Posted by Bel. The time is 11:27am here in Wellington, NZ.
The last video I posted totally took the piss out of people who remove themselves from the moment by putting a lens between themselves and what's really happening, experiencing the action secondhand and only attaching significance to that of which they have permanent records - usually digital and easy to distribute.
But in this case I say 'bully for you', because I am so glad someone captured this.
That's awesome. I love - love - at the beginning when people start sprinting over to join in. It shows the fundamental biological instinct of humans to want to dance and have fun (I also believe in the fundamental biological instinct to want to sing and mistrust people who won't sing aloud).
There is such a fine line between cases where you should just friggin' experience something, and others where it's actually more awesome to capture it (this one being a brilliant example of the latter - though they must have been dying to join in). People taking photos in museums instead of just looking? Losers. Just friggin' look at the damned thing.
I had a borderline one in Paris that I nearly posted here but then realised the video was shit and could not capture it. We were sunbathing on the grassy steep slope outside the Sacre Coeur and these American dudes (late-teens/ early-20s) in suits were boozing from a wheelbarrow of beers and everyone's kinda rolling their eyes and wishing they'd disappear. Then they all gathered into a huddle, their teacher blew a tuning whistle, they hummed a note, then moved into a line and started singing beautifully. They walked down to the front and did an impromptu show as suddenly everyone forgot about the Sacre Coeur and came pouring down the front to hear them (and shout "LET THEM SING!!" in desperation when the police tried to stop them). At the lsat minute I thought "hey perhaps I should film this" so took a small snippet - but nah. It'll never live up to sitting in the sun and watching/ listening to that unfold.
The end.
Awesome story! You have captured the moment wonderfully, video camera or not ;)
And this: "People taking photos in museums instead of just looking? Losers. Just friggin' look at the damned thing." totally made me snort laugh.