Monday 21 July 2008

Straighten up and fly right...

Had a blast lat night at the Jools Holland concert. Before I went, the daily grind had me feeling stale and more cheesed off than a truckload of ripe stilton, but Jools, his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra and guests, including the mighty Ruby Turner were a much-needed tonic. The liveliest of live music; big, hearty, gorgeous, foot stomping, joyful tunes delivered with aplomb and panache.

There was a chill wind blowing in the park, soon forgotten when bouncing about amid a mass of smiling people. I'd forgotten just how good a great live concert can be. Sometimes we can live our lives on autopilot, running along the same familiar groove day in and day out, getting increasingly miserable and frustrated. At that point it takes a shock to the system to jolt us out of our rut. Well, if you gotta be shocked, there are worse shocks than a hefty slice of captivating rhythm.

If you don't occasionally get shocked out of your robotic routine then you can lose sight of the world around you, like the people who follow satellite navigation systems without reference to the world outside. I particularly relished the story of the Syrian trucker charged with delivering a vehicle transporter load of luxury cars to Gibraltar, but ended up at Gibraltar point near Skegness, Lincolnshire, as a result of not questioning where his sat nav was taking him. Poor guy obviously needed taking out of himself. Something like this might have done the trick.

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