit’ at one end of the Space Station whilst European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli was shooting for the film at the other end, without either of them knowing the connection!

Back on Earth Chris and the film’s editor Stephen Slater took Philip’s tracks from Cloud Song and weaved them together with Paolo’s new views of the Earth to create the different moods of the film; from the first views of snowy Siberia to the darkness of night over the Pacific Ocean and the homecoming over Africa, as Gagarin starts to re-enter the atmosphere.

The result is a mesmerising combination of imagary and music which we hope convey the spectrum of emotions which no doubt went through Yuri’s mind as he gazed down upon the Earth.

Finally, here’s the film. It’s an hour and thirty-nine minutes and, as I said, an unconventional film experience.  But if any part of you either remembers the event or wonders what it was like, those 50 years ago, then find somewhere out of reach of interruptions and watch the film.