Helsinki Complaints Choir

Just got this link to a YouTube video of the Helsinki Complaints Choir, and I loved watching it! A little googling tells me the Complaints Choir is a project by Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen and gathers people in different locales — the complaints and the music are locally produced. The Helsinki Complaints Choir premiered 25 March 2006; music composed, directed, and accompanied by Esko Grunström. The music is great. Simple piano accompaniment. Great mix of several venues where the piece is performed. It’s worth watching all the way through.

the restless and the discontented

Today is one of those days — perfect weather and I am just not feelin’ it. Ya know, I love ideas and talking about ideas. I love writing and literature. And I love learning, teaching. The university is a good place to be if one has all those particular loves. But today I’m too aware of the order and hierarchy of the institution, the commodification of expertise, the elitism of certain kinds of knowledge. I think I just haven’t been out of the country in too long and I need a voyage. I’m out of sorts. Nothing that a sojourn to New Zealand couldn’t cure.